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Trek Tech and Gaming
Sep. 3rd, 2007 07:53 am Ty Beard, one of the contributors in A&E right now, is a big Traveller fan, running a game that's a cross between Military SF and standard Traveller Tramp Freighter stuff. He's repeatedly voiced the contention that High Tech "has a pernicious effect on RPGs - more high tech can often make it harder to create true 'adventures'." He then added "Star Trek had the same problem with the transporter - it was simply to easy to wisk Kirk & Co. out of danger. As a result nearly every episode had to waste time creating some reason to nullify the transporter so the danger would be credible."
Now, I obviously disagree. His ideas might be sound for a Military SF/Traveller game, but to my mind his broader claim that high tech makes adventures harder by removing the threat of danger only works if the sole threat applied to the character is the threat of personal danger. The transporter (and advanced medical technology) does limit the effectiveness of personal danger, but there are a lot of other things to hang adventures on. So far I've used danger to the ship as a whole (The Stars Overhead, Clouds and Sand, Sargasso), Saving others from their own actions (, Stellar Nursery, The only tar who's ever jumped ship - though in that one I did have the captain in a transporter-proof room, but did let a clever use fo the transporters save everyone else), political and diplomatic threats (Yethma), the threat being hidden inside the ship (Yethma again, and Messages from Earth), medical emergencies (Lysistrata), emotional/mental threats (Maris Ue and, to an extent, Messages from Earth) and threats to the timestream (Bones of Eden). I also included two puzzle worlds where the transporter was unavailable, but that was because the lack of transporter was a clue to what was going on (Writ in Tooth and Claw and The Bifrost Incident). Many oof these are also mysteries that need to be resolved or puzzles that require unraveling.
I'd like to think that these "adventures" worked, even in the absence of direct personal danger, but 'm raising the topic here to get my players' input (among other things). Have you lot found the adventures to be functional even if there was a low chance of your PC personally being killed in an encounter?
In addition, I don't recall the transporter being broken or unusable in every episode - can anyone with a greater memory of TOS provide some support or refutation of that claim? (I mean, is the transporter 'nullified' in City on the Edge of Forever because they're back in time with no ship?)
Now, I obviously disagree. His ideas might be sound for a Military SF/Traveller game, but to my mind his broader claim that high tech makes adventures harder by removing the threat of danger only works if the sole threat applied to the character is the threat of personal danger. The transporter (and advanced medical technology) does limit the effectiveness of personal danger, but there are a lot of other things to hang adventures on. So far I've used danger to the ship as a whole (The Stars Overhead, Clouds and Sand, Sargasso), Saving others from their own actions (, Stellar Nursery, The only tar who's ever jumped ship - though in that one I did have the captain in a transporter-proof room, but did let a clever use fo the transporters save everyone else), political and diplomatic threats (Yethma), the threat being hidden inside the ship (Yethma again, and Messages from Earth), medical emergencies (Lysistrata), emotional/mental threats (Maris Ue and, to an extent, Messages from Earth) and threats to the timestream (Bones of Eden). I also included two puzzle worlds where the transporter was unavailable, but that was because the lack of transporter was a clue to what was going on (Writ in Tooth and Claw and The Bifrost Incident). Many oof these are also mysteries that need to be resolved or puzzles that require unraveling.
I'd like to think that these "adventures" worked, even in the absence of direct personal danger, but 'm raising the topic here to get my players' input (among other things). Have you lot found the adventures to be functional even if there was a low chance of your PC personally being killed in an encounter?
In addition, I don't recall the transporter being broken or unusable in every episode - can anyone with a greater memory of TOS provide some support or refutation of that claim? (I mean, is the transporter 'nullified' in City on the Edge of Forever because they're back in time with no ship?)
