The wait is over! Folks who preordered the Star Trek Adventures 2e Core Rulebook got their digital copies on Wednesday so the book is officially out in the wild! We’ve been very excited here at Continuing Mission to dive into this new edition of the game and this is the first half of our in-depth look!

One thing that’s great about this book (even over and above the first edition) is the emphasis on the expanding franchise of Star Trek, even noting that there are several series underway or just about to drop. The authors encourage you to “make the Star Trek universe your own!” which is a fantastic bit of advice for any setting with established canon. There’s also an emphasis throughout on the breadth of experience and perspective from Star Trek characters and the acceptance inherent in the Federation. It’s a small thing that doesn’t exactly affect the game rules but it sets a tone that’s essential for following the aesthetics at the heart of Star Trek. Of course, non-Federation games won’t have acceptance at the core but there’s also some advice on how to handle that so that the players at least feel comfortable.

The book itself is broken out into three parts with multiple chapters. Each chapter features a character from the U.S.S. Challenger pregen ship to help set the tone. The first is all about the Star Trek universe and has some details that will be new to fans of the first edition’s books, but I’m going to skip ahead in this review to the second part about Playing the Game! We’ll be covering that in detail today and then next time getting into Running the Game and what new elements are in the first setting section.

Game Mechanics

One thing that folks are concerned-slash-frustrated about is a new edition making their previous books “obsolete.” I get that but let me be up front and say the second edition of Star Trek Adventures is definitely backwards-compatible with the first. I think roleplaying game fans are used to thinking about new editions like they’re all Dungeons & Dragons. When that games 3^rd Edition came out (I know I’m dating myself) I had plenty of AD&D books and older that I loved. I figured I’d keep them around as lore resources but in reality I didn’t really use them once I moved onto the new edition, and that was true of D&D 4e and D&D 5e as well.

Most games don’t work like that, though. If you have played through various editions of Vampire: The Masquerade (now on it’s fifth edition) you know that available abilities change and morph but the basic mechanics and how characters roll things doesn’t shift all that much. It’s the same with new editions of everything from the Numenera to Kids on Bikes to The One Ring (which has the most changes of anything in this list). Star Trek Adventures 2e is definitely in this vein: some things are different and options have changed but you could certainly play a 2e character in a 1e game and vice versa.

Tasks are still rolling d20s versus a target number determined by the same six attributes and the same six departments. Difficulties still run 0 to 5 and Focuses, your Focuses improve things in the same way, you still generate Momentum and complications, and you can buy extra dice to improve your chances. In fact there’s a nice flow chart for Attempting a Task in the book and (aside from page number references) you could use it to teach the first edition as well. Even the Momentum spends are the same, though Create a Trait is added because they have a bigger role in this edition (see below). Determination is the same as well, though there’s an option to gain a Special Technique, a Talent that you add just for this scene.

A big shift and welcome is more concrete guidance on Traits in STA. Again, this isn’t new rules per se but more an improvement on what was in the first edition but underutilized. It’s always been the case that rolls in Star Trek Adventures can be affected by character Traits (like “Half-Vulcan” or “Klingon Ambassador”) or by situational Traits (like “Driving Rain” or “Looming Deadline”). If you were an adept Gamemaster or a canny player you could present an argument for a Difficulty being different as a result but there wasn’t anything in the rules about how… until now. Now when thinking about a Difficulty you can think about whether a Trait would make a Task easier (-1 Difficulty), harder (+1 Difficulty), possible (when it wouldn’t normally be), or impossible. There are also Potent Traits which have ratings to them for bigger increases. In other words, while most Traits are rating 1 and step the Difficulty up or down by one step, some do so by 2 or more. You can also use Traits in mechanical ways with specific rules options to use when it makes sense.

There are also Challenges and Extended Tasks with the same mechanics as before (with better guidance on Breakthroughs), and are another part of the game from the very beginning that many stay away from but are actually really awesome. Also, the rules for Extended Consequences first seen in the Gamemaster Guide are in here as well, though I’m waiting until the Gamemastering section next time to discuss them.

Honestly, the only real departures from the original ruleset are in the Conflict section which we’ll see a little farther on.

Character Creation

But first let’s talk about characters! As mentioned, the attributes for characters are the same in 2e as they were in 1e. So are disciplines but now these are termed departments to match up with ships. If you’ve ever asked for a ship’s disciplines or a character’s departments in 1e and then floundered, you know this is a relief. You still have 56 points in attributes, 16 points in departments, six Focuses, four Values, four Talents, and however many Traits you want.

There are a few changes, however. First of all, you get a Species Ability independent from your Talents. While the Andorians, for example, still have two Species Talents of Proud and Honorable and The Ushaan, which you can take if you want but it’s one of your four Talents, all Andorians have an Intense Species Ability giving them bonus Momentum on rolls where you purchased d20s. In terms of what’s available we’ve got the Species from the 1e core book (Andorians, Bajorans, Betazoids, Denobulans, Humans, Tellarites, Trills, and Vulcans), a fewSpecies popular ddue to Discovery, Lower Decks, and Strange New Worlds (Aenar and Orions), and also some Species clearly meant for non-Federation games (Cardassians, Ferengi, Klingon, and Romulans).

Another nod to the expanded scope of the game’s second edition is that a couple Species (namely Bajorans and Orions) are definitely Starfleet-compatible but shown in non-Starfleet clothing., and the section on Species continues with notes on Augments and Cyborgs. It also bears repeating that these are mostly the same as 1e and if you want to add in Changelings, Talaxians, Benzar, or anything else from the books and fan creations you have, just pick one of their Species Talents to be a free Species Ability, make the other(s) a Talent and then you’re off and running.

From choosing a Species (in the Lifepath approach at least) you go on to pick an Environment and Upbringing for the character with similar choices and stat effects. The alternate options presented in the Player’s Guide Chapter 06.30 aren’t here but they would be immediately portable over if you prefer them (I love them, personally). Something that does come from the expansions in the Player’s Guide are different Career Paths so you don’t default to a Starfleet officer anymore. You might be an enlisted Starfleet member, a Starfleet Intelligence officer, someone from the Diplomatic Corps, or a civilian physician, civilian scientists, civilian official, or civilian trader. If you’re set on a Starfleet officer, of course, just don’t roll, but you still have to decide between Command, Operations, or Sciences track.

You next pick Career Experience which is the same (although Young Officer is now the more open Novice) and then two Career Events (the table is rearranged but the look the same to me). A new addition is Pastimes which I think are an answer to the really fun Focuses that everyone likes to throw in. Have you ever had a character with a Klingon Opera Focus or a Cross-Training Focus? They’re great character color but also not likely to come up in play and so it feels like an opportunity wasted. Instead, STA 2e features Pastimes which are purposefully trivial but can be used as a Focus in those rare and unique situations where they become relevant. In practice, you get a seventh Focus at character creation but it has to be something like a creative hobby, trivial knowledge, performance, or sports. You can’t use this on Hand-Phasers or Espionage but you could make it Handball or Knock-Knock Jokes. One mission the GM is going to surprise you with a Denobulan official who loves knock-knock jokes and suddenly you’re King of Diplomacy for one day! It’s a great addition and your pastime count can be unlimited (up to the limit of your group’s patience).

Last of all is the Service Role which includes all the same roles as the original core rulebook (Commanding Officer, Executive Officer, Operations Manager, Chief Engineer, Chief of Security, Flight Controller, Science Officer, Chief Medical Officer, Ship’s Doctor, Ship’s Counselor, and Communications Officer) and a few regular additions (Navigator and Chief Tactical Officer), as well as some roles for non-Federation crews from the Player’s Guide (Bodyguard, Expert, Intelligence Agent, Merchant, Political Liaison, and Translator). Even though these seem geared more towards a crew outside of Starfleet, you could also have any number of these aboard a Starfleet ship. Relatedly, there are several very helpful tables for randomly generating technobabble and medical-babble in the rules section.

Here, though, we wind up with Rank and then review everything with a Creation in Play section very similar to the 1e version but streamlined. I can’t do Talents full justice in a large review like this so look for a more focused review of them later. Right now I’ll just say that they’re generally just the same with some different specifics. Character Advancement is still done through Milestones and Character Arcs while the newer Reputation system first seen in the Klingon Empire Core Rulebook has replaced the original version, which I think no one will shed a tear for. One thing that I really love is that there are two columns for Influence effects at different Reputation levels: one for a hierarchical organization like Starfleet and one for a Civilian operation.

Starship Creation

While this is another area where the rules diverge someone from the first edition, starships start out pretty much the same. There are the same six systems and the same six departments as always, they assist characters onboard but otherwise act like locations, they default to having a relevant Focus, and they have Starship Talents and Scale of 1-6 (normally). Right off the bat this means you can use all the spaceframes and NPC ships from the first edition in your 2e game without issue.

Making a ship in STA 2e has you start with a spaceframe like before. Here we have many  spaceframes from the original core rulebook (Constitution, Excelsior, Galaxy,and Intrepid classes), some classes to expand into different eras (NX and Ambassador), and some fan favorites (the California and Sovereign classes). For the classes seen before the stats are nearly the same with a few tweaks of numbers up or down one and some Talents becoming special rules (like the Saucer Separation for Galaxy-class ships… you can’t just slap that on a Constitution ship). A surprising addition is the Constitution III class seen in Star Trek: Picard as the Titan-A’s class. It’s also surprising that the Akira, Constellation, Defiant, Miranda, and Nova classes are not here, but as things are pretty much the same in terms of what a spaceframe gives you all the 1e spaceframes can be used immediately. Lastly for spaceframes there are a handful of non-Federation frames here as well! The Klingon D7 and B’rel classes, the Romulan T’liss and D’Deridex classes, the Cardassian Galor class, and the Ferengi D’Kora class are all available as starships for the crew.

EDIT: There’s actually a few more spaceframes and some more mechanics in the Game Toolkit so check out the review of that book before you go homebrewing!

The Mission Profiles in this book are expanded as well, with many from the 1e core rulebook (Crisis and Emergency Response, Multirole Explorer, Pathfinder and Reconnaissance Operations, Scientific and Survey Operations, Strategic and Diplomatic Operations, and Tactical Operations) and others from the Utopia Planitia sourcebook (Battlecruiser,  Espionage/Intelligence, Patrol, and Flagship). Even without the Technical Test-Bed Mission Profile from the 1e book this is almost twice as many profiles compared to the previous core rulebook! These profiles have the same setup as in the first edition (a set of base department ratings, and pick one Talent from a list) but also boost one system by one point. So if you want to update your favorite 1e Mission Profile (like the Test-Bed or something like Reserve Fleet from Utopia Planitia), just add that system boost and call it a day.

One last update for STA 2e has to do with the starship Trait. Like the character Traits this has expanded guidelines and is incorporated into the ship’s optional Service Record (or “Record of Battle” if you’re Klingon). You always added a Trait to ship to reflect it’s affiliation (such as Starfleet Ship or Klingon Ship) and probably still should but Service Record adds a new Trait and a new Special Rule. Before you were encouraged to add something interesting like “Prototype” or “Legacy Vessel” to add color but if you pick one of the six options here you have some special rules to apply as well. An Aging Relic might be past its prime but has a bigger Crew Support. A Dependable Workhorse or Hope Ship has mechanics for shifting the situation away from trouble while Legendary ships have better Supporting Characters right out of the gate (everyone wants on the Enterprise, for instance). Lastly, Survivor of X is for ship’s that made it through a conflict (such as the Federation-Klingon War) and get a bonus in the first round of battle as a result.

This chapter ends with Refits (which work the same) and Starship Talents, which are too detailed to get into as part of a general review. Like character Talents, look for more on them in the future!

Conflict Basics

To end the review today, let’s take a look at Conflict in STA 2e and how rolling and play at the table is different. There’s been a refrain throughout the process of promoting the second edition that it’s the same rules as the first edition but with improvements and streamlining based on experience. I hope you can tell from this review so far that that’s absolutely true, but let me focus in on some of those changes now.

As in the first edition core rulebook, there’s a distinction here between social conflicts and personal (violent) conflicts. They have parallel structures but are outlined separately to draw some distinctions. You roll (sometimes in opposition and sometimes against a static Difficulty) and failing the roll causes you Stress. You have a Stress track based on your Fitness (not Security by default any more) but NPCs, including most Supporting Crew (those without Values), do not. If your Stress track is maxed out then you are Fatigued which means everything is +1 Difficulty and one of your attributes (your choice) is shut down meaning you automatically fail any rolls based on it.

There are guidelines for Rest to recover Stress (a few minutes breather to recover some, an hour or more to recover a bunch, or sleep to recover all) but if you go over your max Stress then you get a complication instead. We’ll get into combat below but Stress can enter the picture in a number of different physical situations which is really great: climbing a mountain, working on the warp core without a break, and trying to ignore illusions from that psychic alien can all be cases of suffering Stress on a failed roll and the system is set up with that in mind as well.

Types of Conflict

For personal conflict, the kind with weapons, these complications are likely to be Injuries (also taken as a Trait) and when you take an Injury you are also Defeated as in the first edition. You drop unconscious and if it was a Deadly attack (which still causes 1 Threat) then you’re also dying. So overall this is similar to before but with two important switches. First, if you are Defeated and drop unconscious and then someone uses Daring+Medicine to wake you up, you don’t just pop up fine (like other RPGs I could name). You still have your Injury, you still have an attribute shut down, and you still have your Stress maxed out. Second, NPCs do not have a Stress track so if you hit them you can drop them.

This is less simulationist but far more tone-appropriate as you don’t have drawn out fights of exchanging phaser shots like an Ancient West shoutout but instead a tense and quick scene at the height of a mission. Notable and Major NPCs do have the option of spending Threat to act like Stress so the story-critical adversaries have some more staying power but it’s much better overall for the feel of Trek.

Compare that with social conflict, the kind with words and pressure. The biggest compliment that I can think of for an action-oriented RPG is that the options for tense non-combat situations stack up against the options and consequences of combat situations. Compare action movies that are all explosions and bullets with those that present emotional scenes and you will see that relying only on violence for your drama leaves a hollow taste. I’m happy to say, therefore, that STA 2e takes the already fun non-combat drama options of the first edition and builds them into a truly equal system.

In a social conflict  you have two (or more) sides with different agendas. This could be crew members arguing over the best course of action, a Cardassian gul and Klingon commander trying to reach middle ground and avoid war, a Ferengi trader trying to ruin a rival, or a Romulan Tal Shiar agent trying to crack a prisoner’s will and get some answers. When you make your case and roll to see how well your character presents it, the other side can Yield and give in to what you’re asking or they can Resist and argue back. The opposed task of Resisting Persuasion works much like personal conflict (aka combat) and if the other party gets fewer Successes than the party making demands they are going to give in or they take Stress equal to what the demanding party rolled.

This is parallel to combat situations, which is easy to remember and master, and offers the same advantages as the streamlining of combat. This isn’t a combat situation so you won’t take an Injury but you can be Fatigued, shut down an attribute, and have so many complication penalties that you’re effectively defeated. Also, Minor NPCs can be dealt with in a single argument roll (they have no Stress) while Notable and Major NPCs will give in as soon as the GM runs out of Threat or stops wanting to pay the cost of avoiding the hit for story or strategic reasons. Consider too that the situation is even more tense as the same Stress track is used for personal and social conflict so if your away team is trying to negotiate with a band of Klingons and none of the initial arguments are landing, do they give up and turn to phasers? Or do they keep pushing, turning up the temperature and potentially making the fallout worse if things fall apart later? It’s a real life moral dilemma!!!

Also, the social tools from last edition have been made more concrete. Things like Deception were in the first edition book but now deceiving creates a Trait that can used in the more robust social conflict rules above (plus with the more robust Trait rules). Evidence is a Trait as well but it improves your chances rather than reducing your opponents like Deception. Intimidation is a more hostile way to persuade (with worse consequences for failure) while Negotiation is less aggressive so that you can salvage a failed roll but  you also probably make more concessions in the process.

Starship Conflict

Like the Reputation System, there are probably a lot of people excited by changes to how starships battle in the second edition. The first parts of this chapter read similarly to the starship combat from the first edition, with characters at different stations and NPC ships acting based on Scale. These parts of the system I always liked and the presentation here is much better with tables of available actions for each bridge station so that folks in those positions can know their options.

The big change comes with attacks. The first part of these are the same, you roll and decide damage based on the armament, subtract Resistance from the damage dealt, and apply that damage to the shields. In the first edition there was an arcane formula for determining whether the resulting damage caused a breach and how, but it was (frankly) nearly impossible to do right. Instead we have a Shield Track with two Breakthrough points marked. This is just like with an Extended Task (because combat in 2d20 games just is an Extended Task) and the boxes halfway and three-quarters through the track are highlighted.

When a ship hits 50% shields it is shaken which means a minor effect: lose a major action, lose Power, or suffer a complication. When the ship reaches 25% shields it suffers a breach which functions as a Trait (a negative one) and the ship will also get breaches when it has 0% shields and takes any damage. If your total breaches equal half your Scale then a system is destroyed and can’t be used, while breaches equal to Scale mean you’re dead I the water. Boom, done. Already you can see that this is much easier to explain than the previous system, and also easier to adapt to a situation.

Breaches can be whatever you can think of so you can have a Venting Nacelle or Dense Smoke in the corridors, Faulty Targeting or Impaired Comms. If there’s no real disadvantage to downed communication or disabled transporters then those don’t have to come up at all. At the same time, you can double-down on an existing breach to really turn up the heat. Dense Smoke might be less concerning but when it’s Dense Smoke 3 and seriously impacting your PC’s ability to act then it’s a big deal. Likewise, you can have a Hull Breach 3 and Inertial Dampener Failure 2 and it’s much easier than tracking five different breaches but has the same overall effect. Likewise, breaches creating Traits for engine systems can cause a warp core breach but this will come up when it fits the story and not when it would steal the spotlight from other concerns.

Next Time

Phew, what a long review! And we’re only part-way through so stay buckled up. I hope this helps all those curious souls out there who want to know how characters and starships function differently in this game’s second edition. Next time we’ll be looking at some of the items on the GM’s side of things, how and when to utilize the rules we talked about here, some twists to add to things, an example adventure, and the NPCs provided in the 2e core rulebook.

This should also help to outline exactly what the STA team means when they say “you don’t have to throw away your old books.” As you’ll see in the near future here on Continuing Mission, it’s dead simple to bring NPCs, ships, and characters over from first edition, and also to use upcoming missions written in 2e for your 1e games if you don’t want to make the jump. But if you’re not making the jump, why not? The new rules maintain everything I love from the first edition and streamline a lot of sections that were previously challenging. Check it out and I think you’ll be pleased too!