The FASA Star Trek Insider; Page 3 of 5   9-26-2024
MECHANICS AND SYSTEM BRIEF

Compiled and Edited by Mark_XON
 

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Information here represents all the editions of the rules;
1st, 1.5, 2nd and 2.5 version from the designers: FantaSimulations Associates and FASA

 

MECHANICS

General | The RPG | Supplements | Starships | Starship Combat | Starship Construction



ANOMALIES

General | The RPG | Supplements | Starships | Starship Combat | Starship Construction


Sources FASA Used | Sources Borrowed from FASA


MECHANICS
 


GENERAL
 

  • More humor in the 1ed rules, and the designers seem to be chatting with you.
     
  • The FASA dates are given in reference scheme C/YYMM.DD (century / year month. day) This dating system was for simplicity's sake as at the time of publishing there existed many forms of "STARDATES" as a result the canon Stardates system was inconsistent.
     
  • FASA's explanations for the inconsistencies in ST were usually more often than not, better than the Paramount explanations that they later themselves wrote for on screen evidence.
     
  • FASA's history and stories of the pre-TOS era Starfleet is a great read.

  • About Money In the Federation: The old saying "There's no money in the Federation" is generalized and we always assumed everything was basically traded in the Star Trek Universe for the most part. FASA used money in this system and provided pay scales for Federation Crew Members and for other purposes. There was never an objection to money voiced by anyone at Paramount that Fantasimulations Associates where aware about. There certainly IS money in the Federation, but aboard most fleet starships you rarely dealt with it. Remember "The Trouble with Tribbles" established the "Federation credit" as the unit of exchange in the Federation. The same episode established Cyrano Jones as an independent trader, the model for Fantasimulations Associates characters in "Trader Captains and Merchant Princes."
     
  • FASA's Ruling "...material printed later is the correct source..."; Various past material was always in a refining process when older material was used in later publications, especially to meet canons ability to contradict itself.

  • "The Final Reflection" and FASA introduced a Klingon naming convention based on service. Klingons were given different names when they were born but when they began their true service to the Empire, they changed their names. Those in the navy began with the K (Krenn, Kelly), those in the marines began with an M (Merzhan, Maltz) and those in administrative and support positions, scientists and the like, began with an A.
     
  • The Klingon/Human Genetic Fusion Theory is in FASA's authorized RPG material and in a number of STAR TREK novels, including the definitive Klingon work, "The Final Reflection" by John M. Ford. Also introduced is the Klingon/Romulan-fusion, With Imperial Klingons as the full blooded.
     
  • The FASA version of the Klingon language is called Klingonaase with the homeworld named Klinzhai. The leaders where Klingon Emperors-thought admirals, and an afterlife known as the "Black Fleet."

  • Starfleet Service founded on FASA Reference Stardate 0/8910 (2146)


THE RPG
 

  • The structure of STAR TREK: The Role-Playing Game is episodic in nature, much like the television series itself. Settings cover the original TV series era the 2260s, the "original crew" movie era (upto STIV) of the 2280/90s and, skip over to, the first year of the TNG era of the 2360/70s.
     
  • The game system uses a d% system, it uses percentile dice for randomization. Two special d10 dice where used, each numbered 0-9 twice.
     
  • Character creation was done by rolling up seven attributes STR, END, INT, DEX, CHA, LUC, PSI (The last three provide additional bonus for the characters, some where adjusted depending on the characters race.) and skill points. All attributes and skills are expressed as random-roll percentages. Range from 1 to 100, with more than 100 equaling superhuman.
     
  • Characters that could be played are Humans, Vulcans, Tellarites, Andorians, Orions, Klingons, Romulans, Caitians and Edoans. The last two come from the animated series. Pre-rolled characters where available, including the main characters from the series, such as Captain Kirk, Mr Spock, Lieutenant Uhura and Yeoman Janice Rand.
     
  • A class system is used, in that each branch of service (career path) had it's own training and class skills with a lot of variety. Created by putting them through the Academy and actually selecting the courses they study. Everybody receives the same basic training, and tour of duty, but they have specialties, with a good feel for Star Trek Officers. Using a lifepath system that creates a believable, well-rounded persona with a history!  This Character system was nicely expanded in the second edition's "Star Fleet Officer's Manual."
     
  • Character generation is designed primarily for officers and department heads, rules for enlisted characters isn't directly covered.
     
  • No experience point system. Characters typically progressed based on the number of years in service and certain promotions.
     
  • Rules breakdown as many tasks into skills as possible. The Communications Skill for an example into Communications Systems Operations (the use of the communications gear) and Communications Systems Technology (the repair of the communications equipment).
     
  • The skill-based system, uses basic percentile. For routine situations, non-crisis non-combat non-critical "basic use" situations, the FASA rules call for as follows:
    If you have a skill of at least 10 you can succeed normally (for an example, 10 in shuttlecraft pilot meant you could fly the shuttlecraft and land it on a planet with no problem.), For a skill of 9 or less you roll 1d10. You have the option to also roll the percentile dice (2d10); if you roll higher than your skill but 39 or less a "close call" occurs and 40 or greater in a skill is considered professional so no roll is required for routine use. Dice modifiers for skill rolls are also provided and are required for use to allow the skill system to work properly.

    FASA Skill Resolution System:


    Unskilled: 0
    Semi-Skilled: 1-9
    10-39: Qualified:
    40-79: Professional level
    80-94: Expert
    95+: Acknowledged Leader

    The Skill Resolution Chart 2a can also be summarized this way:
    For Qualified, Professional, Expert and Acknowledged Leader Skill Levels, FASA denotes "degrees of severity":

    Routine/Easy: +100 (-100% die modifier)
    Non-Critical/Challenging: +60 (+10% die modifier)
    Critical/Difficult: +20 (+20% die modifier)
    Dire/Nearly Impossible: +0 (+30% die modifier)

    This reflects what the text says in the FASA RPG about certain skill levels automatically succeeding, etc.

    Baring any situational modifiers:

    Qualified skills will Automatically succeed for Routine/Easy tasks

    Professional skills will Automatically succeed for Routine/Easy and Non-Critical/Challenging tasks.

    Expert and above skills will Automatically succeed for Routine/Easy, Non-Critical/Challenging and Critical/Difficult tasks.

  • The game is a D100 based system, which is really easy to use and understand. You use percentile (D100) dice, and the goal is to roll low. The game is skill based, with skills will be ranging from 1 (barely know anything) to 100+.
    On an exceptional roll (a 5 or less) there is a chance of actually improving the skill you are using, and on exceptionally high rolls ugly things can. and often do, happen, and they don’t always happen to you.
    There are modifiers that can adjust your rolls up and down, of course, but a 100 on the die is a 100 on the die and is a massive fail no matter what, just as a 01 is a massive success.
    A skill level of less than 10 means you have incidental knowledge about the topic (you know something about shuttlecraft or you can tell what language that alien is speaking even if you don’t understand a word of it for example). A 10+ means you are qualified (can pilot a shuttlecraft or have a general conversation with that alien in that language with no roll necessary under normal circumstances). A 40+ means you are professional (you can pilot your shuttle under challenging circumstances or give a speech to a planetary governing body in their language without sounding like an idiot, considered fluent). A skill of 80+ means you are expert (you can pilot your shuttlecraft under extreme circumstances or you are completely fluent with no accent and even have a regional dialect or two). A skill of 96+ means you are a leader in the field (you can successfully pilot your shuttlecraft under dire circumstances or you know more about their language than their scholars do).
     
  • 1ED to 2ED; There were a few skill changes, mostly renaming. For example, Starship Navigation was renamed Astrogation. They separated the sciences into categories. The Social-political index was changed....
     
  • Personal combat use of APs is much simpler in the 1st edition than the 2nd edition.
     
  • Close combat could be played out using a counter (or miniature) based "Tactical Movement" system featuring lots of possible weapons and actions.
     
  • The man to man combat system uses a complex but effective action point (AP) system based on your DEX. Its a tactical movement/combat board game system based on a 1/2 inch square, Each square is 1.5 meters (aprox 5ft). These rules are based on FASA's tactical mechanics for the Grav Ball Sport RPG. Often the majority of these rules can be over looked and then only used during critical actions or events. All depends how fast you want the game to move along.
     
  • Utilizes a location system. This system, best seen in The Federation, utilizes an x-y graph to locate the planetary systems of the campaign universe. The central navigational beacon of the UFP is at location 0,0. Terra is core ward of that location, at 1.23 N, 2.79 W. The Federation is approximately 160 parsecs in diameter. Each whole number on each axis is 10 parsecs, or 32.7 light years.
     
  • FASA's galaxy map; Planetary Systems are laid out differently than other trek maps, quadrants are numbered clockwise for 2D RPGing.
     
  • The FASA Federation is only approximately 500 light years across.
     
  • Planetary Generation exists with basic details.
     
  • A new area to explore and role-play is FASA's invention of "The Triangle" A lawless area bordering on Klingon, Romulan and UFP space.
     
  • wide-angle stun setting for Phasers was added just before the 2nd Edition rules. Briefly, it works like this: A wide-angle stun shot affects all targets in three CONNECTED squares (any pattern chosen by the attacker). All targets must be within the stated SHORT range of the weapon, and a clear line-of-sight must be drawn to EACH TARGET SQUARE. A wide-angle stun shot drains FOUR TIMES as much power as a standard stun shot. A separate To Hit roll must be made for all affected targets. If the roll fails, the target is missed (or at least unaffected), even though targets on either side (or in the same square) may be hit. A 20 point bonus is applied, however, to all wide angle stun To Hit rolls. Only phaser-type energy weapons (not disruptors, police stunners, blasters, etc.) have this setting, and it works only with the stun setting. (Wide angle heat is possible, but it does no damage to normal living targets...) Resetting a weapon for wide-angle stun requires performing a "reset weapon" settings action, as does returning the angle setting to normal. There is no "wide angle heavy stun" setting.

SUPPLEMENTS
 

  • The supplements and adventures were well written and for the most part...captured the style & feel of classic Star Trek.
     
  • The flexibility of the game's structure allowed any supplement adventure to be "reconfigured" for any era, regardless when it was originally set.
     
  • Much of the Adventure Modules and Scenario's put the players in the leading roles of Star Trek characters and the Enterprise.
     
  • Bridge crew players visited Alien planets and became part of the Landing Parties that would explore and address the Alien people.
     
  • Many of the Adventures are TV episode follows ups or an episode itself.
     
  • FASA's The Triangle 'area' / ("triangular system"-Picard TNG) is a well-thought out extension of the knowledge presented in the TOS original series and the TMP era Star Trek movies. The Triangle area is original to FASA and Star trek and is a great idea that made for a wonderful area to set a campaign.

  • In the case of The Romulans Sourcebooks, Fantasimulations Associates had no such clear direction. The original TV series episodes gave them only a very thin look at their culture, and the novels out at the time had wildly contradictory views, none of which was accepted as canon by Paramount. So FASA made it up. Lots of it. They had to. Fantasimulations Associates had to have some unified vision, and there's was approved 100% by Paramount.
     
  • FASA's Tricorder and Sensor Display use many 'founded <?> methods' to provide a working game prop made of paperboard.
    Methods Include:
    "red filter method" with blue and green "coded" or "cryptic" datastrips.
    The red filter (acetate plastic film);
    -absorb short and medium wavelengths.
    -block blue and green light (fasa uses a green/blue mixed color).
    -a green object viewed through a red filter will appear much darker.
    -a red filter lightens the red tones and darkens blues and greens.
    -make it difficult to detect blue from green from violet.
    -reduces total light.

  • FASA introduced the whole mythos of the Klingons and the various clans of the Klingons.
     
  • FASA's role-play gaming materials referred to male Orions' white/gold/green coloring being derived from varying amounts of melanin.
     
  • Overall Rules and Supplements support upto and including STIV then skip over to The first year of TNG

STARSHIPS

  • FASA's Starship stats; The dimensions of the ships that appear in any of the ST films come from photos of the ship models FASA receives from Paramount. FASA makes all the appropriate measurements to come up with the proper dimensions. The speeds, weaponry and other data listed for the Enterprise, Constitution, Klingon D-7A, D-7M, and Romulan Bird of Prey only came from Paramount. All others were created at FASA.
     
  • FASA generated the weaponry for the Excelsior and the Klingon Scout from the STIII movie, Paramount hadn't done this. All the information published by FASA has been approved by Paramount and is therefore what should be used.

  • FASA provided detailed histories for each of their ship designs.
     
  • FASA provided a completely plausible background for the entire Klingon/Romulan "technology exchange" events that took place after TMP and before STII aswell as during STIII. This is based on a behind the scenes correction for the History of the Romulan BoP starship in STIII and why it was in the hands of the Klingon Empire. The "Bird of Prey" was Romulan Design traded to the Klingons some time before STIII. This also included Romulan Cloaking Devices, this is when Klingons finaly have the ability to posse and maintain a cloaking device, not make. (note: klingons didn't have cloak in the TOS/TAS/TMP series).
     
  • FASA provided the three original 'Klingon' "Bird of Prey" class ships, K-22, D-32, L-42   each one representing 3 different STIII Effect shots filmed in different scales. (There where actually 5 different sizes shown in that movie) In doing this FASA started the chain of Klingon Bird Of Prey Class Sizes used by Paramount in several later movies and series.  FASA's K-22 is the Bounty, in STIV Paramount 'fixed' this error by using the K-22 for all scenes.
     
  • FASA had ignored allot of unofficial "established" Treknical fandom and invented its own names for ship classes and explanations for how things worked, and diverged from the "established" Star Fleet Battles speculation material into consideration for there original speculations and expansions on the official Star Trek universe. FASA takes no responsibility for remaining consistent with the unofficial SFB system.  SFB has no connection with the official FASA ST:RPG or Star Trek in any manner, besides similarities. It was a good decision on FASA part, considering they had official access to Paramount. It produces accurate information based on the series itself rather than other publications. This may have been Paramount agreed decision aswell later on.

  • Popular FASA Federation Ship designs include; Andor, Baker, Larson, Northampton, Chandley, Loknar, and Nelson classes.

  • Many of FASAs starships [drawnings] use the primary hull of Constitution saucers.


STARSHIP COMBAT
 

  • The 1st edition may have the best starship combat rules. It is very similar to later versions from FASA with a few differences: (FASA's starship combat systems after the STIII box became increasingly number driven.)

    NPC ships have an abridged set of options. Instead of configuring every power point power allocation is abstracted to a menu of choices - i.e. lots of movement no shields or weapons, all weapons armed/minimal movement/shields, etc.

    No phases after which shields recharge. Ships take turns spending each movement point. Once a ship runs it no longer takes turns with other ships. But all ships can fire at any time.

    This is true of the 2nd edition variants, but I wanted to reiterate it. I'd forgotten how clever it was to divide roles in the way they did. Captain gives the orders, engineer decides how to allocate power, various officers use that power to best follow captain's orders and make various rolls.

  • The Starship Combat System (SCS) is available from three revisions within five products, You have TRPG Box Set, the first installment of the Starship Combat Rules where introduced. These rules are the original and a "abbreviated system" when compared to the "Command & Control" rules found in the later released Starship Combat Game products. Then the next four products where in their own standalone Box Sets and sold separately. The final game (3rd Edition) of the Ship Combat Game Rules; 2003 Star Trek Starship Tactical Combat Simulator (STCS). (which ultimately is the '5th installment').

  • FASA's ship combat features a Tactical and Role Playing Style starship combat system. As a Role Playing game, (Command and Control) you take the positions of one of the bridge crew. Such as Captain, Engineer, Helmsman, Communications Officer etc with large control station paper sheets.
     
  • FASA's Tactical Starship Combat is also a standalone strategy board game, the idea is to out think your opponent more than guess about it. You have to figure out what your opponent is likely to do, then you have to figure out where you want to be and what you want to do, then perform your power allocation which includes the shields, you have to figure out which shields need to be powered, since not all are at one time.
     
  • FASA Starship rules are strict on power availability and amounts. Most Starships can rarely raise shields to full strength (all the way around) with the amount of power the ships have.
     
  • FASA Starship rules don't natively support "all actual" phaser bank mountings on the top and bottom of a Federation Starship saucer, and another pair of banks on the dorsal and ventral. Its based on the TOS Tri-Configuration, the original designs called for 6 phaser weapons mounted in 3 banks of 2 - one bank forward under the main dish, one to port atop the dish, and one to starboard atop the dish. FASA later introduced a newer optional rule that is based on Bank "PAIRS" and Fire Control "PAIRS". Its a limited rule, it doesn't completely compensate for the lack of native support, but its more 'canon' like. Also the rule is primarily written for Starship RPGing rather than focused on the Tactical. These rules don't call for any revision to the Starship Game or Construction Rules to use. *The FASA game is a 2d only tactical game. To account for this they removed phasers from ships to adjust for not having a “Z” axis in the games tactical system. For example they have the TMP Enterprise listed as only have 6 or 8 phasers (depending upon reference book). The actual studio model has 18 phasers at various places all over the ship.
     
  • Starship Combat has an optional rule; you can fire the entire standard bank at once(considered two weapons), or each weapon in the bank individually. Results in hitting different areas of a target and more rolls of the dice to determine what happened.
     
  • FASA's STCS phasers outrange torpedoes. (In TNG series torpedoes greatly outranged phasers.)

  • In the simpler versions; STIISCS and the STIIISCG, they have two sets of stats for ships; engine, weapon and shield values are 1/3 the main value stats.
     
  • FASA Starship rules support energy allocation that doesn't need to be tracked between turns. A Turn contains several phases.

  • In STIISCS and the STIIISCG there are 4 Phases per game turn using the Basic Rules. There are 5 Phases to a game turn when using the Advanced Rules. There is an optional rule to reduce the phases to 3 per game turn to speed up play found in both games, Book Two page 6; FIRING LIMITATIONS and Movement/Firing Phases table for the reduced phases.

  • In STIIISCRPG there are 4 Phases per game turn using the Basic Rules. There are 5 Phases to a game turn when using the Advanced and Expert Rules.
     
  • The Advanced Course Rules for Combat in STCS follow this sequence in each game turn:

    Power Allocation Phase -
    Steps 1, 2

    Tactical Advantage Phase -
    Step 3

    Sensors Phase -
    Steps 4, 5, 6, 7

    Movement Phase -
    Steps 8, 9, 10, 11

    Firing Phase -
    Steps 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17

    Repair/Repower Phase -
    Steps 18, 19

    Continuing the Game -
    Step 20 (Repeat Steps 4-19 for the second time/phase)
    Step 21 (Repeat Steps 4-19 for the third and final time/phase for this turn)

    Ending the Game - Step 22 (if victory conditions are met).
     
  • FASA's STCS game balances movement with a ratio. It takes more power for the big ships to move, so even if you allocated all power to the engines there is still a limit to how much "speed" you could get out of it.
     
  • Starship Combat Tactical is not based on actual speeds. It does not directly support/translate actual speed Vs movement points. However Acceleration and Deceleration is 'calculated' into The Movement Point System and Distribution Table for simple board game use. The Scale of the games mechanics and the fact that actual speeds are not used, makes it appear that a ship can go directly from a standstill to incredible undefined speeds, which would be something like 5 or 10 movement points at once, BUT in the terms of the game mechanics scale.
     
  • Starship Combat is not based on timetables. No reasonable translation of time can be obtained.
     
  • The 'FASA Shield System' should be thought of as a globe, with directional deflectors. Shields are assigned to locations around the ship. (In TOS, TAS, TMP the shields are 'traced' around the skin of the ship.)
     
  • Outposts and Bases can move at a high power cost of a 10/1 movement point ratio, using thrusters. They rotate as well with minimum power.
     
  • 1ED to 2ED; The Starship Combat System RPG was eliminated from the rpg part of the game. They added a quick roll starship combat system as a separate product.
     
  • The emphasis was more on trying to capture the feel of a relatively short, and to the point, battle, like you typically saw on TV.
     
  • The Combat Simulator counters were colorful enough to do the job, and just the right size. The hex shape is a nice touch.
     
  • The counters are fabulous…the shapes, the colors, everything. They look great.


SHIP CONSTRUCTION

  • FASA's Construction Manual is intended to build ships for the Starship Combat Games, only lists ratings for the Computers, Warp Engines, Impulse Engines, and Weapons. Theres no data for accounting for the ships total construction(mass and superstucture), like cargo bays, sensors, shuttlebays, cargo mass and small craft mass, etc.
     
  • FASA splits all vessels into one of 20 weight classes. This system does not affect gameplay, but does play a major part in Starship Construction Rules. FASA's Starship Class Sizes is based on STAR TREKs official Federation classifications, which is similar to the Terran classifications of the late 18th century. During this time 1800 A.D. a Frigate was the largest ship, such as FASA's Chandley Frigate, just the opposite of the 1990's where a very small ship is considered a Frigate. The FASA construction system has a maximum ship size of 700,000 mt. The Baker is a Class IV destroyer (122,000mt), but is not considered heavy by Federation standards, referring to the mission or tasks of the ship type. It is possible for a destroyer to weigh twice as much, but is unlikely.
     
  • The Construction Rules are for Starships, they don't support Shuttle Craft Creation.
     
  • FASA's second edition construction manual(released 1986) supports up to and around STIII, movie year 2285.
     
  • FASA'a Starship Class sizes are limited by engine tables per race in the Ship Construction Manual(2nd Edition). The largest numbers are: for the Federation Class XX; Romulans Class XIX; Klingons Class XVIII; Gorns Class XVIII, and Orions Class X.
     
  • FASA engine designations were the very simple FWA, FWB, FWC (Federation Warp A, B, C, etc). There was no connection between the external appearance of the nacelle and the designation given and if there was originally then its broken due to scales and sizes of the engines.

  • The 2nd Edition manual does not directly support construction of a three warp engine starship. But does for single and dual. In the original official canon there is no such thing as a single warp engine starship or a tri configuration in the Star Trek Universe. Apparently Single Warp engine ship testing was abandoned some time shortly before the ST:TMP. Although in ST: TNG they have shown single warp engine starships on bridge displays, including a ship from the late TOS/early TMP period and some possibly from TNG era or slightly earlier. The Three engine configurations where only shown on screen in Altered Timelines or Possible Futures only.

  • FASA used a different formula to calculate CE prior to the Second Edition of the Starship Construction Manual. The Federation and Klingon Manuals WDF/D vary significantly with results from the 2nd ed Construction Manual CE formula. But in the Romulan Manual, the numbers matched. The Romulan ships that appeared in the STCS rulebook also had corrected WDF/D.


ANOMALIES


GENERAL

  • The 1st Edition book binding is overall very weak. It's not a well-bound book. Most of the old used books require repair so the pages won't fall out.
  • FASA's early role-play gaming materials incorrectly inferred that Edoans were reptilian and the creators of Saurian brandy.

  • FASA dumped a bunch of ranks into their sourcebook, and failed to explain where they exist.

  • 1st to 2nd Edition Rule changes are overall minor (and they probably could have developed a 3rd Ed to straighten out that hand to hand combat system.)



THE RPG

  • There is no variable time for various branches, everyone graduates the academy in 4 years. Each cadet cruise is a year. Department head and command school are bundled into one tour lasting two years. (...something like command school would have worked well, ex: for Saavik).

  • FASA's Timeline is off by many years when compared to the Canon Chronology Timeline. When the TNG series came out, it pushed dates 300 years further into the future. This left FASA RSD's needing the addition of years, sometimes it could be 52 years or 60 years, it all depends in which part of the timeline you are trying to line up, if varies. Basically you'll be adding years to each date to align them correctly. (This is just a rule of thumb, you'll want to see the James Dixon Timeline to read about how to adjust the dates and or look at the Design Consortiums Date Conversion List.) Special note about the German FanPro version of the RPG, although it still uses the FASA Reference Stardates, it uses the Paramount Timeline. So in other words the dates are right on.
  • FASA's Timeline doesn't include the now known adjusted years between TMP and STII. Typically and approximately 2271 to 2285.
  • D-7 deckplans: The detailing was shoddy in places; problems with them included miscalling individual floors, and stairways that led into walls or machinery.
     
  • The included decks plans in the core 1st ED set are only 7.5mm, thats too small for the larger size display counters that where included. Although if one bought the larger 15mm deck plans made afterwards the smaller set could be used by the GM for his needs, keeping the larger playing field for the players.
     
  • On pages 24 & 37 of the Game Operations Manual book(2ED) it says for a characters Wound and Fatigue healing rates to be calculated as follows: Wound - divide END score by 10  Fatigue - divide END score by 20. This formula was obviously used to calculate the example character of Lee Sterling's healing rates (on the character sheet shown on page 2 of the Cadet Orientation Manual,) but....

    In the Starfleet Officer's Manual(2ED), as well as FASA's Romulan, Klingon, Orion, and Starfleet Intel supplements as well as the second edition of Trader Captains & Merchant Princes, the formula is reversed. Wound - divide END score by 20  Fatigue - divide END score by 10  The sample character sheet in the Starfleet Intel and Romulan supplements also use this second formula. So, I think the Game Operations Manual is in error.
     
  • With Man to Man Combat there is no way a person can avoid, block or parry an attack made with a melee weapon. He has to just stand there and hope the player misses: A short revision is probably needed to the types of movement available as opportunity actions, or alternately some sort of Block or Dodge action.

 

SUPPLEMENTS

  • "Graduation Exercise" pre-rolled Klingon PCs are poorly defined, having a few skills but no specialties, and not at all following the "Klingons" supplement.
     
  • "Denial of Destiny", On page 15 paragraph thee, there's a single line of text that indicates that there is suppose to be a small map included, however there is no map present in the manual.
     
  • "The White Flame" rulebook contains drawings of Klingon-Human and Klingon-Romulan Fusion Characters in Imperial Uniforms. When this isn't consistent with canon or the games original definition of the Fusion beings.
     
  • "The White Flame" rulebook contains two known errors in the book, pg5 indicates the last four scenarios are a campaign, when in fact the previous four are. Also pg40 under Victory Conditions, the two charts are mislabeled and placed in the wrong location, ex: Attacker Table should be Defender Table and vice versa.

  • "The Strider Incident" has Full deckplans of a scout-class ship -- 43 crew members and not a single bathroom.

  • "The Regula Deckplans" are not really plans of Regula One from the movie. They of a (not very) similar Invictus Defense Outpost which is (supposedly) based on the same core station.

  • "The Regula Deckplans" are at a 3-meter per square scale.

  • "The Regula Deckplans" On page10 of the book it has a drawing of the R-1 Investigator Type. However it is labeled Invictus with weaponized stats. That's not correct, it should read Investigator and have un armed stats. Page36 of the book has a drawing of the R-1 Invictus Type Orbital Defense Outpost with un armed stats. That's not correct, it should read Invictus Type with weaponized stats. Page47 of the Deckplan book has the labels for the Invictus and Investigator Types, reverse. The drawings labeled Investigator are actually Invictus and those labeled Invictus are actually Investigators.
  • The "Decision at Midnight" plans. Areas of the ship are classified -- like "Officer's quarters" -- and the entire space is filled with a chunky rectangle without any detail and the plans are not to scale.
  • "STIII Sourcebook Update", FASA's canon sourced book features the Type II-b Phaser from the movies with a designed team prototype image(pg15). "The final Phaser products shown in the film have some detail differences..." . In Mr. Scott’s Guide, The Art of Star Trek and all other publications you’ll see the prototype II-b Phaser builds as well. It seems the only available pictures are all from the ILM-built proposal prototypes and not from actual finished production photos.
  • "The TNG First Year Sourcebook" Only later prints give stats for the weapons (early prints have only how long it takes to reload one).
  • The names of some of the FASA staff that worked on FASA Star Trek lent their names to various "things" in the game universe: Proofreader Donna Ippolito's last name was used as the name for (and home planet of) the Ippolito (horse guys). Babcock Class Frigate named after a FASA employee, FASA's Baker class write up in the Fed Recog, 2nd edition mentioned the USS Knutson (for FASA artist Dana Knutson).

  • "The Klingons, 1st edition" Rules primarily focus on Imperial Marines. It only hints on adventuring rather then going into details. Best used to create games where Klingon crews are the focus of the action, or may be used to flesh out Klingon opponents for your Star Fleet characters.

  • "The Klingons, 2nd edition" Rules focuses on what you need to run adventures in the entire empire with detailed worlds and ship info. Some of the information in these updated books contradict previously published Klingon information, but its not drastic and won't greatly effect previously published Klingon adventures.

  • "The TNG Officers Manual" The entire book isn't particularly arranged as an RPG book in its format. This book has no actual rule updates and few stats. Its more of a descriptive book rather than a clear and understandable set of new game rules/instructions. If any book of the Star Trek line has become uncanon, this one is it. Paramount nearly completely ignored this book. Examples of clearly wrong information; Betazoids do not come from Haven II, they come from Betazed. "Ultra Warp" does not exist, nor does it come from Transwarp drive. Transwarp was later determined abandoned back in ST IV. There's no Medusans Navigator/Pilot on board every Galaxy-class starship, no matter how interesting an idea that might be. So the material in the ST:TNG Officers' Manual was contradicted by Canon Sources, the First Year source book was also contradicted by Canon Sources, the series actually contradicted itself. Even if some of the information in this book may have been Paramounts Ideas for a new show, it was changed after the writing of this book. This is evident when Paramount rush getting a series started and it usually takes them 1 to 3 seasons to establish guidelines and process feedback and have a laps of common sense. Plus FASA through allot of ideas in it as well.
    This Book was pulled from further publishing when Paramount had a chance to look it over. FASA didn't have official approval at the time FASA started selling the book. The book was said to be recalled and destroyed. Many additional copies where printed or salvaged before being destroyed, and sold.

  • About The Making of the TNG 1st Year Sourcebook: Paramount disliked FASA's Star Trek: The Next Generation Officer's Manual. FASA, in response to Paramount's order to pull the Next Generation Officer's Manual off the shelves produced this First Season Source Book. Paramount then approved the First Year Sourcebook with the included disclaimer "Some materials in this book were created expressly for Star Trek: The Role Playing Game, and may be invalidated by later episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation." Material Paramount Officially Approved may also be invalidated later, Especially RPG Material.

  • About FANPRO (publisher of the German Hardcover book): Apparently Fantasy Production license, included the right to use the whole of FASA's published material in 1997. Because of limited supply of original graphics they used unlicensed material from "Worlds Of Star Trek" and other books with trek fiction to create their included the right to use the whole of FASA's published material. Because of limited supply of original graphics they used unlicensed material from "Worlds Of Star Trek" and other books with trek fiction to create their WunderWelten magazine articles. (FanPro was sued because of this and the unlicensed use of paramount copyrights), and were forced to discontinue the production of their trek-products. Fanpro used to sell the hardcover-book (the only item produced) at a loss (10 German mark (approx. $4.50 at that time, 1997). All of FANPRO's information that was not borrowed from other sources was invented in house by "semi-trekkies".?

 

STARSHIPS

  • The 4 year war module mentioned that when Garth of Izar captured Axnar, there was a T-3 transport on the planet. Yet the Klingon SRM clearly states that it has no landing capability.
     
  • Liberty Freighter information states "These freighters were used extensively during the Four Years War to carry supplies into forward areas..." Yet the appearances of them show them as having TMP engines. Liberty graphics from the FSRM are 'off' in terms of the era that the ship entered service. It should have a TOS style saucer and warp nacelles.
  • FASA's Monarch stats suggest a length of 200 meters while the official STIII size was 67 meters (smaller than the 88 meter BoP). However, in later appearances in the TNG episodes, it looks to be much larger. The more playable size is the larger size.
  • FASA's Lotus Flower Fuel Carrier (class ship of the Kobayashi Maru of 2285) overall dimensions do not match those given in the STII:TWoK onscreen computer readout. FASA disregard some of them, those figures call for a much squatter vessel.
  • FASA's Romulan V-30 visual appearance changed in the 2ed rules unexpectedly without a real history or understanding why. Now known to be a STIII story tie in.
  • FASA's drawings of the TOS Canon V-8 Romulan Cruiser is inaccurate.
  • FASA never really bothered with shuttles because most went sublight, and had movement of 1 hex a round (no move ratio).
  • FASA's front view of the Enterprise Class Refit I think the warp engines are sitting to high compared to the side view, the top view port warp engine is missing part of the 'wing' near the tail end.
  • FASA's schematics and blueprints for the TOS Constitution Class Starship have a belly on the the secondary haul. The TV Series Enterprise didn't have that belly, it was more like an straight angle line from one end to the other, no under belly. (The Star Trek Encyclopedia II also has this 'error')
  • FASA's canon sourced starship profiles are all slightly incorrect.
  • FASA's USS Excelsior miniature card #2517 has the torpedoes listed as FP-6, however the STIII Sourcebook Update #2214 has them listed a FP-4, the FP-4 is the correct information.
  • FASA's stats for the canon ships tends to be 1 or 2 Warp Factors too fast. (based on what we now know of the movie WFs)
     
  • FASA's Constitution Class stats has one Mk completely missing from the recognition manual (I think it is the Mk3) and another Mk is mis-numbered as a result. On the constitution page it lists three versions of it yet there is notations of a mk IV version which is marked as the Mk III ,this is a typo.
  • FASA's stats for the Enterprise TMP where given less phasers than what was on the ST-TMP blueprints. The Enterprise is the most powerful ship in FASA's game (excluding the Excelsior) and that is only 6 phasers. It is possiable to destroy one in combat with a little cunning and good tactics. If the ship were given any more weapons it would be next to impossible to destroy and therefore lessen the play value (fun) of the game. The ship would be too powerfull. The weight and warp capability also differ from the ST-TMP blueprints, FASA didn't look at those plans when making there stats, but later made an Enterprise MK III to correct this. ST-TMP blueprints: 18 phasers, 190,000mt, Emergency Warp of 12.
  • FASA's Ship Recognition Manual: The Federation 1st Edition has some errors regarding the Loknar and Derf ships. The actual names of the ships and their color three-view placement in the book is reversed. The Loknar is a frigate and the Derf is the Survey ship.
  • FASA's THE KLINGONS 1st Edition has the D-10 heavy cruiser with one set of ranges and damage information for the forward KD-9 disrupters, while the Ship Construction Manual 1st Edition has different data. The D-10 statistics in the Construction Manual are correct. The ones in the Klingon book are in error.
  • FASA's Expanded Transwarp History and Ships where lacking but interesting. The expanded history was made prior to canons decision to "fail the great experiment" in the movies. Transwarp is now known to have been a helpful experiment in improving the standard TMP era current Linear Warp Drive Systems and provide Starfleet Detailed Information on Transwarp, which wouldn't be needed until the TNG era.
     
  • FASA's 1 Edition Ship Recognition Manuals: Its clear that the Klingons Manual was done BEFORE the Ship Construction Manual was realized, and the Federation Manual done afterwards: the Klingon Specs include weapons and turn stress charts, and lack the 3-letter codes for engines and shields, while the Federation manual lacks the charts and uses the codes. This makes the Klingon book more useful, since it is self-contained. The Federation book is virtually useless without the Ship Construction Manual.
     
  • In the 1st Edition Rec Manuals the stats are done up only in 'Full Panel' form requiring six people to play, leaving the GM to come up with the effort for his own short panels. The 1st Edition Rulebook however does include GM panels, but not for the ships published later on.
     
  • FASA's ship designs are lacking in integrity and may come to a matter of taste. They where not well thought out. It seems much more work went into providing ship encasing graphics that could have been used for other useful information, such as GM panels.

  • The ships. Most of them (particularly the Fed ones) were just plain ridiculous, goofy and stupid looking. Some weren't, of course, but most looked like crap. Like the one-winged Klingon ship, or the "Fat man" battleship, or some of the more bizarre looking Feds. Favorites might be the Chandley, Baker, Remora, D-10 Riskadh, Winged Defender and many others.
  • The Andor ship, is one of the worst casualtiys of the Fed Ship Recognition Manual copy-pastry, the physical lead model doesn't match with the source art, the source art doesn't agree with itself, and neither makes sense with the ship dimensions stated in the SRM.

  • "Federation Starship Recognition Manual 2nd Edition Early printing" There are two known printings of this manual. Apparently some of the information was slightly changed between the early print and the later print. To I.D. these books turn to page10 (Enterprise Class) and under MK I read the Weight under HULL DATA,  If the figure is 160,275mt then you have an early print, If the figure is 150,275mt then you have the later print. Its unknown at this time how much was changed through out the book.

 

STARSHIP COMBAT

  • The STII SCS defeated the task of making things easier for the Beginner player by reducing the stats on the ships from there full range, it just over complicated the learning curve. This was corrected in later editions of Starship Combat.
     
  • Some find that the balance of the game was off.  Like ships and cloaking devices. (But there is an in built balance calculation when designing scenarios.)
     
  • The Federation Rec books gave every advantage. The other races ships were always out-gunned, out-ran and out-classed by the Federation.
     
  • The Federation ships have better weapons all around. The damage output vs power input was better. They were generally more accurate at longer ranges when compared to the equivalent weapons of other races. I think this was done intentionally.
  • FASA's Starbase/Outpost Combat Games Rules where never completely finished and refined.
  • FASA Starship Combat Warp rules are very limited as to the amount and quality of those rules.
     
  • Some find that the generous fire arcs and very long ranged weapons leave maneuvering and tactics less of important. (if weapon range were shortened and ships(and/or shields) were toughened, it might help.) or (have the weapons do less damage, especially the torpedoes.)
     
  • The weapons have a long effective range compared to the distance a ship could move in a turn. You could generally not get in and make a decisive shot without taking an equivalent shot. There just wasn't much you could do in the maneuver department to make a difference.
     
  • Some find that the shield system is too weak vs the weapons used in the game. (Others prefer a fast games/quick battles.) Your ship dies much faster in FASA's game vs other similar games. There is little time for developing intricate situations.
     
  • Some say that battles revolve around the same tactics for every race: Fly towards your opponent with foreword shields on and fire with everything when you get close and is slow, clunky and has wonky rules for powering weapons and especially torpedoes.(But others find it more playable than SFB, record keeping is minimal)
  • FASA's Standalone STCS Box rules and the STCS book packaged with the Deluxe rules have minor differences. Latter revisions where produced with no indication that they actually did update a few things...
  • FASA's STIII Starship Combat Game is the STII Starship Tactical Combat Game but with new Ships and Ship Data, no new rules. Just minor typo's fixed.
  • FASA's STIII Starship Combat Role Playing game (Second Edition) has improved rules over the STIII Starship Combat Game.

  • FASA's STCS, has some un updated rules left over from the previous installment of Starship Combat. Especially Command and Control rules, where counters/control panels are called for that aren’t even included in this edition of the game.

  • FASA's STCS, Crew Casualties page 36 Has some left over (from STIIISCRPG) rules regarding casualties. The example in the rulebook given under 'Effects From Engine/Superstructure Hits' is at odds with the rest of the crew casualties examples.  The passage reads:

    “A warp engine has been hit, causing structural damage to the ship and crew casualties. The total damage is divided in half as evenly as possible between the appropriate warp engine and ship’s superstructure…

    For example, damage of 5 points is given.  When halved, the result is a 3 and a 2; the warp engine receives 3 points of damage, while the superstructure receives 2 points, and the crew loses 2 percent casualties.”

    However, the Effects From Crew Casualties section right below says to determine casualties based on the chart. The fix is to simply follow the section 'Effects From Crew Casualties' and consult the chart as for any other Crew Casualty result and ignore the example given.
  • In the STCS, there seems to be a mis-numbering of the Weapon Firing Sequence on page 19 (Alternate 2A and 2B).


 

STARSHIP CONSTRUCTION

  • "Ship Construction Manual 2nd Edition 1st Printing" has several Errors and Typos.
    -It lacks page 39 (the page that describes vessel crew allocation and the summary for understanding the tables) and 40 (the page with the blank ship readout) that are in the 2nd and 3rd printings.
    -The tandem warp MPR tables for the Fed and Klingons are on a single page as opposed to 2 pages.
    -The Fed tables, the 'Single Warp Engine' table only lists up to the FWG-1 as being available for single warp engine use while the MPR table for single warp engines has stats listed for the FWG-2, FWH-1, FMWA and FTWA engines. The FWG-2 engines aren't listed at all in the single or dual warp engine tables and there are no stats for the FWG-2 in the dual warp engine MPR table while there are stats for the FWG-2 in the single warp engine MPR table.
    -The dual warp engine MPR tables only go to class XV while the single warp engine tables go all the way to class XVIII.
    -Along with the 'missing' pages, it throws the page numbers off going forward into the chart section.
    -This printing has five extra ship construction forms in the back of the book, so the overall page count is the same as in the revised 2nd printing.
    -Klingon weapons are on page 55 (not 59).
    -The WDF for the KP-6 is 5.9 (not 11.8.) for 2 point Klingon torpedoes, the lower WDF on the 2 point Klingon torps was a mistake.
    -Warp engines FTWA-1 produce 38 Power, the FWF-1 and FWG-1 produce 20 and 26 Power. (The 2nd printing has 48 Power producing FTWAs, 18 an 20 Power producing FWF-1 and FWG-1, and the FWG-2 producing 22 Power).
    -There is no FWG-2 provided in Warp Engine Types Table, however it appears in the MPR Single Engine tables.
    -Everything else is identical including the copyright dates.

    No official Errata was ever published. Corrections where issued (un mentioned to consumers) in the 2nd printing of the book.

  • FASA's Fleets where created much larger than what 'canon' partially establish later. Too many classes built in large numbers, built for the same role at the same time despite clear differences in the combat effectiveness of the class. This of course is FASA feeding the desire from fans to see what other ships where out there never seen on screen, at that time.
     
  • FASA's construction manuals lacked rules for static power plants, such as found in starbases.
  • FASA's Starship Construction Rules can not build or replicate the FASA Provided Ship Stats. They can be recalculated but not all ships with convert correctly, additional tinker is required. The Federation and The Klingon Ship Recognition Manuals where calculated with an older formula. However the Romulan Manual was built with the updated 2nd Edition SCM formulas.
  • FASA Nacelle Sizes; The "cut and paste" method of kitbashing used in the FASA Starfleet Ship Recognition Manual partially obscures the fact that the nacelles (and, in some cases, the primary saucers) used in the ships are of different sizes. A measurement of each picture based on the stated size of the ship represented will show this to be the case. Many nacelles come out to a unique size. (The connection between the appearance of the nacelle and the designation was broken.) The identical-looking FASA nacelles fall into roughly seven different sizes.
     
  • There are two versions of the 2 Edition Construction manual. See the FASA Parts List item number FAS2204 for more details on how to identify which version you have.
  • In the MPR tables, some of the info wasn't spaced correctly. For example, the data for a 3/1 MPR for a particular class (engine type, WER & warp speeds) was actually listed one column over in the 4/1 class. You could find the mistakes by looking at the engine availability: if an engine is available at 3/1 at Class 5, not available at 4/1 at class 5 and then available at 5/1 at Class 5, chances are the 3/1 data goes in the 4/1 column. You can check this by calculating the WER value and comparing it to the printed value. The values should be close (were talking tenths). If not, then calculate it at another MPR and you've got your misprint/misalignment. [?1.43 perhaps?]

    WER= (1.45 X power of engine X number of engines)/MPR
  • In ST:TMP the technology suggests and implies that power is derived from the warp nacelles themselves, FASA's Engine power calculations are also presented as if the engines or nacelles are the source of the ships power, and the number of nacelles a ship has determines the maximum power output,  but more recent Warp Treknology lore indicates that warp power is derived from the matter-antimatter reactor, otherwise known as the warp core. FASA's construction rules are set on the premise of TOS/TMP as "The Warp Engines" representing the entire warp system (the reactor core, warp engines/nacelles and other components) and how efficient it is. If one choose too they could separate the warp core reactor system properties from FASA's 'Engine' mechanic properties, doing so would force you to make new components and possibly adding rules to the Starship Combat Game, resulting overall more complex.

  • Couple of different things to understand about warp engines in FASA. First, what engines you can use are dictated by the class of ship being built. Second, each engine type produces a set amount of power given in points. Third, for each engine type and ship class pairing there is a movement point ratio, this indicates how many power points it takes to move the ship 1 hex. Finally, each engine is rated in terms of maximum safe cruising speed and maximum speed (on the movement point ratio table in the ship construction manual this appears at the bottom of each engines stats as something like 7/9.

    Regardless of what warp speed you say a ship is travelling at, it takes the same movement point ratio to move 1 hex. So in terms of playability, warp speed Is really inconsequential. The ship construction manual was primarily designed to go with the RPG supplement known as the Starship Combat Tactical Simulator, where hex movement is all that really matters. In terms of the RPG, warp takes as long as you want it to take regardless of the actual speed.

    But back to your actual question - how do you know what warp speeds a particular engine is capable of that found in the tables labeled "Movement Point Ratio Table" the format for each engine stat os as follows

    Engine Type (FWG-2) Power Points (15.5) Warp Speed (8/9)

    Btw, that entry is on page 44, under 4/1 mp ratio for a class IX ship.
  • If this where a 3D game; the 'FASA Shield System' should be thought of as a globe, more closely resembling the visual effect of the TNG era 'bubble' Shield System that was used later. But based on TAS; "Deflector Shields" are both visually shown to be just above the 'skin' of the ships hull and hits are shown effecting the entire shield grid, something like the bleed off effect you would see in TNG when the shields "spread" the damage over nearby shield locations. Although Live TOS and TMP era ship shield special effects are never shown, countless movie bridge displays and material confirm the 'skin' formation of the shields for TOS/TAS/TMP era ships. Technically the TOS/TMP era true "entire shield grid" effected and TNG's bleed off damage "spread" are not represented in the 'FASA Shield Mechanics'. Either FASA didn't know or they simplified the construction and game rules.
    If one choose too they could devise a new game rule and/or modify the construction tables to supplement FASA's shield system properties, resulting overall more complex.
  • Another Shield flaw appears to be that each side of the shields are very weak in comparison to the amount of damage an enemy ship could output. While they can be raised instantly, they are recharged slowly. I would make shields many times more powerful, but limit their recharge rate. To correct this one could simply modify the maximum power a shield has with a balanced recharge ratio.
  • FASA's construction and game rules clearly make torpedoes have a hugely superior damage yield when compared to the alternate energy-gulping and less powerful phasers and disruptors. So much so, after awhile you wonder why the ships don't have more torpedo decks and amounts. The primary advantage of an energy weapon over a projectile weapon is obviously logistical. A phaser never runs out of bullets, where as torpedoes are finite. This is a major fault of the game, to correct this one could simply modify the photon torpedo damage yields while leaving the phaser damage alone. Phasers in Trek are more effective against deflector shields, while torpedoes are more effective at destroying hulls. A good system would reflect this.
     
  • An Interesting loop-hole, one might notice that the impulse engines have a huge advantage in the power-generated to weight ratio compared to any warp engine. Therefore, you can build I gigantic uber-battlecruiser bristling with banks and banks of torpedoes and phasers by adding an extra 4 dozen sublight impulse drives. Power problems solved! Sure, it could barely break warp 4, but nobody fights at warp speed anyway. Of course a ship like this could be used to defend a specific area of space, not intended to travel at high warp.
  • The overall rules never really take into account for any speeds, sub-light or warp. Speeds in the game are loosely based on the amount of movement one has, The more movement points a ship expends the faster it is moving.  The specs and stats of the ships already take into account "Balanced Movement" to some degree, <more>

    Renegade Legions: Interceptor by FASA. While not as fast as some of the other systems it has possibly the best vector movement and damage control sheets. The damage sheet actually has a wire diagram flow chart so if your engines get whacked you can short systems in the cockpit or elsewhere as a result.
  • Possible math error in the cargo ratings, Possibly all the cargo tonnages for FASA ships are off by a factor of 10, According to the Construction Manual, 1 Standard Cargo unit (SCU) is 6.75 cubic meters. Also, according to the book 1 SCU is assumed to have a mass of 50 metric tons, which is considered to be about 3/4th the mass of water. Water has a mass of 1 metric ton per cubic meter, so if 1 SCU has the mass equal to 3/4th that of water it should be around 5 mt, not 50. Either someone multiplied the number by 10 or was using (water is around 63 pounds per cubic foot, and 3/4 of that would be around 50 pounds per cubic foot).

    Some ships would be unaffected. The big effects would be on ships that drop a Class or two and wind up with better engine performance, or worse, become too small to support their components. For example the MkI Constitution-class drops down to Class X and a 3/1 MPR, making the old Connie more maneuverable than the later version with the more powerful FWF Engines.

    The best fix would simply to assume that the cargo holds are designed to hold something with around 10 times the specific gravity of water, say Silver, or a Tungsten-steel alloy, or some sort of fictional hull material like duranium, with sg10. That would allow the cargo hold stuff to be used as is. It would also make a lot of sense since many things that a ship could be carrying as cargo are denser than water.

    The only way to get to the 50 mt that a SCU represents is to have a nice cube that's ~3.6 meters on a side. This will get you to the 50 mt per SCU at the weight of water. Unfortunately, it's only 3/4 the weight of water...so of course it's less. It's just easier to accept that a SCU is a nice cube that's 3x3x3. It's a good bit wider than the current standard, but in the long run it's easier than trying to change everything.

  • You will find that all printings of the 2nd Edition Construction manual will have typos and errors. Some tables that do not have corresponding MPRs for some warp and impulse engines in particular weight classes.
    To get around these particular errors Concerning the warp and impulse MPR tables, take the engine and it's IER or WER value from the next lowest weight class and apply it to the 'missing' value in the next higher weight class. You can figure which values should have been listed by checking the size/weight class of a given piece of equipment.


SOURCES FASA USED

This material is that what was suggested or mentioned by the FASA ST Designers for background info or reference.


  • FASA did not use the Franz Joseph ship designs but in The Four Years War and Romulan War sourcebooks most of the ships listed except the Tikopai and Achernar are from the Spaceflight Chronology (1979) by Stan and Fred Goldstein (illustrated by Rick Sternbach) and Franz Joseph's Technical Manual. They did reference the Hermes and Ptolemy, and also listed sub-classes of both of these and the destroyer as separate classes. Most of these ships listed had "real world" analogs.
  • FASA's The Federation sourcebook features one illustration of the U.S.S. Patton, the name is a "Spaceflight Chronology" ship. However the design FASA used was not that of the "Spaceflight Chronology".  In FASA's other publications, there are no Romulan War ERA drawings associated directly with any starship descriptions. The Marklin class destroyer appears on the front cover and is the only illustration of this ship.
    Several other ship profiles where lifted for inclusion in "The Four Years War" and "The Romulan War" sourcebooks.
  • FASA timeline and historical information includes some elements of the Goldstein Spaceflight Chronology book except for the shameless twisting and manipulation of the the SFC material for "The Romulan War."
  • Contributions of Shane Johnson.
  • FASA's Federation Recognition Manual 2ed components (some components) are traced from the Enterprise blueprints set published by Del Rey back in 1980. The drawings were larger than Forest and Dana needed but they were able to reduce them to the size needed for paste-up.
  • FASA used many of the of the Animated Series happenings and details that didn't conflict with the live TOS Series.
  • FASA used John M. Ford books for the Klingon Background, The Final Reflection (1984) -Paramount License- and unpublished author notes. (some of the background material given in the players's book is presented as excerpts from An Informal Guide to the Klingon Empire, by J. Ford and E. Tagore. This fictional book was published during the time of the Enterprise's five year mission, and was based on the findings of the 'Committee on the Klingon Estimate, a UFP study group. These excerpts are set off from the rest of the text)

    This book actually was written at the same time of FASA's Sourcebook and information was shared between the two.

    (some of the background material given in the player's book is presented as excerpts from An Informal Guide to the Klingon Empire, by J. Ford and E. Tagore. This fictional book was published during the time of the Enterprise's five year mission, and was based on the findings of the 'Committe on the Klingon Estimate, a UFP study group. These excerpts are set off from the rest of the text)

    "The Final Reflection" and FASA introduced a Klingon naming convention based on service. Klingons were given different names when they were born but when they began their true service to the Empire, they changed their names. Those in the navy began with the K (Krenn, Kelly), those in the marines began with an M (Merzhan, Maltz) and those in administrative and support positions, scientists and the like, began with an A.

    The Klingon Genetic Fusion Theory is in FASA's authorized RPG material and in a number of STAR TREK novels, including the definitive Klingon work, "The Final Reflection" by John M. Ford.

    Paramount was pleased enough with Ford's "The Final Reflection" prior to distribution of the book, and had ask to have his unpublished notes submitted to Paramount so that future authors could work from them. Fantasimulations Associates also used these same notes in the creation of this RPG supplement. Paramount accepted "The Final Reflection" as canon (something done with very, very few other novels) and encouraged FASA in their decision to base their view of the Klingon Empire on it as well as the series episodes. It was based solidly on accepted canon and Paramount's plans AT THAT TIME. (prior to TNG when Klingons and everything about there story from the beginning changed drastically)

    Among some of the material used in STIII are the manuscript by John M. Ford, The Final Reflection and FASA's The Klingons Supplement.
  • FASA featured all the classic Matt Jeffrey's starship designs.
  • FASA adopted most of Greg Jein's attempt (from his T-Negative article) for their Constitution registries list.
  • The artwork on the asteroid counters used in the combat simulator games was the same artwork first used on the asteroids from FASA's Battlestar Galactica boardgame.
     
  • The book, The Making of Star Trek showed profile views of the same plans of the Constitution and D-7A Class that FASA used. (Note: The profiles probably came from the writers guide. The display can be seen from the TOS episode "Enterprise Incident" in 1968, in this scene, they referred to the D-7A as a Romulan ship borrowed from the Klingons.
  • Spacegamer #64. It has about a 5 page review of the 1st edition Star Trek game. In it, the reviewer complains about a few things he thinks should have been included. Those very things are included in the 2nd edition update!!
    -"evasive" action in the AP system (2nd ed: Dodge, Evasion and Duck Thrown Object),
    -modifiers to Attacker's To-Hit # for movement should be added (2nd ed: includes these), the reviewer complained that Checkov's To-Hit numbers were lower than Rand's (2nd edition: fixed this).
  • The primary source used for the Star Trek universe was Bjo Trimble's , The Star Trek Concordance (1976, 1995 Revised) book. Professionally written "Trek Fiction" and other references where used as well. Plus that of "Fan Wisdom."

    This book (1976 edition) was used by FASA during the making of the RPG. The A-To-Z Guide to the Classic Original Television Series and Films

    More than 400 illustrations and covering all 79 episodes of the original series, the animated series and all six movies. A Lexicon, Star Trek vessels with their parts and sections, Astronomical References, an Actor cross-reference.
  • FASA's own Grav Ball game was used for the man-to-man combat system for its quick play and simple mechanics, particular the easy to use action point system. Use of a square grid further simplified play.
  • A nod to Lord of the Rings; The Loknar class ships were named after cities, provinces, etc. in the Federation. NCC 2974 is christened the Hobbiton... obvious LotR reference.

    Ptarth (2763)seems to be from Edgar Rice Burroughs' "Warlord of Mars (The Martian Tales)! Epcot (2711) seems obvious, Epcot stands for Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow! Lactra (2748) is listed; Lactra VII was discovered in 2269 and was "featured" in the TAS episode "The Eye of the Beholder".
     
  • GDW's Traveller RPG appears to have influenced the character creation system.

  • FASA used the Star Trek Maps product from Bantam Press (1980) for the basis of its map. The map of the "big three" looks almost exactly like FASA's - complete with the boundaries of the original Federation. That product has the Romulans so far away to the right and the Klingons to the left. That product also uses one square = 10 parsecs. It even uses the four quadrant system for the Federation.

  • About the Alien "Efrosian": Was given to the alien race introduced in "ST IV: The Voyage Home" by the Makeup Dept. and named for Paramount's Mel Efros. FASA Adapted that name.
     
  • ..more...do you know of more? , please let me know.

 


SOURCES BORROWED FROM FASA

This material incorporates some information and follows FASA Star Trek TRPG.


  • Shane Johnson, in his Mr Scott's Guide to the Enterprise, (1984, 1987 Revised STIV) -Paramount License- borrows heavily from FASA and many of his technical terms and dates are direct lifts. A good addition for FASA players.

    A tech manual for the TMP-STIII movie-era Enterprise. It contains detailed diagrams, and a thorough discussion of ship's systems. There are many photographs of the ship from the films, and many movie  pre-production sketches portrayed as prototype drawings by the ship contractors in the Trek world.

    Ties in fairly heavily with FASA's Star Trek RPG, using the same calendar (TOS in the 2190s and the films in the 2210s) and the names of companies supplying parts (such as warp nacelles).

    The book was written before/during STIV, and takes some early official concepts in a different direction than was later changed or established by "canon". An example would be mounting TransWarp Engines on the Enterprise-A. Something fans where expecting for the next movie but didn't happen....

  • Paramount often referred to details from the RPG during the early days of planning on ST:TNG, the First season especially.
  • Okudagram - In TNG episodes of season one; If you look carefully and closly you will occasionally see pages directly from the FASA books appear in the background scenes on the Enterprise control and data displays. In the TNG 'Conspiracy' episode the schematic diagram of the Orion Wanderer Class ship is seen (upside-down) on random screens several times and is referred to as "an Orion Wanderer-class V Blockade Runner"

    The Lotus Flower Class neutronic fuel carrier ('Kobayashi Maru') appears briefly on Data's console in the TNG episode "Contagion" identified as "a Lotus Flower Class neutronic fuel carrier."

  • Okuda adopted FASAs Constitution registries list in the current official Paramount list.
  • John M. Ford book, The Final Reflection actually was written at the same time of FASA's Sourcebook and information was shared between the two. Ford also wrote blocks of highlighted text for the game supplement "in conjunction with" one of the characters from the novel.
  • Among some of the material used in STIII are the manuscript by John M. Ford, The Final Reflection  and FASA's The Klingons Supplement.
  • Gray Morrow and Howard Chaykin was using FASA material when he did some issues for DC's Star Trek series
    Who's Who in Star Trek #1- DC Comics Mar '87 and Who's Who in Star Trek #2- DC Comics Apr '87 are replete with FASA Star Trek material. No ads, but material:
    -Front Cover of Issue 1: Star Fleet Command symbol from the ST:RPG boxed set.
    -Enterprise entry, Issue 1 (page18-19): mentions Enterprise has 33% power increase-just like the entry in the 2nd edition Federation Ship Recog.
    -Orion entry. Issue 2 (pg11): Wilkerson class "wannabe" in artwork?
    -Romulans entry, Issue 2(pg17): Nova class renderings!
    -Starships entry, Issue 2(pg18): Reliant class (not Miranda, indicating it is a fasa reference)
    -Back cover of Issue 2: FASA Romulan symbol AND reprint of Whitewind cut away from the Romulan Ship Recog.
     
  • VGA Planets pc game borrowed many FASA ship designs.
  • X-Com series of computer games (X-COM: UFO Defense; X-COM: Terror from the Deep, etc) use a tactical combat system virtually identical to FASA's AP system. The system is turned based, with one side's team member (a choice of any on that side) goes first, then the next side goes, until all have gone. Also, each action that a character may perform has a cost (I believe the "unit" they use is seconds instead of AP, although really the action has nothing to do with time per se) and a character may save "seconds" for opportunity actions (mainly firing). The higher a characters "dexterity", the more actions he can perform. If you've ever played, you know what I mean. It really helps one understand how the FASA AP system should flow.
  • In Star Trek Armada II, a version of the Deathgame Station appears as a Klingon reasearch station. In the game Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Bridge Simulator for SEGA Genesis 32x, it appears as the navigation icon for a Gorn shipyard.
  • Many other computer games used FASA designed ships, including ST Legacy which used Romluan and Klingon designs, aswell as some ship names for other models. One example is they made a battleship out of the Romulan M-4 assaultship.
  • The Ranger Class Scout look-alike appeared in a animated movie called Starchaser: The Legend of Orin in 1985.
  • Klingon Officer Rank Notes: These ranks, and insignia have been observed, in a number of TNG episodes, that some Klingons were wearing pins on their collars just as described in the FASA game.
     
  • Star Trek ENT: The Romulan War Beneath The Raptor's Wing Book credits FASA's Romulan War Module.

 

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Some of FASA's books include Designer Notes which explain some of there reasoning for doing something a particular way in the game versus another way. Also some Stardate Magazines include a Q&A section which the designers of the game answer some common questions.