STAR TREK ADVENTURES: THE ROLEPLAYING GAME Review

Thank you to Mōdiphiüs for sending a copy of the Star Trek Adventures: The Roleplaying Game: Second Edition Starter Kit in exchange for an honest review.

Have you been wanting to get into Star Trek Adventures, the TTRPG featuring everyone’s favorite Sci-Fi Franchise? Whether you’re a player or want to run a game yourself, the Star Trek Adventures: The Roleplaying Game: Second Edition Starter Kit is here to facilitate your ingress. Here’s what you can expect to find inside the box, along with a review based on my crew’s first (but not last) outing with the set.

Star Trek Adventures: The Roleplaying Game: Second Edition Starter Kit

First, let’s cover what’s in the box. The Star Trek Adventures: The Roleplaying Game: Second Edition Starter Kit comes in a sturdy two-piece box adorned with a full-color image of an away team comprised of four members of the set’s premade crew. While it’s a nice box, it might not be quite as nice as the magnetized box for Star Trek: Lower Decks: Buffer Time: The Card Game.

Inside the box are five d20s, the maximum number of d20s you can roll in the game. These aquamarine dice are specially themed for the game and have a Starfleet Delta in place of the “one.” Also included is a cardboard sheet with a few dozen tokens for you to punch out. In the set I received (by mail), a few of the tokens had already popped out when I opened the box. It was easy to punch out the rest.

Next up are two booklets, both around fifty pages apiece and stapled together inside a thicker paper cover. The first is the Starter Set Rules Booklet. Bearing the same cover as the Star Trek Adventures: The Roleplaying Game Second Edition Core Rulebook, this contains an abbreviated version of that 300-page text. The second is the Starter Set Campaign Booklet. This contains the details for a three-part mission, along with three “Mission Brief” pages for additional adventures with the crew.

Finally, there are several thick, double-sided sheets. These include seven premade characters for the players, one for the ship and four reference sheets for the game’s rules. Both the character and ship sheets each have full-color images on them, many of which also appear in the full 2E rulebook.

Getting Started

To playtest the game, I acted as gamemaster. I had never taken part in a Star Trek Adventures game before, either as a player or a gamemaster. However, I have experience with Dungeons & Dragons as a player and a Dungeon Master. While the starter set is geared to accommodate both beginning players and gamemasters, I did find myself relying on this D&D experience throughout the session.

Likewise, I have also read the entire Second Edition Core Rulebook to review it for Geek Girl Authority. Obviously, a gamemaster with no experience and/or hasn’t read the full rulebook wouldn’t have these advantages. For those in this situation, I think additional study of the starter rulebook and the tips included throughout the campaign booklet in advance of the first session might be helpful. Furthermore, gamemasters wishing to continue their games beyond the starter set campaign will likely want to seek out the full edition of the rulebook, as well.

For my first session, I was able to recruit three players. The first was my spouse, Ollie Kaplan. They have previously played a fair amount of D&D, having been a player alongside me and in games in which I had served as Dungeon Master. Meanwhile, my friends George Carmona 3rd and Taimur Dar joined as well. Neither George nor Taimur have previous experience with TTRPGs.

However, all three players are very well acquainted with the Star Trek Franchise. While not strictly necessary, I do think this greatly facilitated our game. For example, Taimur knew to play Tellarite engineer Lt. Cmdr. Burk Ven Jaxa as more argumentative, while George pointed out an Orion woman might be able to use pheromones to influence a conversation.

Boldly RPing

One thing about the Star Trek Adventures: The Roleplaying Game: Second Edition Starter Kit: it is ideally suited to an in-person game. However, because our game included players on both coasts, we had to meet over Zoom. But it wasn’t too hard to adapt to these circumstances. I scanned the sheets for the characters they chose and emailed them in advance of the session.

During the game, playing remotely meant that I did the dice rolling. However, with players who have their own sets of d20s, this wouldn’t be necessary. Additionally, the tokens weren’t as useful as they would have been if I could have simply distributed them to the players. And most tragically at all, I couldn’t make some delicious Krada Leg skewers to share with everyone as we played.

Thanks to the straightforward nature of the campaign booklet, getting the game underway was a breeze. I was glad to have previewed the adventure. However, the sidebars in the booklet were still helpful in keeping things on track. Although, of course, my players decided they wanted to speak to a character who wasn’t officially supposed to appear until part two, so I did have to engage in some on-the-fly skipping around and improvisation.

Our veteran TTRPG player, Ollie, took to the game like an Antedean to water. Meanwhile, both George and Taimur picked up on the mechanics of the game very quickly. Having the two-sided character sheets to consult seemed to help all three players navigate the introductory session.

Available Now

Ultimately, I think all three players had an enjoyable time. We have already scheduled another play session. At this rate, it should take us a few months to get through the starter set campaign.

Once we’re all better acquainted with the game mechanics, we’ve discussed starting a new game in the Star Trek: The Next Generation era. Besides being a favored time period, this will also give everyone the chance to create their own characters. Or, in George’s case, create a character based on the TNG-era character that’s already named after him.

Overall, the starter set is a great introduction to playing Star Trek Adventures. This is true for both the players and gamemaster even if the gamemaster has, like me, already read through the full rulebook.

Character creation can be a complicated process. So, the premade characters are a good way for the players to get used to the gameplay before putting the time into creating new characters for themselves. As the name suggests, the starter kit is a great way to get the ball rolling, hopefully leading to boldly getting into some more personalized Star Trek Adventures sessions in the not-too-distant future.

The Star Trek Adventures: The Roleplaying Game: Second Edition Starter Kit is available now from Mōdiphiüs.

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Avery Kaplan

Avery Kaplan is the author of several books and the Features Editor at Comics Beat. She was honored to serve as a judge for the 2021 Cartoonist Studio Prize Award and the 2021 Prism Awards. She lives in the mountains of Southern California with her partner and a pile of cats, and her favorite place to visit is the cemetery. You can also find her writing on Comics Bookcase, NeoText, Shelfdust, the Mary Sue, StarTrek.com, in many issues of PanelxPanel, and in the margins of the books in her personal library.