These are the Voyages

I grew up with Star Trek: The Original Series. I was lucky in that my father was a science fiction fan (not many men of his generation were), so sci fi and Star Trek were big at my house. Throughout the 70's Star Trek was on TV pretty much every day and I watched it all, over and over. Then there was the Animated Series on Saturday mornings too. Of course, I've seen (and own) all the movies and pretty much all the episodes of the later series as well. Except for the new one, Star Trek Discovery. I won't touch that with a ten foot pole (no offense intended to those who like it but... I don't.

Anyway... The first Star Trek rpg that my dad and I played was Starships & Spacemen, the 1st edition. The author, Dr. Kanterman didn't have the official license for Star Trek, so the names of things were changed to avoid copyright infringement. Nonetheless, it was obviously a Star Trek game. My dad loved it.

And I didn't.

I was around 14 years old at the time and I was very literal. I had a hard time accepting the contrivances that Dr. Kanterman had used to avoid copyright troubles, and even more trouble with the humor he threw in. For example, here's the section on names for Tauran characters (Taurans are the S&S version of Vulcans):

"Taurans - Taurans have one, hyphenated name, each part of one syllable with the name ending in "k". We generated a whole family with the second syllable "nek" — Red'nek, Bottle'nek, etc. Taurans may also be given any Yiddish name — Shlock, Schlemiel, Schmendreck, Yente, Bubbele, etc., as they are the descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes."

Of course as an adult I get it, but when I was 14 it seemed ridiculous to me. And being as literal as I was, I couldn't bring myself to just change it... Back then I felt that if the rules said it, that's the way it had to be.

Still, my dad and I played it. Then something else came along...

This was, of course, instantly our new favorite and I had many adventures with it throughout the years, first with my dad, then with high school friends, then with friends while I was in the military. I even still mess around with it occasionally, but I don't think I'd ever run a full game with it anymore. And thats because, in 2012 Golinoid Games released Starships & Spacemen 2nd Edition, a revised version of the first edition.

This is now without a doubt my favorite Star Trek rpg. Yes, I know there's a new, big licensed behemoth Star Trek rpg, but like the previous ones from Last Unicorn Games and Decipher Inc. it falls well within that "New School" rpg style I spoke about on the Introduction post. Starships &Spacemen 2e is an Old School game, with all the retro-goodness that I love.

So now, with Starships & Spacemen 2e I can finally bring my 80's FASA Trek crew members back to life and send them once again into the Final Frontier...

The crew of the S.F.S. Sagittarius;
Commanding Officer Abel Hernandez, Human Male
Executive Officer Susan Armstrong, Human Female
Science Officer Boolean Quincy Saxton, Human Male
Medical Officer Nancy Rizzo, Human Female
Chief Engineer Gaav, Porcini Male
Helmsman Corey Wisdom, Human Male
Navigator Shras Theln, Entirran Male
Communications Officer Zaxil, Dreiped Male

For them... The Adventure is just beginning!