The war is over. Someone should probably tell everyone still aiming phasers at each other.
Stephen Near returns to Continuing Mission with The Wounded Truce, a Canon Event Milestone for Star Trek Adventures that explores the fragile peace between the Federation and the Cardassian Union. Set between the Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes “The Wounded” and “Journey’s End,” it puts your crew on a border where signing an armistice proves considerably easier than learning to trust the other side.
The milestone draws on a favorite aspect of The Next Generation for Stephen: the Cardassian War’s lingering influence on the people and events that follow. Your officers may have orders to preserve the peace — their own experiences, and those of the people they meet, can make those orders painfully complicated.
Three Traits establish the atmosphere:
- Wounds of Setlik: The lasting trauma of wartime atrocities follows survivors into peacetime. Groups can substitute another conflict site to connect this Trait to their own characters.
- Federation Under Strain: External threats and shaken confidence raise uncomfortable questions about the costs and benefits of Federation membership.
- Borderland Tensions: Displaced colonists, espionage, and competing loyalties threaten an already precarious peace.
Encounters between Starfleet and Cardassian characters — and operations around the border and the Demilitarized Zone — carry increased Complication Ranges. Temporary Talent changes bring caution or boldness into focus, while the shared Value “Wounds of war cannot heal” gives characters another avenue for earning Determination.
Picture your crew escorting colonists who refuse to leave their homes, investigating an incident that both governments want quietly resolved, or working alongside a former enemy who remembers the war very differently.
Our thanks to Stephen Near for another thoughtful contribution to the Star Trek Adventures community!
Find more about Stephen and his work at stephennear.com.
What would test your crew more: fighting a war or keeping the peace afterward?