Engage

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away - something something - make it so. Welcome to the overview post about the new-ish solo tabletop rpg system by Modiphius, Star Trek: Captain’s Log I bought a copy of this game nearly a year ago at this point but haven’t had the time to really dive in and see if it’s any good. Recently I decided to watch a few videos about it and the reviews are… mixed. As far as I can tell the main complaint is that it’s not as crunchy as the main Star Trek Adventures TTRPG and there isn’t enough “action”. I’m a relatively casual Star Trek fan (I’ve watched it off an on my whole life, but I’m definitely not an expert or superfan by any stretch) but I think those complaints may not be warranted. This is a tabletop role playing game, sure, but Star Trek isn’t Dungeons & Dragons and I expect the gameplay to me much more narrative-focused and less combat-heavy. I suppose we’ll find out together. I also tend to lean towards more of a journaling approach when I play solo rpgs and I know there are plenty of people who would rather simply track stat blocks and loot. In my opinion, we have games like Four Against Darkness for that.

Onward!

I’ve created a character and a ship and I have to say I’m actually impressed with the character creation so far. Since this is my first time playing the game and I really didn’t have a predetermined goal or story in mind, I left my character up to the dice and rolled randomly. The character generated is so cool that I’ve decided to leave every part of this game up to chance just to see what kind of story unfolds. I’ll post my initial character here and provide an updated overview if/when their stats/status changes during the course of the game.

Character

I wasn’t expecting a Kazon captain so we’re already off to an unexpected and exciting start. I’m also a fan of the 2d20 “roll under” system most of these newer Modiphius games use. I’ve heard criticisms but the idea of combining skills to make a target number and having multiple chances to succeed/fail and generate momentum or threat really makes the skill checks feel simple and dynamic rather than binary and crunchy.

Ship

I was happy to roll a Niagra class ship; they are one of my favorites. The inclusion of an emergency medical holigram also made me happy as a Voyager fan. I’m excited to get started with this adventure.

Stay Tuned

My plan is to write captain’s logs as blog entries and include any interesting information as it comes up during play. Some logs may be super short, others super long… and I’m sure I’ll change up the formula several times as I learn more about playing the game as well as structuring blog posts in general. The game recommends structuring adventures in a 3 act, 5 scene structure so that each one feels similar to an episode of the Star Trek television show. This makes sense to me and I feel it’ll fit into my jornaling play style so unless it ends up feeling terrible I think I’ll follow Modiphius’s advice. They made the game after all. If you have any suggestions, tips, artwork you may want me to feature, etc shoot me an email at info@traviswitt.com!

• Travis