The time is coming for Star Trek and tabletop roleplaying gaming fans to get their hands on the Second Edition Modiphius‘ Star Trek: Adventures. Since it was announced in May, we have since learned that the new core rulebook will be released at Gen Con, August 1st – 4th, with a general release around the same time.
If this seems like too long to wait, there is already so much Star Trek Adventures content available on Modiphius’ website that you can download entirely for free!
Here is a quick rundown of the free content available right now. For more on what to expect in the Second Edition, check out this previous article, including a talk with the game’s Creative Lead, Jim Johnson.
Quick Start Guides
For anyone wanting to have a quick taste of what Star Trek: Adventures Second Edition has to offer, there is a quick start guide ready to download for free. The guide provides a surface level overview of the core mechanics including taking actions and combat as well as character stats and unique features.
It also provides you with a one-shot scenario to play through with friends; The Celestial Algorithm. This three act scenario casts players as the crew of the U.S.S. Challenger, who are captured by a massive alien construct. This scenario is very beginner friendly both for players and GMs. Players are presented with pre-made characters to use, whilst GMs are given lots of tips and advice with how to run the scenario.
There is also a quick start guide for the First Edition, if you would like to try out both systems. This guide similarly features a concise overview of running adventures with First Edition rules. It also provides its own five scene scenario; simply called Signals. Signals has you and your crew investigating an alien device of unknown origins whilst putting you in dangerous encounters with Romulan crews. As with The Celestial Algorithm, it also comes complete with pre-made characters and GM guide.
Who would you rather be in this situation? The Klingon warrior or the Starfleet officer?
As if that wasn’t enough, you can also get hold of a quick start guide for playing as members of the Klingon Empire! This guide is stylized to feel a lot more brutalist with more of an emphasis on Bat’leth combat than Starfleet diplomacy. It uses First Edition rules, but it can be adapted to use Second Edition rules instead. The scenario it offers is called The Tip of the Bat’leth. It features a daring infiltration of a Dominion outpost during Deep Space Nine era.
Character Sheets
Whilst you can try and scrawl down a character sheet on paper, having the official character sheets offers a user friendly and characterful layout. Getting the standard character sheet pack will provide you with sheets for Starfleet of The Original Series and The Next Generation eras. It will also provide you with Starship Registry sheets for creating the ships you and your crew will call home.
For fans of Klingon campaigns, there is also a Klingon character sheet pack personalized for Klingon play rules. These include aspects like caste, legacy, temperament and family history. It also includes a warship registry to you to fly into honorable battle with.
Most novel of all, there is also a Tribble character sheet. You might remember Tribbles as the small round fuzzy creatures that debuted in The Original Series. Whilst they are utterly adorable, they reproduce like wildfire when off their home planet, making them the cutest threat the galaxy has faced! Whilst not as customizable as the other character sheets, there are lots of options available to players.
Roleplaying as a Tribble? It’s more likely than you think!
Some of these involve novel features that expand outside the game world. For example, if a player is constantly eating food during a scene, their Tribble character will get to duplicate. They can then photocopy their character sheet and give it to another player to play the new Tribble! Players can also hide their Tribble from other characters, by hiding themselves somewhere away from the game table. There are also Borg Tribble NPCs capable of injecting other characters with nano-probes and turning them into Borg drones themselves.
Briefs
If you’ve played the quick start guides and are hungry for more free adventures, Modiphius have got you covered. There are many free brief packs which each have ten scenarios in them, grouped by a certain theme.
For example, if you’re a fan of The Next Generation, you could pick up the TNG Anomalies briefs. Perhaps you prefer adventures as cadets or junior officers? In that case, you could try the Starfleet Academy or Lower Decks briefs. The one that has intrigued me the most is the latest free briefs pack, Space Megafauna. This has a variety of giant creature encounters. These range from taking down space poachers to tracking a psychic creature that turns your starship into a 19th Century whaling ship.
What kind of strange new worlds will you discover with your crew?
These are just some of the briefs that caught my attention. You can have a look yourself by going onto Modiphius’ store and searching “star trek adventures briefs”. Whilst many of them are free, others are also available for a modest price.
Star Trek: Adventures Second Edition is now available to preorder on Modiphius’ website. Let us know which free resources you’d recommend and keep an eye on KeenGamer for more from the world of gaming.
