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Real world article
(written from a Production point of view)

The Romulan War was a two-volume sourcebook guide for Star Trek: The Role Playing Game by FASA. The second book is the adventure Old Soldiers Never Die.

Summary[]

From the book jacket
While on a routine survey mission, the crew of the USS Sparon receives an urgent message from the Star Fleet Museum at Memory Alpha. As the closest available ship, the Sparon is ordered to investigate an attempted break-in of one of the museum's storerooms. The investigation leads to the planet Daran V and a group of dissatisfied Star Fleet veterans who voice the opinion that much stronger measures should be taken against the Federation's enemies.
Decisive action is needed when the museum reports the successful theft of a mothballed battleship, the USS Juggernaut, a relic of the Romulan War. If this ship were fitted with modern warp engines and other equipment, it would be a very potent vessel. The adventurers must find those responsible for the theft before the Juggernaut can be used against Star Fleet.
This adventure module also includes a separate book describing the Romulan War, fought between the United Federation of Planets and the Romulan Star Empire. Included are essays by Federation experts on the causes of the war, the major battles, and the political, social, and economic factors involved.

Excerpts of copyrighted sources are included for review purposes only, without any intention of infringement.

Background information[]

While the guide did include quite a bit of information about the war gleaned from the description given in "Balance of Terror", it cannot really be used in any manner except as a historical guide. There is no information about the combat abilities of the starships.

There is vast information about the classes of ships involved. The guide also give a non-canon version of how the war could have ended, understandable since there is no definite information on the subject. In this scenario, the Earth ships and Romulans are both losing men at an alarming rate. A councilman named Dannon gives an impassioned speech to stop the fighting after a great victory gives the Federation a marginal tactical advantage. Councilman Dannon was later assassinated by someone disgruntled about ending the war without total victory.

One manner in which the guide manages to stay within canon is describing the fact that no Human ever saw a Romulan. Their ships were either destroyed or self-destructed before capture. According to the guide, the war was started with a series of pirate attacks by an unknown enemy. Earth declared war when a Starbase was attacked and destroyed. Much like in World War II with the commanders at Pearl Harbor, there was a lot of finger-pointing as to how the base was destroyed.

Credits[]

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