This edition of the game uses a simple system that is light enough on the rules side to allow for quick play and developed enough to provide adequate support for most situations.
Any kind of test always involves throwing two six-sided dice modified by the appropriate skill or attribute against a target number, and sixes are re-rolled. A character can make attribute tests, skill tests and reaction tests. The attributes are strength, agility, intellect, vitality, presence and perception. Skills include everything from ranged combat, computer use, and forgery, to negotiate and repair. Reaction tests are used to avoid events that "happen to the character" and reaction scores are based on attribute modifiers. Traits are either edges that give characters bonuses and advantages, or flaws that hinder the character in some way but let it gain another edge for each flaw.
Creating a character for Star Trek RPG is fairly simple. The races described in the Player's Handbook are the Bajorans, Betazoids, Cardassians, Ferengi, Humans, Klingons, Ocampa, Talaxians, Trill and Vulcans. After choosing a character's race and generating its attributes, the character is developed in two steps. The first step consists in personal development, which determines the character's background and origin while letting the player choose a few skills and traits. The second step is professional development, where the character gains skills and traits representing his chosen profession. The nine professions are diplomat, merchant, mystic, rogue, scientist, soldier, starship command officer, starship operations officer and starship science officer. Each profession is subdivided in a number of packages; different packages can easily be created to generate characters tailored to one's taste. Characters can be advanced by gaining experience points and can acquire elite professions if they meet certain prerequisites.
Combat is also a fairly simple process. Characters act in order of initiative and can take a certain number of actions, usually two, but more if they possess certain traits or if they are willing to take substantial penalties on rolls for subsequent actions. To hit someone or something with a weapon, characters make the appropriate skill test (armed combat, ranged combat or unarmed combat) against a target number set by the enemy's defense score and modified by circumstances. Characters being attacked can use an action to dodge, parry or block by succeeding at a quickness reaction test, the target number being set by the result of the attacker's skill test. Weapons do damage according to their type, or stun, kill or vaporize a victim in the case of phasers and disruptors. Characters can suffer six wound levels before dying. Each level is comprised of a number of wound points equal to the character's health (calculated from the vitality and strength attributes). Characters sustaining wounds suffer penalties on all tests according their wound level.
Of course, the book describes some of the equipment available in the 23rd and 24th centuries, as well as summarily describes starships. A timeline relates the history of the galaxy in the Star Trek universe, and a section describes the state of affairs at the time when the "Voyager" series ended. A big section describes the Federation and Starfleet. The book also discusses the various eras of Star Trek history portrayed in the different series and how the game could be conducted to reflect each series' style.
This RPG and its system are designed to leave a lot of room for role playing while providing enough support to play some action scenes. The gaming style is meant to resemble a series of Star Trek episodes. It will be interesting to see how Decipher supports this product. The Player's Handbook is somewhat lightweight in some respects, especially with regards to starships. The book includes almost nothing concerning piloting and absolutely nothing on vessel combat. Unfortunately, the character sheet is printed with all sorts of colors on it that will make it harder to photocopy. The book is definitely not the best organised book I ever saw; the information is not really efficiently grouped and requires a lot of flipping through the pages. Despite all of this, I think this is a potentially good game, but have to wait for more material to definitely make up my mind.
