tar Trek fans have always run into trouble with the legal moat which surrounds the franchise.  Since the first Star Trek convention got underway, fan-created Star Trek material has been ensnared in legal controversy.  When the Internet boom began in the early 1990's, Star Trek fans were on the cutting edge, and very soon there developed a corporate backlash as Paramount, Viacom, and other entities that own part or all of the Star Trek franchise, sought to silence and punish fans for appropriating copyrighted material.  Trek fan sites on the web were being swatted right and left, inspiring a predictable counterbacklash as the fans bucked what they viewed as a heartless and cold corporate policy.
        For myself, I can only say that I approached the creation of the STSTCSOLD&A with no small degree of trepidation.  At one point all of the artwork and written material in the original STSTCS was thoroughly copyrighted, and I would not have dared place any of it on the internet for fear of getting dinged by lawyers.
        That was over ten years ago, though.
        What happens when a company which produces a media tie-in product like the STSTCS loses its license for said media?  FASA coughed up its right to create and publish Star Trek material at about the same time ST:TNG was moving into high gear.  Creation of any new Trek stuff at FASA, as well as printing of existing product, was halted.  The STSTCS and indeed the entire FASA Star Trek RPG universe was cut adrift.  To haze matters further, there is an official policy on the part of Star Trek's film and television producers to quietly ignore the vast majority of written tie-in material.  This includes just about all of the various Star Trek novels from Pocketbooks, as well as the various starship combat games—STSTCS and Starfleet Battles—and any role-playing stuff that goes along with them.  What can you say about a game that is a) no longer in print, b) increasingly rare and hard to find, c) no longer owned by its original publisher, d) disavowed by the media it ties in with, and e) over ten years out of date?
        Given this thoroughly muddled state of affairs, I therefore feel safe to preserve at least a good portion of the game in an on-line format, at no cost, for the benefit and enjoyment of other FASA Trek fans.
Sadly, the one item most fans want most is the one item I don't provide.  At least half of all the letters I get are from relatively new and/or returning Trek fans who are just finding out about the game, or are rediscovering the game after a long time away from it.  In both cases, people are desperate to try and get their hands on the game rules themselves, either because they never owned a copy of the game or because they were foolish enough to get rid of the game at some point in the past.  While I would love nothing more than to provide each and every fan with a verbatim transcript of the entire STSTCS rules book, it came to my attention in 2001 that a third party purchased the rights to the rule system that the STSTCS is based upon.  This third party is jealously guarding these rules and has already contacted other, older STSTCS sites in an effort to get them to take down any and all portions of the rules that have been posted on the web.  So far nobody has been hauled into court, but I don't want to be a trendsetter in this regard so I am steering clear of this known legal iceberg. (NOTE: as of 2020 I have seen several scanned .pdf copies of the game manuals, core rule book, and other materials, floating around various pencil-and-dice archive sites.  If you're patient and can do some efficient Googling, I am sure you can find what you need.  Or better yet, just buy a used copy from eBay or Amazon, where you can usually find most of what you're looking for; and for reasonable prices, too.)
        Having said all this, I want to state for the record that this entire web site is indeed non-profit.  I do not collect a dime for the OLD&A in any way, shape, or form.  The OLD&A is part archive and part fan update, created by a fan for the enjoyment of fans, with no intention of stealing any proprietary material for inappropriate use.  I have rigorously given writer and artist credit where credit is due, and it is my intention to continue this practice as long as I am in charge of this web site.  I understand that the writers and artists who first created the STSTCS worked very hard on their material, and it is my hope that everyone involved will see the OLD&A as a loving homage to that hard work.
        Think of the STSTCSOLD&A as a nature preserve, designed to harbor a vanishing species of pencil and paper amusement.  In a world now dominated by advanced computer games, the STSTCS is a beloved relic, akin to classic automobiles or vintage wine.  In creating the OLD&A I am doing something similar to restoring a car, combining new parts with an old chassis, repainting the body panels and polishing the glass.  As with most car restoration, the entire OLD&A project is a labor of affection, done solely for the sheer satisfaction of the thing.  With my STSTCS game books slowly falling into shreds, I hope to preserve the essence of the STSTCS in a medium that cannot be dulled, dimmed, smudged, ripped, or otherwise folded and spindled by time.  I also hope to bring a new generation of Trek fans into the Old World of both Star Trek, and Star Trek gaming—where mental activity, not processor speed, powers the action.
        Still, there is always a chance I may step on some person's toes.  And I more than willing to accommodate anyone who has a legal right to any of this material and wishes for it to be removed from the OLD&A.  So if you own part or all of anything, be it text or graphics, posted to this web site, and you believe it has been done so in violation of your legal rights, please, please, please let me know.  I work on this web site for no other reason than I love the game and I love Star Trek.  I hate to see it destroyed by time and the vagaries of the Star Trek franchise, and I don't want to see it smacked around over a legal battle.  I will happily remove any and all material that cannot be posted non-profit to the internet in the public domain.  Just send me e-mail and we'll discuss the specifics.  Again, I am more than willing to accommodate such requests if they were justly and reasonably founded.

        Thank you very much!

        — Brad R. Torgersen