Allies and Adversaries: Gamemaster Advice and Tools
Apinya RamakomudBy Jim Johnson, Project Manager
Art by Wilmar Ballespi
In addition to dozens of statistics blocks that we’ll discuss in future blog posts, the new Allies and Adversaries Sourcebook for Star Trek Adventures contains a wealth of information for gamemasters on non-player characters that expands upon the advice provided in the core rulebook. Along with a deeper discussion on the role NPCs play in the game, an additional category of NPC, Incidental NPCs, is provided, to accompany the established guidance for Minor, Notable, and Major NPCs.
The book also provides optional rules for NPC squads, advice on how NPCs might interact with values and directives, and an extensive discussion on effectively using NPCs as antagonists, interference, resources, patrons, and more. New NPC special rules are included, as well as explanations on how swimming, drowning, vertical movement, and falling all might play out in your missions.
Further, the book provides advice on building, balancing, and managing encounters, and provides system designer Nathan Dowdell’s thoughts on effective use of NPCs in combat and non-combat encounters.
The book also shares additional tools for the gamemaster in the form of random tables to help generate random NPCs for encounters and scenes (grouped by era), as well as two plot hook tables to plug NPCs into, one for planetary adventures and one for space adventures.
The last chapter of the book provides guidance on creating original creatures for the game, a topic we’ll detail in a future blog post.
Combining the Allies and Adversaries Sourcebook with the core rulebook should provide you with a well-stocked toolkit regarding NPCs and the confidence to create and run thrilling encounters populated with Star Trek-style challenges for your crews.
How do you plan to use the additional guidance around NPCs in your games and campaigns? Share your ideas and insights with your fellow Star Trek fans at the official Modiphius Discord!
Preorder the print edition of the Allies and Adversaries Sourcebook now and receive the final digital edition as soon as it is available (estimated late May 2026).
And if that’s not enough exciting Star Trek Adventures content for one day, how about this? We’re announcing a new token set for the game, compatible with any edition of the game as well as the Captain’s Log solo RPG! Made of colored transparent acrylic, these 30mm tokens should look great on your game table. How many Threat tokens can you stack before you spend them?
Each token set includes 6x blue Momentum tokens, 12x yellow Determination tokens, and 24x red Threat tokens. They’re available for preorder now and are expected to ship this summer (estimated August 2026).
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 & © 2026 CBS Studios Inc. STAR TREK and related marks and logos are trademarks of CBS Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved.
