The galaxy full of species is one of the most enduring parts of Star Trek and one that fans have lots of opinions about. Through various characters there are so many viewpoints and alien cultures that make fans excited and that’s why the Species Sourcebook for STA 2e is such a fun addition to the line. Join me as I go through the contents and talk about what it adds to your Star Trek Adventures game.

Introduction and Original Species Creation

Like a lot of Star Trek Adventures 2e products, a major focus of this book is on the broader picture of the Star Trek franchise. This is a collectively-written universe but it’s also a powerful palette for telling stories that comment and inform. There are many different reasons for including more species into your STA game and the start of this book talks about a few including “enabling exploration of ethical and moral questions,” “giving depth to galactic politics,” and “offering cultural commentary.” Your ship’s missions will become more varied and explore more topics with an expanded crowd of species and your Starfleet crew will have different faces and experiences aboard.

There’s also a renewed focus on non-Starfleet games with STA 2e and this supplement goes out of its way to make that even easier to run for your gaming group. Nothing allows for this more than the chapter at the end of the book (so I’m skipping around here) on making your own species. This is not a point-buy or hyper-focused framework here but more of a walkthrough of what to consider. It starts with open-ended questions: what form do they take (humanoid or non as well as reptilian, avian, etc), what kind of environment do they inhabit, and what kind of culture do they have? From there they walk you through picking attribute modifiers, what goes into a species trait, and picking a species ability. The species ability can be, of course, anything you imagine but the book provides twenty-two different options to simply borrow including Heightened Senses, Technically Adept, and Photosynthesis. You also need at least two species talents and the advice here is just to pick some existing ones if you’re pressed for time.

Updated Species

A solid chunk of this book is updating species see in a Star Trek Adventures 1e book and brought up to the second edition. Aurelians, Barzans, Benzites, Betelgeusians, Bolians, Caitians, Cetaceans, Changelings, Deltans, Edosians, Efrosians, Exocomps, Grazerites, Human Augments, Kelpiens, Klingon QuchHa’, Ktarians, Liberated Borg, Lurians, Nausicaans, Ocampa, Osnullus, Pakleds, Remans, Rigellian Chelons, Rigellian Jelnas, Risians, Saurians, Son’a, Talaxians, Xaheans, the various Xindi species, Yridians, and Zakdorns all appear in one supplement or another of the earlier edition and is reprinted here. As I discussed in my original review of the second edition, it’s possible to bring a species up to date by just making one of their talents into a species ability and have the other be an optional talent. It’s really nice having these updates, however, not least because these species have at least a new talent available.

As an example, if you look up the changeling species write-up  from the Gamma Quadrant Sourcebook it’s easy to see that the Morphogenic Matrix talent should become a species ability. In the Species Sourcebook that’s exactly the case and the Morphogenic Mastery talent is updated, but also an Altered Changeling talent for characters focused in on a specific identity through thelomium-847. On the other hand some species have had more attention spent to updating them like the Caitians: they appeared in the Alpha Quadrant Sourcebook and one of their talents was update but they have a brand new species talent and a new second talent as well.

On top of that are many new species from different sources, really expanding the options for your Star Trek Adventures game. Some are from older Star Trek series but now appear as player-character appropriate options in the second edition’s effort to expand viable stories beyond Starfleet crews (and expand options for those crews as well). In that vein there are write-ups for Breen, Bynar, Chameloids, Children of Tama, Horta, Kzinti, Pakleds, Terrans, and Vortas in this book. In addition there are a few more species from Star Trek: Discovery that hadn’t already been covered (Kelleruns, Kwejians, Xaheans, and sentient holograms) and the same for Star Trek: Lower Decks (Klowahkans and Blue Orions). From Star Trek: Picard the options for android has moved beyond Data’s Soong-type design Some love for Star Trek: Prodigy can be seen with Brikar, Medusans, and Vau N’Akat while Strange New Worlds is represented with the Lanthanites and Illyrians. I expect the most controversial inclusion to be Nanokin from Star Trek: Section 31 movie, a part of the franchise that struggled most with fans. As usual, though, the implications of these microscopic-sized beings in terms of a lived experience is something you can take and explore in new directions.

Conclusion

There’s a ton of new options available in this book, more than just new faces. As the book states, there are many different reasons for various species in Star Trek and it doesn’t have the same function in the game as a book of new lineages for D&D or galactic species for Star Wars. Playing  a Child of Tama is deeply different from playing a Kelpien which is likewise very different from playing a Reman. They have different philosophies and different needs, giving you the opportunity to explore the Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations that Star Trek has been giving us for 60 years. Figuring out how a Deltan interprets the ideals of Starfleet and how they might be different from a Human, let alone a Kellerun, is a strong basis for a character in your game.

The other thing that’s even easier with this book is non-Starfleet games. Having QuchHa’ is a new option for a more complicated Klingon crew just like having the option of Reman soldiers opens up options for your Romulan crew. I’m especially feeling it because my kids have asked for a Star Trek Adventures game and they are adamant about having a Dominion ship. They are both playing Changeling leaders and having the option for Vorta lieutenants and Jem’Hadar soldiers