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
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