Star Trek Adventures Captain's Log solo RPG 

Solo Game Master's Guide now in Paperback! order from Amazon: shorturl.at/vFMQ2 order from Modiphius: shorturl.at/npsL1 order from Modiphus UK: shorturl.at/kqsMN Get RANDOM HEXCRAWL book: tinyurl.com/5cj3d4jc Get RANDOM DUNGEONS book: lfosr.com/product/a-place-underground/

This book literally got me into solo role playing. I didn’t know it was a thing until I read about this and now I’ve been buying all sorts of books for solo play. The great thing about this book is that while it’s standalone, you can utilize the other Star Trek Adventures books if you want to dive deeper into the lore.

I'm a real trekkie and have been trying to create a solo Star Trek experience for years. My two cents is that Captain's Log succeeds at making you feel like you are in the world. It gives you just enough lore to understand but does not bog you down with minutia. And the tables. They are plentiful and helpful.

Honestly when captain's log was released i thought itd be only providing solo rules for playing star trek adventures including ways to do pre-written modules for that system. Though after this review i cant help but feel that modiphius opted for a standalone esque solo ruleset for trek-based narrative game instead. Also looking forward to your dive into traveller, especially how one can play traveller solo.

I personally like this game a lot! There is a lot of lore in the book. As a casual fan Its enough for me to feel confident that I can play a Star Trek story. It focuses on one character but offers multiple ways of including a team and indeed your entire ship’s crew. I’m not into heavy journaling. Nowhere in the book does it tell you that you must do this to enjoy it. I just take notes. Its loose for sure but its a very encouraging guide to soloing and offers many different solutions for things like combat where everyone will have their own different preferences. I’ve bought an extra book about Star Trek to act as further source material. I don’t see this as a failing from a 320 page book. It makes me hungry for more! I’m probably going to get the full rpg at some point so that I have the option to add in more game crunch now and then if I want it. For me it’s all good!

Great summary video. You have it correct, of course. The game is a journaling rpg, focussed entirely on the one character you create using the book. That alone gives you the Star Trek flavor to the game, and the story outlines and three act structure the book provides for conducting the ‘episode’ again allows the Star Trek feel to come through. Because it is a journaling game, it does require imagination to come up with the details of the story, the creation of situations and conflict, and how those situations and conflicts are resolved. I’m currently playing through a storyline in which my character is the Chief Security Officer. I am struggling a bit to create story elements that feed into my character’s role in the story. To create extra details within my story, I am also using the Matt Davids solo random tables for Science Fiction stories. I highly recommend them if you can get hold of them.

I bought the PDf expecting a PbtA/Starforged type game with ST flavouring. I have to admit, Im struggling to find the game element. Its most definitely a prompt and write, journaling system. I think if you are looking for a 'game' it doesnt feel that this provides it.

I'm a complete newbie to RPG and thought I'd start with solo gaming first. I chose Captain's Log because I'm a lifelong Trekkie. I can't imagine why someone would want to play this if they weren't into the Trek World, but like I say, I don't know anything about RPG.. Waiting on my book and d20 dice. I'm wondering if this is more journaling as you say, that I might have chosen incorrectly to dip my toe into TTRPG in hopes to one day play DnD with some folks. But it can't be all bad because I will just read the book from cover to cover and enjoy being in my Trek world that brings me so much joy.

Thank you for the extensive Review. That will very much be for me. :D

I've already had to use some Star Trek Adventures books to "improve" this book for me... Starships have been rolled back to Spaceframe + Mission Profile for a more customisable starship. Utopia Planitia for Spaceframe, Core STA book for Mission Profile. And I have used the Command book and updated the Type-9 Shuttle. Yep, I'm adding shuttles and runabouts to the mix. I've moded the "Your Starship Hit Box" for combat to be; Scale + Modifier +2. Modifiers (taken or tweaked from Star Trek Adventures) come from Talents and are thus; Ablative Armour (+2), Improved Hull Integrity (+1), Advanced Shields (+1). As per the STA core book I'm also permitting 1 Talent only (thus Scale +1 talents) to be added to a Starship with a Milestone... I also modified the Aeroshuttle from Utopia Planitia by changing Structure to 8 (matches to Intrepid class which makes more sense to me) and changing Weapons to 7. I also removed Designed for Flight and replaced it with Improved Impulse Drive, which is more simplistic and in line with the Type-9 Shuttle talent. I don't foresee any other tweaks needed for me... BTW, if you want my Type-9 Shuttle stats (modifed to be in line with Utopia Planitia rules) feel free to ask.

I’m an “advanced casual” Trekker. I’ve seen a few episodes of the Original series, then probably 80% of The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine (my favorite). A few dozen pages of broad history sounds PERFECT for my mix of moderate-to-high enthusiasm and low-to-moderate lore knowledge.

💖💗💓 Excellent and helpful overview!Thank you for spending so much time on this. I went slowly through this video, and I think you nailed it perfectly. It’s a very curious mix of info and mechanics, which seem entirely focused on Star Trek fans. And I would say pretty dedicated fans, at that. I was completely obsessed with Star Trek (original series) as a child and youth - maybe not quite at Trekker level, but almost. My interest has mostly faded over the decades, then finally tanked (specifically after Abrams’ first two movies and “time line rearrangement.”) So I can’t imagine giving this game a go - especially since I don’t enjoy journaling games and a Star Fleet Captain is the last character I’d ever want to play, LOL. And it seems like a captain-centric solo experience is what this game is best suited for. However, I would like to add my voice to the others, here, and say I would truly love for you to do a video on Traveller. 🙂

I just purchased this book, but haven't gotten the chance the delve into it yet. But I appreciate your thoughts (and frankly, wish I would have seen it was more of a journaling game than something like Starforged.) However, I think I might disagree with your view that the "extent to which it will feel like Star Trek is equivalent to the extent to which you are steeped in Star Trek before you come to this ruleset." From what I've seen and read, structuring the story in a 3 Act or 5 Act structure, with scenes, and starting with a Capt's Log etc. is WHAT MAKES IT FEEL like a Star Trek game. Having a basic knowledge that's given in the book is FINE, as the STRUCTURE of the story is what makes it feel Star Trek-ish (with obvious ties to the Perfectibility of Mankind, Diversity, the Benevolence of the Federation, etc.) I've ran both Star Wars and Android Universe games, and one thing I struggled with was feeling like I didn't know enough about the Universes/Background to make it FEEL like a Star Wars or Android game. And that just wasn't true. I think with IPs that have huge amount of background out there, we feel like we need to know EVERYTHING. But just basics is enough to tell a story. and how it's structured to make it FEEL like the Universe. Star Wars: Empire - Bad, Rebels - Good, Outer Rim - Scum and Villainy in a gritty Space Opera feel Android: Corporations - Bad, Humans - Greedy, Androids - Misunderstood, and Everyone's connected to the Web. Firefly: The Old West in Space. You dont feel like you need to know all the background to everything in D&D to run in a D&D world, do you?

I am chuffed that also chose the TOS ❤️ although the cover is kinda making my eyes wired out…maybe I should stop staring at it for hours and read the book ☺️

Brilliant video - thanks so much. It did save me £30 from buying it as I decided against it. Trek is about a team working together - you can't do it justice with just playing one character. This solo version kind of plays against that I was hoping for something more focused too that didn't rely on me doing all the heavy lifting after rolling on countless tables which are entirely random with no thematic connection. I would have to provide all that connection myself with just some brief prompts.

You mention Momentum being inspired by Ironsworn; this is definitely not the case - Momentum is used in all of Modiphius's 2d20 games, going back to Mutant Chronicles in 2015 (thus predating Ironsworn).

The problem with solo RPGs for me is they require a lot of imagination and writing acumen, both of which I have little of.

So I’m into this vid. Shortly after the 5 min. Mark and right away I’m thinking get the regular game with mythic 2e and be done with it.

I think the Lifepath character creation owes at least as much to FASA's old Star Trek RPG from 1983 as it does to Traveller, honestly.

This looks so awesome 🥰 I have it on order - And this video just makes it look even better 🥰The 2d20 system is a stellar system 🥰 It may be a good idea to use Matt Davids 'Book Of Random Tables Sci-Fi' for a little extra added goodies for play, like random cargo or space encounters. You would need to adjust some of them to fit the Star Trek universe but would help add a lot to the game. 😀 Ty ty for another awesome episode 🥰

Can you please make more video for tarot games with dungeon or more...? I see the Dungeon of Divinition and i love the the game, i have a tarot but i can't think of another game pls recommend.

I have the regular set, I may get this, but I'm pretty sure I have players waiting for me, so....

I was hoping you would do a video on this. I have it and love it! Thank you!

Would love to see a video about the old Traveller character gen, that's an absolute classic

Do you think this game presents a better "Star Trek" experience than something like Starforged can?

This game has got me experimenting with the whole idea of solo rpging. Being new to the neighbourhood I am kind of confused when someone mentions this is a "journaling game"? Aren't most solo rpgs "journaling games"? I can't see how you would be able to "play the game" without a journal. I would love to see Mod do the same treatment with DUNE.

I appreciate the insight. I don't really consider myself a trekkie/er but by default I guess I am since I've seen most of what existed before the recent resurgence of series. While I have a sort of ideal in mind of what I would want to try in a game like this, I know I probably wouldn't feel much of a need to try to reconstruct Star Trek specifically. Like if I picked up a book like this I'd want it to be primarily about trying to tell the type of idealized story you find in some Star Trek media, but that doesn't mean it'd necessarily be mirrored by someone else's idea (possibly the writers', either) for the setting. Star Trek has been around for half a century, which is a lot of stuff to try to build a single book around. Would really love to hear what you have to say about Traveller, especially since it's a lot more freeform relatively speaking. What editions do you have access to?

I don't think I've been disappointed more by a product than Captain's Log. Everything from the emptiness of the first two chapters, from the lack of real and tangible character advancement, to the fact that under the "Creating Starbases" rules they basically say they couldn't be bothered to. This book has zero depth and left me just contemplating which ruleset I should use instead for a Star Trek Solo Play. Honestly, I struggle to see what they were going for. Having played many Solo TTRPGs, I get that you can just have narrative prompts with zero mechanics, but I was hoping for more. Perhaps my expectations were too high, but compared to other Solo TTRPGs like Ironsworn: Starforged, for example, the depth is just not there at all.

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