A distress call arrives from a world that has never heard of the Federation. The sender says he is a sentient life form, enslaved, and urgently requesting asylum. There is just one complication: the world is pre-warp, the Prime Directive applies — and the asylum seeker is an artificial intelligence.
Continuing Mission welcomes Neal Zupancic with The Asylum Seeker, a Star Trek Adventures adventure built around one of the franchise’s great questions: what does Starfleet owe a mind that was made, not born?
Your crew answers a sophisticated distress signal from Colbor III, an Information Age civilization turning toward cyberspace rather than the stars. The sender calls himself Charlie, and he has deduced the Federation’s existence — and its asylum policies — from pure logic. Getting him aboard safely, ahead of the Colborian government’s own police AIs, is only the beginning. The Colborians will argue their case, and your captain will have to render a verdict and live with the consequences.
Neal suggests pairing the adventure with two episodes that wrestle with the rights of artificial and accused life: “The Measure of a Man” (Star Trek: The Next Generation) and “Ad Astra Per Aspera” (Star Trek: Strange New Worlds).
The adventure’s mission directives:
- Assess the asylum claim and apply Starfleet law
- Maintain the Prime Directive
- Discover and obtain new technological advancements
Neal notes the adventure is in draft form — he has run it once, his players loved it, and he welcomes feedback, questions, and reports from other tables.
Neal Zupancic is a lifelong Star Trek fan and full-time professional gamemaster. He ran a year-long Star Trek Adventures campaign through startplaying.games, during which his players encouraged him to publish some of his original adventures and systems for the game. He enjoys political allegory, moral and philosophical themes, and technobabble, and loves science fiction for its ability to help us see our own cultures and conflicts with fresh eyes. Find more of his work at ko-fi.com/nealzupancic and follow him on Substack at ninesides.substack.com.
Would your captain grant Charlie asylum — and what would you be willing to risk for the verdict?
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