#task force games

[oldschoolfrp]

Battle at the Ziggurat -- David Menehan's cover for Prime Directive: The Star Fleet Universe Role-Playing Game, by Task Force Games, designed by Timothy D Olsen and Mark Costello (1993).

Prime Directive obviously is a Star Trek RPG, but one that does not mention "Star Trek" by name. It was published under the same license as Star Fleet Battles, granted to Stephen V Cole's Amarillo Design Bureau in the late 1970s by Franz Joseph, creator of the 1975 Star Fleet Technical Manual.

Like Star Fleet Battles, Prime Directive is focused on military actions. Player characters are members of a Federation Prime Team, an elite special forces unit assigned to the most dangerous missions.

Prime Directive describes a United Federation of Planets, phasers, and Vulcans, but you won't find Kirk or the Enterprise in this book, even in its detailed Star Fleet Universe Timeline. For that you need Star Trek: The Role Playing Game by FASA (1982-89), based directly on the original series, animated series, and first movie.

From Prime Directive:

[tngbabe]

This is why I dig thru huge book bins at thrift stores.....check this out from the 90s!! Husband handed it to me said "look at this" & I start losing my mind!

[vintagerpg]

This is Moon Base Clavius (1981), from Task Force Games. I dunno if you noticed, but I was trying to have a science fiction board game theme this week. That meant this beat out The Creature that Ate Sheboygan because it is a bit more science fictiony, what with the moon base and the laser guns.

It is a pretty straight forward game at a glance. Nothing jumps out at me as being particularly interesting the way Starship Troopers did. Its Americans vs. Russians. On the moon. Pew pew.

I guess this is what you’d call a filler post.

[rpgcovers]

Prime Directive (first edition) ~ Task Force Games (1993)

[oldschoolfrp]

Ships in action from the world of Starfire, Task Force Games’ space combat game (Gary Kalin cover for Nexus 12, April 1985)

[oldschoolfrp]

Commander Lord Kron of the Imperial Klingon Frigate Vandal (William H Keith from Jim Hart’s story “A Warrior’s Death,” Nexus 12, April 1985)

[oldschoolfrp]

Klingon F-5 Frigate and variants (Scott Bayless, Star Fleet Universe section of Nexus 16, Task Force Games, January 1987)

[vintagerpg]

If you like tables, we've got some books for you! This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we check out Jennell Jaquays' series of Central Casting books, for use creating both player and non-player characters of alarming depth and, sometimes, bizarre circumstances. There are three flavors: Heroes of Legend (1988), our focus, which tackles fantasy backgrounds; Heroes for Tomorrow (1989), for science fiction characters; and Heroes Now! (1991), for characters from worlds not unlike our own.