Ignore the 2024 badge, I’ll be picking up my new badge very soon.
It’s time once again for the biggest SaltCON of the year. SaltCON-Spring will be running from February 27 to March 2nd at the Davis Convention Center and I’ve signed up to run four games this year. By running four games I was able to get a ticket for both myself and my geek wife. You can read about my past adventures at SaltCON in my past blog entries. I will be packing my Convention Backpack that I have documented in a previous blog post.
As you can see from the photo above, I’ve signed up to run another one-shot for Star Trek Adventures. Two other games that I will be running are also based off of popular franchises. Doctor Who 2nd Edition and the brand new Planet of the Apes RPG that only Kickstarter backers have. I just created a PotA character in the recent Character Creation Challenge. As for the fourth game that I’m running, well because lots of attendees come to conventions to play games that they don’t normally get a chance to play, I’m running Feast of Legends. Yes, that is the RPG that was used by the fast-food company Wendy’s to advertise their product.
As for the games that I’ve signed up for. Well for the first time I’ll have a chance to try Basic Roleplaying (no I won’t be using the character I made in a recent challenge). Another new system for me will be Pendragon. I don’t know what edition, but I’m assuming it will be the latest. Titans of Atlantis is a system that I’ve never even heard of before. A game master is going to be using the Genesys system to run a TRON RPG. Also on the new game front for me is Curseborn: Ashcan Edition by Onyx Path Publishing. I’ve also signed up for a Star Trek Adventures game run by another GM and a Starfinder game.
My wife has signed up for a Labrynth game, something called Lifewish: Ravenheart, another game called Black Powder and Brimstone and The Electric State. She also signed up to be in two of the games that I am running.
With how this year has been so far, I really hope that I can get a nice relaxing weekend with some dice, some friends and hopefully some good memories. I really could use some of that right now. I’ll have an after-action report when it’s all over.
What should I be on the look out for? Any recommendations for the games I’m going to be playing? 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.
So 2025 started off with a loud clunk. I had a bunch of items prepped for the 2025 #CharacterCreationChallenge and when I went to type it up (I usually type these up directly to the blog itself as part of my process) and the hosting company for my blog had a technical issue on January 1st and I was unable to get into the site to edit it. I reached out to my provider and messages were sent up the chain, but with it being a holiday I knew it was going to take a while. I was hoping it would be a quick fix otherwise I’d probably have to type these up on a doc file and wait until I had full access again. I don’t know if you guys could see this site, but for me it wasn’t coming up at all. So my apologies if you couldn’t see anything on the 1st day of the year. On Thursday, January 2nd about mid-day everything was restored and I could start editing (and writing) again. And now without further ado, on with the show.
I always start the Character Creation Challenge with the game that I was most excited about in the previous year. Either I wanted to own it, play it, run it or write for it, and this case it was all four. If you know me you shouldn’t be surprised that this year I am starting off with Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition by Modiphius. I already talked about the physical characteristics of the book in the Review of Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition blog post that was published last year, so I’ll skip that portion here. The previous books in this line that I’ve used in past Character Creation Challenges include the Star Trek Adventures 1st edition core rulebook and the Klingon Empire core rulebook.
Each character in Star Trek Adventures 2nd edition has six Attributes that represent your mind and body: Control (think Dexterity and coordination and the ability to do exactly what you want to do), Daring (think Willpower, courage or sanity to do things when you don’t want to), Fitness (think Strength and Constitution for physical power and health), Insight (think Wisdom and empathy, the ability to work out the why questions), Presence (think Charisma and the ability to be stunning, good for leadership) and Reason (think Intelligence, use of logic, perception and fact remembering, the ability to work out the how questions). Each new character starts out with a rating of 7 in each attribute. All characters also have six Departments (previously called Disciplines in first edition) that represent the training your character has: Command (the skill at persuading others by different methods), Conn (the skill of operating and navigating surface or space vehicles such as rafts, automobiles, environmental suits or large starships), Engineering (the skill of of making, maintaining, fixing or reverse-engineering technology), Security (the skill of using, avoiding or understanding different forms of violence or hazards), Medicine (the skill of treating or understanding different life-forms) and Science (the skill of studying and understanding the universe rationally). Each new character starts with a rating of 1 (basic training) in each Department. (if you are homebrewing for Star Trek Adventures, there is an excellent chart on page 90 defining what each Department rating level represents in the real world, thank you for this)
Now, a MAJOR improvement from the first edition of STA is the use of flowcharts in the core rulebook for certain elements of the game. This makes things a lot easier to run and set things up at your table. The flowchart for the Lifepath Summary (aka character creation process) that I will be using can be found on page 98. Not only does it have everything listed step-by-step, it also gives you the page numbers for additional details. Very smart.
So step one is to select a species. Another change between the first and second edition is the inclusion of non-Starfleet/Federation species if the GM and Players wanted to run a Klingon, Romulan, Cardassian, Orion, Ferengi or Merchant/Civilian campaign. The species present in the core rulebook include the Andorians, the Aenar, the Bajorans, the Betazoids, the Cardassians, the Denobulans, the Ferengi, the Humans, the Klingons, the Orions, the Romulans, the Tellarites, the Trill and the Vulcans. There are also guidelines for characters of mixed species (like Spock or B’Elanna Torres) and augmented or cybernetically enhanced characters. By comparison, there were only eight species in the first edition book. The selection of your species adds +1 to three attributes (depending upon the species) a unique species ability (a new addition to the 2nd edition) and a species trait (something that all members of this species has). Now when I was printing out the character sheet for this challenge, I could have printed one for any of the major campaigns listed above. Since I didn’t know which character I would be making, I elected to print out a Federation/Starfleet character sheet since they had the most options. I made a Vulcan in the first edition entry to the challenge and a Klingon for the Klingon core rulebook entry, so let’s create a Trill character. I don’t think I’ve done one of those yet. So I add +1 to my Control, Presence and Reason as per the description. I also write down the details for the species ability of Patient. In the first edition, you had to use one of your ability slots to take a species ability, now it’s an automatic add-on in the second edition. While it isn’t part of this step, I selected the name of Keman Les from the list of possible names since I had the page right in front of me.
OK, step two is to select the Environment that Keman was born or raised at. There is a d20 chart here with different options, and since I want some randomness, I rolled a 13, Isolated Colony. This gives me the first opportunity to select a Value (which is a statement that describes the attitude, belief or conviction of the character, it is usually represented by a small quote (oh, I like that) and there is some in-game benefit when it’s used or challenged. In an isolated colony I think that everyone would be supportive of everyone else so I selected “We are all in this together now.” (originally spoken by Picard in the TNG episode “Loud as a Whisper“). I can bump up Reason or Insight by one point, and I selected Insight since it hasn’t been bumped up yet. Now I also get my first Departmental increase, 1 point for Engineering, Science or Medicine. I selected Engineering.
On to step three and I get to select the upbringing that Keman was raised in. This is his education and influence during his formative years. Another d20 roll on another chart gives me Science and Technology. Perhaps the reason the colony was isolated is due to the fact that his parents were researchers working remotely. I can accept or reject (rebelled) against this upbringing which both provides different character enhancements. I elected to go with acceptance. So Keman gets +2 to Control and +1 to Reason. Other additions include +1 to another Department (I selected Science on this one) a Focus (think a specialty to compliment the Department listed above) in which I selected Power Systems (If I am attempting a task dealing with Power Systems, I get a bonus to my rolls) and I gain a single Talent. A Talent is an additional benefit the character possesses which also gives some bonuses to task rolls. They come in General categories or categories defined by species, culture, enhancements (such as cybernetic) or department (command, engineering, etc.) I already have my species talent, so I’m going to pull from the General category at this time. Again thinking Isolated Colony I selected Extra Effort (and I wrote down the benefits on the sheet).
Alright, step four the career path. What is Keman doing in Starfleet (which I’ve decided he joined to expand his engineering expertise he learned at the isolated colony of Vaxian III. In the first edition or Klingon books, the career path was limited to Starfleet or the Klingon Defense Force. Here the random paths could include diplomatic or civilian options. But as mentioned above, I’m selecting Starfleet Officer in the operations (engineering) track. I write down the trait of Starfleet Officer, find an engineering quote for a value (“The right tool for the right job.” said by Scotty in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier), additions to his Attributes and Departments, three new Focuses (Transports & Replicators, Warp Field Dynamics and Computers) and a Talent (Maintenance Specialist).
Next is step five where we cover the Experience of the character. Of the three options there is Novice (young and usually just out of the Academy), Experienced (been in the service for a while) and Veteran (been doing this for a long time, wised and experienced). Kemen is Experienced and gets to choose a freely selected Value an Talent. For the Talent I selected Bold (Engineering) and from my master list of Star Trek quotes I picked “All you have to do is relax and use your imagination” said by Jadzia Dax in “The Way of the Warrior“.
There are two Career Events in step six which are randomly rolled. The first event was Mentored and the second was First Contact. With Mentored a highly-respected officer (I’ll name him/her later) took notice of the character’s career and Keman served as this person’s aide and learned from the benefit of the officer’s vast experience. He gets +1 to any attribute (I selected Fitness) and +1 to Conn (that’s good as it was a weak one) and a Focus (I selected Etiquette from the list). I like this because I probably wouldn’t have selected these on my own. For First Contact, Keman was involved with a first contact mission with another culture. This gains the character +1 to Presence +1 to any Department (I selected Medicine as it was his lowest) and a Focus (selecting Infiltration from the list, why, because they had to sneak in and study before revealing themselves to the local population).
And our last step is Finishing Touches. I get to pick one final Value (Quote selected is “Focus on the goal, not the task” said by Tanis in the episode “Cold Fire“). Increase two Attributes by 1 as long as I do not exceed the maximum rating of 12 (I selected Daring and Fitness). As for Departments, I hadn’t exceeded the maximum of 5 so I was instructed to add +1 to two departments (again not exceeding the maximum) so I selected Engineering and Command. I’m instructed to make sure I have a minimum of six Focuses from the previous steps (I do) and three Talents (also good). So I’m now instructed to select one more Talent. It doesn’t say if it has to be selected from a specific category so after looking over the list I selected Former Initiate (a Trill talent). There is a final check for the Attributes (added together they should add up to 56, which I had) and Departments (should all add together to 16, which I confirmed), the correct number of species ability, four values and six focuses (all checked). Now we choose the character’s name (see above) age (randomly selected 32 from the guidelines) and a rough description of the character’s personality and appearance (I’ll nail this down later when I find an image to use). Now one of the new features of the 2nd edition game comes into play, each character gets a Pastime. This is a hobby or interest of the character that makes them unique, but may or may not really come into play. This could be a game/sport, something creative or a subject the character is really interested in. Keman is interested in writing Holo-Comics after seeing some while on leave. As for selecting a Role with the team I would have obviously worked with the GM and other players, but I’m running with the assumption that Keman is the Chief Engineer (which comes with some benefits) on a smaller starship (USS Nova Scotia, NCC-72719, Nova Class) and I’m going to pluck the rank of Lieutenant Commander out of the air. I also wrote down the equipment listed on page 141. The flowchart on page 98 instructs me to record the derived ratings of Stress and bonus damage in this step, but none of that is present in the “more information” chapter in pages 132-141. A quick search in the book found on page 277 where it states that Stress is equal to the Fitness attribute and may be adjusted by other Talents. This blog article is already too long, otherwise I’d go into more detail on how Stress works in this game, but it’s basically your health. Looking at the other blank spots on this character sheet I see there is nothing for Resistance (something that would have been provided by a Talent or Equipment) and Determination (page 261) which describes this as something like luck or fate points and work alongside your Values or a Mission Directive. Each character starts with one determination at the start of a mission and may gain up to a maximum of three through roleplaying opportunities. With attacks, I copied the information from one of the characters in the Quickstart Guide as I was running short on time. Here is the character sheet that I scanned.
Afterthoughts:
There were only a couple of items that I had to look outside of the flowchart and the character creation chapters. An experienced GM could easily guide a new player through these hiccups very easily and speed up the character creation process. Otherwise it was a pretty easy experience (especially compared to the 1st edition) Yes there is a very good fan-made online character generator for Star Trek Adventures, and I’ve used it to quickly make characters for convention one-shots, but actually siting down and following the process helps me learn the game. Something that I think that others should do as well if you want to learn more about this system.
I apologize for the length of this blog entry. As I realized how big it was getting, I realized that I was just excited about this game. Not only does it work for a Star Trek setting with the exploration and cooperation working more than the combat, but it could be used for other popular franchises as well such as Babylon 5 or The Orville. As I’ve stated above, I will be homebrewing for this system. There is a vast library of Star Trek novels, comics and games that could be mined for Star Trek Adventures material. I’ve already done this once with the entry for the Tarn (which adjusting to 2nd edition will probably be done in another blog post).
Additional Notes:
Thank you for your patience in getting this blog entry out. While I will mark it down for January 1st, it still frustrated me that it got delayed until the 2nd. I still need to catch up on my other entries.
As you can see from the title photo above, I’ve changed the format slightly to include the challenge year and my blog URL. In the past I’ve had at least one (that I know of) image from a past Character Creation Challenge get pilfered and used in someone’s YouTube video (which they make money on) without asking for permission first.
I’ve also been adding to the list of participating sites on the Character Creation Challenge FAQ page. I’m still adding them as I find more on message boards and social media. If I’m missing yours, please let me know. Following the #CharacterCreationChallenge hashtag on BlueSky has helped me find new accounts to follow.
Coming Up Next:
Sword of Cepheus
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 the games that I plan to use in the 2025 #CharacterCreationChallenge and one of my fuzzy overlords.
As you can see, I had a volunteer model helping me out with the photo of the physical books that I’ll be using in the 2025 Character Creation Challenge. This is August (no, I don’t use any pet names for passwords, and neither should you) and after I had arranged the books he suddenly wanted to get up and see what was going on. I didn’t even know he was there until I had turned around to get my camera for the photo. After inspecting all of the books, he settled down in front of the one he liked the most. But attempting to get him to look at the camera for the photo was another matter. There are other games that will be used that I own on PDF.
For the three previous years of the Character Creation Challenge (in 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024), I’ve prepped ahead of time to make the challenge a little bit easier. Especially since I try to use a wide variety of games in January 2025. I’ve already had some people reach out to me using various methods to let me know of their participation. Please let me know, Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com if you plan to post your characters up on a blog. I’ll link to it from the Character Creation Challenge section of my website.
I’m once again using a spreadsheet with the date, day and game type to schedule my games. This way I won’t have two fantasy games next to each other. I can also plan a game that may take more time and energy on a day off. This is also a good idea for those dates I know are going to be busy, I can schedule the systems I’m more familiar with for these days.
As in the past, I’ll try to walk through the character creation process as I understand them in the rules-as-written (RAW). This also gives me a chance to do a review of the process. I will then scan the character sheet for all to see. And I will have all of the character sheets printed out before the challenge starts. I’ve found that this helps me get everything ready.
I have had some people tell me that they are pre-makeing some of there characters before the challenge. And I’m not going to blow the referee whistle at them. As I’ve stated when this was started five-years ago, this is for fun. I know we all have real lives to worry about. And as much as we’d like to be able to focus on our hobbies and what makes us happy, we still have to function in this society. So I’m not going to dock you for setting up a buffer. All that I ask is that you post your entries in at least one location (the #Character-Creation-Challenge channel on the TardisCaptainDotCom discord, on a personal blog (tell me the URL), on one of the many RPG message boards, on social media with the hashtag #CharacterCreationChallenge). I love seeing what other RPG fans have come up with.
If you are reading this after January 1st and you still want to jump into the challenge, please do. A few participants last year either did a quick catch up or just made sure they ran a full 31 days. The choice is yours. This challenge is just for fun with our gaming systems.
Remember to have fun with this. That was one of the primary goals of the challenge.
You can also use this graphic to help promote the #CharacterCreationChallenge.
Feel free to share this image on social media to spread the word.
What games are you using for the challenge? Do you have any questions about the challenge that wasn’t covered on by the FAQ? 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.
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.
I’m writing this the day after SaltCON and I’m really happy that I went. I caught up with friends that I’ve been making at past conventions. Saw people that I hadn’t seen in a while and also got introduced to some new gamer friends. I even had a someone find out about my blog and another player tell me that they enjoyed reading my blog. I don’t know why, but when I get the unexpected notice from a reader in person, it really makes my day. I also wanted to say that my Convention Backpack is holding up wonderfully.
You may notice something missing from the loot photo posted above. There were no RPG books to be found this year. Usually something pops up in the game swap. But it 99.9% board games and a bunch of Lord of the Rings action figures. I was really disappointed. There also hasn’t been a dealer with regular RPG books in quite some time (if anyone is looking for a good untapped opportunity). I did pick up a convention t-shirt (which I thought looked great) and a couple of pins. Since it was my wife’s birthday, we went through the dealers area and she picked up a Halloween themed D20 (which came with the cauldron) from Dice Chaos, a small business. She also picked up a few geeky stickers from another local small business called Tip-Top Tabletop. There was also a candy dice vendor called Power Up Candy. I picked up one set for me and one for my daughter. I’ll have to let you know how they taste. They also had different sayings on the package as seen below.
I also had a chance to attend one of the panels that I wanted to catch. I missed out on the GMing panel and the horror in gaming panel (scheduling conflicts). But I was able to attend a panel about Sharing Your Gaming Experience Through Blogging, Podcasting. It tended to focus a little too much on the video blogging side. But there was some interesting things I learned from the discussion. There are plans to have panels at future SaltCONs. I’ve reached out to say that I would be interested in being a panelist.
The games that I had a chance to play.
Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition: Well it was unusual. The pre-generated characters were all over the map. I remember asking “Do you have just a basic fighter?” before I settled on a Dwarf Paladin (and ignored the extra stuff that wasn’t really explained). I raised an eyebrow at the Fairy Barbarian option (and I noticed that no one else picked that character as well). The cat did lead us on a quest and the team performed very well. We had some good role-playing from the group. However it didn’t really entice me to attempt a 5e game. Sure I’d play in a campaign if that’s what a bunch of friends would want to play, but it really didn’t grab me. It just seemed to have more player options in it than what was needed for a convention one-shot.
Savage Worlds: While I had a new friend give me a quick introduction to the system at SaltCON Summer, I hadn’t had a chance to actually play it at the table. One of my goals with each convention visit is to play a game that I haven’t had a chance to play yet. Savage Worlds was the game that checked off this box. We played in a horror/western setting (that I wasn’t familiar with, so I appreciate the GM and other players answering my newbie questions) where we had to solve a murder mystery. There were a TON of characters to choose from and I played the “Mysterious Stranger”. As it turned out, our final target was a succubus and we luckily had a traveling priest in our party that was able to bless our weapons in the final battle. The system seemed pretty simple and easy to use and I appreciated the GM asking for feedback when the game was done. But I don’t know how much I could homebrew for this system since it really relied a lot on the different cards that the publisher had put out. I’m glad that I played this game.
Fallout: A family member wanted to play this game with me so it was a special occasion. We had a blast playing it and once again I marveled in how easy the system fit the 2d20 system that Modiphius put out. I had actually played part of the scenario at a previous SaltCON, but I kept my mouth shut on the sections I already knew about for the rest of the table. We got farther than previously played so I did get to see some new stuff. While playing, I kept running what it would be like to run a Fallout campaign based in Utah. Or even changing it slightly so it was more than just the Fallout Universe.
On the games that I ran.
Basic Fantasy: I was really excited when I saw the number of people that signed up for this session. It was practically a full table. Then when the time rolled around, I glanced at the sign-up sheet at the registration table only to discover that two players had crossed out their names. One player who had signed up turned out to be a no-show. I had one player at the table and the last player called me on my cell phone asking if he could still get in if he was late? I told him yes, but we ended up starting about an hour later. Luckily, it was the last game for the table that day so I wasn’t worried about getting kicked out of the spot. But we ended the game really late that night (which caused me to miss one of my panels that was scheduled early the next morning). The two players took two characters each and I was able to run the one-shot. I had made second-level characters, but I should have taken more care in setting up the magic user. Even at second-level, they had a limited spell range. I should have taken more advantage of the add-on rules that the Basic Fantasy community had provided. But when I asked for feedback, the players told me that they had fun. I was able to use the Game Tiles and the GM’s Screen that I had just reviewed.
Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition: Only two players had signed up for the game, but a third player (someone who had GMed for me at past SaltCONs) showed up asking if he could play. No only did it help, but all three players were so good that they were able to swap between the six characters available. It was interesting seeing the Ensign at Communications and the CO, both played by the same player, talk with each other during an intense moment of the game. This turned out to be the best game for me for the whole con. I had run the scenario before and I think I ran it better this time around. I don’t think the players knew that it was primarily a bare-bones introduction to the game and I improvised some sections for it. They had a really detailed, and Trekkish, response to the final act. When I asked for feedback at the end of the game we practically had another hour of discussion. Two players had never tried the system and agreed that it was a “Star Trek episode simulator” system. One player, who played the security chief Andorian, thought it was interesting that for a game designed to avoid combat, it had a lot of combat stats on the character sheet. I had also used a fan-made “character tent” that had the basic stats for the characters on one side of the table tent. They said that they used that for more of the quick stat look up and only went to the character sheet when they needed to do some deep diving in the extra options and talents. I’ve been asked by members of my local Star Trek fan club if we could get an RPG session going, and running this is making me more inclined to do so. One of the players asked me if I had any leads on possible STA games in his county, which I was able to refer him to one of our sister Star Trek clubs that I knew had a campaign going.
Ork! 2nd Edition: I don’t know if it was the title, or the “Let’s Learn” format that I presented with it. But no one signed up for this game. I already had a basic knowledge of the game, but I spent an hour reading through some of the rules that I hadn’t done a deep dive on. I actually found it really interesting, and a fun read for a comedy game about Orks. The RPG coordinator told me that I wasn’t going to be dinged because I did my part in showing up after volunteering to run a game. Too bad, this game sounds like it would be a blast if everyone played it in the spirit of the system. I’m going to try another “Let’s Learn” with another system in March. I don’t know what it will be yet.
I wanted to thank my friend Jeff for letting me borrow his RPG figures for the Basic Fantasy Game. I had brought them to use for Ork! as well if needed. I also wanted to give my gratitude to the GMs, Volunteers and players at this convention. I know that all of you helped make SaltCON just as fun as previous conventions. Even my wife expressed an interest in coming to the March event. I think that it is also great that the convention is trying new things like setting up panels for attendees to enjoy. Keep up the good work.
Should I attempt to attend TimpCon in November? It’s two counties away (where as SaltCON is 15 minutes from my house). I’d love to hear the experience from people who have attended in the past. Attending other conventions would be great, but I doubt I’ll have a chance to make it to one of the big gaming cons back east.
Have you been to any gaming conventions 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.
I’ve been doing more than just participating in the #RPGaDAY2024 challenge this month. I’ve been prepping for the SaltCON End-of-Summer gaming convention that happens at the end of every August. One of the first things that is different is that I’m planning to attend a couple of panels this time around. I don’t recall if there were panels at the past SaltCONs that I’ve attended. But I’ve signed up to listen to “Game Mastering Tips from One Shots to Multi-Year Campaigns” and “Sharing Your Gaming Experience Through Blogging & Podcasting” (hmm… I wonder why this last one sounds interesting). There is also a panel about horror gaming but the system wouldn’t let me “snag a ticket” for it because it conflicted with a game that will be ending up just as the panel starts. So hopefully I’ll be able to check that out as well as horror gaming confuses me a little bit. I don’t know how I’d get scared sitting comfortably at a table with friends?
This time around I’m not going to the convention alone. I signed up to run some extra games so that I could get an extra ticket to the event. So a member of my family will be joining me this weekend for some of the games. You can read about my past adventures at SaltCON in my past blog entries. I will be packing my Convention Backpack that I have documented in a previous blog post.
I’ve signed up to run three games for the end-of-summer event. I had a lot of good responses to my last Basic Fantasy one-shot, so I’ve lined up another one on Friday. According to the scheduling system almost all of the slots are gone. On Saturday I’ll be running a Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition one-shot. The players will be members of the USS Challenger crew. And finally on Sunday I’m running an experiment. I go to these conventions to try out new games. That doesn’t mean that I can’t try running something new as well. So, I’m going to run a “Lets Learn” session where I bring a game that both the GM and players can try out for the first time. For this convention I’ve selected the comedy RPG Ork! 2nd Edition. The players will see if their un-named Orks can survive the gunk pit and sent on a mission against the squishy mans. There are still slots open for these last two games.
Of the games that I’ve signed up to play they include Savage Worlds Deadlands. The GM is the person who gave me a quick demo at the SaltCON Summer and I’m interested to see how it works out at the table. There is also a D&D 5th edition game that has a cat in it, so the person coming with me wanted to play in that game. They also wanted to play Fallout with me so we will be at that table on Saturday.
I know it doesn’t sound like many games. But SaltCON End-of-Summer is only three days instead of the spring event which has four. But, I’m looking forward to sitting down with some friends (or soon-to-be new friends) and throwing some dice. I wonder if I’ll find any RPG bargains in the game swap? Look for the after-action report soon.
What should I be on the look out for? Any recommendations for the games I’m going to be playing? 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.
Reaching Day 19 of the RPGaDAY 2024 Challenge and our topic is Sensational Session. This one is a little vague. Yesterday we had “Memorable moment of Play” which is just about the same thing. So I’m going to talk about what I think would make for a sensational session.
In my humble opinion, a sensational session is where everyone (GM included) has something to do that contributes to the game in a timely manner. I’ve played in a WEG Star Wars game that had so many players in it, my character could take his turn and then I could take a 15-20 minute nap before needing to do something again. I’ve played in a Cyberpunk game where the hacker had a mission to complete, so the rest of us left to get some food. These are not good sessions.
Now that I’ve been typing up this blog post, I think the RPG that has succeeded in giving everyone the opportunity to play no matter the scenario is Star Trek Adventures. They had the concept of a “Secondary Character” that you can create before hand or create on the fly. If you are playing the Conn officer on a Starfleet vessel and there is an away team going to the planet on a rescue mission, instead of the player being bored, they could create a secondary character that is a member of the security team.
Sure, there might be sessions that are geared more towards one or two players, but remember that there are other players at the table that have taken just as much time and effort to be present for the gaming session. With how limited our gaming time seems to be, lets make sure that everyone gets something sensational out of them.
Feedback from a reader: Phil Hatfield on MeWe responded to my Quick to Learn post noting that he thought MiniSix was an easy to use game systems. It looks like it is free on DriveThruRPG so I’m going to check it out. He also stated that the FATE system was very simple. This is one I keep hearing about, but never had a chance to try.
Do you have any thoughts on what makes for a sensational session? 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.
For Day 12 of the RPGaDAY 2024 Challenge and the subject is an RPG with a well supported campaign. This makes sense since yesterday’s topic was RPG one-shots.
Now I haven’t ran any published campaigns. I’ve created a few for Star Trek and other RPGs. However I’ve been tempted to run a few. At the last SaltCON I picked up two boxed sets that were different campaigns. But the answer that I’m going to post today is the Shackleton Expanse that Modiphius released for the Star Trek Adventures RPG. The game designers set this up so it could be run as a Federation campaign, or a Klingon campaign or a mixture of both. I thought that was an excellent idea since they had both the standard core rulebook and the Klingon core rulebook available.
Additional feedback received from readers: From the MeWe social media site I had readers talk about some of my posts. Phil Hatfield mentioned that the RPG he had played the most could have been FASA Star Trek, Twilight 2000 or WEG Star Wars. He had also listed Twilight 2000, the Hollow Earth Expedition and Star Trek Adventures as a game with really good artwork. Phil Hatfield responded to the Easiest To Play entry with the FATE System and Star Wars WEG. Phil also mentioned that for One-Shots the he had run some good ones for Star Wars and Chill. I think I got all of them from MeWe comments. If I missed one, sorry about that. But thank you for reading my blog.
Can you recommend a good campaign guide for an RPG? 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.
For Day 11 of the RPGaDAY 2024 Challenge we’ve been tasked to talk about RPGs with well supported one-shots. Since I’ve been volunteering to GM games at SaltCON, I’ve become more and more interested in one-shots that I can run an a four-hour block.
I’ve created a few one-shots that I used to introduce my daughter’s 5E playing friends to OSR. I also had to do a mashup of Top Gear meets a Star Trek: Lower Decks style crew. I need to get these polished up and published for other GMs to use. Yes bad Carl, not doing as much writing as you need to do.
Of the one-shots that I’ve pulled for usage, I’d have to say that the Adventure Anthologies put out by the Basic Fantasy RPG community has helped a lot. If you reach out to this community on their message board, discord or facebook page, they will respond quickly to any questions.
The Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition Quickstart also has a good one-shot that I’ve used to get new players into the game. I’ve been able to run it for members of my Star Trek club, but I haven’t had a chance to run it at a con yet. Yet being the keyword.
I plan to run a one-shot for Ork! 2nd Edition at the next SaltCON. So I should have more to report on that soon.
What one-shots have you ran? Any suggestions for running one? 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.
