New to Star Trek Adventures

Star Trek Adventures
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Ok, as an introduction, I’m new to this game and the forum here. I have been playing for years and have been Gming off and on for a while. My normal preferred game is Troll Lord Game’s C&C and other derivatives of the siege engine.

My normal Monday night internet group mentioned maybe wanting to try a Sci Fi game some time in the future, and then I saw the Bundle of Holding on the Star Trek, so I bought it to give the rules a look over in case the group wants to try it.

I’ve never played an 2d20 based games, so I’m still trying to wrap my head around the rules, but they do look intuitive enough that I can muddle through them easy enough. I do like the idea of building momentum and your successes being able to help the rest of the group out down the road. That and virtues and determinations . I’m sure I’ll have questions on them, but I do like the idea of them in the game.

Now for the setting, I will admit I’m probably an oddity around here. I did grow up loving the original series of Star Trek, and then in high school I liked the Next Generation. However, I went into the military before the end of that series, and I was in a unit that had a high training and deployment rate later on, so I saw very little of Deep Space and even less of Voyager. So a lot of the background in the setting, and the cannon being discussed here, is foreign to me. Heck I had to do a wiki search to even figure out who the Cardassian and the Dominion was while reading the setting info in the book.

With that, if ask anything completely noobish that is common knowledge to most here, please forgive me in advance.

Now that the intro is taken care of.

Assuming that I am the one picked to DM for the group if we ever do switch from our current game, what are the must have things that help new GMs and players as they learn the game (outside of the main book of course) ? Are there any key GM and player aids or hand outs that are clutch that you suggest for new players? I do have the entire bundle of holding package, so there is a lot I do have, but I’m still trying to gork the rules and haven’t delved into anything else yet. If they are in the bundle, what are they, and if there is more out there than what is in the bundle, where can I find it.

Also, are there any must have resources you all use outside of what is in the Bundle of Holding package ? Things like ship lay outs/maps, world summaries, NPC sources and idea minds – either cannon or non cannon.

Oh yeah, the by the book setting. With it being set in 2371, and there being so many things going on or on the edge of kicking off, it is more than I can handle trying to learn the setting from my limited background. However, one of my favorite Next Generation episodes was when the Enterprise C came through the time anomaly, and then went back to sacrifice themselves to stop the alternate time line’s long Klingon war. I always like the idea of having a game around that time frame where the Klingon and Star Fleet were stepping back from the brink of war and learning to become … not enemies … (It reminds me of when I was a new Airman and we hosted some Russians , then years later when my unit did lots of training with Czech and other old Eastern Block forces).

With that, what would I need to set the game in that era instead of by the book? I know the rules will be the same, and the races introduced in the Next Generations and later aren’t present. However, what else will be changed. Of course the lare ships will also be absent, but I think I can muddle through some google searches to find ships from that time frame (think being key there att). Even with that though, what are key events in cannon from that time frame that I would need to know about.

Oh yeah, with my mindset from the military, I will have to change a little from normal ‘Star Trek’ mind set – The away team of the Captain and Chief Science and Medical Officer going down into complete unknowns and in danger. So, if I do run this, the group will probably be made up of Junior Officers or young NCOs instead of the ship Captain. That plus extra supporting characters to make an away team more realistic. With that, are there any major changes from btb I need to expect to come up as we play? Also, What are small ships that they would be assigned to when patrolling from a star base or on escort duty? Everyone knows the big ships like the Constitution , but it would be to easy for a group of Lts and Jr NCOs to get lost in a crowed 400 + crewed ship. So, if I’m going to change the focus down to a lower level, I’ll need ideas on the types of ships they would be able to operate on and shine on.

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First: Welcome! :slight_smile:

Considering the Era you want to play in, you might consider buying the Alpha Quadrant supplement. Beta Quadrant that is included in the Bundle of Holding, is probably of more value to your campaign, but you will find some iconic races of The Original Series and The Animated Series and information on Federation member worlds.

This seems an ideal campaign for a campaign on a Miranda Class Starship. In Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, the ship Khan captures, is a Miranda class. It has been in use during The Original Series and is still in use during The Next Generation (and even Deep Space Nine), so it’s a perfect fit on the timeframe you want to play in.
Plus, it’s crew compartment is only 26–35, ensuring the players won’t get “lost” in a 400+ crew ship and also allowing for the occasional staff officer to join away missions (not having enough red-shirts has its advantages :wink: ).

I’m afraid that “the lost years” as some in this forums call the time period you want to set your campaign in, are hardly covered by the supplements we have seen until today. But you’re free to submit a request to the Official Product Wishlist in this forum. Maybe (and if it’s within Modiphius’ Licence!) the producers will think about a supplement dealing with this era. I would like to see that, too. :slight_smile:

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The Command division book has more ships like the Centaur and Ambassador classes but also they have a whole bunch of shuttles and small craft including attack fighters. Also swing by continuing mission they have homebrew ships that might work for you.

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If you go with a Miranda class this is a great deck plan: https://www.cygnus-x1.net/links/lcars/sd-miranda-nx-1833.php

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Hello! Welcome aboard, @Lurker

I really love the aspects of the ST:A system you mention, especially values and their interaction with determination. Remember that the best values are those you can see positive and negative uses for, and can potentially be challenged for character growth. Many GMs keep a list of all their PCs values handy.

I think the idea of setting a campaign on the ‘lower decks’ is great. It requires a little bit of modification to the standard rules; page 203 of the CRB has a little guidance. Rules as written state that the crew of the players’ ship are exclusively their domain and not the GMs, so they’ll need to prepare supporting characters for the senior staff. With that said, I know a lot of GMs do run NPCs on their starships and I think that’s fine too so long as you throw your players into situations where they have agency; the scale of your campaign is just smaller, and the ship’s senior staff take on a role more like the Admiralty in a traditional game.

While there’s very little official guidance for setting a campaign in the Lost Era (that’s the big ol’ period from the end of the last TOS movie to the beginning of TNG), we can extrapolate quite a bit. The signing of the Khitomer Accords leads to relative peace with the Empire, and presumably some Federation aid. The Romulans certainly engage in some meddling to covertly disrupt the peace and prevent a closer alliance (ironically expediting said alliance in the Enterprise-C incident at Nerendra). At some point the Federation makes first contact with the Cardassians which eventually leads to a bloody war. They also fight a war with the Tzenkethi, of which details are scarce.

Beyond that, I’d expect a renewed period of exploration and discovery, with plenty of room to come up with your own events.While non-canon, you may find some inspiration in the synopses of the Lost Era novels. The period’s a big ol’ playground with few firmly established events, so there’s lots of room to get creative!

Most of the starships likely to be operating in this period are already available to us in the CRB and Command Division supplement. Excelsiors are the mainstay heavy cruiser and long range explorer. The Miranda sees use in pretty much all roles, and proves to be such an excellent design (and produced in such huge numbers) that Starfleet is still using them nearly a hundred years after USS Miranda left spacedock! The fast, four-nacelled Constellations are in active service and you’ll probably see a few surviving refit Constitutions. The Centaur was the excelsior-era’s answer to the Miranda but there weren’t as many, and it was never as successful. The Oberth-class science vessel is ubiquitous, and another type we still see in service in the 2360s. From probably some time in the 2320s or 30s, we see the introduction of the big Ambassador class which is Starfleet’s largest ship until the launch of USS Galaxy.

It’s a great era for starship design. If you are looking for a smaller vessel type, I’d agree with @MisterX that the Miranda is a great bet, and one of my favourite starships. In addition to the suggested deck plan from @Spence I found these absolutely gorgeous ones from Federation Frontiers which I’m sort of obsessed with: https://www.cygnus-x1.net/links/lcars/miranda-class-cruiser.php

As regards the crew compliment, I believe Memory Alpha’s 26-35 estimate is based on a supply ship and science vessel in the late 24th Century. A fully-crewed Miranda in its late 23rd or early 24th Century heyday would probably have a couple of hundred people aboard.

For your suggested mission profiles, Constellation, Miranda and maybe Centaur class starships are all Scale 4 and could all potentially see service as escort or patrol ships operating out of a starbase.

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I like the idea of a “lost years” campaign. The problem you will have is that what we know of that era is sparse, and widely scattered across other Trek franchises.

That said there’s nothing that says you can’t put the currently published adventures in that era.

The only slight variation I take with the Living Campaign is: I don’t adjust the ship to the mission or vice versa. You’re assigned a ship, and whatever the universe throws at you, it throws at you.

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@CaptWebster
Nice Miranda plan.

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All, thanks for the replies

Rgr on nice deck plan thanks much on that!

I’ll admit I’m running a little blind here with no experience with the system and very limited knowledge of the setting (compared to the norm here), but the more I read and think about it, the more I do like the ‘lower deck’ group and The Lost Years era.

Having been a SNCO that worked in a HQ and was a team NCO, I know what it is like to have a higher HQ making big peace chess moves and leaving the individual decisions up to the team - fits the lower deck perfectly, so that will be a better fit for me than the normal default level of play.

Now to get spun up on the limited info on the wars at that time and those specific ships.

Again thanks !

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Just in case you didn’t already stumble upon it: p. 127 of the Core Rulebook has a sidebar on how to create NCOs. I could swear that there even was another, more elaborate text somewhere, but a quick search did not reveal it, so it’s probably just my mind playing tricks on me. :slight_smile:

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You might like this overview of the Starfleet uniform which was in use for most of the lost era (up to some time in the 2350s when the TNG uniform appeared). Note separate uniforms for enlisted personnel and commissioned officers. It includes maybe the only canonical separate rank insignia for NCOs.

(We do see Senior Chief Petty Officer insignia on O’Brien later in DS9, but no other variants are seen on-screen)

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NICE, great info on the uniforms , thanks !

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The rest can be deduced from O’Brien’s rank insignia.
BTW ENT had rank insignia for enlisted personal (but not for petty officers).

But only because they reused the movie uniforms. It is not very realistic that they used the same type of uniform for nearly seventy years!

Notice that they do not have a petty officer 3rd class and only the highest crewman rank has a rank insignia.

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Quite true, and what I do in my own campaign! However many sources are hesitant to speculate, including our own core rule book.

Perhaps the Federation Council abolished the Starfleet Bureau of Changing Our Uniforms Every Ten Years after the TMP debacle, and it took this long for everyone to get bored enough of maroon to risk re-establishing it…

@Lurker I’m glad you’re finding the info helpful, and do let us know how you get on!

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They are not allowed to …

I doubt it. In my opinion the second DIS, the TOS/TAS and the TMP uniforms are identical. So they used the same uniform for ca. 25 years.
I also believe that there had been atleast two different types of uniform between the maroon and the TNG uniforms, which BTW had always been the ones we have seen in TNG, VOY and the first seasons of DS9.
But that’s just my opinion.