Star Trek: The Next Generation Role Playing Game (Star Trek Next Generation (Unnumbered))

Rating:
Summary: Great to Start with, but..
Review: For those who enjoy Star Trek and wish to role-play it, this is a good book to start with. This book details info that other, (non role-playing) books don not have. You learn about Andorians, and other species that have been lost in the tv shows, and you learn Starfleet procedures. This is a recommendable source to read even if you don't role-play. Unfortunately it leaves information out, like all the basic starships of all races. This leaves the reader to go by many other books for complete information.
The system is hard to get used to as well. If it doesn't work, it can be an informative book for someone who wishes to simplify the managing and character system. But it is informative and allows a better understanding of Star Trek themes, storeis and concepts.

Rating:
Summary: Great to Start with, but..
Review: For those who enjoy Star Trek and wish to role-play it, this is a good book to start with. This book details info that other, (non role-playing) books don not have. You learn about Andorians, and other species that have been lost in the tv shows, and you learn Starfleet procedures. This is a recommendable source to read even if you don't role-play. Unfortunately it leaves information out, like all the basic starships of all races. This leaves the reader to go by many other books for complete information.
The system is hard to get used to as well. If it doesn't work, it can be an informative book for someone who wishes to simplify the managing and character system. But it is informative and allows a better understanding of Star Trek themes, storeis and concepts.

Rating:
Summary: A Long Awaited RPG
Review: I have been waiting the arrivial of a Star Trek TNG rpg for a long time. This game was worth the wait! The core rule book is very complete and is really all a trekkie needs to get started roleplaying in the star trek universe. The character generation system allows for easily to make yet highly detailed characters. The game mechanics are decent and easy to learn. The systems for hand to hand combat is excellant and phaser combat is as lethal as it should be. Solid rules for starship combat are contained within the core rule book as well. The only real flaw with the product is the lack of statistics for the Borg.

Rating:
Summary: Well Worth the Wait
Review: I'm very pleased with this. For a long time, I had to make do with the old Star Trek Roleplaying Game from FASA Corporation, scrounging what source material I could to kluge together a campaign. Fortunately, Last Unicorn Games has produced a beautiful product which does an excellent job of capturing the feel of the Next Generation. The book uses primarily color photo stills from the television series, though there are some illustrations which are generally very good. I've been running a Next Generation campaign with a group of six players for the past few months, and generally the system has worked smoothly. The game uses a number of six-sided dice, one of which serves as a "Drama Die", a generator for Dramatic Successes or Failures. There was some confusion as to how attributes and skills worked (roll the attribute number of dice, add the level of the skill to the high roll), and the book is a little scattered in relating some of this information. The skills themselves tend to be very open fields, in order to reflect the ST:TNG tendency of characters who seem to know at least a little about a whole lot of things. The system is simple, but even more importantly, the writers seem to really understand what makes ST:TNG different from the other Star Trek settings (in terms of themes, mood, and so on). Last Unicorn has been producing a large line of products for this game which are generally of high quality, and they have been working with Paramount to make sure everything is accurate (or as accurate as you can get with a weekly television show). The main drawback that comes to mind is that LUGTrek takes the position that players should play lower-ranking characters instead of the command crew of a starship. This is reflected in the rulebook's included adventure, "Shakedown Cruise", but I found it simple enough to adapt to an all-PC command crew. LUG's other published adventures for this game allow for the possibility of PC captains and such, and thus far, there are no printed adventures which force your players to play the characters from the show (thus putting LUG one step ahead of FASA). In summary, I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in running a Next Generation campaign. Last Unicorn is doing some excellent work here!

Rating:
Summary: Handsome book, but disorganized
Review: I've been waiting to review this book until I've had the opportunity to run a few sessions. Now that I have run a few sessions, I feel I can give an objective review. There is no doubt that this is a comprehensive and handsome book. I enjoyed the chapters pertaining to the UFP, its history and organization. Character creation is lengthy, but well worth it. On the average, it took my players about 45 minutes to an hour each to make characters. All of them have ended up with richly detailed characters. The Icon rules system is at its core simple. Roll the appropriate number of dice (based on the governing attribute for the skill, modified by edges) take the highest die and add it to the skill level. Rolling the target number or higher equals a success. A number of optional rules can be added. There are two reasons I didn't give this book more than three stars. The first is the lack of organization. The first few times I played, I found myself constantly flipping pages. Purchasing the Narrator's Tool Kit is helpfull for the GM screen. But that brings me to another problem with LUG's games. The Cost. The initial cost of the Core book is high, and I found it too disorganized to play without the screen. That puts the initial cost of this game at over $50; however, if the Narrator is willing to make "cheat sheets" vs buying the Tool Kit, then the cost can be cut by a third. In my humble opinion, for ( ) this should have been a three book box set with the GM screen included.

Rating:
Summary: An incredible resource book for Star Trek Role Players
Review: Long in waiting has been the resource tool for Role Players both on the Internet and in Real Life, to be able to play Star Trek RPG's with accurate rules. This book finally allows Role Players the world over to benefit from ACCURATE rules and information, When as before we had to rely on our own sagacity. SIMMING an Internet role Playing game genre is also benefited greatly by this utility. And simmers Everywhere will be appreciative of their new found knowledge. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Rating:
Summary: Great start, but don't stop here.
Review: This book is a great way to get started, but it just didn't go into enough detail on how to generate characters, how to use certain skills and how work the game itself. It's a definately a 5 star game, but don't buy this book alone. Get a companion to go with it, otherwise you'll be asking your fellow RPGers what's going on.