Enhancing Your Star Trek Adventures RPG with Civilian Awards

Adding Civilian Awards to your Star Trek Adventures RPG game introduces a fresh layer of depth and engagement to your storytelling. While Starfleet officers often receive commendations for their heroic actions, the contributions of civilians aboard starships, space stations, or colonies are equally vital. Recognizing civilian achievements—be it scientific breakthroughs, acts of bravery, or innovative solutions to critical problems—can create rich character moments and inspire unique story arcs.

Imagine the morale boost aboard your starship when a civilian botanist develops a cure for an alien virus, or the sense of community when a local engineer’s quick thinking prevents a warp core breach. These awards highlight that everyone in the Star Trek universe plays a role in exploration, survival, and the betterment of all life. By incorporating Civilian Awards, you celebrate the unsung heroes and encourage players to explore new character dynamics, fostering collaboration between Starfleet personnel and the wider civilian population.

Arts & Literature

Carrington Award

• Cost: 4
• Conditions: Awarded for outstanding work in the arts and sciences, particularly promoting understanding and cooperation between cultures.
• Benefits: Select a single focus the character possesses, which must relate to the artistic or scientific field they earned the award for. Once per mission, when the character spends a point of Determination on a task involving that focus, the character may select two benefits of spending a point of Determination instead of one.

Bentman Prize

• Cost: 3
• Conditions: Awarded for excellence in literature, likely recognizing novelists, poets, and playwrights.
• Benefits: Once per mission, you may use the Talent: Oral Scholar. Any Obtain Information Momentum spends that relate to your own knowledge using Reason or Insight may ask one additional question, for free, in addition to those bought with Momentum.

Pulitzer Prize

• Cost: 2
• Conditions: For excellence in journalism and literature.
• Benefits: Once per mission, you can use the Talent: Applied Research. When you attempt a task which relates to information you received earlier from an Obtain Information question, the first bonus die you purchase is free.

Sciences

Voltak (Award)

• Cost: 2
• Conditions: For exceptional achievement in exobiology, recognizing groundbreaking discoveries about alien lifeforms.
• Benefits: Once per mission, the character may reduce the Difficulty of a biological task by 2, to a minimum of 1.

Cochrane Medal

• Cost: 4
• Conditions: For extraordinary innovation in applied sciences; awarded to inventors and engineers pushing technological boundaries.
• Benefits: Once per mission, you can use the ship Talent: Variable Geometry Warp Field. You get your ship to adjust its subspace field even in highly turbulent spacetime, so it can continue to provide propulsive force even then. When you attempt a task to go to warp, you may select one trait in play which negatively affects the task roll, and ignore its effects.

Lilly Sloan Fellowship

• Cost: 3
• Conditions: A grant for individuals pursuing advanced studies in warp field theory or related fields.
• Benefits: Once per mission, you can use the ship Talent: Variable Geometry Warp Field. You get your ship to adjust its subspace field even in highly turbulent spacetime, so it can continue to provide propulsive force even then. When you attempt a task to go to warp, you may select one trait in play which negatively affects the task roll, and ignore its effects.

Zankar-Bowles Prize

• Cost: 3
• Conditions: Recognizes significant contributions to astrophysics, rewarding major discoveries about the universe.
• Benefits: Once per mission, you can use the Talent: Visit Every Star. When you succeed at a navigation-related task, you gain 1 bonus Momentum due to your knowledge and familiarity. Bonus Momentum cannot be saved.

The Dannon Prize

• Cost: 3
• Conditions: Awarded for outstanding achievement in archaeology and anthropology, recognizing those who study ancient cultures.
• Benefits: Once per mission, you can use the Talent: Discerning Scientific Mind. When attempting to perform an extended task to determine the purpose of an artefact or a piece of ancient technology, you may double your impact when first successful.

Medicine

Peckman Prize

• Cost: 4
• Conditions: Recognizes significant contributions to medicine, such as developing new treatments, pioneering surgical techniques, or making key breakthroughs in understanding diseases.
• Benefits: Once per mission you can use the Talent: Cutting Edge Medicine. Whenever you attempt a Medicine task with a Difficulty of 3 or higher, you may spend up to 3 Momentum (Immediate) to reduce the Difficulty by the number of Momentum spent, to a minimum Difficulty of 1. However, as these latest advances are often experimental, the complication range of the task increases by 1 for each Momentum spent.

Education

T’Relan Award for Excellence in Teaching

• Cost: 2
• Conditions: Presented to educators who demonstrate exceptional skill and dedication.
• Benefits: Once per mission, you can use the Talent: Teacher. When you create a trait for an ally that represents your guidance or advice, that ally may re-roll one d20 on a single task they attempt which benefits from that trait.

Peace & Humanitarian Efforts

Federation Peace Medal

• Cost: 3
• Conditions: Given to individuals or organizations making significant contributions to galactic peace and understanding.
• Benefits: Once per mission, you can use the Talent: Peaceful Existence. When you attempt a Task to dissuade another individual or group from resorting to conflict, you reduce the Difficulty of that Task by 1.

Surakian Peace Prize

• Cost: 4
• Conditions: Recognizes those who have worked towards peace and understanding.
• Benefits: Once per mission, you can use the Talent: Passive Persuader. During Social Conflict, the character reduces the Difficulty of all evidence and negotiation based Tasks but increases the Difficulty of intimidation Tasks by 1.

Memory Alpha Society

Honorary Fellow

• Cost: 3
• Conditions: Given to individuals or organizations making remarkable contributions towards the aims of the society. Must have Reputation 3.
• Benefits: Once per mission, on an extended engineering, medicine, or science task, the character can ignore the first complication due to peer review of their findings.

Fellow

• Cost: 4
• Conditions: Given to individuals or organizations making significant contributions towards the aims of the society. Must be an Honorary Fellow or have Reputation 4.
• Benefits: The character receives a bonus Momentum in addition to the Honorary Fellow benefits.

Senior Fellow

• Cost: 5
• Conditions: Given to individuals or organizations making highly significant contributions towards the aims of the society. Must be an Fellow or have Reputation 5. 
• Benefits: The character doubles their impact in addition to the Honorary Fellow and Fellow benefits.