Sunday, June 7, 2020

Star Trek Adventures Rules Notes


OK, so, I really love Star Trek Adventures. It's a pretty bangin' game for a franchise tie-in TTRPG. It is far from perfect,but certainly an enjoyable play, so it gets a pass.

And the book is of excellent quality too, with a woven spine separate from the cover spine and impressive production value on every page!

But you know what doesn't get a passing grade?

The writing.

Oh god, the writing. Flaws I have seen:
  • Inconsistent language. Is task resolution called a "task" or a "check" people? Get your language straight.
  • Muddled language. Tasks are a type of action on your turn, but are also the task resolution system. This means you can take a task that makes you make a task. Buhwhaa?!
  • Redundant writing. Every rule in the book is copypasta'd somewhere else in the book at least once. Some rules are triple copied.
  • Skatterbrained rules explanation. Every time they try to explain a rule, it gets interrupted by a half-explanation of a related rule, then the text moves on without finishing the explanation of the initial rule until much later on in the book!
  • Flavorful but misleading headings. The headings are fun to read if you read this as a book. But if you're trying to find the rule about spending momentum for bonus damage, the table of contents might as well be someone's shopping list!
  • Flavor text overload. They have sidebars all over the book. Half of them are pink, meaning they're fluff, the other half are purple, meaning they're actually more rules content. EXCEPT for some of the pink sidebars that contain rules, some of the purple sidebars that contain fluff, and some main text sections that are not rules content either. You basically have to read everything to make sure you didn't miss something.
  • Disorganized information. Did you know half of the book's playable species are actually in the DM section at the back of the book?! Without any warning or indication of such earlier on?? How convenient and useful!!! The whole book is like that.

So anyways, they can't write to save their lives. So, here, my gift to you, and the fruit of two months of reading and rereading this thing until its pages are nearly falling out. My notes. The entire rule system, sorted, organized, and stripped of fluff and specific play content. Just the systems you need to know to run the game.

You're welcome.

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