Mr. Welch's Mad Musings: Prime Directive

First rule of writing a game, never license from Paramount. Prime Directive is an excellent example of what happens when you can only use parts of a setting to tell your story, resulting in a game that can't even use the name Star Trek, and can only use parts of the setting. It's got the look, but whiffs badly on the feel.

[@theblackpantslegion]

Come for star trek RPG, stay for a critique of modern star trek.

[@CanuckWolfman]

So THAT is who I can blame for STD's art design: the lawyers.

[@Mr_Welch]

Yes that one you can't blame on the writers. Apparently when it comes to the Star Trek license everything is DLC that you have to pay separately for.

[@bonbondurjdr6553]

They're trying to do something similar to Superman, if I remember well~

[@Winterydee]

Lawyers! Fucking everyone else over since... well... let's face it, most likely the first lawyer.

[@Dalton791000]

I miss good Startreck, that’s why I come back to listen to this video.

[@SneakyNinjaDog]

Gotta agree. Good Star Trek is hard to do, be it in RPG or the modern movies. And that system failed to nail it down.

[@Lcirex]

Not a Trek fan myself but this sure is an interesting curiosity of it's time.

[@springheeledjackofthegurdi2117]

I heard Doctor who has a similar situation with its licensing and its one of the reasons why there have been so few games for it [outside of the free adventure games on the site made in house] and the ones that do get made either use stand-ins or exclusively use one enemy, this is also why there are so many weird action and horror films that feature the show's villains.

[@MrfnordTim]

I think the BBC has managed to claw back a lot of those spinoff licenses in recent years, or at least make sure they can still use them and sublicense them. The Cubicle 7 RPG has had a detailed sourcebook for each of the first twelve Doctors, so there are apparently no insurmountable issues there.

[@princecharon]

A large problem with modern Trek isn't that they've forgotten what people wanted from Star Trek, but that they really don't want to give us that. Proper Star Trek entertains you and makes you think, and too much of modern Hollywoodland hates both of those with a passionate intensity.

[@dakel20]

...Guess that explains the lack of models for Star Trek too. Only good thing to come outta the Kelvinverse I think was Khan's ship, which was just neat as hell.

[@andrewgranger739]

I actually made a slight contribution the to Prime Directive Federation Book.

[@kylewilson4097]

They have the best ship to ship board game for star fleet...SFB. If you want ship to ship combat you break that out and start energy allocation and get the weapons warmed up.

[@DanielGallant1]

I think the issue is the Prime Directive is the Starfleet Battles role-playing game, not a Star Trek role-playing game. The SFB universe is supposed to be a "realistic" version of the dramatized TV show, in the same way, the Top Gun movie(s) are dramatized versions of the training at the top gun school. The Prime Directive RPG is lacking, as a game, but the setting is fine, it's Star Fleet Battles.

[@JamesAdams-nd1td]

I liked "Beyond," but I'll admit I'm easy to please, and it was practically the first piece of Stark Trek media I'd ever seen (though I really love the joke that by the 25th Century, Rap music is considered "classical," because "classical" just means "old."). The tri-code system is kind of interesting--applying different levels of success to tasks--but it's been oddly divided up. I think "Dungeon World" did it a lot better.

[@cthulhupthagn5771]

I love this video, it wasn't what I thought, I thought you were actually going to do a dissertation on the prime directive. Just my two cents on some of the stuff you covered. First, I actually liked Enterprise. The first season was okay the second season was annoying because of the shoe horn to plot required by Paramount because they felt that a prequel wouldn't make sense unless it had time travel in it and other things to reference the current timeline. Once they gave up and left the writers alone season 3 and 4 were very good other than that abysmal series finale. I did not know that about the different aliens or appearances of Klingons being DLC. I had always read that Klingons look different from the original series and the rest of the original timeline because they didn't have the budget to do more than make them look like Mongolians so they put a story element in there that the Klingons were so paranoid they did plastic surgery on any alien facing Klingons. I haven't even bothered with Discovery or Picard. I find the design and the ultra-violent aspects to it deplorable. I don't find any of it really compelling and I feel like at this point they have mutated Star Trek beyond what it was ever intended to be by Roddenberry. I agree with you about Voyager, but I will throw out there that they also put out some of the best science fiction stories. I quite liked the two-parter year of Ruin or Devastation, the one where red from that 70 show attempts to put a foot in the ass of time and space. I also liked a lot of what they did with the doctor. There was a lot of really thoughtful sci-fi Concepts around his Evolution, such as the episode where he finds out that they have been rewriting his mind because he had a nervous breakdown over picking a friend that was injured over an equally injured nobody. That's part of the reason why I'm such a anti-fan of discovery. As for the Modiphious Games, funny enough I have actually bought everything they have put out for that setting even though I haven't played it, nor have I actually read most of the books. That company consistently puts out some of the best products out there, and I wanted to have a nice Source compendium of everything Star Trek. I have the original series and Enterprise, and will be looking to pick up Deep Space Nine and Voyager, and then Paramount Studios can go pound sand for all I care

[@cthulhupthagn5771]

As for the Kelvin timeline, I like it. Why would definitely skews a little more violent, it's not nearly as violent as what's been coming out since. It had a strong sense of optimism and the cast was phenomenal. The introduction of a Multiverse led to some interesting things, allowing us to see some of the original cast a few more times while doing new things. I didn't mind the whole massive ship in the first or second movies because in the case of the first movie it's technology from several hundred years down the road, and the massive ship in the second film was built using that technology. The third movie I quite enjoyed even though it was dumb compared to the first two. Mainly because to me it captured the essence of the TV show. I'm kind of sad that they didn't try to continue to grow the setting. The movie is provided a good cast and a strong Foundation to build off of with TV shows and animated series. Instead we get another reboot and I honestly think that what's out now is the death knell for the Star Trek franchise

[@NefariousKoel]

The only Trek stuff I got from TFG was Starfleet Battles and Federation & Empire long ago. More recently the somewhat trimmed down version of SFB, Federation Commander. Guess I much prefer the starship battles in ST. So many sci-fi RPG settings that are more interesting to RP in, IMO.

[@epicslacker9762]

Beatles? They look like Genestealer cultists, just without the extra arms

[@Kasperl88]

I'M GLAD I'M NOT THE ONLY ONE WHO SEES THIS

[@artmanxp]

What's your thoughts on ds9 voiger and the orville mr. Welch?

[@Mr_Welch]

Deep Space Nine and Voyager turned into complete opposites of each other. DS9 had some of the best writing in Star Trek and they were able to balance the characters well. Voyager was usually alien of the week but had some very weak plots and didn't know what to do with all their characters. The Orville was really good but it suffered from some terrible marketing because everybody thought it was going to be a laugh-a-minute parody

[@templarw20]

I often said that the best Trek came when Roddenberry was alive, but was NOT in full command of the franchise, or immediately after his death, before the lunatics took over the asylum. Wrath, Undiscovered Country, Season 3 on of TNG, DS9. But then Voyager, and Enterprise, and the Next Gen movies that didn't seem to understand what they were supposed to be (except First Contact, which played like a longer TNG ep... and I'm okay with that). Picard and Lower Decks seem to have their crap together, but we'll see. Anyway, never played this one. Played the ST RPG that was published around or before 2010, and after our campaign went completely off the rails (involving hacking the XO's porn holoprogram and broadcasting the results... while on a covert mission), the GM did a Halloween Special where he randomly handed out cards that said if you were yourself, or had been replaced by your mirror universe counterpart. Free advice, never put the tactical officer (me) and the engineer into the brig without searching them. We kept making skill checks, and by the time the other players decided what to do with us, we had escaped, gotten our objective, and beamed out. I'm intrigued by the current ST Adventures game. Still trying to get my head around the rules and options, but it seems like a slightly crunchier Fate system, emphasizing storytelling, which fits ST.

[@LRM23936]

I actually have this one and the Federation sourcebook. It introduces the Tellerites and details several Federation ships with no rules about them at all. And it tells you how to play a combat engineer of all things.

[@erikmartin4996]

Not trying to start a flame war but I’m very curious what you didn’t like about Enterprise? I thought the evolution of the Federation was a great storyline they just took way too long to get to it.

[@Mr_Welch]

The length of time it took them to tell the story was the main problem. I just lost interest and the temporal cold war seemed to be pieced together.

[@bedeodempsey5007]

Enterprise was the worst, barely edging out Voyager for the "honor," of the watchable Star Trek series' because of all the retconning. Suddenly Spock is not the first Vulcan to serve on a human Federation starship. Now Picard is no longer the first to deal with the Borg. Vulcans are now pricks and more, but the reason behind the smooth headed Klingons was a great addition to the canon. Anything after ENT has been complete garbage, full of SJW current lunacy and out of place in the Trek universe.

[@Zeithri]

@@bedeodempsey5007 I love Enterprise, but S1 and S2 has been issues. The Temporal Cold war sure wasn't good. However you shouting "SJW" tells me all I need to know that you dont' actually _watch_ Star Trek because if you did, you'd know that Star Trek *Has always been and will always be* that. Hell Star Trek and Starfleet in particular has always been about IDIC - Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations. And that includes issues about _social justice_ , inequalities and the likes. Did you forget the fantastic episode from Deep Space Nine called _Far Beyond the Stars_ , which was about the writer Benny in the 1950's America and the injustice he suffered. Or the episode _Patterns of Force_ which was straight up nazi analogy of how hateful iconography will create more hate regardless of one's supposedly good intentions. Let's not forget how in TNG the Federation itself screws over the Maqui just to hold onto peace with the Cardassians, something that blows out completely in Deep Space Nine. There's a lot of flack I can give Discovery, such as bad writing, dubious plot issues ( _even Voyager had those_ ) and not letting the other characters breath ( _at least not until S3_ ) but blaiming" _SJW_ " is not one of them. Because that's *Stupid* . PS. Once you get through the first 4-5 episodes of Lower Decks, that show becomes very fun and very good. I gave Picard two seasons and it was just dull all the way through. I gave Discovery 3 Seasons and by the end of Season 3, which was the best season considering the crap the other two was, but by end of Season 3 it had proved they learned nothing so I dropped that. Star Trek Prodigy I'd like to get back to because that show was excellent from start to finish of what I saw.

[@bedeodempsey5007]

@@Zeithri to begin, "Far Beyond the Stars" was one of my least favorite DS9 episodes. If I wanted to watch a civil rights movie, I would do that. ST has always been better when they use analogy rather than hokey time travel or alien mind control. I also know that ST has always been about IDIC and it's not a problem until it showcases issues of morality (actually immorality being pushed as normal). I am sure that you are most likely alright with "alternative lifestyles" and the rampant immorality that comes with it. The cultural degradation pushed by current media is a cancer that is used to brainwash fools like yourself into cultural suicide by claiming all cultures are equal. Older ST illustrated this, like "Patterns of Force".

[@nicholasmacdonald1]

Isn’t Star Fleet Battles the ship combat system?

[@Mr_Welch]

Yes it is. They used a different license so didn't have the rights to all the names

[@bonbondurjdr6553]

So, this is Section 31: The TRPG?

[@Mr_Welch]

As imagined by Alex Kurtzman

[@MrSteveK1138]

Have you done a musings on FASA star trek?

[@Mr_Welch]

I would have to find a copy I have not seen one of those in years

[@Frivolitility]

Borrowed the Star Trek RPG from the 80's and will read it soon. I hope you review it at some point.

[@MrfnordTim]

It was always my understanding that Star Fleet Battles was the reason for all the piecemeal licensing. Edit: And Task Force Games was the original creator of Star Fleet Battles, so I think they expected you to break out SFB for ship combat.

[@pblackcrow]

Please review Manhunter.

[@nicolaezenoaga9756]

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