Using Prime Directive: The Star Fleet Universe Role-Playing Game (Task Force Games, 1993).
I can to Prime Directive through wargaming. As in I was a deep Star Fleet Battles wargame player that “naturally” had to try the associated roleplaying game (RPG) set in the Star Fleet Universe. Note that I do not say Star Trek; although Task Force Games (now Amarillo Design Bureau) has rights from Paramount Television for elements of the Star Trek universe (as in The Original Series) they are two very different settings. Of the three Star Trek settings I have in RPG form (FASA Star Trek, Prime Directive, and Star Trek Adventures) I have so say setting-wise Prime Directive is after FASA Star Trek but ahead of Star Trek Adventures. System-wide, however, Prime Directive is my least favorite of the three (TRICODES?).
Prime Directive uses what I call a combines life path + point purchase character generation system. What I realized in this character generation exercise was that the system is rather proscriptive with limited player agency. The player decides some broad questions (race, Service Division, rank at start of play) but the rest is pretty much fill-in-the-blank with choices that feel a bit limited.
Vorek Shun’ra
Andorian, Star Fleet Marines, Surface Combatant, First Lieutenant (1LT)
Adventure Wargaming…done wrong
I do NOT recommend attempting to play scenario “SD1.0 Web of Darkness” which pits the Federation and Romulans against each other in a combined Star Fleet Battles and Prime Directive scenario. Look no further than rule SD1.47 and SD1.62 for your warning:
(SD1.47) LINK TO PRIME DIRECTIVE: Do not use the SFB boarding party system. Simply transport the Prime Team (SD1.49) to the derelict using transporters to conduct actions inside the derelict per the Prime Directive game system. Each “action” in Prime Directive consumes two impulse(s) in Star Fleet Battles. This scenario cannot be played without Prime Directive.
(SD1.62) Have the Prime Teams play their battle in a separate room, with the Game Master advising each group when it can proceed with the next action/impulse (keeping the two groups at the same time-point, with the Prime Team moving first in each case).
Prime Directive, SD1.0, p. 172
Feature image courtesy starfleetgames.com
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