Here are the Daily Star Trek Quotes that will appear on the @STrekQuotes Mastodon account and the @STrekQuotes Bluesky account for the week of February 23rd through March 1st. Note: Because Twitter/X will use posts to train AI, we will no longer be posting on that platform. This is out of respect for the owners of Star Trek.
February 23 Remembering Majel Barett-Roddenberry who was born on this date in 1932. https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Majel_Barrett-Roddenberry #StarTrek #StarTrekTOS #StarTrekFilm #StarTrekTNG #StarTrekDS9 #StarTrekVOY #StarTrekENT #StarTrekDSC #StarTrekPIC
“A true friend is a person you can always tell the truth to without worrying about it.” Lwaxana Troi- Cost of Living, Stardate: 45733.6
“What the hell?! You can’t hit people!” Mariner “They can either be your crew or your friends!” Becky Freeman “Weird, ’cause I don’t hit either one!” Mariner- Dos Cerritos, Stardate: Unknown
“I gave all my latinum to Major Kira for the Bajoran War Orphans Fund. She kissed me.” Rom “Oh, Rom. You did that for me?” Leeta “I did it for us. Now we have nothing but our love.” Rom “That’s all we need. That and my salary from Quark’s.” Leeta- Ferengi Love Songs, Stardate: Unknown
February 27 “I do not know. Not even a Vulcan can know the unknown, Captain.” Spock- Return to Tomorrow, Stardate: 4768.3
February 28 “I’ve run every diagnostic I know and I can’t seem to isolate the problem.” Torres “Gremlins.” Janeway “Excuse me?” Torres “In the early days of aviation, engineers blamed imaginary little creatures called gremlins for malfunctions they could not explain.” Janeway- Live Fast and Prosper, Stardate: 53849.2
March 1 “You’re Captain Archer.” Lissan “You can read minds.” Archer “We have a strict law here, Captain. No one may enter another’s thoughts without permission. I know your name because the Andorian Chancellor contacted us.” Lissan- The Aenar, Date: Unknown
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.
Some of you may be wondering why there was a kickstarter for a quickstart? The goal was to provide the internal art for the book and pay the artists for their work. Third Kingdom Games has made the pledge to not use AI generated graphics in their publications. And since that’s a subject very close to my heart, I had to back them. Besides the PDF, I received a print-on-demand from DriveThruRPG. I’ve reviewed some POD publications previously.
So the softcover book that I received in the mail has a full color cover and interior black and white art. Probably in a callback to the older RPG books that we use to collect. The ISBN number is 2370022620158 and the book has 50 pages. It was written by Todd Leback. The cover art is by Juan Ochoa with Perplexing Ruins and Dyson Logos providing some of the interior art. There are two sections for Players and GMs. Six short chapters for the players (The Basics, Character Classes, Gear and Gold, Magic, Adventuring and What Comes Next) and three for the GMs (Intro Adventure, Monsters and Treasure). One interesting note, the book measurements are slightly taller than other books. I took a photo of the Quickstart rules with the Basic Fantasy core rulebook which is standard sized.
Side-by-side comparison with a normal sized book both level at the bottom.
As a retro-clone, it might be easier to say what the differences are to the other publications that we are all well aware of. Bree-YARC uses Ancestry (aka race) as a Class just as it would back in the B/X days. In this quickstart there is only Humans, but they do have classes like Thief, Fighter, Cleric and Magic User. On DriveThruRPG, the publisher has been releasing PDFs of other Ancestries and Classes for free. These include the Dwarf, Goblin, Owlfolk and Tiefling. For the new Human classes they have Ranger, Bard, Berserker, Hexblade and Sorcerer. It is mentioned that more classes and ancestries will be presented in the Core Rulebook when it is released.
All characters have their 0-level HP that they roll before they obtain the 1st level HP+CON adjustment roll. Savings Throws use the older terminology (Wands, Breath Attack, etc.) but are calculated differently. There are skill checks that require meeting/beating a DC rating. Lawful, Neutral and Chaotic is the alignment system presented. XP bonuses are given for playing characters with lower ability scores instead of higher ability scores. Each class has their own special abilities and each character gets a Knack or special ability. It appears that this game is using Ascending Armor Class (thank you). There is Advantage/Disadvantage. Experience points for treasure is only earned when the party returns with it to a safe place. There are also opportunities to earn XP through exploring. Before a character moves up a level, they have to complete a certain amount of Downtime in a safe location. This could include item crafting, research, carousing, hiring, etc. And finally each character will have a Renown rating that represents their reputation in the game world. Whew.
The room descriptions in the intro adventure looked interesting. At a glance the GM knows what’s in the room with additional details described below the chart. This can include lighting, secrets, sounds, exits, etc. The monster stats are found in the adventure with the monster section mostly describing the stat description breakdown, morale conversion table, XP chart for creating monsters, etc. The treasure section describes the types of treasure and the value of a treasure horde.
The back cover.
Conclusion: When I first got the physical book, I wondered if I’d be happy backing this Kickstart campaign when I saw how thin it was. I had forgotten that it was just the quickstart book. But I wasn’t too worried because the support levels were very reasonable for a publication of this size. I really dislike the Kickstart campaigns where they want a bunch of money for an unverified product. The smaller prices usually entice me to pull the trigger. However, once I started reading this book for this review, it reminded me why I had backed their earlier Kickstart campaigns. I can tell that the effort put into the Bree-YARC Quickstart Guide had a lot of thought behind it. They were providing an interesting twist to the OSR game instead of a bunch of fluff. When the core rulebook comes out, I’ll be very tempted to purchase it (or back it if it’s a Kickstart campaign). Even if the core rulebook isn’t available by the time the 2027 Character Creation Challenge rolls around, I can still use this quickstart book to make a Human character. Usually RPG quickstarts don’t include character creation steps.
Do you have any questions about the Bree-YARC Quickstart Guide? 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.
Here are the Daily Star Trek Quotes that will appear on the @STrekQuotes Mastodon account and the @STrekQuotes Bluesky account for the week of February 16th through February 22nd. Note: Because Twitter/X will use posts to train AI, we will no longer be posting on that platform. This is out of respect for the owners of Star Trek.
“Ha. Works every time. First officer’s log. As usual, my grasp of the lower-decker mind has proven to… Oh, er carry on, Ensign.” Ransom “I know you just pretend to be an idiot to trick us into getting along.” Moxy “Are you gonna tell anyone?” Ransom “No. I think it’s cute. Plus, everyone thinks you’re a doofus. Nobody would believe me.” Moxy “‘Cause I’m just that good at the job.” Ransom- Upper Decks, Stardate: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekLDS #IDIC #Quote
February 18 “You said you wanted freedom. It’s time you learned that freedom is never a gift. It has to be earned.” Kirk- The Return of the Archons, Stardate: 3156.2
February 19 “It won’t bite. It’s called a tribble.” Dr. Phlox- The Breach, Date: Unknown
February 20 “Open your eyes, Krola. We are part of a larger community. We cannot ignore it.” Mirasta Yale- First Contact, Stardate: Unknown
“Federation rules, Federation nobility, Federation compassion? Do you understand? If this had been a Cardassian ship, we would be home now.” Seska- State of Flux, Stardate: 48658.2
“I still can’t believe Starfleet saw fit to give a thief, a pirate and a spy their own ship.” Musiker “Bunch of ne’er-do-wells and rule breakers really.” Jack Crusher “What could possibly go wrong?” Seven- The Last Generation, Stardate: Unknown
Happy Birthday to Celia Rose Gooding. https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Celia_Rose_Gooding #StarTrek #StarTrekSNW
“I never told Hemmer, but he reminded me a lot of my dad. Always pushing me to see things from a new perspective. Do better, be better.” Uhura- All Those Who Wander, Stardate: 2510.6
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.
Let me get this out of the way now. The excellent work done by the crew at Modiphius, from the writing to the art, has continued. Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition has been a vast improvement from the 1st edition and so far every new book I’ve wanted to buy (damn you lack of funds). Every new release of the 1.0 to 2.0 adaptions have been downloaded and reviewed instantly.
The cover of the STA2e Technical Manual.
For those of you who have been regular readers of my blog, I love the various Star Trek Technical Manuals that have come out. I’ve even been called a Treknologist. So when I heard in 2025 that Modiphius was releasing their own Technical Manual for the Star Trek Adventures 2e game, I cried. Not because I was happy, but because at the time I had no money to get it. Eventually I was able to free up some funds to order it from the Modiphius website. I’ve tried to get my local gaming stores to bring in the game, but for some reason they could only get limited items. They were finally able to get me a copy of the Technical Manual for which I was very grateful. If you are not aware, if you purchase a Modiphius product, you can contact them at the email Support@Modiphius.com with a photo of the book and they will send you the PDF. Even if you buy the book used. I was able to do this when I had picked up the John Carter of Mars RPG.
The Technical Manual is a hardbound book with 129 pages and has (thank you) a ribbon book mark for when I’m doing research. I’ve found that a simple thing like the ribbon book mark really improves the book itself. The 2nd edition books have been much, much easier to quickly find answers in, but the ribbon helps. The product number is MUH0142513 and the ISBN number is 9-781802-811933. The project manager is Jim Johnson, the writers are Michael Dismuke, Nathan Dowdell, Jim Johnson, Aaron M. Pollyea, Al Spader and Dayton Ward. Hey, I know that last guy. The cover artist is Rodrigo Gonzalez Toledo (OK, why does that sound like a name you’d see at the top of a character sheet?) with a bunch of artists for the interior art. All the art is in color and I’m still of the opinion that Modiphius should release an Art of Star Trek Adventures book for the 10th Anniversary of the game coming up in 2027.
Some of the equipment displayed on the inside front cover.
And some of the equipment on the inside back cover.
As you can see from the photos above, the inside front covers have a ton of graphical information that add to the book. As for what is on the inside, the book is broken down into eight chapters. Supplemental Game Mechanics, Standard Equipment, Diplomatic Assets, Scientific Equipment, Medical Technology, Engineering Technology, Weapons and Tactical Gear and finally Starship Technologies.
For the new submissions for the game mechanics, there are some new career events that are all technological in nature. Several new talents for the different departments and equipment styles (cybernetics, etc.). For the designers of Starships in STA2e there are several new service records and talents that you can apply to the different classes. There is also a new weapon type for mines (the exploding kind, not the digging a tunnel kind). Do you want different types of propulsion? Not only does this book have them from the different shows, but it appears that some are from Star Trek Online (I haven’t played that in years so I couldn’t confirm).
Your standard equipment covers holograms, PADDs, communicators, replicators, uniforms and 32nd century common items (programmable matter, tricom badges, etc.). Not only are these broken down by the major powers, but there are also complications that can affect these equipment items. I think is to make the players lives interesting if they keep depending upon one piece of equipment like The Doctor would always depend upon his sonic screwdriver. So the writers would take it away from him in order to move the story along or challenge the character.
In chapter three there is discussion with the diplomatic assets. Communicating between different languages and how universal translators may (or may not) help. Chapter four talks about the scientific equipment that may be used in the game. From the very common like chronometers to tricorders to sensors. What do the non-Federation scientists use? In our medical device chapter it not only talks about the equipment, but the treatments and enhancements that may be encountered in a Star Trek story. What are some ways a transporter, genetic engineering or cybernetics could be used to resolve medical issues? This book covers it.
It can’t be a technical manual without talking about engineering technology. What do the different diagnostic levels mean? What are the steps in the transporter operation? What are the different tools that can be found in an engineer’s toolkit? While engineering items can create, weapons can destroy which is what is found in chapter 7. The different melee weapons from different cultures. Different types of phasers, plasma pistols, distruptors, and tetryon rifles. I know that in Beta cannon, there were stun only weapons, but I didn’t see those here. I wonder if that ever came up on the show itself? It probably wouldn’t be that difficult to homebrew with this book.
Starship fans will love chapter 8. All of the different pieces of equipment found under (or on) the hull are listed here as well as possible complications (as found throughout the book).
Conclusion: As per usual, this book could have been bigger considering all of the equipment that we’ve seen in the show. I didn’t envy the editors tasks of making it all fit between the covers. I think the Technical Manual does a good job of giving us the basics, which will allow a good game master to homebrew what they need for their table. The use of Star Trek quotes was recognized and appreciated. There is an index in the back for quick lookup.
The back cover to the Technical Manual.
The second book that I’m including in this blog post is the 23rd Century Campaign Guide. I already used the 23CCG (as I had to start calling it) when I made a merchant trader STA2e character for the 2026 Character Creation Challenge. This book was a gift from one of my kids who ordered it from the Modiphius website and shipped directly to me. It was very well protected when it had arrived.
How the book was very well protected when it was shipped to me.
This is another hardbound book that was released in late 2025 by the same gang that I had listed above. However the cover to this book is very different as compared to the earlier STA2e products. Instead of being just a painting of the characters that talk to you in the different STA2e publications, it shows the characters that we’ve known and loved from the 23rd century. Kirk, Spock, Uhura, Pike, Burnham and Saru. I thought it was an interesting, and logical, change. Oh, and thank you again for the bookmark ribbon. It has been very handy.
The cover to the 23rd Century Campaign Guide as done by Paolo Puggioni.
So we have seven chapters in the 23CCG. Supplemental Game Mechanics, Growth of the Federation (2200-2255), War and the Red Angel Crisis (2256-2258), Federation and Empire (2259-2269), Conspiracies and the Thaw (2270-2299), Playing in the 23rd Century and finally Gamemastering in the 23rd Century. I like how they broke down some of the details by different eras in the 23rd century.
The inside front cover of the 23CCG.
Of course, the front and back inside covers are filled with information. You can see the different uniforms presented in the photo above. I didn’t get a photo of the back inside cover, but it has different timelines within the 23rd century. Not just of the prime universe, but of the mirror and Kelvin timelines as well. I think this is the first time I’ve seen any Kelvin information in a STA2e book (or any come to think of it).
For the character creation additions to the game, there are new environment options. This gives a breakdown of some of the major homeworlds (Andoria, Denobula, etc.) and what benefits the character would receive from their time on that planet. This opens up the possibilities for homebrewers to write up different options for different locales. And on page 9 is a quick guideline for gamemasters to do such a thing. Then there is the new Free Trader career path option that I had used last month in the Character Creation Challenge. As I mentioned there, I think this write up for a merchant type character was better than the options listed in the core rulebook. But both could be used if needed. Then there are new Career Events based upon historical moments in the 23rd century like the Tarsus IV Massacre, or the Whale Probe Crisis. There are quick guidelines for homebrewing these as well which has lead to a bunch of fan submissions on the STA Continuing Missions website. Then there are some optional rules that are presented for the GM to consider. These appear to be updates to some of the conflict rules that was presented in the first edition Klingon-Federation War campaign guide.
The three chapters dealing with the different eras within the 23rd century are all broken down into three sub-sections. State of the Galaxy, Technology and Politics. These are all viewed with the eyes of the different powers at that time. There are some interesting side-bars that gamemasters could find interesting such as how to use Command Codes.
Playing in the 23rd Century is the sixth chapter in the book. It also breaks down information by the four eras mentioned above and provides some additional roles. There was a very good side note about “player knowledge vs character knowledge” that I appreciated and would probably bring up at the start of an STA campaign. I also had to giggle at the section about the USS Enterprise being the “only ship in the quadrant”. Primarily because it made sense (and is being adopted into my own personal headcannon). Another good side note is the examples we have in the show of multiple roles such as Spock being both XO and science officer.
Like chapter six, the gamemastering chapter is also broken down by the four eras. The book talks about themes, tones, styles of play and campaign structures. It gives different suggestions for each item and how gamemasters may be able to integrate them into their campaigns. And at the end is another index for quick searches and more Star Trek quotes scattered throughout the book.
The back cover to the 23CCG book.
Conclusion: I’m also happy to have this the 23rd Century Campaign Guide in my collection. I’m really hoping that this will lead to campaign guides for other eras. I can see the 24th century as a sure bet, but I really hope we see one for the 22nd century as well (possible lack of details may hinder this one). I don’t think we’d see a 32nd century guide until well after the TV series set in that era have ended. I’m still seeing some of the FASA Star Trek RPG influences in the book and I’m still pleasantly surprised that there was some Kelvin timeline information. Even if it was mostly a footnote.
One additional note before I wrap this up. There are two other Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition books that have been released, but not yet shipped yet. The Exploration Guide and the Species Sourcebook (which isn’t even available on DriveThruRPG yet but can be pre-ordered from the Modiphus website closest to you). When this second book was announced, I had just enough money to pick up one of them. While I really want to see the rules for creating sectors and planets in the Exploration Guide, I had to pull the trigger on the Species Sourcebook. It already came in handy in the Character Creation Challenge. Hopefully I’ll have both books physically when it’s time do write up some additional reviews.
Did you have any questions about the 23rd Century Campaign Guide or the Technical Manual for Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition? 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.
How some people are reacting the day after the Superbowl.
Here are the Daily Star Trek Quotes that will appear on the @STrekQuotes Mastodon account and the @STrekQuotes Bluesky account for the week of February 9th through February 15th. Note: Because Twitter/X will use posts to train AI, we will no longer be posting on that platform. This is out of respect for the owners of Star Trek.
February 9 “The very thing which has given us this wonderful world is what has caused this tragedy.” Rashella “That’s it. Exactly. Your Custodian has controlled you so completely you’ve lost even the desire to even question it.” Picard- When The Bough Breaks, Stardate: 41509.1
February 10 “The unfortunate accident he had as a child. He caught his head in a mechanical rice picker.” Kirk- The City on the Edge of Forever
“My work here is not yet finished.” Bareil- Life Support, Stardate: 48498.4
February 12 “If you call yourselves enlightened, you have to accept people who are different than you are.” Archer- Stigma, Date: Unknown
February 13 “Actually, I was the one who got you kicked out. You know, you’re incorrigible, Q. You’re a lost cause. I can’t go to a single solar system without having to apologize for you, and I’m tired of it!” Q2- Deja Q, Stardate: 43539.1
“We have our orders, Scotty.” Kirk “That’s what scares me. This is clearly a military operation. ls that what we are now? Because I thought we were explorers.” Scotty- Star Trek: Into Darkness, Stardate: 2259.55
February 15 “I’m a doctor, Mr. Neelix, not a decorator.” The Doctor- Phage, Stardate: 48532.4
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.
Note: If you made it through 31 days of the challenge, read to the bottom of the post.
The 2026 #Character Creation Challenge has been completed. What a difference a year makes. 2025 sucked so bad that I didn’t complete my 31 characters until March. For 2026 I tried a different approach that was, somewhat, successful. I posted 31 characters in January and a bonus character on February 1st. Now I will admit, since I knew that I had some real-life responsibilities (a funeral and parental duties) in January, I did generate some characters in December. This gave me a little bit of a buffer at the start of the month. But in the latter half, I was making the character the day before it was scheduled to be posted. I think this helped my sanity (what little left there is) a lot.
Another thing I did differently this year was not scheduling out the whole month and printing up all the character sheets in advance. This gave me a little bit of flexibility, especially when one game I selected turned out to be a supplement and not a game. However by the middle of the month I had scheduled everything out. I’m not certain how I’m going to do this in the future. Another thing I did was combine some reviews with the character creation. This wasn’t too bad, but I think I’d like to keep these separate in the future.
I really didn’t have any games that disappointed me this year other than Rebel Scum. Sure there were some weird ones like Time Lord or slightly incomplete like the Trader Captain’s and Merchant Princes. But I think Rebel Scum was the disappointment of the 2026 challenge. It needed to really be more a rule book first.
Of the other entries that I read on various message boards, blogs and social media, I noticed a lot of Star Trek characters. One participant was making Star Trek characters with other RPG systems (like the D6 Star Wars game). There was also a participant who created the classic Masters of the Universe characters using the Advanced Fighting Fantasy system. I also loved the Alpha Squad (a 1930’s A-Team) using the Outgunned Adventure system. There were also a lot of other good themes and new system. I wish I had room to mention them all.
Past Character Creation Challenges After-Action Reports: 2025 2024 2023 2022 2021
And if you completed the 31 characters in 31 days, here is the badge that you can display on your blog posts or social media. I’ve already had this badge show up on Welcome to the Eyrie, Paratime, Three Kobolds with a Trench Gun and on BlueSky. If I missed any, please let me know. This graphic is in a large and small format. I commissioned it from AuroraStark.art if you are ever looking for some production art for a project. Additions:The Other Side, Flubs and Boons and Ravaged Renaissance. Let me know if there are more.
Also, if you purchased anything after clicking on the affiliate links to DriveThruRPG or Amazon, thank you. I’m not doing this blog to make money, but the kickback helps when making game purchases for future challenges.
Get ready for the 2027 #CharacterCreationChallenge coming up next January. And thank you everyone who had fun. Even if you only made a few characters, I still enjoyed reading them.
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.
What? Aren’t you burned out on making characters after January? Well, yes. But before I take a break (and start my final preparations for all the one-shots that I’m running at SaltCON in March) I have one more bonus entry for the 2026 #Character Creation Challenge. Jack Photon’s Fantaversary Revision House Rules 4.0 (for the 40th anniversary of the original release of the FASA Star Trek Roleplaying Game).
Jack was kind enough to send me some physical proofs of his massive project to make a “4.0” version of the FASA Star Trek RPG as a love letter to that game. Why 4.0? Well, besides being the 40th anniversary (which was in 2023 actually) this is the “fourth iteration of the game”. The first edition was published by FASA in 1983. Then, in 1985 FASA, released a second edition of the game which is the version I primarily played with my friends. When the internet connected fans of the game about 15-20 years ago, enough fans got together to make an unofficial “third edition” to polish up the game a little bit. It also allowed fans to introduce stats for various races seen in the other Star Trek series such as The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager and Enterprise.
When I was making characters for the 2025 Character Creation Challenge, Jack had asked me if I would be interested in making a character using his system since I already had the prototype books. I said yes at the time, and over the course of the sucky year that 2025 was, I forgot. Luckily, Jack reminded me about half-way through the 2026 Challenge, so I added it as a bonus entry (which I’ve done before in past challenges). Sorry Jack, I’m still human (at least I think so).
Now, I’ve made several characters using the FASA Star Trek system before including a Starfleet Officer, a Starfleet Intelligence Officer and the Merchant Trader made earlier this year. However, I’ve never made a First Edition FASA character (hmmm…. 2027? I better write things down so I don’t forget this time). In my correspondence with Jack he informed me that his version was primarily based upon the first edition which he had enjoyed more. So this will be a new experience for me.
Ok, I’ve printed out the character sheet and found the Officer Generation rules and it looks pretty similar to the FASA entries I mentioned above. Roll 3d10+40 for each attribute of STR, END, INT, DEX, CHA and COOL (oh BTW, that last attribute is new in this version). For the LUC and PSI stats it is still just a percentile roll. There is a note here that magnanimous GMs may allow re-rolls of 1s or 2s. There is a random chart of basic alien races to choose or roll a d10 for (dice clatter on table) and this guy is a Human (hey, that’s what the dice came up with). I adjusted the PSI score as the only racial adjustment. And finally on attributes there is a conditional bonus points option of rolling percentile, divide by two and round down. As a human, he can’t raise his PSI score, but the others can be raised as I see fit. I made my choices and wrote them down in my notes.
Before we joined Starfleet Academy, the character already had some education. There is a list of skills for Personal Development and Formal Education. I divide the INT score by 10 and could choose that number from each list rolling a d10 for the score. As this character entered the academy there are some automatic skill scores that he would have learned and I added them to my notes.
Now I’m told that Starfleet maintains three specialized training schools for select candidates if the minimum requirements are met. He just barely missed out on the Contact Team. Nor did qualify for Command School. So I think I just automatically roll over to one of the Service Branches (Command, Sciences or Services) and I choose a major in that branch (the departments we usually see in TOS) and I think I’m going to make this guy an Engineer. I wrote down the stats listed for that major.
The Cadet Cruise. I remember this from making many different FASA Star Trek RPG characters back in the day. Roll percentage dice and add some different modifiers from LUC and INT. And this yet-to-be-named character was sent to a Starbase. Rolling the dice to see how he did and he passed. Did he get noticed (again dice clattering on table) and he got a Commendation which turned into a Minor Award (Silver Palms if I read that part correctly). And now this guy is an Ensign.
As an ensign fresh out of the academy I could start playing him now and watch him grow. But I wanted to at least get one term under his belt. Let’s see if we can get him up to the rank of Lieutenant. But the dice say only one term so perhaps we can make Lt. (j.g.). Starbase duty again for 3 years? Well that’s how the dice came up. Average efficiency rating so I just rolled the extra skill experiences.
Heh, Chapter 5 is called Life’s Lil’ Details. Age and starting cred, terms of active duty, family history, homeworld, etc. Wow, there is a lot to take in. Some of it I didn’t understand so I kind of muddled through it. His homeworld was being shipwrecked for one year? Besides a backstory did that get me anything? What if I already had a character concept in mind? I think I skipped most of this and just came up with a name and transferred my notes to the character sheet. As I transfered this information over, I noticed some additional derived attributes such as Foolies (aka Bluff or avoid being Blulffed), Perception, Focus and two types of Perseverance (mental and physical). Luckily there were some quick mathematical formulas to follow.
Afterthoughts:
There were some in-jokes like the Herbert Department. Also Jack pulled in information for his version of the game from different sources including different magazine articles about the FASA Star Trek RPG. It was quite interesting to see.
There is a TON of character options in here. Non-Commissioned officer, civilian who went through college, etc. I really could have used the quick-guide that was present in the FASA STA RPG 2nd Edition. Was I supposed to roll on the friends and romance tables? I can see where a lot of work went into this labor of love. I don’t think I’ll ever get a chance to play it.
Additional Notes:
I’ve had quite a few of you reach out to me stating that you’ve made 31 characters in 31 days. I’ve sent the reward graphic, lovingly made by my commissioned artist, that is starting to appear in the wild. If you haven’t received yours yet, please email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain dot Com (or buzz me on one of the socials if we follow each other) and I’ll make sure to get it out to you.
Coming Up Next:
After-Action Report
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.
Saluting everyone who completed the 2026 #CharacterCreationChallenge.
Here are the Daily Star Trek Quotes that will appear on the @STrekQuotes Mastodon account and the @STrekQuotes Bluesky account for the week of February 2nd through February 8th. Note: Because Twitter/X will use posts to train AI, we will no longer be posting on that platform. This is out of respect for the owners of Star Trek.
“Guy walks into the doctor’s office. The doctor tells him you need an operation. Guy says “I want a second opinion.” Doc tells him “Okay you’re ugly too”. Badoom Boom!” Data- The Outrageous Okona, Stardate: 42402.7 #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #IDIC #Quote
February 3 “Difficult to be precise? 7,824 to 1?” Kirk “7,824.7 to 1.” Spock “That’s a pretty close approximation.” Kirk “I endeavor to be accurate.” Spock- Errand of Mercy, Stardate: 3198.4 #StarTrek #StarTrekTOS #IDIC #Quote
February 4 “If you’ve had enough of this then make your leaders stop and listen.” Sisko- Battle Lines, Stardate: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekDS9 #IDIC #Quote
February 5 “Fear is a primitive emotion.” T’Pol- Oasis (Deleted scene), Date: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekENT #IDIC #Quote
February 6 “Almost everyone has a moment in their lives when they exceed their own limits achieve what seems to be impossible.” Troi- The Nth Degree, Stardate: 44704.2 #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #IDIC #Quote
February 7 “A computer, huh? I got one of these in my office. Contains all the precedents. The synthesis of all the great legal decisions written throughout time. I never use it.” Cogley “Why not?” Kirk “I’ve got my own system. Books, young man, books.” Cogley- Court Martial, Stardate: 2947.3 #StarTrek #StarTrekTOS #IDIC #Quote
“A Talaxian fur fly. An old spacefaring tradition among my people. If one of these creatures stowed away on your ship, it was a sign of good fortune.” Neelix- Timeless, Stardate: 52143.6 #StarTrek #StarTrekVOY #IDIC #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.
Day 31 and the last day of the 2026 #CharacterCreationChallenge. For this character, we are going back to the beginning. On Day 1 of the challenge I made a merchant character for the FASA Star Trek RPG. Some of the feedback from that character encouraged me to follow one of the comments that I had made in that post. “I’m wondering how the Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition merchant character would roll up? Perhaps I’ll pick that for one of my later characters in this challenge.” Thank you for the encouragement. Another factor that pushed me in this direction was getting a Christmas gift in the mail that my daughter sent me. The STA2e 23rd Century Campaign Guide (review post is half-way complete and will be released soon) which contains some additional rules on creating the Free Trader as a career path option.
Frequent readers of my blog (thank you) will recall that I used the STA2e game as my first entry for the 2025 Character Creation Challenge where I made a Trill Starfleet officer named Keman Les. In that entry I go into detail on the attributes and steps needed to generate a character. So I’m not going to go into as much detail here other than switching books to the 23rd Century Campaign Guide. Also to note, this is a creation challenge and I’m comparing the creation process between the two games. So this isn’t a direct migration of the FASA character to STA2e. However I’ll be using the same name (Kraxx) and species (Edoan) and trying to mach up what I can.
Step One: Species- As mentioned above, Kraxx is an Edoan which isn’t listed in the core rulebook. But it is listed in the new STA2e Species Sourcebook that just went on sale from Modiphius. Since I have purchased it the publisher has already sent me the PDF and I will use it here. And yes, there will be a review when I have the physical book in my hands. I wrote down the attribute adjustments, traits and species ability.
Step Two: Environment- For the FASA merchant character, I had to roll what type of background the character had (disadvantaged, normal or privileged) but not what environment they were raised. I had rolled normal for that system so I looked at the environmental list and eliminated some of the colonies and being raised on the world of another race. I’m going to roll the d20 and if it comes up on one of the options that I crossed out, I’ll just re-roll. It came up as Frontier Colony. That would work as it could be disadvantaged, but would easily fit the normal background. I’m not hoping over to the 23rd Century Campaign Guide (23CCG is how I’m going to abbreviate that from now on) but there are additional options for this step listed on page 8. I added Kraxx’s first value and added to the attribute and department scores.
Step Three: Upbringing- Do I automatically pick Business or Trade and accept it, or one of the other options and then rebel against it? 30 some odd characters ago, I don’t recall what I was thinking when I originally made Kraxx. Since he had a normal upbringing in the FASA game, I’m going to accept the Business or Trade option. Had he been disadvantaged, I probably would have picked something he rebelled against. I added the character updates from this step to my notes.
Step Four: Career Path- Now this is when I’m moving over to the 23CCG book page 12 and selecting Free Trader. There is Civilian (Trader) option listed in the STA2e core rulebook. I compared the two of them together and I can see where some things are similar and some things were changed. I think I like the Free Trader more in the 23CCG book. I wrote down the adjustments and additions to my notes.
Step Five: Experience- Stepping back to the core rulebook I elected to pick this one. Since Kraxx was new to the trading universe, he is going to be a Novice. I added the Value and Talent for the Novice to my notes.
Step Six: Career Events- I would like to note that the 23CCG does have some new Career Events based upon the historical periods of the 23rd century that were quite interesting. There was also some guidelines for the GM to create their Career Events. However, I’ll be randomly rolling from the core book and adjusting them for a non-Starfleet character such as this one. With the FASA STRPG entry the character did start merchant academy, get kicked out and was later re-admitted. So I let the dice decide. (clacking sound on table) I ended up with “Dealt with a plague” and “Lauded by another culture”. I wrote down the adjustments as per these two entries.
Step Seven: Finishing Touches- These are the same as before since I’m still in the core rulebook. I used this time to see if I could match this Kraxx up with the FASA STRPG Kraxx. I did have to wonder about him carrying a phaser. He was trained to use one on the FASA side so I gave him a Type-1 cricket phaser. Since there wasn’t a sheet for merchants (hint, hint) I used the Federation sheet.
Afterthoughts:
In one big way, the STA2e creation system is simpler. Instead of adding 5% here and 8% there to the multitude of skills listed in FASA, they are quickly added to the departments and focuses. While I do like the FASA creation system, it does take a little bit longer to complete. The 23CCG adds some additional stuff for those wishing to play a merchant campaign in STA, I feel that there could (and probably will) be more details added soon. I don’t know if this will be by the fans or the publisher.
When writing things down on the character sheet, I always seem to run out of room in some areas and have too much in others. I noticed that when looking at last year’s entry as well.
Something to note for STA players. The Multi-Tasking talent listed on page 158 of the STA2e core rulebook is different from the Mult-Tasking Edosian species talent in the new Species Sorucebook. When writing down the information on your character sheet, you may want to include the description or source to confirm what your talent abilities are.
Additional Notes:
So this completes my 31 characters in 31 days. For those of you who joined me in reaching this milestone, please email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain dot com, on the Discord server or by your preferred method and I’ll see that you get the award graphic. Thank you for taking this journey with me and congratulations for making it this far. Even if you only got a few characters in before real life got in the way, you should still be proud of yourself. I hope you all had fun with this challenge.
I do have one more bonus character coming up before I write up my after-action report. If you liked this entry, you’ll love the next one as well.
Coming Up Next:
Special Bonus Character
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 we are on Day 30 of the 2026 #CharacterCreationChallenge and today I’ll be using the Doctor Who Roleplaying Game 2nd Edition by Cubicle 7. I had created a character using the 1st edition of this game all the way back in the first challenge in 2021. Cubicle 7 also had a game called Doctors and Daleks (based off of 5e) that I used in the 2025 challenge. In 2021 I had also created a character for the FASA Doctor Who RPG (which I had ran back in the 90’s). Then earlier this year I created a character for the little-known Time Lord RPG. This creation journey allowed me to create my own Time Lord called The Barron, two human companions, and a Sontaran. So, my goal is to expand the team by making a robot/android type character. Why not a female character? I usually stick with male characters because I’m always worried that I’ll represent a female character wrong at the table. I just stick with what I know.
Chapter two talks about the characters you can play in this game. There are a lot of different steps that have explanations, but no summary that I can see. So, I’m going to try to follow the steps presented.
The first step appears to be The Concept. What type of character are you playing? As mentioned above, I would like to play some sort of Android. So, if he’s from Earth, it’s in the future. The more I’m thinking about it, yea, he’s an Android from the 2160’s. By that time, I hope we have a better grasp on android technology. This character was designed to be a teacher unit for the equivalent of college students. I jotted down some notes to add to the character sheet later.
The next item is The Focus. This is a single word that explains the characters’ drive or passion. This has both a positive and negative side to it, and the book recommends talking with the gamemaster about this. I talked with the voices in my head, and we agreed that the Explorer sounds good. This teaching android is taking an opportunity to expand his programming by experiencing some of the things he actually teaches. I hope that’s not too vague. If I had to defend it to a GM, I would say that he is more interested in learning the new experiences and may not be aware of what he is getting into. In the system if I was able to use the Focus, then I’d gain an extra d6 to a roll. To those familiar with the first edition, these two items are new to the game.
Experience appears to be the next section. This is what the character was doing before they started gallivanting around the galaxy with a Time Lord. It’s not a complete history, but I’m instructed to pick two major events that happened in the character’s life. There were a few examples listed, but they seemed pretty human centric. I’m going to use “Death of a Student” and “Invalid Source of Information”. With the first, there was a natural disaster at the school, and the android was with the student in their last moments. The second was the android discovered a source of information that they were instructed to use was incorrect. Even with submissions to get the data corrected, it was not. This last part made the character interested in “finding out for himself” so that he could present correct information in his class. In this same section is a Shared Background Experience or something that all the players got to go through together. It had some interesting options, but I have no TARDIS Team to hash this out. So, I’m going to skip this one for now.
Ah, now we are at the Attributes. If you read my blog entry for the first edition of the Doctor Who Rolplaying Game, the attributes are the same. Awareness, Coordination, Ingenuity (smarts), Presence (charisma), Resolve (willpower and determination) and Strength. These scores range from 1-6 with the average Human having 3’s in most of the categories. There are 18 points to distribute between the six attributes. I wrote them down on my notes what I thought an android would have.
Alright, so next is the Skills of the character. The Attributes are the physical and mental abilities and skills are things that everyone knows. They are Athletics, Conflict (aka fighting), Convince, Craft, Intuition, Knowledge, Medicine, Science, Subterfuge, Survival, Technology and Transport. There are 18 skill points that I can award to different skills. A score of 1 represents basic knowledge of the skill. The highest level is 6 which is renown expert. Any skill that has a score of 3 or higher then I can spend a skill point on a specialization. I wrote down the skills that I thought an android teacher would have and picked a specialization for a few of them.
Next is the character’s Distinctions. In the first edition this was covered by Traits. Well for this character he is an Android (I wrote down the details from one of the sample characters in the Doctor Who RPG 2nd Edition Starter Set) and Experienced.
Story Points are something that a player can use to tweak the narrative of the story in your favor. Most characters start with 12 points but you reduce this number by 2 for every distinction present. So this android character would have 8 points.
And now we wrap things up with the Finishing Touches. What is the character’s name? Advanced Learning Android Number 1701-Delta (aka Alan), a Background (the teacher story listed above) but there are ten questions listed in the book that would help players come up with this information (thank you). What is the Home Time Period and Technology Level (examples are provided), Personality (what? he’s an android), Personal Goals (learn more from experience) and Equipment (I really don’t know on this one). And since the book has started talking about Experience, I’m assuming the character creation process is done. Here is the one-page sheet.
Afterthoughts:
I ran the starter set adventure for this at a past SaltCON. From what I recall, going in cold it ran very well. I don’t think that the players knew that I was just as new to the game as they were. As I said then, I could very easily see myself running or playing this game.
This game really could have used a Character Creation Summary that fit on one page. If I was going to run this at the table, I’d probably write one up for my players.
There is a character conversion guide from the first edition to the second edition at the back of the book. I was glad to see this as I like seeing what the differences are between editions. I think it would also assist me with any homebrewing. But there is a large number of fan made publications where they hombrewed stats from the Doctor’s appearance in novels, comics and video games. Gah, I shouldn’t have pulled them up while working on this blog post. I got distracted by the shiny things.
Additional Notes:
While I was finishing up this character, I still had people reach out to me having just learned about this challenge. For those of you reading about the #CharacterCreationChallenge, welcome. I hope that the characters you see here, on other blogs, on social media or on the different RPG message boards inspire you to check out new games or even plan to participate next year.
Coming Up Next:
Star Trek
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.
