By Jim Johnson, Star Trek™ Adventures Project Manager
Art by Andrew Clark
In last week’s blog, we presented the table of contents for the new Star Trek™ Adventures second edition product release, the Technical Manual. The table of contents provides a broad overview of what can be found in the book. This blog post goes into more detail about what exactly you’ll find in the pages of the new Technical Manual.
The Introduction provides an overview of the importance of Star Trek technology to both the franchise and to modern society, since Star Trek has had such a profound influence on modern technology. Not only does the Introduction provide an appreciation of how Star Trek technology has impacted the world, but may also provide ideas on how to use the technology in your games.
Chapter 1 provides a wealth of new character options, including 10 new career event options and 16 new character talents. Starships also get some new options in the form of 5 new service record options and 10 new starship talents. Mines are added as a new weapon type, and an extensive discussion and mechanics options are provided for various faster-than-light propulsion systems. The chapter closes with advice and options on developing new technologies.
Each following chapter of the Technical Manual covers a different type of technology or equipment, from standard equipment common across all spacefaring civilizations, to diplomatic gear, medical gear, scientific gear, weapons and armor, and starship technologies.
Each chapter also provides an assortment of complication tables that can be used in any edition of Star Trek Adventures or Captain’s Log to help generate complications during a scene or task attempt. For example, if you are attempting a task using the ship’s deflector dish, and your die results were within the complication range, consult the complication table on page 112 and use the generated results, or pick another one if you don’t like the result.
The following information on turbolifts and the associated complication table (both of which were cut from the Technical Manual for space) provides an example of what you’ll find in the book.
There are more than 25 such sections of information and associated complication tables found throughout the book, which provide you and your group the means to create more evocative scenes revolving around technology.
Next week, we’ll talk about how to use the contents of the Technical Manual in conjunction with your first edition products and game experiences. In the meantime, remember to degauss your carbon filters, back up the data on your isolinear chips, and cycle the power on that malfunctioning PADD!
Preorder the print edition of the Technical Manual now and receive the final digital edition right away.
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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