Alright now, first things first.
The key to any good RPG campaign in my opinion is preparation and organization. This is especially true of Star Trek since you're going to need to keep track of all the cool aliens, starships, devices, planets, stories and other interesting elements you come up with.
For this purpose, I usually create a Series Bible. Just like an actual Star Trek TV show, this book contains the important elements of my series, its background story, major personalities, interstellar powers and other important information such as I mentioned above. Generally speaking this book is a three-ring loose leaf binder with a 'make your own cover' clear sleave and alphabetical dividers. Everything I create for the game goes into this book alphabetically with a front section containing those things I need every session (the stats of the PC vessel, major NPCs onboard, spare pre-generated PCs in case someone new pops in, etc.). I design a cover, usually depicting the PC vessel and crew though often just decorated with images I find on the internet that pertain to the setting.
As mentioned and shown in earlier posts, I and many of my players over the years are artists, both professionally and/or as a hobby. Creating nice covers is always a blast and really shows a commitment to the group that I'm trying to go above and beyond in making the game an exciting experience.
As a side note, after every campaign I've run, the Series Bible for that campaign goes into an even larger loose leaf binder so that I always have my old material ready for inclusion in my next campaign. I do this for the vast majority of the campaigns I run regardless of system or genre, resulting in some continuities that go back 20 years or so. This the cover for my Star Trek 'Mega Bible':
All my Star Trek campaigns since about 1985 or so have used the premise of an exploration endeavour called Project: Outbound and so Star Trek: OUTBOUND has become the name of my 'self-shared' universe when playing Star Trek. All the Star Trek: OUTBOUND campaigns materials from Star Trek: OUTBOUND - The Original Series, Star Trek: OUTBOUND - Phase II, Star Trek: OUTBOUND - The Next Generation, etc. are now contained in one binder with this cover.
My next campaign, Star Trek: OUTBOUND - Operation: Gamma Flight, under construction even as we speak, will benefit from this tome and will someday join its comrades within. Its like the Sto'Vo'Kor of gaming.
I want to announce at this point if need be that my posting of the above image and/or images is in no way intended to infringe upon the trademarks or copyrights of the Star Trek brand, CBS/Paramount/Viacom, Last Unicorn Games, FASA or the websites that were the sources of the some of the images in the above collage. Many of the starships, bridge designs and other images were taken from SciFi-Meshes.com, my good friend Chris Reyes (aka Atolm) and other non-canon sources. The sole purpose of the above 'cover' is my own personal fun and the fun of several different medium sized groups of my friends over many years.
We like your stuff. Don't disintergrate us.
AD
Barking Alien
I love this! Though we do appear to be almost sharing a brain sometimes.
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