More on the Star Trek Movie

As I said in my last post, I really enjoyed the movie. They got the characters and action/adventure tone of the original series right- and anything else is nitpicking.

But let's pick the nits anyway- and how they would impact an Star Trek rpg...

1. They turned the Enterprise Warp Drive into a Star Wars hyperdrive.

In the original show, the Enterprise was a combat capable FTL warship. That is, it considered fighting at sublight speeds to be crippling, it would be akin to a modern warship fighting while using habor tugs to push it around. The episode Elaan of Troyius showed that very clearly although the concept appears throughout the original series.


"Maneuver? Aye.We can wallow like a garbage scow against a warp-driven starship", Scotty- Elaan of Troyius


Star Trek TNG and latter undermined that concept, and the new movie completely removes it giving the Enterprise a Star Wars style hyperdrive where they can't even see what's front of them until they basically hit it.

I myself like the original much better, and it was a special hallmark of original Star Trek as FTL combat is very rare in Sci-Fi.

From a rpg PoV, it greatly alters things allowing the GM to rule that the player's ship flies into rocks or wreckage, and generally makes them blind as bats to what they're sailing into. It also means that one should be able to quickly disengage from battle (like the Jellyfish did in the movie)- and there's no indication as to what can be done about it. The Narada was chasing, but other than ramming it was unclear as to what it could do.

Unless you like players running away when the going gets tough, you'll need a method to deal with it. I suggest reverting to the original show's method. The old ways are sometimes the best ways.


2. Too much problem solving by Transporter

The original writers guide as I recall pointed out this danger. The transporter ideally should be used to get you into an adventure, not out of one. It's way too easy to make the transporter the 'save our a#$ button', and they did that in spades in this movie. Oh, and transwarp transporting is just beyond the pale- now you don't even need ships to move between planets.

For a RPG, control this better. Play up the "must stay still" and the long time period needed. Unlike the movie, remember that you can't use the transporter through shields. How in the world did they forget that little issue...

You're almost forced to say they were never able to get Transwarp Transporting working without serious chances of horrid things happening after that one time. Do something, or you'll find that your players will wake up and realize that they don't even need to take a ship to your adventures...

3. Jumping someone six grades in rank and giving them the best ship in the fleet.

What can I say? I suppose if one doesn't care about suspension of disbelief- go for it. Silly games are fun sometimes.


4. Mining Ships armed with massive weapons systems

Generally in an rpg, again for suspension of disbelief reasons- you want ships to have capabilities suited to their role and use. This saves your players from WTF moments.

Note: It turns out that there is some backstory to the Narada. It salvaged advanced technology (that allowed self-repair and grew the ship in size) and weapons from a disabled Borg ship. Yes that's lame, but it at least explains things.

5. Use the original "Where No Man Has Gone Before"

Because being PC is being boring, both in english and in fact.


To any of you running a Star Trek campaign, good luck. Wish I was there.