Here are the Daily Star Trek Quotes that will appear on the @STrekQuotes Twitter account, the @STrekQuotes Mastodon account and the Bluesky account for the week of October 7th through October 13th. (Yes, we now have a scheduler for Bluesky)
October 7 “The key to tongo is to confront when you’re sure you’re in a better position than the other players.” Dax- Meridian, Stardate: 48423.2 #StarTrek #StarTrekDS9 #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet #Quote
October 8 “Tyree, supposing you had to fight? What then?” Kirk “Jim, this man believes in the same thing we believe in. That killing is stupid and useless.” Dr. McCoy- A Private Little War, Stardate: 4211.4 #StarTrek #StarTrekTOS #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet #Quote
“I believe someone once defined a compromise as a solution that neither side is happy with.” Archer- Cease Fire, Date: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekENT #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet #Quote
October 10 “Doctor, if you wish to master the bat’leth sword you must learn to strike and avoid in the same motion.” Worf “I almost got in under your guard, Worf.” Dr. Crusher “Almost.” Worf- The Quality of Life, Stardate: 46307.2 #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet #Quote
October 11 “The Borg value efficiency, not redundancy.” Seven- Nightingale, Stardate: 54274.7 #StarTrek #StarTrekVOY #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet #Quote
October 12 “I wouldn’t want to slow the wheels of progress. But then on the other hand, I wouldn’t want those wheels to run over my client in their unbridled haste.” Samuel Cogley- Court Martial, Stardate: 2947.3 #StarTrek #StarTrekTOS #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet #Quote
October 13 “A child born from parents who love each other will have nothing but goodness in his heart.” Dr. Juliana Tainer- Inheritance, Stardate: 47410.2 #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet #Quote
What are your favorite daily Star Trek quotes selected for this week? This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com or click on my social media links with any comments.
Here are the Daily Star Trek Quotes that will appear on the @STrekQuotes Twitter account, the @STrekQuotes Mastodon account and the Bluesky account for the week of September 30th through October 6th. (Yes, we now have a scheduler for Bluesky)
September 30 “You don’t really think you’ll have any luck, do you?” Ferris “Look, these people are my friends and my shipmates. I intend to continue the ship’s search for them until the last possible moment.” Kirk- The Galileo Seven, Stardate: 2822.3 #StarTrek #StarTrekTOS #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet #Quote
October 1 “What’s so important about the past? People got sick, they needed money. Why tie yourself to that?” Dr. Soong “Humans are mortal. They seem to need a sense of continuity.” Data “Ah hah!! Why?” Dr. Soong “To give their lives meaning. A sense of purpose.” Data- Brothers, Stardate: 44085.7 #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet #Quote
“I can throw away the uniform, resign my commission, run all the way to the Nyberrite Alliance, but it really wouldn’t matter. A Starfleet officer. That’s what I am, and that’s what I’ll always be.” Sisko- The Way of the Warrior, Stardate: 49011.4 #StarTrek #StarTrekDS9 #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet #Quote
October 3 “Warp 1.8 works just fine for us. Any faster and there’d be no time to enjoy the trip.” Matthew Ryan- Fortunate Son, Date: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekENT #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet #Quote
October 4 “I’m a doctor, not a battery.” The Doctor- Gravity, Stardate: 52438.9 #StarTrek #StarTrekVOY #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet #Quote
October 5 “Doctor gave me a pill and I grew a new kidney! The doctor gave me a pill and I grew a new kidney!” Elderly Woman- Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Stardate: 8390 #StarTrek #StarTrekFilm #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet #Quote
October 6 “Nothing reveals humanity so well as the games it plays.” Q- Hide and Q, Stardate: 41590.5 #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet #Quote
What are your favorite daily Star Trek quotes selected for this week? This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com or click on my social media links with any comments.
The cover to the Time Magazine Dungeons and Dragons special edition
So walking through a local drugstore I finally saw my first copy of the Time Magazine Special Edition on Dungeons and Dragons. The history of this roleplaying game was interesting enough for me to pick this up as a curiosity buy. I’m going to take a look through this magazine and see if it was worth the $14.99 cover price.
This special edition will be displayed on stands until December 6, 2024. The editor-in-chief is Sam Jacobs. The magazine itself has 96 pages. I couldn’t find an edition number but the bardcode on the front of my issue was 0 70989 10230 9 (ISBN number?) As with all Time Magazines, it has the red border on the cover. There are no advertisements in this magazine.
There is an introduction, four sections and a last page about the dragon. The introduction (titled “Storied Roots”) talks about the literary influences that helped Dungeons and Dragons. It also talked about the days of wargaming in the 1960’s that influenced Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson and the early development of Chainmail.
The first chapter is titled Origins. Some of the information is similar to the Storied Roots listed above, with a little bit more detail. It was interesting to read some of the history contained in this section. I wasn’t aware that Gary Gygax’s four-year old daughter came up with the name “Dungeons and Dragons”. There was more information on the “satanic panic” that happened in the 80’s, the departure of Gygax and the development of 2nd and 3rd editions. I’m not surprised that in this history, they didn’t even mention fourth edition. A timeline is provided in this chapter, which was interesting.
The second chapter talks about D&D on the screen. The first section is about Critical Role, which I’ll admit, I’ve never seen. While I’ve watched a few “how to play” videos on YouTube when trying to learn a new system, just watching someone else play is kind of depressing. Because I want to play myself. So I kind of skipped this section for now, but I intend to go back and read it in detail so that I can understand. Then there was an article about Stranger Things (a show I’ve only seen a hand full of episodes of) and one about Vecna. Finally there was an article about the recent Dungeons and Dragons movie that just came out. Now this one I’ve seen. I was a little surprised that there wasn’t anything more on the inspirational Dungeons and Dragons animated show from the 80’s in this section. I watched the heck out of that series.
I’ve reached the third chapter titled “Modern Ventures”. This discusses the reach of D&D into other business realms. This includes dice, video games like Baldur’s Gate 3 and other partnerships in the merchandising that I wasn’t aware of. It was an interesting read.
The last chapter, Healing Words, talks about how playing rolepaying games can be therapeutic. This is something that I’ve told other people for years. I’ve had one DM that would use D&D to help teach math to younger players. There were two articles in this chapter.
Alright, now that I’ve had a chance to go through the magazine, I can see where there will be some sections that I’ll get a chance to learn something. I enjoyed reading the history sections (and I would like to read more). I can see where some sections could have been expanded (more on B/X or BECMI, the animated series, etc.) but I also understand that there is a limit in the printed medium. So, I am happy that I picked up this issue as I’ll be giving it a deep read soon.
Do you have any questions about the Time Magazine special? Feel free to ask me about them. This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com with any comments.
Here are the Daily Star Trek Quotes that will appear on the @STrekQuotes Twitter account and the @STrekQuotes Mastodon account for the week of September 23rd through September 29th. Coming soon to Bluesky once we can find a scheduler option.
“I don’t teach Bajoran spiritual beliefs. That’s your job. Mine is to open the children’s minds to… history, to literature, to mathematics, to science.” Keiko- In the Hands of the Prophets, Stardate: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekDS9 #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet #Quote
September 24 Star Trek: Discovery premiered on this date in 2017 with the episodes The Vulcan Hello and Battle at the Binary Stars. https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Star_Trek:_Discovery #StarTrek #StarTrekDiscovery #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet #Quote
“We have forgotten the unforgettable, the last to unify our tribes: Kahless. Together under one creed: remain Klingon!” T’Kuvma- The Vulcan Hello, Stardate: 1207.3 #StarTrek #StarTrekDiscovery #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet #Quote
September 25 “The Orient Express is romantic, mysterious. It’s an elegant way to see exotic places and meet fascinating people.” Dr. Crusher- Emergence, Stardate: 47869.2 #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet #Quote
“God, she’s beautiful.” Archer “And fast. Warp four point five next Thursday.” Tucker “Neptune and back in six minutes.” Archer- Broken Bow, Date: April 15, 2151 #StarTrek #StarTrekENT #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet #Quote
September 27 “Fascinating is a word I use for the unexpected. In this case, I should think interesting would suffice.” Spock- The Squire of Gothos, Stardate: 2124.5 #StarTrek #StarTrekTOS #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet #Quote
“Well this is a new ship but she’s got the right name. Now you remember that, you hear?” Dr. McCoy- Encounter at Farpoint, Stardate: 41153.7 #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet #Quote
September 29 “Aren’t you capable of learning?” Kes “I have the capacity to accumulate and process data, yes.” The Doctor “Then I guess you’ll just have to learn… like the rest of us.” Kes- Phage, Stardate: 48532.4 #StarTrek #StarTrekVOY #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet #Quote
What are your favorite daily Star Trek quotes selected for this week? This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com or click on my social media links with any comments.
So we are starting off this blog post with a disclaimer. I was contacted on September 4th by Lee Smart, the owner of Mystery Dice Goblin. He inquired if I was interested in reviewing their Mystery Dice Bags that they sell on their family business website. I asked if I was allowed to review the products as I saw fit (i.e. not giving a good review just because I received a free product) and he responded with an enthusiastic “yes of course”. So, I gave him my address and moved onto other balls that I had in the air.
England? I wasn’t expecting that.
On Monday, September 16th, the following package arrived from England. Had I know this was a husband and wife company in the UK, I might have (jokingly) asked for a bribe with Doctor Who, Monty Python, Top Gear or Red Dwarf. I’ve always been a fan of British TV, humor, culture and even some of the food. Having a local restaurant run by British immigrants is something that I’m very grateful for.
There were three mystery packs inside.
Inside the box were three mystery packs. These are factory sealed bags with an easy tear-off top. Just inside the tear-off top is a zip-lock style closure. So, if you wanted to continue to use the bags for your dice, you could do so without worrying about them escaping and rolling initiative.
All three bags had the same information on the back.
So after taking these photos, lightning just struck me brain (or as Jeremy Clarkson would have said: “Sometimes, if you listen very carefully, you can hear my genius.”) Instead of just opening up the bags and putting the dice through the same review as I had with past dice products, I ran upstairs and gathered my geek wife and two geek kids. I had each one of them open up the packages one at a time and we checked them out together. My wife went first and opened up the package that contained these red dice with Chinese dragons on them.
I love the color red.
We all thought these were really kewl looking. Everyone took a turn rolling them and seeing how they felt in our hands. They have a good weight and the rolling seemed to come up random. (Sorry, I don’t have the patience to do a complete roll them a 100 times and write everything down test) We then opened up the next package.
Blue and white swirly dice.
The youngest opened the next set. I don’t know what the official name for this set is, but we called it the aquamarine set. The blue and white swirls reminded us of the ocean. This set was slightly smaller than the red Chinese dragon dice that we opened first. Because of this size difference, there is a slightly less weight to them. Rolling them did feel natural and random. My oldest then opened up the next package.
My wife loves this color.
The oldest proclaimed that mother would love this set as she loves the color purple. The numbers were using a different font than the previous two sets and there was a sparkle to these dice. I had seen this gothic type font on the Dice Legends sets that I reviewed prior. They had the same size and weight as the aquamarine set. They also rolled the same as well. Just as random and they felt good.
All three sets lined up together.
When we had opened up the sealed bags, I wondered if I could smell something? But further inspection didn’t reveal anything olfactory wise. I wonder if the muscle memory in my head thought: “A sealed bag has been opened, what food does it contain?”
This should be enough D20s for a Star Trek Adventures game.
In the picture above I lined up the D20s from the new dice sets with some previous dice I had reviewed in the past. The Mystery Goblin Dice are along the top. On the bottom row from left to right are the North-to-South Designs Gaming D20, the Dice Legends D20, the D20 from the Dollar Tree set and the D20 from my Chessex set that I’ve had for quite some time. Apparently I haven’t reviewed this last set yet. Comparing the weights they were pretty similar. At the last SaltCON, my wife and I were talking to a local dice manufacturer who had some sets with similar size and fonts. The colors could vary widely depending upon what material was used in the manufacture. While they had kits to make your own dice, we quickly passed, not needing yet another hobby to divide our limited time. So, we are grateful to those who have been bitten by the dice manufacturing bug. I wonder if these kits include the molds with the fonts and styles?
According to the Mystery Dice Goblin website, the price for these three mystery sets would have been $25 plus shipping. Had I paid that price, I would have been very satisfied with the purchase. I don’t know how much the shipping would have cost, but if you live in the UK they offer free shipping for any orders over 15 British pounds. I was told that the package was shipped on the 6th and it only took ten days to arrive at my house in the states. Coming from England, that is a quick delivery.
Oh and as a thank you to my family for helping me review these dice, I’m going to give them the packs that they would like. I know that they will enjoy them.
Having gone through this experience, I think I’m going to add a new item to my Frequently Asked Questions. I am more than willing to review and item sent to me as long as I have the freedom to review the product as I see fit. If I like something, I’m more than willing to tell others about it. If there are things that could be improved, I don’t mind saying these things as well.
Do you have any questions about the Mystery Dice Goblin packs? Feel free to ask me about them. This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com with any comments.
Here are the Daily Star Trek Quotes that will appear on the @STrekQuotes Twitter account and the @STrekQuotes Mastodon account for the week of September 16th through September 22nd. Coming soon to Bluesky once we can find a scheduler option.
“You sleep with a phaser in your bed, and you say nothing’s wrong?! All these months I have ignored the signs, but I can’t anymore.” Cornwell- Lethe, Stardate: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekDiscovery #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet #Quote
“When he took all of you, I stood by and did nothing. I need to make it right.” Gwyndala- A Moral Star, Part 1, Stardate: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekProdigy #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet #Quote
“The Federation teaches that if we can find a way to empathize with an enemy, then they can one day become our friends.” La’an Noonien-Singh- Memento Mori, Stardate: 3177.3 #StarTrek #StarTrekStrangeNewWorlds #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet #Quote
“I prefer saving lives to taking them.” Dr. M’Benga- Under the Cloak of War, Stardate: 1875.4 #StarTrek #StarTrekStrangeNewWorlds #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet #Quote
September 19 “A lifetime spent building emotional barriers—they are very difficult to break down and now the time has come when it’s too late. It’s a difficult moment. It’s a lonely one.” Picard- Unification I, Stardate: 45233.1 #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet #Quote
September 20 “Justice, as the humans like to say, is blind. I used to believe that. I’m not sure I can any more.” Odo- Necessary Evil, Stardate: 47282.5 #StarTrek #StarTrekDS9 #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet #Quote
September 21 “You’ve done away with Humanity, the striving of man to achieve greatness through his own resources.” Karidian “We’ve armed man with tools. The striving for greatness continues.” Kirk- The Conscience of the King, Stardate: 2817.6 #StarTrek #StarTrekTOS #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet #Quote
September 22 “I know that you’re probably asking yourself: why would a brilliant, handsome, dashingly omnipotent being like Q want to mate with a scrawny little bipedal specimen like me?” Q “Let me guess, no one else in the universe will have you?” Janeway- The Q and the Grey, Stardate: 50384.2 #StarTrek #StarTrekVOY #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet #Quote
What are your favorite daily Star Trek quotes selected for this week? This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com or click on my social media links with any comments.
Opening the box containing my new STA 2nd edition toolkit
While my daughter purchased the Star Trek 2nd Edition Core Rulebook as a present for me (reviewed here), I purchased the STA Second Edition Game Toolkit for myself. I knew that I was preparing to run a second edition game for SaltCON End-of-Summer and I was hoping that it would arrive in time for me to use. While the shipping gods did not smile on me, Modiphius (in their infinite wisdom) had sent me the PDF of the toolkit so I was able to use parts of it for my one-shot. However since I had received the package, I thought I’d sit down and do a quick review of this supplement. Plus I wanted to note a few more things about the core rulebook that I realized that I had skipped. These additional notes will be after the review.
The Second Edition Game Toolkit has an ISBN number of 978-1-80281-325-8 with a Modiphius product number of MUH0142405. I had noted that the core rulebook was marked as a Phase II Core Rulebook and this trend continues with this product. It is marked “Phase II Game Toolkit”. Like the core rulebook, the toolkit was published in 2024 in Lithuania. We are already aware that Jim Johnson is the project manager and edited this product with Marieke Cross. Some of the writers listed included Michael Dismuke, Nathan Dowdell, Jim Johnson, Thomas Marrone, Aaron M Pollyea and the STA development team. The art director is Ariel Orea with interior art by Aurea Freniere, Thomas Marrone, Paolo Puggioni, Tobias Richter and Rodrigo Gonzalez Toledo. The cover art was provided by Carlos Cabrera.
The 1e Klingon Empire Gamemaster Toolkit (left) compared to the 2e STA Game Toolkit (right)
Previously I had purchased (and used) The Klingon Empire Gamemaster Toolkit (I don’t know why the name is slightly different). The Game Toolkit for the 2nd edition game is similar, but has some differences. Both publications contain a GM’s screen geared towards their respective editions. With the PDF version of this product (that I’m very grateful that Modiphius will provide customers with a PDF if you buy any of their dead-tree products) I was able to print out the GM screen inserts and slip them into my Stratagem “The Master’s Tome” 4-panel customizable GM screen for the con. There is a galactic map in both products, but on the back of the map in the 2nd edition kit is a poster with the cover to the core rule-book. Both products also contain double-sided reference sheets on sturdy card-stock. These are the type that you can drop in front of the players for easy reference to core rules, combat flowcharts and player options. There are eight of these in total.
Where the biggest difference between the Klingon and 2nd Edition toolkit comes into play is the booklet. In the Klingon kit there is a one-shot adventure that the GM can use to introduce the Klingon game to their players. On the 2nd Edition kit the 40 page booklet contains information that expands some of the rules and information from the core rulebook. This booklet is broken down into two chapters marked Players and GMs. For the players we get some new spaceframe rules that can be used to design (or in my case, homebrew ships from other Star Trek sources) starships for the game. We also get the spaceframes for the following classes: Freedom (as seen in Star Trek Beyond), Walker (Star Trek Discovery), Pioneer (Star Trek Picard), Crossfield (Discovery), Miranda (first seen in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan), Oberth (first seen in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock), Columbia (Star Trek Online), Constellation, Nebula (both first seen in Star Trek: The Next Generation), Akira (Star Trek: First Contact), Nova (Star Trek: Voyager), Defiant (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), Luna (originally from the Star Trek: Titan novels), Sagan (also from Star Trek: Picard), Odyssey (also from Star Trek Online). Alien starships include the Vor’Cha (Klingon) and Mogai (Romulan). There are some additional mission profiles and talents are listed. There is also details on what happens when a vessel goes to Yellow or Red Alert. No it does not require changing the bulb.
The later half of the book has additional suggestions and details for the gamemaster. This includes items for running B-Plots, story threads and Chekhov’s Gun. For GMs that have used extended tasks in their games, there is some additional tidbits listed as well. I could almost see Jim Johnson holding onto these 40 pages needing to cut space from the core rulebook wondering how he was going to get this information to the players and GMs. This was a perfect opportunity and I think added value to this toolkit. The sections are color coded just as they are in the core rulebook.
The contents of the second edition kit spread out.
So something that is interesting in both the toolkit and the core rulebook is the examples that explain some of the rules. The writers used examples directly from the shows themselves. This gives a sense of familiarity to those that know the show. In my initial review I had noted the use of Star Trek Quotes in the sample values, well the writers had also used various quotes scattered throughout the book to add flavoring. I mentioned Star Trek Online above. Besides this cross-pollination with another Star Trek licensee, the core rulebook also mentioned some of the details from the IDW Star Trek Comics. I was glad to see this after the very well done IDW Year-Five Tie-In that Modiphius released several years ago. I’ve had a few readers ask me questions about combat and how the game compares to the FASA Star Trek RPG, which I’ve responded to in the respective mediums. And yes, I’ve been continuing to carry the second edition book around to read at my leisure.
I had mentioned in my Second Edition core book review that it was inspiring me to get a Star Trek Adventure campaign going (especially after the successful one-shot that I ran at SaltCON). Physically holding the Game Toolkit in my hand is only feeding that inspiration. I’m really glad that I had picked this up. I think that the booklet was a better use than another adventure.
Additional titles for the second edition game are in the works. So far my Tal Shiar spies have not reported back what they are. I may have to start reverting to Changelings if they can’t find anything out soon. But there is much more coming soon for this game.
Do you have any questions about the toolkit that I didn’t answer? Ask me about it. This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com with any comments.
Here are the Daily Star Trek Quotes that will appear on the @STrekQuotes Twitter account and the @STrekQuotes Mastodon account for the week of September 9th through September 15th. Coming soon to Bluesky once we can find a scheduler option.
September 9 Happy Birthday to Jeffrey Combs. @jeffreycombs https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Jeffrey_Combs #StarTrek #StarTrekDS9 #StarTrekVOY #StarTrekENT #StarTrekLowerDecks #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet #Quote
“Attack the leader of a movement you risk creating a martyr.” Brunt- Bar Association, Stardate: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekDS9 #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet #Quote
“Is your name actually Narek?” Soji “One of them.” Narek “So is there anything you can tell me about yourself?” Soji “Yes. I’m a very… private person.” Narek- Maps and Legends, Stardate: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekPicard #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet #Quote
“It may be the warriors who get the glory, but it’s the engineers who build societies.” Torres- Flesh and Blood, Stardate: 54315.3 #StarTrek #StarTrekVOY #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet #Quote
September 12 “It would be illogical to kill without reason.” Spock- Journey to Babel, Stardate: 3842.3 #StarTrek #StarTrekTOS #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet #Quote
September 13 “I imagined my first diplomatic mission would involve sitting around a big table, toasting with champagne, signing thing with lots of pens…” Archer- Cease Fire, Date: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekENT #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet #Quote
“I am Apollo!” Apollo “And I am the tsar of all the Russias!” Chekov “Mister Chekov.” Kirk “I’m sorry, Captain. I never met a god before.” Chekov- Who Mourns for Adonais, Stardate: 3468.1 #StarTrek #StarTrekTOS #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet #Quote
“Silence, Romulan! …You really must learn patience, Commander. …Spend eighteen hours every day under the lash of a Romulan guard and you’ll soon understand patience.” Shinzon- Star Trek Nemesis, Stardate: 56844.9 #StarTrek #StarTrekFilm #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet #Quote
What are your favorite daily Star Trek quotes selected for this week? This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com or click on my social media links with any comments.
The hardbound Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition Core Rulebook in packaging.
I can’t think of a better way to celebrate Star Trek Day than reviewing the latest Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition Core Rulebook that I just received. My daughter bought it as a gift for both Father’s Day (when she ordered it) and for my birthday (when she hoped it would arrive, which was a few weeks late). While I did have the PDF the moment the book was first released at GenCon, I only looked through it briefly in prepping for the 2nd edition game that I was going to run at SaltCON End-of-Summer. As I mentioned before, when I do a deep dive into RPG rules, I really prefer the dead-tree version of the book over the PDF.
Due to finances, my daughter ordered the standard edition of the STA2e core rulebook. There were three special editions that were also released with bookmark ribbons and special uniform colors. I don’t know how many other differences the special editions have.
For the standard edition, there are 377 color pages inside. Both the front inside cover and the back inside cover contain information for the game. A galactic map on the front and several timelines on the back. The ISBN number (for those of you looking for the dead-tree version) is 978-1-80281-223-7 with an internal product code of MUH0142401 (I just notice that it says “Phase II Core Rulebook Standard Edition” next to the ISBN number. Star Trek Phase II was the original name of the revived TV series that was planned for the late 70’s that got turned into Star Trek: The Motion Picture after the success of Star Wars.) The 2d20 system designer is Nathan Dowell with the Project Manager being Jim Johnson. There are a lot of names next to the writers and artists credits as it takes a lot of people to put a book like this together. I hope they know their efforts are appreciated. There is one thing missing from my book that I noticed while I was using it this past week. The Klingon core book and a few others had ribbon bookmarks that made it easy to use. This standard edition did not have one and I could have used it.
There is a forward, ten chapters broken up into three sections, a character sheet (personnel file), starship character sheet (starship registry entry), a personal log and an index. An interesting tidbit is that the three sections mentioned above have color coded text in the footer with blue (for background information), red (for character creation, the RPG system explanation and social/persona/starship conflicts) and gold (for the game master).
The three blue chapters are a Star Trek primer (in universe, not real-world), information on Starfleet and details/dangers about space (this is a space exploration game). This consisted of about eighty pages and I took two evenings to sit down after work and dive through the bulk of this. If you know Star Trek, most of this will be pretty cut and dry. With my Melllvar level of knowledge there was one item that made me raise an eyebrow when page 25 noted that “the Romulans taught the Vulcans how controlling emotions might lead to a more fulfilling existence.” on Ni’Var. I don’t recall that from the Star Trek Discovery episode Unification III, but I didn’t have time to dig in deeper on this. I enjoyed the section about the Nyberrite Alliance and the various side nuggets that were pieces of a story about a subspace transmission. As I was reading through this section, I remember getting to the topic of lifecycle about stars and I wondered why I was learning about this instead of the actual rules themselves, so I skipped a few pages ahead. When I was running STA2e at the last SaltCON, I had one player who didn’t have a lot of knowledge of the show, but he knew enough to play the game. As the GM, I felt confident enough to drop tidbits to the players of in-universe knowledge that their characters would know and the players took it from there. As a GM, I’d recommend reading these sections, but you don’t have to memorize them. Most players will have a common knowledge of wormholes, warp drive, Klingons and Starfleet to get the gist of the game. Those that don’t can easily be coached by the GM and other players. Who knows, perhaps it would interest them into watching more of the show to help them with future game sessions. I will say I liked how it was organized (a massive improvement from the 1st edition, I went back and re-looked at it while reading the 2nd edition book and I started having bad flashbacks). I also appreciated how the different eras had suggestions like “Run this era if the group would like…” since the GM would know their players better than the writers would.
Page 85 is where the red section starts and we get into the meat and potatoes of the Star Trek Adventures 2nd edition system. These chapters consist of Reporting for Duty (character creation) which includes a lifepath summary on page 98. Your Home Among the Stars (starship creation), Technology and Weapons (equipment). Operations (game mechanics) and Conflicts (which covers social, combat and starship combat). As someone who loves Star Trek quotes (and uses them for the values in past STA characters) I did notice that the sample values on page 96 were pulled from various Star Trek episodes. This is where GMs and players are going to live when opening this book. Like the first three chapters, the presentation and organization has been vastly improved. A good example is the Attempting a Task step-by-step guide (with pages numbers for more details) on page 257. I’ve also posted another photo of a guide for starship creation below. Two really good changes from 1st edition is the addition of a Species Ability (freeing up one of the ability slots during character creation) and the addition of Pastimes. I think this took a strength from the FASA Star Trek RPG. In that game there was a skill called “Trivia” where the player could place skill points in something trivial that made the character unique. I recall one player selecting “Kurosawa Films”. While it may never come up in a gaming session, it did make the character unique. It also challenged me as a GM to try to include something that the skill could be used in. Another new item added to 2nd edition is that the character creation gives more options than just Starfleet. Now your character can be a civilian scientist, a diplomat, or even part of another space navy for the Klingons, Romulans or other races.
A very good example of a process that I hope other publishers will follow.
On page 315 we enter the gold section for the game master. Chapter 9 itself is called “Gamemastering” and talks about managing the rules and extended tasks and challenges. There is a narrative flowchart on page 316. Chapter 10 has an introductory adventure called “The Gorgon’s Gaze” and the last chapter gives various stats for NPCs, creatures and starships that the GM may find useful.
I didn’t really cover all of the rules in this blog post, but I will say that one rule change that I did like was the dropping of the challenge dice. When I ran the 2nd edition quickstart a few times, when there was a rare combat encounter, we didn’t even miss the challenge dice.
Another item that caught my attention. The description box for “Enlisting in Other Organizations” on page 13 was the exact same description box with the same title on page 42. I was wondering if this was intentional or a mistake?
Conclusion:
When I got the book, my daughter with the art degree immediately opened up the plastic and started looking at the art credits (she wants to work on something like this). She LOVED the fact that the artist name was next to every illustration (she was hunting for the art by Steve Stark for some reason). When she finished her flip-through I handed the book to my geek wife (and Captain of a local Star Trek fan club) who flipped to page 266 and 267 which contains the Treknobable and Medical-Babble and was immediately impressed.
As for myself, I wish I could have had the book a few days earlier as several attendees at SaltCON came up to me to ask about STA2e. I wished that I could have pulled the book out then to show them some of the kewl items contained within. I loved seeing the references to FASA and the other past Star Trek RPG publishers. But as I was reading the book throughout the week in preparation for this review, I suddenly had a good flashback. In my early D&D days, I never went anywhere without one of my game books. I wanted to study it, I wanted to understand it, I wanted to prepare, I wanted to write my own homebrews for the game. I realized that when I packed the STA2e core rulebook to take to work, to take to the park to read while my youngest roller-skated, etc. I noticed that I was keeping the book near me, like those older D&D books, because I wanted to absorb this system for use. I wasn’t really doing that with the first edition game, but I was now. I’m glad that my daughter got this for me as a gift. After the very-successful one-shot at SaltCON, I may have to start a campaign for my local Star Trek fan club. Thank you to Jim and all of the people who poured a lot of time into putting this book together. I think that you guys succeed in putting together a Star Trek episode simulator RPG. I think this will give fans a chance to “play” their own episodes, and perhaps make a few new Star Trek fans as well.
Have you had a chance to play or look at the Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition yet? Tell me about it. This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com with any comments.
The book is 133 pages long (same length as the first volume). The ISBN number is 2370020959793 and was published by Third Kingdom Games in 2024. It was written by Todd Leback, edited by Brian Johnson and contains art from Adrian Barber, Carlos Castilho, Denis McCarthy, Francesco Accordi, Hodag RPG, Marco Ortiz Walters, Michelle Smallwood and Teresa Guido. I appreciate that actual artists were used for this publication. It is one of the reasons that I elected to back this Kickstarter campaign.
The cover states that it is designed for used with Old-School Essentials, but it could be used for any OSR style game like Basic Fantasy, Castles and Crusades, OSRIC, Swords and Wizardry and others. Armor class is listed with both ascending and descending numbers.
A sample of some of the monsters included in this book.
This book covers about a 100 monsters from Efreet to Killer Bee with variants for each entry. One of the more interesting entries covers the horse. Not only does it give stats for different horse types (magical and non-magical) but it also gives random charts for markings, descriptions and traits. Something that could make a campaign a little bit more interesting.
Just as in the first book, there are several alternate rules for OSR type games at the start of the book and two new character races developed from the monsters in the book. You could play an awakened giant ferret or a Loxen (elephant-folk). There are also several new spells in the back of the book. The final appendix includes encounter tables and a combined Monsters by HD that covers Vol 1 and 2.
Another sample page showing the Ghoul Lord.
Like the first book, this was an interesting read. As with any small publisher, there was a slip up or two in the editing, but overall I’m very pleased with the reward for backing this Kickstarter. It gave me several ideas that I could drop into a campaign. I’m looking forward to volume three being announced hopefully next year.
Have you backed any Kickstarters lately? Tell me about it. This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com with any comments.
