Last time we looked at the stuff that people really want to jump into: how the scene-to-scene rules have shifted and how much starship combat has been streamlined. I covered a lot there but there’s still more! Join me this time for a look at NPCs (and NPC ships) as well as the toolchest provided to GMs in STA 2e.

I mentioned last week that this book has three sections. In the first part of the review I went over pretty much all of Part 2 which covers basic and advanced rules, character generation, starship creation, equipment and gear (mostly the same so I’m skipping over it), and conflicts of various types. Part 1 is all about the Star Trek universe which you will be familiar with from the first edition core rulebook, the Player’s Guide and Gamemaster’s Guide, or just being a fan of the series.

The universe information here is newly written with added sidebars providing new insights and advice, plus greater context on non-Federation polities for expanded support, but the biggest addition is information from Star: Trek Discovery, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Star Trek: Picard, and Star Trek: Lower Decks, none of which were around when this game first launched. As you can find all this information elsewhere (and you’re not likely to buy or not buy an RPG book based on how much of Memory Alpha it contains), I’ll be skipping ahead now to the GM’s section a.k.a. Part 3.

Types of NPCs

Once again we have Minor NPCs who are the extras and background characters in the story, without much dialogue, no focuses or values, and they’re expected to only be around for a scene or so. Notable NPCs are a step up and can have a few focuses and one value. They get some story time and might be important for a scene but still aren’t expected to stick around. Lastly, Major NPCs are the main antagonists, foils, and counterparts of the player characters and essentially have most of the same stuff. As I said last time, NPCs do not have Stress tracks but they can spend Threat to avoid an Injury like PCs can mark Stress. For instance, if an NPC is going to gain a Burn 3 complication from a phaser shot the GM can spend 3 Threat and leave them standing. This is limited by tier, though: Major NPCs can do it all they like but Notable NPCs can only do it once per scene and Minor NPCs can’t at all.

This means that NPCs do not last as long as player characters. If a scene turns to conflict, the game by design tries to see the PCs out the other side without being rendered unconscious, in their quarters with a splitting headache, exhausted from climbing a cliff, etc. Whenever a PC is out of commission a player can either take on a minor crewmember or sit and scroll through their phone for a bit. Neither are good choices and so PCs have Stress to soak up the consequences of bad rolls. NPCs, however, can and should leave the story all the time as the player characters try to engage in the conflicts standing in the way of their mission. To stick around, then, they don’t use a special resource (Stress) but use the same resource as any continued challenge: Threat.

To help with these extra Threat considerations, Notable and Major NPCs come with Personal Threat pools. This is Threat that only that NPC can utilize and essentially lets the GM add a heft bundle of Threat (around 3 for Notable and 8 for Major) that doesn’t just flood their pool. They can’t bring a Major NPC in and then spend their new Threat to call in reinforcements or remove complications from an NPC who was already on the ropes. This Threat is for things that directly affect the NPC so a Klingon commander’s Personal Threat can’t help a subordinate force open a door, but it could be spent to help the commander’s assist roll or on a leadership roll to give them a beneficial Trait. NPCs with values (Notable and Major again) can also use those like PCs do but since they don’t have Determination points they gain 3 Threat instead (and spend that much to use values positively).

A sidenote (sort of) to all of this is NPC starships. To contend with the enormous resource that any PC ship has, NPC starships do have Shield tracks and they are calculated in the same way as PC starships (Structure + Scale + Security). They get a number of turns in a round equal to their Scale, manage their Power and systems the same way, and suffer from breaches just as discussed last time. When they their breaches equal their Scale they are out of the action (destroyed or set adrift, depending on what the attackers were going for). Their crew operates with predetermined attribute and department ratings based on Crew Quality, all of which is the same as in the first edition (with the new streamlined breach rules). However, NPC ships are limited to one task for each system (one Weapons task, one Structure task, etc) after which the GM has to spend a Threat to have them use that system again.

Specific NPCs and NPC Ships

These general rules allow you to create all sorts of NPCs (and convert them from 1e) and with some wonderfully specific guidelines to make it easier than ever. There’s also an increased number of special abilities available for designing NPCs from Formless creatures like Changelings to Intensive Training for skilled specialists. In addition, though, there are ready-written NPCs all set for you to bring into your game. Different polities have a Minor, a Notable, and a Major NPC with familiar characters from the first edition core rulebook. There’s just one multipurpose Starfleet Officer Minor NPC, but the Section 31 Operative, Captain T’Mek, and Rear Admiral Thy’ran all show up again.

The KDF still has a Klingon Warrior, Klingon Veteran, and Moq’var, Son of Koloth while the Romulan Star Empire has a Romulan Uhlan, Romulan Centurion, and Major Verohk of the Tal Shiar. The Cardassian Union has a Cardassian Soldier, a Cardassian Glinn, and Gul Tremak and the Ferengi have a Ferengi Menial, Ferengi Salesman, and Daimon Skel. Lastly for the Dominion we have a Jem’Hadar Warrior, Jem’Hadar First, and the Vorta Overseer Taris. Notably we don’t get any Borg drones which I think a lot of people might feel is a big gap, but keep an eye on Continuing Mission for a solution in the near future.

Next we get a series of statblocks for NPC starships with the Romulan D’Deridex-class warbird and T’liss-class Bird-of-Prey, the Cardassian Galor-class Cruiser, the Ferengi D’Kora-class Marauder, and the Jem’Hadar Attack Ship and Battlecruiser. These are all ships seen in the first edition but we don’t get a Borg cube or Maquis raider. We also only get two Klingon ships (the D7 Battlecruiser and B’rel-class Bird-of-Prey) which is half as many as the first edition rulebook. On the other hand, there’s an NPC Constitution-class ship as well as a Galaxy-class NPC ship which is super useful for rogue Starfleet elements and assisting ships (not to mention Terran ships).

If the book has fewer NPC ships, it has a lot more Creatures than originally. There are targs, sehlats, mugatos, Talarian hook spiders, Berengarian dragons, and Denevan neural parasites which were all seen in the first edition core rulebook. We also get fan-favorite Moopsy from Lower Decks and tribbles which were a notable absence from the first edition. The Digger of Terra Nova, Gunji jackdaw, and Bajoran palukoo aren’t in this book but I doubt anyone’s campaign hinged on those. However the lack of a Crystalline Entity is an unfortunate cut.

Gamemastering STA

Finally, there’s a lot of advice and help for Gamemastering Star Trek Adventures. Some of it is familiar from the first edition core rulebook, or just RPG books in general, with advice on structuring stories and adding details, characters, and twists to scenes. There’s a lot of specific guidance, though, on how and when to use Threat, Traits, Values, and Directives, what makes Tasks engaging, and different uses for Extended Tasks, Challenges, and Timed Challenges.

There’s also a lot of crunch in these sections providing examples of environmental hazards (for characters and starships alike), specific rules for extended consequences, I think the best part is the clear love in this section, though. The folks writing this are clearly STA Gamemasters who have run into a lot of situations and have some good advice on how to improve your game. The sidebars on dithering players, how to narrate social task successes and failures without it seeming stilted (there’s other advice for physical conflicts throughout), and how to fluidly wrap up scenes collectively make these chapters awesome. There’s a prewritten introductory mission as well, “The Gorgon’s Gaze,” which is set in the era of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds with the prime directive front and center. I won’t say more to avoid spoilers but it’s a great way to introduce both Star Trek Adventures and the values of the Federation to new players.

Conclusion

I really love this edition, I think it takes the best parts of the first edition and polishes up the parts that were challenging. I love how cross-compatible things are between 1e and 2e and look forward to updating some of the materials on Continuing Mission. Even though there are some NPCs, creatures, and ships missing from this core rulebook, I feel like I have a ton of great tools for making new characters and ships so updating stuff from existing sourcebooks should be a breeze.

As I started with last time, change is hard and people get worried when a game they love is getting a new edition. Will it be better or worse? Will I have to throw out all my old books? I think, though, that this is a false dichotomy that’s caused by how some but not all games operate. In truth, this new edition is a set of tools for telling awesome Star Trek stories. Some of them look like the tools in the last box and some look a bit different but some of the old tools have really been improved upon and there’s room in the box for all the old stuff to fit as well. It’s a magic box or something, I don’t know…

If you’ve checked out or even played through STA 2e then let us know in the comments how you feel! If you haven’t seen the book yet, what else do you want to know about? It’s a bold new era and I’m excited to be part of the community heading off into the final frontier!