The Second Edition of Modiphius‘ Star Trek Adventures is now on general release. This is great news for fans of science fiction and roleplaying games wanting to add their own chapter to the legendary Star Trek mythos.
The First Edition has already been a massive success since it was first released in 2017. Since then, it has continued to come out with new content and adventures. During this time, the game’s staff have been engaging with fans, learning what’s worked and what can be improved upon. This Second Edition is a result of this feedback and recent developments in the world of Star Trek.
I was lucky enough to get a review copy of the new Core Rulebook to try out. After a couple of eventful voyages, I am very happy to share my thoughts and experiences with you.
Star Trek Adventures Second Edition’s Core Rulebook is available on Modiphius’ website. You can order the physical copy for £50 or the pdf version for £15.
If you would like to get a taste of the game before buying, there is a free Quickstart Guide available. This includes the standalone mission, The Celestial Algorithm, with ready to go character sheets.
There is also a Game Toolkit pdf available for £14. This includes reference resources, additional spacecraft and mission profiles as well as game master advice and options.
There are also limited edition versions of the Core Rulebook available for £80. These come complete with ornate Original Series/Strange New Worlds style coverings in three Starfleet department color schemes: Blue Science, Red Operations and Gold Command.
Story – Fitting Into the Star Trek Universe of Exploration and Discovery
Whether you’re a Star Trek veteran or completely new to the franchise, there is a wealth of lore available in the game. This includes a comprehensive timeline of Star Trek history from first contact to the 32nd Century. It also includes everything you need to know about Starfleet and other major players in the Star Trek universe. It even provides you with information about the in-universe technology. This comes complete with ‘Treknobabble’ cheat sheets so you can deal with warp core breaches and reverse aging syndromes like a native.
The Core Rulebook will support you in finding your own way in the Star Trek universe.
When you’re planning an adventure for your players, you have a few options. For first time players and/or gamemasters, I would recommend the introductory adventure provided by the Core Rulebook: The Gorgon’s Gaze. This Original Series era adventure will guide gamemasters and players through investigating a medical mystery whilst abiding by the Prime Directive on a pre-warp planet. There are also many ready to go mission available on Modiphius’ website. Check out this article if you would like to see what free resources are available for you.
Once you’re confident enough running these games, you can start creating your own scenarios. This is where the creative beauty of the game really shines. Have you wanted to experience what was happening across the Federation during the Dominion War? Now you can! Are you curious about what Starfleet missions were like between the original films and The Next Generation? The resources in the Core Rulebook will help you figure out how to bring your favorite Star Trek scenarios to life.
Character Creation
Character creation is one of my favorite features of Star Trek Adventures. I’d personally recommend the Character Lifepath method of character creation, if you and your players have time. Whilst it is a little more time consuming than the Creation in Play method, I feel you end up with more rounded characters Star Trek media is famous for.
Character Lifepath will guide you from choosing the species of their character through their upbringing, their career and formative life events. At each point, the decisions you make will prompt you to add certain features or stats to your character. Eventually, you’ll end up with a fully realized, mission ready crewmember to start adventuring as. You can make these decisions yourselves, or use the random tables in the character guide to let the dice choose what sort of person your character start off as.
If you would prefer a more traditional character creation experience, you can use the Creation in Play method where you start with your character’s on ship role and then assign stat points and features to build your character in a much more direct way. You can then build up your character’s back story from there or figure it out as you play.
New Second Edition Content
Since the First Edition was released in 2017, we have seen lots more Star Trek seasons grace our screens. This includes including Discovery, Picard, Prodigy, Lower Decks and Strange New Worlds. The Second Edition has taken in these additions to the ever growing Star Trek lore thanks to Modiphius’ license with Paramount. This means that players can use Star Trek Adventures to play out virtually any scenario currently in Star Trek history supported by the new Core Rulebook.
The design team were keen to give players much more choice over characters and scenarios for the Second Edition. In the First Edition, you could play as eight different species who were part of the United Federation of Planets. In the Second Edition, you can now play as the Aenar species as well as several non-Federation species. These non-Federation species include Klingons, Cardassians, Romulans, Orions and Ferengi, bringing the total of playable species up to fourteen. This gives players the option of having members of these species as part of their Starfleet crews or playing a non-Starfleet crew. There is already a Klingon Core Rulebook and Quickstart Guide. With more content on the way for the Second Edition, we shall hopefully see more resources and adventures available for other non-Starfleet crews too.
Regardless of how you decide to approach planning adventures and character creation, there are so many resources available in the Core Rulebook to make sure that you feel right at home in the world of Star Trek.
Gameplay – Creating Screenplay Worthy Adventures
Star Trek Adventures uses the 2d20 system that Modiphius uses for a lot of its products, including Dreams & Machines and Acthung! Cthulhu. This system is used most prominently for performing tasks. By adding relevant character stats together, you end up with a target number. Rolling equal or under your target number on your d20s grants you a success. The higher the stats you have, the more likely you are to roll under your target number. Depending on the tasks, you may need a number of successful rolls to be successful overall. There are numerous ways that you can ‘buy’ extra d20s for your roll. Making sure you have enough to be successful in your tasks will be crucial for the success of your mission.
Peril & Opportunity in Equal Measure
To create a balanced narrative, the game’s mechanics give the gamemaster ways of making the game more challenging and the players ways to give themselves an advantage. Players can gain a narrative resource called Momentum. Momentum allows them to buy more d20s for a task roll, take extra actions or learn more from the gamemaster. Meanwhile, the gamemaster has a resource called Threat which they can use to make the scene for deadly for their players.
How will you and your crew handle potentially hostile encounters on the final frontier?
Even though it may sound like the gamemaster’s job is to bully the players, it feels more like giving your players the chance to shine. Characters have unique features such as Focuses, which can turn successes into critical successes if used with the right task. I’ve been overjoyed seeing the look on a player’s face when they realized they have just the right Focus to turn a dire situation around.
Co-operation is also something that is heavily encouraged through the Assistance and Teamwork mechanics. When attempting a task, you can have other characters assist you in different ways. I find this mechanic really gets players thinking creatively and collaboratively about ways they can help solve problems that don’t have an obvious solution. What can possibly be more Star Trek than that?
Character Development
People aren’t going to go through these kind of experiences being changed in some way. The game’s Values feature very much embodies that sentiment. Values are statements that represent a character’s beliefs or convictions. Acting in accordance or against those beliefs can provide rare, game-changing benefits for characters as they grow through experience. Such experiences could even result in these Values being changed, thus altering your character’s predicted development.
There are various other mechanics to manage a character’s journey from mission to mission. Milestones represent meaningful events in your character’s life and can result in your character changing or improving as a result. Career-wise, there is a Reputation scale, meaning that your character can be decorated for their actions, receiving rewards and medals, or maybe getting reprimanded or demoted. Players are encouraged to keep a log to chart their progress and activating long term perks from their illustrious career.
Improvements in the Second Edition
One of the obvious ways the game has changed since the First Edition is combat. The Challenge Dice used to calculate damage have now been scrapped. It is now replaced with several other features to streamline action scenes. Most notably, there is now a Severity Rating which will tell you what a particular weapon or attack does without the need for further calculations. To make combat even more fluid, Non-Player Characters do not have a Stress track anymore. Instead, they have a personal Threat gauge they can use to their advantage.
Spaceship combat has also been simplified and made to be more fast paced. With the removal of Challenge Dice, the ships’ weapons, abilities and stats have been rebalanced. Additionally, many more options have been added to allow players to use non-Federation ships. Also, players using ships will no longer have to keep track of the power rating. This has been replaced by the Trait, Reserve Power, which the ship either has or doesn’t have.
The final major change to mention is Extended Tasks. Rather than rolling a Challenge Die to progress, progress on these tasks will be at a fixed rate. This First Edition Compatibility post on Modiphius’ website is well worth a look for First Edition players. It will show you how you can adapt Extended Tasks and many other features to the Second Edition ruleset. It’s also important to remember that if you preferred the way the First Edition worked, you can continue to use that in tandem with all this new and upcoming content.
Artwork & Presentation – Bringing Those Strange New Worlds to Life
One of the joys of getting hold of a new Star Trek Adventures book is flicking through its gorgeous artwork. It’s no exaggeration that these books really make the world of Star Trek come to life. Throughout the book, we are granted looks of alien planets, starbases and characters old and new. People new to Star Trek will instantly know what a Klingon warrior looks like whilst old fans will be reassured by the familiar sight of Captain Picard in his ready room.
This artwork also includes a detailed Galaxy Map you can find in the front cover and the Timelines you can find in the back. These backdrops really help you feel at home in the time and space of the Star Trek universe as you plan your next adventure.
Another touch I really appreciated was seeing the characters from the QuickStart guide appearing throughout the Core Rulebook to offer tips and advice. Seeing Commodore Nella Xen and the crew of the U.S.S. Challenger appear to offer some friendly words and context, felt like you were being checked on by old friends.
The game materials provide a gorgeous setup for your adventures.
