10 Star Trek Games Paramount Should Develop
6. Star Trek: Shards of Glass
Sometimes, it feels good to be bad. And even the virtuous world of Star Trek gives us a playground for those moments. The Mirror Universe. A savage parallel reality where darker versions of familiar characters live under the brutal Terran Empire rather than the Federation.
This would be a Star Trek RPG like no other. Stranded in the Mirror Universe, your Starfleet character would be faced with the fact that survival comes first.
A morality mechanic would form the heart of the game. Every choice and action would contribute to either your Integrity or Influence. Building Integrity would require you to uphold your Starfleet ideals. Influence, meanwhile, would increase whenever you played the game like a local.
Want to try to overthrow the evil oppressors? You'll need to keep your Integrity intact. But Integrity comes with its own risks; companions may decide you're too weak and betray you, or even stab you in the back. Literally.
Fed up with being Mr Nice Guy and want to seize power for yourself? Then you'll need to build your Influence. But be warned, that's a sure way to attract rivals. You'll want to pour all of your points into the 'sleeping with one eye open' skill.
Of course, such a mechanic would come with a set of more unusual attributes to unlock. Things like Agility, Wisdom and Stamina might be replaced with Respect, Ambition and Manipulation. And certain storylines would only unlock at higher levels of Integrity or Influence, meaning that trying to avoid the risks by hiding somewhere in between would carry its own consequences.
Whether you ever manage to get home or not would be entirely down to how you play. But the real question is whether you'd actually want to go home by the end of your journey—just a thought.