Hero Prime Directive

[Outsider]

Or, I suppose, one could just disregard the source material where it is inconvenient

[Lord Liaden]

I always figured it was a matter of power conservation. That Disintegrate setting seems to be the highest one on a phaser, which would require a lot of juice. It's just not efficient in a pitched battle to run through your power-packs that fast, when a lower setting will still do your foe in.

[assault]

It's kind of funny that a setting that is generally so incredibly cinematic has a weapon that lends itself to "realistic" (ie lethal) combat, isn't it?

I think Lord Liaden's suggestion is a good idea: the disintegrate setting isn't the one usually used in combat. But still, it should be used frequently enough to discourage the PCs from getting into firefights.

That way, they will have to learn to talk their way out of situations. Or die.

Of course, that would result in some groups being very unimpressed by the game...

[Outsider]

I cant find the books right now, but IIRC, the FASA Trek RPG phasers had a wide angle disintigrate option that drained a powerpack on a hand phaser in 8 shots, while regular disintigrate drained it in about 30. And spare power packs werent that large or heavy.

Unless the pitched battle has odds of several 100 to 1, the power conservation reasoning isnt going to work. And if the pitched battle -is- several 100 to 1, then the outnumbering side is probably not going to worry overmuch about power conservation... they probably have over a thousand (if not several thousand) shots, even at the highest power consumption setting, to get the outnumbered side with.

On the other hand, the crew of the Enterprise rarely faced anyone who had hand phasers... Usually their opponents were relative primitives, using lesser weapons, or even melee. Even when facing high tech enemies, those enemies tended more towards hand disruptors (the FASA efficiency of which I dont recall) or the situation was contrived such that high energy weapons didnt work or couldnt be used.

[SCUBA Hero]

There have been conversations between ADB and Hero Games regarding a Hero System version of Prime Directive. At last check, it seemed unlikely.

[kehrer1701]

Well, maybe the strength that the PD line has shown and the unlimited possibilities that a HERO PD version would bring (meaning you could jump right into a star trek (or close to) setting might spur Hero powers that be (pun??) to take another look. I mean, if Gurps, D20, and d6 are doing this, doesn't it make sense that the coolest system come next (aka: the Hero system--hey Steve--)

There have been conversations between ADB and Hero Games regarding a Hero System version of Prime Directive. At last check, it seemed unlikely.

[Michael Hopcroft]

If you're going to do a PD setting for HERO, I wonder how effective it would actually be. I saw a lot of alien templates and stuff in the GURPS PD book but not a lot in there that would have helped me create adventures or a campaign.

I also wonder whether the PD Federation has a different economic structure than the official Trek one -- or at least one that makes some level of sense. What I've wondered is a.) what people who are not involved with Starfleet or the Federation government do, b.) where the resources to build, maintain, fuel and crew starships come from and c.) how the Federation decides what it is going to do at any given time, and whether that (and who is involved with it) changes over time.

it's part of the same problem I have with the idea of any sort of government over the immense distances of interstellar space -- the problems of communication and control are so blatant that the idea seems inherently unworkable even if you accept the physically impossible premise of super-fast FTL itself.

[Dr. Anomaly]

I have to admit I've wondered about the economics and such of the Federation; there do seem to be a lot of contradictions:

Kirk to Spock: "Are you trying to get yourself killed? Do you have any idea how much Starfleet has invested in you?"
Spock starts to quote a figure, and Kirk cuts him off.

Picard states that mankind has moved beyond material wealth, and says that money, as such, doesn't exist any more.

Yet later on we have all kinds of references to and uses of gold-pressed latinum which sure as heck seems to act like money.

(sigh)

[Michael Hopcroft]

I have to admit I've wondered about the economics and such of the Federation; there do seem to be a lot of contradictions:

Kirk to Spock: "Are you trying to get yourself killed? Do you have any idea how much Starfleet has invested in you?"
Spock starts to quote a figure, and Kirk cuts him off.

Picard states that mankind has moved beyond material wealth, and says that money, as such, doesn't exist any more.

Yet later on we have all kinds of references to and uses of gold-pressed latinum which sure as heck seems to act like money.

(sigh)

Nothing about the Trek universe is really coherent -- not the economics, not the politics, and certainly not the science.

Roddenberry and the others who wrote for Trek had the annoying habit of creating nonsense techonolgies and inserting them into the story for reasons that had nothing to do with storytelling. The transporter was invented as a money-saving measure -- the people who were paying for the production balked at the cost of landing the ship every episdoe and taking it off again. So Roddenberry came up with the transporter, a logically absurd technology that would end up causing no end of trouble for the writers (incluidng numerous situations where the temptation to use it as a deus ex machina to get out of an impossible situation was far too strong to resist).

And then matter replication technology was introduced, again without regard to the logic or consequences of that technology.

[Lord Liaden]

I don't recall anyone from the Federation in the Next Generation and later continuity using anything like money. "Gold-pressed latinum" seems to be reserved for societies that still follow a capitalist system, like the Ferengi.

The original series had Fed people use "credits," but it seems implicit that in the later series the Federation is a socialist/communist society.

[kehrer1701]

ahh,, there's the tread!

[McCoy]

I have to admit I've wondered about the economics and such of the Federation; there do seem to be a lot of contradictions:

Kirk to Spock: "Are you trying to get yourself killed? Do you have any idea how much Starfleet has invested in you?"
Spock starts to quote a figure, and Kirk cuts him off.

Picard states that mankind has moved beyond material wealth, and says that money, as such, doesn't exist any more.

Yet later on we have all kinds of references to and uses of gold-pressed latinum which sure as heck seems to act like money.

(sigh)

I imagine that in the Federation everyone has their apartment, a matter replicator that takes care of food and clothing, access to an internet like datatbase for education and entertainment, and medical care, all at no cost. One can choose to be a couch potato, or one can choose to be an artist, a scientist, go into politics or the military, or train to settle an undeveloped (or help the natives on an underdeveloped) world.

Think of what you would do if you had a trust fund that covered the necessities, didn't have to take a day job to make ends meet, and were free to follow your passion, devote yourself to your hobby, profitable or not. That's what I imagine the Federation is like.

[Supreme Serpent]

I imagine that in the Federation everyone has their apartment, a matter replicator that takes care of food and clothing, access to an internet like datatbase for education and entertainment, and medical care, all at no cost. One can choose to be a couch potato, or one can choose to be an artist, a scientist, go into politics or the military, or train to settle an undeveloped (or help the natives on an underdeveloped) world.

Think of what you would do if you had a trust fund that covered the necessities, didn't have to take a day job to make ends meet, and were free to follow your passion, devote yourself to your hobby, profitable or not. That's what I imagine the Federation is like.

Same basic setup but different results than the Judge Dredd Mega-City society.

Or at least, they show and explore different aspects of it. Don't see much of the thriving artistic culture in JD stuff, don't see much "Future Shock" or people blowing up cities because they're bored in Trek.

[John Desmarais]

I imagine that in the Federation everyone has their apartment, a matter replicator that takes care of food and clothing, access to an internet like datatbase for education and entertainment, and medical care, all at no cost. One can choose to be a couch potato, or one can choose to be an artist, a scientist, go into politics or the military, or train to settle an undeveloped (or help the natives on an underdeveloped) world.

Think of what you would do if you had a trust fund that covered the necessities, didn't have to take a day job to make ends meet, and were free to follow your passion, devote yourself to your hobby, profitable or not. That's what I imagine the Federation is like.

I invision it as all of these things being low end though. Low end housing, low end replicator, etc, etc. If you want better, you work for it. If not, you hav enough to live in relative confort but not luxury.

[Outsider]

What is low end when you have replicators, though?

Pretty much all it can be is the actual physical dimensions of your space.