2nd Edition Comments

[arch0n]

Abilities
Since you are using Strength, Constitution, Intelligence, and Charisma, all directly equivalent to LL abilities, I would recommend calling Agility Dexterity as well; then Psionic Potential is obviously the correlate to Wisdom, and conversion to LL is straightforward. Changing the name of just one ability to Agility feels "off". (I know how 1st edition S&S did it, but most people who buy this game will not).

Classes and Subclasses
It is not apparent on first read why some of the sub-classes get secondary skills, and others do not. For example, on casual review it seems like Security is simply an inferior sub-class to Fire Control, because Fire Control gets a secondary skill AND gets a +2 bonus in ship-to-ship combat. It might be worthwhile to more explicitly (mechanically) point out the advantages of Security. For example, you might list the special weapons that Security gets access to, or say something like "While Security does not receive the leadership training of Command or the gunnery training of Fire Control, it is the only sub-class to receive training in military-grade weapons such as the ___ and ___. See pg. XX for a full list of equipment available exclusively to Security." The same is true for Engineering, which looks weaker than Communications and Navigation, since it lacks a secondary skill.

Finally, I think it's worth saying what the mechanical bonus actually is in the class description. For example, where you say "Navigation officers get a bonus for detecting space hazards..." say what the bonus is, with a page link to those rules. Even if the player doesn't know what the bonus *means*, it at least will let him write it down on his character sheet for later reference. As it stands, a new player has to jot down a vague note, then flip through the rules to find out what his character's special ability actually is.

Equipment
One problem we've encountered in our S&S playtests is whether such-and-such piece of equipment exists on the ship at all. For instance, let's say an away mission calls for ECM jamming of a Zangid base. The PCs are the command crew of a Cruiser. None of the PCs may have personally spent 3 units to buy an Electronic Interference Device. But has *anyone* on the crew got an Electronics Interference Device? The rules don't say. This is a big problem, because it leaves the PCs unable to really tap into the resources of their vessel. Are we to simply assume that a specialist can randomly be found with any particular esoteric combination of equipment? Maybe this explains why the red shirts always tag along and die - it's the only way to get the right gear for a mission?

I'd suggest either (a) a table with general guidelines for how many of each item might be available in the hands of NPC crew of different ship types; or (b) a random chart for rolling what gear is available from NPCs; or (c) some sort of floating "Ship's Locker" worth of units that the PCs can spend to allocate NPCs.

Psionic Powers
I think the highly random way in which psionic ability is made available to the players could create some unhappy players. S&S doesn't seem to suggest that players will have the same level of casualties as in, e.g., low-level LL, so the PC you roll up is likely the PC you're going to be playing with for a while. As such, having one PC have an X% chance, flat, of simply being better than the other PCs, seems out of kilter. That's how 1st edition D&D handled it, and the Psionics rules were griefed like mad by players.

Here are some ideas for how you might offer psionic abilities:
1. The PC can trade X number of ability score points to become psionically active. The number of points required is based on his race. Andromedans and Taurans pay 0, Rigelians pay 10, Terrans pay 5.
2. The PC suffers an experience point penalty for being psionically active - 15% for Terrans, 30% for Rigelians. Unless your Psionic Potential ability score is high, this penalty will not be worth paying. But a Rigelian who rolls, say, an 18 in PP might be happy to pay 30% XP penalty to take advantage of his aptitude.
3. The chance to have psionic abilities could be based on your PP. Perhaps for humans it 2xPP% and for Rigelians its 1xPP%. That would at least give a fighting chance that a PC who rolled a high PP will get some benefit from it.
4. Following the idea in 3, the PC might get a second chance to unlock his psionic abilities in certain circumstances. For example, interaction with highly powerful beings, training from a psionic, etc.

[arch0n]

Movement
The lack of mention of either teleportation and vehicles in the movement section makes me forget that this is a sci-fi game. Aesthetically, some mention seems called for.

Carrying Capacity and Encumbrance
I'd recommend stricter/more realistic encumbrance rules than those used in LL and its ilk. Star explorers tend to be sleek and streamlined, not covered with bags and armor plate. Forcing the PCs to realistically accept the limitations of encumbrance, and benefit from keeping their gear light, will lead to PCs who look more like Captain Kirk than Gonzo the Paladin-Lord.

Muscle Check
The use of a d6 for resolution here seems out of step with the core mechanics used in the rest of the game. I'd resolve Muscle Checks with Combat Skill modified by Strength.

Search and Detect Checks
As above, the use of d6 for resolution seems out of step. I'd resolve searching/awareness with Contact Skill modified by Intelligence. (Contact skill is already used for 'blind' teleportation, see p.38, which suggests that it is correlated with situational awareness and intuition.) While we are on this topic, the use of Contact Skill on p.38 seems out-of-step with the explanation of what Contact Skill does, earlier in the rules. Contact Skill was very nebulous in 1e S&S, and it seems like you've tried to make it be all-about-communication in the new version of the rules, but then that doesn't jive with using it for Teleportation. I'd rephrase to say that "Contact Skill focuses on observation, pattern recognition, and communication, and as such is heavily relied upon by those who must interpret the strange body language of new alien species, for example." Making Contact Skill useful for awareness/searching would go a long way towards making the Communications Officer and others with high Contact skill useful in "space dungeon crawls".

Damage and Healing
Introducing the ancient/medieval weapons before the sci-fi weapons "feels" wrong. So, too, does having separate categories for "light hammers" "heavy hammers" "maces" and "morning stars" while meanwhile all beam rifles are dealt with in one category. I'd strongly recommend streamlining the ancient/medieval weapons - "one-handed melee weapon" "two-handed melee weapon" "small melee weapon" etc. I mean, if old school D&D could get by with "all melee weapons do 1d6 damage," and Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay could get by with "hand weapon" for virtually every weapon, surely a game of phasers and blasters doesn't need to differentiate between tridents and spears.

Ship-to-Ship Combat
I know that in 1e S&S used "minimum to hits" for ship to ship combat that did not change with PC level, ability scores, or other factors, and that's why you're using that mechanic here. I would submit that your Combat Skill + Agility/Dexterity mechanic is superior to the core mechanic in 1e S&S, and that you should adopt it here for ship-to-ship combat.

If the ability to target lock onto a person with a teleporter depends on character skill (see above), why doesn't the ability to target lock onto a ship with a laser depend on character skill? If you can have crack shots with a beam pistol, why can't you have crack shots with a beam bank?

Anyway, those are my comments! I only covered the areas I had concerns or suggestions. Please fill in the blanks on everything else as "awesome and great work!"

[RAD Colin]

I agree with everything in arch0n's posts except Carrying Capacity and Encumbrance. Genre emulation can be better done without forcing more complex or count-heavy encumbrance rules on the game. The rarity of heavy armor and weapons in most situations, for instance, could be better enforced by a mention somewhere that characters in heavy armour suffer X penalty to non-aggressive interactions, for example (as others will assume they're simply there to cause trouble or inflict violence).

[arch0n]

Hey Colin - fancy meeting you here. It's Alex from Autarch!

Colin is of course correct, and I retract my encumbrance comments. I think I had a moment of spasmodic encumbral mania.

[Goblinoid Games]

Thanks for the comments guys. I have implemented some changes to address some of these, and still have a few more to do. However, there are some suggestions here I probably won't use. For instance, the muscle check is equivalent in LL/MF to force doors, so for compatibility I don't want to change that mechanic. For similar reasons I don't want to alter search and detect, though Alex your comments about the Contact Skill have been noted and I'll make some adjustments.

I understand where you're coming from completely with psionic powers. In S&S 1e it is very common for humans to be psionically active, and for 2e I wanted to reduce that because in my opinion in Trek it is one thing that makes humans more...human...I guess, for lack of a better term, compared to aliens. Humans have no special abilities other than their resourcefulness, if you see what I mean. I think it should be a special thing when a human has psi powers, and the random element doesn't bother me because I think in old-school games we have to let ideas of "balance" slide here and there (i.e. Mutant Future!). But one thing that would be interesting is to give humans a bonus to XP, but they lose this bonus if they are psionically active. Say 5%?

EDIT: In light of your comments about searching Alex, I wonder if a fair way to handle that would be to give Communications Officers +1 to their d6 roll when searching?

EDIT AGAIN: So to clarify: Humans will have a 5% chance of being psionically active. Rigel are never psionically active (unless they encounter a crystal coud or something else odd). All other races stay the same in regard to psi powers.

[RAD Colin]

Hey Colin - fancy meeting you here. It's Alex from Autarch!

Colin is of course correct, and I retract my encumbrance comments. I think I had a moment of spasmodic encumbral mania.

Hey Alex! It seems we share more interests in common than just ACKS. Not too surprising I guess.

"Encumbral Mania" sounds like some kind of hideous degenerative brain disorder.

Colin