I’ve always had an idea for an Espionage-themed Star Trek campaign, ever since the old FASA Starfleet Intelligence Manual was released.
Category Archives: Captain’s Log
Star Trek Excalibur: Crew Update
Star Trek Excalibur: Meet the Crew
While watching more tutorials for Captain’s Log, I was able to review my original first mission (which may become the second mission) and came up with a bunch of crew members as NPCs.
Interesting that Illyrians are listed as Enterprise-era species, which I suppose makes sense, given Strange New Worlds takes place before The Original Series-era.
And I’m considering the original mission as the second mission because I’m going to take a suggestion from a couple of Solo RPG tutorial videos, and start In Media Res, a time honored story telling method used in so many of my favorite movies (Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai).
In medias res is a Latin phrase that means “in the middle of things”. It’s a literary device used to describe a narrative that begins in the middle of the plot, rather than at the beginning.
I tried using CoPilot to create a crew photo, but I can’t get it to use the Enterprise-era uniforms.
These were the best two.
The AI apparently doesn’t know what an Andorian, Aenar or Denobulan looks like.
Don’t touch that dial!
Q’apla?
That’s hillarious:
I was thinking that one of my miscellaneous characters for Star Trek Adventures Captain’s Log should be a Klingon, so I started looking into acquiring the Klingon Core Rulebook from Modiphius.
Amazon has the deluxe edition for about $50.
Modiphius has it on sale for $60.
DriveThruRPG has it digitally for $20.
I go to the page for the item on DTRPG and:
Yeah, I’m an idiot.
Introducing
Captain Cayla Okono, USS Discovery NCC-1798
YEAH, THAT’S RIGHT, I’M MAKING MY OWN STAR TREK: DISCOVERY
TAKE THAT, KURTZMAN!
The Discovery’s traits:
– Deluxe Galley
– Improved Warp Drive
– Point Defense System
– Improved Power Systems
Captain Okono’s Values:
– I finish what I start
– Exploration is the blood that fills my veins
– The mission comes first
– Never leave a stone unturned
Don’t touch that dial!
Online Resources
All this time I never used one of the biggest resources for learning that was right under my nose.
YouTube.
Case in point: for years I never could wrap my head around Modiphius’ 2D20 system, even though I’d read it and kinda maybe got the gist of it.
Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition appears to have stripped things down a bit, from what I’ve heard from YOUTUBE videos, and right here is a video that I found that explains the basics of the system better than any other resource I’ve found online.
He also goes into character creation:
While this is great for when/if I finally delve into this system, maaaaaaybe with my gaming group (hint hint nudge nudge), I’ve decided to start looking up some videos explaining how to play the Captain’s Log Solo version of STA.
Wish me luck with this.
Don’t touch that dial!
Star Trek Excalibur Background
System: Star Trek Adventures Captain’s Log
This campaign is planned to take place around the 4th season of Star Trek Enterprise, or mid-2154.
Additional campaigns may begin as I get comfortable with this system, with settings during TOS, TNG, and perhaps Lower Decks.
Don’t touch that Dial!
First Character
I decided to copy this sheet here,since this is the more appropriate place.
I’m still reading through the rule book for this system, so hopefully I get this (or one of the other solo games) underway fairly soon.
I did roll a starting adventure for this character a month or so ago, but decided to start fresh once the rule book has been read and understood.
Besides, from that initial adventure description, it sounded too much like the beginning of Star Trek Voyager.
Don’t touch that Dial!
Star Trek: Excalibur
After watching some videos today on both Star Trek Adventures and the Captain’s Log Solo RPG, I rerolled my Enterprise-era captain to put him more in line with my ideal background (no randomness) and this is what my result was:
I decided to forgo my usual science background and put him through the Operations track at Starfleet Academy.
I rolled my first mission as well, and came up with a Deep Space assignment which resulted from being struck by an object that sends the ship off course.
Whoops.
“Ship’s Log, July 29, 2154. While attempting to explore a spatial rift, the Excalibur was struck by a wayward piece of stellar matter from the nearby star, knocking us into the rift itself. We have sustained minor damage and many casualties, none fatal, but the crew will be operating at less than peak efficiency until our shipmates heal. Meanwhile, we have detected an uninhabited world nearby and upon further scanning there appears to be a graveyard for numerous shipwrecks scattered on the surface.”
This doesn’t bode well, does it?
Stand by!