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eleanorjaneA Guide to Trek, from the RPGs
I've been a Star Trek nerd from way back, and although I've never really been into TOS-era Trek before ST XI, I've been playing RPGs and email sims set in the Trekverse for many years.
part 0: the backstory!
In 1998 Last Unicorn Games released an officially licensed Star Trek RPG; the license moved to Decipher in 2002 and they released a new game, which was discontinued in 2007. There have been Star Trek games before this, of course, dating as far back as 1978, but these two recent iterations are focused much less on tactical fights and more on world-building and character elements.
Of course, although the RPG books were approved by Paramount, they're no more canonical than any other books set in the Trekverse (and no less so, either). However, for story writers, they do have a big advantage over trying to immerse yourself in the novels: they're a few handy guidebooks to the entire universe, written with the express purpose of helping players create realistic, fleshed-out characters, so they're excellent background material for fic as well. A lot quicker than reading a stack of novels hunting for a few lines of oblique references here and there!
So, given that I have a lot of this stuff lying around my house, I thought I'd summarise some of the details likely to be particularly useful for fic writers. Of course, many of these books are set during the TNG-DS9 era, and of course Star Trek XI is a reboot anyway, but it may prove helpful.
Relatedly, I also highly recommend Memory Alpha, which is kinda Wikipedia-for-the-Trekverse. Highly recommended as a fact-checking/canon-checking resource.
So, the posts in this series are compiled from: the Star Trek RPG sourcebooks I own (published variously by Last Unicorn Games and Decipher), various wikis such as Memory Alpha and its expanded universe sister site, Memory Beta, and any other sources I have to hand (like the Technical Manuals, Encyclopaedias, and so on).
All posts in this series will be tagged with the canon:star trek tag, to aid in finding 'em.
part 1: what's in our solar system?
I figured this was a good place to start, as Kirk- and Academy-centric fics are likely to be more Earth-focused than previous Trek fanworks.
All of this section is from books in roughly the TNG-DS9 era.
From the centre of the system outwards:
0. Sol
1. Khepera Chromosphere Solar Obervatory
2. Sol I: Mercury
* Solar Observatories One and Two on the surface
3. Sol II: Venus
* Orbited by an academy flight centre for training in harsh atmospheric conditions
4. Sol III: Earth - home to various major facilities in San Francisco including
* Starfleet Academy
* Starfleet HQ
* Starfleet Medical
* and the Federation Council
and orbited by:
* Luna (the moon), home to the Lunar Colonies (population c. 50 million in TNG era)
* Earth Station McKinley (a construction and repair facility, may not be present in TOS era?)
* Spacedock One (Earth's primary orbital spaceport, 10 km long)
* San Francisco Shipyards (geosynchronous orbit above San Francisco, oldest Starfleet yards in the Federation)
5. Sol IV: Mars - including
* Utopia Planitia shipyards and spacedock (some facilities orbital, some planetary)
* Starfleet Technical Services Academy (which trains non-officer technical specialists such as transporter chiefs, etc)
6. Mars Defense Perimeter
* a network of automated weapon pods to track and destroy hostile vessels that get past the Pluto and Jupiter stations.
7. Sol Abi: Asteroid Belt
* Mining rights licensed out to private corporations
* Used to train cadets in asteroid field navigation and weapon systems
* Official Starfleet Firing Range in a small area of the belt
8. Sol V: Jupiter - orbited by:
* Jupiter Station (starship repair and maintenance facility, later also the location of medical and research facilities; the largest starbase in the system outside of Earth's Spacedock)
* a network of small stations controlling huge sensor arrays for defense purposes, and
* Jupiter Outpost 92 (a large military hub for the sensor stations and primary support for Starfleet patrols; most cadets will be stationed here at least once).
9. Sol VI: Saturn - orbited by:
* the Mimas Emergency Station (a flight range evacuation point on the first moon, Mimas)
* Saturn Station (starbase with residential and operational facilities for cadets and staff)
* the Saturn Navcon satellite, and
* the Academy Flight Range (the major flight training area for cadets).
* The sixth moon, Titan, is home to the Terran Academy of Sciences (built in 2150, becomes an external campus of the Daystrom Institute in TNG-DS9 era).
10. Sol VII: Uranus - orbited by
* the Michaelson Gravimetric Array (for planetary research), and
* its first moon Miranda is orbited by the Planetary Survey facility.
11. Sol IX: Pluto -
* home to Project Pluto scientific facility (for planetary research) and
* orbited by Pluto Station (solar system 'traffic control' and early warning station)
Whew! Okay. Hope people find that useful; I shall continue summarising as I pore through my stacks of books. I need more desk space.
I've been a Star Trek nerd from way back, and although I've never really been into TOS-era Trek before ST XI, I've been playing RPGs and email sims set in the Trekverse for many years.
part 0: the backstory!
In 1998 Last Unicorn Games released an officially licensed Star Trek RPG; the license moved to Decipher in 2002 and they released a new game, which was discontinued in 2007. There have been Star Trek games before this, of course, dating as far back as 1978, but these two recent iterations are focused much less on tactical fights and more on world-building and character elements.
Of course, although the RPG books were approved by Paramount, they're no more canonical than any other books set in the Trekverse (and no less so, either). However, for story writers, they do have a big advantage over trying to immerse yourself in the novels: they're a few handy guidebooks to the entire universe, written with the express purpose of helping players create realistic, fleshed-out characters, so they're excellent background material for fic as well. A lot quicker than reading a stack of novels hunting for a few lines of oblique references here and there!
So, given that I have a lot of this stuff lying around my house, I thought I'd summarise some of the details likely to be particularly useful for fic writers. Of course, many of these books are set during the TNG-DS9 era, and of course Star Trek XI is a reboot anyway, but it may prove helpful.
Relatedly, I also highly recommend Memory Alpha, which is kinda Wikipedia-for-the-Trekverse. Highly recommended as a fact-checking/canon-checking resource.
So, the posts in this series are compiled from: the Star Trek RPG sourcebooks I own (published variously by Last Unicorn Games and Decipher), various wikis such as Memory Alpha and its expanded universe sister site, Memory Beta, and any other sources I have to hand (like the Technical Manuals, Encyclopaedias, and so on).
All posts in this series will be tagged with the canon:star trek tag, to aid in finding 'em.
part 1: what's in our solar system?
I figured this was a good place to start, as Kirk- and Academy-centric fics are likely to be more Earth-focused than previous Trek fanworks.
All of this section is from books in roughly the TNG-DS9 era.
From the centre of the system outwards:
0. Sol
1. Khepera Chromosphere Solar Obervatory
2. Sol I: Mercury
* Solar Observatories One and Two on the surface
3. Sol II: Venus
* Orbited by an academy flight centre for training in harsh atmospheric conditions
4. Sol III: Earth - home to various major facilities in San Francisco including
* Starfleet Academy
* Starfleet HQ
* Starfleet Medical
* and the Federation Council
and orbited by:
* Luna (the moon), home to the Lunar Colonies (population c. 50 million in TNG era)
* Earth Station McKinley (a construction and repair facility, may not be present in TOS era?)
* Spacedock One (Earth's primary orbital spaceport, 10 km long)
* San Francisco Shipyards (geosynchronous orbit above San Francisco, oldest Starfleet yards in the Federation)
5. Sol IV: Mars - including
* Utopia Planitia shipyards and spacedock (some facilities orbital, some planetary)
* Starfleet Technical Services Academy (which trains non-officer technical specialists such as transporter chiefs, etc)
6. Mars Defense Perimeter
* a network of automated weapon pods to track and destroy hostile vessels that get past the Pluto and Jupiter stations.
7. Sol Abi: Asteroid Belt
* Mining rights licensed out to private corporations
* Used to train cadets in asteroid field navigation and weapon systems
* Official Starfleet Firing Range in a small area of the belt
8. Sol V: Jupiter - orbited by:
* Jupiter Station (starship repair and maintenance facility, later also the location of medical and research facilities; the largest starbase in the system outside of Earth's Spacedock)
* a network of small stations controlling huge sensor arrays for defense purposes, and
* Jupiter Outpost 92 (a large military hub for the sensor stations and primary support for Starfleet patrols; most cadets will be stationed here at least once).
9. Sol VI: Saturn - orbited by:
* the Mimas Emergency Station (a flight range evacuation point on the first moon, Mimas)
* Saturn Station (starbase with residential and operational facilities for cadets and staff)
* the Saturn Navcon satellite, and
* the Academy Flight Range (the major flight training area for cadets).
* The sixth moon, Titan, is home to the Terran Academy of Sciences (built in 2150, becomes an external campus of the Daystrom Institute in TNG-DS9 era).
10. Sol VII: Uranus - orbited by
* the Michaelson Gravimetric Array (for planetary research), and
* its first moon Miranda is orbited by the Planetary Survey facility.
11. Sol IX: Pluto -
* home to Project Pluto scientific facility (for planetary research) and
* orbited by Pluto Station (solar system 'traffic control' and early warning station)
Whew! Okay. Hope people find that useful; I shall continue summarising as I pore through my stacks of books. I need more desk space.