See how one group of players combined Star Trek Adventures (2e) RPG with Captain’s Log Solo RPG and the Federation/Klingon War Tactical Campaign rulesets to maximize their gaming pleasure.

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Author: @fluor on Discord

Lately, I’ve been experimenting with more improvisation in my games, so when the opportunity arose to play Star Trek Adventures (STA), I decided not to prepare any story in advance. Instead, I packed the Captain’s Log and the Federation-Klingon Tactical Campaign into my backpack. My players were already familiar with the campaign mode, having once played it fully (only tactical missions, no mission briefs, and scenarios between stages of the war). This time, we wanted to explore something different, rather than replaying the first season of Disco’s war.

The rules from Captain’s Log and the ability to draw new opponents to replace the Klingons were a lifesaver. A few rolls later, it was clear: the fish-people known as the Xatania had excellent eyesight and long reptilian necks. Their behavior is characterized by ambushes, and they move on large organic plant-technical ships. The community creation table in Captain’s Log, which we typically use to determine what a community can offer to the Federation (e.g., for trade or alliance contributions), helped us understand what the Xatania sought from the Federation. It turns out they were interested in stellar phenomena.

To add a suitably hostile touch to the Xatania, we decided they were keen on the scientific study of stellar anomalies, but as avid experimenters, they did not just seek out phenomena—they produced them. The Federation worlds provided the perfect setting for their activities, and unfortunately, their fishy ethics justified such behavior. When Federation stars in the border worlds started going supernova, the threat to the inhabited worlds became quite evident.

With our opponent defined, we moved on to preparing the campaign by generating starting Points of Interest (POIs) and assets. For the latter, we added some variety. The Tactical Campaign contains rules for easily converting character cards into assets, so instead of drawing them from a prepared table, we used a random NPC generator. The BCHolmes generator, commonly used for character creation, has a useful function for creating new NPCs.

Some of the POIs (campaign missions) that were randomly selected were related to the war against the Klingons, but converting them was as simple as replacing the word “Klingon” with “Xatania.” After laying out the initial missions, we began assigning assets to the appropriate tasks. One of the POIs had an astronomical difficulty of Military 4 (renowned captain), making it perfect for story-wise play.

We took our regular characters, and after a quick conversion to the 2nd edition (still incomplete, as the corebook is yet to be released), we started playing. Here again, Captain’s Log proved invaluable, as I only knew the mission profile without any details. Thanks to Captain’s Log, it was possible to draw a location in the realm of dreams, specifically in a dream projection sent by independently acting aliens. Captain’s Log turned out to be a very useful tool for conducting a regular session, helping clarify, add, or complicate elements as needed.

The mission was successful, though incomplete, as we couldn’t capture the enemy general (he will return 😀).

Will we be able to end the conflict with the Xatania? We don’t know yet, having only played the first stage out of nine planned. I’m still pondering how to determine the war’s outcome mechanically. I think we’ll count the used progression points, and if we buy five expansions, the war will end positively for the Federation. Conversely, if there are five escalations earlier, the Xatania will win. There can also be a draw if the allotted campaign time expires.

I’m glad I was able to test the game on three different levels: campaign mode, regular session mode, and generating prompts from Captain’s Log. Each added something new to our story 🖖