STA - Gamma Quadrant Sourcebook
"The Gamma Quadrant Sourcebook provides Gamemasters and Players with a wealth of information to aid in playing characters or running adventures set within the ever-expanding Star Trek universe.Quick Review
There’s another sourcebook out for Star Trek Adventures and this time we’re headed beyond the bounds of the Federation entirely. Having covered the main areas of the Star Trek universe, we’re now through the Bajoran wormhole and into the Gamma Quadrant.
The latest sourcebook in the Star Trek Adventures product line from Modiphius has just been released, this one takes us through the Bajoran wormhole into the Gamma Quadrant. The big anticipation of this sourcebook is in advancing the story and timeline up through the Dominion War.
This book contains a lot of material, despite being perhaps a few pages shorter than the Alpha and Beta Quadrant sourcebooks it just feels packed. As you would expect the main chapter, chapter two, focusses on the Gamma Quadrant itself, opening with the Personal Diary of Quark - This is an example of one of the things I personally like most about the STA sourcebooks - these pieces of narrative flavour. They provide important scene setting and context for the detailed geography and history which follow.
The rest of the chapter is made up of around 14 pages about The Dominion, It provides concise and fact packed historic details about the changelings and the foundation of the Dominion for their protection. There are 10 pages describing the Dominion Worlds, all described in good detail with between half and a whole page each. There are a further 14 pages on the The Gamma Quadrant and finishes up with a detailed description of the background and events of The Dominion War. This section feels very different from other material presented in the Alpha and Beta Quadrant sourcebooks. There is an incredible level of detail covering everything from the first contact with the Dominion’s subjects, to meeting the Founders, to the infiltration of the Alpha Quadrant by changelings, the Battle of the Omarion Nebula, the war between the Klingons and the Federation, and leading onto the Dominion expansion through the Bajoran Wormhole.
I’ll be honest - it makes me want to go back and watch the entire seven series of Deep Space Nine all over again! If you wanted to, it would entirely possible to run a campaign following the events of the Dominion war battle by battle. To this end the books second chapter concludes with the state of the war “at the moment” (end of 2374). With additional detail of the events of 2375 as the war concludes and how characters could be created to reflect the effects of the war.
Chapter three introduces numerous new species and life path options, So if you’re only expecting the Changelings, then strap in for the; Argrathi, Dosi, Drai, Karemma, Lurians, Paradans, Rakhari, Skreeaa, Son’a, Tosk and the Wadi.
Chapter four details the Starships of the Gamma Quadrant, divided into those of the Dominion and those of the Dominion War. It is this second group of ships that provide the real interest. Not presented simply as generic ships of various classes this section contains ships with full descriptions and statistics as well as histories and details of their capabilities. This includes the U.S.S. Galaxy, U.S.S. Prometheus, U.S.S. Sutherland, U.S.S. Lakota, U.S.S. Valiant, and U.S.S. Majestic and there are stats for K’t’inga-class and a D’Deridex-class refits for Starfleet’s Klingon and Romulan allies. Also presented are rules of a “Frakenstein Fleet” essentially for creating unique custom ships, these rules effectively allow you to take scrapyard starships through your own personal Federation “chop shop”. In simple terms these rules allow you to take a spaceframe and swap out out one of that design’s default Talents replacing it with a Talent from a secondary starship. I love this idea and I’m sure those that I play with regularly would be very keen to get their hands on a much more custom ship.
Chapter four details the Starships of the Gamma Quadrant, divided into those of the Dominion and those of the Dominion War. It is this second group of ships that provide the real interest. Not presented simply as generic ships of various classes this section contains ships with full descriptions and statistics as well as histories and details of their capabilities. This includes the U.S.S. Galaxy, U.S.S. Prometheus, U.S.S. Sutherland, U.S.S. Lakota, U.S.S. Valiant, and U.S.S. Majestic and there are stats for K’t’inga-class and a D’Deridex-class refits for Starfleet’s Klingon and Romulan allies. Also presented are rules of a “Frakenstein Fleet” essentially for creating unique custom ships, these rules effectively allow you to take scrapyard starships through your own personal Federation “chop shop”. In simple terms these rules allow you to take a spaceframe and swap out out one of that design’s default Talents replacing it with a Talent from a secondary starship. I love this idea and I’m sure those that I play with regularly would be very keen to get their hands on a much more custom ship.
The final chapter of this book is given over to Encounters and Adversaries opening with details of the Bajoran Wormhole and the Orbs of the Prophets. As you would expect there are encounter hooks and a range of NPC stats for the Gamma Quadrant. You are given a range of famous characters which you can to drop into your personal Dominion War campaign (e.g. General Martok, Kai Winn, Gul Dukat)
In conclusion this is, in my opinion, an exceptionally well written and edited source book. It covers a huge amount of material in a practical manner making it comprehensive and coherent as well as being accessible.
This is the first sourcebook that has made me think that there is so much to run at that it could be difficult to bring all of this scope into a cohesive campaign setting for my games - but as you read through it you realise how well presented this tidal wave of material is being presented. If you are interested in the events of Deep Space Nine and in setting a game in the Dominion War then this book has everything that you could want or need.
For the purpose of full disclosure I will state that I received a complimentary PDF review copy of The Gamma Quadrant Sourcebook, however less than ten minutes of flicking through it sent me straight to the website to place my personal order for a physical copy.
