Here are the Daily Star Trek Quotes that will appear on the @STrekQuotes Twitter account and the @STrekQuotes Mastodon account for the week of July 31st through August 6th.
July 31 “I’m a doctor, not an engineer.” Dr. McCoy “Now you’re an engineer.” Scotty- Mirror, Mirror, Stardate: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekTOS #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet
August 1 “They’re brothers, Data. Brothers forgive.” Dr. Crusher- Brothers, Stardate: 44085.7 #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet
“While I may have harmed others in the past, I now choose to save.” Zero- Let Sleeping Borg Lie, Stardate: 61284.3 #StarTrek #StarTrekProdigy #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet
August 3 “I’m no writer, but if I were it seems to me I’d want to poke my head up every once in a while and take a look around see what’s going on.” Sisko- The Visitor, Stardate: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekDS9 #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet
August 4 “Who would have thought that this eclectic group of Voyagers could actually become a family? Starfleet, Maquis, Human, Talaxian, hologram, Borg – even Mr. Paris.” The Doctor- Year of Hell, Part I, Stardate: 51268.4 #StarTrek #StarTrekVOY #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet
“I will not fight for Starfleet. But I will defend its ideals.” Hemmer- Memento Mori, Stardate: 3177.3 #StarTrek #StarTrekStrangeNewWorlds #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet
“You should consider staying around. Our command believes misfits have merit, so we keep busy.” Georgiou “I’m surprised you call yourself a misfit, ’emperor’.” Tyler “The freaks are more fun.” Georgiou- Point of Light, Stardate: 1029.46 #StarTrek #StarTrekDiscovery #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet
“Ugh, senior officers are overrated. They’re always like stressed out and just yelling about directives. It is better down here where the real action is.” Mariner- Second Contact, Stardate: 57436.2 #StarTrek #StarTrekLowerDecks #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet
When the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds/Lower Decks crossover episode is released early and lives up to the expectations.
Here are the Daily Star Trek Quotes that will appear on the @STrekQuotes Twitter account and the @STrekQuotes Mastodon account for the week of July 24th through July 30th.
July 24 “Trying to get yourself killed… Do you know how much Starfleet has invested in you?” Kirk “One hundred twenty-two thousand, two-hundred…” Spock “Never mind!” Kirk- The Apple, Stardate: 3715.3 #StarTrek #StarTrekTOS #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet
July 25 “As deeply as you feel hurt, you can also feel joy.” Picard- Suddenly Human, Stardate: 44143.7 #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet
“If you want to change the government, Minister Jaro, you vote to change it. You don’t sneak up from behind it with a dagger.” Kira- The Circle, Stardate: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekDS9 #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet
July 27 “Imagination frees the mind. It inspires ideas and solutions, and it can provide a great deal of pleasure. Human progress, the human mind itself, couldn’t exist without them.” Janeway- The Raven, Stardate: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekVOY #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet
July 28 “I see no reason to be concerned with idle gossip.” T’Pol- Rajiin, Date: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekENT #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet
“That’s what this exchange program is all about. You learn the way we do things and take that information back to your command. It’s up to them to decide which is better.” Wesley- A Matter of Honor, Stardate: 42506.5 #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet
“I will remember to expect nothing… even from this espresso. Espresso –I release you.” Tilly- Runaway, Stardate: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekDiscovery #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet
It looks like the Dominion War from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is taking front and center for the latest eBook deal from Pocket books. There are also a couple of Voyager novels in this mix as well. Various Star Trek digital novels are only 99 cents for the month. Amazon is also doing a special where you earn points for each book you buy. This can lead to free books.
I noticed something putting this blog post together. The 3rd novel in the Dominion War series is listed by Pocket Books (and on Amazon) as being written by Esther Friesner. Yet the cover has John Vornholt listed. Does anyone know why there is a discrepancy?
Star Trek Adventures Core Rulebook (left) and the Star Trek: Lower Decks Campaign Guide (right)
My Father’s Day gift finally arrived. Around the time of the holiday my wife ordered the Star Trek: Lower Decks Campaign Guide for use with the Star Trek: Adventures system by Modiphius. This was a pre-order so it took a few months to arrive in my eagerly awaiting hands. I’ve talked about some of the other Star Trek: Lower Decks products for STA previously. In that blog post I had noted that one of the strengths of Lower Decks, the Star Trek Easter Eggs, had been played upon. I’m happy to report that I’ve seen several strands of the Star Trek minutia listed in the campaign guide. A good example of this is the chart of random items that a member of the Collector’s Guild could be looking for on page 26. For myself, half the fun of watching Lower Decks episodes was the various Easter Eggs that were hidden (or not so hidden) in the episode.
This hardbound book was put together by Project Manager Jim Johnson and a host of writers, editors, artists and more. The ISBN number for the book is 978-1-80281-042-4 and it contains nine chapters on 237 pages. In the image above I placed the Lower Decks campaign guide next to the core rulebook. According to a video interview with Jim Johnson, the similarities between the two were on purpose. I had wondered about this before I had seen the video (and seen an image of the cover). There is an introduction by Lower Decks creator Mike McMahan where he talks about his RPG experiences.
The book was very well protected for shipping.
The first chapter covers the “State of the Galaxy” in 2380 giving updates on the Federation, Klingon Empire, Romulan Empire, Pakleds (of course) and other Polities (such as the Collector’s Guild and the Drookmani). There is also a listing of notable worlds. I particularly enjoyed reading the log entries from the various USS Cerritos crew members which tell a story.
Chapter two covers Starfleet Support Operations. This covers what would happen in the duties that the Lower Deckers would find themselves in. It also covers what type of second contact missions that a smaller starship would be assigned to by the Admiralty. It also covers some topics such as dead crew members returning to life or dealing with family members.
The title of chapter three is “The Lower Decks”. This covers careers in Starfleet, Lower Deck style adventures for other fleets (from Klingon to Vulcan to Borg), various jobs that junior officers may be assigned and the mysterious “buffer time”.
Science and Technology is the topic for chapter four. Here you can find information on various phenomena and creating new life forms.
Chapter five gives us several new character lifepath options (including Cetacean, Exocomps, Gorn, Pakled and Tamarians). We also get new tools and weapons (anyone want a Starfleet Excursion Helmet?).
The gamemaster gets an entire section in chapter six. There are sections about engaging the characters, story components and knowing the tropes. There are also several Lower Deck style mission briefs present to help inspire gamemasters.
Woot, one of my favorite sections of the book is in chapter seven. Starships, starsbases and vehicles. We get the California, Luna, Osler, Obena, Parliament classes for Starfleet. We also see the Vulan T’Kalat and the Andorian/Teleraite Ganashia classes. There is a good section on the Pakled vessels including Clumpship construction. There are also several other notable starships listed as well. A section is also listed for ground vehicles (including construction notes).
The Allies and Adversaries are found in chapter eight. This contains the stats for various characters seen on the show that haven’t already been covered by the Season One and Season Two crew packs. There is a minor section on Kzinti characters that I wish had been written up as a full lifepath, but I’m glad to have some information on one of my favorite races. And for those of you wanting to bring the Renaissance Fair feeling to your Lower Decks games, there are some notes about the Hysperians.
Chapter nine is a Star Trek: Lower Decks inspired Mini-Campaign with four adventures. Let me just say this. There are stats for holographic Orcs. It looks like meat is back on the menu boys. After this chapter is an index which could be very helpful when quickly trying to look up a stat or rule.
As with other Star Trek Adventures books, there are various quotes from Star Trek episodes and movies used to help bring in some flavor. I’ve found that this helps when referencing for those fully immersed (or not so immersed) in the fandom. Badgey has several tidbits of information here and there (because he’s always monitoring comms). There is enough side-bar information present to make things interesting without too many of them (creating a pop-up problem). The book flowed pretty smoothly when I was looking for various things. The built in book-ribbon impressed my daughter when she looked through the book the first time. I was glad to see this addition that started with the STA Klingon core book continuing on here. You can tell that the production has come along way since the STA core rulebook.
I’m really glad that my wife pre-ordered this book when it came out. Hopefully when Star Trek: Lower Decks gets several more future seasons, a second Lower Decks Campaign Guide will be generated by Modiphius. I enjoyed playing a Lower Decks inspired Star Trek Adventures game at SaltCON and I’m looking forward to more.
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 July 17th through July 23rd.
July 17 “So, what do you do for fun down in Cargo Bay two?” Kim “Fun?” Seven “You know. Relaxation, entertainment, during your off hours.” Kim “I regenerate in my alcove. I study the Starfleet database, and I contemplate my existence.” Seven- Revulsion, Stardate: 51186.2 #StarTrek #StarTrekVOY #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet
July 18 “If you drop a hammer on your foot, it’s hardly useful to get mad at the hammer.” Riker- Shades of Gray, Stardate: 42976.1 #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet
“Oh, Captain, are you going to punch me again over and over till your arm weakens? Clearly you want to.” Khan- Star Trek Into Darkness, Stardate: 2259.55 #StarTrek #StarTrekFilm #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet
July 20 (After getting an injection) “I hope that’s an anaesthetic.” Reed “Phlox’s own recipe.” Archer “Please, sir, may I have some more?” Reed- Minefield, Date: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekENT #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet
July 21 “Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations. Symbolizing the elements that create truth and beauty.” Spock- The Infinite Vulcan, Stardate: 5554.4 #StarTrek #StarTrekTAS #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet
“I’m a patient woman, but I have run out of patience. I will no longer serve gods who give me nothing in return. I am ready to walk the path the Pah-wraiths have laid out for me.” Winn- Strange Bedfellows, Stardate: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekDS9 #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet
“This was once a piece of an ancient weapon, and now they offer it as a symbol of… of peace. In the Fibonan culture, to surrender a weapon is an offer of truce.” Kirk- Star Trek Beyond, Stardate: 2263.2 #StarTrek #StarTrekFilm #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet
July 23 “You were lucky, Kurn, but luck always runs out.” Larg- Redemption II, Stardate: 45020.4 #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet
This is the character sheet for Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play from 1987. So this game would have been played in the late 80’s or early 90’s. In all likelihood it was played with some of my gaming buddies I had met through Comics Utah. This is my handwriting on the character sheet, but I have no recollection of the game itself. It is very possible that this may have been a one-shot game or a game that was intended to become a campaign, but never did. I did have the character sheet placed in a plastic sleeve, so it wasn’t just stuffed loosely in the book. I seem to recall getting annoyed that the sheet was larger than the sleeve itself so I had to fold it over.
Why is “corn” listed as the hair? The color of corn? Why didn’t I just say “blonde”. This rogue character is plundering tombs to feed his wife and three kids at home (that must have been randomly rolled). I have some money listed under wealth, but then I wrote some extra stuff in the side margin. So Udo Roughouser must have found something in his travels. I didn’t find any other notes with the character sheet.
Looking at it, I think this is a percentile based system. I believe this is first edition Warhammer Fantasy. Doing a little research I see that the latest version of the game is 4th edition as released by Cubicle 7. I do recall a lot of weird art when looking at past Warhammer products. I wasn’t much into the tabletop military games at the time. I think it had to do with my lack of patience when it come to assembling and painting miniatures.
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.
Needing to get to the restroom after a long drive.
Here are the Daily Star Trek Quotes that will appear on the @STrekQuotes Twitter account and the @STrekQuotes Mastodon account for the week of July 10th through July 16th.
July 10 “I accept there are things in the universe than can’t be scanned with a tricorder.” Chakotay- Barge of the Dead, Stardate: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekVOY #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet
July 11 “History cannot be changed.” Spock- Spectre of the Gun, Stardate: 4385.3 #StarTrek #StarTrekTOS #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet
July 12 “I hope you’re not holding back because I’m a woman. If it makes things any easier, think of me as a man. I’ve been one several times.” Dax- The Way of the Warrior, Stardate: 49011.4 #StarTrek #StarTrekDS9 #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet
“THERE…ARE…FOUR…LIGHTS!!!” Picard- Chain of Command Part II, Stardate: 46360.8 #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet
July 14 “Before we left, Admiral Forrest said we’d be making history with every light year, but we’re not going to do that sitting on our hands.” Archer- Fight or Flight, Date: May 6, 2151 #StarTrek #StarTrekENT #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet
July 15 “One day our minds became so powerful, we dared think of ourselves as gods.” Sargon- Return to Tomorrow, Stardate: 4768.3 #StarTrek #StarTrekTOS #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet
July 16 “Is the love of a woman worth the destruction of an entire species?” Kevin Uxbridge- The Survivors, Stardate: 43152.4 #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet
So if PDFs of this game is free on the Basic Fantasy website, why did I purchase a physical book? Well, I wanted to support the community efforts into creating the 4th edition. After the OGL fiasco that Wizards of the Coast had created earlier this year the Basic Fantasy community elected to remove all System Reference Document (SRD) references in the game and place the system under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. At the time they were doing this, I was unable to jump in and help lightened the load. It took a lot of volunteers to help out in getting Basic Fantasy moved over. The primary concern was to remove all terminology that could be construed as SRD. These “limits” only fueled the creativity of the Basic Fantasy community that is now seen in the new 4th edition book. Some of these I’ll mention below.
As you can see from the photos above, the covers of the 3rd edition and 4th edition look very similar. The biggest change is the “castle border” now wraps around to the back of the book. Chris Gonnerman mentioned in one of his videos that this was a creative decision in order to give an “at a glance” look that differentiated the 3rd edition books from the 4th edition books. Plus he really likes the dragon art that was used on the cover that he had commissioned. (Side note: pay the artists for their work. Chris did for this cover and I thank him for that.) The 3rd edition book has 166 pages where as the 4th edition has 202 pages. The ISBN is 9798398957679 for the hardbound (I’m not certain if the softbound has a different ISBN number) and it ran me a little over $18 after taxes. Because I have an Amazon Prime membership, shipping was free. Not a bad price for a hardbound book considering some of the other prices I’ve seen lately.
The system itself is basically the same. With the SRD text, mostly, removed. As I was thumbing through the books side by side, I noticed that the 4th edition had page numbers when they referenced another section (i,e “See How to Attack on page 53…”). I could see this being very helpful when you are quickly flipping through the book trying to find a rule. It was also visible that some descriptions of various items (spells, races, classes, etc.) had been slightly altered.
The monster section has been greatly expanded from 183 entries in 3rd edition to 213 entries in the 4th edition book. Some of the new art can be found here. I think the art for the Rot Grub is going to give me nightmares. When the volunteers working on the update thought that they couldn’t use Kobolds any more (until WotC backed off of the OGL mess), they came up with their own variation that was still used in the book, The Barklings.
Did you just tell us to go fetch?
I think this shows some of the creativity that went into this update. Another change was with the Dragons. Instead of being just a red dragon or a white dragon, now they are based off of their environment. The red dragon is now a mountain dragon, white represents the ice dragon, etc. They list the old terminology next to each type so it is easily connected. However the cloud dragon is not listed with a color in my copy of the book. I also like that they listed the similar monsters together, such as all of the puddings are listed under pudding.
The back part of the book deals with magic items, various rules and optional rules that the gamemaster can use, stocking dungeons, setting up strongholds, etc. As with the other sections, there has been some polishing here and there, but it basically looked like it covered the same subjects as before. I will say it was a little different not seeing the OGL statements at the back of the book that I’ve been seeing for over twenty years. But I think that’s a good thing.
So my complements to the army of volunteers at the Basic Fantasy forums for coming together and getting this project done. I could easily have seen a lot of project creep work it’s way in which they were able to avoid. Players of the Basic Fantasy RPG will easily recognize the high quality that this line has been known for. If you are looking for an old school feel with some modern tweaks, I’d recommend picking up this book. At the least, it just costs you some download time to get the books and supplements. But if you are like me, a person who loves to feel the weight of a book in his hands, then I would strongly urge you to pick up a physical copy.
Have you played Basic Fantasy RPG? Do you enjoy the games that have that OSR feel? 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 July 3rd through July 9th.
“Time is patient, so we must be patient with it.” Annorax- Year of Hell, Stardate: 51268.4 #StarTrek #StarTrekVOY #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet
July 4 (music plays) “It is ‘Stars and Stripes Forever’. sir, by John Phillip Sousa, a popular American composer of band music in the early twentieth century.” Data- Evolution, Stardate: 43125.8 #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet
July 5 “And Uhura, whose name means freedom. She walks in beauty, like the night.” Spock “That’s not Spock.” Dr. McCoy “Are you surprised to find that I’ve read Byron, Doctor?” Spock “That’s Spock!” Dr. McCoy- Is There In Truth No Beauty?, Stardate: 5630.7 #StarTrek #StarTrekTOS #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet
July 6 “But it’s all based on a lie.” Li Nalas “No. It’s based on a legend. And legends are as powerful as any truth. Bajor still needs that legend. It needs you.” Sisko- The Homecoming, Stardate: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekDS9 #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet
“You are a sham! My words were dust upon the ground…your blood has no fire, you are weak, like them! I don’t care what you look like, YOU ARE NO KLINGON!” Korris- Heart of Glory, Stardate: 41503.7 #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet
“Are you sure you want your boy to become a monk?” Georgiou “It’s what L’Rell wants.” Tyler “And you?” Georgiou “To know where I belong, and to whom, and who belongs to me.” Tyler- Point of Light, Stardate: 1029.46 #StarTrek #StarTrekDiscovery #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet
“I’m a comm officer. If there is one thing I know how to do, it’s disseminate information.” Sato- Affliction, Date: November 27, 2154 #StarTrek #StarTrekENT #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet
So 2023 marks the 10th Anniversary of the RPGaDay Challenge. Starting on August 1st there will be 31 days of RPG posts based upon various suggestions as seen in the image above. The suggestions this year sound really interesting. When I saw them, it got the creative juices flowing. Something that I need for this blog. I’ve participated in this challenge in 2021 (daily) and 2023 (via catch up posts due to circumstances). I plan to attempt a daily challenge for the entire month of August.
While I will be posting my entries here on this blog, I will be posting links on social media with the hashtag #RPGaDay2023. I also plan to post entries on the RPG.net message boards. I’m looking forward to seeing what I type up.
Do you have any interest in participating in this challenge? Does the list inspire you? Let’s have some fun.
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.
