Adventures Ventures Onward

The addition of the tabletop gaming area at 2018's Destination Star Trek allowed a lot of fans the chance to dip their toe into new waters.

Featuring Attack Wing, Ascendancy (need a good week to play that beast), Frontiers and Fluxx, one game with a major presence was the roleplaying Adventures.

Already boasting an impressive lineup of packs from the core book, the line is going to be expanding more and I got to speak to the man behind the game at this year's event.

"We released it at GenCon last year," explained Nathan Dowdell "and we've got a few source books and supporting material released since then and there's more on the way."

A fan of Star Trek since he was a "small child", Nathan explained that once he'd calmed down from being asked to take on the challenge of Adventures, the focus wasn't on trying to simulate the world of Star Trek so much as trying to emulate Star Trek stories. 

"You have the bridge crew and the senior staff on screen and they're the ones making all the big decisions. Then you have some other characters that come in and help with that. The game is built to handle that kind of storytelling and that kind of episodic nature as well as moral and personal dilemmas, grappling with the Prime Directive  - things that you would see in an episode of Star Trek.

"This is rather than just letting you play things out which can lead to crews going pirate and we needed to make it as Star Trek as possible."

Out on sale already are the Core Book, the Alpha and Beta Quadrant and Command, Science and Operations Division supplements plus These are the Voyages mission expansion.

"There's been a hugely positive reaction to it," continued Nathan; "Obviously there are some people for whom it's not their taste and you can't please everyone and that can lead to diluting your ideas. Then there are those who've grabbed onto it and become passionate about it. There are numerous streams on YouTube and Twitch playing the game and I'm shocked and thoroughly pleased with the response to it."

So what makes it so popular and great to play?

"When you get down to playing it, the rules are engineered to support that collaborative team work, problem solving ethos.While it's not about phaser shootouts they are in there because they are a part of Star Trek as is ship combat but there's as much emphasis on figuring out the conundrum of the week or solving a scientific problem or simply talking it out. The rules are there to support teamwork, collaboration; the group as a whole benefits when one person succeed. Working together is a crucial part of the way things are played. Those elements speak from the heart of Star Trek."

The future for Adventures is still rosy with more set to fill out 2019 including the Delta and Gamma Quadrant supplements which should satisfy any Dominion or Borg fans out there! Plus you can play as any of the original, The Next Generation or Deep Space Nine crews with the available character sheets.

Thanks to Nathan Dowdell for his time to explain the growth of Star Trek Adventures.

For more on Star Trek Adventures head over to Modiphius 

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