By Jim Johnson, STA Project Manager
With the Star Trek Adventures game line celebrating its fourth birthday, the development team and I felt it was a good time to focus on growing the game’s fan base and player and gamemaster pools. We’re passionate about helping fans new to the game, and also fans new to Star Trek, discover all the wonder contained within the franchise. We want to show you how to bring that unique Star Trek experience to the tabletop. With that in mind, I’m excited to introduce two new supplements: the Player’s Guide and the Gamemaster’s Guide, both now available for print preorder!
These two guides are companions to the core rulebook of your choice (Starfleet core rulebook, Klingon core rulebook, or the tricorder collector’s box set). The guides do not stand alone; they were designed to be compatible with all three points of entry to the game (not to mention the Starter Set and the two free quickstart guides). If you expect to be a player in a Star Trek Adventures campaign or game, the Player’s Guide is perfect for you. If you’re going to run a game or campaign, or want to learn more about taking on the role of gamemaster, then you’ll want to check out the Gamemaster’s Guide.
There’s so much I’m excited about in these two guides, but if I had to pick just one thing it’s that they provide so many new options to expand the gameplay possibilities far beyond anything we’ve provided to date.
The new player role options in the Player’s Guide provide you with the tools to play almost any type of character in the Star Trek universe, from independent trader, to local militia, to youths and religious figures and more. If you’ve played Star Trek Adventures or have considered it but wanted to play a non-Starfleet or non-Klingon character like Commander T’Pol, General Shran, Major Kira, Constable Odo, Quark, Nog, Jake Sisko, Neelix, Kes, Cleveland “Book” Booker, or so many others, the opportunity to do so is here.
The many optional rules provided in the Gamemaster’s Guide provide gamemasters with more ways to tweak the gameplay, enabling you to scale the rules you use at your table up or down, depending on your group’s preferred game style and desired level of ‘crunch’. Whether you run a rules-light, fast-paced game or a more detailed, tactical game (or even something in between), there should be enough interesting options in the book to help you create amazing Star Trek adventures with your friends.
There’s so much more to say about these two books; I’ll save them for future blog posts. For now, I hope you check out the offerings in these two books and find a way to implement them into your Star Trek Adventures games. I can’t wait to see what you do with them!
Thanks for reading this article, and thank you for your interest and support of Star Trek Adventures! Keep frequencies open for news about additional STA products in the coming months. Questions, comments? Let me know! Live long and prosper!