Gamemaster Tools in the Species Sourcebook
By Jim Johnson, Project Manager
Art by Rodrigo Gonzalez Toledo
While players across the Star Trek Adventures social sphere chat about the contents of the new Species Sourcebook they’re looking to use to create new characters, let’s talk about the wealth of gamemaster tools also available in the new book.
The first tool a gamemaster might find value in is the book’s Introduction, which contains a brief discussion on the reasons why having many different alien species in your missions and campaigns is important. Gamemasters might appreciate that list of reasons to help build specific tones and themes into missions and campaigns.
Next, the advice provided at the beginning of Chapter 1 should serve to help orient the gamemaster and players into using existing and original species, and provide some notes on species variance and ways to tweak the lifepath, if the questions presented in the existing lifepath don’t apply or quite meet the needs of a given player’s character concept.
There are a variety of random complication tables built into the book related to specific species, and could be adapted for use with other species or with original species creations. Some of the complication tables cover Barzan and Benzite breathing apparatus, Exocomps, Augments, Kwejian, Lanthanite collections, Conveyances, and Pakled clumpship components. Gamemasters and players alike can use these complication tables to enhance scenes when complications crop up during a mission.
There are also a number of sidebars addressing the gamemaster and players in terms of various concepts to think about when playing these species. For instance, the Villains sidebar on page 23 discusses playing characters from species originally presented as antagonists. We know throughout Star Trek that adversaries can become allies and vice versa, so the discussion opens up the possibility to play any number of species as main characters. If Starfleet Academy can present a half-Klingon/half-Jem’Hadar cadet master in Commander Lura Thok, then you should be free to create interesting and dynamic characters based on former adversarial species.
There’s also a sidebar directed at the gamemaster for using emotional states as traits within the game. This concept is briefly touched on in the core rulebook, but given more detail and scope in the Species Sourcebook. The advice here might be very useful for characters, particularly empaths and telepaths, but non-sensitive characters can use these options as well if they’re feeling a powerful emotion.
There are a variety of other optional rules and mechanical options sprinkled throughout the book, and I encourage all gamemasters and players to spend some time reading the sidebars and other bits of text.
What mechanical bits included in the book have you excited? What pieces of gamemaster advice are you likely to make use of in your next campaign? What other ideas do you have after checking out the Species Sourcebook? Share your ideas and insights with your fellow Star Trek fans at the official Modiphius Discord!
Preorder the print edition of the Species Sourcebook now and receive the final digital edition right away.
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!
TM & © 2026 CBS Studios Inc. STAR TREK and related marks and logos are trademarks of CBS Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved.
