"TSR's Star Probe" Topic

[WARNING! OLD SCI FI GROGNARDS ONLY! YOU GOL DURNED KIDS WOULDN'T UNDERSTAND!]

Just got a very beaten up copy of this old game, which I had in high school back in the early 80s.

It is somewhat complex, though enjoyable, and becomes fairly easy when you figure out the rules.

My issue however…

THERE IS A ROLE PLAYING GAME IN THIS SOMEWHERE.

Go with this for a moment.

What I really loved about Star Probe was the sense of "unknowness" about it. Your people were taking off into the universe for the first time. They had no idea what was out there. You met stuff, and you never knew whether you'd be able to handle it. You outfitted your ship according to a general strategy, and you took your chances.

What if you combined this game with a simple rpg, designed characters (maybe a 5 man crew to "beam down" and kick up a fuss), and then came up with some system for how each game might effect the other.

Maybe you'd do some kind of on the fly adventure system, where the players could stop in the middle of whatever they were doing in the Star Probe game, and start an adventure. The adventure might give them a chance a certain amount of "hero points", or whatever that would act like bennies in the Star Probe game. The players would stand to get more or less of these, depending on what they risked.

For example: the ship is just about to go into Star Probe space battle with an enemy TL VII warship. Captain Quirk decides to beam over to the alien ship and try to sabotage it's shields. The game then stops, and another player makes up an on the fly adventure. He tells the captain what will take place, and ask what he wants to risk. The Captain says he will risk eight fuel slugs and his Repair Crew units. The captain describes an elaborate plan in which the Repair Crew will try to construct an anti-shield warp-bomb using the fuel slugs and signal the captain with the ship's sensor array. The captain and the rest of the Away team must be in position to reverse the polarity of the enemy ship's neutron flow at the precise moment when the sensor array signals.

Success grants a certain number of bennies, failure risks the death of the pcs and the loss of the fuel slugs.

Note that this would involve each civilization's Explorer ship being crewed by multiple players: maybe the captain, first officer, engineer, comm officer and ugly alien security officer with a funny shaped thing on his forehead.

Obviously, this is just a raw idea, but there should be some way to combine the mystery generated by Star Probe with a simple rpg.

My thoughts.

Wow, Star Probe! I have a spanking new copy,(from long-long ago) in a plastic baggie to protect the map and the "counter sheet" of space ships. You might have inspired me to open it up and take a look.

It was (is) great fun. Best sf exploration game I ever found.

A friend of mine had done a campaign role playing sort of game with it and its sequel. I'll call him tomorrow and get him to post here. He is a member.

Sounds like a good idea to me!

I still have my copy. I remember reading a review of the game that had a huge list of pros and only one con: It take five years to explore all the star systems on the map provided. I never could find anyone to play more than a few days, but it was an enjoyable game. Haven't played it since 1980.

E.H.

Noim, the instructions say if you miss a dose to resume taking the medication at your normal time :)

My copy is under lock and key.

Never played it, but had fun reading the charts (also in Star Empire). I wish I still had my copies

Noim, the instructions say if you miss a dose to resume taking the medication at your normal time :)

Maybe, but these guys must be on the same meds :

link

According to this thread, Star Probe (which I now have) was game #1, expanded by game #2 Star Empires (which I wish I had) and then there was supposed to be a #3 game, which was never published, that got into role playing.

As the posters on that thread say, it would have been interesting if TSR had released a star traveling rpg in that era. Because of the popularity of D&D, it might well have rivaled Traveller, or even pushed it out.

I'd just use Traveller, or something close to that, for the RPG part.

Never got Star probe – but did have Star Empires, amd it always felt like the back story for a huge Space Opera novel series.

Still have them both.

SECURITY MINISTER CRITTER 1

Any word from your friend? I'd love to se what he came up with.

I've never seen/played this game but from what has been said it sounds quite interesting… and puts me in mind of the Rogue Trader RPG and the Battlestations boardgame.

I left FB message with link here. Will try to call again on Sun.

I remeber using Star Probe, Star Empires and Space Quest was the roleplaying book…vaguely. Old brain working…

Hi all, I'm not online much these days, so when I finally get to TMP, I have to swear to God I'm a real person, again. <eyeroll>

Anyway, Yeah, it was a Star Empires, not a Star Probe game. A mutual friend of myself and SM Critter has a still running fantasy world set in this universe.

The biggest memories I have of the campaign were "Lucky Eddy's" race designing a really fragile scout ship, and never having a single ship return from exploration. I asked him after about the tenth time of an exploratory expidition coming to grief if he didn't want to redesign the scout ship. "Nah, wouldn't be in character."

The problem with Star Probe is that it couldn't decide if it wanted to be an exploratory game, or a space merchant game. Supposedly your ship is the first to go interstellar, and your responsibility is to fill in the map. But if you get into trouble, you can pay a fine and your planet's space navy shows up and hauls your shot up carcass out of danger. Where did these guys come from?

Also, you could set up a mining colony to harvest not!dilithium crystals. There were even rules on how run different kinds of colonies, including penal colonies. But there were no real rules about how to set up a colony.

It was fun, but a really bad case of over reach (Lord were we ever that young?)

Lamont

Star Probe would make a great computer game or a play by email game. I recall it had a lot of book keeping, which is far better done today by computers than in the old days with paper and pen, and a large binder.

It was a fun game. Wouldn't mind playing again if time permitted. Its been about 30 years since I have played last.

I still have copies of both Star Probe and Star Empires kicking about -- I think they are in my storage unit. There is probably a good game still to be had with either of these games. Just finding the time and the players is the problem.

E.H.