On day 9 of the 2026 #Character Creation Challenge I’m going to use a Star Trek RPG that I haven’t looked at yet. Star Trek Adventures- Captain’s Log by Modiphius. This is a solo RPG book from the makers of Star Trek Adventures. This is actually my first time looking through the PDF, I can see why another STA fan I know liked it. Lots of random charts that could be used in different ways.
Since this book came out before STA2e, is it more like Star Trek Adventures 1st Edition? From what I’ve heard, it’s more slimmed down than STA1e. So let’s take a look at the character creation process that starts on page 91. I’m going to use the Lifepath method for this character.
So the same attributes and disciplines are present in Captain’s Log as they are in STA1e. Control, Daring, Fitness, Insight, Presence and Reason (I explain these a little bit more (using D&D terms) in my STA2e character creation) for the attributes. Command, Conn, Security, Engineering, Science and Medicine for the character’s disciplines. I’ve always liked these in the STA style games because we’ve seen Starfleet officers perform duties outside of their department when the needs arise. I get a starting score of 7 for each attribute and 1 for each discipline. Step one is to select the species for this character. There are die rolls to create a random character which I’m going to use. First, is the era, which came up TNG. Scrolling down to the TNG list, I rolled a Kazon. Wow, I wasn’t expecting that, but let’s roll with it and added the attribute adjustments for the character.
Next step is the Environment, or where the character was raised. I rolled an Isolated Colony. Perhaps this Kazon isn’t like the others? This gave the character his first value which I picked “If I need it, I can do it.” I also picked the attribute and discipline increase from the suggestions for the setting. Also part of this step is the condition which ranged from utopian to total war. Another random roll resulted in Asceticism and Introspection or a simple life not by lack but by choice. What type of Kazon colony was this? Probably one of the factions that fled instead of trying to fight the stronger ones. They must have found a place overlooked by the other factions and tried to keep things simple as to not attract attention to themselves. This also resulted in another value for the character “Keep is simple”, another attribute and discipline increase.
Now we are onto Step Three, the early outlook of the character. How they were raised and educated before they became the person on the character sheet. The random roll for Upbringing resulted in Diplomacy and Politics. Perhaps this character’s parents were the leaders of the faction that founded the isolated colony. Did he accept it or rebel against it? Odds = yes, evens = no. Yes, it is with the roll of a 7. I added the increase to the character’s attributes and disciplines to my notes and selected his first Focus (specialty skill). I picked one that I thought a Kazon might need in a cutthroat political environment. Aspirations is the next sub-step in Step Three. What drives the character. Wait, I read this wrong. I pick one of three options, so I don’t use aspirations since I already used Upbringing (that’s what I get for thinking this was just an off-shoot of STA1e). I’ve already rolled so I’m not going back to change anything. Just to make sure I didn’t screw up, I went back and looked again at Step Two. After the re-read it looks like I did that right. Gah, I’ve got to make sure I’m clear on the steps before proceeding.
Step Four is the Education of the character. Checking to see if I have one path or multiple paths here. There are multiple paths here but there is a random table on which I rolled Diplomatic Training (this is a weird Kazon) which only has two tracks. Diplomatic Corps or Honorary Status, of which I rolled the later. It says that the character had an illustrious career (in doing what?) and was named a diplomat. The parents ran the colony administration as a family business of which the character participated in. When they passed on, the oldest sibling took over the colony, but didn’t want the character around for one reason or another (perhaps this is a plot point for something in the future) so he was sent off to be a representative to another colony. Yea, that’s the ticket. I added the Value of “I’ll take on the burden so my colony doesn’t.” I also added the Attributes, Disciplines and Focuses.
The Career Length is Step Five. There is another random table that I’ll stick with since the randomness has been interesting so far. Is this character a Novice, Experienced or a Veteran, and the d20 says Experienced. Several years in the political game apparently. This results in a Value of which I picked “Planning can help you with the unexpected.”
Step Six gives us two Career Events that has happened to the character. These pivotal moments will give us some additional stats for the sheet. The first randomly rolled event was Lauded by Another Culture. He earned some praise from a non-allied culture and are now considered a friend to them. Talaxians, the are Talaxians in the same neighborhood of space as the Kazon, so he did something that impressed them? What was it? Heck if I know. I think I’ll leave that for a possible flashback scenario. But he now knows some Talaxian traders very well who will help him out. I added the increase to the Attribute and Discipline and gained the focus of Talaxian Culture (as per the book). The second random event was Special Commendation. Again, weird for a Kazon. Sticking with the aliens of the region, a Trabe attack on a Kazon Maje from another sect resulted in the ship being severely damaged and the Character’s survival skills helped save the Maje’s life. However the Trabe despise the Character now. Added again to the three items listed above with the focus being more generic.
The last step includes the Finishing Touches. We get to add one more Value of which I picked “Never trust the Trabe.” I also get to increase two Attributes and two Disciplines by 1. Checking to make sure I had everything the book instructs me to make sure my Attributes all added together come up to 56. And somehow I had one extra, so I’ll just knock one down. Added together all of the Disciplines should total 16, and again I had one extra (where did I screw up at?) so I knocked one down. I was correct on the four Values, but I was short by two focuses (again I don’t know where I screwed up at) so I went back and added the missing two at random. Next came the Assignment and it listed a bunch of Starfleet positions. I don’t know if the civilian positions were overlooked or what, so I just put down Diplomat/Spy. There is no rank for civilians.
I think I’m also supposed to put together the stats for a starship. But considering the lack of time I have right now, I’ll skip this part and come back to it. Especially since he’s not on a Starfleet ship. I dubbed this character Valltex of the Kazon-Pikaar and transferred my notes to the character sheet. While I was adding things, I noticed there was a spot for equipment, so I just jotted down some simple items.
Afterthoughts:
I had actually picked up the PDF on DriveThruRPG with the credits that I had earned there so I could use it in a challenge, but I’ve always had another ST game to use. Well this year I decided that I wasn’t going to wait and for the first time I’ve looked at this book. Why? Well I’m not big on solo roleplaying. Table top gaming has always been a social activity for me. Getting together with friends, eating bad food and telling jokes as we threw the dice. Eventually I’m going to get the dead-tree version of this book, and I was thinking that I was going to use it then. But something told me to make one now, and perhaps it’s because I need to buckle up and try a few different solo games. If I do for Captain’s Log, I’ll make a real Starfleet character.
With my Star Trek RPG focus being on STA2e, I don’t know if I’d do any homebrewing for Captain’s Log. Perhaps I’ll change my mind after I’ve had a chance to go through a solo session or two. I did see how there were some differences from STA1e and building blocks to STA2e.
Additional Notes:
By following the hashtag #CharacterCreationChallenge on Mastodon, I was able to find another blog participating in the challenge. I’ve added Esoteric Renaissance to the list. If I’m missing anyone, please send me the URL.
Coming Up Next:
Tales from the Loop
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