Buy’ ngop! That’s a celebratory outburst in Klingon, by the way – because publisher Modiphius has announced a new, second edition of its tabletop Star Trek RPG is coming in Fall 2024, with a brand new rulebook, starter set, and expanded rules that allow Klingon and Romulan player characters for the first time.
As revealed in a press release on Monday, Star Trek Adventures second edition will launch with a new core rulebook at the Gen Con game show in Indianapolis, USA in the first four days of August 2024.
The all-important starter set (a bundle including pre-written beginner adventures, pre-built characters, and tutorial materials that’s become a staple product for new tabletop RPGs) will follow “in the Fall”, says Modiphius – though we don’t yet know the exact release date, price, or contents – and “a series of expansions” are planned after that.
The publisher promises Star Trek Adventures 2e “will build on and refine the rules from the first edition, and is compatible with first edition supplements and expansions”.
The real headline feature, though – and the one that has us excited – is “the possibility for players to step outside the Starfleet-focused gameplay and tell stories with the well-known species of the Star Trek universe, including the Klingon and Romulan Empires, in addition to others present across the franchise”.
Beyond the warlike Klingon and expansionist, authoritarian Romulan empires, Modiphius hasn’t revealed any of the other alien races we’ll be able to play as in the new RPG edition, but, in Monday’s press release, project manager Jim Johnson promises “a selection of fully playable non-Federation species in the core”.
“Since Star Trek presented a diverse setting from the very beginning, I felt it important the core rulebook present a more diverse spread of character possibilities beyond just the Federation,” Johnson explains.
Modiphius has published a stack of first edition Star Trek roleplaying sourcebooks since the game released in 2017, including supplements exploring the Trek galaxy’s Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta Quadrants. These already include varying amounts of rules for a few dozen different Star Trek species from the Federation of Planets, including the Vulcans, Bajorans, and Betazoid.
And the player community around Star Trek Adventures has created a mountain of unofficial rules for player characters from over 200 different Star Trek species.
But this will be the first time a proper range of non-Human species from outside the setting’s Federation of Planets will be fully playable via Modiphius’ official rules, unlocking a wider variety of perspectives to plan your crew and campaign, beyond the familiar human-centric decks of Federation starships.
Modiphius founder and boss Chris Birch is excited.
“Whether you’re a new crew coming to the table or old friends, I think you’ll find the second edition of Star Trek Adventures will be the beginning of your own five-year mission with all the wonder that entails,” he says in the press release.
For more tabletop trekkie goodness, check out our guide to the best Star Trek board games on the market – or, if you’re more into computer grand strategy games, you should check out Paradox’s Star Trek Infinite.