By Jim Johnson, Star Trek™ Adventures Project Manager
Art by Justin Usher
If you are a gamemaster or player using the Star Trek™ Adventures Captain’s Log Solo RPG, either solo or with your friends, and you’re looking for more content to use in your game, read on! Let’s talk about how the newly released second edition Starter Set can be used in conjunction with Captain’s Log.
The Starter Set contains a three-part campaign that could easily be played solo or with a group of friends using the Captain’s Log ruleset, solo or cooperatively, with or without a gamemaster. To adapt the Starter Set campaign to Captain’s Log, consider the following advice.
If you want to play through the campaign in order, start with Part One, Act 1, Scene One, and simply begin playing through the adventure, using your character and adjudicating task attempts and probabilities as you normally would with Captain’s Log.
If you are a Starfleet officer, you are most likely answering the distress call. If you are a member of a non-Starfleet organization, or the member of an independent crew, you might have very different reasons for going to Cressida. Whatever the case, the first scene is most likely going to be the action scene as written out on pages 8–11 of the campaign book. You and any of your fellow players or fellow crew members will be encountering the concerned citizens looking for escape, and the encroaching aliens.
Once you have resolved that scene, any number of possibilities branch off depending on what polity you are part of and what your character and crew decide to do next. Do you help rescue the citizens? Do you investigate the strange goings-on? Do you find something else to do? There are several key non-player characters in the campaign booklet, including the administrator of the city and the mysterious Nausicaan archaeologist Urotoxa.
From a mechanics standpoint, since Captain’s Log does not use extended tasks, you could simply approach the extended tasks in the campaign as standard tasks, the success or failure of which would influence the probability of your overall task. Or you could adapt the extended tasks into Captain’s Log as you see fit.
Any number of Captain’s Log adventures and scenarios could be created by the contents of the Starter Set: the entire campaign, each part separately, and/or the three mission briefs included with the set. The Starter Set was designed to provide an average game group 15 to 20 hours of gaming experience, playing it through roughly as written. However, there are enough plot hooks, ideas, and inspiration packed into the campaign that you could create dozens of Captain’s Log stories.
You can certainly tell the story from your main character’s point of view, but what if you choose to make one of the non-player characters in the campaign the main character and tell a Captain’s Log story from their perspective? How does the administrator of the city react to the situations presented. How does she react to Urotoxa’s requests? What if you made Urotaxa the main character and told the entire campaign from her point of view? How does that influence the stories and how does that change things when you use it in conjunction with the probability matrices in Captain’s Log?
You could choose to follow the campaign largely as written, or you could simplify it by using the scenes and beats in the campaign as guideposts for your own adventures, loosely related to the campaign’s storyline. Note the campaign doesn’t necessarily end on a complete conclusion to all things—there are threads left to weave into a new story. Urotoxa’s efforts could continue well beyond the confines of the Starter Set. How does your character and crew connect with her and help her in the future, or perhaps hinder her?
And what about the Bryozoans? Does your character or crew decide to further investigate them? Perhaps you attempt to find ways to pursue them into their own dimension. What amazing stories would that create?
Whatever the case, the incredible flexibility and endless story possibilities combining the Starter Set with Captain’s Log unlocks a whole new wealth of material for you to stock your gaming toolbox. Hope you have fun!
Order the print edition of the second edition Starter Set now and receive the digital version right away. Or order the digital file by itself.
You may also choose to order your print copy of the second edition Star Trek Adventures core rulebook now in standard format or one of three limited edition covers! And order a print copy of the second edition Game Toolkit as well, to expand your options for exploring the final frontier.
2nd Edition Core Rulebook (Command):
2nd Edition Core Rulebook (Sciences):
2nd Edition Core Rulebook (Operations):
All physical orders will also receive the digital versions right away.
Alternatively, you can order the digital editions by themselves of the standard core rulebook and the Game Toolkit.
2nd Edition Core Rulebook PDF:
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 & © 2025 CBS Studios Inc. © 2025 Paramount Pictures Corp. STAR TREK and related marks and logos are trademarks of CBS Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved.
