By Jim Johnson, Project Manager, and Cory Belote, Contributing Writer
Art by Rodrigo Gonzalez Toledo
The Star Trek™ Adventures development team rolled a lot of successes during the extended task to develop and publish the new Exploration Guide. We also created some traits with all the excess Momentum, including Fair Winds and Following Seas and Efficient Team.
What does this mean for you? It means the guide is releasing today in print and digital formats instead of October 15! Preorder customers should have their copies in hand or in shipping as you read this.
If you didn’t preorder or are just now learning about this guide, here is the table of contents:
A recent episode of the Continuing Conversations podcast talked all about this new release.
And, in previous articles, we discussed what you can do with the book, including:
- Explore Your Character
- Create Sectors, Systems, and Planets
- Planetary Biomes and Story Possibilities
- Using the Exploration Guide with Captain’s Log
Another way to use the Exploration Guide is to run a sandbox style adventure or campaign. How? Read on!
Have your group create their characters and their starship, and then in the first adventure, point them in a particular direction within the Galaxy, and let them start exploring. Use the Exploration Guide and your group’s ideas as your guidance to tell original stories in your own corner of the Galaxy.
Create a sector, create a system, create planets, and, if you feel inspired, use the tools within Captain’s Log to generate plot hooks, inciting incidents, and other story elements. Let the player characters explore things as they come up, and, as the gamemaster, just wing it, and do what feels right in the moment to deliver an amazing Star Trek gaming experience to your group. Sprinkle in the character backstories as appropriate, drop in NPCs as you see fit, and build your campaign organically episode by episode.
To make it feel even more like an organic sandbox campaign, have all the players create their characters using the creation in play method, so that they are discovering their characters just as much as they’re discovering the universe around them.
In this way, you are creating a crew populated by characters who are developing as you go, and creating the universe around them as they explore. Judicious use of “yes and “encourages players to contribute creative elements to the ongoing story, whether they are helping you roll on the random tables or creating ideas of their own.
How are you planning to use the Exploration Guide? Share your ideas and insights with your fellow fans at the official Modiphius Discord!
Order the print edition now and receive the final digital edition right away. Or, order the digital edition by itself!
Thanks for reading this article, and thank you for your interest and support of Star Trek Adventures! Keep frequencies open for news about other upcoming Star Trek Adventures product releases. Live long and prosper!
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