By Jim Johnson, Star Trek Adventures Project Manager
Art by Paolo Puggioni
If you’ve been following along with our How to Play series for second edition Star TrekTM Adventures, you should now have a group to play with, a main character for each player, and a starship to explore the cosmos. Now it’s time to plan and run your first adventure for your crew!
If you’re new to gamemastering, have no fear. There are many ways for you to ease into the game and start playing quickly. Two options include running the introductory adventure “The Gorgon’s Gaze,” included in the core rulebook, or running the free download quickstart adventure “The Celestial Algorithm.” Both get you and your players involved in the game mechanics quickly and should give you a solid 2-4 hours’ worth of Star Trek entertainment. Both adventures are easily adaptable to any era of play, and, with minor adjustments, can be used with a non-Starfleet crew of characters.
If neither of those options suits you, there are more than 100 published Star Trek Adventures missions, in a variety of formats. Visiting the Modiphius webstores will show you the breadth of options available. While they are all first edition products, each can be easily converted to second edition with minimal effort and will serve to get your group playing without a lot of prep time.
In particular, the 17 adventures contained in the two compilations These are the Voyages and Strange New Worlds offer a variety of standalone stories and genres, each suitable to be your crew’s first adventure together. Many game supplements include one or more standalone adventures or a series of adventures grouped into short mini-campaigns. Any of those could be adapted for use with a beginner group of characters.
If you know your group will want to play the game for a while, and would prefer a more expansive storyline to dig into, consider the Shackleton Expanse Campaign Guide, which offers a 10-part epic campaign supported with another 46 discrete mission briefs to expand the campaign. If your group wants a long campaign with more of a wartime focus, consider The Federation-Klingon War Tactical Campaign, which offers a 6-part campaign plus 24 mission briefs to expand the possibilities. Both campaigns can be run from start to finish with a group of beginners.
If you’re a more experienced gamemaster, or one who prefers to run games more theatre-of-the-mind and have less need of a fully written out mission, consider any of the hundreds of edition-agnostic mission briefs written for Star Trek Adventures. Each mission brief presents a one-page outline for a mission, complete with key story beats, minor beat suggestions, NPC suggestions, and a notional ending. Use any given mission brief as a story starter, and see where the players boldly go. There are 19 free mission brief packs available for download, plus hundreds more included in a variety of game supplements.
I hope this article has given you some awareness of what options are out there for pre-written adventures designed to help you gamemaster your first adventure with your group. The next blog in the series will detail structuring and running original adventures oriented specifically to your crew.
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 print 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!
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