Q & A

XON Gaming
http://www.anzwers.org/free/fasa
Last updated on 12/13/10

Whats the meaning of FASA Trek?
In the 80's Fasa Star Trek was the mainstream for official material on the Star Trek universe. It was the only material that tackled the Trek universe as in its entirety, and what was printed was considered the official Paramount word on what Star Trek was up to. It explained many of the unexplained questions fans had and the core books remained faithful to the Star Treks ideas. Today much of this holds true and remains a great source for original material from the TOS/TAS period and much of the early TMP-STIV era.

Whats the Differences of the Starship Combat Games?
There are many differences, too many to list but here are a few:

The ST:II version had 5 phases per turn instead of 3 phases per turn. Also, Firing Charts were labeled 1 through 25 instead of A through Y. The ST:II and ST:III games used a different ship construction method and manual (the 1st edition) than the later Revised and Expanded ST:Starship Tactical Combat Simulator game.

The ST:III game(1st Edition) has the same rules as the STII game. As a side note: The ST:II game can be updated to the STIII (1st Edition) Level just by adding the ship counters and data sheets from the STIII movie to the game. There where no new rules updated.

The ST:III game(2nd Edition) went to 3 phases, and had the halved "TAC" values for stats for quicker games. There are actually two versions of the ST:III game- a 1st and 2nd edition. The 1st evidently had the same 5 booklets from the ST:II game; the 2nd edition (which is denoted on the box top of the game) went to one compiled rulebook. Also, the blurb about the V-30 applies to this game as well.

The STCS is a complete rewrite of the game, and there's atleast two versions of this book. Read my FASA Parts Listing for more detailed information.

What about Custom Starship Rules?
There are very many adaptations of certain rules of the STCS and whole new ones aswell. The quality varies, but many hold true to the FASA Game. You will have to be a judge when deciding what you would like to incorporate into your game, personally I feel a FASA-Like rule is the best. A rule that's based off another FASA Rule always keeps the game fast and simple. Maybe someday everyone will gather all the new rules and come to terms as what's best and what's not to provide a modified STCS.

FASA Star Trek is out of print and no new FASA Star Trek material, now what?
To update your game, use the internet, find groups, sites etc that continue to play, use or modify the game. There are people who are dedicated to expanding this system accurately. Many focus on remaining true to FASA's original ideas and concepts, aswell as 'Canonizing' some of the material. The Xon site FASA FAN Links page will help you find what your looking for.

Where are the FASA Starship Combat Sites?
All over the place! , checkout my FASA FAN Links page for a bunch.

Where are the FASA RPG Sites?
Theres a couple of sites dedicated to modifying and supplying the RPG portion of the game, checkout my links section for some. One in specific you should check out is UFC. Perhaps, Maybe » you « should make a web site for the RPG portion, we all still love it and it is used with the Starship Combat games. Remember FASA Covers some pre-TOS, all the TOS, most TAS, TMP upto just after STIV. Then of Course some TNG.

Are there any FASA Rules from other games that work with FASA's Star Trek?
Take alook at FASA's other games during the time FASA Star Trek was under production. There are other games that had rules that where or would have been used in Star Trek if the game was still in production. For an example; ST war game rules may have been some sort of early variant of the Battletech Board Game rules. Another example is the Doctor Who RPG, it was a game that took the majority of the Star Trek system and expanded, modified and altered it. Its not exactly the same system, but it does hold several of the same assumptions. Its not as streamlined as Star Trek but it has possibilities to work with the ST:RPG.

What about The FASA Star Trek TNG Officers Manual?
This manual is more of a technical book that is highly contradicted by the TNG series, if nothing is canon of FASA ST this book is.

Of course this is an odd addition to the game, but if one obtained an OCR scan of that manual and simply replaced the inaccuracies with in it, I'm sure the book would become a nice piece of work for the FASA ST:RPG. Its alot of work to do but its something someone may consider. The book probably would be alot smaller too.

Is there a FASA Star Trek V Sourcebook?
Yes and No, one source said it was never started another said it was sent to Paramount for approval, but that's as far as it got. But if you wanted to start making a FASA-Like Sourcebook, you may want to start with the movie and then the Official Book Star Trek V: The Final Frontier by J.M. Dillard, David Loughery, William Shatner(June 1, 1989). Apparently Dillard extended allot of the scenes and provides details to help smooth out some of the problems that where present in the movie. I'm unsure if Shatner has made available his list of proposed 'fixes' for the movie, and the modify script. Another alternative is to examine other ST: RPG's, homebrew and official to obtain STV updated information on the Star Trek world. There are even conversion charts available to help you port and backport stats to and from FASA.

Are all these FASA-Fan Starships from different groups compatible with each other?
Starships from some groups to another are compatible, very important, read on to insure you have balance in your game....

There is one group that uses a FASA-'Like' Extension too the rules, the Design Consortium(DC). Many groups base there ship building on the charts and tables they provide since there publications are well thought out. They also provide there construction material for fan viewing and use, this helps get all the ships balanced and the construction errors weeded out. The Morena Shipyard uses the FASA 2nd Edition Construction Manual to update previous published ships and the DC's charts to extend the ship stats through the trek timeline. These two groups and associated groups are best for balancing a game, the fleets are combinable. Known associated groups; Vintage Starships ; Mustaka_Shipyards.

Other groups and sites use there own Construction Rules or Educated guessing to provide ship stats. These type of ships are not combinable with each other or with the FASA ships. Accuracy varies widely.

Mixing is normally reserved for testing the starship stats accuracy. We can now do this with a computer game, with multiple computer and human run scenarios. See next Question.

What about the Official Starship Construction Manuals?
Well there is a 1st edition and the 2nd edition books. They are much in away incompatible with each other, made ships from them are incompatible with each other. Some fans have combined portions of the two books with some tweaks to make a more rounded piece of material to work from. Its very hard to accomplish while staying true to the 2nd edition book but it has been done already.

As a side Note: There are two versions of the 2nd edition book, the first printing is in error while the second print corrects most of the errors. See my FASA Parts List for more detailed information.

Is there a Faithful computer version of the Starship Combat portion of the game?
Yes, specifically the STCS, its been released for free since 2004 and gets improved upon from time to time. Its a board type game using some FASA graphics and some custom aswell. Fans have added faithful FASA scenarios to the game aswell as all the starships. The only hard part about the game is keeping track what construction methods are used for the ships, some are FASA others use custom tables. Check out the links pages to get a hold of it. You'll also find old computer games that where made in the past for comparison.

Are there Scans / PDF versions of the FASA Star Trek Books and Game pieces?
Yes, yes there are. You can find them in files called Torrents or by viewing my FASA FAN Links folder for web site download locations, There are at least currently two web site locations to get the books and magazine articles from at this time. You may also want to visit the Main FASA ST Yahoo Groups to find individual scans of magazine articles and game pieces.

What types of Magazine articles are available for FASA Star Trek?
There are MANY, there are articles for Enlisted Character Generation, 2nd and 3rd TNG Character Generation, many adventures and reviews of the FASA books. Starship Combat and RPG updates. The list goes on and on. These Mag Articles can all be downloaded from the web.

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