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I’ve created a VTT (virtual table-top) for the FASA Start Trek Starship Combat system. This may not appeal to the few of you that still play the game because this is not intended to turn the RPG into a video game. It’s intended to facilitate online play for the RPG. You could certainly use it for the starship combat system alone, which is often used as a board game, but however you play, you’ll need your ship recognition panels. The game does very little along the lines of game mechanics.

The only mechanics it handles are calculation of 1) your fleet’s total combat efficiency, and 2) range to target. The VTT just tells you the range to target is # hexes. Whether or not you have the power points to move to that target hex, or hit an enemy ship located there, is something you need to gather from your character sheet.

My inspiration for creating this is that I’m planning to introduce my gaming groups to the game. One of our group moved across country, so he has to dial in. Using MS Teams, I can give him access to the game board, both visually and in terms of allowing him to take control of the screen and move his ships around. That said, a planned future enhancement will be to implement remote multiplayer rooms, allowing him (or any remote player) to join our game just by entering a game room code. Remember, though; it’s not a video game.

This is in beta test, which means a few things.

1. I’m seeking honest feedback on the user interface. Does anything bother you, even if just a little? Do you have any preferences? Were the basic instructions on the left side of the screen clear enough to understand? If so, are the shortcut keys intuitive? No nitpicks are too nitpicky.
2. There are still a few tweeks I need to add in. For example, select a ship and hold the A key, and four firing arcs appear (forward, port, aft, and starboard). Let go of the A key, and they’ll disappear. The problem is that space stations use three firing arcs, not four, but for now they’re showing four. That’s literally the next item on my to-do list, but I’d like to add others.
3. I have yet to add every ship in the game. The Federation is almost complete, but there’s plenty more Klingon and Romulan ships to add. The Gorn and Orions are complete but only because there aren’t many options for those cultures. I’m considering adding the ships in the fan-created Gorn and Orion ship recognition manuals, but because they’re third party products, that’s low on my list of priorities. That said, there are certainly enough ships right now to actually play a game. The ships it has are the ones you’re most likely to use anyway.
4. Other items on my to-do list include better interaction with obstacles (e.g., asteroids, planets, stars), alternative panning controls, search function for the list of assets, better movement visualization tools. How these enhancements are implemented will rely heavily on the feedback I receive.

Once I have a full release, I’ll place the code on github, after which I’ll create another VTT to deal with the personal combat system, and then after that convert my MS Access character builder application to a web application.

As always, happy gaming!

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