There are quite a few books in this set. Some of the highlights include the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine relaunch series, Mission Gamma. There are also two Star Trek: Discovery books available in this sale.
All of these eBooks are 99 cents and available to read on your Amazon Kindle. Amazon is also doing a special where you earn points for each book you buy. This can lead to free books.
So earlier this month I was working on my review of the latest Star Trek Lower Decks releases for the Star Trek Adventures RPG when it hit me. “I wonder if we will see any future cross-over products between Modiphius (publisher of Star Trek Adventures) and IDW run of Star Trek comics?” Back in 2021 there had been a cooperative release with the IDW Year Five Tie In.
So I thought I’d take to social media and ask. On twitter (while dodging spam posts) I submitted the following:
Hey @Modiphius are we going to see any additional #StarTrekAdventures supplements for @IDWPublishing #StarTrek comics like we did for Year-Five tie in? I would love to see more supplements like this. #please
Well, I received a response from Jim Johnson, who is the project manager for Modiphius Star Trek Adventures. Wow, I wasn’t expecting that. He asked what I’d like to see from the IDW run. Well when I read that, my first thought was “Everything!” Yea, I know that’s not going to fly logically. IDW has been publishing Star Trek comics since 2007 and has released over 400 issues and trade paperbacks. Some of them include crossovers with other intellectual properties such as Doctor Who, Planet of the Apes, Green Lantern, The Legion of Superheroes and Transformers. The likelihood of any supplements for these issues are slim to none. Especially since there is already a roleplaying game for Transformers and Doctor Who.
So what was the most likely candidates from the wide catalog of IDW publications would be good for a Star Trek Adventures supplement? Well I have several recommendations in mind. I did mention a few in a quick twitter response to Mr. Johnson, but I felt that this topic deserved a blog post to give it more thought.
I’ve actually mentioned this in past blog posts, but IDW has done a very good series of comics covering the TNG crew in the Mirror Universe. In this setting, the Terran Empire was defeated, but not overrun. (Hey, if you are looking for a reason to keep this within “cannon”, just remember that there are many, many multiple universes as seen in the TNG episode “Parallels“.) This empire was boxed in, was low on resources (Captain’s kept their own secret supply caches) and still had some fight in it (for both external and internal conflicts). RPG scenarios could include Prime Universe Federation members dealing with Terran Empire incursions, more accidental crossovers or a campaign set with PCs playing members of the Terran Starfleet. Some of the advantages to this idea include lots of resource material (13 TNG comics plus additionaly 7 TOS comics, 1 Voyager comic, and 4 Discovery comics) which could include new races, new spacefames, new background information, new characters (we see “The Obnoxious Okona” who is a thorn in Mirror Captain Picard’s side). The disadvantages that I see are also the large number of sources (the supplement could be much larger than the Year Five tie in if they didn’t break it up by comic series), roleplaying in the Mirror Universe is much different than in the Prime Universe (but I do recall playing in a FASA Star Trek campaign where we were accidentally sent to the Mirror Universe) and there is a lot of Mirror Universe seen in the shows. While this is my first choice that I would LOVE to see, I could understand why it may not make the list at Modiphius.
Before there was Star Trek: Year Five by IDW, the comic publisher released Star Trek Year Four. This covered what could have been the fourth season of The Original Series. This would make for an excellent companion piece to the STA Year Five tie-in. This would be an excellent opportunity to present the stats for the Federation Class Dreadnought (seen in the Enterprise Experiment series). There are not as many issues covering Year Four as there are for Year Five (10 vs 26 respectively) but that might make is more of a candidate for a PDF only release. There are other TOS comics presented by IDW, but they cover various times across the Original Series. That could be used to pad out a publication if needed.
The next recommendation may be an issue. I don’t know if Modiphius has any type of license with the Kelvin Universe movies. Creating a tie-in supplement might be possible if a license isn’t fully connected. However there are a LOT of Kelvin Universe comics published by IDW. A total of 106 issues (not counting the two Kelvin Universe/Green Lantern crossovers). Some of these issues cover Starfleet Academy cadets and could be a perfect way to release some Kelvin Universe resource material into the market.
The last recommendation that I’m going to make is for Leonard McCoy: Frontier Doctor that had four issues. Not a lot of material, but the storyline covered Dr. McCoy after he had left Starfleet and went on a “Doctors without Borders” type of adventure (between the end of The Original Series and The Motion Picture). There would definable be a new spaceframe (The Joanna), several characters and planets and information on how to play in the Frontier Medics Program. A non-Starfleet sourcebook could help with civilian roleplaying.
As I mentioned in my Year Five Tie-In review, there was still some Year Five material that could have been added to the supplement. I wouldn’t be opposed to that type of expansion.
There are still a ton of other IDW Star Trek titles that information could be pulled to create a tie-in supplement. Some cover various races and characters. A few had different inter-ST series crossovers that only comics could pull off. Others had tie-ins with different Star Trek novels and video games. I believe that IDW has the longest run of continuous Star Trek comic publications. Despite recent news that the company had some layoffs, I hope that they will be able to continue to publish new comics for quite a few more years.
Thank you Jim Johnson for inspiring me to expand this subject into a blog post. I had a great time going back through several comics and (quickly) re-reading some of the stories. Jim did respond to my suggestion tweet saying “I just gotta chat with the good people over there and see what’s possible.” So… (crosses fingers).
What IDW Comics would you like to see turned into a Star Trek Adventures supplement? Are there other Star Trek comics that you draw gaming inspiration from? 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.
While they are not in the photo above, several of the books on sale this month are the William Shatner written books. There are also a couple of good TNG and DS9 books along with the George Takei autobiography “To The Stars”.
All of these eBooks are 99 cents and available to read on your Amazon Kindle. Amazon is also doing a special where you earn points for each book you buy. This can lead to free books.
With March being Women’s History Month, I’m not surprised that the selection of eBooks put up for sale are focused on some of the strong female characters that we have seen in Star Trek. There is a lot of representation from Deep Space Nine and Discovery in this batch.
All eBooks are back to 99 cents each. I wonder if the 1.99 price was only for the Picard books or if it was an experiment to see if they would sell. Amazon is also doing a special where you earn points for each book you buy. This can lead to free books.
So another item that came up in January, but the review had to be pushed back to this month because of the Character Creation Challenge, was the arrival of a KickStarter reward. I’ve backed KickStarters before for RPG material (and I have a few that are scheduled to be delivered in 2023). In 2022 I backed an independent publisher who wanted to put out a series of bestiaries for OSR games. Specifically in the B/X flavor (which is a given since it’s in the title of the book). This was The BX Advanced Bestiary Vol. 1 by Third Kingdom Games.
From my KickStarter submission I received the hardbound book which is 133 pages long. The ISBN number is 2370011833927. The cover states that the contents are designed for use with the Old-School Essentials RPG but could be used with any OSR style system. The cover art and interior art are all black and white. The author, Todd Leback, was able to obtain artwork from eight different artists for all of the entries. There are also several house-rules that are made available for GMs to consider and an appendix with several items, optional player races (which are classes in this OSR).
This tome covers monsters from A-D (Ape, White to Dryad). The interesting thing is that each entry also contains variants of the different monsters. So the GM can keep the players on their toes. “What do you mean this boar has an iron hide?” The entry for the dragon is 18 pages long which covers information on ages, lairs, allies and types of attacks.
A sample of one of the dragon pages in the book
There are about 100 monsters contained within the pages of the BX Advanced Bestiary Vol. 1. I’ve been in contact with the author and he responded very quickly to any issues (one of the images was accidentally submitted as blurry due to low resolution, which he offered a replacement book with the imaged replaced). I am impressed with both the organization and the book itself. I’ve been told that there will be KickStarters for future volumes. I plan to back them as they are released since the support levels were very reasonable. This is the type of effort we should be supporting. Fans of the game producing materials for other fans to use.
What roleplaying game KickStarters have you backed? Tell me about them or ask any questions about this book on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord page.
With the Character Creation Challenge last month, I didn’t have the bandwidth to talk about the Star Trek eBook deals that Pocket Books offers. So here are the books for February 2023.
There are a lot of Star Trek: Picard books in this bundle. Probably because the third (and final) season of that series starts this month. If you haven’t seen the first episode yet, go watch it now. There are lots of good starship easter eggs and a very good music selection.
I’ve reviewed one of the books in this bundle. Star Trek: Picard: The Last Best Hope. This is the first book in the series and one that I enjoyed reading.
These eBooks are available for 1.99 or 99 cents depending upon the series. Amazon is also doing a special where you earn points for each book you buy. This can lead to free books.
With all of the holiday shopping going on, you may have missed the announcement for the discounted Star Trek eBooks from Pocket Books. Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered with this blog post.
I think this is the first time I’ve seen a Kelvin Timeline book available on one of these sales. I’m looking forward to reading this novel and see how it compares to the movies.
All of these eBooks are available for 99 cents each. Amazon is also doing a special where you earn points for each book you buy. This can lead to free books.
December 4th is National Dice Day. So to celebrate, here is my collection of clickity-clackity shiny math rocks. Some are the originals from the 80’s boxed sets, others are cheap dollar store purchases and even others are made by a family business. Or I wonder if the Game Master will notice that I’m rolling all 20’s in my special Jason Fox Lucky Dice?
Which dice deserve to be placed in the Dice Dunce Chair? Which dice should I reach for first when it’s time to participate in a role-playing game?
I can’t wait to actually throw some dice soon. Send me pictures of your dice to Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com
One of my most favorite books is available in the November sale of Star Trek eBooks. I’ve always enjoyed re-reading How Much for Just the Planet? by John M. Ford. Now that I have it in eBook format, I’m going to have to re-read it again. Why is it a favorite? Just how odd the book is. I really can’t describe it, I can only recommend reading it and finding out for yourself.
Also, the two books on The Eugenics Wars by Greg Cox should really be turned into a series on Paramount+. It would be a Star Trek show without having to pay for large amounts of SFX since they are set in the 1960s to the 1990s.
All of these eBooks are available for 99 cents each. Amazon is also doing a special where you earn points for each book you buy. This can lead to free books.
October appears to be Spocktober for Pocket Books. There are a large number of Spock-centric ebooks that are for sale 99 cents each. This is a good way to build up a reading library without taking up a ton of shelf space. I’ve been using these sales to do that exactly. Links to the sales are listed below.
