By Jim Johnson, STA Project Manager
Art by CBS Studios, Inc.
I grew up flipping through the Franz Joseph Technical Manual and the previous versions of a Star Trek roleplaying game, especially FASA and Last Unicorn Games, and loved flipping through the supplements that detailed the many ships from Starfleet, the Klingon Defense Force, the Romulan Star Empire, and others. They helped me see the ships as characters in their own right, much as the television shows presented the ship as key components of their series, vessels that were loved by their captains and crews (and erstwhile chief engineers).
In the spring of 2016, when I first joined the Star Trek Adventures team, I hoped the game would last long enough to someday release a starships supplement. The first chance to add more starships to the line was in The Command Division supplemental rulebook, which I developed and contributed writing to. During the development of that book I met Aaron Pollyea, the line’s resident starship designer. I love all the lore details and story starters Aaron adds to the spaceframe and starship descriptions, and hoped that we’d be able to tap him for more work on a dedicated starships book.
And that leads us to now, some five years later. We added a starships book to the production schedule and started developing the Utopia Planitia Starfleet Sourcebook in the fall of 2021. Aaron was the first writer I reached out to, building the book’s outline off a proposal he had sent me early in the life of the game line. I added several other regular STA writers to the team, including John Kennedy, Al Spader, and Michael Dismuke. Thomas Marrone, associate art director of Star Trek Online, provided the foreword to the book and a selection of STO ship lore and statistics.
And the art! I was able to reach out to my contacts from various other Star Trek licensees, including Thomas Marrone and Ben Robertson, as well as some passionate designers like Mark Rademaker, Tadeo D’Oria, and Bill Krause. With their help, and the assistance of the Modiphius art archives and the Paramount Global art library, I was able to include art for every spaceframe we could cram into the book’s page count.
With this passionate crew on my team, we set to work, and are now proud to present the table of contents for Utopia Planitia Starfleet Sourcebook:
Believing this book would be a great opportunity to connect with non-gamer Star Trek fans as well, we wanted to do something special, and decided to provide two separate collector’s editions (designed by Modiphius’s own Stephanie Toro), along with the standard art cover edition (standard cover art by Tobias Richter). So with no further ado, feast your eyes on the three cover options:
Developing this book for the fans (hardcore starship fans and casual fans alike) was a pure joy, and I hope it brings you and your group may hours of fun building your own starships and using them in your campaigns to travel the stars and boldly go where you’ve never gone before!
Preorder the Utopia Planitia Starfleet Sourcebook now and receive the final PDF immediately as part of your order. The print edition is expected to ship in late Q4 2022.
Original Series Collector’s Edition:
The Next Generation Collector’s Edition:
Thanks for reading this article, and thank you for your interest and support of Star Trek Adventures! Keep frequencies open for more blog entries about the Utopia Planitia Starfleet Sourcebook and news about additional STA products in the coming months. Live long and prosper!
