Player Advice for the 23rd Century
By Jim Johnson, Project Manager
Art by Nicola Silvani
The Star Trek Adventures team at Modiphius Entertainment is proud to kick off a year-long celebration of the 60th anniversary of Star Trek with the upcoming release of The 23rd Century Campaign Guide, now available for preorder with immediate delivery of the final digital edition. Let’s discuss some of the player-focused advice contained in the guide.
Chapter 6 provides players with advice about creating and playing characters that fit into this dynamic century. The chapter follows the structure of the book by breaking down the century into four specific periods of play, and provides specific advice about how to create characters adjusted to fit both the tone and themes of each period.
Beginning in the start of the century, 2200-2255, there’s advice about the United Federation of Planets, Klingon Empire, the Romulan Star Empire, and other cultures key to the first half of the century. A discussion about character options, sample traits, sample focuses, and sample values, and short discussion about character death and how that might impact your character and campaign development.
The next section talks about characters living in 2256 through 2258, specifically about how characters could participate in, and be influenced by the brutal Federation-Klingon War and the Red Angel crisis. As with the first section, sample traits, focuses, and values are provided, along with a sidebar discussing how to use Reputation and awards in conjunction with the Federation-Klingon War.
The third section discusses the classic period of play, covering the years 2259–2269, and the various opportunities for characters in the Federation, Klingon Empire, Romulan Star Empire, and other polities to engage in original series themed adventures, along with a list of questions to consider for your characters. There’s also a sidebar encouraging you to play with how canon events may or may not have happened for the purposes of your campaign, and how to both plan and run adventures that might fit into the franchise unencumbered by canon.
The fourth section of the chapter covers the remainder of the century, 2270–2299, and discusses how you can bring your characters into the more cinematic perspective of the century. As with the other sections in the chapter, this section provides sample traits, focuses, and values and discusses the various policies in place at this time.
Chapter 6 concludes with a discussion of character roles in the 23rd century, and how those roles may change over the course of the century given the many different events, themes, and tones present. Commanding officer, communications officer, chief engineer, chief tactical officer/chief of security, and science officer are detailed, with brief discussions about other character roles. There are also sidebars highlighting how non-Federation character roles may be used.
The advice in this chapter is designed to help players create characters that truly fit into the canonical events and feel of each period of play in the century. What period of the century are you considering for your campaign? What types of characters do you and your fellow players want to play? What kind of 23rd century character are you planning to create with The 23rd Century Campaign Guide? Share your ideas and insights with your fellow fans at the official Modiphius Discord!
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