There's a new Star Trek roleplaying game in town! The last official Trek game was published in the first half of the 2000s; it's been years since, and there are certainly fans hungry for a new iteration. And that new iteration is here - almost. Modiphius Entertainment (Achtung! Cthulhu, Mutant Chronicles, Conan) will be using their own 2d20 game system to power Star Trek Adventures, due for release in summer 2017. The game is based on the "Prime" universe, and covers Star Trek: The Original Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space 9, Voyager, Enterprise, and the
TOS and TNG movies - everything except the recent
JJ Abrams reboot universe.
There have been a few Star Trek
RPGs over the decades. The first was in 1978, from Heritage Models, and was called Star Trek: Adventure Gaming in the Final Frontier. It was followed in 1982 by Starfleet Voyages from Terra Games Company, and then FASA's popular version in the same year. Last Unicorn Games produced three
RPGs - Star Trek The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and The Original Series, all in 1998-1999. The last official Trek
RPG was the Star Trek Roleplaying Game from Decipher, Inc. in 2002 - so it's been 14 years since the last one! There are others, too -- Prime Directive in 1993, a Japanese game called Enterprise: Role Play in 1983, and plenty of board games, tabletop war games, and more.
Also see my interview about Star Trek Adventures with Modiphius Chris Birch here.
Modiphius announced today at 17:01
UK time (geddit?). A public playtest is coming; you can register for that at
Gen Con at the Modiphius booth. Playtesters will be assigned a vessel, although those at
Gen Con get to choose. They also get a bonus free Kirk or Picard miniature. Other signups are available at Essen-Spiel or Dragonmeet later in the year. The actual playtest takes the form of a "living campaign" and launches in the Fall. The game itself can be pre-ordered in the Spring, and will be released in the Summer of 2017.
The 2d20 System was designed by Star Wars: Edge of the Empire's Jay Little, and powers Modiphius' current line of games - (Mutant Chronicles, Infinity, Conan, John Carter of Mars). You can check out free examples of those if you want to see what the 2d20 System looks like - just click on those links right there and grab 'em from DTRPG.
Also accompanying the game will be a line of resin and metal 32-
mm miniatures which feature Trek characters and crews, and a range of geomorphic tiles featuring different locations - they give examples of "burning Federation ships, mysterious colonies and embattled Klingon cruisers".
So, what's up first? The initial offerings will focus on Starfleet characters (both human and alien); other races, including Klingons, will come later. Pregenerated characters will also be available, including the Enterprise crews. There will be starship combat rules, which will be fairly simple.
Interestingly, this is not a Kickstarter. Modiphius has made its name with a series of very large, successful Kickstarters, but this will not be one of them. I know that some companies do not like their IP associated with Kickstarter, but I don't know if that has anything to do with this.