Release Star Trek Adventures: Core Rulebook Released in PDF!

Modiphius Entertainment’s Star Trek Adventures: Core Rulebook is now available on PDF through DriveThruRPG/RPGNow. Star Trek Adventures is one of this summers BIG releases and Modiphius have been hot at work making sure there’ll be plenty of support for GMs and Players coming in the next few months.

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Starfleet Needs A New Crew!​

Welcome to your new assignment, Captain. Your continuing mission, to explore strange new worlds, seek out new life and new civilizations, to bodly go where no one has gone before…

Star Trek Adventures takes you to the Final Frontier of the Galaxy, where new discoveries await keen explorers of Starfleet. Your duties may take you to the edges of known space, or to Federation colonies in need, to the borders of neighbouring galactic powers or into the eye of interstellar phenomena. Your ship and your crew epitomise the best Starfleet and the United Federation of Planets has to offer, and you are needed more than ever.

A new threat looms from across the Gamma Quadrant, as it is confirmed by Commander Sisko and his crew that the Dominion, led by the Founders, represent a significant threat to the Alpha Quadrant. Tension is already high in the region of Bajor and Deep Space 9, as the Maquis continue to act against the Cardassian-Federation peace treaty, with Captain Janeway and the crew of the U.S.S. Voyager preparing for their mission in the Badlands. It is a volatile time for the Federation and new crews have never been in higher demand.

• Create your own Star Trek stories of discovery and adventure on the Final Frontier with 368 pages of content. Full colour PDF.

• Complete 2d20 game system from Modiphius Entertainment adapted for Star Trek Adventures, used in Mutant Chronicles, Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of, John Carter of Mars and the Infinity RPG.

• An extensive exploration of the United Federation of Planets and its galactic neighbours in the Alpha, Beta and Gamma Quadrants.

• Guidelines for Gamemasters old and new, on how to run an adventure of exploration and discovery for the crew of a Federation starship.

• A full catalogue of aliens and antagonists including Klingons, Romulans, Cardassians, the Borg and the Dominion.

• Brought to you by a team of expert Star Trek writers including writers from previous editions of Star Trek roleplaying games and other gaming talent.

• Personal logs and intercepted communications by Starfleet Intelligence provide a new perspective on Star Trek and its events.

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[Charles Rampant]

£11.99? That's a very aggressively priced pdf! I wonder if they are sensitive to the complaints made about the Borg Cube pricing, and went low as a result?

I'd also like to note that while the corebook has a dreadfully boring cover, their adventures book is graced with both an excellent name and a glorious cover:

 

[ChampionoftheTriad]

I bought the PDF and am reading it. I'll post thoughts about it here as they come to me. Feel free to ask anything you'd like to know about it, too - contents, whatever.

And as for this silly line over TOS vs. TNG vs. WTF...please. The book is almost 400 pages long and it's not complete. There's no way, given the amount of ST content, to build a single-volume that'd be comprehensive. They've got an aggressive release schedule for the next 18 months, and so we need to give them time. If they'd focused on TOS to the exception of TNG, some people would grouse about that.

That said, it's all made up, right? Which means you can...make...stuff...up (Kirk voice there, please). You don't....NEED...stats to...make stuff up.

Kirk out.

YES, this! Also, within the parameters of their license (and the timeline), TNG is the "current" era. As in the latest stardate is Star Trek Nemesis. The book is therefore presented as "current, looking back". The layout is the TNG LCARS style, ubiquitous on all the "modern" shows. I imagine this is why the cover blurbs, and the introduction is TNG heavy. But, fear not, this game encompasses ALL Trek (minus STD and alternate universe). As previously stated, the tech is really all the same, it just looks different in different eras.

And I must say, it is a rather slick presentation. With the exception of a handful of art pieces, most of those in the book are spectacular and evocative. As one progresses through the work, they tell the story of the climax of an adventuresome Starfleet mission. Really well done.

Game on!

 

[lyle.spade]

First impressions, after having read just over 1/3 of the PDF over the last day:

1. It's a nice-looking book, in terms of layout, art (overall), and both the black and white page versions. There are some odd types - "it's" instead of "its" and one really bizarrely-worded non-sensical sentence about the "Veteran" Talent on pg118...drunk typing, anyone?
2. The lifepath chargen method reminds me of the FASA method, which is cool. I think it'll help build characters that make sense and fit the genre.
3. I like the task resolution system, which I've played once in a Conan adventure. If you've not played it at a table, worry not: it's not nearly as complicated as it might seem and actually flows really quickly. We were all new to the system when we played and it went quickly and smoothly.
4. I'm not so sure about the Extended Tasks system (p90), as it seems crunchy to the point of possibly losing the story in the mechanics of the moment, much like Skill Challenges did in DnD 4e.
5. I'm not hip on the idea of new Ensigns and Veterans having the same value, overall, in terms of Attributes and Discplines. I will think on that more, and perhaps House Rule it. Don't know at this point, but the idea that Kirk, as a character, would be the same in terms of total stats, taken together, as Wesley Crusher....I don't buy it. Minor point, however.
6. I think the selection of races thus far is fine, and hacking them to build others would be easy, given the amount of source material that's out there. Since races are mostly differentiated from one another by Talents, it'd just be an issue of creating a pair that would fit what your chosen reference material indicates for that race.

I'll add some more reflections later. Overall I'm really happy with it. Knowing from experience that the core system flows well at the table, I can see where the fluff in this book and how the mechanics have been tailored in some places to fit the genre will, together, help a group play adventures that feel like Star Trek - and it's that right vibe that sets it apart from every other scifi setting.

 

[AverageCitizen]

Is this the one where they have specific ship-based campaigns? Or was that something else, or just part of the beta?

 

[oneshot]

It was the beta, but those campaigns will continue as living campaigns after release. You can sign up for the living campaign on the Modiphius website.

 

[rknop]

Just bought the book, and skimming it reminds me how long it's been since I saw either TNG or DS9. (Or anything, really.... I've seen the Abrams reboot movies because they're recent, but but for one or two TOS episodes, it's been since Nemesis that I've really watched any Star Trek. Enterprise lost me after about five episodes.)

I saw all of TNG, DS9, and Voyager. But, when I read in the Modiphius book that there is something called the Tzenkethi Coalition, and that there is a border war, I realize, I should probably know what that is. So, I look it up on the Memory Alpha wiki, see there were a couple of DS9 episodes... that I completely don't remember. (Except for bits; I remember the bit about Lt. Commander Eddington congratulating Sisko upon Sisko's promotion to Captain.)

It strikes me that the amount of time since the first episode of ST:TNG and now is 30 years. The amount of time between the first episode of ST:TOS and the first episode of ST:TNG was 20 (21?) years. And yet I still think of TNG as "new" Star Trek.

I'm getting old.

 

[Scribe Ineti]

Is this the one where they have specific ship-based campaigns? Or was that something else, or just part of the beta?

The Living Campaign is based on four Federation ships: the TOS era USS Lexington (Constitution); and three TNG-era ships. USS Venture (Galaxy), USS Thunderchild (Akira), and USS Bellerophon (Intrepid). It started in the playtest and will continue on with regular adventure releases. Eventually they'll be collected into big campaign books as well, telling the full story of what's going on in the Shackleton Expanse.

EDIT: And just to clarify--the adventure book previewed above is a set of standalone adventures, not the LC. Modiphius is working on two different sets of adventures--one for the LC and one for standalone adventures.

 

[lyle.spade]

Just bought the book, and skimming it reminds me how long it's been since I saw either TNG or DS9. (Or anything, really.... I've seen the Abrams reboot movies because they're recent, but but for one or two TOS episodes, it's been since Nemesis that I've really watched any Star Trek. Enterprise lost me after about five episodes.)

I saw all of TNG, DS9, and Voyager. But, when I read in the Modiphius book that there is something called the Tzenkethi Coalition, and that there is a border war, I realize, I should probably know what that is. So, I look it up on the Memory Alpha wiki, see there were a couple of DS9 episodes... that I completely don't remember. (Except for bits; I remember the bit about Lt. Commander Eddington congratulating Sisko upon Sisko's promotion to Captain.)

It strikes me that the amount of time since the first episode of ST:TNG and now is 30 years. The amount of time between the first episode of ST:TOS and the first episode of ST:TNG was 20 (21?) years. And yet I still think of TNG as "new" Star Trek.

I'm getting old.

Naah...."seasoned."

And remember: youth and vigor are no match for old age and treachery.

 

[Random Bystander]

A brief, fictive account of something I hope the game manages to avoid:

"I am uncertain as to how this game may proceed, Captain."

"Bah! Just go with your gut instinct, Captain!"

"I am unsure what my digestive track may have to do with my decision-making process."

"Ship coming up on scanners, Keptain."

"Who is it, Captain?"

"Sensors are unsure, Captain. However, they appear to be on an intercept course, and have raised both shields and weapons."

"Evasive manoeuvres, Shields up, Captain!"

"Aye, Aye, Captain!"

Namely, everyone wanting to be Captain...Captains.

 

[Staffan]

I just watched G&S's Shield of Tomorrow game (where they're playing Star Trek Adventures), and it seems like a fun game. I've been leery of Modiphius's 2d20 system before when seeing it in Conan and other places, but it appears to work. If I wasn't already waiting for my TORG PDF, I would probably get myself this PDF to see what the hubbub is about.