fasa star trek

FASA’s Star Trek: The Role Playing Game: The First Seven-Year Trek

FASA Corporation was founded in 1980 by Jordan Weisman and L. Ross Babcock III, who were friends and fellow gamers from the United States Merchant Marine Academy; they were joined five years later by Mort Weisman, Jordan’s father. The company name was, originally, an acronym for “Freedonian Aeronautics and Space Administration,” a humorous reference to the Marx Brothers film Duck Soup. Originally a licensee for Game Designers’ Workshop’s Traveler roleplaying game, FASA produced supplements set in that science fiction universe. When FASA acquired the license to produce the first Star Trek roleplaying game, this proved highly influential in the game’s design.

Paramount rejected four versions of the game; the company felt that the games presented relied too heavily on combat mechanics, which clashed with series creator Gene Roddenberry’s more utopian vision. A fifth version, designed by a freelance group named Fantasimulations Association, was finally approved, and the game was released in late 1982.

Game Setting and Background

At the time that the game was produced, there was very little of what is now regarded as Star Trek canon: there was the original television series, the animated series, and two films. There was a growing catalog of other licensed works, however, and they all began to draw from each other to build a mostly consistent universe that expanded on the existing canon. One might even be inclined to call it an expanded universe.

The majority of the game supplements were set in the era of the Star Trek movies, which were in contemporary release during the game’s production. A few were set during the run of the original series, nearly two decades earlier in the timeline, and two supplements were released for Star Trek: The Next Generation after the first season of that series aired.

Timeline and Reference Stardates

When Star Trek: The Role Playing Game was published, the Star Trek timeline, as it is now understood, did not exist; the Star Trek Chronology by Michael and Denise Okuda, which guides current Star Trek productions, would not be written until 1994. At the time, Paramount had licensed the publication of the Spaceflight Chronology in 1980, and the future history chronicled in that book is substantially different from what is familiar to modern fans.

While the Okudas made several of what they referred to as “basic assumptions” in creating their chronology, the Spaceflight Chronology took a different approach. The original series was notoriously inconsistent on the year in which it was set. In “Space Seed,” the first episode to feature Khan Noonien Singh, the date was explicitly stated to be two centuries after Khan’s ship left Earth in 1996, and “Tomorrow is Yesterday” reinforced that figure when Kirk said that the threat of his incarceration for two hundred years “ought to be just about right.” “The Squire of Gothos,” by contrast, established that the crew was viewing images of eighteenth-century France from the light that had left Earth and traveled at relativistic speeds to their location on a planet nine hundred light years away, meaning that the series must instead be set in the twenty-seventh century. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan further muddied the waters by opening with the tagline “In the 23rd Century…” and having Khan repeat that it had been two hundred years since he had lived on Earth.

In the Star Trek Chronology, the original series is set almost exactly 300 years after it aired, in the 2260s, as a “basic assumption,” following the explicit reference to the original series being set in the twenty-third century. The Spaceflight Chronology, however, using the more explicit dates from both “Space Seed” and Wrath of Khan, attempted to split the difference by setting the first season of the original series (and, by extension, “Space Seed”) 2207-2208: still in the twenty-third century, but close enough to the two-century mark that the second reference still stood.

The all but random stardates of the original series made them unreliable at best for use as an actual dating system within the game. When the game’s second edition was released in 1983, a new dating system known as the Reference Stardate was introduced. Based on the Gregorian calendar in everyday use on Earth, it was similar to a system in use by many fans to create their own stardates. The Reference Stardate system used the year 2000 as a base; if the year was WXYZ, the Reference Stardate would work out as X/YZMM.DD: January 4, 2188, for example (the date given in the FASA/ Spaceflight Chronology timeline for the commissioning of the U.S.S. Constitution NCC-1700), translates to Reference Stardate 1/8801.04. Earlier dates were also possible, with the events of “City on the Edge of Forever” being stated as November 19, 1930, or Reference Stardate -1/3011.19.

Game Mechanics

The game was based on percentile rolls obtained with a pair of 10-sided dice. Character stats were listed for dozens of skills with a percentage rating, and dice rolls were made—against set difficulty targets, the players’ skill ratings, or a combination of both, plus any bonuses or difficulty modifiers—to see if a character was successful in completing a task. The higher the level of the skill, the greater the chance a roll would succeed, as rolls were required to be equal to or less than the skill.

As was common with roleplaying games of the era, numerous tables and charts filled the game manuals for character creation, equipment data, and skills. The game also used different styles of maps for miniature play. In ground-based scenarios involving the players’ characters, a square-based map was used, as was common with other roleplaying games of the era. In space-based scenarios, such as ship combat, hex-based maps were used instead, allowing a wider range of motion from one space to the next.

Supplements and Expansions

Between 1982 and 1989, nearly four dozen supplements and expansion modules were released for Star Trek: The Role Playing Game. In an era where very little other material existed, FASA helped to fill the gaps in Star Trek lore, and the effect of their work continues to be felt decades later.

While the depiction of the Romulan War from the supplement of the same name ended up being radically different from what we would see of the same era on Star Trek: Enterprise, it nevertheless informed the views of an entire generation of fans. Likewise, the supplement on The Four Years War, which depicted a conflict between the Federation and the Klingon Empire more than a decade before the events of the original series, would inspire several fan-created novels and fan films, as well as the first season of Star Trek: Discovery, which envisioned a similar, albeit shorter, conflict.

The addition of the supplements “Trader Captains and Merchant Princes,” “The Triangle,” and “The Triangle Campaigns” allowed players for the first time to create characters that were not Star Fleet officers (in the 1970s and ‘80s, Star Fleet was the standard spelling for the organization, and the change in spelling to Starfleet was brought about by Star Trek: The Next Generation). The supplements also opened up a whole new, unexplored side of Star Trek: civilian life, something that would be further explored nearly a decade later on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. The supplements went into great detail about the economics of the future… which, at this point, had not been established to be “somewhat different” and somehow not involve money.

“The Triangle” also introduced the concept of a frontier area in a region where the borders of the United Federation of Planets, Klingon Empire, and Romulan Star Empire met. This, too, has been subtly reintroduced in modern Star Trek canon, by way of a comment by Captain Picard about “the Triangular region” in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, as well as its inclusion in the book Star Trek: Star Charts, which was then reproduced almost exactly for on-screen maps in Star Trek: Discovery.

FASA created dozens of new starship designs for the various powers, including the Federation, the Klingons, and the Romulans, as well as the Gorn and the Orions. They parlayed these designs into a hugely successful miniatures line that, while originally intended for use as game pieces, ended up outlasting their own license by continuing to another, related licensee as collectibles. FASA produced three Ship Recognition Manual supplements: one each for the Federation, the Klingons, and the Romulans. Additional supplements were planned for the Orions and the Gorn, but the abrupt loss of the license meant that they never saw print.

Loss of License

While the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation featured many subtle references to licensed material, it also contradicted some things that fans had come to take for granted as a valid part of the Star Trek story. Many things established in the two Next Generation supplements produced by FASA had already been contradicted by the show almost as soon as they were published.

In 1989, Star Trek: The Next Generation was wrapping up its second season, and Paramount was seeking tighter control over licensed works based on the franchise. A power struggle was underway for control of the franchise, with Roddenberry’s lawyer wielding unprecedented and increasing authority in the day-to-day operation of Star Trek, while Roddenberry’s health began to fail.

That year, Paramount suddenly revoked FASA’s license to produce games based on Star Trek. The decision was attributed both to a desire for greater control over the franchise, as well as concerns over the amount of violence depicted in FASA’s game supplements, particularly a planned supplement about the Star Fleet Marines and a related game involving a scenario where the Federation preemptively attacked the Klingon and Romulan empires. The sudden move to revoke FASA’s license drew the ire of many fans.

Star Trek: The Role Playing Game has long held a place of affection, even reverence, in fan circles, and it has enjoyed something of a renaissance in the Internet age.

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1 thought on “fasa’s star trek: the role playing game: the first seven-year trek”.

“That year, Paramount suddenly revoked FASA’s license to produce games based on Star Trek. The decision was attributed both to a desire for greater control over the franchise, as well as concerns over the amount of violence depicted in FASA’s game supplements, particularly a planned supplement about the Star Fleet Marines […]”

Very interesting, that — especially considering that ENT would go on to introduce the MACOs on that series into the canon as Starfleet’s very own special forces Marines-division. Great article!

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Where Gaming Comes at you like a Freight Train

Looking Back at FASA’s Star Trek

In the 1980s and early 1990s, I clocked in many hours playing FASA’s Star Trek RPG. I remember pouring over FASA catalogs, giving money to my parents to write me checks for mail-order Star Trek products, and then waiting six to eight weeks for delivery. This article provides an overview of FASA’s Star Trek RPG. I don’t know that you can call it a review, as I’ll be discussing the entire line. I most definitely have a bit of a soft spot for the game. Beyond many games in high school and college, in the mid-1990s, I created a FASA Star Trek website. I even had the opportunity to have a few email exchanges with one of its creators, Guy McLimore (if you’re reading this, Guy, thanks for chatting with 20-something me nearly 30 years ago).

Beyond my personal experiences and recollections, I’ll rely on the Memory Alpha’s article on FASA Star Trek and Shannon Appelcline’s  Designers and Dragons   (a primary source for Memory Alpha).

First published in 1982, the first edition was a thick boxed set. To give it some context, this was around the time of the film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan . The game focused on the era of the original television series and animated series. It consisted of a rulebook, an adventure book, deck plans for both  U.S.S. Enterprise and a Klingon D-7 Class Battlecruiser, and various counters and panels to support starship combat.

Characters in the RPG had attributes in a percentile range, typically generated by a roll of 40+3d10 (the game used only percentile dice and d10s). Skills were also percentile based, like Chaosium’s RuneQuest or Call of Cthulhu . One bit of awkwardness is skills were, for the most part, unrelated to attributes and didn’t have default values, leading to a decent amount of winging it. However, character generation did endeavor to ensure all characters had the skills they needed. One exception is that combat was typically resolved by averaging a character’s Dexterity with the relevant weapon skill.

The tactical rules for the game were, while innovative, perhaps a little crunchy for Star Trek. Characters spent action points each game round—with the option to save some points for opportunity actions (interrupting another’s turn). Star Trek weapons are deadly—it is not only possible but likely, to be killed from a single shot by a phaser set on kill. The rules highlight this, warning players and gamemasters not to treat a game of Star Trek like most RPGs of the time—and to embrace setting weapons on stun.

While starship combat was, in some ways, its own game, it nevertheless was an extension of the RPG—various “control panels” included gave characters different roles in starship combat. For example, the commanding officer would give broad orders. The other characters would execute those orders as they saw fit. Ships had limited power, and the chief engineer would allocate that power to different systems. The helmsman would fly the ship (often firing weapons), the navigator controlled shields, etc.

Character generation was one of the most popular features of the Star Trek RPG—and all later Star Trek RPGs made use of some variation of FASA’s character generation. Character generation was a life path system—characters gained specific skills for different experiences, including their homewards, their time at Star Fleet Academy (the spelling more commonly used at this time), and various tours of duty, rolled randomly. Depending on a character’s Intellect, Luck, final rank, and position, they’d need to complete a certain number of randomly generated tours of duty.

The blue “Adventure Book” that came with the first edition included three adventures:

• “Ghosts of Conscience” – The characters try to determine the fate of U.S.S. Hood , lost in an attempt to use interphase technology as a weapon (as seen in “The Tholian Web”).
• “Again, Troublesome Tribbles” – a sequel to “The Trouble with Tribbles.”
• “In the Presence of Mine Enemies” – characters are captured by Klingons and must escape.

The early Star Trek adventures had the feel of episodes of the original series—evacuating an entire doomed planet, meeting the Gorn that Captain Kirk fought, dealing with a research station whose inhabitants had vanished.

A second edition of the game was released in 1983 in several variations. There was a basic game with rulebooks and dice, with the starship combat rules, deck plans, and adventure book available separately. There was also a deluxe version that included the starship combat rules.

While both editions of the game were focused on Star Fleet characters, after the release of the second edition, FASA also published several supplements that detailed other backgrounds, including rules for character generation. These included:

• The Klingons – Published in two editions and really worthy of its own article. FASA’s Klingons supplement was very influential and used the background John M. Ford developed for his novel The Final Reflection  (with Ford also being one of the supplement’s authors). You can still find elements of this in modern Star Trek productions—for example, The Black Fleet, mentioned in Star Trek: Discovery , had its origin in the John M. Ford/FASA Klingons.
• The Romulans – With less background from the movies and television show, FASA had to make up quite a bit more. FASA’s Romulans did trace their origin from ancient Vulcan, but were transplanted by aliens known as the Preservers in prehistory, said Preservers being worshipped by FASA’s Romulans as “The Great Brothers.”
• Trader Captains and Merchant Princes – Rules for playing independent characters looking to make some cash.
• The Orions – Details on the privateer/smuggler/blockade runner/all-around troublemaker Orions.
• Star Fleet Intelligence – Star Fleet spies in space.

Except for the Romulans and Orions, there were published adventures making use of the various backgrounds available to characters.

FASA also developed their own mini-setting within the Star Trek universe known as “The Triangle,” a neutral region of space between the Federation, Klingon, and Romulan borders. It was one part Wild West, one part Cold War thriller. For the Federation, Klingons, and Romulans, FASA published Ship Recognition manuals. Notably, as seen on Star Trek: Enterprise, they developed a Loknar class frigate that looked an awful lot like the NX-01 Starship Enterprise. They also came up with the idea that there were multiple sizes for Klingon Birds of Prey, something that came to pass in Star Trek: The Next Generation.

As the 1980s progressed, FASA’s focus for Star Trek gradually shifted to the period of the then-current Star Trek movies, with sourcebooks published for Star Trek III and Star Trek IV. FASA’s version of Star Trek became much more militaristic (by this time, the original game creators had left FASA). Catalogs kept promising a Star Fleet Marines supplement, and while marines appeared in a few adventures, a supplement for them never appeared. They also kept advertising a war game called Operation: Armageddon, which would detail two and three-way wars involving the Federation, Klingons, and Romulans.

FASA’s focus on the Star Trek RPG did decrease. Also, during this period, they published the Doctor Who RPG and Battletech . Judging by their advertising, they focused on their standalone starship combat game and its miniatures—I seem to recall the back cover of Starlog magazine often had advertisements for the miniatures.

With Star Trek: The Next Generation coming to television, FASA did publish two supplements for that game, and during the first season, you could see occasional appearances of an Orion Wanderer starship on random computer screens. FASA’s TNG. supplements apparently drew the ire of Paramount Picture, as they had a tendency to fill in blanks by making things up—things that would sometimes be obsolete by the time of publication. While a set of deck plans for U.S.S. Enterprise-D  was solicited but never produced (though you can find these plans online at Cygnus-X1.Net ). After these two TNG. supplements, Paramount ended its license with FASA.

How has the game aged? Obviously, it is very badly out of sync with the current Star Trek canon. However, it was an innovative and playable game. Its character generation is, with justification, fondly remembered and influenced later Star Trek RPGs. While high school me preferred the later evolution of the game, older me thinks they got things nearly perfect at the start, and the game suffered a bit from its hawkish turn, though one can argue this was in keeping with the contemporary movies.

~ Daniel Stack

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4 comments add yours.

I absolutely loved the Klingons supplement. Together with the book this is still my preferred RPG Klingons. http://rockymountainnavy.com/2017/07/06/rpgthursday-reflections-on-the-klingons-fasa-1983/

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We played some great adventures with this RPG. To be honest, we never found the system clunky, as (despite also playing WEG’s Star Wars and rolling buckets of dice constantly in that system) when Trekking, we were much more thoughtful and role-played situations, working through a problem. Dice rolls were used quite infrequently. Also, the RPG says that the tactical combat is only needed for those occasions where a full tactical overview is needed. The vast majority of the time we just used to role-play both personal and starship combat. The actual boardgame starship combat (using the control panels for players as bridge crew) worked very well on the couple of occasions we used it, and it was a brilliant standalone game. I think the ‘crunchy’ personal combat system is quite under-rated. I’ve been looking at it again recently, and like the starship combat, I’m using it as a separate skirmish wargame system, and so far it’s very playable. As for being outdated in terms of ‘canon’, I’m only interested in TOS era, so it covers everything it needs to for me. Anyway, thanks for your review. Good to see it hasn’t been forgotten altogether…

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Thanks Derek! I especially agree on the starship combat boardgame being tremendous fun, both on its own and as part of an RPG session.

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Star Trek: The Role Playing Game

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This article provides a general overview of FASA 's Star Trek: The Role Playing Game and its associated components, supplements, and reference works , which were produced by FASA and a small number of associated gaming companies.

• 1.1 Games and rules supplements
• 1.2 Deck plans
• 1.3 Adventures and rules supplements
• 1.4 Ship recognition manuals
• 1.5 Playing aids
• 1.6 Micro-Adventure Games
• 2.1 Legacy FASA gaming miniatures
• 3.1 See also
• 3.2 External links

Games and rules supplements [ ]

Deck plans [ ]

Adventures and rules supplements [ ]

Ship recognition manuals [ ]

Playing aids [ ]

Micro-Adventure Games [ ]

Gaming miniatures [ ]

When FASA released the Starship Combat Simulator (No. 2003) in 1983, whose second edition was reissued in 1985 and added as an extra component in the "Deluxe" version of the second edition of Star Trek the Role Playing Game (No. 2001) of 1985/86, they simultaneously released, during 1983 and 1984, a line of starship gaming miniatures to give the game, which was standard equipped with carton playing tokens, an extra supplementary game-enhancing dimension. They could also be used in the later released Star Trek III Starship Combat Game (No. 2006) from 1984.

The miniatures, which had a stated scale of 1/3900, were made out of pewter (a lead-tin alloy in a 60%-40% ratio respectively, according to sculptor Ab Mobasher ) and packaged in a transparent bubble attached to a card (blister pack). They came unpainted and most of them required a certain amount of constructing with the aid of superglue. The 1983 edition also came with transparent plastic hexagonal stands, on which the miniatures were to be mounted, and which fitted the hex grid maps accompanying the Combat Simulator . They were colored to denominate the major factions in the game, blue for the Federation , red for the Klingon Empire , purple for the Romulan Star Empire , green for the Gorn Hegemony and neutral for the Orion Syndicate . Apart for the then-known canon ships, the range was expanded with non-canon ships as earlier designed by the FASA staff.

Though not the first to release starship gaming miniatures (that distinction fell to GameScience , who were commissioned by Task Force Games to do likewise for their Star Fleet Battles game), the quality and imaginative designs of canon and non-canon ships alike made FASA's miniature line the most popular item of the whole FASA Star Trek product range (as well as the most popular gaming miniature line), becoming highly sought-after collectibles in their own right amongst non-gaming Star Trek fans as well. Remarkably, most of the 1983-1984 releases were issued with ISBN numbers, something normally only given to print materials.

FASA reissued the line twice, once in 1985 and once in 1988, each issue expanding the line with further additions. The color coding of the stands was abandoned with the first reissue as all models were from then on accompanied by neutral transparent plastic stands. Each release had its own distinctive design style of the cards on which the models were mounted. Contrary to the first issue release which did (" The Trouble with Tribbles " for the Original Series -era ships, and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek III: The Search for Spock for the film-era ships), these two reissues did not sport imagery from the live-action productions on the cards, but rather non-descript redesigned card imagery.

The Citadel variants advertised in its Citadel Journal Spring 1986 catalog

In 1985 FASA sub-licensed the UK-based Citadel Miniatures to manufacture the miniatures for the UK market to accompany the UK versions of The Role Playing Game and the Star Trek III: Starship Combat Game that Citadel's mother company Games Workshop PLC was sub-licensed to release on the UK market that year. Apart from being mounted on different style cards, the models differed from their US counterparts in that for many models less construction was needed and that they were more detailed, due to the fact that the pewter had a higher tin content. Although that made the metal more brittle, it also made the metal harder than their relative soft US counterparts and thus more susceptible to retain detailing. Eventually, Citadel released fourteen out of the eventual thirty-four models FASA produced (in essence following their numbering, which explains the gaps in Citadel's numbering), when the latter lost its license in 1989.

Apart from the ship models, FASA also produced seventeen small pewter crew members figurines in 1983 as gaming pieces (one release only). Testament to the popularity of the starship miniatures was the fact that the sculptor of the first twenty-two starship pieces, Abbas Mobasher, received an H.G. Wells Award from the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design in 1985 for his work in the category "Best Vehicular or Accessory Series", [1] whereas FASA itself had received the award the year previously in the category "Best Vehicular Miniatures Series". Mobasher's successors for the expansions, Randy Hoffa and Steve Apolloni, received the same award Mobasher did, in 1987. FASA had their miniatures of the 1983/84 issues manufactured by Ral Partha Enterprises , while their 1985-1988 issues were manufactured by the Canadian company RAFM Miniatures and Games .

The popularity of FASA's Star Trek gaming models attracted the attention of Rawcliffe , who also began to release Star Trek miniatures in 1988, the same year FASA released its second reissue. Sub-licensed by FASA, Rawcliffe started to release high-quality solid pewter gaming pieces with the stand now as an integral part of the model. Thirteen of FASA's models were re-made as Rawcliffe's "SS" ( S tar S hip) series. FASA was mentioned as co-licensee both on the clear plastic packaging boxes and on the bottom of the stand, while simultaneously following FASA's numbering.

When FASA lost its license in 1989, Rawcliffe renegotiated a separate license with the Paramount Marketing and Licensing Department and acquired the molds for the models from FASA. FASA had geared up to add Star Trek: The Next Generation figures into their product line, but it was Rawcliffe that eventually released these in 1992 after FASA was unable to. These former FASA miniatures became the basis for Rawcliffe to include larger scaled starships, figurines, key-chains, and sculptures in their product line.

In 1991 Rawcliffe started anew with their "RF" (simply standing for " R awcli f fe") series (now including, besides figurines, larger scaled ship models without the FASA pedigree as well), but as per their new license agreement, only produced canon ships. This meant that the five non-canon ships they had released in their original "SS" series (SS2508, 25010, 2513, 2516 & 2529) were not reissued, resulting in they becoming sought-after rarities by collectors afterwards. With all references to FASA and their gaming miniature origins dropped – though in most cases retaining their hexagonal shaped stands – , the models were packaged in Rawcliffe's blank white carton boxes which stated only Rawcliffe's name. The models in this series came accompanied by a small colored carton nameplate which emphasized that they were released as decorative display items.

Legacy FASA gaming miniatures [ ]

Rawcliffe's license to produce Star Trek products expired in 1999. Nonetheless, the popularity of the original FASA starship gaming miniatures remained unabated among collectors, spawning the hereafter mentioned product lines from unlicensed production companies. Yet, it was by no means a coincidence that it also inspired the officially licensed company Galoob , to launch their own near-equally popular FASA-sized Star Trek Micro Machines starship lines in 1993. And even though Galoob's products were traditionally made out of plastic, it did not prevent them to acknowledge the FASA pedigree of their mass-marketed miniatures by releasing three 1995 pewter-painted sets as a way to pay homage to their original starship line. A decade later, Japanese company Romando also released an officially licensed, but limited, small-scaled line of starship miniatures , reminiscent of Galoob's – and thus FASA's – ship miniatures.

The appeal of FASA's 1/3900 scale gaming miniatures did not end when FASA, Rawcliffe and Galoob lost their licenses. In the decades after official production had stopped small, non-licensed, amateur "Garage" model kit companies like Impulse Models , FMX Models , Macro Trek , and UK-based Future Legend continued to produce FASA/Micro Machines-like miniatures, typically in resin. In most cases relatively short-lived, they often expanded on FASA's line with canon and non-canon ships of the later Star Trek productions. Particularly noteworthy was Future Legend, in business around the turn of the millennium, who not only expanded the line with canon ships, but also released FASA designs (in resin as well as in pewter), which FASA itself never got around of releasing.

In 2000, FASA veteran and co-founder Jordan Weisman founded his own gaming company WizKids , and several of its product lines, such as Star Trek: Fleet Captains , Star Trek: Tactics and Star Trek: Attack Wing , betray Weisman's FASA roots, as they too predominantly concern gaming ship miniatures centered tabletop games, the miniatures oftentimes prepainted and made out of plastic, thereby making them also reminiscent of the FASA-sized Micro Machines.

Appendices [ ]

See also [ ].

• Citadel Miniatures
• GameScience
• RAFM Miniatures and Games
• Ral Partha Enterprises
• Star Trek starship miniatures
• Star Trek model kits

External links [ ]

• Star Trek: The Role Playing Game at Wikipedia
• FASA Star Trek role-playing game at Tactical Starship Combat.com
• FASA Corporation Star Trek role-playing game accouterments at Wayne's Books
• 3 ISS Enterprise (NCC-1701)

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Perfect. Brand new.

Near Mint. Like new with only the slightest wear, many times indistinguishable from a Mint item. Close to perfect, very collectible. Board & war games in this condition will show very little to no wear and are considered to be punched unless the condition note says unpunched.

Excellent. Lightly used, but almost like new. May show very small spine creases or slight corner wear. Absolutely no tears and no marks, a collectible condition.

Very Good. Used. May have medium-sized creases, corner dings, minor tears or scuff marks, small stains, etc. Complete and very useable.

Very well used, but complete and useable. May have flaws such as tears, pen marks or highlighting, large creases, stains, marks, etc.

• Boxed items are listed as "code/code" where the first code represents the box, and the second code describes the contents. When only one condition is listed, then the box and contents are in the same condition.
• A "plus" sign indicates that an item is close to the next highest condition. Example, EX+ is an item between Excellent and Near Mint condition. A "minus" sign indicates the opposite.
• Major defects and/or missing components are noted separately.
• Boardgame counters are punched, unless noted. Due to the nature of loose counters, if a game is unplayable it may be returned for a refund of the purchase price.
• In most cases, boxed games and box sets do not come with dice.
• The cardboard backing of miniature packs is not graded. If excessively worn, they will be marked as "card worn."
• Flat trays for SPI games are not graded, and have the usual problems. If excessively worn, they will be marked as "tray worn."
• Remainder Mark - A remainder mark is usually a small black line or dot written with a felt tip pen or Sharpie on the top, bottom, side page edges and sometimes on the UPC symbol on the back of the book. Publishers use these marks when books are returned to them.

If you have any questions or comments regarding grading or anything else, please send e-mail to [email protected] .

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Links to FASA Star Trek RPG sites

Here are various links to websites that feature fan made content for the Star Trek Roleplaying Game by FASA. If you know of a site that I do not have a link for, please email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com. Last Updated: 5-30-2022

Construction for FASA’s Starship Tactical Combat Simulator – A site with fan made construction tables for various races in the tactical combat simulator.

FASA Star Trek Starship Tactical Combat Simulator – A fan website with starships and rules for the Starship Tactical Combat Simulator.

FASA Trek @ JT-SW – A fan website with projects for character creation and starship combat.

Frylock’s Geekery FASA Star Trek RPG Resources – Several fan made rules summaries and documents created for the game.

Jack Photon’s 3rd Edition Framework – A fan project to make a 3rd edition of the FASA Star Trek RPG.

Lithium Cracking Station – The FASA entries on a blog website.

Morena Shipyards – A website dedicated to the Morena Shipyards email list and fan projects.

Old School Trek – A message forum dedicated to TOS era gaming. There is a FASA section present that I post to on a regular basis.

Online Database and Archive Star Trek Starship Tactical Combat Simulator – A fan website dedicated to the starship combat game that was released by FASA.

SITZKREIG! Hobby Blog – A personal blog from a fan that has posted several homebrewed starships for the FASA tactical combat simulator.

STSTCOLD&A Forum – A message board for the Online Database and Archive Star Trek Starship Tactical Combat Simulator website. Very active.

TrekRPGNet – A message board and site dedicated to several Trek RPGs. FASA has a section on this site.

UFC465537 Guardian of Forever – A fan website with lots of detail and is regularity updated. They have linked to my site.

Vintage Starships – A fan website dedicated to various starships. It has a lot of FASA content including some house rules and construction tables.

XON Gaming – A fan site dedicated to the FASA Star Trek RPG. This site is being updated on a regular basis.

Return to the Star Trek RPG by FASA section

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The Four Years War

«last updated on september 13, 2022 ».

Page Under Construction

The Four Years War was one of a few “hot” wars fought between Klingons and the United Federation of Planets in the 23rd century, between reference stardates 1/94 and 1/98.

The war started when the Federation colony on Archanis IV was attacked which resulted in the death of 112 Federation citizens. It was discovered later that the Federation protectorate world of Axanar served as a base for a Klingon garrison. This was discovered when Captain Garth of the USS Xenophon encountered a disabled Klingon cruiser inside Federation space. Admiral Kkorhetza of the Klingon garrison declined the opportunity to surrender the garrison to Starfleet, which started the war. (From Memory Beta .)

How To Use the scenarios

Each scenarios depicts a battle involving Klingon and Federation forces or allies. The scenarios are progressive in nature and are designed to be run as an on-going campaign. The results of one scenario may affect the combat capabilities of the vessels involved in a subsequent scenario. Most of the scenarios involve greater number of ships than a standard campaign, with some involving over 100 ships per side. Team play is encouraged. While not necessary, a referee is suggested. Both player/teams will need to keep track of damage to their ships as the scenarios progress.

The Game Set-Up section provides the map arrangement, special terrain features, attacking and defending forces deployment.

Victory Conditions: Victory is determined by the total number of victory points at the conclusion of The Four Years War campaign. View the Victory Point Table to determine the total points awarded.

Most scenarios include parameters for ending the combat after a set number of turns. When a scenario indicates that attacker or defender may escape by warping out, use the standard Campaign Warp Escape Rules for all vessels that have sufficient power to go to warp.