By Jim Johnson, Star Trek Adventures Project Manager
Art by Paolo Puggioni
In last week’s blog, we discussed how to get inspired for Star Trek™ Adventures, ways to get a group together, and reviewing player advice and safety tools. Now that you’ve assembled your fellow players and have an idea of what Star Trek time period you’ll be setting your game in and which civilization your game will focus on, it’s time to create your group’s slate of player characters. The following advice applies equally to whatever characters you and your group want to create, whether they’re Starfleet, Klingons, Romulans, independent traders, or some other combination.
All page references below refer to the second edition core rulebook.
Choose Lifepath or Creation in Play
Your group should first decide if you will use the Lifepath method of character generation (page 97), or the Creation in Play method (page 142). Lifepath provides a fully formed character to begin your adventures, with all pertinent character and game mechanics details in place. Creation in Play starts you with the essentials of your character, and leaves a lot of room for you to discover your character as you play. Neither option is better than the other; it just depends on what sort of game experience you and your group want to have. Whatever the case, all players should use the same character generation option to maintain consistency.
The remainder of this article assumes you have selected the Lifepath; Creation in Play will be discussed in a future blog post.
Follow the Process
The Lifepath generation process is summarized on page 98. As part of Session 0 or another group meeting, gather with your fellow players and create your characters. While the gamemaster may not create a character of their own, their role is to provide guidance and ideas for your characters that might best fit the era and style of game the group has agreed to play.
As you work through each step of the Lifepath, feel free to use the sample values table on page 96 any time you need to generate a value for your character, or make up your own. Values are key components of characters, and represent their deepest commitments and feelings. If you need even more ideas for values, listen to dialogue or read screenplays or stage plays. Characters often reveal their inner thoughts through what they say.
Any time you need to generate a focus for your character, consider the sample focus lists on pages 94–95, which are grouped by department. However, the department listed for each focus is only a suggestion; feel free to pick a focus listed under a different department if you feel it makes sense for your character to have it. Focuses such as Ethics, Etiquette, Fleet Formations, and Survival might apply no matter what department your character most gravitates toward.
Cross-pollinate with Other Characters
One key advantage of creating characters at the same time as a group is that you can develop connections between characters at varying stages of their Lifepath. Perhaps your character grew up with another one in the Upbringing stage. Note those connections and apply them to roleplaying scenes once you start your game.
Maybe your character attended Starfleet Academy or another institution with one or more of the other characters. That may influence your choices in Career Path and Experience, and may give you an opportunity to select complementary or opposing ratings in attributes and departments.
Your character may have served with one or more of the other player characters across their respective careers. Maybe there’s an old, beloved ship you both served on under a particularly challenging captain or senior officer. That shared experience is something you and your fellow player can flesh out in a story or perhaps even a Captain’s Log-style game session.
Whatever the case, take advantage of the opportunity to generate characters together with your group and develop ties to each other over the course of your characters’ respective lifepaths. In that way, you could start your campaign with a shared history or connection, harkening back to some of the character connections we’ve seen on screen, such as Riker and Troi, Ben Sisko and Jadzia Dax, and Chakotay and Torres.
Pick Your Character Role
As you work through the lifepath together, you may discover some players want to build a character toward a specific character role, such as the Chief Engineer, Science Officer, or an Expert. Be sure to pick a role that complements your character’s capabilities and fits the type of character you want to play. If more than one player wants to take on the same character role, discuss as a group and find concensus. Each role is meant to be unique to each posting, so work with your group to find a solution that works for everyone.
Once you’ve chosen your character role and completed your lifepath, you should have a fully formed character ready to take their place among the heroes of the Star Trek universe.
Adapt First Edition Species to Second Edition
If you are familiar with first edition Star Trek Adventures, what if you have a favorite species that didn’t make the cut for the second edition core book but you want to port it over for use in second edition? No problem! Since the two editions are very similar, converting a first edition species to second edition is a simple process that requires just a little bit of thought between you and the gamemaster.
First edition species already have their species trait and ability modifiers—those transfer over to second edition as-is. Each first edition species also lists at least two species talents. Review those talents and the lore about the species and either convert one of the two talents into a second edition species ability, or create a new species ability for the species, using those found in the second edition core rulebook as inspiration. There’s no wrong way to do this—simply work with your gamemaster to revise or create a new species talent for your character that best fits the lore and setting. Note you’ll need to modify any species talents involving the use of Challenge Dice, as Challenge Dice are not used in second edition.
No other changes need to be made to first edition species to convert them over to second edition. If you and your gamemaster get stuck on how to convert a particular first edition species to second edition, feel free to post a question to the official Modiphius Discord STA rules questions channel.
I hope this article helped you and your group create characters for your Star Trek Adventures game or campaign. Next week we’ll focus on creating your group’s other critical character, your starship!
Order your print copy of the second edition Star Trek Adventures core rulebook now in standard format or one of three limited edition covers! And order a print copy of the second edition Game Toolkit as well, to expand your options for exploring the final frontier.
2nd Edition Core Rulebook (Command):
2nd Edition Core Rulebook (Sciences):
2nd Edition Core Rulebook (Operations):
All print orders will also receive the digital versions right away.
Alternatively, you can order the digital editions by themselves of the standard core rulebook and the Game Toolkit.
2nd Edition Core Rulebook PDF:
Thanks for reading this article, and thank you for your interest and support of Star Trek Adventures! Keep frequencies open for news about other upcoming Star Trek Adventures product releases. Live long and prosper!
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