Your Second Star Trek Starter

With the publication of Star Trek Adventures by Modiphius Entertainment in 2017, there have been a total of ten roleplaying games based on the Science Fiction franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. In the past eight years, the publisher has provided solid support for the franchise across three different series of Star Trek. In turn, Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: The Generation and by extension, Star Trek: Deep Space 9 and Star Trek: Voyager, as well as Star Trek: Enterprise. In addition, the publisher has expanded setting with details of the Shackleton Expanse, whilst also encompassing the expanding settings for Star Trek with the StarTrek Adventures Star Trek: Lower Decks Campaign Guide for Star Trek: Lower Decks and the Star Trek Adventures Star Trek: Discovery(2256-2258) Campaign Guide and Star Trek Adventures The Federation-Klingon War Tactical Campaign for Star Trek: Discovery. With the further expansion of Star Trek with Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and Picard, so too does Star Trek Adventures change, with a second edition.

The Star Trek Adventures – Second Edition – Starter Set provides an introduction to Star Trek Adventures – Second Edition. It comes as a handsome boxed set containing two booklets—the forty-eight page ‘Rules Booklet’ and the sixty-page ‘Campaign Booklet’, four Reference Sheets, a Ship Sheet, seven pre-generated Player Character Sheets, a sheet of forty-four tokens, and a set of five twenty-sided dice. The Ship Sheet is for the U.S.S. Challenger, a Constitution Class multirole explorer. The seven pre-generated Player Character Sheets are for the ship’s captain, a Joined Trill; an Andorian security officer; a Vulcan physician; a Tellarite engineer; a Human Scientist; a Human Helmsman; and a Betazoid Engineer. These are all done on stiff cardboard and on the back of the character sheets there is a list of tasks and targets particular to their roles.

What is noticeable about this, is that the books and the reference and characters sheets are all done on a white background rather than the LCARS black background of the first edition of Star Trek Adventures. This makes everything very easy to ready and gives the whole Star Trek Adventures – Second Edition – Starter Set a very shiny, clean look and feel. The adventure for Star Trek Adventures – Second Edition – Starter Set is set in 2259, the era of Star Trek: The Original Series, but the changes necessary to run its mini-campaign, whether to Star Trek: The Generation or Enterprise, are merely cosmetic.

A Player Character in Star Trek Adventures – Second Edition – Starter Set is defined by Attributes, Disciplines, Focuses, Traits, Talents, and Values and Dictates. The six Attributes—Control, Daring, Fitness, Insight, Presence, and Reason—represent ways of or approaches to doing things as well as intrinsic capabilities. They are rated between seven and twelve. The six Disciplines—Command, Conn, Engineering, Security, Science, and Medicine—are skills, knowledges, and areas of training representing the wide roles aboard a starship. They are rated between one and five. Focuses represent narrow areas of study or skill specialities, for example, Astrophysics, Xenobiology, or Warp Field Dynamics. Traits and Talents represent anything from what a character believes, is motivated by, intrinsic abilities, ways of doing things, and so on. They come from a character’s species, upbringing, training, and life experience.

Star Trek Adventures – Second Edition employs the 2d20 System previously used in the publisher’s Mutant Chronicles: Techno Fantasy Roleplaying Game and Robert E. Howard’s Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of, as well, of course, as the first edition of Star Trek Adventures. To undertake an action, a character’s player rolls two twenty-sided dice, aiming to have both roll under the total of an Attribute and a Discipline. Each roll under this total counts as a success, an average task requiring two successes. Rolls of one count as two successes and if a character has an appropriate Focus, rolls under the value of the Discipline also count as two successes. Target difficulties range from one to five, and if a player rolls more successes than is necessary to beat the difficulty, they are converted to Momentum.

Momentum can be spent for various effects. These consist of ‘Create Opportunity’ to purchase more twenty-sided dice to roll, up to a total of five; to ‘Create a Trait’ in a scene; to ‘Keep the Initiative’ in an action scene; to ‘Obtain Information’ by asking the Game Master questions; ‘Reduce Time’ to achieve objectives faster; and to have an ‘Extra Major Action’ or ‘Extra Minor Action’. There is a maximum amount of Momentum that the Player Characters can have and any excess is lost. So, the players are encouraged to spend Momentum rather than save it.

Main characters like the Player Characters possess Determination, which works with their Values or with the Values of the mission. A Value can either be challenged once per session in a negative or difficult situation to gain Determination or invoked once per session to spend Determination to gain an extra die for a check (a ‘Perfect Opportunity’) or to get a reroll of the dice in a check (‘Moment of Inspiration’). They also have Talents and Traits which will grant a character an advantage in certain situations. So Bold (Engineering) enables a player to reroll a single twenty-sided die for his character if he has purchased extra dice by adding to the Game Master’s Threat pool.

Now where the players generate Momentum to spend on their characters, the Game Master has Threat which can be spent on similar things for the NPCs as well as to trigger their special abilities. She begins each session with a pool of Threat, but can gain more through various circumstances. These include a player purchasing extra dice to roll on a test, a player rolling a natural twenty and so adding two Threat (instead of the usual Complication), the situation itself being threatening, or NPCs rolling well and generating Momentum and so adding that to Threat pool. In return, the Gamemaster can spend it on minor inconveniences, complications, and serious complications to inflict upon the player characters, as well as triggering NPC special abilities, having NPCs seize the initiative, and bringing the environment dramatically into play.

What the Momentum and Threat mechanics do is set up a pair of parallel economies with Threat being fed in part by Momentum, but Momentum in the main being used to overcome the complications and circumstances which the expenditure of Threat can bring into play. The primary use of Threat though, is to ratchet up the tension and the challenge, whereas the primary use of Momentum is to enable the player characters to overcome this challenge and in action, be larger than life.

Conflict uses the same mechanics, but offers more options in terms of what Momentum can be spent on, which includes both social and combat. Obviously for combat, includes doing extra damage, disarming an opponent, keeping the initiative—initiative works by alternating between the player characters and the NPCs and keeping it allows two player characters to act before an NPC does, avoid an injury, and so on. Now, in the first edition of Star Trek Adventures this damage would have been rolled for using Challenge Dice, but these are not used in the second edition. Instead, the attacker determines the base amount of damage inflicted and can increase its Severity by spending Momentum, whilst the defender decides to either accept the damage and suffer an Injury, which would take him out of the action or combat, attempt to avoid the injury and suffer Stress. This combination of a lack of dice rolled for effect and increased player choice streamlines the combat process.

Starships are treated in a similar fashion to Player Characters, but have Communications, Computers, Engines, Sensors, Structure, and Weapons rather than Control, Daring, Fitness, Insight, Presence, and Reason. There is advice on how to use each of them and each of them actually serves as a Focus when used by a Player Character. The various aspects of a ship, such as resistance, shields, crew support, and more are described before starship combat is explained. Typically, a Player Character can only conduct a single major action during each turn of a starship combat and each Player Character will have a role during this according to his position aboard ship and the appropriate Discipline—Command, Conn, Engineering, Security, Science, or Medicine. Starship combat is kept relatively brief, but the rules suggest the same degree of streamlining as in personal combat. However, personal combat is the easier of the two to grasp, though the inclusion of a dedicated example of starship does help the Game Master understand how it works.

The ’Campaign Book’ provides a big three-part mini-campaign called ‘INFINITE Combinations’. It begins with the crew of the U.S.S. Challenger answering a distress call from a mining city floating in the atmosphere of Kizomic VI. The city is under attack by a bizarre, tentacled alien lifeform and its inhabitants are calling for evacuation. There is lots of physical action in this first part as rescues are performed, alien attacks are held off, and desperate shuttlecraft missions are flown through a flurry of attacks and flying debris. There is some planning too on how to conduct the evacuation safely and also a minor dilemma over the Prime Directive. The second scenario is shipbound, but again drives to an excitingly different climax after U.S.S. Challenger is stranded in the asteroid field it was meant be surveying and an extra-dimensional invader threatens the safety of the ship and the Player Characters have to race to make the repairs necessary to get away. Armed with some information as who might be responsible for the alien invasions, the crew of the U.S.S. Challenger track his movements to Starbase 23 and from there into an area of space disputed by Nausicaans, Klingons, and Gorn! The Away Team will make some amazing discoveries, but there is still the alien invasion from another dimension to contend with as well as the arrival of a small Nausicaan warship wanting to take control of the discoveries. The climax to the campaign is thus twofold, ideally with the action switching back and forth between the Away Team on planet and their starship above.

Overall ‘INFINITE Combinations’ is a decent mini-campaign, each scenario taking two or three sessions to complete and providing a good mix of action and combat with investigation and interaction thrown in. Plus, the ’Campaign Book’ adds three ‘Mission Briefs’ tied into the events and background to the campaign, so that the Game Master can develop them and add them to her campaign.

Physically, the Star Trek Adventures – Second Edition – Starter Set is very nicely presented. The books are clear and easy to read, with plenty of illustrations inspired by classic moments from Star Trek, including a scene from Lower Decks as well. The dice are decent and there are plenty of reference sheets for the players’ use.

The Star Trek Adventures – Second Edition – Starter Set is easy to pick up and then run and play if the Game Master has run Star Trek Adventures before, the rules changes consisting primarily of streamlining rather than a heavy rework. It will be harder for the Game Master new to the role, but the Star Trek Adventures – Second Edition – Starter Set does a good job of explaining things and providing tips and advice throughout, and then providing a good, solid Star Trek style adventure with lots of action and excitement and a moral dilemma or two thrown in along the way.

Star Trekkin’

These are the voyages of the starship FSS Brazen. Under the command of Captain Wayjane, the ship has been directed by the Federated League of Planets, to undertake a mission of exploration beyond the frontier to discover strange new worlds, weird never before encountered species, and promote the benefits of life in Federated League of Planets (a.k.a. FloP). With the engines primed and ready, the crew buzzing with exciting, the FSS Brazen is ready to set out from Near Space 9 and begin her five-year mission. However, this mission will not be without its difficulties. The crew will have to learn to get along as it discovers mysteries and uncover strange stellar phenomena and faces numerous enemies. These may be mighty starships from the martial Kulkan Empire or the devious infiltrators from the Boredian Dominion, but they could be old enemies too, such as Duchess Ali Cann, a super soldier who served FLoP until a truce was signed with the Kulkan Empire. Now she feels abandoned and has sworn her revenge, so guess which FLoP vessel she has in her sights? Then there is ‘R’, a super being incensed that the members of FLoP even exist and could even go so far as to put them on trial to prove that they have the right to continue living in the same universe! This is the continuing mission of the FSS Brazen: to recklessly go where plenty of people have probably been before… and hope that nobody gets too upset to start major interstellar war! This is the set-up for Beam Me Up, a scenario and mini-supplement for ACE!—or the Awfully Cheerful Engine!—the roleplaying game of fast, cinematic, action comedy. Published by EN Publishing, best known for the W.O.I.N. or What’s Old is New roleplaying System, as used in Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000 AD and Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition, where previous entries in the series have tended to be one-shot, film night specials, here the given scenario (or scenarios) is more expansive.

Beam Me Up is very obviously and unsubtly inspired by the Science Fiction franchise, Star Trek. Which has the advantage of making everything in Beam Me Up more than a little familiar to most people. As with other supplements for ACE!, it very much wears its inspirations on its sleeve—or in this case is that on its spandex one-size too small, but still fits all, jumpsuits? Whilst a player may find it just a little too familiar, he will also find the genre and setting very easy to grasp. Similarly, as with other supplements for ACE!, a set of pre-generated characters is available to download to use with Beam Me Up, but the players can create their own. Several new roles are suggested. These include Captain, Chief Engineer, Comms Engineer, Hologram, Gunner, Ship Counsellor, and Pilot. The simplicity of the ACE! system means that whilst Beam Me Up defaults a mish-mash of elements drawn from across multiple different iterations of the Star Trek franchise, the Game Master and her players could easily adjust their game to fit whichever era of the setting that they want to game in.

Given that this is a Science Fiction roleplaying game involving starships and high technology, there are some details on its role in the game. The setting is post-scarcity, starship crews can replicate almost everything bar weapons of mass destruction, and are usually armed with blazers, which they should mostly use with the stun setting. Also, translocators enable crews to beam up and down from planets and even move instantly within a ship. Beam Me Up also defines its starships and provides rules for starship combat. A starship has four stats—Science, Shields, Size, and Warp—typically rated between one and ten—plus ratings for Health, Defence, and weapons and damage. Where a ship’s stats are higher than those of a Player Character for a particular action, then they can be used for a skill check instead. For example, the Chief of Security might want to use the ship’s scanners, but his Smarts is lower the ship’s Science, so his player can roll using that it instead. It is a nicely little levelling effect and it highlights the fact that the Player Characters are aboard an advance starship. Combat is handled in a narrative fashion and each Player Character have a particular role when it comes to combat. Thus, the Chief Pilot will fly the ship, the Gunner will fire weapons, the Chief Science Officer will operate the scanners, and so on. Here Beam Me Up is underwritten, really relying on the skill of the Game Master to adjudicate the different roles and how they affect combat. Some pointers as to what the roles might do would have been helpful. Should an attack hit a starship, it will reduce the shields and then health, and once the latter has gone, the ship will suffer critical hits.

The scenario in Beam Me Up is in line with its inspiration, episodic in nature. Effectively, its three acts are separate and the first two can be run in any order (though they are written and presented in a simple and playable order). In the listed first act, ‘Shotgun Ali’, the FSS Brazen sets out on its maiden voyage and is sent to check up on a missing vessel, the FSS Independent. When the crew find her, they are suddenly attacked by the ship and then boarded! After driving off the super tough boarding party, the Player Characters need to return the favour and beam aboard the FSS Independent to find out what is going on. The second act is ‘Incident at Boredia I’ when on a trip visit the world, the crew’s weekly report time is interrupted by the appearance of ‘R’, an alien super being who puts the crew and the FLoP as a whole on trial. To do this, he drags a ship from the Kulkan Empire to Boredia I and the Kulkan Empire vessel has the manpower to invade and conquer the planet below. Effectively this is a test to see how the Player Characters and the crew of the FSS Brazen will react to the Kulkan interference. Lastly, in act three, ‘Gunfight at the Brazen Corral’ in which the Player Characters get trapped in the holosuite and themselves cast as members of the Clanton-McLaury gang an hour before they face Virgil, Wyatt, and Morgan Earp, and Doc Holliday on October 26, 1881. Events occur again and again until the Player Characters can spot and break the pattern and find out who or what is responsible.

None of the three acts are connected except for the FSS Brazen and the obvious inspiration. For example, ‘Shotgun Ali’ is drawn from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan; ‘Incident at Boredia I’ is inspired by ‘Encounter at Farpoint’, the pilot for Star Trek: The Next Generation; and ‘Gunfight at the Brazen Corral’ is based on ‘Spectre of the Gun’ from the original Star Trek. These are not the only Science Fiction references in Beam Me Up, but they are, of course, the big ones. Both the Game Master and her players will have fun spotting the rest, likely groaning at them, as they appear.

Physically, Beam Me Up is a bright and breezy affair. The artwork is decent and the supplement is well written.

Beam Me Up veers widely between being cringeworthy in the broad parodying of its inspiration to actually being amusing. Part of the issue is not just the familiarity of the source material, but also with the parodying of it, so both feel over done and not really all that funny. What saves Beam Me Up are the three different episodes which dig deeper into the source material and play around with it to elevate the humour a little. In some ways, Beam Me Up is the most accessible and the least accessible of the supplements for ACE!, being too familiar, too on the nose, its humour underwhelming as a consequence.

Your Starship

The starship in Star Trek, and thus Star Trek Adventures—the 2d20 System roleplaying game published by Modiphius Entertainment —has an incredible role to play. She is transport. She is tool. She is protection. She is force projection. She is narrative tool. She is totem. She is home. And of course, she is a character in her own right. A character with history and back story and quirks, one which becomes part of the story as the events of the missions performed by the characters, whether on screen or the page, or in the imagination of the roleplaying game, play out. In Star Trek Adventures, there has always been scope for the players to choose and personalise the Starfleet vessel that their officers serve aboard, starting with the core rulebook and then expanded upon in Star Trek Adventures: The Command Division. After all, a ship whose mission profile is Pathfinder and Reconnaissance Operations means her crew will be undertaking very different assignments to one whose Mission profile is Tactical Operations. However, what players have not been able to do is design a ship from the ground, and that is exactly what the Utopia Planitia Starfleet Sourcebook does. That though, is not all that there is to the Utopia Planitia Starfleet Sourcebook.

However, what the Utopia Planitia Starfleet Sourcebook is not, is a general guide to the starships of the Star Trek setting. Its focus is entirely upon those of Starfleet and that includes not just the basic three eras of play in which Star Trek Adventures can be set, but five! The basic three of Enterprise, Star Trek: The Original Series, and Star Trek: The Next Generation are joined by Star Trek: Lower Decks and Star Trek: Picard as well as Star Trek Online. In design terms, this means that the authors can draw upon fifty-five years of Star Trek source material and four hundred years in terms of the setting. In doing so, the Utopia Planitia Starfleet Sourcebook provides a history of Starfleet, an examination of life aboard a Starfleet vessel or space station, rules and guidance creating both starships and space stations—whether that is using a spaceframe from the keel up or adapting them from existing designs, and advice for the Game Master on how to use starships and space stations as a means to tell interesting stories. Half of the book though is dedicated to describing and detailing the background, purpose, design history, notable vessels, and game stats of over seventy Federation and Starfleet starship classes, space stations, and small craft. Many of which are classic designs seen on screen while some are all new, having been specifically designed using the rules in the book. Some have appeared in previous supplements for Star Trek Adventures, but having them all in one place is undoubtedly useful and they really are the highlight of the Utopia Planitia Starfleet Sourcebook, each accorded enough background information to satisfy the Star Trek fan as well as the Star Trek roleplayer.

The Utopia Planitia Starfleet Sourcebook opens with the history of the Federation and Starfleet, really beginning with the events that lead to the founding of both. This includes the founding of the United Earth Space Probe Agency and the Eugenics War and World War III, the hope that space travel and exploration offered seemingly being lost as those still in space looked on as both conflicts broke out. It proceeds from Zefram Cochrane’s launch of the first Warp capable vessel, the Phoenix, and encounter with the Vulcans, through relationships and conflicts with the Andorians, Tellarites, Klingons, Romulans, and more, all the way up to the defence of the Federation from both the Borg and the Dominion. Its emphasis is on how these events change the design philosophy of both the Federation and Starfleet in the starships it fields. Notably, the Battle of Wolf 359 and its destruction of the fleet hurriedly mustered by Starfleet, forced the Federation to evaluate its need for dedicated warships. The chapter sets the context for the rest of the book, including a look at life in Starfleet, which adds an engaging roleplaying exercise in having the player detail the daily life of his Starfleet officer character, which can then be brought into play. There is information too, on downtime activities, whether that is random games in the crew lounge, martial arts being studied in the gym, and of course, the holodeck. The section on the latter is short and it is a subject which deserves a supplement of its own. There is discussion too of various shipboard systems, facilities, procedures such as evacuating a ship, how to use the ‘speed of the plot’ as a narrative device—nicely supported by the Excelsior under Captain Hikaru Sulu racing to save the Enterprise in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, and whether to use the transporters, the shuttle, or even land the ship, to go down to the planet. There are rules included for handling the landings by both.

Despite the future of the Federation being a post-scarcity economy, there are still resources, mostly rare minerals and metals, which need to be resourced and mined. The classics are latinum, used by the Ferengi Alliance as a currency and dilithium crystals used in the antimatter warp drives of almost every starship. The Utopia Planitia Starfleet Sourcebook presents these as means to drive plots, whether through mining or trading, and then does the same for salvage and retrieval.

Actually designing or adapting a starship means asking a few pertinent questions such how many crew should it have, how specialised should the ship’s role be, what makes it unique, and what is its backstory? Answering these questions will influence both the stats for and the nature of the ship, along with what its character is, and so make it meaningful in play. This is not a character in the traditional roleplaying sense—though that option is available if the ship’s computer is sentient—but it will have an influence upon the narrative as the Player Characters interact with it. All of this is done during session zero, prior to assigning any points. Actually designing a starship consists of assigning a pool of points to the starship’s Systems—modified by the era in which the vessel is going to be designed for and for the scale of its spaceframe; assigning a second, smaller pool of points to the starship’s Departments; and then choosing Spaceframe Talents, assigning weapons, and a trait for the starship. The last thing selected is the Mission Profile, such as Battlecruiser, Scientific and Survey Operations, or Strategic And Diplomatic Operations. The Mission Profile determines the base value for the starship’s Departments and provides a choice of related talents to choose from.

PACKET CLASS COURIER
LAUNCH YEAR: 2375
PRIMARY SHIPYARDS: Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards, Mars; Baikonur Orbital Complex, Earth
OVERVIEW: The expansion of Federation influence into the Alpha Quadrant and Deep Space 9 and the Shackleton Expanse led to a stretching of Starfleet’s resources and ability to support both regions. The initial solution was a courier model, designed to transport personnel and cargo at high speed, but this deemed to be too specialised and changes were called for to give the spaceframe greater flexibility beyond its core role. This was done with the addition of the capacity to carry a mission pod.
CAPABILITIES: The Packet entered service in 2375 and proved to be as fast as the designers intended. The standard Mission Pod is a Warp Propulsion pod increasing the class’ range and speed even further. However, the combination of high speed and the mission pod capacity often sees the Warp Propulsion Pod swapped out for an Emergency Recovery pod or a Field Hospital pod. Even with the time necessary to swap a pod out, the Packet Class Courier can often reach the scene of an emergency faster than a more dedicated ship. Consequently, there have been calls for the class to used in a permanent Crisis and Emergency Response role. One pod has been specifically designed for the Packet Class, the Diplomatic Support pod, intended to be used where emergency diplomatic missions need to be performed or summits conducted. To date, the Diplomatic Support pod has not been used in the field.
REFITS AND VARIANTS: Plans for the Packet Class include an upgrade to the tractor beams.
NAMING CONVENTIONS: Packet class vessels are named after famous messengers or points of call for courier vessels. Examples include Falmouth, the Paul Revere, Mercury, and Hikyaku.

SYSTEMS
Comms 8 Engines 9 Structure 8
Computers 7 Sensors 8 Weapons 7

DEPARTMENTS
Command 3 Security 1 Science 1
Conn 3 Engineering 4 Medicine 2

Scale: 3 Resistance: 3
Power: 4 Shields: 9

WEAPONS:
Phaser Arrays (Energy, Medium Range, 6, Versatile 2, Area or Spread)
Tractor Beam (Strength 2)

TALENTS:
Advanced Shields
Extensive Shuttle Bays
Improved Warp Drive

MISSION PROFILE: Logistical/Quartermaster

TRAITS:
Federation Starship

The Utopia Planitia Starfleet Sourcebook then repeats this for small craft and space stations. The process is not difficult, but it is not as clearly explained as it could have been, as it is not initially clear that the Mission Profile provides the base values for a ship’s Departments. Once this is realised, starship and space station design becomes relatively easy.

Half of Utopia Planitia Starfleet Sourcebook is dedicated to describing Federation and Starfleet spaceframes. This includes the base values for each spaceframe so that a group can modify version of their own. These start with the J-Class/Y-class freighter (Travis Mayweather’s family vessel as seen in Enterprise) in 2102 and proceed chronologically to the Pathfinder class in 2410. Along the way, there are classics such as the NX, Constitution, Miranda, Excelsior, Defiant, and Intrepid class vessels. The inclusion of the Crossfield class allows the inclusion of the U.S.S. Discovery. Not only content with drawing upon the many ships seen on screen, the Utopia Planitia Starfleet Sourcebook also draws from Star Trek Online for the Reliant, Sutherland, Gagarin, and Odyssey class vessels. Plus, there are numerous small craft given similar treatment, such as the Danube-class runabout, and space stations like the K-Class Border Outpost and DS9.

For the Game Master, optional rules expand the Jury-rig Talent, primarily through the Player Characters having to cannibalising a working system to make the temporary fixes, give guidelines on modifying shuttlecraft, expand the rules for manoeuvring ships, and adds zone hazards, like dense debris or asteroid fields, ion storms, nebulas of various classes, and so on to make space travel that bit more dangerous and challenging. Lastly there are guidelines for making maintenance an important factor in ship’s life and using it to present challenges to the Player Characters.

Rounding out the Utopia Planitia Starfleet Sourcebook is a set of ten mission briefs. These are one-page affairs, which include having to solve the problem of a macrogelatinous lifeform filling a ship and trapping everyone one in it except for those stuck in the Jefferies Tube who have to solve the problem, stopping the memetic spread of a dead civilisation’s technology, being cast into another dimension where the starship becomes an exhibit in an alien zoo, and being trapped outside on a spacewalk when everything goes wrong. There is a nice variety of ideas here, some of them a little weird and so perhaps suited to Star Trek: The Original Series which was weird in its stories.

Physically, the Utopia Planitia Starfleet Sourcebook is not only a great looking book, but it also probably has the most art of any book for Star Trek Adventures. The writing is good and the illustrations are excellent—especially if you like starships! The most notable feature of the Utopia Planitia Starfleet Sourcebook’s presentation is that it does not use the LCARs background with its white text on black, instead opting for standard back text on white. It is thus most readable.

The only downside to its publication is that similar books are going to be needed for the Klingons, Romulans, and innumerable other species found in Star Trek, but otherwise, the Utopia Planitia Starfleet Sourcebook is the sourcebook that Star Trek Adventures needed. The Utopia Planitia Starfleet Sourcebook successfully throws a spotlight upon the role of the starship in Star Trek Adventures, whilst also showcasing over seventy different models and classes that will be enjoyed by the Star Trek gamer and fan alike. What impresses most of all is that the Utopia Planitia Starfleet Sourcebook lets player and Game Master together take the conn to create and then bring their own starship to life and make it a part of their Star Trek Adventures campaign.

1983: Enterprise – Role Play Game in Star Trek

1974 is an important year for the gaming hobby. It is the year that Dungeons & Dragons was introduced, the original RPG from which all other RPGs would ultimately be derived and the original RPG from which so many computer games would draw for their inspiration. It is fitting that the current owner of the game, Wizards of the Coast, released the new version, Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, in the year of the game’s fortieth anniversary. To celebrate this, Reviews from R’lyeh will be running a series of reviews from the hobby’s anniversary years, thus there will be reviews from 1974, from 1984, from 1994, and from 2004—the thirtieth, twentieth, and tenth anniversaries of the titles. These will be retrospectives, in each case an opportunity to re-appraise interesting titles and true classics decades on from the year of their original release.

—oOo—

It is often forgotten that Star Trek: The Role Playing Game, published by FASA in 1982 was not the first Star Trek roleplaying game. It is often forgotten that Call of Cthulhu, published by Chaosium, Inc. in 1981 was not the first licensed roleplaying game. The very first licensed roleplaying game and the very first roleplaying based on Star Trek was Star Trek: Adventure Gaming in the Final Frontier, published by Heritage Models, Inc. by in 1978. If the first roleplaying game based on Star Trek is all but forgotten now, there is a third roleplaying game based on Star Trek which remains almost unknown which in its own way is equally as important as Star Trek: Adventure Gaming in the Final Frontier. For if Star Trek: Adventure Gaming in the Final Frontier is notable as the first licensed roleplaying game, then Enterprise – Role Play Game in Star Trek is notable for being the first domestic roleplaying game to be published in Japan and the first licensed roleplaying game to be published in Japan. Enterprise – Role Play Game in Star Trek was published in 1983 as a boxed set by Tsukuda Hobby, which at that time was better known for its wargames and model kits. In 1983, Enterprise – Role Play Game in Star Trek came as an eye-catching box set that included a twenty-page Rulebook, thirteen-page Adventure Book, fifteen double-sided Character Cards, two twenty-sided ten-sided dice, and one six-sided die. What is being reviewed here is not a copy of the original roleplaying game, as that would be almost impossible to obtain, but rather a translation that has been collated into a slim, fifty-eight-page hardback. The rules though, remain the same, even if the format does not.

A Player Character in Enterprise is defined by his Race, several abilities or traits—Strength, Dexterity, Intellect, Charisma, and Luck, Alignment, and one or more Special Abilities. The roleplaying game’s ‘Alien List’ includes Andorians, Talosians, Romulans, Metrons, Eugenic Superhumans, Organians, Klingons, Medusans, Melkotians, Tellarites, Zetrians, Gorns, M113 Monsters, Horta, and Vuclans. It does not say, though, which of these are suitable for use as Player Characters. All have an Alignment, one or more Special Abilities, and possible ability modifications. All five abilities range on the three to eighteen scale. Strength is both the amount of damage a Player Character can withstand and the chance he has of defeating an opponent in hand-to-hand combat; Dexterity is used to determine Initiative in combat and with the Mechanical Repair Special Ability to disable traps; Intellect determines if the Player Character has the Medical Talent or the Science Talent and can help him gain allies; Charisma to help him gain allies, but from force of personality rather than intellect; and Luck is used to avoid traps. Alignment includes Logical Good, Logical Bad, Neutral, Emotional Good, and Emotional Bad. It is easy to map the characters from Star Trek: The Original Series onto this array. The four Special Abilities are Mechanical Repair, Medical Talent (Treatment), Science Talent, and PSY Talent (ESP). Some aliens automatically have the PSY Talent (ESP), but Humans only have 10% chance of doing so. A Player Character’s chance of having the other three Special Abilities is based on their associated abilities. It is possible to create a Player Character who has multiple Special Abilities or none, depending upon whether the player rolls well or badly.

To create a character, the player selects a Race, rolls four-six-sided dice for each ability and deducts the lowest, and then rolls for each Special Ability. The process is very quick and easy. Alternatively, the player could select a member of the crew of the Enterprise. The roleplaying game comes with a double-sided Character Card for each as well as several opposing characters. Each Character Card lists the various statistics, Special Abilities, and has space for tracking hits, making notes, and so on, whilst on the front is a photograph of the character. There are fifteen Character Cards, three of which are blank for the player’s use, whilst the rest consist of Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Uhura, Scotty, Sulu, Chekov, Chapel, Rand, Commander Kang the Klingon, Stonn the Vulcan, and Subcommander Tal the Romulan.

Name: Rosana Guimarães

Race: Human

Alignment: Emotional Good

Special Abilities: Mechanical Repair, Science Talent

Strength 10 Dexterity 13 Intellect 12

Charisma 15 Luck 16

Equipment: Science Tricorder, Type II Hand Phaser, Communicator, knife and three days water and food.

Mechanically, Enterprise – Role Play Game in Star Trek uses percentile dice, but that is about as standard as it gets, and not because the Game Master uses the six-sided die to determine if the Player Character senses something hidden—a door or a trap—and which Player Character an enemy targets in a fight. After that, everything else is a subsystem of its own, each straightforward in itself, but different enough to require referring to a table each time. So to find out if a Player Character discovers a trap or hidden door, the player needs to roll 30% or less, modified by his character’s Luck and to avoid a trap if triggered, is another percentile roll, the number determined by the character’s Luck after consult the ‘Avoid Trap’ table. The chance is equal to 50% if the Luck value is 13, then modified by 5% up or down depending upon the Luck value. However, consulting the ‘Bypass Lock or Trap’ table, the required number is based on Dexterity and the chance is equal to 50% if the Dexterity value is 10. Undertaking tasks such as analysing or repairing a piece of equipment or an artefact requires the Player Character to have the Mechanical Repair Special Ability and his player to roll under the device’s Repair Probability, for example, 20% for a Universal Translator. If a Player Character has the Science Special Ability, he can use a computer or tricorder without any problems. Enemy computers are assigned a percentage, which the Player Character must roll under to be able to use. There are no modifications from the abilities on any of these rolls, so effectively, a Player Character with higher stats has a higher chance of having a Special Ability, but not a better chance of using it.

Encounters with NPCs are either hostile or non-hostile. Hostile NPCs always attack. Encounters with non-hostile NPCs require an Alignment Check. The Game Master compares the Alignments of the Player Character and the NPC. This determines the attitude of the NPC, either Domination, Equality, or Deception, which is kept secret from the player. The player then guesses what the NPC’s attitude is and selects his character’s approach, either Domination, Equality, or Deception. If the player is correct in guessing the NPC’s attitude, he can make an Attitude Option roll, again, either Domination, Equality, or Deception. This is a base percentile roll modified by either the Player Character’s Charisma and Intellect, sometimes both. If successful, the NPC becomes an Ally under the player’s control, joining the party of Player Characters. If the Alignment Check fails, the NPC becomes hostile and attacks, although it is suggested to the Game Master that depending upon the scenario, if the roll is failed, an NPC can still appear to act in a friendly manner towards the Player Characters, only to betray them later or act hostile initially, only to become an Ally later.

The Alignment Check and interaction rules for NPCs are not developed enough to work effectively. There are no bonuses or penalties to determine the effect of the three approaches—Domination, Equality, and Deception—working against each other. Unless the player successfully guesses the NPC’s attitude, the results are binary—failure, if not open hostility and combat. Also, the rules state that, “Regardless of whether or not the Alignment Check is required, the GM should roll the 20‐sided dice. Otherwise, the player may be able to discern whether or not they were right or wrong about the attitude of the NPC.” At this point, it is not clear what the Game Master is rolling for. Only in the accompanying example, does it become clear that the Game Master makes the Attitude Option roll and not the player.

Once surprise and initiative has been sorted, combat begins with dividing the combatants into groups of three on each side and the Game Master the values of a six-sided die to help randomly determine who targets who. Ranged combat is based on range—determined by the weapon’s range bands and distance to the target—and the attacker’s Dexterity. The result is a percentile value that the player or Game Master must roll under. The Game Master also has the option of applying penalties if the target is dodging, lying prone, or behind cover, but there are no standard penalties given. Damage from energy weapons is deadly—a ten-sided die’s worth for a Hand Phaser’s Destruction setting and instant death for the Dematerialise setting. The Stun simply renders the target unconscious.

Hand-to-hand combat involves not so much out and out brawling as attempts by the combatants to knock each other out. The two combatants’ Strength Ability ratings are compared. If they are equal, they have a hand‐to‐hand combat value of 50%, this the chance of knocking each other out. A higher Strength than the opponent will increase the hand‐to‐hand combat value, whilst a lower Strength will decrease the hand‐to‐hand combat value. Being armed with a knife or a stone count towards the hand‐to‐hand combat value. Of the two combat systems, the ranged combat rules are better than the ones for hand-to-hand combat, which really fail to capture the knockabout nature of brawls seen on screen in Star Trek: The Original Series.

The Adventure Book contains a single scenario, ‘The Drifting Ring’. The Enterprise has been assigned to investigate an object called the ‘The Ring’. It is a ten-kilometre diameter toroidal spacecraft and it is currently heading for Klingon space. The origins of The Ring lie at the centre of the galaxy where a race realised that their worlds increasingly in danger from a series of supernovae that would destroy the systems around them. They built a huge generational spaceship, populated it with crew, passengers (mostly in cryogenic sleep), and samples from their worlds, and headed for a safer area in the galaxy. Which to be honest, sounds an awful lot like the plot or at least the set-up, of Larry Niven’s Ringworld. Aboard, the crew will find a society that has regressed due to isolation and lost knowledge, and then rebellion, resulting in the inside of the spaceship being perpetually in the dark. The location where the Player Characters beam aboard has the feel of an agrarian valley, complete with river, mountains, forest, and ruins. The area is home to three different factions which keep apart from each other, some of whom will not be hostile to the Player Characters, some will, and of course, if one of the players is roleplaying Kirk, there is a young girl who will follow unconditionally no matter what the result of the Alignment Check suggests. (That said, given that she is described as a “[B]eautiful 16 year old girl.”, the Game Master would probably want to add a year or two or three…) Much of the adventure is given over to detailing the various locations in the scenario, but the descriptions are lacking, even absent in many cases of describing what something or someone looks like.

‘The Drifting Ring’ does actually feel as if it would fit into a Star Trek setting, given that the series dealt with a number of regressed civilisations, such as in ‘The Omega Glory’ and ‘For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky’. Effectively, ‘The Ring’ is a sandcrawl, the Player Characters free to explore where they want to. It is also more scenario than mission, since there is no real mission attached to the adventure. The implied mission is that the Enterprise crew is trying to stop the flight of The Ring. How that is achieved is left up to the players and their characters to decide. Overall, ‘The Ring’ feels a bit too open, a bit too big to be contained within one episode of Star Trek: The Original Series and despite, lacking in easy to use detail.

The Adventure Book concludes with some Design Notes from the author, Tama Yutaka. Notable later as the co-editor of the Japanese version of Warlock – The Fighting Fantasy Magazine, here he states that, “I designed this STAR TREK game as a way to introduce the Role Playing Game ‐‐ currently at dizzying heights in the United States ‐‐ to Japan.” He emphasises the importance of the human, that character should be central, even given the prominence of machines in Science Fiction and Fantasy—especially Star Trek—and this is what differentiates a roleplaying game from a board game. There is tentativeness to the Design Notes, if not the roleplaying game as a whole.

So what is missing from Enterprise – Role Play Game in Star Trek? Fundamentally, two things. First, there is no background on Star Trek at all in the setting. None at all. It assumes that both Game Master and her players are familiar already with the television series to play. Second, the U.S.S. Enterprise. Or, indeed, any starships. They are completely ignored, so very much like the earlier Star Trek: Adventure Gaming in the Final Frontier, published by Heritage Models, Inc., Enterprise – Role Play Game in Star Trek is all about the away missions and what happens on planet or aboard a space station rather than aboard ship. Similar to Star Trek: Adventure Gaming in the Final Frontier, there is no means of character progression either, even though it is possible to create Player Characters. The combination of this lack of character progression with the limited options in terms of the Special Abilities to select from or roll for—Mechanical Repair, Medical Talent (Treatment), Science Talent, and PSY Talent (ESP)—means that characters themselves feel shallow. It does not help that with no ships involved in the roleplaying game, there are no Special Abilities related to their option, but there are no combat or interaction Special Abilities either. Perhaps a second edition might have addressed these issues and been less of a skirmish roleplaying game, something that not even FASA’s Star Trek: The Role Playing Game was able to wholly avoid.

Physically, Enterprise – Role Play Game in Star Trek was presented for 1983. Its combination of a box set containing the two books, the Character Cards, and dice would have looked attractive and caught the eye of any Star Trek fan. The translation is clear and simply presented, the Character Cards of the crew of the Enterprise and their foes and allies are decently done, and the maps are workable.

Enterprise – Role Play Game in Star Trek is very much the Star Trek: The Original Series roleplaying game, really suggesting that the players take the roles of the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise rather than create their own crewmen. Like the earlier Star Trek: Adventure Gaming in the Final Frontier, it wants to push away from the wargaming origins of the hobby and like Star Trek: Adventure Gaming in the Final Frontier, it does not quite do so because it never really gets away from being a skirmish game played out on maps and floorplans. Yet it has some interesting ideas, such as the emotion-versus-logic Alignment system that is very Kirk-McCoy-Spock and the Alignment Check interaction mechanic, that suggests it does want to be more than this. These remain undeveloped though and with a focus on elements of play such as the need to check for traps and hidden doors, on movement, and the like, Enterprise – Role Play Game in Star Trek remains an unsophisticated design that all too often feels as if it has been written through the lens of Dungeons & Dragons and its play style as much as Star Trek. Ultimately, what makes Enterprise – Role Play Game in Star Trek an interesting roleplaying game is not that it is a Star Trek roleplaying game, but that it is the first Japanese roleplaying game.

A Delta Guide

The Delta Quadrant Sourcebook is the fourth setting supplement for Modiphius Entertainment’s Star Trek Adventures roleplaying game following on from the Beta Quadrant Sourcebook, the Alpha Quadrant Sourcebook, and The Gamma Quadrant. It completes the quadrant sourcebooks for the roleplaying game and does a whole lot more. Where the Gamma Quadrant Sourcebook updated the timeline for Star Trek Adventures from 2372 to 2375 to encompass the whole of the Dominion War and its aftermath, the Delta Quadrant Sourcebook advances it another four years to 2379 and the return of the USS Voyager after its long journey home from the Delta Quadrant, some seventy thousand light years from Federation space as told in Star Trek: Voyager. It encompasses details of the species and worlds that the crew of the Voyager encountered and suggests ways in which another starship and its crew might find itself flung across the galaxy, isolated and alone, with only their wits and training to rely upon in surviving and then travelling the long way home. One of the major species that U.S.S. Voyager encountered were the Borg Collective, not once, but many times, and this included crossing the vastness of Borg space. The prominence of the Borg in Star Trek: Voyager, not least because a liberated Borg drone, Seven of Nine, would join her crew, is reflected in the Delta Quadrant Sourcebook, which is as much a sourcebook for the Borg for Star Trek Adventures as it is the Delta Quadrant.

The Delta Quadrant Sourcebook begins with a map like the three books in the series, but not an actual map of the Delta Quadrant, or even of the territory encompassed by the Borg Collective. Where the other supplements in the series have maps of their quadrants, the Delta Quadrant Sourcebook begins with a series of maps showing the flightpath that the U.S.S. Voyager took to get home. It shows an incredibly narrow slice of the Delta Quadrant, but so it should, and so too, does the Delta Quadrant Sourcebook. What this reflect is the fact that although U.S.S. Voyager undertook exploration during its journey home, it was never its primary objective. In fact, exploration was secondary, or even tertiary to its prime objective. Consequently, its encounters with cultures and species and worlds and spatial phenomena was fleeting, lacking the time that scientific rigour would otherwise demand. Thus its reports and analysis can only be seen in most cases as the initial cursory examination of a probe exploring a new region. This is highlighted in one of the pieces of colour fiction in the book and what it means is that once a Game Master has got her Player Characters and their ship to the Delta Quadrant, there is huge scope for her to develop her own content and even change details about a species or culture or a world because Star Fleet knows so little about the Delta Quadrant.

Unlike the earlier Beta Quadrant Sourcebook and Alpha Quadrant Sourcebook, the Delta Quadrant Sourcebook is not as easy a supplement to use in chronological terms. As it depicts an area of space between 2371 and 2379 and given its distance from Federation space, it is difficult to use in the Star Trek: The Original Series or Enterprise eras of play. Options are suggested, but there are far more of them set in the Star Trek: The Next Generation era. The overview of the various species, from the Devore Imperium and the Haakonian Order to the Vidiian Sodality and the Voth, taking in the Hirogen, the Kazon Order, and Species 8472 along the way varies from entry to entry. The length of entry is determined by how many times the U.S.S. Voyager encountered them, thus the Devore Imperium is given a mere half page, but the Hirogen, the Kazon Order, and Species 8472 over a page each. There is good, solid detail here, but it is let down by the lack of art. Only the Hirogen and Species 8472 are illustrated, whilst the rest are given a physiological description and given that they come from a visual medium, this is not really enough. There are descriptions of some of the worlds visited by the U.S.S. Voyager encountered as well.

Over a fifth of the Delta Quadrant Sourcebook is dedicated to the Borg. This includes an examination of who and what the Borg are, how they and their Queen function, how a species in danger of being assimilated might react, and so on. There are some interesting ideas here, such as the potentially immoral option of treating the Borg as invasive vermin, a threat to flee from, and as a viral infection. Another is restricted to worlds with cultures or resources which the Borg has deemed suitable for assimilation. If not yet technologically developed, a culture might regard the Borg as gods who will make the worthy immortal or demons who will steal the unworthy away... Types of drone are detailed, including maintenance, medical, tactical, and adjuncts. Throughout, there are in-game reports from the various governments and polities of the Star Trek universe. For example, the Cardassians are interested in making contact with the Borg Queen, the Dominion is wary of them, and Section 31 of Starfleet are still concerned about how much of a threat Juan-Luc Picard represents following his liberation from the Borg as Locutus. All of these add flavour and opinion that can help the Game Master portray these interested parties in her campaign. In this way, the use of the in-game fiction in this way is far better than has been in other supplements for Star Trek Adventures. In terms of worlds, the supplement is really rather clever. Instead of naming specific worlds, it examines the types of worlds that the Borg Collective is interested in. This enables the Game Master to create some interesting settings for encounters with the Borg, such as aboard their technologically advance floating platforms in gas giants or in the forcefield-protected facilities of demon worlds.

Under Lifepath Options, the most notable addition is that of the Liberated Borg. This is given as being for the Star Trek: The Next Generation era only, representing when they are a more frequent occurrence. This is not to say that they cannot appear in the other eras, but this is not really explored in the supplement. For the player Character, the Liberated Borg is a treated as a Mixed Species character and must have the Borg Implants Talent. This gives the Player Character three implants such as a Critical Array (interlink Node), Cybernetic Arm, or Ocular Sensory Enhancer. Their presence hampers social interaction as much as they grant technological advantages, but they can be removed. This takes a story milestone for each implant and only once all three have been removed, can the Talent itself swapped out.

Other species for the Delta Quadrant presented as fully playable characters include the Ankari, who use the energy from a nucleogenic lifeform to power their starships, the administrative specialist Jye, the Monean who live on a massive waterworld and are good swimmers and as former star nomads, also good navigators, the Occampa, and more. The guidelines suggest how the character generation process of Star Trek Adventures can be used, adjusted, or simply renamed to suit the Player Character.

For starships, the Borg feature again, with write-ups of Borg Octahedron, the command and control vessel for the Borg Queen and the Bog Torus which handles construction, along with the Borg Probe Ship and the Borg Tactical Cube. The Delta Flyer built by Tom Paris is detailed again, but more specific Delta Quadrant starships include the Kazon Raider, Hirogen warship, the Krenim Timeship with its time manipulating technology, Species 8472 Bioship, and many more. Stats for numerous NPCs are also given. Most of these are generic and unnamed, such as the Talaxian Smuggler, Occampa Explorer, or Hirogen Hunter, but there are named NPCs given too. These include Annorax, the Krenim officer and temporal scientist who turned the manipulation of the timeline into a weapon of war; Hugh, the Borg drone rescued by Starfleet; Commander Elizabeth Shelby, who became a tactical expert on the Borg following the battle of Wolf 359; and the Borg Queen. Perhaps the only NPC missing here is Rudolph Ransom, the captain of the U.S.S. Equinox, who used Ankari technology which drew power from nucleogenic lifeforms, to fuel his ship. Given that the Ankari are included, it seems odd that he is not.

The last part of the Delta Quadrant Sourcebook is dedicated to encounters, both the Borg and with other species in the quadrant. These all make good use of the details presented throughout the supplement. They including being caught at an outpost when a captured member of Species 8472 escapes and begins picking off victims one-by-one; Annorax, the Krenim officer and temporal scientist, seeking asylum with the Player Characters’ vessel; helping with a mass planetary evacuation ahead of the Borg arrival; attending an auction for the means to hack into the command structure of the Borg Collective, but the means turns out to liberated drones; and several more. There is discussion of possible ideas for Delta Quadrant-set campaigns, including a more swashbuckling style with non-Starfleet Player Characters, and also of the dangers of running a Borg-focused campaign. This is primarily because the Borg remain one of the most dangerous threats that Starfleet has encountered and going toe-to-toe with them is likely to end in death, disaster, and assimilation. Instead other means of defeating them are explored, typically involving either reprogramming the Borg systems or hacking into them.

Physically, the Delta Quadrant Sourcebook is a decent looking book. It is generally well-written and decently illustrated—though not always effectively—with a fully painted images. With so many species to illustrate, this is definitely a supplement which needed more artwork—and needed more artwork with good reason. It does need a slight edit in places. The layout is done in the style of the LCARS—Library Computer Access/Retrieval System—operating system used by Starfleet. So, everything is laid out over a rich black background with the text done in soft colours. This is very in keeping with the theme and period setting of Star Trek Adventures, but it is imposing, even intimidating in its look, and it is not always easy to find things on the page because of the book’s look. The other issue is that the none-more black pages are easy to mark with fingerprints.

Throughout the supplement, the descriptions and game content are supported by a series of in-game documents, reports, diary excerpts, and the like. Some of these feel a bit too long, but their focus, as with the book as a whole, on the Borg and the Delta Quadrant, means they too are focused and better for it. 

If the Gamma Quadrant Sourcebook was three books in one, covering the Dominion, the worlds in and around Dominion space, and the Dominion War, then the Delta Quadrant Sourcebook is two books in one. One of them focuses on the Delta Quadrant and the other on the Borg, and with such two narrow foci, the supplement feels all the better for it. The supplement presents only a narrow strip of the Delta Quadrant, leaving vast swathes of space for Game Master to develop of her own, and that is even before considering adding the Borg. The Borg content will, of course, be useful throughout the Star Trek: The Next Generation era of play, but whenever or wherever she decides to bring the Collective into play, it should done with care lest the Player Characters be overwhelmed and outmatched. Overall, the Delta Quadrant Sourcebook nicely brings a slice of Delta Quadrant space to life and launches the Borg Collective as a formidable foe for Star Trek Adventures.

A Gamma Guide

The Gamma Quadrant Sourcebook is the third setting supplement for Modiphius Entertainment’s Star Trek Adventures roleplaying game following on from the Beta Quadrant Sourcebook and the Alpha Quadrant Sourcebook. Effectively, it lies at the far end of the Bajoran Wormhole which connects the Gamma Quadrant to the Alpha Quadrant and it is what comes through the Bajoran Wormhole which is the primary focus of the Gamma Quadrant Sourcebook. For the supplement is as much a setting update as much a setting sourcebook and as much a companion to the Alpha Quadrant Sourcebook. What the Alpha Quadrant Sourcebook did was to examine the world of Bajor, and the major polities of the region, including the Cardassian Union, the Ferengi Alliance, the Tzenkethi Coalition, the Breen Confederacy, and the Tholian Assembly. It also looked at the Bajoran Wormhole and explored its ramifications of upon the quadrant, in the process, updating the default starting year for Star Trek Adventures of 2371 to 2372 as the early years of Deep Space 9 was explored. The Gamma Quadrant Sourcebook goes further. Not only does it update the default starting year from 2372 to 2375, but it also examines the whole of the Dominion War, looks at the major factions and events involved, supporting with details of new species, ways to involve the Player Characters and run campaigns set during the war, and more. What this means is that the Gamma Quadrant Sourcebook is really only a book for one of the period settings in Star Trek Adventures, that of Star Trek: The Next Generation rather than the earlier Star Trek: The Original Series or Enterprise.

What the Gamma Quadrant Sourcebook does not include is a map of the Gamma Quadrant. As with the television series, Deep Space 9, it remains for the most part, a great unknown, its exploration and possible contact with worlds there made all the challenging by the presence—both implied and actually present—of the Dominion. Nevertheless, there is plenty of scope for the crew of a starship to explore beyond the Bajoran Wormhole, make contact with the various species there, begin to learn hints of the Dominion, its masters and subject species, and wonder at its strangeness. In fact, almost a half of the supplement is dedicated to examining the Dominion and the Dominion war itself. The former starts with the history of the Changelings, how they fled, hounded by the ‘solids’—as they call most other species, to eventually find a world where they could be safe their Great Link, the world-spanning gestalt formed of their combined bodies and minds. It examines their politics, best described as a ‘fascist theocracy’ in which they are worshipped by their subjects upon whom they impose a strict order through their agents, the manipulative Vorta and the feared Jem’Hadar. Numerous worlds and species both within Dominion space and adjacent to it, are also detailed, such as the Drai, who serve as the Dominion’s geneticists and are thus regarded as a privileged member of the Dominion, and the T-Rogorans, a warlike species that aggressively expanding from its homeworld before encountering the Jem’Hadar and being almost wiped out… Notable worlds include the Founders’ Homeworld, essentially rock with little more than an atmosphere and the Great Link as a singular ocean; an Hur’q Outpost, an archaeological treasure house for anyone interested in Klingon history, the Hur’q having fled the Klingon homeworld thousands of years ago; and the Cursed Penal Moon, where the incarcerated are forced to fight in an ongoing war between two factions again and again as they find themselves resurrected each time they are killed. None can leave lest they die. All of these worlds and many of the species are ripe for visit by the Player Characters, whether as members of Starfleet or another faction.

Besides examining various species in the Gamma Quadrant, the supplement also looks at the various species in the Alpha Quadrant and their relationship with the Dominion. This includes the Breen, Cardassians, the Son’a, and the Orions, as well as potential allies like the Tholian Assembly, the Gorn, and the Nausicaans. The consequences of these potential alliances are also explored. Perhaps the most interesting inclusion here is that of the Kzin, a species rarely mentioned by Star Trek. Originally appearing in ‘The Slaver Weapon’, an episode of Star Trek: The Animated Series adapted by Larry Niven from his Known Space setting stories. However, they have been reintroduced into Star Trek in passing, or at least in mention. No stats are provided for them though in the Gamma Quadrant Sourcebook.

A detailed timeline of the Dominion War is also provided. It provides a background to the conflict as well as a look at the Cold War in which the Dominion began to infiltrate the Alpha Quadrant, secure allies, and foment conflict. This would lead to wars between the Klingons and Cardassians and then the Klingons and the Federation. Options are discussed for roleplaying in this Cold War period, before moving on to the loss and recapture of Deep Space 9, and coming to close with the current state of the war in 2374. Fortunately, supplement does not leave it there. Rather, it both gives 2374 as a default starting, ready for the Player Characters and their starship to become involved in the final operations against the Dominion, and then outlines the events of 2375 ready for the Game Master to run a campaign through this period.

To go with the numerous species discussed earlier, some twelve new species are given stats and details to make playable as both NPCs and Player Characters. This includes the Changelings! Their inclusion, of course, allows a player to roleplay a character similar to Constable Odo from Deep Space 9, and to that end, there is a discussion of how to include ‘Non-Starfleet, Unusual, Or Unique Characters’ in a Star Trek Adventures campaign. This is not confined to Changelings, of course, and there are plenty of species in the Gamma Quadrant Sourcebook, such as Lurians, Rakhari, or Wadi, which could be added as an unusual character to a campaign, let alone those in other supplements. A campaign based in a starbase, whether on a planet or in space, would more readily support this option than perhaps aboard a starship, but there are plenty of examples of such characters aboard a starship seen in Star Trek. Another option for a Changeling Player Character is to have them as infiltrators, undermining the efforts of Starfleet, the Federation, and its allies from within. Such an option does need careful handling, by both player and Game Master, with potential for redemption once the Changeling has been revealed and perhaps the person it was impersonating rescued from imprisonment. Notably, neither the Vorta nor the Jem’Hadar are included here. Instead, they remain adversaries, and are fully detailed in the core rulebook for Star Trek Adventures.

Numerous starships of the Gamma Quadrant are also described. These start with those vessels of the Dominion and its allies. Thus, the Jem’Hadar battleship and the Vorta Explorer, and the Son’a flagship and battlecruiser. The majority of the vessels are those of the Dominion War, all of them notable vessels. Amongst them are the U.S.S. Prometheus, the first vessel capable of Multi-Vector Assault Mode and the U.S.S. Valiant, the Defiant Class operated by members of Red Squadron from Starfleet Academy. An interesting option given is the vessels from the so-called ‘Frankenstein Fleet’, which saw starship frames previously mothballed by Starfleet upgraded with more advanced equipment and technologies. This would result in a radically different and genuinely unique vessel, a mixture of the old with the new.

Lastly, the Gamma Quadrant Sourcebook includes a wide selection of encounters and adversaries. Alongside a handful of encounter seeds for the Gamma Quadrant, there is a discussion of the Bajoran Wormhole and the role of the Prophets, and the nature of exploring the Gamma Quadrant. There is discussion too, of the types of campaigns that can be played throughout the period of the Dominion War, accompanied by several mission seeds and encounter types. Major NPCs given include General Martok of the Klingon Empire, Kai Winna Bajoran Vedek, the Cardassian leader, Gul Dukat, and the leading member of the Vorta species, Weyoun. Their inclusion enables the Player Characters to encounter and interact with some of the major adversaries of the Dominion War.

Physically, the Gamma Quadrant Sourcebook is a decent looking book. There are some inconsistencies in the layout, but otherwise the book is generally well-written and decently illustrated—though not always effectively—with a fully painted images. It does need a slight edit in places. The layout is done in the style of the LCARS—Library Computer Access/Retrieval System—operating system used by Starfleet. So, everything is laid out over a rich black background with the text done in soft colours. This is very in keeping with the theme and period setting of Star Trek Adventures, but it is imposing, even intimidating in its look, and it is not always easy to find things on the page because of the book’s look. The other issue is that the none-more black pages are easy to mark with fingerprints.

Throughout the supplement, the descriptions and game content are supported by a series of in-game documents, reports, diary excerpts, and the like. These typically reflect the mysterious nature of the Dominion and then the fraught nature of facing them and their agents in war, adding a sense of desperation in terms of its flavour and feel.

The Gamma Quadrant Sourcebook is three books in one, covering the Dominion, the worlds in and around Dominion space, and the Dominion War. It is also a companion volume, that to the Alpha Quadrant Sourcebook, which will provide the setting material for the Bajoran end of the Wormhole—Bajor, the Cardassian Union, the Ferengi Alliance, the Badlands, and the Demilitarised Zone. Like the Alpha Quadrant Sourcebook, the Gamma Quadrant Sourcebook sort of tiptoes around the subject of Deep Space 9. Yet despite this omission, the Gamma Quadrant Sourcebook is actually the most enjoyable and the most useful of the three sourcebooks dedicated to Star Trek’s quadrants to date. This is because it does not spread itself as thin as they do, its focus being firmly on the Dominion and their allies, the Dominion War, the consequences of the war, and involving the Player Characters. All of which is backed up by solid advice on running a campaign during just four or five years of Star Trek’s history.

To get the best out of the Gamma Quadrant Sourcebook, the Game Master will want access to the Alpha Quadrant Sourcebook, as that will anchor one end of the Bajoran Wormhole and Dominion War. Nevertheless, the Gamma Quadrant Sourcebook is the definitive guide to the Dominion and the Dominion War for Star Trek Adventures, as well as the other end of the Bajoran Wormhole.

Expanding Star Trek Adventures

In all of the eleven roleplaying games based on Star Trek, it is surprising to note that there have exactly three setting supplements between all of them. Of course, it could be argued that the future depicted in Star Trek is a setting in itself, but as to specific supplements which focus on a setting or location for play, well, still three. For FASA’s Star Trek: TheRole Playing Game, the Trader Captains and Merchant Princes supplement introduced the lawless region of The Triangle, caught between the United Federation of Planets, the Klingon Empire, and the Romulan Star Empire, and then developed properly, in The Triangle supplement. For Last Unicorn Games, there was the Starfleet Academy boxed set, which enabled players to roleplay a campaign at the academy and beyond. That then is two of them, but Star Trek Adventures, the Star Trek roleplaying game from Modiphius Entertainment has a setting supplement of its own and it is literally bigger and more expansive than the other two. This is the Shackleton Expanse Campaign Guide.

The Shackleton Expanse Campaign Guide is set far beyond Federation and Klingon space, in the Beta Quadrant. This presents a barely explored region of space, known for its strange spatial phenomena and rumours of an ancient, lost civilisation, which is being opened up to exploration, colonisation, and trade. Here on the edge of the Expanse, the Federation and the Klingons have built and established Starbase 364, also known as Narendra Station in tribute to the Klingon colonists massacred by a Romulan sneak attack at the Narendra III outpost in 2344 and the heroic sacrifice of the USS Enterprise-C in defending them. The Federation and the Klingons jointly run the station. In game terms, this set-up leads to some fantastic campaign possibilities. At its heart, the Shackleton Expanse Campaign Guide is a station-based campaign, much in the mode of Deep Space 9, although the Player Characters are going to have their own starship too. The setting can be run with an all-Federation crew or an all-Klingon crew, or even a mixed crew, further supporting the joint nature of Narendra Station. With some development upon the part of the Game Master, a campaign could be run which does not focus upon a Federation or Klingon crew, but instead around themes such as trade—the Ferengi and the Orions are active in the area, espionage—the Romulans have interest in activities on their border and the technological secrets to be found in the Shackleton Expanse, or even crime—the Orion Syndicate known to be operating in the region. Whichever way a Game Master decides to use the Shackleton Expanse Campaign Guide, the Star Trek Adventures: The Klingon Empire roleplaying game will be useful. Also useful will be the Beta Quadrant Sourcebook which covers the background and broad history of the whole of the quadrant as well as first mentioning the Shackleton Expanse.

The Shackleton Expanse Campaign Guide presents a whole new setting for the Star Trek: The Original Series and Star Trek: The Next Generation periods of Star Trek Adventures. This includes, a region guide and an explanation of the strange spatial, spectral, and gravimetric phenomena which can disrupt ship’s systems or even destroy a ship completely; five new playable species, including four indigenous to the setting and one found everywhere; details of both NPCs and starships to be found in the region; and advice on running a campaign in the setting. The highlight of the supplement is ‘The Tilikaal Saga’, a complete ten-part campaign that spans the Star Trek: The Original Series and Star Trek: The Next Generation eras and through the actions of the Player Characters, will profoundly affect the future of the Shackleton Expanse. All of this is supported with historical excerpts, personal logs, and intercepted communications that add flavour and detail as well as differing points of view—the Klingon security report on the Orions and the Orion Syndicate is most amusing.

The Shackleton Expanse Campaign Guide opens with an overview of the region and its known history, highlighting the lack of knowledge that the Federation has about the Shackleton Expanse, an explanation of the push to explore and open up the region, a description of Starbase 364 or Narendra Station, the spatial phenomena which makes travel so dangerous and exploration so intriguing, and the various factions known to be active in the region. The history begins with the initial exploration by the U.S.S. Lexington in 2269, which would see one world quarantined and limit Federation activity in the region for almost a century. A combination of closer Klingon co-operation and increased scientific interest has spurred the construction of a permanent base and support for further exploration (which is where the Player Characters and their starship come in). The description of Narendra Station is detailed enough to bring it alive, but still leave plenty of room for the Game Master to add extra details, especially if she wants to run adventures Deep Space 9 style on the station. The factions covered include the United Federation of Planets, the Klingon Empire, the Romulan Star Empire, and the Orion Syndicate, as well as four species native to the Shackleton Expanse, which the Federation has either limited contact with or is monitoring under the terms of the Prime Directive. These include the Akaru, a humanoid species which combine the best of Vulcan and Romulan traits and are highly efficient; the Cal-Mirran, a crystalline species which communicates via light and has the capacity to distort time and look into the past or the future; the Qofuari, Otter-like centauroids who can mentally image, model, and test technologies and theories; and the VinShari, a dominate humanoid species with powerful vocal abilities which can be deadly. Full stats are provided for all four species, as well as the Orions later in the supplement, enabling their creation as both Player Characters and NPCs. However, since contact is initially limited with the four native species, they are best used as NPCs at first, and then as possible Player Characters once they have been encountered and reasons developed as why they can become Player Characters. The VinShari are likely to be the aggressive species for any campaign, but all four species are nicely detailed and feel alien to one degree or another.

All this leads up to the Tilikaal and ‘The Tilikaal Saga’. The Tilikaal are an ancient race, akin to the Preservers, Iconians, and Organians, who disappeared long ago leaving behind worlds with strange machinery built deep into their bowels or massive structures that cover the whole of the planetary surface, as well as spectral phenomena which defy known science in 2269, let alone 2371. The Tilikaal themselves and then their known worlds and their technology are described in detail before delving into the campaign. This begins in the Star Trek: The Original Series era with the first two parts, before moving onto the Star Trek: The Next Generation era for the remaining eight. Thus, from the start there is an imbalance to the campaign, particularly for a group playing in the Star Trek: The Original Series era, who get less time in the campaign. There are suggestions for involving the Star Trek: The Original Series era, who are intended to be crewmembers aboard the U.S.S. Lexington, in the rest of the campaign in the Star Trek: The Next Generation era, such as time travel or particularly long-lived characters, such as Vulcans. The methods suggested do feel forced though and whilst the first two parts of the campaign are integral to the whole, they feel like an introduction to the main campaign in the Star Trek: The Next Generation era.

‘The Tilikaal Saga’ will see the Player Characters ranging back and forth across the Shackleton Expanse. They will not only be examining the effects of the spatial phenomena and their causes and following on further clues as to the nature of the Tilikaal and their technology, but they will also be encountering the new species across the Shackleton Expanse and interreacting with both them and members of the other factions with an interest in the region. There are some great scenes throughout the campaign as the Player Characters and their starship travel to pocket dimensions; lead a flotilla simultaneously holding off a Romulan squadron, land a starship on a planet to conduct an evacuation, and delaying one planet from crashing into another—which is all incredibly epic; and more.

Having originated as a Living Campaign released as a series of PDFs, ‘The Tilikaal Saga’ has an episodic structure, enabling the Game Master to slot other scenarios in between the main episodes. To that end, the supplement includes ten one-page scenario outlines or Mission Briefs for the Star Trek: The Original Series era and twenty-seven for the Star Trek: The Next Generation era. Again, there is an imbalance between the two eras, but the inclusion of the Mission Briefs for the Star Trek: The Original Series era does at least offset the short length of the era’s involvement in the campaign. Each of the Mission Briefs is nicely done with suggested spotlight role for each one, plus the story beats—major and minor, NPCs involved, and suggestions as to when to run into between the episodes of the campaign. All of which is supported by general advice on running the campaign and story arcs in the Shackleton Expanse.

To support the Game Master, the Shackleton Expanse Campaign Guide includes details for the various NPCs, adversaries and allies, involved in both campaign and setting. These include the staff aboard Narendra Station, as well as NPCs for the Star Trek: The Original Series era, and then Klingons, Orions, and NPCs from across the Shackleton Expanse. Details are also provided for the various vessels involved. This includes the U.S.S. Lexington for the Star Trek: The Original Series era, and then an Akira-Class, Galaxy-Class, and Intrepid-Class vessel for the Star Trek: The Next Generation era. These are the U.S.S. Thunderchild, the U.S.S. Venture, and the U.S.S. Bellerophon respectively, and each comes its own history and background. There are plenty of other vessels from across the region too. Lastly, there are notes for Game Master if she wants to create her version of the Shackleton Expanse.

Physically, behind the lovely cover, the Shackleton Expanse Campaign Guide has some of the same problems as Star Trek Adventures: The Roleplaying Game core rulebook—the use of the LCARS—Library Computer Access/Retrieval System—operating system as a style template. Again, the mix of white text and pastel colours on black is not easy to read. (This does not apply to the Mission Briefs for the Star Trek: The Original Series era, so they are easy to read.) Nor do the maps look particularly good on the black background and they not particularly interesting maps at that. However, the Shackleton Expanse Campaign Guide does not feel as compact a book in places and so is easier to read.

Noticeable also, is the range of artwork on show. This is a completely new supplement with completely new species and setting and so the supplement gives new artwork to depict both them and the setting. Unfortunately, though, not all of the NPCs are illustrated, which will be a problem for the Game Master to present in play.

The Shackleton Expanse Campaign Guide is Federation-focused and thus Starfleet-focused. Which means that although there is advice for running the campaign and individual scenarios with an all-Klingon crew and starship, this comes off as second best by comparison. It always feels as if Klingon interests are aligned with the Federation interests and that is not always true. Perhaps a scenario or two, or a Mission Brief could have been included designed to be played by Klingons, but with notes for running its using Starfleet Player Characters rather than the other way around. Another area where the Shackleton Expanse Campaign Guide is at its weakest is in advice for the Game Master. The advice on running the campaign and individual scenarios is fine, but there is no advice on running campaigns with a fixed point of reference, in this case, a starbase like that of Deep Space 9. Essentially, the Game Master will need to await a supplement dedicated to Deep Space 9 or starbase-style campaigns for that advice.

The Shackleton Expanse Campaign Guide covers a lot of setting and a lot of adventure. In fact, ‘The Tilikaal Saga’ will provide months’ worth of play, especially if the Game Master includes the numerous Mission Briefs to round out the campaign and structure it more like a season or two of a Star Trek series. After all, with the ten parts of the campaign and the almost forty Mission Briefs there is enough here for that, plus whatever the Game Master adds. In addition, the Shackleton Expanse Campaign Guide and ‘The Tilikaal Saga’ together open up Star Trek Adventures to more than just what is portrayed on screen, not only expanding the setting of Star Trek, but also providing content that is unique to the Modiphius Entertainment roleplaying game.

The Shackleton Expanse Campaign Guide provides Star Trek Adventures with an all-new setting and the epic campaign it has been waiting for. In fact, first campaign for any Star Trek roleplaying game! The Game Master will find everything she needs to run this campaign and her own in its pages for a whole season of Star Trek roleplaying—if not more.

—oOo—

Modiphius Entertainment will be at UK Games Expo

from Friday 2nd to Sunday 4th, 2023.