Captain's blog

These last few weeks have seen another episode of GM Jon's Star Trek Adventures broadcast back to us and unlike every other Star Trek episode I am very pleased to say that I haven't seen this one before. I'll be the first to say I have a slightly chaotic neutral leaning to my role playing characters no matter their alignment which I think must be an overhang of being very bored  as a child. One of the quickest ways to relieve monotony is to poke something and see what it does. Problem is as you grow up, poke can escalate into provoke but a healthy imagination does temper the soul - better to lose yourself in your thoughts than lose the people around you.

Now this sojourn may explain why I am enjoying the STA so much. Whilst studiously detailed by Jon of course, the quasi military Starfleet culture naturally promotes responsibility and carries a bond with your crew mates by its nature. Basically actions have consequences. As in the last game, something as simple as a risky descent through a volatile atmosphere in a shuttle can really focus the mind when something suddenly goes wrong - in our case a power system failure leaving the entire party not more than a couple of rolls away of being wiped out. It concentrates the mind and although we managed to land, the feeling of risk from then on is palpable - set the scene in the context of threat and it never gets boring. Indeed threat is actually embodied in GM tokens that are played against us - we in turn earn momentum to counter. I like the way this works - we can see threat tokens waiting to be spent and like the tension at a gambling table each token spins the wheels of fate and escalates the tension. 

The narrative of the brand is expansive which is captivating to the trekkie of course but more than that when our shp's decks are being detailed and rolled out to us down to the seating arrangements of our departments somehow it makes the universe just that little bit larger. Our continuing mission engages again on August 8th. I don't know the Stardate.