Being a long-term fan of Star Trek, I’ve been drawn back to watching episodes of the various TV shows. Doing so reminded me of the Star Trek Adventures roleplaying game from which, back at Christmas, my good friend Derek bought me a copy of the Starter Set for the second edition. I’ve taken things a step further and treated myself to a summer holiday gift: STA2e’s core rulebook.

As I wrote back in 2021, Star Trek is one of the most influential television and movie franchises for me. The optimism and hope represented by the show through until at least the end of the Enterprise era was deeply formative. In particular, the focus on characters that I grew to like and respect was something that stood out from other science-fiction and fantastic media.

To quote from 4 years ago…

Maybe it’s because it’s such a rich and deeply geeky universe that – in my experience – others have shied away from joining in. Or perhaps it’s just too hopeful for many. I have always found it hard to bring to the gaming table.

Now that I am increasingly realising the shortness of my own existence, I feel a strong urge to find a way to share my love for the deeper roleplaying opportunities offered by the Star Trek universe. I think it’s time to come out of that closet and explore the gaps between the official canon.

Now it is 2025 and there’s a second edition of STA but I’ve not brought Star Trek to the table. In truth, somewhere inside, I can feel the pull of a long-held desire to run a Dark Trek campaign – an alternate Star Trek in which war, conspiracy, and horror supplant the usual positivity and hope enough to force the characters to fight to reclaim all that Star Trek promises.

Although I rather suspect that I will prefer to run such a campaign with my favourite RPG rules, it seems prudent to explore the latest offering from Modiphius. On first glance, as I read through the core rulebook and prepare to create a character, the game has been improved in tangible ways. While I dislike the direction of the franchise in the later eras, it is good to see the flavour of earlier shows shining through.

The exploration of Star Trek Adventures (2e) begins with a journey into the lore of the universe and the creation of a “Main Character” for myself. I expect to delve into playing the system through solo “screen tests” of the game engine. I’ll run a combat scene and see how the basic engine feels at the table. I may invite a couple of friends to give the game a spin, perhaps use the Starter Set.

In particular, I can see the potential of a mission-based and fluid “open table” approach to running the Star Trek universe with STA2e as the engine. The inclusion of player-run “Supporting Cast” characters (for the moments when your main character isn’t involved), the quick “creation through play” option for building characters, and the inherent episodic structure of the franchise could offer some drop-in play to curious onlookers.

In the end, though, I will always be drawn to treating the canon of the Star Trek universe as a jumping off point. Dark Trek expresses this approach: it would be interesting to ask, “What if…” and posit some dreadful alternatives within the main history of the Prime Universe. Creating a secondary alternative Dark Universe frees me from the stuff that I don’t like across previous Star Trek series.

Game on!