Saturday, August 22, 2015

What I'm getting ready to play

...getting ready to 'seek out new life and new civilizations'

Just to get anyone reading up to speed, my first foray into Solo RPG'ing was a B/X D&D hexcrawl that lasted quite a while. Lots of fun, and I plan on getting back to it, but was in the mood to branch out after a while.

I took the jones for a "Monster-of-the-Week" style game, and successfully ran a several session long adventure using the MiniSix version of the d6 system.

Also great fun, also want to continue, but gamer ADD got me to thinking about Star Trek.

I've shared my ideas on what I'd like to do on the G+ Lone Wolf Solo Roleplaying group before, but here is a quick (?) recap for context of my G+ posts of what I'm getting ready to play. Session recaps are to follow here, so I thought this would be useful.


So I'm still slowly putting together what I want to do regarding a "Star Trek" solo campaign. I would have been ok with the old FASA game (which I have), but character creation & starship combat for it is a little too slow, & no rules for RANK advancement (though I'm still REALLY tempted). 
I decided to give a look at "Starships & Spacemen", the D&D derived retroclone, if for nothing else all the random tables. 
This one has really grown on me, as I'm enjoying class/level based right now. Plus I LOVE its whole "space hexcrawl" approach, & Energy Unit resource management "mini-game" 
Still, it isn't "exactly" Star Trek, so I'd been looking over what will need tweaking to bring it more in line with the source material. And I REALLY need a different starship combat system than the one provided. Then it hit me:

www2.abillionmonkeys.com:3389/trek/ 

"Where No Man Has Gone Before" is based off of Microlite d20. Its starship combat system is close to perfect for what I need. Then I get to looking over all the cool Talents it has. I grok the d20 task resolution system (never really looked it over before). 
Now I'm planning on full on mash-up I think. ;) 
Oh, and "Starships & Spacemen" + its sister boardgame "Star Explorer", + "Where No Man Has Gone Before" + ITS sister game "Far Trek" = possibly all the Star Trek themed old school random tables that one could want. :D 
I am planning on putting together a list of what subsystems I'm using from each. Eyeballing the list I jotted down, it's about 50/50, & all of it character/task resolution etc related, with the starship combat from WNMHGB + the Energy Unit management & all the rules for hexcrawling in space from S&S. 
Another idea I had for what I think I want to use for supplemental material is : "Starships & Spacemen"/"Where No Man Has Gone Before" mash-up as the core + "Labyrinth Lord" (for monsters reskinned as alien flora & fauna) + "Mutant Future" (for PC's & NPC's reskinned as Alien Races) + "White Star" & "X-Plorers" & any/all material being released for them (especially stuff of a "Rockets & Rayguns" / retro sci-fi bent). 
Basically, the idea is "what if TOS was never cancelled?" (but with my own cast & crew). 
I'm looking at doing "my own" Star Trek, starting with the end of TOS (thus set in the midst of the "5 year mission", & disregarding all material that followed TOS, thus not feeling constrained to slavishly follow cannon of "what is to come". 
Set at the "southern" edge of Federation (between the Tholians & The Gorn) it will be mostly pure "seek out new life & new civilizations", with occasional guest shots by the Klingons, Romulans, Gorn, Tholains, & Orions. 
Been looking up tons of images of Aliens, Uniforms, Ships, Robots, Tech, etc. from old sci-fi shows & movies of the 60's - 80's to use as inspiration & to reskin right into Trek & preserve that "look" of TOS. So much cool looking "retro future"!
So, that's where all of this is going...more or less... :) 



2 comments:

  1. Will there be cool random tables for one to create their own bizarre aliens/space monsters? I like the sound of this project!

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    1. Given all the source material I have to work with I've probably got all the tables I can possibly use, but I won't rule it out. :)

      I do have a couple of tables I had to cook up out of necessity thus far that I am going to post. :)

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