Why Star Trek: Prosperity Works

JB at B/X BLACKRAZOR wrote a post about 'Why D&D Works' in which he puts forth his own idea of what the secret ingredient is that makes the grandfather of all RPGs so popular to this day. His epiphany is...interesting. Check it out, it's well worth the read. 

It made me think about the fact that I am currently involved in two Star Trek Adventures campaigns, one as a player and one as a GM. As I mentioned not long ago, the one I am Gamemastering is my bi-weekly game Star Trek: Prosperity, is now in its 8th year.

Eight years* of the same campaign; the same players, same GM, [mostly] the same characters, same ship, same mission - explore strange new worlds, seek out new life and ancient civilizations, boldly go on one wild Sci-Fi adventure after another. 

What began as a convention one-shot of Last Unicorn Games' Star Trek RPG has become two hundred sessions covering nearly a hundred different missions using Modiphius Entertainment's excellent Star Trek Adventures. 

So I had to ask myself...Why does this campaign endure?

1st Session of Episode 5 run on 11/08/24

For starters, the players are all Star Trek fans. 

We each have our favorite incarnation of the franchise but we all like Star Trek. We decided on a particular era, largely informed by the one-shot I ran at a RECESS Game Event, and ran with it. Barring some minor details here and there, the entire group is on the same page when it comes to the setting and its tropes. This is a big part of why it works. 

The group shares a clear and unified vision of the setting

While I try very hard to create new and interesting scenarios to challenge the players and their PCs, the campaign as a whole is really about the Player Characters and not the Star Trek universe or the challenge of the week. They (the PCs) are the stars of this particular show. 

In each scenario I run them through, there is always an element that hits upon one or more of the Command Crew's interests, outlooks, or goals. The adventures are tied to the PCs and vice versa. As time goes on, this enables me (as the GM) to expand the setting while simultaneously allowing the players to further develop their characters.  

The campaign is character driven and the group loves their characters. 

In the Star Trek universe, characters are bit more 'enlightened' than your average PCs in other types of TRPGs. They aren't motivated by the acquisition of wealth or items (the Ferengi aside) and as such the motivations of the characters go beyond 'kill things and take their stuff'.

Somewhat linked to this is a reduced need to see the characters constantly improve; i.e. raise stats and skills, get new powers, etc. It just isn't a major component of the game. We do have character (and starship) improvement but it only occurs at the start of each new even numbered 'Season' (the ship improves at the beginning of odd numbered Seasons).

These two factors combine to allow the campaign to last longer. Player Characters aren't accumulating new weapons and equipment and are unlikely to suddenly or even eventually obtain anything that will 'unbalance encounters'. No one's going to randomly come across a +3 Phaser or a Tricorder of Perfect Scanning.

Likewise the PCs aren't going to grow resistant to Distruptor Fire or gain a Feat that lets them instantly win diplomatic negotiations. Power creep is extremely gradual and it could be argued it doesn't even exist in any practical sense. There certainly isn't anyone in the group looking to be more 'powerful'. 

PCs motivated by more than material gains are free to create their own 'victory conditions' and that works to keep the game going. 

A lack of Power Gaming, Item Hording, and Power Creep extends the life of the campaign. 

While the PCs face danger constently in their endeavors, no PC has died during the 8 year run* of the game. There are key reasons for this. 

First and foremost, in three seasons of the Original Series no member of the Bridge Crew of the Enterprise died. In staying true to the feel of a 1960s-70s Science Fiction TV show, the leads can't be randomly perish. Star Trek isn't about killing the main characters. It's about making their lives difficult while they try to protect the rest of their crew, the planet they're orbiting, or even the entire galaxy. 

New NPCs for Season 8

Instead I've found it quite impactful to kill a named NPC or say, 'Reporting a dozen casualties across Decks 7, 8, and 9 Captain. Another two dozen wounded". We often bring up the deaths of past NPCs we've lost in the line of duty. The PCs and their players feel responsible for every 'life' aboard the Prosperity. There are 271 NPCs counting on the Command Crew to get them home safely. The PCs can die but more often the campaign is about how they live with and handle loss. 

The players have asked that I up the stakes, feeling the campaign doesn't feel quite threatening enough sometimes. Understandable for those accustomed to more traditional RPGs. I have raised the body count in Season 8 and the guys seem to be loving it. Player input and GM/Player cooperation is another major factor in the game's longevity. 

Though the odds are in favor of PC survival, a sense of risk and loss keeps the players on their toes and coming back for more. 

Spacefaring Vessels of Season 8 (So far)

Let's summarize:

• Star Trek, specifically our version of Star Trek, is clear to all players.
• The campaign is character focused, with the PCs central to the adventures.
• PCs are driven by their motivations. which change and expand with the campaign.
• The game is challenging, the possibility of loss ever-present, but PC death is rare. 

This campaign has lasted so long* you'd think I must have discovered the RPG magic formula, some ultimate GM trick that guarantees me a successful, continuing game every time I set out to create that 'forever campaign'. Sadly, no. That's not how that works. 

This combination of approaches and elements works well with this group of players playing this setting with this particular GM (Me). This doesn't insure success in any other situation; if the players were different, if there were one more or one less, if the players were the same but the setting Post-TNG, or any number of other alterations to Star Trek: Prosperity's 'perfect storm' I don't know for certain that we'd still be playing it today. 

This works for this group. Star Trek: Prosperity is the right game for the right group that came about at the right time and (so far) continues to do so. 

What works for you?

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Barking Alien

Ventura Class based on the USS Ventura created by John Byrne and the Sentinel Class created by Bill Krause.

*Brace yourselves...

I have been operating off the belief that the Star Trek: Prosperity campaign is eight years old based on our 8 'Seasons' of play - 8 sets of 12 adventures (not sessions), referred to by the group as 'Episodes'. 

However...

According to campaign notes recently discovered by Dan, who plays the ship's Captain, the game may be even older. Specifically, Dan found some papers dating back to 2013. This would indicate that the campaign is at least 11 years old. The notes themselves are clearly early in the run but not the very beginning, so it's possible the game could be as much as 12 years old. 

Wow. I'm stunned. 

This post took nearly two weeks to finish.