Taking the plot of a TV Show or a movie, reimagine the genre and put it into use works quite well - not only at your gaming table. I´m part of a reenactor group. We are doing medieval shows and knight tournaments. For once we "stole" our show from a popular franciese and it worked quite well. At one point someone aproached me and was like: "Excuse me. Your storry reminded me of something but i cannot put my finger on it" He was very suppriesed as i told him that it was the storry of Star Wars Episode 1
This is the way to do it! Watch a lot of different stuff, then try to repurpose it elsewhere. A tip Stephen King wrote in his book " _Read everything, even the shit._ " or something like that. The best tip I ever heard.
This is excellent. I've been structuring my games like this for over a decade and it guarantees that even the least unique or complex plots have a steady and engaging narrative flow.
I love it! I honestly never thought of Star Trek that way, but I am going to watch some of it and see what I can come up with! Thank you for the insight!
X-files. Sometimes monster of the week, then something personal, something that ties into the bigger picture - or the show supernatural, any good fantasy or sci fi show can be inspiration for the game (just don’t rip it off too obviously). 😅
Thanks for breaking down the Trek Formula it does help structure and pacing. We have been lucky enough to have some of our star trek games actually have the A, B and sometimes C plots actually contribute to a resolution. This was certainly not anything to do with my GMing skills but rather the players all decided - "oh we could actually bring all these bits together and tie this up!
Just a little reminder that you dont have to cater everything to fantasy people (I felt like you were extra sure to show it would apply to fantasy), which is fine. But some of us do play future settings too! Dont worry that anything that isnt immediately fantasy we wont like it! There are plenty of us that love the sci-fi stuff. Also, theres so many modules and books and ideas and videos etc about dnd, especially 5e, but theres a lot less about other games. Personally, id love to hear more advice and ideas for future or scifi rather than fantasy. Especially if its rehashed crap like so much dmd TH-cam is (youre not one of the bad ones). But ive played dnd since adnd and ive mostly heard it all. So that kind of new info would be be really useful. I could actually use those videos in my current game. So more Star Trek friend! Great video!
As a fellow Star Trek Adventures GM, I completely agree. One thing I like is when each episode is fairly contained and is its own arc, but it connects to a wider story. Ala DS9 where each episode was its own chapter, with rising action, climax and resolution, but it ties into the whole narrative of the Dominion War and Bajor. That's what I try to model, even if my own Adventures can last 3-4 episodes.
I will one up you-DMs building a campaign need to watch Star Trek DS9 from season 3 onwards. It does an excellent job of keeping your structure however also finds a way for it to contribute to the oncoming/going Dominion War
And if you are an actual Star Trek fan you start watching DS9 from season 1 because unlike TNG or VOY even the beginning seasons are good and have some of the best episodes in it. Its just with S3 the go from an episodic story to continous overarching storyline.
@@DerUnglaublicheFrank I agree. I really enjoy the establishment of characters during the first seasons. That second episode after the pilot when they explore Odo is superb!
I really like this breakdown. Long time trek fan and this reminds me that RPGs don’t need to be campaign (season) long arcs, but can just be simple series of short adventures with little or no connection between them. I would love for you to explore a bit more of the Star Trek system, when you can of course.
I just concluded a 2 year long Star Trek Adventures campaign. I fully embraced the theme and deliberately designed every session as "an episode" in full Star Trek style. I would often rewatch old episodes for inspiration.
I'm so glad I came across this. I've been asked to run a Prime Directive game and I could really use this kind of help. I've never GM'd before (well, I tried once a long time ago and it was a disaster and I'm terrified to try it again). Looking forward to this whole series.
the prime directive system and universe is a whole other deal compared to the star trek adventures system. Not better or worse just very very different, much more rules heavy and also a stronger focus on war and conflict. Also if this is the Prime directive gamethat i am thining of it is set in the starfleet battles universe, and that diverged from the television series after TOS. iirc).
@@twitchew Yeah, I'm aware that it's very different, but it's still a Star Trek RPG and I believe this information should still prove helpful. Thanks for the reply!
Kishotenketsu plot structure works very similarly as well, using the Intro, Development, Twist, and Conclusion steps to make anime and manga plotlines!
When I started playing D&D in 2017 after more than ten years away, I used the basic plot of a FASA scenario one of our players ran outside me and another regular DM alternating stories, back in the 90s. The funny thing is, the original FASA run of the story was based on a AD&D scenario from White Dwarf magazine. So full circle! ⚔️⚔️⚔️⚔️🖖🖖🖖🖖⚔️⚔️⚔️⚔️
MCDM, in their "Chain of Acheron" campaign, did a five-episode arc that was directly based on "Where No Man Has Gone Before", with one PC turning into Gary Mitchell.
ST:DS9, and its counterpart Babylon 5, are great for building more static adventures and politically based plots. They are also good for "city under siege" scenarios.
I wasn't running games at the time but remember watching some Deep Space Nine episodes, usually ones featuring evil mirror universe Kira, and thinking "I am going to use that in a game someday!"
My wife and I watched everything in chronological order from Star Trek: Enterprise (S1E1) to Star Trek: Nemesis. It took forever but we loved it. When Discovery came on, I was so excited to get back to it. We watched episode one and have not watched anything since. "Those are Klingon ships!" No they're not. Then they showed that Klingons were now Lectroids from Planet Ten. (if you don't get the reference, look it up🤣). I came away from that one episode like the new movies. There was nothing wrong with Star Trek. We had just completed an entire chronological run so you know we are fans. I don't have time in my life for reboots, rewrites, and reimaginings and I definitely don't need old characters rehashed to tell stories we already saw. Now...let's talk about Star Wars...nope, gotta go. I will save that for later. 🤣
There are a lot of classic series that will work as story fodder. For a caper-style adventure, the series Leverage (or the revival series Leverage: Redemption) are great. For a caper-style adventure with more cartoon violence and more MacGyvering, there's The A-Team. And so on.
Star Trek also at times have major meta plots, like Enterprise's three major story arcs of the Temporal Cold War, the Xindi War, and the beginnings of the Romulan War. The older shows, TOS had the Klingon aggression, TNG laid the groundworks for the Maqui and Cardassians, which bloomed in DS9 along with the Dominion, Voyager ( _for all good and bad_ ) had the whole trip home and the Borg and species 8472 ( _nowdays called Undine in STO_ ). So indeed, watch Star Trek ^^ In fact watch a lot of stuff, and read a lot of stuff. The more you know, the more you can mix in and remix things into new things. I like the new format.
Guy, you don't want to know what I think about. Mostly puns and naughty jokes. There were quite a few that came up listening to this episode. But, yeah. Mostly puns and naughty jokes.
I guess I can try if I can find a free way to watch it a bit. Not really a fan of space settings in general though. Or aliens; or most sci Fi like shows and movies in general.
hey Guy! i have a question / Video Request for you: would you mind covering "food in table top games and how to use it" in a lot of table top games food is over looked, in video games and thus how food is treated in tabletop games food usually gives you some kind of mechanical bonus, but i was wondering if you could come at it from a different perspective, perhaps one option for something mechanical another option for something non mechanical in game, similar to my request about sea & space vessels, i feel like the approach within the gaming industry is fundamentally wrong and very static in its conception. I feel like we need something new to break through to elevate everyone's table top experience regardless of experience.
I haven't seen the others, but The Next Generation is absolutely phenomenal. If you're short on time The Orville is an incredibly well done homage and breaks ground on a lot of concepts and dilemmas already considered with Star Trek.
My group tryed 1st Star Trek adventure, we could not get head around extended task and ship rules so given up and went back to dnd , as we know rules as 1st book was painful to try and navigate as for new players. So pleas tell me 2rd edition is better ed better written and layout .
Agreed completely. Tons of content, much of it similar but also different in many ways, just as different people write, direct, act and fund each episode/movie/story-arc etc. There's more than enough great idea-food and learning-aides if one watched just; TOS, TNG, Ds9, Voyager, and some of the movies. I could go on at some length, having re-watched most of ST at this point, quite a few times (along with Babylon 5... that's actually similar with some respects to ds9... some episodic installments and a good bit of overarching story that a more-stationary, more-people/character-oriented environ, like a station, can provide. BEWARE the near-endless ranting of a fast keyboarder when given one of their favorite subjects to write/comment about! ahahah From here on i'll probably rant, ramble and quit half way before i feel it's been properly finished... but if you want an experienced opinion from someone who's watched & re-watched the shows & movies since being a small child, and for the 35-40 years after... If you are someone with the patience to be dragged along with my [potentially crazy] writing style, then read on, and feel free to agree and/or disagree with anything i've even touched upon; i'm happy to share what enlightenment that can be gained surrounding these subjects. Anyway, you've been warned. :) +The Original Series (Live+Animated+Phase 2; i actually found the quality consistently higher in TOS animated & Phase 2, but se la vi) +TNG is a bit ... here & there? Inconsistent if compared to other better episodes? it's fascinating stuff till you've watched all other ST and are coming back around to re-watch TNG. Ds9, Voyager + a few other bits may just spoil you as it did me... at least for my re-watch-enjoyment of TNG, generally speaking. Don't get me wrong, TNG was great, even the recycled ideas felt fresh enough and you never knew what was coming next new ep. All i'm sayin, is that when i look for my stats on which ep's i re-watch the most... only a few are TNG, and they had 7 full, great seasons too! their competition is themselves though; other ST shows, don't exactly make it a fair comparison. hehe :) +Deep Space Nine is just fantastic. It's got a random episodic episode here an there but i don't think any other ST series can say it had such a high number & high quality of story arcs going for a fantastic show up till the last episode in season 7. SPOLER ALERT: Season 6 of DS9 may be ranked the best overall season of any Star Trek show ever, and looking over what eps are in there, i think that i agree. +Voyager got off little rocky but grew into a fun show that gave us all more good ST content in a new setting with new faces... just be sure you learn to skip that insane 2m+ intro ... though if you watch ds9 first you may already know all about that (it's probably the longest at around 3 min!~ haha) P.S. i may come back and edit in some more later when i get a chance. I should like to comment on [almost] everything else (including fan-films ST and SW have a few good Fan works) JJ-Trek, ENT, SNW, Lower Decks, s3 of Picard and also say a little of whatever i have NOT mentioned yet.
I disagree entirely we should watch star trek purely on the basis that it is awesome and much of my marriage is based around a love of star trek. So there :p
I'd alter this to say that you don't have to stare at the camera, but you do need to face it. In theater terms "cheat out". But I also like the set, it adds a great flavor. I appreciate the commitment to the bit too with the costumes and slides (which also sometimes obscured you).
While I think your point is important, and I agree generally that looking at the audience is important, I honestly thought he did more or less fine with it here imo
![[TOOLS] Proper traps for fantasy games](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/xQwwRHKt9s8/mqdefault.jpg)
It's also good for writers. AKA: Hook, Rising Action, Reversal, finale, falling action. (And yes, it works like that for GMing as well).
Should have ended with "Thanks for watching, happy gaming, live long and prosper" 🖖
Taking the plot of a TV Show or a movie, reimagine the genre and put it into use works quite well - not only at your gaming table. I´m part of a reenactor group. We are doing medieval shows and knight tournaments. For once we "stole" our show from a popular franciese and it worked quite well. At one point someone aproached me and was like: "Excuse me. Your storry reminded me of something but i cannot put my finger on it" He was very suppriesed as i told him that it was the storry of Star Wars Episode 1
This is the way to do it! Watch a lot of different stuff, then try to repurpose it elsewhere.
A tip Stephen King wrote in his book " _Read everything, even the shit._ " or something like that. The best tip I ever heard.
Star Trek is an absolute goldmine for TTRPG ideas.
This is excellent. I've been structuring my games like this for over a decade and it guarantees that even the least unique or complex plots have a steady and engaging narrative flow.
I love it! I honestly never thought of Star Trek that way, but I am going to watch some of it and see what I can come up with!
Thank you for the insight!
X-files. Sometimes monster of the week, then something personal, something that ties into the bigger picture - or the show supernatural, any good fantasy or sci fi show can be inspiration for the game (just don’t rip it off too obviously). 😅
Love the new format!
Thanks for breaking down the Trek Formula it does help structure and pacing.
We have been lucky enough to have some of our star trek games actually have the A, B and sometimes C plots actually contribute to a resolution. This was certainly not anything to do with my GMing skills but rather the players all decided - "oh we could actually bring all these bits together and tie this up!
Just a little reminder that you dont have to cater everything to fantasy people (I felt like you were extra sure to show it would apply to fantasy), which is fine. But some of us do play future settings too! Dont worry that anything that isnt immediately fantasy we wont like it! There are plenty of us that love the sci-fi stuff.
Also, theres so many modules and books and ideas and videos etc about dnd, especially 5e, but theres a lot less about other games. Personally, id love to hear more advice and ideas for future or scifi rather than fantasy. Especially if its rehashed crap like so much dmd TH-cam is (youre not one of the bad ones). But ive played dnd since adnd and ive mostly heard it all. So that kind of new info would be be really useful. I could actually use those videos in my current game. So more Star Trek friend! Great video!
As a fellow Star Trek Adventures GM, I completely agree.
One thing I like is when each episode is fairly contained and is its own arc, but it connects to a wider story. Ala DS9 where each episode was its own chapter, with rising action, climax and resolution, but it ties into the whole narrative of the Dominion War and Bajor. That's what I try to model, even if my own Adventures can last 3-4 episodes.
Love the format! And as always, an excellent video
I will one up you-DMs building a campaign need to watch Star Trek DS9 from season 3 onwards. It does an excellent job of keeping your structure however also finds a way for it to contribute to the oncoming/going Dominion War
And if you are an actual Star Trek fan you start watching DS9 from season 1 because unlike TNG or VOY even the beginning seasons are good and have some of the best episodes in it. Its just with S3 the go from an episodic story to continous overarching storyline.
@@DerUnglaublicheFrank I agree. I really enjoy the establishment of characters during the first seasons. That second episode after the pilot when they explore Odo is superb!
Looking forward to the next episode of this
I really like this breakdown. Long time trek fan and this reminds me that RPGs don’t need to be campaign (season) long arcs, but can just be simple series of short adventures with little or no connection between them. I would love for you to explore a bit more of the Star Trek system, when you can of course.
Thank you for the video. The new setup is great.
I see you're on an excelsior class; you're a gentlemen of fine taste.
Big ST Fan here but never analized it as you have shown us. Thanks Very interested in this new ST Game
I just concluded a 2 year long Star Trek Adventures campaign. I fully embraced the theme and deliberately designed every session as "an episode" in full Star Trek style. I would often rewatch old episodes for inspiration.
Liking the format, and the costume
I'm so glad I came across this. I've been asked to run a Prime Directive game and I could really use this kind of help. I've never GM'd before (well, I tried once a long time ago and it was a disaster and I'm terrified to try it again). Looking forward to this whole series.
the prime directive system and universe is a whole other deal compared to the star trek adventures system. Not better or worse just very very different, much more rules heavy and also a stronger focus on war and conflict. Also if this is the Prime directive gamethat i am thining of it is set in the starfleet battles universe, and that diverged from the television series after TOS. iirc).
@@twitchew Yeah, I'm aware that it's very different, but it's still a Star Trek RPG and I believe this information should still prove helpful. Thanks for the reply!
great advice, i love using old tv shows and b-movies
Kishotenketsu plot structure works very similarly as well, using the Intro, Development, Twist, and Conclusion steps to make anime and manga plotlines!
Wonderful reference💫
I like the new format.
When I started playing D&D in 2017 after more than ten years away, I used the basic plot of a FASA scenario one of our players ran outside me and another regular DM alternating stories, back in the 90s.
The funny thing is, the original FASA run of the story was based on a AD&D scenario from White Dwarf magazine. So full circle!
⚔️⚔️⚔️⚔️🖖🖖🖖🖖⚔️⚔️⚔️⚔️
MCDM, in their "Chain of Acheron" campaign, did a five-episode arc that was directly based on "Where No Man Has Gone Before", with one PC turning into Gary Mitchell.
ST:DS9, and its counterpart Babylon 5, are great for building more static adventures and politically based plots. They are also good for "city under siege" scenarios.
I wasn't running games at the time but remember watching some Deep Space Nine episodes, usually ones featuring evil mirror universe Kira, and thinking "I am going to use that in a game someday!"
My wife and I watched everything in chronological order from Star Trek: Enterprise (S1E1) to Star Trek: Nemesis. It took forever but we loved it. When Discovery came on, I was so excited to get back to it. We watched episode one and have not watched anything since. "Those are Klingon ships!" No they're not. Then they showed that Klingons were now Lectroids from Planet Ten. (if you don't get the reference, look it up🤣). I came away from that one episode like the new movies. There was nothing wrong with Star Trek. We had just completed an entire chronological run so you know we are fans. I don't have time in my life for reboots, rewrites, and reimaginings and I definitely don't need old characters rehashed to tell stories we already saw. Now...let's talk about Star Wars...nope, gotta go. I will save that for later. 🤣
Yeah, we watched the first episode of STD and no more. The Orville was a better Star Trek series than STD.
Loved the video and the ideas on it. Also liked this new format but it was a bit weird when you walked behind the text.
There are a lot of classic series that will work as story fodder. For a caper-style adventure, the series Leverage (or the revival series Leverage: Redemption) are great. For a caper-style adventure with more cartoon violence and more MacGyvering, there's The A-Team. And so on.
'Number 1!' - a subtle Star Trek reference (or not so subtle)
Thanks!
I like the look. I was just disappointed that you didn’t say “Number one. Make it so!” at the beginning when you began the list! 😉
Love the Star Trek getup.
Now I can tell my friends and parents "watching Star Trek is educational."
Fun timing, as my next planned campaign was already based on Star Trek.
Draconic Imperium Guard, "We must remain Draconic!"
Star Trek also at times have major meta plots, like Enterprise's three major story arcs of the Temporal Cold War, the Xindi War, and the beginnings of the Romulan War.
The older shows, TOS had the Klingon aggression, TNG laid the groundworks for the Maqui and Cardassians, which bloomed in DS9 along with the Dominion, Voyager ( _for all good and bad_ ) had the whole trip home and the Borg and species 8472 ( _nowdays called Undine in STO_ ).
So indeed, watch Star Trek ^^ In fact watch a lot of stuff, and read a lot of stuff.
The more you know, the more you can mix in and remix things into new things.
I like the new format.
Yes to more Trek.
Guy, you don't want to know what I think about. Mostly puns and naughty jokes. There were quite a few that came up listening to this episode. But, yeah. Mostly puns and naughty jokes.
I love ALL How to ba a Great GM videos!!!! ❤
All these forking roads on this forking planet... Which way do we go?
I guess I can try if I can find a free way to watch it a bit. Not really a fan of space settings in general though. Or aliens; or most sci Fi like shows and movies in general.
Tribbles? Also, i was waiting for the green screen to "fail".
hey Guy! i have a question / Video Request for you: would you mind covering "food in table top games and how to use it" in a lot of table top games food is over looked, in video games and thus how food is treated in tabletop games food usually gives you some kind of mechanical bonus, but i was wondering if you could come at it from a different perspective, perhaps one option for something mechanical another option for something non mechanical in game, similar to my request about sea & space vessels, i feel like the approach within the gaming industry is fundamentally wrong and very static in its conception. I feel like we need something new to break through to elevate everyone's table top experience regardless of experience.
Game long and prosper!
Oh you can min Max STA. Lol. I agree it still provides for Good storytelling
I am a father of a baby and not a lot of time.
What series should I watch?
My favorite is Voyager personally.
Deep Space Nine but, I have also enjoyed Strange New Worlds.
I haven't seen the others, but The Next Generation is absolutely phenomenal. If you're short on time The Orville is an incredibly well done homage and breaks ground on a lot of concepts and dilemmas already considered with Star Trek.
Prodigy or Lower Decks. Each episode is less than 30 minutes long.
DS9 is the perfect RPG campaign, just on TV with great actors and high production values. And it's aged incredibly well, unlike B5.
Who’s DMing the Picard? 🖖
My group tryed 1st Star Trek adventure, we could not get head around extended task and ship rules so given up and went back to dnd , as we know rules as 1st book was painful to try and navigate as for new players. So pleas tell me 2rd edition is better ed better written and layout .
Game masters should have 5 dots on there collar
Traveller tips :)
Beam me up!
Star trek? I'm all IN
Agreed completely. Tons of content, much of it similar but also different in many ways, just as different people write, direct, act and fund each episode/movie/story-arc etc. There's more than enough great idea-food and learning-aides if one watched just; TOS, TNG, Ds9, Voyager, and some of the movies.
I could go on at some length, having re-watched most of ST at this point, quite a few times (along with Babylon 5... that's actually similar with some respects to ds9... some episodic installments and a good bit of overarching story that a more-stationary, more-people/character-oriented environ, like a station, can provide.
BEWARE the near-endless ranting of a fast keyboarder when given one of their favorite subjects to write/comment about! ahahah
From here on i'll probably rant, ramble and quit half way before i feel it's been properly finished... but if you want an experienced opinion from someone who's watched & re-watched the shows & movies since being a small child, and for the 35-40 years after... If you are someone with the patience to be dragged along with my [potentially crazy] writing style, then read on, and feel free to agree and/or disagree with anything i've even touched upon; i'm happy to share what enlightenment that can be gained surrounding these subjects. Anyway, you've been warned. :)
+The Original Series (Live+Animated+Phase 2; i actually found the quality consistently higher in TOS animated & Phase 2, but se la vi)
+TNG is a bit ... here & there? Inconsistent if compared to other better episodes? it's fascinating stuff till you've watched all other ST and are coming back around to re-watch TNG. Ds9, Voyager + a few other bits may just spoil you as it did me... at least for my re-watch-enjoyment of TNG, generally speaking. Don't get me wrong, TNG was great, even the recycled ideas felt fresh enough and you never knew what was coming next new ep. All i'm sayin, is that when i look for my stats on which ep's i re-watch the most... only a few are TNG, and they had 7 full, great seasons too! their competition is themselves though; other ST shows, don't exactly make it a fair comparison. hehe :)
+Deep Space Nine is just fantastic. It's got a random episodic episode here an there but i don't think any other ST series can say it had such a high number & high quality of story arcs going for a fantastic show up till the last episode in season 7. SPOLER ALERT: Season 6 of DS9 may be ranked the best overall season of any Star Trek show ever, and looking over what eps are in there, i think that i agree.
+Voyager got off little rocky but grew into a fun show that gave us all more good ST content in a new setting with new faces... just be sure you learn to skip that insane 2m+ intro ... though if you watch ds9 first you may already know all about that (it's probably the longest at around 3 min!~ haha)
P.S.
i may come back and edit in some more later when i get a chance. I should like to comment on [almost] everything else (including fan-films ST and SW have a few good Fan works) JJ-Trek, ENT, SNW, Lower Decks, s3 of Picard and also say a little of whatever i have NOT mentioned yet.
I disagree entirely we should watch star trek purely on the basis that it is awesome and much of my marriage is based around a love of star trek. So there :p
How to present moral dilemmas that are "safe" for all people.
No way to be sure but asking first what they would be cool with.
After you intro and body I was waiting for the twist.... so disappointed.
Constructive criticism. I like the set and movement but make sure when you are talking to us you are looking at the camera. Talk to us, not at us.
I like the way he engages
Wouldn't him constantly focusing 'at' us make him talking 'at' us?
I'd alter this to say that you don't have to stare at the camera, but you do need to face it. In theater terms "cheat out". But I also like the set, it adds a great flavor. I appreciate the commitment to the bit too with the costumes and slides (which also sometimes obscured you).
While I think your point is important, and I agree generally that looking at the audience is important, I honestly thought he did more or less fine with it here imo
??? 😂😂 autistic
I've watched this twice and the only thing you've convinced me of is stop watching your videos and unsubscribe.
No thanks, I despise Star Trek. You did not sell me on this show.
How about no, I hate that commie propoganda show.
You can steal the format without using the content.
@@Ezberron I don't want to re watch the show to learn a new "format" of rushing to the conclusion of the episode in 25 minutes