An accounting of all the Star Trek Adventures I’m running nowadays

I just thought I’d post a captain’s log, as it were, detailing the two campaigns I’m running for Star Trek Adventures.

The dual campaigns – one with my home group and the other online via Google Hangouts – serve different purposes, and I’m trying hard to differentiate them in various ways to give me as wide of a perspective as possible about the strengths and weakness of the game system. Both campaigns help me learn the game in different ways and, with some luck, also will help me write more official scenarios as well.

I’ll start with my home group’s campaign, set aboard the Constellation-class USS Gemini.  My home group has trudged along with more or less the same personnel since the release of “The Lost Mine of Phandelver” kicked off the 5e era back in 2014. We started with D&D, then I ran a Last Unicorn Games Star Trek campaign set in the immediate aftermath of Star Trek Nemesis, then switched back to D&D for a while and now we’re playing Star Trek Adventures.

I set the Gemini campaign in the Shackleton Expanse so I can run any of the Modiphius Living Campaign scenarios, plus any of the standalone scenarios from “These Are The Voyages, Vol. 1.” My goal here is to sample as many of the officially released scenarios as possible to get a sense of what ingredients work well at the table. I also occasionally use my home group as guinea pigs to playtest ideas I might include in pitches to Modiphius for new official scenarios. The campaign feels much like the original series or The Next Generation so far, with episodic storytelling and not a lot of continuity from one scenario to the next (though that’s not always the case).

I’ve run six sessions with the Gemini group so far (with an seventh scheduled for this weekend), and the highlight of the campaign for me so far was running “Biological Clock.” Watching the players immediately dive into the Prime Directive ramifications surrounding Optera IV without any effort whatsoever on my part put a big smile on my face. It felt just like that scene in Captain Picard’s quarters during TNG’s ‘Pen Pals.’ During that scene, the crew debates the limits of the Prime Directive as they determine the fate of Sarjenka and her entire species. It was good drama and central to Star Trek’s philosophy.

The second campaign I’m running contrasts with my home group in some important ways. First off, it’s the first full-on campaign I’ve run over Google Hangouts. I’d run one-shots before, but scheduling always seemed too difficult to put together anything more. And, sure enough, there have been some drop-outs and some scheduling snafus. But, undaunted, we press on. I’ve now run three sessions with the online group, and you can watch them all on my YouTube Channel here, here and here.

The online game takes place aboard Starbase 23, near the Romulan Neutral Zone. For this campaign, I’m coming up with totally original scenarios and encounters each time. I don’t want to spoil anyone out there by running official adventures. I’m also taking a page out of Deep Space 9’s playbook by allowing each scenario to lead into the next and building long-form story arcs. The plot of the last two sessions, for instance, has centered around a pair of cloned humans genetically modified by the Tal Shiar to act as viral carriers.

The highlight of the online campaign took place during the second episode, titled “Plague Ship.” The Andorian engineer mounted a one-man rescue effort to save a child aboard a doomed freighter. The freighter’s engines were on the verge of a catastrophic breach. The engineer attempted repairs, but time ran out. An emergency beam out saved him, but the explosion left the Player Characters in dire straits.

Beyond that, I’ve also run the odd session of Star Trek Adventures at my local game store. I’d do that more often if I felt I had a good scenario to run that could be played in two hours or so for new players. “Signals” and the adventure included in the core book work alright for that purpose, but I can’t help but feel neither one gives first-time players the real sense that they’re taking part in an episode of Star Trek. I’ll elaborate on that later if the opportunity arises.

All told, I’ve run 10 sessions of Star Trek Adventures since the final core rules became available. I’m having a great time learning the ins and outs of the system, and it’s always a pleasure visiting the Final Frontier and telling brand-new stories.

Itching for a Fight

The Star Trek Adventures core rulebook emphasizes that violence should be used only as a last resort for Starfleet crews, and rightly so. Star Trek has always featured heroes that prefer to think their way out of fights rather than immediately firing phasers. But sometimes a good fight makes for an exciting story (and an opportunity for a scene or two of Captain Kirk with a torn shirt).

My home gaming group began “Signals,” the adventure included in the free Star Trek Adventures quickstart guide, during our last session, and the story left off just as the Player Characters crashed a shuttle on the surface of a planet after encountering an electromagnetic storm. The players quickly learned a crew of Romulans also had crashed on the planet, and a fire fight had just broken out between the Romulans and the Player Characters as we ended our session.

To prep for our next game, I reviewed the section in the core rulebook dealing with combat and put together some notes to make the fight as dynamic and engaging for my players as possible. Below, you’ll find my expanded guide for the encounter. Feel free to adapt it for your own campaign.

Setting the stage (Gamemasters may read or paraphrase the following text to start the scene): You regain consciousness unsure of how long you were out. It could have been mere moments or it could have been longer. As your vision clears, you take in the interior of the shuttlecraft, which clearly sustained major damage in the crash landing. The few computer consoles that appear functional flicker, and instruments lie scattered throughout the cabin. A quick check of the propulsion system shows the engines are completely offline. This shuttle isn’t going anywhere without repairs.

Once the Player Characters have gathered their wits and examined the interior of the shuttle, they’ll likely open the shuttle’s hatch to find out what’s going on outside. Once that happens, the Gamemaster should read or paraphrase the following:

The hatch opens onto a rocky, arid plain beneath a red sky swirling with bright discharges of electromagnetic energy. Jagged formations of rock dot the landscape, and the shuttle has left a trail of wreckage strewn around the crash site. Without warning, a sizzling bolt of disruptor energy blasts the ground immediately in front of you and a voice cries out, “That’s far enough, Starfleet! We’ve already claimed this planet in the name of the Romulan Star Empire. We hereby order you to drop your weapons and turn over your spacecraft.”

A trio of Romulan soldiers has trained disruptors on the Player Characters from long range. Two of the Romulans lie prone behind a crag while the third stands nearby, but still remains within reach of the crag and benefits from the cover it provides. It’s the standing Romulan who shouted for the Player Characters to surrender. These Romulans were part of a crew of scoutship crew who crashed on the planet while investigating a powerful alien energy source they’re interested in harnessing as a weapon. They do not intend to allow Starfleet to claim the energy source and will not negotiate with the Player Characters, making combat likely.

The crags behind which the three Romulans take cover grant 2 [CD] resistance. Targeting the lone standing Romulan for a ranged attack requires a successful Difficulty 2 Control + Security Task. However, successfully making a ranged attack against the two prone Romulans from medium range or further requires a successful Difficulty 3 Task. Additionally, the two prone Romulans may re-roll any number of their Cover dice. However, successful attacks against prone Characters from close range generate two bonus Momentum. The Romulans will stay close to the crag and take advantage of the cover, popping up on their turns to fire disruptor blasts at the Starfleet crew.

A chunk of wreckage from the shuttlecraft came to a rest not far from the rear hatch of the shuttle, and Player Characters can easily take cover behind the debris, granting 2 [CD] resistance. The wreckage lies in the zone adjacent to the shuttlecraft’s hatch, meaning it’s a medium-range distance from Player Characters inside the shuttlecraft. If Player Characters take two of the three Romulans out of the fight, the third will retreat on foot back to the Romulan crash site, where several more of his comrades await.

Currently stranded on the planet, the Romulans intend to steal the Player Characters’ shuttlecraft to get back to Romulan space. They also recognize the value of Starfleet hostages and will attempt to capture the Player Characters rather than kill them. If they succeed in subduing the Player Characters, or if the Player Characters surrender, they may try to contact Starfleet to negotiate a way off the planet.

Gamemasters may consider spending Threat in the following ways during this confrontation:

1.    Reinforcements. Gamemasters may summon more Romulan soldiers to arrive on the battlefield by spending 1 Threat for each additional Romulan agent.

2.    Environmental effect. Gamemasters may spend 2 Threat to trigger a power surge that overloads several of the computer consoles inside the shuttlecraft. Any Characters remaining in the shuttlecraft when the overload occurs take 2 [CD] stress damage due to exploding equipment.

3.    Complication. Gamemasters may spend 2 Threat to create a highly localized electromagnetic discharge that causes all electronic equipment – including phasers, tricorders and communicators – in the affected zone to cease to function. This discharge appears like a bolt of lightning that strikes the ground and creates intensely localized electromagnetic interference for several seconds. Characters may repair affected equipment with a successful Difficulty 2 Control or Daring + Engineering Task.

Resolution
If the Player Characters manage to take any of the Romulans captive, they must complete a Difficulty 4 Persuasion Task to gain any useful information. These Romulans have received training in how to withstand interrogation. However, if the Player Characters succeed in convincing the Romulans to talk, they may learn the following information:

1.    The Romulans came to the planet three days ago to secure the powerful alien energy source and evaluate its usefulness as a weapon.

2.    The Romulan scoutship crashed after encountering intense electromagnetic interference in the upper atmosphere of the planet.

3.    There is a settlement near the energy source that is protected by some sort of energy-reflecting technology, making it difficult for sensors to penetrate the area. The Romulans have made several preliminary incursions to test the settlement’s defenses but have not yet settled on a strategy for a full-on assault.

If the Romulans won the encounter, they take the Player Characters captive and march them back to a camp near the Romulan scoutship’s crash site. The Romulans then pump the Player Characters for information regarding the strange alien power signature and the Shackleton Expanse. The Player Characters will have to come up with a plan to escape from the Romulans. If they’re slow to attempt an escape, the Nelbinar miners, who live in the nearby settlement, may provide an opening by staging a sneak attack on the Romulan camp.

The Nelbinar: Creating an original alien race and homeworld in Star Trek Adventures

Nearly every gamemaster I’ve known loves world building, and Star Trek rpgs offer a unique opportunity to literally invent entire worlds from scratch.

Numerous episodes of Star Trek rely on strange new worlds both as settings and as plot devices to drive stories.  From the planet Minos in TNG, which was taken over by automated weapons systems, to the beautifully realized Pahvo in the most recent episodes of Star Trek Discovery, exotic alien worlds play a huge roll in Star Trek storytelling. So it’s no surprise that Star Trek Adventures offers some advice on creating new races and planets.

As I noted in my previous post about running “Signals,” the adventure scenario included in the free quickstart guide, I felt a mining colony of humans missed an opportunity to offer player characters something more interesting. So when I run the adventure, I substitute an alien mining colony into the adventure. These aliens, which I called the Nelbinar, started in my imagination as nothing more than a Star Trek version of the Svirfneblin, or deep gnomes, from Dungeons & Dragons. I imagined them as a people who send mining crews throughout the Shackleton Expanse looking for new precious materials they can take back to their homeworld to build exquisite feats of architecture. I decided they’d be short in stature, have gray skin and large and pointed ears – all owing to depictions of Svnirfneblins in D&D. One of the best-known Svirfneblin characters from the Forgotten Realms novels had enchanted tools attached to his arms after his hands were cut off, so I decided the Nelbinar, likewise, use cybernetic enhancements to aid them in their work.

From that fairly basic concept, I decided to create the Nelbinar homeworld using the guidance in chapter 10 of the Star Trek Adventures core rulebook, which provides several random tables for planet creation. I had a rough idea of what the Nelbinar homeworld might look like, but I decided to go with whatever random elements the tables turned up as a creative exercise, whether my rolls produced results that matched my original vision of the planet or not.

The process begins with a table determining the planetary type, but I knew the Nelbinar homeworld most likely would have to be Class M to support the evolution of a humanoid race, so I skipped to the next table that focuses exclusively on habitable planetary types. From that table, I rolled a dry desert world, like Vulcan. The next table, on which gamemasters are instructed to roll twice, confers planets with notable features. From that table, I got “warlike primitive inhabitants” and “transcendent inhabitants of great power.” Those two elements left me scratching my head a bit since neither one fits all that well with what I envisioned for the Nelbinar.

I put some thought into it and decided the cybernetic enhancements nearly all members of Nelbinar society use grant the ruling elite of the planet a form of surveillance on the population. The elite compile a huge amount of data about the activities and whereabouts of nearly every member of the species, giving them an almost omniscient view of the planet. So that took care of the “transcendent inhabitants of great power.” But what about the “warlike and primitive” part? I decided that the planet is highly polluted as a result of the species’ limitless drive for construction and development. The Nelbinar pump nearly all of their waste into a large inland sea, where they also send all their criminals, prisoners and undesirables. These prisoners suffer a range of maladies due to their environment, leading to a rough and painful existence on the islands of the sea.

With just those few elements in place, I feel like I’ve got a pretty good grasp of the viewpoint of Nelbinar characters. I’m already visualizing how those pieces might fit together in an episode set on Nelbinar, even though I have no immediate plans for my players to visit the planet. It was a fun mental exercise that makes the Shackleton Expanse (the setting for the Star Trek Adventures living campaign) a little more real in my mind’s eye.

Here’s my complete write-up of the Nelbinar and their homeworld. Feel free to borrow it for your own games, Star Trek or otherwise.

The Nelbinar

Traits:  Nelbinar, Cybernetic enhancements, Indifferent to nature

Overview:  A race of intelligent humanoids with claims on several worlds in the Shackleton Expanse. The Nelbinar dispatch mining teams throughout the region to find unique resources to take back to Nelbinar. Driven by the desire to build their arid homeworld into an engineering marvel, they show no concern for the natural world or environment. Instead, they revere their own ingenuity and technological acumen. They believe their proclivity for innovation will conquer any problem they encounter. Sustainable growth carries no meaning to them.

Appearance:  Nelbinar are short in stature compared to humans, often possessing a slim frame. Their skin is usually a grayish and unhealthy color due to the polluted environment on which they live. Their skin pigmentation is a natural adaptation after generations of being exposed to harsh sunlight on a planet without an ozone layer. They possess large noses and pointed, leathery ears. They often outfit their bodies with cybernetic implants. Goggles that change lighting and enhance visual acuity are common, as are tool-like attachments.

Society: Nelbinar is a desert world, like Vulcan. Nearly all of the planet’s surface – and much of its substrata – features structures developed by the Nelbinar species, made from exotic materials gathered from across the cosmos. Nelbinar spend little time outdoors and do not value nature.

The Engineers, a political elite that design the planet’s more advanced technology, govern much of Nelbinar society and form a ruling class. The cybernetic accessories that virtually all Nelbinar citizens wear also provide the Engineers with a vast dataset on the planet’s population, offering them endless insight into how to they should structure their society, though other societies might consider this level of surveillance an intrusion. This dataset, referred to as the Grid, takes on an almost spiritual meaning to the Nelbinar, and communing with the Grid is reserved only for the most brilliant among the population.

The lone exception to the extensive development that covers Nelbinar is one inland sea, where the Nelbinar dump much of the waste and unwanted byproducts that result from their vast construction efforts. This highly polluted environment features a chain of islands where many of the planet’s convicts and prisoners are sent. The inhabitants of this island chain are warlike and primitive, and many of them suffer from illnesses and psychoses as a result of exposure to toxic compounds.

Ecological niche & impetus toward intelligence: The harsh desert conditions on the surface of the planet favored species that could build elaborate shelters, and that’s exactly where the Nelbinar excel. Their mastery of building with an endless range of materials granted the evolutionary advantages they needed to become the planet’s dominant species. They view their planet as little more than a blank canvass on which to create. The planet gave them little of value, so the Nelbinar have no qualms using their homeworld and its resources as they please.

Dreaming of the Final Frontier: I'm officially a published Star Trek adventure writer!

Remember that episode of Star Trek:  The Next Generation where Data experiments with dreaming? He sees a series of disconnected visions that include a blacksmith and a bird's wing and then he has to piece together what those symbols mean. It's trippy stuff.

Well, one of my own dreams recently came true, and it's got its own Star Trek twist.  A tabletop rpg adventure scenario that I conceptualized and wrote will appear in an officially licensed Star Trek book. For a lifelong Trekkie and tabletop enthusiast, it feels like I just got promoted to captain of the Enterprise after only recently graduating from Starfleet Academy.

My adventure, titled "Biological Clock," is set to ship as part of a beautifully designed hardcover collection called These Are The Voyages:  Mission Compendium Volume1. The pdf is available now for a measly $15, and it's been a consistent top-5 seller at DriveThruRPG.com since it was released several weeks ago.

The book, published for Modiphius Entertainment's brand-spankin' new Star Trek Adventures rpg, also features seven other fascinating scenarios ready for your table. So please beam over to your nearest game store and ask about STA. You won't regret it.

"Biological Clock" poses an ethical dilemma for a Starfleet crew who make first contact with a pair of new species on an unexplored world. Does the Prime Directive allow the players to intervene in a situation where one intelligent species appears to enslave another? Can the Starfleet crew find a way to communicate with a race of aliens who originate beyond the confines of space and time? Well, that's up to you and your gaming group to decide.

I can't stress enough how grateful I am to Star Trek Adventures line editor Sam Webb for his guidance throughout the process of making "Biological Clock" a reality. It was an incredible thrill to see my name listed as an author on such a great-looking and well-designed book.

Here's a teaser image from my adventure. You'll have to read the whole thing to figure out what's going on here. But you can be sure of this:  I'm going to keep writing about Star Trek -- and I'm going to keep dreaming. Game on, and LLAP!