star trek adventures advantage

The character moves to any other station on the bridge, or to any other location on the ship. If that bridge station is unmanned, the character can take control of that station immediately; otherwise, the character takes control whenever the officer already at that station departs. If the character is moving to somewhere else on the ship, they will arrive in that location at the start of their next Turn.

The character interacts with an object in the environment. Particularly complex interactions may require a Task instead. This covers basic and routine interactions with ship systems that aren’t otherwise covered here.

The character prepares for, or spends time setting up, for a Task. Some Tasks require this Minor Action to be taken before the Task can be attempted.

Tactical only. The character raises or lowers the ship’s Shields. If the shields are lowered, then the ship counts as having a Shields of 0. If the shields are raised, they immediately go to either their normal maximum score (if they are being raised for the first time that scene), or to their previous score (if they have taken damage during that scene). A character may not raise and lower shields during the same Round.

The character performs the minor repairs and adjustments needed to restore a system after disruption or minor damage. Certain circumstances will call for the use of this Minor Action.

General

The character performs some activity that will grant an ally an advantage. The character nominates a single ally they can communicate with, and declares how they are giving aid, including which Attribute, Discipline, and Focus (if any) they are assisting with. During the nominated ally’s Task, the character provides assistance using the chosen Attribute, Discipline, and Focus, as normal for assisting on a Task.

The character attempts to create some favorable circumstance that benefits their side. This is a Task with a Difficulty of 2, using Attribute, Discipline, and Focus (if any) based on how they’re trying to gain an advantage. If successful, the character creates an Advantage. At the Gamemaster’s discretion, depending on the nature of the Advantage being created, the ship may assist this Task.

A character may spend one Determination in order to take a second Task during a Turn.

Some characters have actions that demonstrate their prowess as leaders, granting an additional Task to characters under their command. This Task is attempted immediately, during the commanding character’s Turn, and is considered to be assisted by the commanding character.

A character may spend two Momentum from a successful Task in order to attempt a second Task; however, this second Task increases in Difficulty by one.

The character overrides the controls of another role. The character may attempt a Task from any other role other than commanding officer, but increasing the Difficulty by one, due to the sub-optimal controls.

The character chooses not to attempt a Task. If the character takes no Minor Actions this Turn, then the character does not count as having taken a Turn, and may act later in the Round instead.

The character declares that they are waiting for a particular situation or event to occur before attempting a Task. This situation or event must be chosen when Ready is declared, as must the Task to be attempted when that situation occurs. When this triggering situation occurs, the character with the readied Task temporarily interrupts the acting character’s Turn to resolve the reading Task. Once the readied Task has resolved, events continue as normal. If the triggering situation does not occur before the character’s next Turn, the readied Task is lost. Characters who take a readied Task can still perform Minor Actions during their Turn as normal.

Helm

The flight controller takes a course that will make it easier to target the enemy. If successful, until the flight controller’s next Turn, all attacks made by the ship reduce in Difficulty by 1 (to a minimum of 1; if already at 1, then gain one bonus Momentum instead).

This has a Power requirement of 1.

The flight controller attempts a Daring + Conn Task with a Difficulty of 2, assisted by the ship’s Weapons + Conn.

The flight controller moves swiftly and unpredictably, attempting to foil enemy targeting. If successful, until the flight controller’s next Turn, all attacks against the ship, and all attacks made by the ship, increase their Difficulty by 1.

The flight controller attempts a Daring + Conn Task with a Difficulty of 1, assisted by the ship’s Structure + Conn.

The flight controller uses the ship’s impulse engines to adjust position and move to anywhere within Long range.

This has a Power Requirement of 1.

Control + Conn Task with a Difficulty of 0 + number of complications, assisted by the ship’s Engines + Conn.

The flight controller uses the ship’s thrusters to adjust position and moves to anywhere within Medium range.

The flight controller chooses a single enemy vessel or other target within Long range, and moves towards them at full speed. If successful, the attack inflicts a number of damage equal to 2 plus the ramming ship’s Scale, with the Spread and Vicious 1 effects, and the Devastating quality. However, the ship also suffers a number of damage equal to the target’s Scale, with the Spread and Vicious 1 effects, and the Devastating quality.

This is an attack, requiring a Daring + Conn Task with a Difficulty of 2, assisted by the ship’s Engines + Conn. This Difficulty increases by 1 for every range category beyond Close the target is.

The flight controller uses the ship’s warp drive to move two or more zones.

This has a Power requirement equal to the number of zones to be moved. This represents short — seconds-long — bursts of warp speed, rather than longer journeys.

Navigation

The navigator, using navigational sensors, marks hazards in the vicinity of the vessel and its planned course, and determines the safest route around, past, or through them. If successful, nominate a single hazard or other dangerous phenomenon nearby; the Difficulty of any Task to avoid that hazard is reduced by 2. The navigator can nominate one additional hazard or dangerous phenomenon for every two Momentum spent.

This is a Reason + Conn Task, assisted by the ship’s Sensors + Conn, with a Difficulty of 3.

The navigator calculates the best course to the intended destination. If successful, the next Task the helmsman attempts reduces in Difficulty by 1. Reduce the Difficulty by a further 1 for every two Momentum spent (Repeatable)

This is a Reason + Conn Task, assisted by the ship’s Computers + Conn, with a Difficulty of 3.

Systems

The officer sends a damage control team, which attempts to repair a single Breach. The officer chooses a single Damaged or Disabled system, and attempts a Presence + Engineering Task, with a Difficulty determined by the system chosen (see p. 230); if successful, the system is restored to function and can be used again normally. This does not remove any Breaches the ship has suffered, only the penalties imposed by damage.

The officer reroutes power from various systems, replenishing reserves or freeing up power for other uses. This requires a Daring or Control + Engineering Task with a Difficulty of 2, which can Succeed at Cost. On success, the ship gains one point of Power, plus one additional Power per Momentum spent (Repeatable), which may exceed its normal maximum. Complications should represent power being removed from particular systems, increasing the Difficulty of future Tasks, or removing options until systems are repowered.

The officer routes power to the shield emitters, trying to replenish them. This has a Power requirement of 1. This requires a Control + Engineering Task with a Difficulty of 1, assisted by the ship’s Structure + Engineering; the Difficulty increases by +1 if the ship’s Shields are at 0. If successful, the ship regains 2 points of Shields, plus 2 more for each Momentum spent (Repeatable).

This Task has a Power requirement of 1. The officer nominates a target (an object, group of small objects, or group of people) and a destination both within Close range of the ship (either or both of which may be within the ship itself). The officer then attempts a Control + Engineering Task with a Difficulty of 2, assisted by the ship’s Sensors + Engineering; this Difficulty increases by +1 if the target is not on a transporter pad, and +1 if the destination is not a transporter pad, and may increase further based on interference or other conditions. The target cannot be transported to or from any location with more than 0 shields. This Task can also be performed from any transporter room, reducing the Difficulty by one.

Communications

The communications officer puts out a call to all decks, and promptly receives reports of damage from across the ship. This is an Insight + Command Task, assisted by the ship’s Communications + Engineering, with a Difficulty of 1. If successful, reduce the Difficulty of one Task to perform repairs by one. Affect one additional Task for one Momentum (Repeatable), or reduce the Difficulty of one Task by an additional one for two Momentum (Repeatable).

The communications officer attempts to establish a communications link with a ship, facility, or other place that can receive subspace or similar transmissions. This requires a Control + Engineering Task, assisted by the ship’s Communications + Engineering, with a Difficulty of 0. The Difficulty increases based on interference and other factors that would impede communications systems, and the Difficulty will also increase if the message is being encrypted or coded. Success means that a channel has been opened and a hailing signal or message has been sent. Nothing requires that the contacted vessel, etc., respond to a hail.

The communications officer seeks to pick up and decipher the transmissions of others; they select a single vessel within Long range to intercept communications from. Success means that the message has been successfully intercepted, and its contents revealed.

This is an Insight + Engineering Task, assisted by the ship’s Communications + Security, with the Difficulty set by the Gamemaster based on the level of encryption. The character may use Control + Engineering and reduce the Difficulty by 1 if they have up-to-date knowledge of that culture’s codes and ciphers.

Functionally the same as the Hailing Frequencies Open action, though this action is taken in response to being hailed. Success means that both vessels can communicate visual, audio, and data freely, though Complications or other circumstances may limit some of these.

The Difficulty is 0, unless interference or impedance are issues, or if the communications link is encrypted or encoded.

The communications officer transmits signals to interfere with the target’s attempts to communicate. Choose a single vessel or other target within Medium range to jam. This has a Power requirement of 1. This is a Control + Engineering Task, assisted by the ship’s Communications + Security, and the character chooses a Difficulty of 1, 2, or 3. Success means that the target increases the Difficulty of Hailing Frequencies Open or Respond to Hail Tasks by an amount equal to the Difficulty the communications officer chose.

Security

The security officer dispatches a team of security personnel to a particular location on the ship, possibly to deal with boarders, or some other breach of security. If successful, the security breach is contained.

The officer sends a security team to the chosen location, then attempts a Presence + Security Task. The Difficulty of the Task is normally 1, but the Task is opposed by the intruders.

The security officer activates containment force fields in a particular section on the ship, to halt the movement of boarders or other unauthorized personnel. If successful, the intruders are contained. The intruders may attempt a Task of their own to overcome the fields, with a Difficulty equal to 1+ the number of Momentum spent by the security officer on this Task.

This is a Reason + Security Task, assisted by the ship’s Structure + Security, with a Difficulty set by the GM based on the number, resilience, and armament of the intruders.

The security officer uses the internal sensors to detect the presence or absence of personnel in particular parts of the vessel. Momentum spent on this Task is often spent on the Obtain Information Momentum Spend, asking one question to the GM for each Momentum spent (Repeatable) — typically used to ask for precise location, numbers, species, and similar details — though this is not required if the player has some other use in mind for the Momentum.

This requires a Reason + Security Task, assisted by the ship’s Sensors + Security, with a Difficulty of 1.

Commanding Officer

The CO provides clear, concise orders. Choose one other officer currently on the bridge; that officer attempts a single Task, determined by the CO. The CO assists this Task using the Command skill. This action may be used once per scene by each character who has access to it.

The CO inspires and coordinates the crew. This Task is specifically to generate Momentum, either to use straight away or to save for the group.

Attempt a Presence + Command Task with a Difficulty of 0

Tactical

The tactical officer nominates a single active weapon system on board the ship, chooses a viable target for that weapon, and makes an attack.

Depends on weapon

This is a Control + Security Task, assisted by the ship’s Weapons + Security. The Difficulty is determined by the type of weapon used, and the conditions of the attack (enemy actions, spatial conditions, etc.).

If successful, the ship’s Resistance is increased by +1, plus an additional +1 per Momentum spent (Repeatable). This bonus lasts until the next time the ship suffers one or more damage, after Resistance.

This Task has a Power requirement of 1, and cannot be attempted if the Shields are at 0.

The Tactical officer attempts a Control + Security Task, assisted by the ship’s Structure + Engineering, with a Difficulty of 2.

The tactical officer engages a tractor beam at a nearby object or vessel. If successful, the target vessel is immobilized and cannot move unless it can break free, using their shield modulations, the raw power of their engines, or disabling the tractor beam emitter (a Task in its own right), with a Difficulty determined by the strength of the ship’s tractor beam.

This requires a Control + Security Task, assisted by the ship’s Structure + Security with a Difficulty of 2, and can only be directed at a target within Close range.

Sensors

The sensor operator configures and launches a sensor probe in order to study a situation or phenomenon in more depth or from a safe distance. It reduces the Difficulty of Tasks to make a Sensor Sweep with regards to phenomena near the probe by two, determines the range for Scan for Weakness from the probe, and means that hazards that result from proximity to the phenomena affect the probe instead of the vessel. The Probe has a Resistance of 1, and is destroyed if it suffers one or more points of damage.

This Task does not require a roll, and has no Difficulty.

The sensor operator scans an enemy vessel, looking for vulnerabilities, or attempting to gain some other advantage. If this succeeds, then the vessel’s next Attack, before the end of the sensor operator’s next Turn, gains the Piercing 2 quality, ignoring two of the target’s Resistance per Effect rolled. Further, if any bonus d20s are purchased for that next attack, it inflicts +1 damage for each bonus d20 purchased.

The sensor operator chooses a single target they can detect, and attempts a Control + Science Task with a Difficulty of 1, assisted by the ship’s Sensors + Security. This Task increases in Difficulty by 1 for each range category beyond Close between the ship and the chosen target.

The sensor operator uses the ship’s sensors to locate objects or phenomena in space, or otherwise obtain information about something going on outside the ship. Momentum spent on this Task is normally spent on the Obtain Information Momentum Spend, asking one question to the Gamemaster for each Momentum spent (Repeatable), though this is not required if the Player has some other use in mind for the Momentum.

This is a Reason + Science Task, assisted by the ship’s Sensors + Science, with a Difficulty of 0. Interference, ambient conditions, or particularly unusual or unfamiliar phenomena should increase this Difficulty.

Cookies will be added when logging in with "Remember Me". To see the cookies that are added, please view our Cookie Policy .

Activity Stream

You're Here:
Starfleet Mission Operations
CL1 - Starfleet Tactical

[Guide] - Star Trek Adventures - A How to Play Guide

View Profile
Private Message

To Boldly Go On and On

Rare (50 points).

Reach one-thousand posts on the forums

Unlocked Wed 10 Oct, 2018 3:02 PM

0.71% have received this achievement

Uncommon (25 Points)

Receive a promotion to the rank of Commander

Unlocked Sat 21 Dec, 2019 9:39 PM

0.64% have received this achievement

Paragon of Duty

Sign three roll calls in a row

Unlocked Wed 01 Jun, 2016 4:17 AM

9.72% have received this achievement

Eternal Servitude!

Be a registered user for five years

Unlocked Fri 27 Nov, 2020 12:02 PM

76.29% have received this achievement

Well Respected

Reach reputation tier 6

Unlocked Sun 29 Jul, 2018 12:01 PM

0.70% have received this achievement

Stepping Forward

Going from Clearance Level 3 to Clearance Level 4

Unlocked Sat 29 Sep, 2018 1:28 PM

1.91% have received this achievement

Users who disliked
Users who liked

DUM VITA EST SPES EST WHILE THERE'S LIFE, THERE'S HOPE Star Trek Adventures - How to Play Thank you for showing interest in playing Star Trek Adventures! This guide is to help you get started so you can Boldly Go, and all that jazz. Below you will find quick guides on what is required to play, how to create a Roll20.net account, how to join a game on Roll20.net, and mini-guides on how to create a character, quick explanations of game mechanics and links to other useful references and resources to help you get the most out of your Star Trek Adventures gameplay. What is Required to Play To get started, you will require several things to play Star Trek Adventures: A Microphone and access to the UFP Teamspeak Server A Roll20.net account Ownership of the Star Trek Adventures Core Rule Book (Physical or PDF copy) If you don't own the game, you can participate in one game, for free to see if you like it. Star Trek Adventures, like any table-top roleplaying game, is a very social and interactive game, and as such, voice communication will be required to play. This will be facilitated through the UFP Teamspeak server. If you do not have access to the Teamspeak Server, ask for help here . The game will be played on the Roll20.net Virtual Tabletop System , and will require that all players sign up for a free account in order to play. How to create an account will be covered later in this guide. Ownership of the Core Rulebook, either physical or PDF , is required just as if you were playing Stellaris, WoW, or Star Trek Bridge Crew. In the event that UFP and Modiphius (STA's publisher) develop a relationship (contests, giveaways, etc), requiring ownership from players participating in UFP sponsored events would be integral to maintaining that relationship. You can purchase Star Trek Adventures through Modiphius' Offical Store (Physical or PDF) , Amazon, DriveThru RPG (PDF) , or through your Friendly Local Game Store. Purchasing the PDF version of the book is by far the cheapest option, often at a third of the cost of the Physical Copy. Creating a Roll20.net Account In order to play Star Trek Adventures, you need a Roll20.net account, which is free. To create an account, go to http://roll20.net , and click the large, pink "CREATE YOUR FREE ACCOUNT" button, fill out the registration form, and there you go! Account created! One more thing of note though, when you create your account, your Display Name on the site is, by default, your First and Last name, to change this, go to https://app.roll20.net/account/ and edit the 'Display Name' field to what you want and save changes. Joining an UFP Sponsored Event on Roll20 In order to join a game being run by Starfleet Tactical staff, the Operations Officer running the event will post a join link in the TeamSpeak chat that will automatically add you to the game. If you have not created a Roll20.net account, you will be prompted to create one, otherwise, you will be prompted to log into your Roll20.net account. This link is private and should not be shared outside of UFP. This is to prevent people who have not signed up for the event from joining and disrupting the event. Creating a Character in Star Trek Adventures How to create a character in Star Trek Adventures is covered in the Core Rulebook starting on page 93. We will be using the Lifepath Creation Method of creating a character which will give you the greatest choice in how you want your character created. The Lifepath Creation method is as follows: Your character starts out with 7 points in the following 6 Attributes: Control, Fitness, Presence, Daring, Insight, Reason Your character starts out with 1 point in the following 6 Disciplines: Command, Security, Science, Conn, Engineering, Medicine Step One Choose your Characters Species : Andorian, Bajoran, Betazoid, Denobulan, Human, Tellarite, Trill, Vulcan If you own the Beta Quadrant Source Book , on page 75, there are several more options for you: Ardanan, Benzite, Bolian, Deltan, Efrosian, Klingon, Rigelian Chelon, Rigelian Jelna, Risan, Xindi Arborial, Xindi Primate, Xindi Reptillian, Xindi Insectoid, Zakdorn. Based on that choice, complete the following: Add your Species' trait +1 to each of 3 Attributes based on your species choice Access to Talents unique to that species Choose one Talent (Pg 135 of the Core Rulebook, Additional Talents are available if you own the Command Division book on Pg 44 and Pg 49) Step Two Choose the character’s Environment (Pg 111); this is the type of world the character was raised on. Each Environment grants: A Value (based on your environment) +1 to one Attribute, and +1 to one Discipline as outlined by your environment choice. Step Three Choose the character’s Upbringing (Pg. 113); this is the kind of education the character had during their formative years, and the kind of influence their parents and mentors had. Each gives the character: +2 to one Attribute and +1 to a second Attribute (based on your upbringing choice) +1 to a single Discipline One Focus (Pick one that fits what your character is going to be good at) One Talent Step Four The character attends Starfleet Academy (Pg. 116), and chooses which track of the Academy they join — command, operations, or sciences. This grants the character: One Value Three points to spend on two or three Attributes +2 to a single Discipline (your major), +1 to two other disciplines (your minors) Three Focuses One Talent Step Five Choose how long the character’s career has been so far (Pg. 117) — are they young and inexperienced, seasoned veterans, or somewhere in between? The character gains: One Value One Talent If you choose to play a Young Officer with the Untapped Potential talent, you cannot have an Attribute above 11, or a Discipline above 4, and you cannot have a rank higher than Lieutenant. Step Six Determine two or more Career Events (Pg. 118 ). Regardless of how many events are chosen (Min. Two), the character only gains the following based on their choices: Two points for Attributes Two Points for Disciplines Two Focuses Step Seven Finishing Touches, Gain: One Value +1 to Two Attributes +1 to Two Disciplines Adjust Attributes and Disciplines that go over the Maximum Score of Each (12 for Attributes, 5 for Disciplines) Only one Attribute can be at 12, And only one Discipline can be at 5. If you picked "Young Officer", you may only have 1 Attribute at 11, and one Discipline at 4 Your Attribute Scores should total up to 56 points. Your Discipline Scores should total up to 16. Record derived Scores: Stress (Fitness + Security Scores), Bonus Damage (Weapon base damage + Security Score, Weapons Table on Pg. 193) Pick Characters Name, Rank, Role, Department, and Starting Equipment Creating a Starship in Star Trek Adventures In Star Trek Adventures, a Starship is just as important as the Player Characters. Creating a Starship is as straightforward as creating a Character. We will be creating a Starship as a Group so that everyone has a say in its creation. Step One Choose an Era of Play (Enterprise, TOS, TNG, etc), and what year the game is set in. This will determine which spaceframes are available, and how many refits the ship has access too. The following Spaceframes are available: Core Rule Book (Pg. 236) Akira (TNG) Constellation Class (TOS-Movie, TNG Era only) Constitution Class (TOS Era Only, retired 2290) Defiant Class (TNG Era Only) Excelsior Class (TOS-Movie, TNG Era only) Galaxy Class (TNG Era only) Intrepid Class (TNG Era Only) Miranda Class (TOS-Movie, TNG Era only) Nova Class (TNG Era Only) Command Division Source Book (Pg. 51) Daedalus Class (ENT, TOS Era Only) NX Class (ENT Era Only) Constitution Class Refit (TOS-Movie Era only) Hermes Class (TOS, TOS-Movie Era Only) Orberth Class (TOS-Movie, TNG Era Only) Sydney Class (TOS-Movie Era Only) Centaur Class (TOS-Movie Era Only) Ambassador Class (TNG Era Only) Nebula Class (TNG Era Only) New Orleans Class (TNG Era Only) Olympic Class (TNG Era Only) Steamrunner Class (TNG Era Only) Norway Class (TNG Era Only) Saber Class (TNG Era Only) Sovereign Class (TNG Era Only) Luna Class (TNG Era Only) Small Deep Space Outpost (All Eras) Front Line Starbase (Pg. 96, Large, Think Earth Space Dock, All Eras) Step Two Once you have the Spaceframe Picked, we have to determine how many refit cycles that ship's class has received, based on when the class of ship entered service, and what year the game is currently set in. A Starship Class receives One Refit Cycle for every 10 years in service. For Example, The Excelsior Class entered service in 2285, and the game is set in 2371. That means the class has been in service for 86 years, and benefits from 8 Refit Cycles. Each Refit Cycle grants +1 point to any Starship System. No Starship can receive more than 2 points added to a single system, and no system can be upgraded past 12 (Although, a starship can have a system value above twelve before Refits, but cannot be upgraded past 12 through refits). Step Three Once you have a Spaceframe picked, which gives us the base stat values for Systems and Departments, and taken care of Refits, we choose a Mission Profile (Pg. 251). When you pick a mission profile, you add the point values listed to your ship's Department Scores, and pick one talent listed with that Mission Profile. Step Four After the Mission Profile is picked, we take care of the rest of the Starship's Talents (Pg. 255). Additional Talents from the Command Division Source Book can be found on Pg. 67 of that book. A Starship can only have as many Talents equal to its Scale. For Example, if the Starship has a Scale of 4, it can only have 4 Talents. Step Five Once your talents are picked, it's time for the Finishing Touches. First, we determine what your Ships crew support value is. This is the number of Support Characters your crew can create (Pg. 132), and is based on your Ship's Scale, and can be increased by having a Player Character taking the Supervisor Talent (which adds +1 to Crew Support, and can only be taken once per character, but more than one Player Character in the crew can take the talent). Additionally, from The Command Division book, there is a Starship Talent called "Dedicated Personnel", where you pick a Department, increase Crew Support by +2 and create two supporting characters dedicated to that department. Second, we add the standard weapon Loadout for your starship. Full information on Weapon Types, Effects, etc can be found on Pg. 231. Weapon Damage is determined by adding your Starship's Scale + Security Department. A Federation Starship is typically equipped with the following: Phaser Array Photon Torpedos Tractor Beam (Strength Value is listed with the Spaceframe) Third, we determine the Ships Sheild and Power values. Power is determined by the Ship's Engine System Value (Example: If the Engine Value is 10, the ship has 10 power) Shields are determined by the Ship's Engine System Value + Security Department Value. Fourth, we determine the ship's Resistance value (How much damage the ship can ignore before taking damage), which is equal to the Ship's Scale. Fifth, Go over all the talents picked for the ship, and make any adjustments to Systems and Departments Lastly, we pick the Ship's Name and Registry Number. Basic Game Mechanics - Understanding the 2d20 System For more in-depth reading on how the basic game mechanics works, I strongly recommend downloading the Star Trek Adventures Quick Start Guide , which is free from Modiphius. Star Trek Adventures uses the 2d20 game system for play. Unlike other tabletop games, 2d20 is a little counter-intuitive. Instead of rolling a single d20 and adding whatever skill value you have to that roll, Star Trek Adventures, when attempting a 'Task', has you take the sum of a relevant Attribute & Discipline (Example: Presence + Command, a common roll for someone in a command role), and use that value as a target number. You then roll 2d20, and if you roll below that target number, you count that as a 'success'. The number of Successes required to complete that task successfully is determined by the Difficulty, ranging from 0 to 5. Example: Difficulty 1, Presence 11 + Command 5 = 16. Roll 2d20, 12 and 17. You rolled one success and one Failure, You completed the task. Like other tabletop games, it is possible to roll Critical Successes and Critical Failures. In Star Trek Adventures, a Critical Success is rolling a 1, which counts as 2 Successes. A Critical Failure, also called 'rolling a Complication', can vary based on the Complication range, and typically denotes how perilous the task is. By default, the complication range is set to 1, or rolling a natural 20. The Complication ranges are as follows: 1 = 20 2 = 19-20 3 = 18-20 4 = 17-20 5 = 16-20 Depending on the task, rolling a complication won't necessarily mean that you failed in your endeavour, but as the peril of the action increases, it could mean the difference between life and death. For Example, one game that I ran had a Player Character attempt to walk across a log being used as a bridge over a river. He successfully completed the task, but rolled a complication, which was him slipping off the log when he got to the other side and landed on his shoulder. The complication was that his shoulder was bruised and any task that required him to use it (Lifting an object, aiming a weapon, etc) would have its difficulty increased by 1 until he could have it healed at a well-stocked medical facility. Basic Game Mechanics - Momentum, Threat & Determination Star Trek Adventures utilizes 3 resource pools to help the game function: Momentum, Threat and Determination. These resource pools give both Players and the GM a system to help them complete their tasks successfully (for the players), or turn up the heat if things are getting too easy (for the GM). Momentum Whenever a character attempts a Task and scores a greater number of successes than the Difficulty, these extra Successes become Momentum, a valuable resource that allows Player Characters to complete Tasks more quickly or thoroughly than normal, or otherwise gain additional benefits. Each success above and beyond the Difficulty of the Task becomes one point of momentum, up to a maximum of 6 and is shared amongst all players. Any Momentum gained above 6 and is not used immediately is lost. Additionally, the group momentum pool reduces by 1 point at the end of a scene to represent the passage of time and... well... the loss of Momentum. Momentum can have many uses, but the most common use for it is the purchase of extra d20s for task rolls, this action is referred too as Create Opportunity , and is an Immediate Action and Repeatable. A player may purchase up to 3 extra d20s, with the first dice costing 1 momentum, the second 3, and third 6. A player may only roll a maximum of 5 dice for any attempt at a task, and this includes being assisted by another player or the Ship. For example: Ensign Bobby attempts a task that is especially difficult, and is being assisted by the Ships Computer, giving him 3d20. He has the option to purchase extra dice, but may only purchase 2 dice for a maximum of 5d20. The Second most common use, and arguably the most important, is to Obtain Information , and this action is Repeatable. For each point of Momentum spent, a player may ask the Gamemaster one question, which is then answered truthfully, about the situation. Remember, Knowledge is Power. Other uses include: Create Advantage : Spending Two momentum establishes some new Advantage in addition to whatever effect the successful task had, or removes a Complication from the Scene. Create Problem (Immediate, Repeatable) : A Character can choose to make this more difficult for an opponent, increasing the difficulty of a single task by 1 for every 2 momentum spent. Create Problem must be done before any dice are rolled for a task. Threat While not something that the Players can interact with directly, Threat is an integral part of the game. The Gamemaster uses threat to alter scenes, to buff Non-Player Characters (NPCs) and to generally make things more perilous and exciting. Players can add points to the Gamemaster's Threat Pool instead of Spending Momentum. Typically, the Gamemaster starts out with 2 points of threat for every Player participating in the game. (Ex: 4 players, 8pts of Threat). Players typically add to the Threat Pool by taking some of the following actions: Taking a Provocative Action : Any time a Player acts in a way that is Provocative or Threatening, the GM gains a point of Threat. For example: A Starfleet Officer resorting to Violence instead of Diplomacy first. Immediate Momentum : Whenever a character can use an Immediate Momentum Spend, such as buying bonus d20s, they can do this by adding to the threat pool, point for point. Complications : When a character suffers one or more Complications on a task they or the Gamemaster may choose not to have the Complication take effect, but this is in exchange for adding one or two points of threat to the pool. Threatening Circumstances : The Environment or Circumstances of a new scene may be threatening enough to warrant adding one or two points of threat to the pool Non-Player Character (NPC) Momentum : NPCs with unspent momentum cannot save it like Player Characters because they do not have a group Momentum pool. Instead, an NPC adds unspent momentum to the Threat Pool Just like players and Momentum, the Gamemaster can spend Threat in the same fashion. Examples include: NPC Momentum : NPCs may use Threat in all the same ways that a Player can use group Momentum NPC Threat Spends : For any action that would add one or more points to Threat, an NPC performing the same action or choice must spend an equivalent number of threat points. NPC Complications : The Gamemaster may choose to spend threat to avoid a complication in the same manner that Players can with Momentum Complication : The Gamemaster may create a Complication by spending Two Threat Reinforcements : The Gamemaster may bring in additional NPCs during a Scene. Minor NPCs cost 1 threat apiece, Notable NPCs cost two. Environmental Effects : The Gamemaster may trigger or cause problems within the Environment by spending threat. Determination Determination is a powerful tool at player's disposal. Typically, a Player starts with 1 point of Determination, and may only have a Maximum of 3 points. Determination can be used by any player citing one of their values. The Player must justify how the Value applies to the current situation. A point of Determination spent provides one of the following benefits: Perfect Opportunity : A Point of Determination may be spent to grant the character a bonus d20. This bonus d20 is different because it is considered to have resulted in a 1, granting two automatic successes. The limit to additional d20s bought for a task still applies. Moment of Inspiration : A Point of Determination may be spent to re-roll all of the character's dice in their dice pool. Surge of Activity : The character may immediately perform another task as soon as the current one has been resolved. Make it So : The character immediately creates an Advantage that applies to the current scene. Players can gain Determination by taking actions that challenge their character's values, or otherwise have a significant impact on the scene, alternatively, a character's value may hinder a character, like being biased, blind them to possibilities, or otherwise impair their ability confront the situation effectively. The GM, in this case, may offer the player the player a point of Determination in exchange for taking a Complication relevant to the scene. More information on how Determination works can be found on Pg. 87-88 of the Core Rule Book. Basic Game Mechanics - Ground Combat & Social Encounters Combat in Star Trek Adventures differs slightly from other Table Top games like D&D in that the structure of how the combat plays out is different than your typical "Stab the bad guy till he falls down" combat you find in other titles. In fact, 'combat' doesn't even need to be a test of arms at all, you can have a duel of words with your opponent just as easily as you can with a phaser, and this can be done with Opposed Tasks. You are Starfleet Officers, after all, you should be attempting Diplomacy whenever possible. Stress & Injuries Combat in Star Trek Adventures is a very serious matter, and it doesn't last long either. A well-co-ordinated group of Starfleet Officers can make short work of an opponent very quickly, and the opposite is also true, if you're ill-prepared, it can quite deadly. The most important part to understand is Stress. Each character has a 'Stress' Value that is derived from their Fitness + Security scores. This denotes the amount of physical damage your character can sustain before being incapacitated or receive an injury. If a character receives 5 or more damage from a single source (Attack, Hazard, etc), they sustain an injury. If a character's stress value is reduced to 0, they sustain an injury. If they take any damage while their stress is at 0, they sustain an injury. If a character ends a scene with an injury without it being properly treated, and the GM decides that it is life-threatening, that character can die from those injuries. If the injury is not life-threatening, the GM can decide that the character is incapacitated until treated, or their ability to perform tasks significantly hampered. Actions, Making an Attack & Initiative Order In Star Trek Adventures, the Player Characters will always typically be able to act first in most encounters, with notable exceptions like being caught unawares, or their opponent having special abilities that would allow them to act first in an encounter. Unlike in D&D or Pathfinder, initiative isn't determined on a character by character basis, but rather a Team by Team basis, IE All the player characters take their turn, then the Opponents take their turn, and this repeats until the encounter is resolved. In what order the Player Characters decide to go in is determined amongst themselves unless otherwise directed by the GM. During an encounter, a Character can perform a Major action and a Minor Action. Major actions include moving a distance greater than Medium Range, Performing an action that requires your characters focus and attention (Like repairing equipment while under fire), or making an attack. Minor actions include moving any distances less than medium range, and using the Aim, Prepare, or Draw Item minor actions. To make an attack, a player follows the following steps: Attacker chooses a weapon. The Attacker chooses a target. A melee weapon attack must be within reach. The character declares whether the attack is intended to be Non-Lethal or Lethal . If the attack is Lethal, add a single point to the Threat Pool. The Attacker attempts a task, determined by the Type of Attack: Melee : Daring + Security Task with a difficulty of 1, Opposed by the target's Daring + Security (also difficulty 1). If the Target wins the Opposed Task, then They are considered to have made a successful Attack instead. Opposed tasks will be covered next. Ranged: Control + Security Task with a Difficulty of 2. The Difficulty of this task increases by +1 if there is an enemy within reach of the Attacker. The Complication Range of the Attack increases by 1 if there are creatures within reach of the Target; a Complication may indicate that one of those other creatures are struck by the attack as well (Ex: Friendly Fire). Opposed Tasks Opposed tasks will come up frequently, either in Combat, or in social encounters as well, and are relatively simple to understand. In An Opposed Task, the 'attacking' or 'active' character attempts a task, and the 'defending' or 'reactive' character will attempt a task to counter it, typically the same task as the active character, but this is not always the case. This can result in the following: 'Active' Character Succeeds, 'Reactive' Character Fails : The active character achieves their goal, and their task is successful. 'Active' Character Fails, 'Reactive' Character Succeeds : The active character fails to achieve their goal and the Reactive character's task is resolved. Some Opposed Tasks have a specific additional outcome for the reactive character's task. Both Characters Fail : The Active character fails to achieve their goal, but the reactive character gains no additional benefit. Both Characters Succeed : Compare the total Momentum generated on each character's task. The Character with the higher Momentum wins and achieves their goal, but loses one Momentum for each Momentum their opponent scored. The Loser then loses all the Momentum they generated, and may not spend any. In the case of a Tie, or if no Momentum is generated by either character, the Active character wins, but loses all Momentum generated (if any). Using your Starship Under Construction Using Roll20.net Virtual Table Top System Roll20.net is a very robust and versatile game system with a whole host of features. While the majority of explaining how to use Roll20.net can be explained in game, here's a quick primer on how to navigate the system. First Joining the Game At the beginning of the event, you will be given a join link by the Event Host, and this will take you to the Game's page where you can find when the next game is scheduled, who's also playing the game, and a brief description of the game. To actually play the game, you have to click the 'Launch Game' button under the game's Title, and the game will start to load. When you first log in, there are a few house-keeping items that need to be taken care of. First, click the Cog Wheel on the top right most side of the screen to access your settings, as pictured below: Please edit your screen name to the Shortened Rank of your character and your Character's last name. Example: Lt. Johnson Any of the settings pictured above can be edited to your preferences. Ignore the volume slider, as sound, while available, will not be used. Next, scroll down in the settings until you see what is pictured below: Change Player Avatar Size to "Names Only". Under Video + Audio Chat Options, change to "None (No video/audio)". Since we will be using UFP's Teamspeak, Roll20's video/audio system will not be used. Using your Character Sheet Your character sheet should have already been added by the GM, so accessing it will be a simple affair. To find your character sheet, click the button that looks like a newspaper to access the Journal. Go through the list until you find your character, as pictured below, and click that character's name: A Window will pop up with your character's image, and nothing else. From here, you can choose to Edit your character's Bio and Name by clicking the edit button, this can be done on your own time. To use your Character sheet, click the Character Sheet tab to bring up the following: This should already be filled in for you, if not, the GM will walk you through filling in the Character Sheet. Using the character sheet is easy. To perform a task, you select one Attribute and one Discipline (In the image, Presence and Command are highlighted). Next, you determine if a Focus is being used (In the image, this is set to 'No'). You then select the complication range as outlined by the GM (Default is 1). Next, you roll your task, by choosing how many d20's you'll be rolling (by clicking the numbers next to 'Task Roll', default is 2 for basic roll, 1 to assist, or 2 or more to a max of 5 d20s), and clicking the Comm Badge button. This will roll the Task, and produce the following in the Games chat pane: This represents that Presence (9) + Command (5) was rolled, producing 1 success, and 1 failure, with no complication. If a Complication is rolled, then the numbers will be Red. If a Critical Success is rolled, a 2 will be displayed. Hovering your mouse over the result will display the algorithm used to roll the result. To roll an attack, you scroll down on your character sheet to the Weapons Section. To roll an attack, you click the Combadge Button next to that weapon, and it will roll the challenge dice listed in the field next to it, as pictured below: An attack roll will produce the following in the Games Chat Pane: The roll above shows that out of 4 challenge dice rolled, only 1 damage and 1 effect was rolled. Since a Type-2 Phaser was used, which has the 'Charge' quality, if the Prepare minor action was taken before the attack was rolled, the character could then apply one of the effects listed. This Guide is a work in progress, and is subject to Additions and Changes Lieutenant Commander Aceman67 Starfleet Tactical Operators Officer

| Nemo Me Impune Lacessit | Art | Fan-Fics |

UFPlanets.com LTD.

We're an online community with a passion for Star Trek. We're a large collection of fans, all with the same vision as Gene Roddenberry, that together, anything is possible.

All times are GMT. The time now is 7:15 AM.

Site by Stefano Elia & Cameron Turkowski.

Support Centre
Send Feedback
Press Details
Privacy Policy
Cookie Policy
Anti-Harassment Policy
Report Incident
Pet Memorials

Connect with us

Cannibal Halfling Gaming

Star Trek Adventures In-Depth Review

Gamemaster’s Log, Stardate 57252.7. It has been several months since the launch of the New Orleans -class starship U.S.S. Verrazzano , NCC-07302, from the Foggy Peak system. Since that time, I have seen her crew serve with distinction in accordance with the finest traditions of Starfleet. I have also seen them called before a board of Admirals to review their actions and directive violations, and while impressive the fact that no fewer than three starbases have had to be commissioned to deal with the discoveries from their missions is beginning to put a notable dent in the power requirements for the local sector’s industrial replicators. As the Verrazzano is currently away, responding to a distress call from a Vulcan Expeditionary Group, I have decided that this is a fine opportunity to review their so-called ‘ Star Trek Adventures ’ in-depth, to better understand how they have and will continue to boldly go where no one, not even the rest of Starfleet, has gone before.

Characters and Core Mechanics

The most basic mechanic for Star Trek Adventures is this: you’re rolling 2d20, and you’re trying to get results on the individual die that are equal to or lower than a target number. The more results that are equal or lower, the more successes you get, and different actions will require a different number of successes. A task requiring 1 or 2 successes is quite possible, but obviously if you need any more than that you’ll need something special. Enter the crew of your Starfleet vessel. Characters have six Disciplines that represent their specialties in Starfleet (Command, Engineering, Science, etc.) and six Attributes (Fitness, Daring, Insight, etc.) which represent their personal abilities. When you’re facing a task, your target number is determined by a combination of a Discipline and an Attribute: Security+Control to fire a phaser, Conn+Daring to fly a runabout through exploding asteroids, Medicine+Reason to diagnose an alien virus.

Characters are built through a series of stages that gradually build these stats up: species, background (plus whether you accept or reject your upbringing), what branch of Starfleet you go into, and a series of career events like being forced to call out a superior, making scientific breakthroughs, or a conflict with a hostile culture. Along the way they’ll pick up Talents that enhance or grant extra abilities, and Focuses that can (if they can roll underneath their Discipline rank as well as the target number) grant a second success on a check. Characters also define Values, things that they care about and believe. All of the other stuff is about what your character can do; Values are about who your character is . All of this leads to characters that just . . . they just click very easily. Values provide a challenge, as while there is advice on how to create some, they are entirely unique to every character, not picked from a list. But overall creation is simple, and you immediately have a lot to work with mechanically and narratively.

Aboard the Verrazzano , that gets us the Vulcan Captain Salok, forced to take command, who focuses on Diplomacy with a firm belief that Diversity Is Strength. His first officer, the Gnalish Commander Korg, strives to Defend and Aid Those In Danger or Need and is a known friend to the Klingons. Lt. Commander Flint Northrock’s file is mostly redacted, but he is a particularly Bold helmsman: “ My answer to any distress call is “’I’m Coming’”. Lt. Commander Be’zur is the ship’s Chief Engineer, a Liberated Caitian Borg with a knack for Improvised Technology, a talent for pushing things Past the Redline, and a conviction that There’s No Such Thing as The Unknown, Only the Temporarily Hidden. Lieutenant, later Lt. Commander, Ava is a sliver of an extra-dimensional being; naturally, he serves as the Science Officer with A Mind for Design and Insatiable Curiosity about the universe he finds himself in. The Bajoran Lieutenant (j.g.) Edon Reil might be a relatively young officer but he has Untapped Potential, and serves as a fine Chief of Security: “Beware invaders calling themselves ‘friend’”.

Here’s something to consider, especially if you’ve been playing games that are more hardscrabble: STA characters can be extremely competent in their particular area of expertise. It’s certainly possible to build something akin to a generalist, but given that characters are naturally going to gravitate towards certain roles (the Captain, the Chief Engineer, the Science Officer) it’s very easy for them to have a target of 17 or so for their primary focus (5 in Science and 12 in Reason for the Science Officer, for example). Speaking of Focuses, if chosen well there are plenty of opportunities for them to come into play, offering multiple successes on a die. As I’ll address shortly, there are multiple ways to roll 3 or even 4d20 just on your own, as well as a way to automatically get at least two successes. Other characters can assist you, and if you’re on your starship it usually contributes another d20 to the pile as well.

Some actions are going to be impossible, and you’ll need to create an advantage to make them something you can actually achieve. I’ve read the number of successes called out as being impossible as five, though, and that’s . . . not really the case. Seeing six, seven, and even eight successes hit the table isn’t common, but it’s not all that rare either. So, a minor but important point, while needing 4 successes is probably still a good high-water mark, I would keep the reason for a task being impossible as purely narrative.

So, in short, this is not a game with an awful lot of failure, further reinforced by the fact that you can Succeed At A Cost, with ‘failing forward’ actually being built into the mechanics outright. STA is more about characters figuring out what needs to be done and how they want to do it than whether or not they’re going to succeed, followed by the consequences of their actions (even if they succeed) as further enabled by the aforementioned costs and Complications. On the one hand, GMs shouldn’t be too concerned if things seem ‘too easy’ for their players at first blush. On the other, well, a few things: don’t be afraid to ask for three or four successes on really difficult and important stuff, you can get a little extra challenge by throwing things slightly out of a character’s area of expertise at them, and when failures do come up they need to matter. When Northrock (who includes among his Values ‘The Best Way to Defeat An Enemy Is To Make A Friend”’) failed to resist the impassioned plea of an oppressed species convincing him that patience and diplomacy would not work, that he would have to violate the Prime Directive, that needed to have an impact. It actually kicked off a small not-mutiny, actually, along with a few other consequences that I’ll get to use as examples later.

Meta Latinum

There are three types of metacurrencies in Star Trek Adventures: Momentum, Threat, and Determination.

Momentum is a player resource, gained via extra successes – 3 successes on a Difficulty 2 check, you get 1 Momentum. Momentum has a lot of uses. When used immediately it can be used to boost attacks by doing more damage, ignoring Resistance, or activating weapon traits. It can be used to create Advantages that can make future tasks easier or impossible tasks possible. In my experience it is most commonly used immediately to Gain More Information , a key use that often sees characters diving past their basic observations to really discover what’s going on or what they’re dealing with. If not spent immediately, however, points of Momentum go into a pool; they can be used in several ways once there, but by far their most common use is buying more dice to roll for a check. A 3rd d20 costs one Momentum, a 4th one costs two.

Threat is primarily a GM resource, and in several ways it mirrors Momentum. It can be used for adversaries rolling extra dice, it can make attacks lethal (by default they are not), it can make tasks more difficult or increase the chance of a Complication (something Bad that usually only happens if a character rolls a 20 on a die). With enough Threat in their pool GMs can even end scenes entirely and take narrative control, which strongly reminds me of the Doom Pool from Cortex games.

GMs begin every mission with twice as many points of threat as there are players, which is good, because in my experience you’re not likely going to get too many more. There are a couple ways to add more Threat, but the only one that doesn’t require a specific circumstance is that player characters can also use Threat by choosing to give it to the GM instead of spending Momentum at the same rates. That’s great, because it gives the GM more to play with and gives the players options if they run out of Momentum. Honestly, though, it doesn’t seem to happen very often. A large part of this is certainly biased in this specific campaign by the luck of the dice and the characters themselves. The Verrazzano crew have often been able to generate more than enough Momentum for their needs, rarely running completely out. Also, the entire line of Bold Talents, which let you re-roll dice if you have used Threat to enhance the roll, are designed to be a big motivator for Threat use – but only Northrock and Reil have any of them, and they both have only the Conn variety. So, you might find yourself with players giving you oodles of Threat . . . just be prepared to use what you get at the start of a mission carefully, if you don’t.

The final metacurrency is Determination, and it’s the big one. Every character starts a mission with at least one, and it is deeply tied to the character’s Values: if they are acting in accordance with a Value, a character can spend a point of Determination to add a die to their roll that is automatically set to a result of 1, meaning an automatic two successes towards the roll. Note that this still counts as adding a die a la Momentum/Threat, in that if you want a 4th die you’ll need two points of those other resources, but still! Alternate uses of Determination still require you to be acting in accordance with a Value, but include: re-rolling all your dice, immediately taking another action on the same turn, and automatically creating an advantage.

You can get more points of Determination if you challenge a Value, meaning your character is having a big think about whether or not they actually believe that any more. You can also be offered Determination by the GM to compel you to act in line with a Value when it would make things more difficult for you, which reads an awful lot like Fate points. Determination isn’t just a big deal because of the mechanical impact, although that can’t be undervalued either. But since Determination, whether spending it or gaining it, plugs into your Values it is often a very important factor in your characters ‘leveling up’.

Advancement

‘Milestones’ are the method of advancement in STA, and there are only three ways to get them: suffering (and surviving, obviously) a lethal injury, challenging a Value (thus getting a point of Determination), and using a Value either positively or negatively (meaning you either spent or received a point of Determination while acting upon it). You get a ‘Normal’ Milestone for just doing one of the above during a mission. The GM can award a ‘Spotlight’ milestone if a character or characters would earn a Normal Milestone and also made a particularly big impact in a mission, and the players decide who among them receive it. Eventually, you acquire enough Spotlight Milestones that your next one is an ‘Arc’ Milestone instead (or, if the GM feels it appropriate given the character’s actual narrative arc, they can award one out of hand). Here’s the thing, though: the Arc Milestone is the only one that actually adds anything to a character.

With a Normal Milestone, first of all, if a Value was challenged it gets rewritten or replaced to reflect how the character’s perspective was changed. After being forced to realize that “The Best Way to Defeat An Enemy Is To Make A Friend” would not always be the case, and subsequently getting in a fair bit of trouble for acting as such, Northrock reaffirmed his commitment to the crew and to following Salok’s lead instead of going off on his own: “When The Way Is Unclear, I Follow My Captain.” Aside from that very cool and dramatic and character-growth-driven aspect, though, Normal Milestones are very light: you can move a point from one Discipline to another, or replace one Focus with another. Spotlight Milestones let you pick one of the options from the short list of the Normal Milestone’s, as well as one of several others: moving points between Attributes, replacing a Talent, moving points between the ship’s Departments or Systems (Discipline and Attribute counterparts, really), or replacing the ship’s Talents. Arc Milestones grant the benefits of a Normal and a Spotlight Milestone, but are the advancement that finally lets you increase a Discipline or Attribute, gain an additional Talent, Focus, or Value, increase one of the ship’s Departments/Systems, or add another Talent to the ship.

As mentioned above, STA player characters are probably starting off as very competent just based on stats, never mind what their Talents can bring to the table, so they don’t really need to be growing mechanically all that much. What’s really important to this system is how their Values, what they care about and who they really are, are highlighted, are challenged, are grown and changed. Changing up Attributes, Disciplines, Talents, and Focuses also reflects this choice of priority – a Captain who starts to take more of an interest in what’s going on down in the warp core while leaving the navigation of the ship up to their hot-shot helmsman might shift a point from Conn to Engineering.

So far, they seem to be working just fine. Captain Salok and Lt. Commanders Northrock and Ava are both on the cusp of their first Arc Milestone as of this writing, and given how competent the characters are nobody seems to be minding that they haven’t been ‘gaining’ anything, and there have been comments that they like the idea of switching things around to better match the character – it’s true that you’ll certainly never have a dead-end Talent or Focus for very long.

I’ll admit that awarding the Spotlights has felt . . . a little anemic on the GM’s side of things. The book recommends giving out a single one every two or three sessions, but these are players and characters who have really taken the ‘Go Boldly’ thing to heart. Salok ‘crushed’ a mutiny with little more than an iron will and by convincing the mutineers that a starship takes many to succeed but only one to fail. Northrock took command of an absolute disaster involving a wormhole, a shapeshifter, friendly fire, and a dying ship and somehow got everyone out alive. Ava solved an astrogation and physics problem that had confounded Starfleet for decades , and then went on to help establish a stable wormhole to another universe . Be’zur’s technological monstrosities have caused me to throw out more notes and plans than any two other characters combined. Korg and Reil have both been responsible for saving the lives of their crewmates from certain death or worse, whether it was a rampaging tentacular plant unleashed from the Verrazzano’s labs, Orion raiders trying to steal an artifact powered by time , or a desperate and murderous Starfleet doctor gone rogue.

So, in short, I’m probably awarding Spotlights a little more frequently than the book would like me to, every other session at least, and I’m often throwing two out at once. Since Normal and Spotlight Milestone benefits can be banked for later, the system certainly doesn’t seem to be breaking as a result. If it were a longer, slower-burn campaign I might stick closer to the book’s recommendations but to be honest I think that, as with determining if a task is impossible, you’re best served by ignoring hard numbers and focusing on the narrative.

Support Characters

If there is any one mechanic that has been a runaway hit during the campaign, this has been the one. Supporting characters are the ‘extras’ on set, the people in the background of the show that only get speaking roles every few episodes, if ever. Star Trek Adventures lets you bring those characters into the spotlight by spending points of Crew Support – every ship gets an amount that is determined by how big the ship is, and then player characters can each take a talent to get more, which two Verrazzano crew members did. Broadly speaking there are two reasons to play a Supporting character. First, because they cover a skillset that the main player characters lack. This was the case of Lt. Gunther von Doomstone, the Chief Medical Officer, and Lt. Khumail Jaosh, the transport chief. The second is when it doesn’t make sense for a player character to be present, such as on away missions, but the player still wants to be a part of the scene. This was the case for Lt. Joran Mal, a Joined Trill diplomat, when Captain Salok had to remain behind on the ship. Sometimes it’s both. Cadet Groorin, part of the second wave of Ferengi following in Nog’s footsteps, appeared when the players decided Joran needed an assistant to deal with an upcoming legal tribunal, but really got played when Lt. Commander Northrock was stuck at the helm and there was a Ferengi away team to negotiate with.

I suppose there’s also a third reason, which is because you have a cool character idea you wanted to include. Lt. Jurling , Klingon Ship’s Counselor ( “It is a good day for conflict resolution!” ), was added to the crew to cover that role, yes, but mostly because I wanted him to be there. Consider it my payment for running the game.

Supporting characters start off comparatively light – their highest Attribute will be a 10, their best Discipline a 4, with three Focuses but no Talents or Values. Supporting characters don’t gain milestones themselves, although a player character can choose to use the benefit of one of their own milestones to switch things around for a supporting character. Instead, Supporting characters improve by the number of missions they appear in through the use of Crew Support – every time they show up they gain something, and while they still have lower caps (they can only ever improve a Discipline once, for example), they can still end up fleshed out quite a bit. Funnily enough, Supporting characters are thus going to ‘advance’ at a much faster rate than player characters will, which can help scratch the itch a little for those players who enjoy getting mechanical rewards.

Supporting characters are . . . kind of strange, in terms of gameplay and narrative. First of all, for groups with a lot of players they’ll end up taking up most of the NPC slots left on the ship – that hasn’t stopped me from making more NPCs, but it has felt a little odd to jump into a Supporting Character now and then as the GM.

They’re also supposed to be supporting characters but in many cases they’ve been in the spotlight just as much, if not more than, the ‘main’ characters, and some of them are quite beloved. Like any character, you end up wanting to make them interesting, and together we have. Doctor von Doomstone is from a planet that would have featured in a TOS Planet of Hats episode, a Frankenstein setting, and he’s trying to avoid going down the mad science path of his ancestors. Jurling has a reputation for unconventional ‘team building exercises’, a love of Klingon opera that’s shared with Commander Korg, and a genuine care for his patients. Joran quickly gained a reputation for being in over his head and soldiering on anyway, surrounded by literal piles of PADDS and joining the Captain in his coffee habit while reviewing First Contact protocols.

I wonder at what point you might just give up the charade and make them main characters in their own right with storylines of their own, capable of gaining milestones for themselves and surpassing the limitations of a supporting character. Perhaps a player could have multiple full characters (while many are shared, I’ve noticed some support characters functionally ‘belonging’ to a single player), or perhaps the ‘upgraded’ characters could remain in a pool for troupe play, which would keep the pool of Crew Support fully functional.

Supporting characters as a concept have also highlighted for me the need to have time spent back on the ship and in the ready room, for the simple reason that the Captain just doesn’t leave the ship very often. In terms of ‘screen time’, Aaron has spent more time portraying Lieutenants Joran and Jurling than he has Captain Salok, and yet the Captain has still managed to net himself some Spotlight Milestones, primarily on the bridge and in the aforementioned ready room.

Material to Work With

Star Trek Adventures is extremely well-supported. Since release there has been a unique book for all of the galaxy’s quadrants, another one each for Command, Operations, and Science, two full mission anthologies, character profiles for a bunch of the shows so you can play as/interact with them, and a whole bunch of standalone missions. This is on top of the free Quickstart, the free character sheets, and the free character builder (which incorporates player character creation, supporting character creation, and starship creation material from pretty much everything I’ve already mentioned, it’s a fantastic resource). There’s also a Klingon core book which I haven’t even touched yet. You’re not exactly going to run out of reading material very quickly, is what I’m saying.

I want to particularly focus on the pre-made missions, however, for the simple reason that – with a single exception – my campaign has consisted entirely of them. This is a symptom of the fact that the U.S.S. Verrazzano was sort of rushed into service, as it were – I put Star Trek Adventures up as an option to run for a short campaign because I owned it and thought it might be interesting, but I didn’t picture it as a front runner and I didn’t expect it to catch quite as well as it has. It’s still going to be short, as campaigns in this group are reckoned lately, but still: suddenly I was running a game and had exactly zero material prepped or even ideas solidifying. So, I turned to the mission files.

So far I’ve run Nest In The Dark , Stolen Liberty , The Prize , and A World With A Bluer Sun . I’ve got two more queued up at the moment, but I won’t say which because there are players lurking about. Through these missions the crew of the Verrazzano have struggled through time dilation, radiation bursts, disruptor fire, crushing gravity, and interdimensional phenomena. They’ve been forced to face intelligences vastly superior to their own, weigh the oppression of an entire species against the Prime Directive, race against archeological poachers, and navigate the factions of a Starfleet crew turned on itself. So there’s the first thing I’ll say about the pre-made missions Modiphius has put out: oh my goodness there is a lot of variety. Not every mission will fit every crew, but many will, and aside from a certain predilection towards First Contact scenarios (come on, it’s Trek, duh ) the Verrazzano has never really faced the same problem twice.

One additional good thing is that many of these missions could be used as a launching point for further adventures. Every one ends with a ‘Continuing Voyages’ section that highlights how a crew could follow up on the events of the mission or how said events could otherwise impact the campaign. I haven’t been able to take advantage of many of these yet, but there have been a few new crewmembers of a sort added to the ship’s roster as a result. More dramatically the events of Stolen Liberty saw Salok, Korg, Northrock, and Be’zur having a chat with some Admirals about the Prime Directive and their viability as a command team while Ava took command of the ship to chart a cataclysmic nebula (and blow some Jem’Hadar holdouts out of space, although they didn’t know that going in), the only non-pre-made mission so far.

A nebulous thing is that the missions are always written with a specific era (ENT, TOS, or TNG) in mind. They also always have advice for running the mission in a different era, which usually involves switching out who the bad guy is – if the Borg are the threat for a TNG mission then it’s probably the Klingons for a TOS crew or the Andorians for the ENT crowd. I’ve been able to put that advice to good use for several of the missions, but . . . there are also a few that don’t quite fit right, for me. A TOS mission that’s a little too Those Old Scientists, a little over the top with giant rock monsters for a TNG feel, or the TNG tech is just too necessary to solve the problems facing an ENT crew. In the anthologies, that’s not so big a deal since there’s something for everyone, but you might want to read up on a one-off mission carefully before purchase to see if it’ll work for you.

Some of that actually falls to layout – there are some TOS missions that are done up in a completely different style from the core book and the other missions, and maybe it’s silly but that just makes it harder for me to think about transplanting those specific missions over for the Verrazzano . That leads into another thing: sometimes there are some editing flubs. Missions are sometimes written out with a very specific series of events in mind, or don’t quite explain why certain events happen the way they do, and neither is the kind of thing that can survive contact with players. This is old advice, but if you’re running one of these pre-made adventures, you’re going to want to have read the whole thing, and you’ll want to be ready to throw the rails out the torpedo tubes.

One final thing about the actual material: thank the stars for whoever created the index in the core rulebook. It’s comprehensive and well-organized, making it easy to find whatever you need . . . and without it the book may have just been unreadable. It is crowded in there, there is practically no negative space of any kind, every spare inch has been packed with art or console designs or words and words and more words. There is a lot here, and reading it straight cover to cover would take forever. Remember that this campaign went from an option in a poll to an active game very, very quickly, we’ve all been learning the system as we go (partially why I think writing about it has some value, to be honest), and without the index allowing us to flip to where we need to I know I at least would’ve been completely lost.

Everything Else, And Final Thoughts

So what are all those words about? We’ve covered the basic mechanics, advancement, supporting characters, none of which are particularly thorny, what else is there? Well, of course there’s a fair bit of space spent on listing individual talents and such, ships the crew can serve on, planets they could visit, GMing advice . . . but there are also a lot of other actual mechanics that are way more situational. There’s an entire reputation system, tied to rank, privilege, and responsibility. There are mechanics for extended tasks that might be the focus of an entire mission, and slightly different ones for when a crew is applying the scientific method (which is how Ava solved the nebula charting problem). Then there’s the ship, with its many different stations, it’s Power resource that needs to be managed, the various systems and the myriad, unique, and advancing things that happen to each and every single one of them if they happen to be the one hit when the shields get breached.

The core mechanics? Pretty straightforward! All these other bits? A fair degree more fiddly, and they might not show up every session. Every other mechanic adds more complexity, triggers more page-flipping (there’s the index saving the day, again). By no means does it jam up the works like, say, Shadowrun’s many many subsystems. But we got the knack of the basics very very quickly; going into our eighth session, there’s still a fair bit of rust on the others. Given more time that would probably go away, but only if we spend the time to focus on those systems, and in some cases I don’t see it happening.

In checking in with the players about how they felt about the system, Aaron managed to sum it up the best way, which I’ll use here. The group has dealt with games where the system got in the way for us, like Exalted Second Edition. When we tapped into the Powered by the Apocalypse ruleset, we found that the system actively helped us. Star Trek Adventures is in the middle.

It handed us the basic toolset and then has mostly stayed out of our way, piping up from the back of the crowd when it’s needed. It demands very little in terms of mechanical understanding on a task to task basis, but wants you to pay more attention when certain situations crop up. What it really wants is for you to have good, strong Values that your characters can believe in and challenge and change; everything else (you might note that the Gnalish species isn’t RPG-official, and Ava’s existence as an extra-dimensional avatar is original to us as well) can be tweaked, but that one is non-negotiable. That being the case, it’s really the players who are going to bring what’s truly necessary for Star Trek Adventures to function the way it wants to.

Star Trek is, primarily, a television series. It can do novels and comics, it can do big movies and long-running arcs, but it’s always eventually returned to a weekly format, and the heaping majority of that is episodic in nature. Look, I’ve tried the episodic thing in a bunch of different games, every time it gets a bare handful of ‘episodes’ in before one plot or another gets too complex and grabs the controls and takes off. Star Trek Adventures , like Star Trek at large, certainly could manage a blockbuster event, or a Dominion or Burn-style long arc, but it sings as an episodic game, and I think that’s because the game trusts its players to bring what they know and love of Trek to the table and fly “second star to the right — and straight on ’til morning.”

Like what Cannibal Halfling Gaming is doing and want to help us bring games and gamers together? First, you can tell your friends about us! You can also find our Discord channel and drop in to chat with our authors and get every new post as it comes out. You can travel to DriveThruRPG through one of our fine and elegantly-crafted links, which generates credit that lets us get more games to work with! Finally, you can support us directly on Patreon , which lets us cover costs, pay our contributors, and save up for projects. Thanks for reading!

Bringing Games and Gamers Together!

Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
Subscribe Subscribed
Copy shortlink
Report this content
View post in Reader
Manage subscriptions
Collapse this bar

Life and Times of a Philippine Gamer

Tabletop rpg reviews and articles, [let’s study: star trek adventures] part 4: operations.

Now that we’ve already had a chance to check out the setting and the purpose of Starfleet in Star Trek Adventures, let’s move on to the discussion of the game side of the equation with a look at the mechanics.

Introduction

This section is the primer for the most basic concepts of the game. Star Trek Adventures runs off the 2d20 system, which uses 2 kinds of dice: 20-sided and six-sided dice. The d20’s are used to determine successes, while the d6’s are used mainly to determine effect or to roll on tables.

Like in other 2d20 games, the d6’s are also called something else to denote their use when determining damage. Called Challenge Dice in Star Trek, rolling a six-sided die is read according to the following table:

Bit of a typo on the title of the table there.

So, when rolling 6 Challenge Dice to determine damage, and you end up with a roll of: 3,5,1,4,1,2 then that means you score 5, plus 1 Effect (from the 5). Effects can be used to trigger all sorts of things, but are most common in triggering Weapon qualities.

To make life a little easier Modiphius sells challenge dice with blank sides and special notation to show Effects. Plus they look really spiffy.

Basic Operations

Moving on, we get to discuss some basic concepts of the Star Trek Adventure RPG:

Scenes and Encounters

Scenes are the first thing introduced in this section. Pretty appropriate given that the game is supposed to approximate the nature of the TV shows, scenes are a pretty vague slice of time where the characters interact in a way that has a significant impact to the plot. The players and the GMs are encouraged to gloss over the “boring” stuff and cut from scene to scene to keep the pace nice and punchy.

Encounters are defined as a special type of scene where a conflict between two or more parties is broken down into rounds and turns. Combat is the most common example of an Encounter.

Traits are a concept that will be familiar to gamers who have played games like Fate. Similar to Fate’s Aspects, Traits are single word or short phrases that describe a single significant fact about the subject that the Trait pertains to.

That said I’m much more partial to the Traits as they deal in objective facts as opposed to a phrase that can be re-interpreted in various ways.

Star Trek Adventures gives four rough categories of Traits:

Situation Traits are traits that state a fact about a (usually) temporary condition that affects a scene. Darkness is cited as an example.
Location Traits are traits that define the nature of a location that the characters currently occupy. Klingon Technology would be an example of a Location Trait if a team were trying to escape from inside a Bird of Prey.
Personal Traits are traits that apply to a given creature, and denote some innate quality. Human , or Vulcan are both examples of Personal Traits.
Equipment Traits describe a single piece of equipment and are in effect for as long as the character has it. This means, of course that the Trait can be passed on to a different character if they hand the equipment over.

But why are traits so important? Traits also help establish the Truth of a setting in three ways:

The Trait has no effect on the tasks being performed and is solely descriptive.
The Trait is beneficial, and can enable an action that would normally be impossible, or reduce its difficulty. These Traits are also known as Advantages .
The Trait is detrimental, and can prevent an activity from being performed, or increase its difficulty. These Traits are also called Complications .

One last thing about Traits that it’s possible for particularly powerful Traits to count as multiple versions of itself. The book uses Subspace Interference 2 as an example of a particularly strong form of interference that will take quite a lot of effort to overcome.

The basic resolution of a situation is called a Task, and Star Trek Adventures breaks Tasks down into the following variants based on the resulting outcome of success or failure:

Tasks to succeed or achieve an objective, or one that could be used to generate an Advantage or Complication Trait for the situation.
Tasks to avoid hazards or danger. Success means avoiding harm, while failure means taking some form of damage.
Tasks to succeed but with something at stake. Instead of being a simple test of being able to just succeed or fail, failure here comes with a hazard.

Attributes, Disciplines and Focuses

Characters in Star Trek Adventures are described by their Attributes, Disciplines and Focuses.

Attributes in the game are: Control, Daring, Fitness, Insight, Presence and Reason. These range in values from 7 to 12.

Characters also have six Disciplines: Command, Conn, Engineering, Security, Science and Medicine. These range in values from 1 to 5.

Characters also have Focuses, which represent specialized training within a specific field. Focuses do not have a rating of their own.

Performing Tasks

Attempting a Task in Star Trek Adventures is a fairly straightforward affair:

The GM determines the combination of Attribute and Discipline to add together. This forms the target number of the roll, as well as any applicable Focus.
The GM also determines the difficulty of the roll. The difficulty is the number of successes that need to be made in order to succeed at the task.
Players may also add more d20s to the dice roll by spending Momentum, adding to Threat or using Determination (More on those later)
Rolling a 20 is causes a Complication. (we’ll tackle this one a little later on too)
If a Focus is applicable, then any die that rolls a result equal to or less than the Discipline being rolled counts as 2 successes.
If no Focus is applicable, then any die that rolls result of 1 counts as 2 successes.
If the number of successes rolled match the difficulty of the roll, then the character is successful. Otherwise the character is considered to have failed the attempt.
Any successes rolled that are over the Difficulty then become Momentum.

Traits and Task Difficulty

Standard Difficulty for most tests is 1. But Traits can come in to modify that difficulty, by either lowering it or raising it depending on the circumstances.

Improving the Odds

As you can tell, succeeding in a Task with a Difficulty of 2 or higher is going to be very difficult with just 2d20 as a basic roll. Because of this, characters have some means to add dice to their roll to a maximum of 5d20.

Spend Momentum – Momentum is a special resource generated by rolling successes over the difficulty of a roll. This is then banked in a special pool that can be used by all Player Characters in a group. The first die bought this way costs 1 Momentum, the second costs 2 Momentum and the third costs 3 Momentum.
Add to Threat – Threat is a GM resource that increases as players add to it at the same rate as Momentum.
Talents – Some talents bestow a bonus d20 to a roll where the Talent applies.
Determination – In certain situations, a character is allowed to spend Determination. Each point of Determination spent adds a d20 to a roll, except that this is assumed to have rolled a 1, therefore automatically adding 2 successes to the Task.

Complications

Rolling a 20 on a task generates a Complication. This is a Trait that is detrimental to the situation and can make success more difficult or certain actions impossible to do. If a player doesn’t want to take a Complication, this can be bought off at the cost of 2 Threat.

Success at Cost

Sometimes, a GM may allow for a roll to succeed at cost. In these cases, the player still rolls, but a failed roll can be turned into a success at cost of one automatic Complication. This is on top of any 20’s rolled in the attempt.

Momentum is one of the key mechanics that I enjoyed in Conan, so I’m happy to see it back here. As mentioned earlier, rolling more successes than the difficulty translates those successes to Momentum.

In addition to buying more dice to add to a roll, Momentum can also be spent to:

Create an Advantage – By spending 2 Momentum, a player can produce an advantageous circumstance relating to the action taken. This can also be used to remove a Complication in play, or generate a Complication for an opponent
Create a Problem – A player can declare that they are spending Momentum to make a task being performed by an adversary more difficult, at the cost of 2 Momentum per level of Difficulty increase.
Obtain Information – By spending 1 Momentum, a player performing an investigative or research task can ask the GM one question relating to the situation, or item, object or creature being studied.. The GM is compelled to answer truthfully, though not necessarily with complete information.

Threat is the GM counterpart to Momentum and is usually spent in a similar way to empower opponents. The difference is that Threat can also be spent to add reinforcements to the bad guys, or to trigger environmental effects that could create Complications for everyone in the scene.

Determination

Determination is a rare resource for characters of Star Trek Adventures. Each Player Character begins a game with 1 point in Determination with a maximum of only 3 points of Determination at any given time.

The use and gaining of Determination relies on a Player Character’s Values.

Values are short phrases or statements that describe the attitudes, beliefs and convictions of a character.

Should a character find themselves in a difficult situation where their Values can come into play, they may spend Determination to do any of the following:

Perfect opportunity – Grant a Task a bonus d20 that counts as having rolled a 1
Moment of inspiration – Reroll all the dice in a dice pool
Surge of activity – Perform a second Task immediately after the first
Make it so – Automatically create an Advantage in the scene

Values are core components of a character however, and as such they can be tested as well. If a character is put in a situation where their values would make a situation more difficult, the GM may offer a point of Determination to compel the character to act in accordance to their Value, at the cost of a Complication. This is an optional offer, and it is up to the player to accept it.

Once per mission, if a character is put in a situation where their Value negatively impacts the situation, the character may choose to challenge it, striking it out of their character sheet and rendering it useless for the rest of the mission. In exchange they get a point of Determination. At the end of the mission, the player may then replace the challenged Value with something else that reflects their new worldview.

Advanced Training

The Advanced training section introduces Challenges and Extended Tasks, two optional subsystems for emulating long-term or multi-step tasks, such as “Reach main engineering and shut down the drive core.”

These are presented in terms of structures for tasks, including variants for timed, linear and gated challenges that I can see use for in Engineering sections of Starfleet just to keep a ship going.

Okay, that was a long read. Star Trek Adventures is clearly sitting on the Rules-Medium end of the spectrum, but the rules are clearly well thought out and have a place in the world. While I was worried about Momentum mechanics making them feel too pulpy, in the end the altered Momentum Costs, and the necessity for the Values to come into play before enabling spends of Determination help adjust that to a more human level of play.

I’m seeing a lot of influences from Fate’s Aspects and even a couple of ideas from Exalted Intimacies in play here and I really like what they’re doing. Star Trek isn’t about the phasers and neat space ships alone after all, but the struggle to do the right thing in difficult circumstances with little to no support.

Next up, we’ll finally start getting busy by building our first Starfleet character with our Let’s Study of the next chapter: Reporting for Duty.

One comment

[…] Study: Star Trek Adventures] Part 4: Operations @Modiphius philgamer.wordpress.com/2017/06/23/let… https://t.co/P2WOvYSHnZ […]

How works traits wile helping?

I have though of some cases where I don’t know what to do while helping:

an adanan with Zenite to the core helps in a geology task, theoretically he has an extra d20
what about Intense Scrutiny during en extensive task, can it decrease resistance ?

Regarding your first question, I think the rules are pretty clear: “Assistants may only ever roll 1d20 while assisting.”, p. 82 of the Core Rules. Only the leader can roll more than one die. Bonus dice of Assistants never apply.

As for talents, as I see it, the rules are silent. Yet, I’d argue that talents do not apply. First, any talent that would grant bonus dice would not apply due to the abovementioned rule. If no talent would apply, all talents would be treated equal. Second, teamwork and assist is designed to grant a single bonus die. GMs are encouraged to not allow more than one assistant for the most tasks and can apply limitations and/or penalties for every assistant after the first, p. 81. Applying talents to assist rolls would imbalance this.

That being said, the specific talent you mention would, in my opinion, not apply, regardless of one’s position regarding the generall applicability of talents. Intense Scrutiny is specifically triggered when succeeding at a task. Yet, assistants do not succeed to tasks. Instead, with (of course) the help of the assistants, the tasks’ leaders succeed. Thus, the Intense Scrutiny of the assistant is not triggered.

I would allow the players to create an advantage (cf. p. 91 for extended tasks), maybe for the reduced cost of one instead of two momentum. For instance, if a player with Intense Scrutiny would assist in an extended task the talent would be applicable in, if the player was the leader, I’d let the players have Scrutinize 1 for two or down to zero Momentum, depending on the circumstances. Another idea would be to simply increase the complication range by the amount of the effect, representing the risk of too many persons having a say in how to do things.

Thanks for your reply. I agree with you it’s rules as written. But i think that sometimes it’s a bit illogical, because of the talent, the quality of help is increased. As a game master I tend to resolve the above mentioned examples this way:

only one die by assistant
Zenite to the core assistant will have a re-roll for his dice only
On a critical success of the assistant I will reduce the resistance by 2 (and only 2) with Scrutiny if the task leader succeed and generates at least one effect

I want to know what do you think of it

Well, why not? I would probably make my players use Momentum to establish these advantages, but they seem balanced enough to be granted by circumstances.

Regarding Intense Scrutiny , you may want to look at p. 91 of the Core Rules (at least in the english version. I tend to assume that you don’t use those…? Je suis curieux: existe-t-il une version francaise?) for an advantage you might want to grant because of the talent.

Star Trek is a setting where assisting each other is a common thing to do. The effect is that players almost always get at least one die from an assisting player. Sometimes this feels to easy. So I’m greedy for Momentum. But this is a question of playing styles.

I didn’t want to give the full scrutiny 1, this would need a full create advantage, task, and 2 time intervals, the most important value of all, just an edge from the good help. Yes, I’m French, but I’m using English rules. I didn’t want to make it with a momentum price because basic uses of momentum can roughly do the same without talent.

Just a note on assisting with talents- there are some talents that specifically talk about being used as part of an assist.

For that reason, any talent that talks about “succeeding at a task” I would take the assumption that it does not apply to an assist, unless stated otherwise.

However, there would probably be some exceptions. The “Direct” task is specifically a task that can be used by a command officer, providing an assist. You could argue that by using direct you as still completing a task. This gets very interesting when you take a combination of talents (Advisor + Follow my Lead + Pack Tactics, as a veteran captain can get stupidly powerful).

At the end of the day, I can make a case for a GM to rule either way.

Enhance Your Star Trek Adventures With These Free Resources

It's #NationalDiceDay, so join the Star Trek RPG galaxy with these helpful tips!

StarTrek.com

There are a few things you need to play a game of Star Trek Adventures . You'll want at least one copy of the rules, though more than one will speed up game play. Same goes for the 20-sided dice to determine whether your characters succeed or fail. You will also need something to record character details and notes for events on the game. Then there are the optional things that might make gameplay a bit more comfortable, like a nice snack spread or spinning tracks off Star Trek soundtracks to get players in the mood.

We’ve scoured the internet for resources that will make your game easier to prep, more immersive and more fun. There are plenty of great options from Modiphius , the producers of the game, but we also wanted to focus on free and easy things that will make your game feel more authentically like Star Trek .

A Character Generation Website

Everyone playing Star Trek Adventures needs to make a character. That’s your gateway into the setting. Making characters for the game is a bit of a mini game because you follow your character through their upbringing and early career in Starfleet. These decisions can be chosen by the player or rolled randomly for those who like the challenge of assembling a character from elements that might be contradictory.

You can also make a Star Trek Adventures character online right here . This creation tool allows players to make main characters, starships, and supporting characters. It supports the main three eras of play ( Enterprise , Star Trek , Star Trek: The Next Generation ) and also lets users choose what supplemental books they have access to for additional species and talents. If you don’t own those books, building characters through this tool offers a great way to try before you buy. It’s also a great tool even if you’re not playing the tabletop RPG thanks to the lifepath system. The process creates characters and ships with interesting histories and dramatic hooks that can launch fanfiction just as easily.

Looking for a little extra immersion? Load up the website and PDF on your tablet or touchscreen computer and skip the paper and pencils. Flipping through the rules on handheld tablets adds a perfect amount of futuristic- Trek flavor.

A Living Campaign

RPGs are often supported by pre-written adventures. These are great to read as inspiration, to pull bits and pieces from to use

in your own stories or even to be run off the page for those times when you need a pre-built story because you haven’t had time to put an idea for a session together. Star Trek Adventures has dozens of adventures for sale as individual episodes or in collections like These Are The Voyages and Strange New Worlds . But it also has a massive campaign that can be played for free that spans multiple parts of the Star Trek timeline.

The Shackleton Expanse campaign not only offers a brand new part of the galaxy to explore, it offers missions set in the 2269 era of The Original Series and the 2371 era of The Next Generation . Any mission can be customized for any era, but these two timelines play to the long history of the Star Trek timeline. An ambitious Game Master might even decide to run two separate games of Star Trek Adventures with a different group in each era influencing each other. Play groups that want to be part of the living campaign can choose to be on one of the four ships included in the campaign: the Lexington in The Original Series era, or the Venture , Thunderchild or Bellerophon in The Next Generation era.

What is a living campaign? It means that, after each adventure, there’s a small questionnaire the group can send back to the company talking about the details of their game. The game designers and developers take this feedback into consideration and incorporate it into the next adventure of the game. That means players and game masters taking part influence this piece of the Star Trek setting after every new adventure is released!

Visualizing Your Character

Drawing a character adds even more life into their portrayal. You may not be an artist or be unable to afford to hire one to draw your character. That’s okay! There are still plenty of ways you can visualize your character without going the most common routes.

Screen Capture : There are about 556 hours of Star Trek media between the shows and movies. The next time you watch something, keep an eye out in the background for characters who might fit your character’s description. All it takes is a screen capture and quick crop or two to send to a game master as a character portrait.

Star Trek Online : The character creator for Star Trek Online has a lot of great options in its free to play mode. For those groups willing to buy a few costume packs, those options expand the options for crewmembers by a lot. A screenshot and a crop also works here too, but the extra control allows for more custom looks and alien type characters.

Miniature Maker : Star Trek Adventures offers an excellent line of miniatures for iconic characters. For those unwilling or unable to customize their own, this online miniature maker is surprisingly robust. Customize your character with the proper uniform and props, print them out, cut and fold, and your character exists in the real world. Even for games that don’t use miniatures, taking the time to create these cut-outs can breath another dimension into your Star Trek Adventures character.

Start Playing Now

You can download this Quickstart PDF right now to start playing Star Trek Adventures . It includes six premade characters, an essential rules brief, and a copy of the episode “Signals” featuring a lost runabout, Romulan intrigue and Ferengi negotiations! All you need are dice and friends to play.

Have any favorite tips and tricks of your own for playing Star Trek Adventures ? Let us know on Twitter , Facebook , and Instagram !

Rob Wieland (he/him) is an author, game designer and professional nerd who developed the adventure classifications for Star Trek Adventures. He lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin with his wife, two cats, and future Starfleet Admiral daughter.

Get Updates By Email

CREATE YOUR ACCOUNT
I AM A GAMEMASTER
I AM AN AUTHOR
I AM AN ARTIST

List of Star Trek Talents

Find your way!

DO YOU NEED HELP?
GIFT A MEMBERSHIP!
RANDOM GENERATORS
WORLDBUILDING PROMPTS
WHAT IS WORLDBUILDING?
WE ARE HIRING
TERMS OF SERVICE
ACCESSIBILITY

Get the news

WORLDANVIL PODCAST
GIFTS & WORLD ANVIL GEAR

Development

WORLD ANVIL API
MAJOR CHALLENGES

REACHING OUT

JOIN THE AFFILIATE PROGRAM
GET SPONSORED

A BIG THANK YOU

To all our Our Patrons for their unwavering love and support.

Login to my account

Enter your e-mail and password:

New customer? Create your account

Lost password? Recover password

Recover password

Enter your email:

Remembered your password? Back to login

Create my account

Please fill in the information below:

Already have an account? Login here

Your cart is empty

STA Dev Blog 003: A Guide to Star Trek Adventures

By Nathan Dowdell, 2d20 System Developer

Basic Rules: Momentum and Threat

At the heart of the gameplay of Star Trek Adventures are two resources which will be generated and spent during play. These are Momentum and Threat .

Momentum represents the opportunities and advantages that come from success and cooperation.
Threat represents the unknown perils that await in space, the unforeseen challenges that will arise to meet you, and the uncertain consequences of action.

All tasks can generate Momentum, but only a group of player characters can save Momentum for later use. Only the gamemaster has Threat, but NPCs can spend Momentum to add to Threat, and player characters can add to Threat in some ways.

When you succeed at a task , any successes you score beyond the minimum needed to match the Difficulty become Momentum: each excess success becomes one point of Momentum. When you generate Momentum in this way, you have two choices: spend or save.

Any Momentum you spend right there and then can be used to improve the outcome of the task you just succeeded at. This can be done in a variety of ways, and the rulebook explains numerous different options, but one of the most common is to Obtain Information , where each point of Momentum spent lets you ask one question about the situation and get a true answer. You may spend Momentum like this one at a time, seeing the effect before you choose whether to spend the next point; with Obtain Information , that would let you ask a question, and hear the answer before you decide whether you have more questions or if you want to save the rest of your Momentum.

Some Momentum options are listed as Repeatable. These can be used as many times as you want. Other Momentum spends can only be used once per task, or once per round in a conflict (which we’ll discuss in a future article).

Any Momentum you save goes into a group pool, and up to six points can be saved in total. This pool of Momentum can be used or added to by any member of your group – it is a shared resource, so your successes can benefit your allies, and their successes can benefit you. A Starfleet officer knows that cooperation makes a crew greater than the sum of its members, and a Klingon warrior is only as strong as those who stand side-by-side with them.

With most uses for Momentum, you can only spend saved Momentum in situations where you could already spend Momentum – immediately after a successful task – but some Momentum uses are listed as Immediate. These can be paid for at any time, spending directly out of the group pool, or even paid for by adding directly to Threat. The most common examples of this is buying additional d20s for a task, or paying to increase the Difficulty of an opponent’s action.

Momentum needs to be maintained, however. At the end of each scene, the group pool loses a point of Momentum, as the passage of time allows opportunities to pass and the urgency of action fades a little. Momentum is there to be used, and if you don’t use it, it’ll fade away.

Using Momentum

It’s a common instinct for new players to hoard Momentum, saving it up for that situation where they really need it. This isn’t necessarily wrong, as saving a couple of points for an emergency can make all the difference, but it’s useful to temper that instinct. Momentum can be generated quite easily, and spending Momentum to buy extra dice can often result in some of that Momentum coming back, especially if the character is highly skilled.

In addition to being easy to generate, Momentum will fade if not used, and there’s a maximum amount you can save, so hoarding Momentum is more likely to result in it being wasted. A proactive approach to using Momentum helps avoid that wastage.

Threat is all the things that could go wrong when exploring the unknown or facing a challenging situation.

In many ways, Threat is a lot like Momentum in how it is used during play: the gamemaster spends Threat to benefit NPCs in the same ways that players can spend Momentum to boost their player characters, and NPCs can save their unspent Momentum as Threat in a similar way to the player characters saving Momentum.

But there are a number of key differences.

Adding to Threat

While the gamemaster will begin each session with a small amount of Threat (normally 2 per player character), that supply is unlikely to last long. However, there are a number of ways that Threat can grow during the course of play:

Complications suffered by the player characters may result in 2 points being added to Threat instead of some other immediate problem occurring – in essence, this trades an immediate problem for a later one.
Player characters can pay for Immediate Momentum options, such as buying bonus d20s, by adding to Threat instead of spending Momentum, representing the character taking a risk to gain a benefit.
NPCs may spend Momentum from their tasks to add to Threat, mirroring how player characters can save their Momentum.
Some actions, such as using lethal force, or entering a situation with high-powered weapons such as rifles, can add to Threat, escalating a situation and making things more dangerous and unpredictable.

There can be other situations which add to Threat as well, but the four above are the most common.

Spending Threat

While Threat can be spent in the same ways Momentum can be used, those aren’t the only ways the gamemaster can use Threat. Ideally, the gamemaster should be using Threat in small quantities fairly regularly throughout each scene, rather than allowing it to build and build. The gamemaster should manage the Threat pool – spending it down or saving it up accordingly – to reflect the desired level of tension and peril in the adventure: lots of Threat signals a difficult challenge ahead, while little Threat means fewer things going wrong.

Threat can be used by NPCs in all the ways Momentum can be used by the player characters.
Some NPCs may have options or abilities which require spending Threat, such as equipping an enemy with a disruptor rifle instead of a disruptor pistol.
The gamemaster may create a complication for the players by spending 2 Threat. This complication should make sense for the situation, and be something that could logically happen.
The gamemaster can spend Threat to introduce additional opponents into a scene: enemy troops beaming down from their ship or responding to a disturbance, an enemy vessel arriving suddenly or decloaking.
The gamemaster may also spend Threat for story reasons, introducing new problems and challenges to overcome.

Players and Threat

While we’ll deal with interesting ways for the gamemaster to use and manage Threat in a later article, it’s useful to approach a common concern with Threat: how players interact with it.

Players, especially new ones, are often unduly worried about Threat building up, fearful of what the gamemaster could do with it. This is especially the case in groups where the gamemaster doesn’t spent Threat often, as the pool will build and build, deepening the fear of what it’s building towards. In truth, a point of Threat is no more menacing than a point of Momentum, and often as useful for the players as the gamemaster.

If your group is low on Momentum, there’s nothing to stop you from buying a die or two by adding to Threat, boosting your odds of succeeding… and better yet, if you do succeed, that Threat might produce Momentum for you to use so that you don’t need to add to Threat so much later. Similarly, adding to Threat might give you an edge in the short-term which is necessary to overcome a particularly imposing challenge or deadly foe. Using Threat occasionally and decisively can mean victory against impossible odds, and that kind of calculated risk-taking is entirely in keeping with the traditions of Starfleet and the Klingon Empire: as James Kirk once remarked, “Risk is our business.”

Thanks for reading this article, and thank you for your interest and support of Star Trek Adventures ! Keep your frequencies open for additional STA development blogs on a wide variety of game-related topics in the coming months.

Get the latest info on product releases, new sales, and development updates.

100% free, Unsubscribe any time!

Opens in a new window.

Net Orders Checkout

Shipping address, shipping methods.

IMAGES

Star Trek Adventures Review
'Star Trek Adventures' Is the Franchise's Best RPG Yet
'Star Trek Adventures' Is the Franchise's Best RPG Yet
Star Trek Adventures RPG Co-Op Game Homepage
Star Trek Adventures RPG Starter Set– Gameology
Star Trek Adventures

VIDEO

Worldbuilding Wednesday for Star Trek Adventures TTRPG using Dungeonfog Map Maker
Star Trek Adventures S5E8 "Early Warning"
Star Trek Adventures Captain's Log Actual Play Part 3: Building the start of the first mission
Star Trek Adventures S5E10 "New Crew, New Problems"
Star Trek Adventures Starter Set
Scientifically Proving Star Wars is MORE Advanced Than Star Trek

COMMENTS

Examples of Creating Advantages? : r/startrekadventures
There are many examples in Star Trek itself--usually in the form of negating a Complication, rather than creating an Advantage just for the fun of it. In TOS: "The Naked Time", Riley has barricaded himself in Engineering, creating a Complication which makes it impossible to enter. Scotty and a crewman work to use the "Create Advantage" mechanic ...
Rules: Create advantage
Daniel Jödemann posted the following (translated by deepl.com) "I create an advantage by: -A task with difficulty 2 (which then serves only to create the advantage). -spending 2 Momentum after a successful task (which had another purpose than to create the advantage), if the advantage can result from the task.
Talents
The ship gains the Advanced Sickbay Advantage, which applies to all Tasks related to medicine and biology performed within the sickbay itself. This Advantage is lost if the ship's Computers System is Disabled. ... The character may make use of the Direct Task (Star Trek Adventures core rulebook p. 173). If they already have access to the ...
Rules Question: Department Chief's Advantages
Rules Question: Department Chief's Advantages. Star Trek Adventures. Spock February 1, 2021, 5:02pm 1. Most of the Department Chiefs have an Advantage while aboard ship. Using the Chief Engineer as an example, the rules on page 127 of the Core book state: "When aboard the ship, the chief engineer always has the Advantage "Engineering ...
Star Trek Adventures
The Star Trek™ Adventures - Second Edition Core Rulebook contains a complete and updated version of the 2d20 System rules, designed for the most authentic and streamlined Star Trek™ experience to date.. Guidelines for novice and experienced gamemasters provide advice on challenging players with dramatic and thoughtful gameplay unique to the Star Trek™ universe.
Tasks
This is a Task with a Difficulty of 2, using Attribute, Discipline, and Focus (if any) based on how they're trying to gain an advantage. If successful, the character creates an Advantage. At the Gamemaster's discretion, depending on the nature of the Advantage being created, the ship may assist this Task.
[Guide]
Create Advantage: Spending Two momentum establishes some new Advantage in addition to whatever effect the successful task had, or removes a Complication from the Scene. ... In Star Trek Adventures, the Player Characters will always typically be able to act first in most encounters, with notable exceptions like being caught unawares, or their ...
Star Trek Adventures In-Depth Review
The most basic mechanic for Star Trek Adventures is this: you're rolling 2d20, and you're trying to get results on the individual die that are equal to or lower than a target number. ... Some actions are going to be impossible, and you'll need to create an advantage to make them something you can actually achieve. I've read the number ...
What You Need To Get Started On Your Star Trek Adventures
Role-playing games are an excellent way to spend time with friends and family telling stories. The role of Game Master (also known as GM) is a challenging and exciting way to explore the Star Trek universe. The first thing needed is the Star Trek Adventures core rulebook, which is currently available in physical and digital forms.
[Let's Study: Star Trek Adventures] Part 4: Operations
The basic resolution of a situation is called a Task, and Star Trek Adventures breaks Tasks down into the following variants based on the resulting outcome of success or failure: Tasks to succeed or achieve an objective, or one that could be used to generate an Advantage or Complication Trait for the situation. Tasks to avoid hazards or danger.
How works traits wile helping?
Star Trek Adventures. betatester February 7, 2021, ... I would allow the players to create an advantage (cf. p. 91 for extended tasks), maybe for the reduced cost of one instead of two momentum. ... Star Trek is a setting where assisting each other is a common thing to do. The effect is that players almost always get at least one die from an ...
STA Dev Blog 005: A Guide to Star Trek Adventures
By Sam Webb, Head of Product for Modiphius Entertainment. Extended Tasks in Star Trek Adventures. While they may seem daunting, extended tasks in Star Trek Adventures can be a fantastic tool to structure a bigger problem your player characters might face compared to an obstacle they can overcome with a single task. Extended tasks need more effort and time, like when Geordi tells Picard repairs ...
Adventures Index
Adventures Index. This is a living index of all playable adventures in official Modiphius Star Trek Adventures releases, as well as homebrew adventures here on Continuing Mission, as well as other online sources (where known). This list will be updated when new materials are released or found, so check back from time to time for new materials.
A First Look at Star Trek™ Adventures Second Edition
By Nathan Dowdell, 2d20 System Developer Art by Paolo Puggioni Developing the second edition of Star Trek Adventures was a big challenge. On the one hand, revisiting a game I'd designed was a great opportunity…but, unlike when I'd designed the first edition, I had more than my own expectations to contend with: the game has many dedicated fans now, and I would have to account for their ...
PDF Quick Reference Guide
Star Trek Adventures Quick Reference Sheet. Effects. When rolling for damage from an attack or hazard, you can gain Effects on your result in addition to damage. When this happens, all the Damage Effects for the weapon or hazard are triggered (see Star Trek Adventures pages 178-179 for more information). Action Order.
Enhance Your Star Trek Adventures With These Free Resources
Miniature Maker: Star Trek Adventures offers an excellent line of miniatures for iconic characters. For those unwilling or unable to customize their own, this online miniature maker is surprisingly robust. Customize your character with the proper uniform and props, print them out, cut and fold, and your character exists in the real world.
Talents in Star Trek Adventures
Whenever the character attempts the First Aid Task (Star Trek Adventures core rulebook p. 174), they may spend one Momentum to cause the recipient to regain points of Stress equal to the numaber of the character's Medicine Discipline. ... By spending 2 Momentum to Create an Advantage (obtaining the proper technical manuals and documentation ...
STA Dev Blog 003: A Guide to Star Trek Adventures
By Nathan Dowdell, 2d20 System Developer. Basic Rules: Momentum and Threat. At the heart of the gameplay of Star Trek Adventures are two resources which will be generated and spent during play. These are Momentum and Threat.. Momentum represents the opportunities and advantages that come from success and cooperation.; Threat represents the unknown perils that await in space, the unforeseen ...
Modiphius' Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition Coming Soon
Star Trek Adventures - Second Edition 's Core Rulebook is now available to pre-order for £50. Modiphius are planning on having the core products released at Gen Con, August 1st - 4th, with a general launch around the same time. While you're waiting, you can also download a Quickstart Guide PDF for the second edition.