I've been watching Deep Space Nine and I'm interested in running a campaign in that setting. I'm not sure of the system yet, but I'm wondering if there are any good sources for learning all of the history, races, etc... of the Star Trek universe? Besides the wiki. of course, I'm more interested in knowing if there's a guide or something similar.
Otherwise, general Star Trek lore thread, ask questions, make baseless conjecture, post fun facts or anything else you want.
Bump.
Please gents, I know some of you are fans.
Star Trek is pretty awesome, especially if you ignore the Voyager/Enterprise era since it introduces the MOST contradictions and irreconcilable differences of the entire series.
For space combat, remember that the ranges involved are realistic. While they may have shown both ships on screen at the same time in The Next Generation, they hardly ever did that in the Original Series and ALL RANGES STATED IN DIALOGUE ARE IN THE TENS TO HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF KILOMETERS! Remember that. What is shown on screen for the convenience of the audience is different from the insane power of antimatter driven cruisers that can break open reality itself as a standard operation.
>>47331456
I fucking love you. I've never watched voyager or enterprise, I like the concept of voyager based on what I read, but I heard they delivered it terribly.
Interesting stuff. Do you know much about the whole warp system? They mention it a lot, but I actually don't know much of what the jargon means or how the ships function mechanically.
Desperation bump.
>>47331496
Voyager had a great concept, and was more mediocre at a time when the bar was set high bu concurrently running TNG and DS9, it introduced the most made up words and is the show that really did forget how it's own technology worked every other episode instead of introducing real obstacles and special cases. Enterprise... is to Star Trek what the Star Wars Prequels were to Star Wars, massive contradictions to canon and insultingly awful writing.
Now, the Warp Drive projects a subspace field and allows the ship to basically work at a completely different scale from the rest of the universe. Subspace is pretty much how all FTL phenomenon besides Tachyons operate. A lot of the hybrid dogfighting/naval warfare is at warp, you'll see a fight begin in orbit of one planet and it can end in deep space, a star, another star system, with non-warp fights usually because one or both ships are trying to hold a location like a specific orbit and getting chased off would be a retreat, not a maneuver.
>>47331552
Ahh I see. Unfortunate indeed. Does voyager have any redeeming qualities? I've heard it gets better later in the show, is that true in your experience.
How do you rank DS9, TNG, and TOS?
Cool. Did you learn all of this from just watching the shows? That's pretty interesting stuff.
>>47331581
Voyager gets better. As it goes on you'll find more and more episodes are worth keeping in the Trek universe.
TNG, DS9, and TOS are all top tier for different reasons.
And yeah you can learn most of how Trek works just from the shows, it tells you anything plot relevant each episode like all of the history of the setting in TOS which then TOS and the movies are the history by the time of TNG.
>>47331581
Not him, but Voyager does have some passable/good episodes and moments throighout but it is just brought down as a whole by the rest of the series.
>>47331644
I've watched TOS and TNG pretty erratically, I need to give them a more honest viewing like I'm giving DS9.
Thanks for your advice, friend.
>>47331652
Thanks, I'll have to try to find a guide some where to find which episodes I ought to avoid.
>>47331673
I also wouldn't mind being your go to guy for Trek canon and details if you plan to run a game. TNG takes a bit to go from the "ok show" to the amazing thing it was for so long. It just keeps getting better and better until the grand finale, a lot like DS9. TOS was consistent in quality for most of the show.
>>47331767
That'd be awesome.
Have you ever run or been a part of a Star Trek game before? I'm wondering how it might be best to run it.
Shoot me an e-mail at [email protected] and we can stay in touch if that's fine with you.
>>47331813
I was part of a Star Trek RPG once. It had a pretty neat concept where we had an entire fleet on a search mission in The Badlands, joined by Klingon and Romulan ships as all three had lost an unusual number in the plasma fields over the past couple of decades. We end up getting sucked through a rift of some type and end up in the far side of the gamma quadrant, similar setup to Voyager but with a whole fleet like Galactica being hunted by an alien menace based on spelljammer Neogi, the main plan to get to the gamma quadrant side of the wormhole to get home, though with the distance involved that might not be feasible. It was an amazing game.
>>47331915
Oh, I would love to hear a storytime for that
>>47331581
Voyager is perfectly enjoyable once you've abandoned any sense of continuity (dramatic personality shifts from episode to episode for the captain in particular) and accept that they screwed up the basic premise of being stranded in another part of the galaxy (instead of really making a thing of it, they just shrugged it off and made the show business as usual).
>>47331767
>TOS was consistent in quality for most of the show.
It was consistently inconsistent. It didn't really get better or worse from season to season, but there was plenty of bad stuff scattered throughout. TOS is by far the most cringe-worthy of the Treks, and even good episodes often had painfully bad parts. However, TOS also achieved the highest levels of awesome of any of the Treks, and the interpersonal dynamic between Kirk. Spock and Bones was phenomenal.
>>47331581
As I was saying, TOS is both the best and worst Trek, but it's my personal favorite. TNG is easily the next in line. It had energy and a cast that clicked. DS9 always felt kind of like a bad soap opera. It had some good characters but their interaction tended to just kind of fall flat. It did have arcs that the other shows didn't have, and this was when it was at its best, but it could never really embrace them, and seemed like half a loaf compared to something like Babylon 5.
>>47331349
How would we update Star Trek's forward-looking message of diversity and rationality for today's audience (without being patronizing or insufferable)?
>>47333567
>How would we update Star Trek's forward-looking message of diversity and rationality for today's audience
who says it needs updating? I'd say in a time like ours that vision of an optimistic future is still just as needed as ever.
>>47333596
With this I agree wholeheartedly.
Just needs to be handled better than in TOS, first season of TNG or entirety of VOY.
>>47332972
He actress that played Janeway is actually a great actress, but she played, and this is not an exaggeration, a mentally ill character. Like, she has stated publically that she thought Janeway had mental illnesses that explained her irrationality and inconsistency, so she played that.
That should tell you something about Voyager as a whole.
>>47333646
>Just needs to be handled better than in TOS, first season of TNG or entirety of VOY.
so what your saying is to handle that message in the manner of DS9, and the other 6 seasons of TNG?
Sounds simple enough.
sounds
>>47333689
Most of my complaint with the others is that the acting was hammy and the writing was shit.
Season 1 of TNG was Roddenberry acting in the manner of Lucas in the Star Wars Prequels. It's sad but it's the only way I can explain what it looks like, thankfully some of his really fucking retarded ideas were reigned in.
TOS was just really clumsy.
VOY was everything bad from TOS + loads of bafflingly bad decisions.
ENT I would have liked immensely if it wasn't Star Trek.
Oh look, a nothing trailer!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXpPweAooeE
Honestly, one of the worst things they could do for the new Trek would be to try and fold in real science, because someone's going to find some way to make that shit conflict with pretty much everything else in the canon.
Also, please don't make this series an action-adventure thing like the films.
>>47333659
If the writers were good/had a plan/were actually the DS9 guys, that could have been a really good long running theme.
Captain goes a bit nuts from massive fucking up reading the tactical situation in the pilot episode and rushing to destroy their ticket home instead of just setting up a timer on a bomb. Consumed by guilt yet still having to be the strong leader, without the original command staff and having to integrate a bunch of rebels alongside (and picking up strays along the way).
It's the premise for a good character struggling to not become a villain through simply taking the easy options.
>>47334106
Obviously, it's hard to tell much from that, but I like that it uses the original theme at the end, and I'm a bit trepidatious that the graphics might indicate that the show will lean to hard on being flashy like JJ Trek. Also, why does Youtube think that I want to see a bunch of The Bold and The Beautiful clips based on watching that?
>>47332972
>>47333659
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIGxMENwq1k
It is rumored that the new series will have separate ships, casts, and time periods which change from season to season.
With that in mind, what settings do you want to see?
>>47333567
Star Trek had a more inclusive vision of diversity than the pseudo-fascist idiocy we have today. Leave shit be, don't interfere unless you're given permission, and be proud of your own culture while acknowledging its faults. Nothing about any of it needs updating at all.
>>47334106
So this is why the Axanar guys got the boot. Makes way more sense now.
I doubt it will be any good. Modern TV audiences are modern movie audiences, after all. They can't be bothered with two or more people having a conversation for more than a minute without some explosion or spaceship warping.
>>47334106
I saw this yesterday and it killed what little hope I had left.
>that generic, bland, out-of-universe voiceover
>that Window's XP screensaver
Fuuuuck.
>>47331644
I tried really hard to like Voyager, but the fact that they had 2 writing teams fighting for different versions of the show really fucked things up.
Year of Hell, Equinox, the void, any doctor heavy episodes and the episodes with the Malon were all really good and I just wish the show had explored the concepts in these episodes more deeply.
As for Enterprise, it has its moments. It gradually for better the less often they included the suliban.
Is Axanar still happening or did CBS kill it like the soulless whoremongers that they are?
>>47338056
I thought the season-long Xindi arc was the best part of the show and was not as impressed with 4th season as everybody else. The casting for Enterprise was downright terrible. The actors had no real dynamic together, and many of them weren't good fits for their roles. Beyond that, Enterprise had a weird anti-gestalt going on, where for some reason, every episode seemed to be less than the sum of its parts. I'm not sure exactly what it was, maybe a weakness in the scripts, but I was often left with a vague sense of disappointment, like the idea of the episode was better than the finished product. Anyway, I don't think that Enterprise was bad, per se, but it certainly didn't live up to TOS or TNG.
>>47338157
I didn't understand why CBS went after them so hard so suddenly. This makes sense. I'm sure the Axanar guys will get off ok, they might even get an official endorsement.
>>47337832
That actually seems pretty cool. Like if it kept up for a while and you were able to see the ways the different events in each season have affected the time line/ universe as a whole.
>>47338169
I always thought they seemed to comfortable about everything that was happening. Almost as if they knew everything was gonna work out for them in the end.
>>47337832
>The Romulan War
>The period immediately after the khittomer accords.
>The first cardassian war
>any time after the events of DS9/the TNG movies
>>47338218
I'd like to see some reccuring characters throughout the time periods.
Like an ensign in the TOS Era is a captain or admiral by DS9.
>>47338439
An ensign in Kirk's era would be like 120 years old by the Dominion War era, which is pushing the limits for humans even in Star Trek (except McCoy, who was like 140 when the Enterprise-D launched yet still alive).
>>47337104
>What about a photon torpedo?
>I would not recommend it.
Kekkest of keks.
>>47337917
>Modern TV audiences are modern movie audiences, after all. They can't be bothered with two or more people having a conversation for more than a minute without some explosion or spaceship warping.
Well, I mean... Breaking Bad? Mad Men? Boardwalk Empire? There are plenty of modern TV shows that actually have somewhat slow pacing at times and go whole episodes without explosions or intense action.
>>47337832
I want an entirely new three-way war in like the 2390's. I want to see Sovereigns and Prometheus's and new ship classes for the Romulans and Klingons. Maybe the Roms will be mass-producing those perfect cloak dreadnoughts from Nemesis by that time.
>>47338616
>which is pushing the limits for humans even in Star Trek
They have replicators, holodecks, manipulate gravity at a whim, and fucking FTL travel, but keeping growth in check with telomerase switched on is just too much?
>>47340178
>Breaking Bad? Mad Men? Boardwalk Empire?
Are not science fiction.
>>47340270
The less remembered about Nemesis the better.
>>47337104
Are you taking into account alternate realities/time loops, situations where they might have been able to restock (Q, etc), and that one episode where "oh my god, we're not the real voyager we're just clones who have gone on very voyager-like episodes since we were created!", putting into doubt each episode up to that point?
>>47340358
The villain didn't seem like a very big guy.
>>47340313
Immortality is something that children want.
>>47340553
I'm 28. I may or may not want to live forever, but I'd like to live indefinitely until I decide I'm ready to go. Especially if my loved ones could do the same.
>>47340441
No, no he didn't - perhaps people would have cared who he was if he'd put on a mask. Because that dude didn't look like a picard clone to me, senpai.
>>47340606
But mind rape, anon. That's what sci-fi fans love to see. Weird, awkward mind rape with a downhill MILF.
>>47340589
That's a child's attitude, anon. Immature. You haven't learned to let things go. I'm not trolling or insulting you. Your attitude is shared by almost everyone; but it is undeveloped and irrational. People do not embrace what is; they, childishly, seek to avoid it.
>>47340670
>Psh, nothing personal kid.
>>47340670
But what if you had the power to hold on for a little while longer?
>>47340670
>I would enjoy living a long time if it were offered to me
vs.
>I am upset because I cannot live forever
See the difference? I just said I would find it nice/convenient. I'm not wishing every night for immortality.
>>47340270
It would be nice to have another power in the Alpha Quadrant besides the big 3. Maybe the Breen have taken over chunks of Romulan territory in the wake of their star exploding.
>>47340405
Well, not all the episodes up to that point. Just the ones between the apparently one-off episode where some of the crew members get cloned by the thing on that planet and the sneaky follow up where you discover as the episode progresses that the entire crew and ship got cloned and that's who you're watching instead of the real crew. That was definitely one of Voyager's best episodes.
>>47340729
>>47340769
Don't take it personally, we all do it - we can't help but do it! We just have to find a way PAST it, or we go nuts! Sounds like you have walked the path a bit - great! You are further along! But, most of us are stuck in the hamster-wheel, desperate to cling to life, and in the process clinging to everything we can lay our hands upon. Money, relationships, career, philosophy - whatever. We cling because we fear death. Embrace death and you embrace life. Fear death, and you miss life.
>>47331349
There's the Star Trek Encyclopedia, but it's a little expensive (and there's several versions - mostly revisions with additional content). There's also the Technical Manuals (TNG and DS9 - but if we're going old school, there's also the non-canon Starfleet Technical Manual).
There's another book called Worlds of the Federation (which is a misnomer, since it talks about species not in the Federation as well, and has a lot of non-canon stuff in it).
>>47334106
Egads that looks like shit. More shit like JJTrek. Grand.
>>47340405
Even if we generously said half of those shots were from alternate Voyagers/time shenanigans/clones etc. they'd still be firing negative photon torpedoes. Face it, the show had shit writing, and it wasted the talents of Kate Mulgrew, Tim Russ, Robert Picardo and Garret Wang.
>>47340650
>>47340358
Nemesis is pretty much up there with the worst of Trek. Right next to Into Darkness, Insurrection, and The Final Frontier.
>>47333015
I always tell people that TOS is my favorite, but it contains the very best and the very worst of Trek in equal measures.
>>47341142
>shit writing
No shit, Sherlock. I don't have to be defending the perpetrators of a crime to say "hey, are we counting the bodies properly?" The clip is funny and fun, but when I shit on someone I like to make sure it lands squarely.
>>47331349
When I get home I'll post the links I put in the /sta/ OP.
>>47341405
And yet, there you are, complaining that it doesn't take into account poorly written one-off episodes.
Great detective work. Gold star. You get to play with the talking phone.
>>47341468
Dude, the guy just asked. Don't take it like a personal attack.
>>47341545
anon probably made the clip or something. or they're just an asshole, whatever.
Forget the torpedoes; let's not forget how many shuttles Voyager went through.
>>47342711
They explicitly made more shuttles, though.
>>47333567
Someone needs to make an Afrofuturist Star Trek.
>>47341429
>>47331349
Lore Resources
Memory Alpha - Canon wiki
>http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Portal:Main
Ex Astris Scientia - Fan analyses of ships, tech and continuity issues
>http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org
Daystrom Institute Technical Library - Database of ships and technology
>http://www.ditl.org
Star Trek LCARS Blueprints Database - Ship schematics, deck plans and recognition manuals
>http://www.cygnus-x1.net/links/lcars/blueprints-main2.php
Star Trek Maps - Based on the Star Trek Star Charts, updated and corrected
>http://www.startrekmap.com/index.html
Star Trek Cartography - Information and maps
>http://www.stdimension.org/int/
>>47341468
>claim the entire show was shit writing
>complain about them referencing a poorly written episode
STO's AoY expansion is looking fun as hell
I heard someone say they wanted a storytime of the TNG Voyager Galactica Spelljammer insanity RPG, eh?
