Star Trek Adventures Challenge Dice Roller

It's not the prettiest Challenge Dice roller for Star Trek Adventures but it will do in a pinch. It might also work for other Modiphius games...

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Qgqpa8NhlPyR7AyaK4yCBt6te7G6Ia7X-QwFvgNpHfQ/edit?usp=sharing 

Flashback to 1974 and Dungeons & Dragons

Flashback to 1974, the first landmark on the way back to the present...

Dungeons & Dragons

D&D is rightly considered one of the best RPGs ever made.  And that's a good thing as it really started the hobby and might not if it had any less potential.  For all that, I don't typically run D&D and haven't since the Nineties.  It is not that I don't like D&D.  I do!  It is just that everyone runs D&D and me running it is like choosing to be the tenth burger joint in town rather than the first, say, boba tea place.

In my life, I have met people who have had the luck of travelling to another country, the kinds tourists seek out.  And they shop at the airport gift shop and eat at the nearest McDonald's.  Some players are like that.  They play D&D, good game that it is, only because it is the game that they grew up with.

That said, D&D probably has more excellent material written for it because it simply has, IMO, by far the most material available written for any game (and I include its OGL kids, legitimate and otherwise).  The material is scattered amidst D&D's many campaign settings, themselves scattered across the decades, companies and editions.  These generally excellent campaign settings were usually mutually exclusive, a character from one universe would have almost no in-character reason of being able to be in another.

Two of TSR's (the original owner of D&D) later campaign settings, Planescape (which linked the planes) and Spelljammer (D&D in SPAAAAAAAAAAAAACE!!) were two excellent reasons of how characters from separated settings could meet and interact.  Why the new owner of D&D, Wizards of the Coast, did not actively continue with those two settings is beyond me.  The first thing I would do, if I was designing a D&D campaign, would be to make both Planescape and Spelljammer a large part of it.

And there is one other campaign setting that has a unique edge, you are currently in it.  Urban Arcana is a campaign setting set in the world we think we know.  Monsters and Magic are present but the minds of most humans are clouded by Shadow so they don't notice, rationalize away and then just plain forget any supernatural elements of the 'mundane and normal' world around them.

It is here I will start with my campaign...

Beginning a flashback tour of older games...

 I've been perusing Wikipedia's list of tabletop RPGs which has the luxury of listing the major entries in chronological order.  There are so many wonderful and obscure old games out there.  I thought I would check some out before they fade from memory.

I look for settings over rules and the more unique settings at that.  I've no objection going for later versions of the settings, later editions (or even alternate) version of the rules...

The first choice looms in the headlights as we approach 1974, it is the granddaddy of all that has gone before...

USS Endeavour (NCC-1895) Constitution-class

 Star Trek:  Wand'ring in Star-Flight

Constitution-class

As this game is set during the Next Generation Era, the old Constitution-class ships of the Original Series are considered lost legends to live up to rather than present resources.

There are three Constitution-class ships I am interested in.

• One is the original inspiration for a similarly-named legacy Galaxy-class ship in the current game year.
• One is a Constitution-class ship that mysteriously disappeared and, no doubt, will return for a adventure involving the PCs.
• And the last is the one remaining active Constitution-class ship, part of the Remembrance Fleet.

I will start with the first example:

USS Endeavour
NCC-1895
Comissioned: 2250
Shuttlecraft Theme:  Shuttles are named after souls encountered on the travels of all previous Endeavours.
Dedication Plaque:

"And I read the moral A brave endeavour To do thy duty, whate'er its worth, Is better than life with love forever, And love is the sweetest thing on earth."

— James J. Roche, Sir Hugo's Choice.

Division Insignia:  Stylized ship's sail in gold with black trim, large enough to display specific division insignia.

Timeline:

2250:  USS Endeavour commissioned.
2265:  Endeavour loses half her crew in battle.  She is towed back to Earth to spend time in drydock.
2266:  Endeavour is given 'celebration' duty, crewed with species discovered during the other Constitution-class vessel's explorations (particularly the Enterprise). 
2271:  Endeavour undergoes major refit (essentially entering the era of the movies)

This is the Endeavour in the year 2270, one year before her major refit (after the events of the Original and the Animated Series).  Link to PDF.

I can't find who made this beautiful work of art and I would love to give them credit.

Update:  Found it! 😍 Seekers 2 Final by RobCaswell on DeviantArt

Wand'ring In Star-Flight - A Star Trek Adventures Campaign

Wand'ring In Star-Flight

In real-life, I am about to start a Star Trek Adventures RPG campaign.  And any notes for the game are most of blogging them.  So why not post them for others to use?

It is for the other players to detail the player character's ship but I can do the rest of the universe.

So I will call the campaign Wand'ring in Star-Flight after the never-heard lyrics to the original Star Trek theme music.*

Beyond
The rim of the star-light
My love
Is wand’ring in star-flight
I know
He’ll find in star-clustered reaches
Love,
Strange love a star woman teaches.
I know
His journey ends never
His star trek
Will go on forever.
But tell him
While he wanders his starry sea
Remember, remember me.

There is a YouTube video of these lyrics sung aloud for the fans by Tenacious D (and you would have to be a true fan, the lyrics are quite grating with the song).

The game is set in the Prime Timeline which has much more material and happens during the end of the Next Generation Era which allows elements to be easily taken from the whole continuity of mainstream Trek.

"The Star-Crossed"

Once, in a watering-hole on the edge of the Federation, a barfly remarked that there were some souls and ships that always seemed to find each other in the same trouble.   It was as if they had all been called by some strange siren.  The meme took in the ways that some do and there was a group of stations, ships and crews colloquially named the Star-Crossed.

Liberty Island Map - Test of gridding Google Maps

 

This is a simple test of gridding Google Maps for game use.  I was thinking of the fight between Sabertooth and Wolverine in the first X-Men movie.  I don't think I will much with Google Maps in the future but I just wanted to see if it was possible as proof-of-concept.

Lucy, the Margate Elephant floor plans

I've always been a fan of maps, especially deck and floor plans, especially especially free plans and especially especially especially accurate plans. 

Fortunately, there is a resource not many people seem to know about; the Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record/Historic American Landscapes Survey hosted by the Library of Congress.  These were research projects into building of historical worth.  They are largely in the public domain (check to be sure) and likely paid for by your tax dollars so I am glad to show them off.

The first floor plan I will feature is Lucy, the Margate Elephant.  Only one plan of Lucy is really needed.  Goodness knows what you would use her for in your games, maybe a mad elephant-themed Silver Age supervillain.  I have simply added a 5' grid to the picture.

In essence, I have altered this very little.  If there turns out to be real interest, I can buff this and following maps up a bit... 

Margate Elephant, Atlantic Avenue & Decatur Street, Margate City, Atlantic County, NJ