Image: Modiphius, Star Trek Adventures Delta Quadrant Sourcebook.
Star Trek Adventures is a game that is near and dear to my heart. I’ve just spent the last year and some change being a gamemaster for a great group of players as they tackled season one of my (probably overengineered)
Star Trek Adventures campaign. It was a fun year, but I found myself having to homebrew a few small details. As detailed as Modiphius' Sourcebooks and Core Rulebook are, the
Star Trek canon is so expansive, you can’t expect them to hit on every detail. Imagine my surprise then, that there is a load of great, small details present in the
Delta Quadrant Sourcebook that fill in a lot of those gaps.
Since we’re dealing with the Delta Quadrant,
Star Trek fans might know that means
Voyager is the show most of this information is being pulled from. While the
Gamma Quadrant Sourcebook retold the plot points of
Deep Space Nine, the
Delta Quadrant Sourcebook doesn’t pore over every plot beat in
Voyager, though it does contain massive spoilers for the show. But its presentation makes the information more matter-of-fact, and less tied into actual plot details, which thins out the information to the more salient parts.
Image: Modiphius, Star Trek Adventures Delta Quadrant Sourcebook.
Star Trek fans also know that the Delta Quadrant means Borg, and the
Delta Quadrant Sourcebook is a great supplement to the Borg information that is available in the
Core Rulebook. But the
Delta Quadrant Sourcebook gets into far greater detail, with lots of information on the Borg—liberated Borg, Borg ships, playing against Borg, and even playing as a Borg. There is even an entire section on how your players might ultimately defeat the Borg. It has detailed information about the Borg Queen, and even gives her a stats sheet. It’s really the most definitive guide for the Borg that you can get for
Star Trek Adventures.
One takeaway I get from the
Delta Quadrant Sourcebook is that the Borg are overpowered. That’s fine as an enemy; the Sourcebook even says introduce them slowly, and treat them more like a force of nature than an enemy that can be defeated. But as a player character, overpowered isn’t always fun. When Seven of Nine came onto
Voyager, she stole the show, since everything could be solved by her Borg abilities. That would not make for a very fun game. But the mechanics behind Borg who have broken from the collective are pretty compelling.
Image: Modiphius, Star Trek Adventures Delta Quadrant Sourcebook.
The
Delta Quadrant Sourcebook has detailed player character information on Borg implants, how they work, what the pros and cons are to having them, and even using milestones to remove them one at a time. With all the implants comes great power, but also increased difficulty in social interactions and for any tasks related to healing that character, which is pitch perfect for how the TV shows represented such characters.
Image: Modiphius, Star Trek Adventures Delta Quadrant Sourcebook.
The Delta Quadrant is home to more than just the Borg, though. The Hirogen, Kazon, Ocampa, Vidiians, and even species 8472 are detailed. While Borg are added to the Lifepath Character creation, there are lots of unique and interesting new characters to play as, including Talaxians. If you ever wanted to be a shipboard morale officer, now is your chance. There is an eclectic mix of races and stellar phenomena to explore in the
Delta Quadrant Sourcebook, and some might be considered more obscure because of their lack of screen time. Due to
Voyager’s episodic nature, some extremely interesting creatures that only had one episode dedicated to them may have been forgotten, but many are given a new chance to shine with the detailed info presented on them in the
Delta Quadrant Sourcebook.
Image: Modiphius, Star Trek Adventures Delta Quadrant Sourcebook.
The
Delta Quadrant Sourcebook also has some dynamite plot hooks. Not only do they provide some great possible adventure ideas for your crews, but also provides detailed character sheets to go along with some of them. Not all of these adventures have to take place in the Delta Quadrant, either—so if you have a campaign in motion that would make no sense to bring out to the far reaches of the galaxy, the
Delta Quadrant Sourcebook is still great.
Image: Modiphius, Star Trek Adventures Delta Quadrant Sourcebook.
In fact, not all of the information in the
Delta Quadrant Sourcebook has to be used as-is. You can take the alien races present in the Delta Quadrant, and bring them to your characters, or repurpose them into new races. This includes the great information on alien vessels included in this sourcebook. There are a few unique and interesting ships available . That, of course, includes a lot of Borg ships, but also Delta Quadrant ships that use technology not seen in the Alpha and Beta quadrants, like Photonic Disruptors—weapons specifically designed to disrupt holograms.
The Delta Quadrant is a tough setting for a campaign for various reasons—mostly, getting to it is hard. Unless you come up with a stable wormhole or fantastical propulsion technology (like
Discovery’s spore drive) it won’t be easy getting out there. But the
Delta Quadrant Sourcebook is a great resource for homebrew ideas, and is absolutely essential if you have a heavy Borg presence in your campaign.
Image: Modiphius, Star Trek Adventures Delta Quadrant Sourcebook.
As usual, the art in the
Delta Quadrant Sourcebook is great, and really gives you a sense of action, and adventure. It stirs the imagination, but also makes the
Star Trek Adventures books extremely attractive. Sometimes the layout is a bit muddied with flavor tidbits, but I'd rather have them than do without. Though this sourcebook primarily seems to be for the gamemaster, players can get some great insight into defeating the Borg and explore new lifepath choices, including the overpowered liberated Borg character.
Image: Modiphius, Star Trek Adventures Delta Quadrant Sourcebook.
The
Star Trek Adventures Delta Quadrant Sourcebook is available now from
Modiphius, and
Drivethru RPG.
If you like the video game, tabletop, or other technology content that Third Coast Review has to offer, consider donating to our Patreon. We are the only publication in Chicago that regularly reviews video games, and we cover lots of local Chicago-based events and more. If you want to contribute to our coverage of Chicago’s video game scene (and more) please consider becoming a patron. Your support enables us to continue to provide this type of content and more. Patreon.com/3CR