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Rating: 
Summary: Wasted Potential!
Review: For roleplaying, I prefer Star Wars - Star Trek can be a bit tedious; still, being a hard core Trekkie for over 25 years, I wanted to give this book a chance. I was hoping that it would be equally useful as an information reference, and as an RPG supplement.
As far as gaming is concerned, it's ok. The books major flaw is that it does not stand alone. In order to use it, you must already own the Narrator's Guide. Practically every section tells you to refer back to the other guide - the only bright point is that it usually gives you the page number. The writers could have easily transferred the necessary information to this volume; but instead, a marketing ploy was used to sell more books.
For a refference: The ship statistics given are pretty good, but in large part, only relevant in terms of game usage. Ships' backgrounds could have been fleshed out a little more, and the graphics style used to depict the vessels appears chunky and angular. I'd hoped the entry quality would be closer to that of the now defunct Star Trek Magazine, or the various Trek technical manuals. Despite all that, as a source of info, my biggest complaint is volume. Sure, they covered "Over forty different starship designs," but they neglected throngs of others. Given that they chose to make a complementary book of nothing but ships, I feel they should have been exhaustive in their efforts.
So, regarding both information and roleplaying, I'd say this book is incomplete. I wouldn't recommend its purchase unless you are heavily into the RPG. It only deserves two stars, but the simple fact that it's Star Trek earns it an extra star.
Rating:
Summary: Wasted Potential!
Review: For roleplaying, I prefer Star Wars - Star Trek can be a bit tedious; still, being a hard core Trekkie for over 25 years, I wanted to give this book a chance. I was hoping that it would be equally useful as an information reference, and as an RPG supplement.
As far as gaming is concerned, it's ok. The books major flaw is that it does not stand alone. In order to use it, you must already own the Narrator's Guide. Practically every section tells you to refer back to the other guide - the only bright point is that it usually gives you the page number. The writers could have easily transferred the necessary information to this volume; but instead, a marketing ploy was used to sell more books.
For a refference: The ship statistics given are pretty good, but in large part, only relevant in terms of game usage. Ships' backgrounds could have been fleshed out a little more, and the graphics style used to depict the vessels appears chunky and angular. I'd hoped the entry quality would be closer to that of the now defunct Star Trek Magazine, or the various Trek technical manuals. Despite all that, as a source of info, my biggest complaint is volume. Sure, they covered "Over forty different starship designs," but they neglected throngs of others. Given that they chose to make a complementary book of nothing but ships, I feel they should have been exhaustive in their efforts.
So, regarding both information and roleplaying, I'd say this book is incomplete. I wouldn't recommend its purchase unless you are heavily into the RPG. It only deserves two stars, but the simple fact that it's Star Trek earns it an extra star.
Rating: 
Summary: Very Nice Suppliment
Review: Starships is a very worthwhile purchase for narrators that plan on duing heavy-duty starship combat in their campaigns. The expanded construction rules really allow your imagination to take full control and create whatever you so desire, and the book provides a plethora of different starships from major galactic powers (e.g. the UFP, Romulans, Cardassians, Klingons and Borg). You'll need the Narrator's Guide in addition to this book if you want to create an expanded edition starship because they did not copy over various key tables. It's also a bit frusturating that they did not provide an updated Starship Profile sheet. But overall, I'd say Starships is a worthwhile addition the Star Trek RPG family.
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