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Star Trek: Lower Decks
Star Trek Adventures: Lower Decks
SPACE... THE FUNNEST FRONTIER
“We’re more like the cool, scrappy underdogs of the ship.” - Ensign Beckett Mariner
The Star Trek: Lower Decks Campaign Guide expands upon the core Star Trek Adventures roleplaying game experience by providing detailed advice on creating junior officers and using them to tell amazing Star Trek-style stories with the fun, irreverent tone presented in Star Trek: Lower Decks.
Whether you’re cleaning holodeck biofilters, conducting an anomaly consolidation day, participating in a second contact, or enjoying some well-earned Buffer Time, there’s always something new to encounter and learn, both within the universe and yourself and your fellow crewmates.
How will you make a name for yourself and your companions?
The 240-page, full-color hardback Star Trek: Lower Decks Campaign Guide contains:
*An extensive discussion of the state of the Galaxy in the late 24th century, including updated information on the Federation, Starfleet, Pakleds, and more.
*Detailed information on the lower decks junior officer experience, including daily life, procedures, career development, and more.
*New lifepath options for player characters, including eight new playable species (including Cetaceans, Gorn, Pakleds, and Exocomps).
*Game statistics and graphics for seven spaceframes, including the California, Obena, and Parliament classes, and game statistics for over 20 ships from Starfleet and other polities (as well as a selection of ground vehicles)!
*New gear, technologies, and creatures, as well as a complete system for creating your own creatures.
*A wealth of advice on gamemastering lower decks-style campaigns, whether you are playing a Starfleet campaign or one based on another polity.
*More than 50 non-player characters to include in your games, pulled from a variety of polities and species.
*A three-part mini-campaign focused on junior officers that can be adapted for use in other eras of play and with crews from any polity.
Includes a foreword written by Star Trek: Lower Decks creator, Mike McMahan!
“We’re more like the cool, scrappy underdogs of the ship.” - Ensign Beckett Mariner
The Star Trek: Lower Decks Campaign Guide expands upon the core Star Trek Adventures roleplaying game experience by providing detailed advice on creating junior officers and using them to tell amazing Star Trek-style stories with the fun, irreverent tone presented in Star Trek: Lower Decks.
Whether you’re cleaning holodeck biofilters, conducting an anomaly consolidation day, participating in a second contact, or enjoying some well-earned Buffer Time, there’s always something new to encounter and learn, both within the universe and yourself and your fellow crewmates.
How will you make a name for yourself and your companions?
The 240-page, full-color hardback Star Trek: Lower Decks Campaign Guide contains:
*An extensive discussion of the state of the Galaxy in the late 24th century, including updated information on the Federation, Starfleet, Pakleds, and more.
*Detailed information on the lower decks junior officer experience, including daily life, procedures, career development, and more.
*New lifepath options for player characters, including eight new playable species (including Cetaceans, Gorn, Pakleds, and Exocomps).
*Game statistics and graphics for seven spaceframes, including the California, Obena, and Parliament classes, and game statistics for over 20 ships from Starfleet and other polities (as well as a selection of ground vehicles)!
*New gear, technologies, and creatures, as well as a complete system for creating your own creatures.
*A wealth of advice on gamemastering lower decks-style campaigns, whether you are playing a Starfleet campaign or one based on another polity.
*More than 50 non-player characters to include in your games, pulled from a variety of polities and species.
*A three-part mini-campaign focused on junior officers that can be adapted for use in other eras of play and with crews from any polity.
Includes a foreword written by Star Trek: Lower Decks creator, Mike McMahan!
242 pages, Hardcover
Published July 1, 2023
3 people are currently reading
17 people want to read
About the author
Jim Johnson
263 books2 followersLibrarian Note: There are more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 8, 2023
So, here's the thing. I nabbed this book entirely because I wanted to support the game, and I like the show, but I honestly didn't expect to get much out of it, as my two gaming groups don't mind a bit of laughter, but they're all made up of senior officers and they're in ongoing campaigns that have a more serious tone (though, again, we laugh a lot).
Then I got to the section about "Supervising Crew" (which adjusts the "Support Crew" mechanic from the base game for when you're bringing in support crew—temporary characters your players use when their character isn't or wouldn't make sense to be in a scene—who are senior officers), and we were using that the very next session, because both my player groups have multiple Senior Officer positions we were using Support Crew mechanics for, but this is so much better. They get a point of Determination, they begin with a Value, and their stats are more in keeping with a senior officer and everything about it is so on-point.
Will I use the Briefs, the Adventures, or add some slapstick or comedy into my games? Probably not. But alongside that awesome Supervising Crew mechanic, I will definitely use the new ships—Cali class!—and I think my Nebula-Class crew are considering that their ship should have a Cetacean Ops, so now I've got what I need to make that happen.
A pleasant surprise all around, really.
Then I got to the section about "Supervising Crew" (which adjusts the "Support Crew" mechanic from the base game for when you're bringing in support crew—temporary characters your players use when their character isn't or wouldn't make sense to be in a scene—who are senior officers), and we were using that the very next session, because both my player groups have multiple Senior Officer positions we were using Support Crew mechanics for, but this is so much better. They get a point of Determination, they begin with a Value, and their stats are more in keeping with a senior officer and everything about it is so on-point.
Will I use the Briefs, the Adventures, or add some slapstick or comedy into my games? Probably not. But alongside that awesome Supervising Crew mechanic, I will definitely use the new ships—Cali class!—and I think my Nebula-Class crew are considering that their ship should have a Cetacean Ops, so now I've got what I need to make that happen.
A pleasant surprise all around, really.
March 5, 2024
This book hasn’t come up in Goodreads, but I suspect it will eventually - before I’m done reading it anyway.
I’m looking forward to this book. The show is middling — die hard trekkies only — but since we have all decided that in our games we should all be ensigns, I’m curious about what it’s advice is for running lower level characters in a game.
FINALLY! Black text on a white background! Geesh! What took them so long to make a readable book?!
What the hell is the purpose of telling me what is going to be in the upcoming chapters of the book??! If I wanted to know what I could just flip through the book!
This is often done in technical books, but there it makes sense. You might not need to read the ‘History of DOS’ chapter or you might want to get to specific technical issues.
But in an RPG book it makes no sense at all and it’s just wasted filler. I’m on page 6 and it’s already telling me I wasted my money.
Interesting. The book has one of those ribbon bookmark things. I’ve never actually used one of those and none of Mophidius’s books that I have, has one. The book is beautifully illustrated with pictures from the cartoon.
And so far is pretty pleasant to read.
”A Militant Starfleet?” dredges up the stupid question about whether Starfleet is a military or diplomatic and exploration organization. As far as I know, this BS was actually started by Gene Roddenberry himself when he tried to retcon his own show! It was crap then and it’s crap now. Starfleet is a military organization — period. The original series was based on the Navy and the Navy is a military organization period.
Several Star Trek novels have elegantly stated that while the ‘argument’ was being debate over what kind of organization Starfleet should be, the Klingons attacked (or the Romulans, take your pick) and the decisions was made then and there.
And that’s a perfectly good ‘in story’ reason why Starfleet is military.
But no amount of retconning will change the fact that Starfleet is MILITARY. And honestly there’s nothing wrong with that. OF COURSE we’ll have the military going out there into the unknown. Certainly diplomacy and exploration will happen and that force will be a last resort. But a military will always be needed and and to treat it like “Oh god we don’t want to have an actual military!!!” Is as stupid as saying “We’re getting rid of money!” (Another BS retcon).
Sorry, but I hate, hate, HATE the way that “Next Generation” has reimagined the Klingons as Kiss-wannabe buffoons!
Some idiot decided that the Klingons could be ‘friends’ with the Federation if the Klingons were really an ‘honorable’ society, like modern-day Samurai!
Of course, that makes no sense in the way the original series saw them and looks like a pretty stupid way to imagine a warp-capable race in general.
And yet somehow this book continues the idea that Klingons would NEVER admit actually being defeated!
The Klingons in the original series were never portrayed as buffoons - just a people who believe differently than the Federation. So making them a joke - they have spikes on their shoes!!! - is just pathetically bad writing.
Even though I have absolutely no interest whatsoever in the year 2380–having no idea who the Breen, Jem’Hadar, Dominion War or Cardassians are—this book is still a good read.
“But I, for one, am thrilled by the opportunity to flip up my skirt and give new worlds a peek into what makes the Federation the cooing tribble of furry galactic affection that it is.”
Okay, I think it’s interesting that the book is trying to establish processes and procedures for ‘second contact’ and there’s some very good stuff here, but “To have their application for Federation membership approved, developing planetary economies must achieve economic stability. … It must also free citizens from the trappings of a monetary value system and eliminate poverty.” What-the-holy-crap!?! One stupid throwaway line in Next Generation and you’re going to continue with that horseshit that somehow we’ll eliminate the need for money?
If the planet manages to do that what the HELL does it need the Federation for?
In fact, if the Federation provides NO FINANCIAL BENEFIT to anyone that joins it, WHY WOULD ANYONE JOIN THE FEDERATION??! WHY WOULD THE FEDERATION EXIST? YOU DON’T NEED MILITARY PROTECTION IF YOU HAVE NOTHING OF MONETARY VALUE TO PROTECT!!!
Don’t get me started…
This book has definitely provided some useful material for game play and for that I appreciate it! Chapter 2.30 is where kicks into high gear.
“Check with your Group” is the now standard diatribe that essentially asks that you get pre-approval on anything in your game that might ‘trigger’ someone.
I have very mixed feels about this. On the one hand, I think being triggered by a roleplaying game would be one of the coolest experiences of my life and in every RPG I play or run I HOPE to trigger the players. That’s the ENTIRE point of the game.
On the other hand, I have gotten legitimately mad at games, but it was pretty easy to leave them after that or apologize and come back as I desired.
Ultimately though I feel like if a person feels that they want to play an imagination game but require a ‘safe word’ or some guarantee that there will not be any ‘disturbing’ content really needs to just get back in front of the boob tube where even then the warnings will not be accurate enough to satisfy them.
These are games of the imagination. Free thought is definitely a risk. If you don’t WANT that risk you should not play. Or read. Or leave the house.
Honesty though, this is one of the better — in fact probably the best — Star Trek Adventures book I’ve read, providing actual game-able detail with regard to lower deck personnel, family and nepotism and other actual processes about Star Fleet.
Living the Life is the chapter I’ve been waiting for. And something I think is very hard to pull of in just about any RPG is the ‘daily life’ routine. Certainly D&D has hanging out in the tavern and camping which can serve for good character interaction and if memory serves of my time playing Star Trek RPGs we managed to get in a lot of conversational roleplaying, but knowing precisely what duties and events are likely to occur on a starship would greatly help in setting up social encounters, which is something that greatly benefits Star Trek roleplaying.
“Gamemasters’ Guidance: In game terms, the gamemaster could set forth a list of focuses or tasks the player character must acquire or complete before being considered for a promotion.”
WTF? Why the hell should the GM do that? Isn’t that the whole point of the rules? How the hell should the GM know what skills it takes to get promoted. I’m hoping that someone who writes a Star Trek RPG book that I paid of $50 for would figure that out and write it the f* down for me!
First Star Trek RPG book with a discussion on nudity. I approve.
I love the “Mandatory Bonding Time!” Table!
The section on Lower Decks in other species ships is fun to read and certainly inspires.
The “Doing the Work” chapter is a mixed bag. It’s nice in that it gives some ideas of what Lower Decks characters can do aboard a ship. But it’s still pretty vague.
For example Paralegals “perform paralegal duties, such as recording court martials, administrative discharges, legal research, and assistance to command officers in legal matters.”
Uh, okay. But how many paralegals are there on the ship? How often are they required? What do they do in the middle of space? Is that ALL they do?
Maybe it’s quibbling. I’m glad this section is here. I just wish it were more specific. You could argue that the license might not allow it in case the show decides to contradict it, but in that cause you shouldn’t allow ANY books to be put out.
Supervising Characters is about letting players play senior officers assigned to their missions either played by PCs on a rotating basis or something. I can’t really make any sense out of it except that it attempts to restrict what they can do and at the same time presents character creation information. It’s gamey as hell and doesn’t really seem to be story based.
“Use your giant green space hands wisely.”
“The Wonders of the Universe” chapter was interesting and short, dealing with a few of the stellar phenomena that appeared on the Lower Decks show that hadn’t appeared much in Star Trek. It also covered nanites another hazard that as far as I know didn’t appear much in Star Trek. It also discussed cybernetics, but again without any real rules.
It didn’t add very much mechanical support, but was an interesting read.
“The Menagerie” chapter gives the creature building rules and is excellent and an absolute must have for this book.
“New Lifepath Options” is interesting in that it gives advice on “Mixed-Heritage Characters” which if I’m not mistaken means that in this game Spock could not be created until this book!
The new races are both interesting and somewhat humorous. They are all marked “Available After 2370” and I’m pretty glad of that actually, but it’s still a cool bunch.
The “Tools and Weapons” chapter describes some of the equipment introduced on the TV show including the “Spatial Phenomena Observation and Calibration Kit” helmet that is now completely and totally cannon. This does in fact make me happy and is one of the most wonderful things about the TV show.
Who the hell is writing this book? They ought to write EVERY Modipheus Star Trek book! They may even actually PLAY the game they’re writing about!
In the “Engaging Young Players” section they talk about ‘converting’ a regular ‘Star Trek Adventures’ scenario to one for a Lower Deck crew. That’s EXACTLY what I’m doing and a great idea for any Lower Decks GM.
As much as I like this book “Planning Story Arcs” continues one of the STUPIDEST trends all the STA books have, which is telling GM’s how to plan adventures for characters from each different department (Command, Con, Security, Engineering, Science and Medicine). How is this supposed to be helpful? For those GMs who don’t know what each department does? For those GM’s whose players are all from the SAME department? GM’s need help with GROUPS of players who are probably from different departments and have to work together. So how to structure missions so that ANY department can have tasks to do would be helpful. Not this drek.
Well, at least it didn’t overstay it’s welcome at two pages. Two pages too many, sure, but there are worse in most STA books.
Not great adventure creation advice, but better than anything I’ve read in any other STA book (including the core rulebook).
The ‘Cold Opens’ table is another tidbit that shows this book has made more effort to be useful to a game than any other STA book I’ve ever read — INCLUDING the Core rulebook!
Grrr. Mission Briefs. I am not a fan. If you want to write something I can use. Write an ADVENTURE. A beginning, middle, and end. With a hook, plot twists, NPC write-ups, locations, maps and a timeline.
You know why? Because NOTHING ELSE is as immediately playable. For everything else I have to write hook, plot twists, NPC write-ups, locations, maps and a timeline. The only thing you’ve supplied is a half-baked idea ─ which was NEVER a rarity!
You MIGHT be able to run a game from a ‘Mission Brief’ but it MIGHT be a complete disaster. Why take that chance. Give me enough material to all-but-guarantee that I can get a good game out of it! 10 Mission Briefs aren’t worth ONE good adventure. That’s 10 MAYBE DISASTERS versus 1 PROBABLY GOOD game!
You don’t have to think long to write a Mission Brief. You DO have to give a lot of though to writing a full Adventure. Just like you’d have to give a lot of thought to writing a good story!?!!?
What is ANY OTHER MEDIA EQUIVALENT OF A MISSION BRIEFING? A commercial!
It’s ‘I have this great idea for a film/book/story…’. In other words, not s***. There is NO PLACE where anyone goes to get ‘great ideas for actual entertainment value…’.
The “Federation and Starfleet Vessels” chapter also appears to pretty boring. The STA statistics for starships are so vague as to be essentially bullet-point lists.
The many NPCs given are interesting in that they cover the full range of characters seen in the Lower Decks TV show. How useful they will be depends on the particular of the campaign.
The Beasts and Creatures chapter is equally amusing if you’ve enjoyed the odd-ball comedic creatures that are frequently in the Lower Decks show. Happy they are there.
The Mini-Campaign given is unfortunately tuned for the gonzo-ness of The Next Generation. So I think it would be pretty tough to run it in any other version of Star Trek, though they say there are notes for doing so.
I can’t particularly comment on the “Lightning in a Bottle” mini-campaign. It’s not particularly Star Trek and really it’s barely Lower Decks, though it’s possible. Worse it is neither funny nor interesting. And by necessity is a total railroad.
Well, the next adventures are okay, they are all geared towards comedy however and I find that RPG’s are funny when the comedy is not forced and not funny when it is, and unfortunately these scenarios are forced comedy.
But at the end of the day this is pound for pound the best Star Trek Adventures (STA) book they have ever produced and I include the Core rulebook. It’s got a lot of things that can be used in a serious campaign and does a-lot for running crew members that aren’t the command crew — which is the reason I picked it up.
I could give it 3 stars because it’s better than the average STA book, but the average STA book is pretty awful. I’ll give it 4 stars because it is way above the average STA book and keep it around for ideas.
I’m looking forward to this book. The show is middling — die hard trekkies only — but since we have all decided that in our games we should all be ensigns, I’m curious about what it’s advice is for running lower level characters in a game.
FINALLY! Black text on a white background! Geesh! What took them so long to make a readable book?!
What the hell is the purpose of telling me what is going to be in the upcoming chapters of the book??! If I wanted to know what I could just flip through the book!
This is often done in technical books, but there it makes sense. You might not need to read the ‘History of DOS’ chapter or you might want to get to specific technical issues.
But in an RPG book it makes no sense at all and it’s just wasted filler. I’m on page 6 and it’s already telling me I wasted my money.
Interesting. The book has one of those ribbon bookmark things. I’ve never actually used one of those and none of Mophidius’s books that I have, has one. The book is beautifully illustrated with pictures from the cartoon.
And so far is pretty pleasant to read.
”A Militant Starfleet?” dredges up the stupid question about whether Starfleet is a military or diplomatic and exploration organization. As far as I know, this BS was actually started by Gene Roddenberry himself when he tried to retcon his own show! It was crap then and it’s crap now. Starfleet is a military organization — period. The original series was based on the Navy and the Navy is a military organization period.
Several Star Trek novels have elegantly stated that while the ‘argument’ was being debate over what kind of organization Starfleet should be, the Klingons attacked (or the Romulans, take your pick) and the decisions was made then and there.
And that’s a perfectly good ‘in story’ reason why Starfleet is military.
But no amount of retconning will change the fact that Starfleet is MILITARY. And honestly there’s nothing wrong with that. OF COURSE we’ll have the military going out there into the unknown. Certainly diplomacy and exploration will happen and that force will be a last resort. But a military will always be needed and and to treat it like “Oh god we don’t want to have an actual military!!!” Is as stupid as saying “We’re getting rid of money!” (Another BS retcon).
Sorry, but I hate, hate, HATE the way that “Next Generation” has reimagined the Klingons as Kiss-wannabe buffoons!
Some idiot decided that the Klingons could be ‘friends’ with the Federation if the Klingons were really an ‘honorable’ society, like modern-day Samurai!
Of course, that makes no sense in the way the original series saw them and looks like a pretty stupid way to imagine a warp-capable race in general.
And yet somehow this book continues the idea that Klingons would NEVER admit actually being defeated!
The Klingons in the original series were never portrayed as buffoons - just a people who believe differently than the Federation. So making them a joke - they have spikes on their shoes!!! - is just pathetically bad writing.
Even though I have absolutely no interest whatsoever in the year 2380–having no idea who the Breen, Jem’Hadar, Dominion War or Cardassians are—this book is still a good read.
“But I, for one, am thrilled by the opportunity to flip up my skirt and give new worlds a peek into what makes the Federation the cooing tribble of furry galactic affection that it is.”
Okay, I think it’s interesting that the book is trying to establish processes and procedures for ‘second contact’ and there’s some very good stuff here, but “To have their application for Federation membership approved, developing planetary economies must achieve economic stability. … It must also free citizens from the trappings of a monetary value system and eliminate poverty.” What-the-holy-crap!?! One stupid throwaway line in Next Generation and you’re going to continue with that horseshit that somehow we’ll eliminate the need for money?
If the planet manages to do that what the HELL does it need the Federation for?
In fact, if the Federation provides NO FINANCIAL BENEFIT to anyone that joins it, WHY WOULD ANYONE JOIN THE FEDERATION??! WHY WOULD THE FEDERATION EXIST? YOU DON’T NEED MILITARY PROTECTION IF YOU HAVE NOTHING OF MONETARY VALUE TO PROTECT!!!
Don’t get me started…
This book has definitely provided some useful material for game play and for that I appreciate it! Chapter 2.30 is where kicks into high gear.
“Check with your Group” is the now standard diatribe that essentially asks that you get pre-approval on anything in your game that might ‘trigger’ someone.
I have very mixed feels about this. On the one hand, I think being triggered by a roleplaying game would be one of the coolest experiences of my life and in every RPG I play or run I HOPE to trigger the players. That’s the ENTIRE point of the game.
On the other hand, I have gotten legitimately mad at games, but it was pretty easy to leave them after that or apologize and come back as I desired.
Ultimately though I feel like if a person feels that they want to play an imagination game but require a ‘safe word’ or some guarantee that there will not be any ‘disturbing’ content really needs to just get back in front of the boob tube where even then the warnings will not be accurate enough to satisfy them.
These are games of the imagination. Free thought is definitely a risk. If you don’t WANT that risk you should not play. Or read. Or leave the house.
Honesty though, this is one of the better — in fact probably the best — Star Trek Adventures book I’ve read, providing actual game-able detail with regard to lower deck personnel, family and nepotism and other actual processes about Star Fleet.
Living the Life is the chapter I’ve been waiting for. And something I think is very hard to pull of in just about any RPG is the ‘daily life’ routine. Certainly D&D has hanging out in the tavern and camping which can serve for good character interaction and if memory serves of my time playing Star Trek RPGs we managed to get in a lot of conversational roleplaying, but knowing precisely what duties and events are likely to occur on a starship would greatly help in setting up social encounters, which is something that greatly benefits Star Trek roleplaying.
“Gamemasters’ Guidance: In game terms, the gamemaster could set forth a list of focuses or tasks the player character must acquire or complete before being considered for a promotion.”
WTF? Why the hell should the GM do that? Isn’t that the whole point of the rules? How the hell should the GM know what skills it takes to get promoted. I’m hoping that someone who writes a Star Trek RPG book that I paid of $50 for would figure that out and write it the f* down for me!
First Star Trek RPG book with a discussion on nudity. I approve.
I love the “Mandatory Bonding Time!” Table!
The section on Lower Decks in other species ships is fun to read and certainly inspires.
The “Doing the Work” chapter is a mixed bag. It’s nice in that it gives some ideas of what Lower Decks characters can do aboard a ship. But it’s still pretty vague.
For example Paralegals “perform paralegal duties, such as recording court martials, administrative discharges, legal research, and assistance to command officers in legal matters.”
Uh, okay. But how many paralegals are there on the ship? How often are they required? What do they do in the middle of space? Is that ALL they do?
Maybe it’s quibbling. I’m glad this section is here. I just wish it were more specific. You could argue that the license might not allow it in case the show decides to contradict it, but in that cause you shouldn’t allow ANY books to be put out.
Supervising Characters is about letting players play senior officers assigned to their missions either played by PCs on a rotating basis or something. I can’t really make any sense out of it except that it attempts to restrict what they can do and at the same time presents character creation information. It’s gamey as hell and doesn’t really seem to be story based.
“Use your giant green space hands wisely.”
“The Wonders of the Universe” chapter was interesting and short, dealing with a few of the stellar phenomena that appeared on the Lower Decks show that hadn’t appeared much in Star Trek. It also covered nanites another hazard that as far as I know didn’t appear much in Star Trek. It also discussed cybernetics, but again without any real rules.
It didn’t add very much mechanical support, but was an interesting read.
“The Menagerie” chapter gives the creature building rules and is excellent and an absolute must have for this book.
“New Lifepath Options” is interesting in that it gives advice on “Mixed-Heritage Characters” which if I’m not mistaken means that in this game Spock could not be created until this book!
The new races are both interesting and somewhat humorous. They are all marked “Available After 2370” and I’m pretty glad of that actually, but it’s still a cool bunch.
The “Tools and Weapons” chapter describes some of the equipment introduced on the TV show including the “Spatial Phenomena Observation and Calibration Kit” helmet that is now completely and totally cannon. This does in fact make me happy and is one of the most wonderful things about the TV show.
Who the hell is writing this book? They ought to write EVERY Modipheus Star Trek book! They may even actually PLAY the game they’re writing about!
In the “Engaging Young Players” section they talk about ‘converting’ a regular ‘Star Trek Adventures’ scenario to one for a Lower Deck crew. That’s EXACTLY what I’m doing and a great idea for any Lower Decks GM.
As much as I like this book “Planning Story Arcs” continues one of the STUPIDEST trends all the STA books have, which is telling GM’s how to plan adventures for characters from each different department (Command, Con, Security, Engineering, Science and Medicine). How is this supposed to be helpful? For those GMs who don’t know what each department does? For those GM’s whose players are all from the SAME department? GM’s need help with GROUPS of players who are probably from different departments and have to work together. So how to structure missions so that ANY department can have tasks to do would be helpful. Not this drek.
Well, at least it didn’t overstay it’s welcome at two pages. Two pages too many, sure, but there are worse in most STA books.
Not great adventure creation advice, but better than anything I’ve read in any other STA book (including the core rulebook).
The ‘Cold Opens’ table is another tidbit that shows this book has made more effort to be useful to a game than any other STA book I’ve ever read — INCLUDING the Core rulebook!
Grrr. Mission Briefs. I am not a fan. If you want to write something I can use. Write an ADVENTURE. A beginning, middle, and end. With a hook, plot twists, NPC write-ups, locations, maps and a timeline.
You know why? Because NOTHING ELSE is as immediately playable. For everything else I have to write hook, plot twists, NPC write-ups, locations, maps and a timeline. The only thing you’ve supplied is a half-baked idea ─ which was NEVER a rarity!
You MIGHT be able to run a game from a ‘Mission Brief’ but it MIGHT be a complete disaster. Why take that chance. Give me enough material to all-but-guarantee that I can get a good game out of it! 10 Mission Briefs aren’t worth ONE good adventure. That’s 10 MAYBE DISASTERS versus 1 PROBABLY GOOD game!
You don’t have to think long to write a Mission Brief. You DO have to give a lot of though to writing a full Adventure. Just like you’d have to give a lot of thought to writing a good story!?!!?
What is ANY OTHER MEDIA EQUIVALENT OF A MISSION BRIEFING? A commercial!
It’s ‘I have this great idea for a film/book/story…’. In other words, not s***. There is NO PLACE where anyone goes to get ‘great ideas for actual entertainment value…’.
The “Federation and Starfleet Vessels” chapter also appears to pretty boring. The STA statistics for starships are so vague as to be essentially bullet-point lists.
The many NPCs given are interesting in that they cover the full range of characters seen in the Lower Decks TV show. How useful they will be depends on the particular of the campaign.
The Beasts and Creatures chapter is equally amusing if you’ve enjoyed the odd-ball comedic creatures that are frequently in the Lower Decks show. Happy they are there.
The Mini-Campaign given is unfortunately tuned for the gonzo-ness of The Next Generation. So I think it would be pretty tough to run it in any other version of Star Trek, though they say there are notes for doing so.
I can’t particularly comment on the “Lightning in a Bottle” mini-campaign. It’s not particularly Star Trek and really it’s barely Lower Decks, though it’s possible. Worse it is neither funny nor interesting. And by necessity is a total railroad.
Well, the next adventures are okay, they are all geared towards comedy however and I find that RPG’s are funny when the comedy is not forced and not funny when it is, and unfortunately these scenarios are forced comedy.
But at the end of the day this is pound for pound the best Star Trek Adventures (STA) book they have ever produced and I include the Core rulebook. It’s got a lot of things that can be used in a serious campaign and does a-lot for running crew members that aren’t the command crew — which is the reason I picked it up.
I could give it 3 stars because it’s better than the average STA book, but the average STA book is pretty awful. I’ll give it 4 stars because it is way above the average STA book and keep it around for ideas.
November 6, 2023
Several typos, but a lot of fun and interesting content for the game.
July 7, 2024
Useful sourcebook, both for new rules, ships and gear and for preparing GMs to run Lower Decks games.
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