I have recently been ready over the Fate rpg core rules and I am considering running a Star Trek Themed game taking place at the conclusion of the Original series five year mission.

Would there be any interest in this game? Should I use Fate? Are there any recommendations or changes people would suggest?

I would be interested.

Fate Core could work great. Fate Accelerated might be easier to handle simply because it's lighter, but Core is a good system too. If you have access to the Atomic Robo RPG there are a few subsystems that would work great for Star Trek, namely the brainstorming and inventing rules.

Fate Accelerated is made for Star Trek.

The six Approaches can be changed to reflect ST-specific areas, e.g.  Command, Operations, Sciences, Nature*, Tactical, Academy.

*Nature covers background, culture, philosophy, etc.  Between that and an Aspect to cover alien traits, you're in business.

I'd be interested, but I only know Fate Accelerated, so my interest is specific to that.

I've played Trek before in FAE using badpenny's suggested modification, or rather as Command, Ops, Engineering, Science, Security/Tactical, Medicine. I thought it worked rather well, more fitting to Trek and better and clearer than I've understood the Approaches to work normally. "I'm going to solve this problem with Science!" is so much more satisfying. :D

That FAE hack sounds interesting. If you don't mind, I might tinker with that in the future.

By the way, would the game have players reprising the original crew or would they be new characters?

It would be all original characters. Character creation would be done as a group.

I probably would prefer using Fate Core, but stealing the idea of revamped skill list (Engineering instead of craft, Helm instead of drive, Security instead of Investigate, etc.)

Full skill list might look something like...

Academics
Athletics
Command
Diplomacy
Engineering
Espionage
Fight
Helm
Infiltrate
Medical
Notice
Physique
Science
Security
Shoot
Stealth
Tactical (Starship weapons)
Will

Any suggestions to modify the skill list?

If we're imagining a game ala TOS Star Trek, who exactly is going to use Espionage on an away team or manning the ship during a ship-to-ship encounter?

Set skill lists (what you know) are not as useful as as Approach (how you do something).

You really don't have to reskin the Approaches at all.  Using vanilla FAE works perfectly, but it does lend itself to the genre.

Example:



Things like Espionage can easily be subsumed under Military if it ever comes up as opposed to a player putting ranks into it and because of the way others players might pull a story, the Espionage skill never comes into play.

Star Trek characters are supremely talented, cross trained, and it's never about if they'll triumph, but how/when.

Found this hack for Star Trek FAE. Thoughts?

Did you mean to include a link?

There was, but having reviewed I decided it doesn't meet our needs.

I have decided I will go with Fate Accelerated. However I will change the approaches slightly. How about this as a possible list

Command
Helm
Tactical

Operations
Security
Engineering

Medical
Science
Diplomat

This list is not complete. Other approaches can be taken including merchant, rogue, spy, etc. I feel that leaving it open to interpretation is in line with the concept of the Fate system. Thus it would be easier to create a Harry Mudd or Consellor Troi type character.

Thoughts?

Adding more Approaches is basically just re-skinning the Core skills if you think about it.  The beauty of FAE is that it's compact.  Six Approaches that cover how you do things, not what you do/know.

Before you go changing things around, figure out what matters most to you.  Fate Core is just different from FAE.  If you're coming from a game system where Core feels more comfortable, then ease your way into Fate with Core.  FAE can be quite a leap for some.

I've seen a variant that borrows from Kaiju Incorporated, in that it uses an abbreviated skills list separated into modes (which Atomic Robo also uses). The four modes in KI are Crisis, Lab, Office, and PR. You get one at Good (+3), one at Fair (+2), one at Average (+1), with the last being at the default of Mediocre. You mark one skill in each mode as focused, giving it an additional +1, then one focused skill is marked as specialized, increasing its bonus to +2. Just figure out a proper mix of skills for four modes (KI uses three skills per), and there you go.

The way I look at it, having a few more is just simply changing the descriptors. You can have Security +4, Mercenary +4, Marine +4, or Soldier +4, Forceful +4 or Fight +4. At the end of the day, they all provide the same game modifier, the only change is how you define the background of the action.

I don't see any reason why all characters have to have the same ones to choose from, there can be overlap and variences to suit your character concept. Mechanically it should all work out the same.