Inspiration: Star Trek

Boldly Going!
The best inspiration sometimes comes from an unexpected source. I think Star Trek, despite being science-fiction and not fantasy, provides a great amount of inspiration that Dungeon Masters could use for their D&D 5E games. DMs could approach the game like the writers of a TV show. You've got a collection of characters who team up and go on "away missions" for exploration. It fits with the 3 main pillars explained in D&D 5E (exploration, social interaction, and combat).

I sometimes make direct comparisons, though you don't have to. The Vulcans are space elves. The Romulans are the dark elves. The Klingons are like space orcs. The Ferengi could be greedy halflings or goblins. The Cardassians are lizardfolk. The Betazoids have limited psionic powers. There's really a lot to play with even doing a literal conversion.

Years ago I actually setup a series of D&D adventures called "Sea Trek" in which I was hoping to use the Star Trek episodic nature as an inspiration for a sea-ship crew to go on adventures exploring islands and accepting privateer-type of jobs hauling cargo and solving problems. The characters only stayed at sea for so long though, because their goals didn't align with staying on the ship. Of course, I kept NPCs sailing around the world and reporting back in every so often. The problem was that I introduced the concept mid-campaign. I think a campaign could be planned from the beginning to consist of a "Sea Trek" series of adventures.

You could also do a Spelljammer type of setting with actual starships interacting in space as well as engaging in away missions. My current group had that going on with their Tortuga ship, until it was too damaged and put in for repairs.

For my next blog, I think I will explore possible character conversions for Star Trek inspired teams...

Book Review: The Spoils of War by Alan Dean Foster

Book Review!

Alan Dean Foster's Trilogy of the Damned greatly inspired my science-fiction superhero RPG saga. Today I want to look at book two in the series: The Spoils of War...

Book Review: The Spoils of War by Alan Dean Foster...
Again, Alan Dean Foster introduced new characters to the series. But getting to know the new characters was well worth it in this read. In the huge war between the Amplitur and the Weave, it looked like the human-allied Weave was finally going to win. But what did that mean for humanity? The birdfolk alien Lalelelang had realized that human aggression could cause the humans to turn against the rest of the Weave. The exploration of this topic fascinated me because, when you look at Earth's true history, it does seem like we humans can't stay at peace.

I enjoyed the book so much that I rate it back at 8 out of 10 like the first book in the trilogy. I highly recommend this series for fans of philosophical science-fiction.

Book Review: The False Mirror by Alan Dean Foster

Book Review!

Alan Dean Foster's Trilogy of the Damned greatly inspired my science-fiction superhero RPG saga. Today I want to look at book two in the series: The False Mirror...

Book Review: The False Mirror by Alan Dean Foster...
I also really enjoyed this book. Reading this tale meant getting to know a bunch of new characters, which can be annoying in Book 2 in a series, but is standard practice for sci-fi and fantasy trilogies. I liked that the story explored the idea of alien genetic manipulation.

Overal I give this book a 7 out of 10 rating because it was good, but not quite as good as the first book in the series.

Book Review: A Call to Arms by Alan Dean Foster

Book Review!

Alan Dean Foster's Trilogy of the Damned greatly inspired my science-fiction superhero RPG saga:

Today I want to look at book one in the series: A Call to Arms...

I really enjoyed reading this book. I imagined the main character as Harry Connick, Jr. from when he was acting in the movie Independence Day since he is a cajun musician who ends up working with aliens. Alan Dean Foster stands out as one of my favorite writers because he successfully blends in philosophical elements to his sci-fi and fantasy works.

Overall I give the book an 8 out of 10 because it was good enough to inspire me to add more fun and interesting aliens/characters to my RPG adventures. My Saga's Evaew alliance was me taking the Weave alliance from this book (and spelling Weave backwards, LOL).

Logs 348-350: d20 Future "End Stars"

Logs 348-350: d20 Future "End Stars"
Homebrew

Short Campaign
This is the story of a short 3-session campaign that ended because my players effectively "won" and defeated the situation I had come up with much faster than I thought possible. We had planned on having a longer campaign, but after 3 sessions I had to admit that the characters had defeated the challenges I had in mind for the campaign and - along the way - made themselves rich.

NH played Nova Alinari (a space elf):

AMC played "Fade" (a techie):

LJ played Jeremiah Maltex (a rich dude):

The adventures began with the characters all part of a merchant trade deal with a package that had been recovered from an alien crash. The container let out a purple mist that acted as an air-born virus infecting everyone in the area - thus linking the characters together to find a cure. Not only did they effectively find a cure, but they then used the cure as a way to get rich - by being the only ones with the cure and selling it (instead of, you know, heroically giving it away to help people).

Logs 301-315: Misc Sci-Fi Games

BattleTech
I only played two sessions of BattleTech, but I enjoyed the game. The combat involved a bit of a learning curve, but I remember using dry erase markers to keep track of the damage done to the mechs during combat, as per the picture below:

My funny story from BattleTech involved getting ready to play the game. One of the reasons I stopped playing was because of the expense of buying and putting together the mech models used as miniatures for combat on the hex grid (which I wanted nothing to do with, as I had other priorities for the little bit of money I had as a teenager). But one of my friends had a friend who had a brother who owned a bunch of BattleTech minis. My friend said he had talked to them and we could borrow their minis from their apt, but we had to go in through the patio sliding glass door and get them while they were gone at work. I was the one sent in to get the minis; mind you, I didn't even know these people and had never been in their apartment, but I hopped the fence and went in the back door as I was told to do.

Once I got inside, there was an angry dog growling at me. My buddy was yelling for me to get to the front door and unlock it so he could come in and join me (because he wasn't going to hop the fence) while I stared down the dog. Eventually, I just sat down and let the dog come up and befriend me. But I was terrified and lucked out that the guard dog ended up liking me instead of trying to kill me.

Star Wars
I probably played about 8 sessions of Star Wars (the old d6 version of the game). I ran a short campaign with a spy droid that betrayed the group of players. I also played in a game ran by my buddy MW, in which I played the "strange" jawa who wanted to leave his people and live a better life. My jawa's name was Hoot Pak and he dreamed of being a rock star. His first album was simply titled Hoot Pak, but his second one was 2Pak. My same friend who sent me into the apt with the angry dog played a privateer pilot who grew paranoid of my jawa and locked up poor Hoot Pak in a storage closet for most of an RPG session. I also remember our storyteller allowing people to bribe him with food in exchange for Force points. Those were (mostly) fun times.

Alternity
The same company that produced D&D came out with a sci-fi game called Alternity. I think we played 5 sessions or so of Alternity, but we preferred Heroes Unlimited and D&D so we never really stuck with the system. I remember playing a pilot and our ship getting boarded by space pirates. The combat was fun, but someone in our group was playing a hacker character and I remember that type of conflict being resolved differently and feeling somewhat out of place for the rest of us.