Of course, being centered on Klingons, there is a Klingon theme throughout. The art that was unique to this book is not of the same high quality I’ve come to expect. There are some great pieces in there, but those are all borrowed from previous Modiphius published books. But this Klingon Core Rulebook’s art is a little flat.
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Most Modiphius published books are full of gorgeous drawings in various styles, and that is normal for the Star Trek Adventure series of supplements. The only disappointment I have with this great new rulebook is that some of its art is lackluster. Klingons love that fresh food, and you get the chance to be a Targ butcher, and a gagh wrangler for your warrior brethren. There is also the role of ship’s cook, something Starfleet didn’t really have past the Enterprise era. Triage is much more harsh, with the surgeon being able to dish out honorable death to Klingon warriors who are unable to continue the fight. The doctor on a Klingon ship serves a slightly different purpose than they would on a Starfleet ship. Shame, on the other hand, is something you don’t want to accumulate, and there are specific steps to dispel it-like lowering your own rank to remove it. Honor is a currency that can be spent to gain favor. The new reputation rules can easily be adapted to be used in a vanilla Star Trek Adventures campaign, too, but the dynamics between Honor and Shame are extremely interesting. The reputation system has also had an overhaul, but in the case of the Klingon Core Rulebook, a lot of that was meant to change how reputation affects Klingons specifically, with Honor and Shame being taken into consideration. This lends itself to the shared storytelling experience that is Star Trek Adventures-a game that puts a ton of emphasis on this. The campaigns you play are meant to focus now on specific characters, much like it would be done in an episode of Star Trek-and a player doesn’t advance through experience points, but through challenging their values or finishing a story arc for that character. The most significant rule changes are those that revolve around character progression and the reputation system.
And while this rulebook is obviously Klingon focused, you can still pick it up and run a Starfleet-based campaign-not without adaptation–but it only takes a little fiddling to change the tone back to a more peaceful Starfleet one. There are some rule updates included too. The Klingon Core Rulebook fixes this problem, and makes learning this specific 2d20 system much easier than it was before. The rules aren’t organized that well, and it feels unnecessarily hard to get a grasp on the core concepts. The original Star Trek Adventures Core Rulebook is pretty great, but it has always suffered from its density and organization. And of course, for your own campaign you’re welcome to take and leave whatever you like and make it your own-one of the benefits of tabletop role-playing games.
As a diehard canon nerd I found nothing that popped out as egregiously strange or incorrect–except for the multiple depictions of Klingons having purple blood.
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Not all of this is strictly derived from the established TV canon, but the authors didn’t make it up so much as interpret and fill in the gaps where necessary. The first seventy pages or more is just a Klingon-centric view of Star Trek history, including a deep dive into ancient Klingon past. Klingon Core Rulebook, Star Trek Adventuresīut everything you wanted to know about Klingons, and more importantly, all of the information you would need to run a Klingon campaign is included. Even without that though, there are plenty of other sources to draw Klingon stories and lore from-in fact, there are times throughout the book where they suggest specific episodes to watch that usually deal with what’s being outlined on the page. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem as though publisher Modiphius has the rights to the newer Star Trek shows, and Discovery’s specific Klingon look is never used, nor are the events of Discovery laid out in the lore. The rules accounts for these different looks, and in fact, uses the explanation that the show Enterprise gave for why some Klingons have smooth foreheads-there are even corresponding stat and talent differences. In Star Trek: The Original Series they didn’t have the ridges that they’re known for now, and their appearance has been different almost every time Star Trek has reemerged in some fashion. Klingons have taken many forms over the years.
Of course, there are those Klingons that would be dishonorable, and even villainous-and even the most noble of Klingon’s standard of conduct would still seem savage to those who dwell within the Federation.
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They’re noble warriors who value honor and have a code of conduct to follow. Klingons aren’t just bloodthirsty monsters, though. Those with more Starfleet sensibilities may wonder why someone would want to run a campaign that’s all about Klingons.