Ever since I got the review PDF of the S&S 2e rules, I've been thinking of alternate backgrounds for use with S&S. I know the rules are meant to emulate ST:TOS, but I believe they are easily capable of emulating a lot of SF shows from the 1960s and 1970s - possibly even the 1950s! 1980s ... Not so sure. However, I digress.
One of the major SF shows of the 1970s was Glen A Larson's Battlestar Galactica. Although it only ran for one season (we shall not speak of Galactica 1980), it was thought highly enough of have a reboot series made in the last decade. However, of the two versions, I reckon the original series is better for gaming, and a lot better for conversion to S&S 2e. Why?
Very simple, really. First off, the original series is all about the action. While there is plenty of action in the reboot, most of the episodes concentrate on what would be PC interaction in a game. While that's all well and good, my bunch of happy gamers prefer to do things rather than talk about them. Second, the original series has a lot of exploration in it. Every week, the crew seemed to end up at another world, while in the reboot they seem to spend a lot of time drifting in space or being in one place. Finally, while the reboot series is one of the best examples of military science fiction going, players don't like authority - unless they're the ones who have it! This makes the original BSG (or a Tuffley-esque "not-BSG") a good choice for a game.
So, as an early Christmas present to the group, I'm putting up some notes on BSG vessels and tweaks to the S&S 2e rules to make them work. Character generation may come later, as may the Cylons.