Action! Adventure! Science Fiction!

This game is dedicated to the memory

of Raymond Sexton, Jr.

PER ASPERA AD ASTRA

 FIRST EDITION

CREDITS
Designed by Geoff Bottone and Bob Dunham

All art by David Woodward of Badgerlord Studios

Edited by Laura Waldhier

Layout, interior accents, the Geoffquest logo, and the Boldly Go! logo by Joseph Blomquist

Indexed by Victoria Baines

Thanks to: Jonathan Lavallee, who helped with the dice mechanics, traits, and for just being all-
around awe-some; Brannon Boran, who helped with the humans; Mike Booker, who helped with
innumerable inspirations; Mike Walsh, who gave me the idea for the rittians; Mike Stoklasa and the
folks at Red Letter Media, who got me excited about Star Trek again; and to everyone who ever had
anything to do with anything regarding Star Trek, without whom this game would not exist.

Beta Readers: Jonathan Lavallee, Joseph Blomquist, Bob Dunham, Susan Bianculli

Playtesters: Joseph Blomquist, Angelica Booker, Michael Booker, Josh Burton, Carmine D’Addario,
Catherine D’Addario, Bob Dunham, Richard Hooper, Carrie Johnson, Avery Lancaster, Tyler Marks,
Brian Murphy, and the wonderful people kind enough to sign up to play this game, sight unseen, at
Gen Cons 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019 and Metatopia 2016.

Fonts: Body Text—Candara; Section Title Text—Exo 2.0 Extra Bold; Title —Nasalization

Copyright © 2019
 TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction................................................................................................6
Core Rules...................................................................................................8
Time....................................................................................................10
The Traits System...............................................................................11
Skill Challenges..................................................................................12
Drama Points.....................................................................................17
Promotion Points..............................................................................20
Character Combat..............................................................................22
Ship Combat......................................................................................24
Injury and Death................................................................................28
Healing and Recovery.......................................................................30
The Nature of the Game...................................................................34
Ship Creation.............................................................................................36
Ship Traits...........................................................................................40
Shipmates..........................................................................................42
Character Creation....................................................................................44
Species...............................................................................................46
Occupations.......................................................................................54
Rank...................................................................................................57
Additional Traits................................................................................59
Equipment.................................................................................................60
Assigning Equipment........................................................................62
Species, Creatures, and Other NPCs........................................................66
Notable Planets.........................................................................................84
Random Episode Generator.....................................................................85
Consider Everything that Grows..............................................................90
Episode Background...........................................................................92
NPC Stats............................................................................................93
Episode Guide....................................................................................93
Ship Creation Summary............................................................................98
Character Creation Summary...................................................................99
Sample Characters............................................................................100
Index.........................................................................................................110
Kickstarter Backers...................................................................................114
Boldly Go! Ship and Character Sheets.....................................................119
Boldly Go!
“Earthdate 2184.8.22.

“This morning, I was given a tour of the Engi-

neering Building at Fleet Academy and was
introduced to Commander Bel’Tannga. They
are a highly decorated mordon officer who, for
reasons that are unclear to me, seem to have
little regard for protocol. They did not return
my salute. They asked me to ‘take a swig’ from
the bottle of whatever it was they were drink-
ing. They then proceeded to increase the vol-
ume of the music they were playing to deafen-
ing levels.
“’You like it?’ they said. ‘It’s rock music! Get it?’

“I must confess, I did not get it. Nor did I like

it.”

Cadet Grummox Benthos

Personal Log
 Introduction
EQUIPMENT
Welcome to Boldly Go!, a science-fiction role-playing
game of adventure, discovery, and rayser diplomacy.
WHAT YOU’LL NEED TO PLAY
Just about everything you’ll need to play a game of
This is a traditional-style, tabletop role-playing game,
Boldly Go! is included in this book, including core me-
featuring one game master (or, as they’re called in
chanics, character creation rules, ships, NPC charac-
this game, the Fleet Admiral—or FA) and several
ters, and a sample adventure. Ready-made sample
players. The players are members of Space Fleet, an
characters and a ship are provided in the back of this
exploratory and peace-keeping force that serves the
book, as well as blank templates to create your own.
Stellar Alliance. The players travel the galaxy in a
Other than that, you will need the following:
powerful starship, encountering new species and
strange phenomena.
Some Friends: One of these friends (or you yourself)
will be the Fleet Admiral. The rest will be your fellow
These rules assume that the FA and players have
players and crewmembers. The FA should read
played at least one role-playing game before, and are
through the rulebook at least once to get a good
familiar with the terminology involved.
grasp of the rules and how they work.
Please note that the rules use the second-person
Starship: You will work together with your friends to
pronoun “you” to refer to both “you, the player”
construct your starship. If you’d rather just play the
and “you, the character.” It is hoped that you will be
game, a sample ship is provided. To make your own
able to determine which is which from context.
ship, make a copy of the blank ship sheet and pro-
ceed to the Ships section.
Examples
Over the course of this rulebook, examples will Character: You will need a character to play the
be provided to illustrate how the various game game. If you’d like to get right to playing, there are
rules work. These examples will be set aside nine sample characters provided for your use. If
from the main text in light blue boxes (just like you’d prefer to make your own character, make a
this one). They will feature the valiant crew of copy of the blank character sheet and proceed to the
the SFS Oswego. Character Creation section.

Pencils and Paper: For taking notes and keeping

track of things.

Dice: All rolls in Boldly Go! are made with six-sided

(d6) dice. You should have sufficient quantities for
the players and the FA to use. Ten or so should be
enough for most rolls.

7
Boldly Go!
“On my orders, the two security officers
teleported to Vitria IV with a load of sup-
plies for the hidden Alliance cultural obser-
vation outpost. While planetside, Ensign
Smith-Merienas became enamored of some
fauna housed at a farmstead, and began
a conversation with some locals. Shortly
thereafter, an apex predator attacked the
farmstead. In response, both security of-
ficers discharged their raysers to dispatch
the beast, saving the people and animals
of the farmstead. Realizing their mistake,
Lieutenant Tarian then tried to convince the
locals that she and Ensign Smith-Merienas
were, ‘powerful sorcerers from another, far
off land.’ She thinks the locals believed her.
 Core
Equipment
Rules
“I am filing this report per Fleet protocol and
await Admiral Wainright’s response. I will
say that, while this an obvious violation of
our directives, my security officers acted
quickly to save lives. That, plus the cultural
note that the Vitrians do believe in magic,
makes me think that, at most, this rule-
breaking requires only a stern reprimand.”
Captain Ray Sexton, Jr.
Disciplinary Report

9
 Boldly Go!
This section explains most of the rules that you will
need to play Boldly Go! The rules are presented here
first, so that you can get a sense of how the game
works before delving into character and ship cre-
ation.
TIME
Imagine that there was a long-running and extremely
successful TV franchise set in the Boldly Go!
universe. While this would never happen, it is fun to
think about and it provides an easy way to explain
just how time is handled in the game. While you may
use normal temporal measurements (seconds,
hours, days, etc.) to describe things that happen dur-
ing the game, the most important units, as far as run-
ning the game is concerned, are Episodes, Seasons,
Scenes, and Combat Rounds.
EPISODES
Episodes in this game would be called “adventures”
in pretty much any other tabletop role-playing game.
Just like on TV, an episode is a complete story, in
which a problem is introduced and the characters
work to solve it. Along the way, there are setbacks,
reversals, and at least one race against time. The
characters face off against the problem in a dramatic
climax, after which things wrap up and return to nor-
mal. Then the episode ends and the credits roll.
Character improvement only occurs between epi-
sodes.
You will normally start an episode fully healed and
free of any temporary traits suffered in the previous
episode, unless you choose not to, or unless the FA
instructs you otherwise. There are, of course, risks
and rewards for choosing to remain injured, as de-
scribed in the Temporary Traits and Drama Points
sections.
10
Consider Everything That Grows, which can be found
in a later section, is a sample Boldly Go! episode.
SEASONS
Seasons in this game would be called “campaigns”
in other tabletop role-playing games. Like some TV
shows, a season is a series of episodes that are linked
together to form an overarching story. Depending
on the nature of the season, or on the play style of
your group, a season’s worth of episodes could be
comprised of multiple “chapters” of the same story;
episodes of the main story that are interspersed with
one-off “filler” episodes; or simply a string of uncon-
nected, alien adventures of the week.
SCENES
The action of an episode is broken up into numerous
smaller units called scenes. Scenes consist of a se-
quence of actions that usually involve one set of peo-
ple in one location. A scene ends whenever focus
shifts to a new set of actions, a new setting, or a dif-
ferent group of people.
Certain types of healing only occur when the scene
changes.
COMBAT ROUNDS
Scenes are sometimes combat scenes. Combat can
be as simple as two people slugging it out in front of
a sharply angled outcropping of rock, or as compli-
cated as several fleets of starships blasting at one an-
other with rayser beams.
During a combat scene, time will be further broken
down into combat rounds. A combat round lasts for
ten seconds of game time. During that time, each
participant in the combat may take one minor action
and one combat action. Players always act first in any
combat round, followed by friendly NPCs, and then
by hostile NPCs.
 Core
EQUIPMENT
Rules
THE TRAITS SYSTEM
Characters in the game, along with ships and certain
other objects, are described using one or more traits.
Traits are words or short phrases that provide insight
into the capabilities of whatever they’re describing,
such as Strong or Afflicted with Johannson’s Disease.
If you need to do something and lack an appropriate
trait, assume that you are either unskilled or merely
average at that trait.
TRAIT CATEGORIES
Traits can be positive, allowing you to more easily
overcome challenges, or they can be negative, caus-
ing you setbacks and duress. Whether traits are posi-
tive or negative is somewhat subjective—it is possi-
ble for a positive trait to hinder you, or for a negative
trait to aid you, depending upon the circumstances.
Throughout the rulebook, positive traits are written
in bold, while negative traits are written in italics.
You and your fellow players will work together to
build a ship that has traits that you select. You will
then each build a character with several traits. Some
of these traits are provided by your species, others
are provided by your occupation, and still others are
ones that you may select and define yourself. A list-
ing of some sample traits can be found in the Ship
Creation and Character Creation rules, if you need
some inspiration.
Temporary Traits
Most traits are intrinsic to the characters or items
that they are associated with. If you are Strong, you
will always be strong, generally speaking. That said,
there are times when you, your ship, or your equip-
ment will be subjected to the effects of temporary
traits.
Like other traits, temporary traits may be either posi-
tive or negative. Unlike other traits, they can be ap-
plied to characters or equipment based on environ-
mental factors, the actions of another character, or
the results of a die roll. Temporary traits can make
11
 Boldly Go!
you Asleep, Confused, Berserk, Inspired, Invisible,
Prone, Shifted out of Phase, Stunned, or any number
of other possible states.
Temporary traits last for as long as it makes sense for
them to do so. If you are Trapped or Prone, you re-
main that way until you’re freed, or until you stand
up. If you’re affected by a device or an alien power,
you keep the trait for as long as the device is active
or until the power stops working.
Dr. Phinnea Del*Prinus and ship scientist Omo-
lara Namuyangu are working on a vaccine. After
several hours of intense labor, Omolara notices
that she’s starting to come down with aches
and chills.
The FA explains, “You’ve contracted the disease
and now have the temporary negative trait Bar-
nard’s Type C. It’s weakening you and playing
merry havoc with your concentration.”
“Oh boy,” says Avery, Omolara’s player. “Well,
then, I’m going to whisper, ‘Dr. Del*Prinus…you
have to…hurry…’ before falling to the ground
in a faint.”
SKILL CHALLENGES
You should be able to succeed at simple tasks most
of the time, including such things as moving about
your ship, programming the food replicator, and
communicating with someone on another deck. All
you need to do is inform the FA of your intentions.
The FA will then tell you the results of your actions.
Whenever you try something difficult, opposed by
someone or something else, or that is normally sim-
ple while under extreme duress, you must attempt a
skill challenge to see if you succeed.
12
All skill challenges work in the following way.
TRAITS AND DICE POOLS
First, explain what you’re going to do and how
you’re going to do it. The way you describe some-
thing determines the traits you can use.
Once you have described what you’re trying to do,
look over your character sheet and select any rele-
vant traits. If your ship or equipment possesses use-
ful traits, you may select those as well. You may
choose any number of appropriate traits, though
you may have to justify your selections to the FA.
You always start with 1 die in your dice pool, then add
1 die for each trait you have selected. You may gain
modifiers to the total number of dice in your pool
depending on the situation. Even if you have no rel-
evant traits, you will always get to roll at least 1 die.
Once you have all the dice in your pool, roll them.
Any result of 5 or 6 counts as a success. You will need
to get enough successes to meet or beat a target
number. Your target number is derived based on the
type of challenge you face, whether static or resist-
ed.
STATIC CHALLENGES
Space is a dangerous place, and you will need to pit
your wits, strength, and endurance against it to sur-
vive. Whenever you face a static challenge, the FA
must determine its Difficulty. The more difficult a
challenge is, the higher its target number. Most chal-
lenges have an Average Difficulty.
 Core
EQUIPMENT
Rules
STATIC CHALLENGE TABLE
Difficulty Target Number
Easy 1 get a Drama Point if they are a player. Proceed to
Average 2 Resolution.
Challenging 3
Hard 4 action they will take to oppose you and start building
Very Hard 5 a dice pool. They start with 1 base die and add 1 die
Increasingly Unlikely 6+
An explosion rocks the ship! Janine Tarian tries
to keep herself from being thrown over a railing
and into the matter/anti-matter reactor.
Angelica, Janine’s player, looks over her charac-
ter sheet and picks three of her traits that will
help her in this situation: Alert to Danger, Physi-
cally Fit, and Academy Training.
“Academy Training? Really?” says the FA.
“Oh, come on, Jean! I’m sure they taught us
how not to be flung over railings in the event of
an emergency,” says Angelica.
“That’s a stretch, but I’ll allow it. Average Diffi-
culty. You need 2 or more successes.”
Angelica rolls 4 dice (1 base die + 1 die for each
trait), getting 6, 5, 3, and 1. Two successes. Since
the number of her successes is at least equal to
the target number (2 for Average Difficulty), Ja-
nine succeeds! She keeps her feet.
RESISTED CHALLENGES
Sometimes, your actions will be opposed by some-
one else. In cases like these, your target number is
based on your opponent’s traits.
It is possible that your opponent will relent and allow
your action to succeed automatically, without you
needing to make a skill challenge. These instances
are rare, but if your opponent does relent, they will
If your opponent does not relent, they decide what
per relevant trait and modifier. Once they have built
their dice pool, you both roll and count your success-
es. Whoever rolls the most successes, wins.
In the event of a tie, you and your opponent are con-
sidered to have both failed the roll. The challenge
continues for another round.
Kelgaran saboteurs are breaking into the Oswe-
go’s data banks. Luckily, their intrusion has been
discovered by Mott’trog, who engages in an ex-
citing hacker war with the saboteurs to prevent
them from accessing any critical information.
“Do you want to lock them out?” says the FA.
Tyler, Mott’trog’s player, thinks about this for
a moment. “Yes, but I’d also like to backtrack
through the system to find out which terminal
they’re using.”
“Makes sense,” says the FA. “The kelgaran
hacker has the traits Programmer, Hacking, and
Stealth. That plus my base die gives me 4 dice
to roll.”
“Okay,” says Tyler. “I’ll use Determined, Reads
All the Manuals, Systems, and Academy Train-
ing, plus my base die. Five dice.”
“Reads All the Manuals?”
13
 Boldly Go!
“Yeah,” says Tyler, “specifically, the manual
about how to defeat hackers.”
“Ha! Okay, fine. Let’s roll.”
The FA rolls and gets 2 successes. Tyler rolls for
Mott’trog and gets 3 successes, passing the skill
challenge. Mott’trog locks the kelgarans out of
the data banks and discovers that they are op-
erating from a computer maintenance terminal
on Deck H.
RESOLUTION
If you succeed in a skill challenge, whatever you
wanted to have happen occurs. If you fail, either
nothing happens or you suffer a setback based on
the situation or the whim of your opponent.
The winner of the challenge (or the FA, if the player
fails a static challenge), may choose to bestow one
temporary trait upon the object of the challenge.
This temporary trait should be appropriate to the sit-
uation and the outcome of the rolls. Temporary
traits can be positive or negative in nature, based on
the situation and the desires of the winner.
Vexxa, Rachel’s character, is feeling very unsure
of herself, so Captain Sexton decides to give her
a pep talk. He calls Vexxa into his office and ex-
plains how impressed he is with her. He makes
use of his Captain, Inspiring, and Parental traits.
Rachel has Vexxa relent, so that Vexxa can be
buoyed up by his words.
Carmine, Captain Sexton’s player, tells the FA
that he wants to give Vexxa the Inspired tem-
porary trait. The FA tells Rachel that Vexxa will
keep this trait until the end of the episode or
until she fails a skill challenge when carrying
out the captain’s orders. Until then, Vexxa may
draw upon Inspired as an additional trait when-
ever appropriate, adding a die for it as normal.
14
MODIFIERS
Modifiers can either help or hinder you, based on cir-
cumstances. Modifiers can add dice to your pool,
add dice to your opponent’s pool (in the case of re-
sisted challenges), or increase the Difficulty of a chal-
lenge (in the case of static challenges). Modifiers are
applied in the following ways.
Drama Points
You may spend Drama Points to add dice to your
pool or manipulate the dice you already have. This is
discussed in much greater detail in the Drama Points
section. The FA, along with the NPCs that they con-
trol, can neither obtain nor spend Drama Points.
Negative Traits
You may have been saddled with a negative trait that
is hindering you, or you may find yourself in a situa-
tion where a normally beneficial trait is going to
cause you some grief. Because the FA and your fel-
low players are not all-seeing or all-knowing, it is up
to you to keep track of any traits that might have
negative repercussions to the challenge.
If a negative trait comes into play during a skill chal-
lenge, you will get no dice for it. In a static challenge,
each of your applicable negative traits increases the
Difficulty by 1. In a resisted challenge, your opponent
gains +1 die to their pool for each of your applicable
negative traits. For every negative trait that applies
to the skill challenge, you will gain a Drama Point.
You may also use your opponent’s negative traits
against them. The FA or player must offer up any of
your opponent’s traits that might benefit you in the
skill challenge. Again, for each of these traits named,
you gain +1 die to your pool. Your opponent will only
gain Drama Points if they are a player character.
 Core
EQUIPMENT
Rules
“That was hardly a challenge at all,” says General Thraxius, his mocking visage looming large on the
bridge’s main viewer. “I was able to bypass all of your much-vaunted security and steal this vaccine with
virtually no effort on my part. Honestly, what are they teaching cadets at the Academy these days?”

Grummox Benthos sits poised at his station, tentacle ready at the firing controls. “I have a lock, captain.”

“What will you do now, Captain Sexton?” says the general. “Collapse my shields? Disable my engines?
Teleport your security teams onto the Relentless and take the vaccine from me by force?”

Josh, Grummox’s player, turns to the FA. “That’s pretty much what I want to do. Unless the captain has
another plan, I’m waiting for the go-ahead to fire at the Relentless’ engines.”

“Before the captain has a chance to issue any orders, General Thraxius explains that he has a proposal
for you,” the FA says. “He is willing to forego a battle and return the vaccine to you, provided that one
of the Oswego’s crew is brave enough to teleport over to his ship and meet with him honorably, face-
to-face.”

“Aw,” says Josh. “Grummox has the Honorable trait.”

“That’s right, which means that it’s time for a skill challenge. If you win, you’re not swayed by the gen-
eral’s proposal and may fire on him. If I win, Grummox feels compelled to do the honorable thing.”

“Great,” says Josh. “And you get an extra die.”

“But you get a Drama Point,” says Bob, who plays crewmember Robert Trebuchet. “Plus, if you fail, you
also get me. There’s no way I’m letting you teleport over into such an obvious trap by yourself.”

Technobabble
As a ranking member of Space Fleet, you are skilled
in numerous scientific and technical disciplines. This
gives you the ability to use technology in weird and
wonderful ways to accomplish feats of which the av-
erage layperson can only dream.
When you attempt something involving technology,
medicine, or science, you may describe your actions
using a string of Technobabble of your own creation.
Provided what you say sounds appropriately
pseudotechnical, you gain +1 die to your pool. If what
you say somehow has a basis in scientific fact, you
gain +2 dice to your pool.
You may use this ability as often as you like, pro-
vided you can create a new and preposterous
string of Technobabble each time. If you try to
solve every problem by distorting the quantum
singularity of the positronic matrix, such that
the gluons are flooded with negative ions, the
FA is well within their rights to refuse to give
you a bonus.
15
 Boldly Go!
If you or your assistants possess the same named
Phinnea Del*Prinus and Omolara Namuyangu
trait, you may add all those traits to the pool. (Exam-
are desperately trying to synthesize an antidote
ple: If three scientists are working on a scientific
for an affliction plaguing the crew of the Oswe-
problem together, they get +3 dice if they pool their
go. Hours of research have yielded no success.
three Science traits.)
“I’ve triiiied eeeeverything,” says Catherine,
Your assistants will also be affected by the results of
playing her role as Dr. Del*Prinus to the hilt. “I
your roll, and, if they are players, will gain Drama
don’t know whaaaaat to doooo.”
Points if you fail the skill challenge.
“Wait,” says Omolara. “You said that the delshz Janine Tarian reactivates the Oswego’s weap-
ambassador didn’t contract the disease.” ons systems. She hopes to do enough damage
to the space anomaly’s soft palate and gullet so
“I thought it was becaaaause of her innate tooo- that the creature thinks twice and lets the ship
oxin immuuu…” go. She locks onto the creature’s uvula and pre-
pares to fire, only to discover that there may not
“But what if it wasn’t? Didn’t you say that she be enough energy left in the ship to charge the
had contracted Barnard’s Syndrome?” guns.

“Yeeeees…” At about that moment, Engineer Vistabo Roseus

“What if the antibodies that the body produces
to fight off the effects of Barnard’s Syndrome
are also effective at combating the plague? My
god, do you know what this means? We could
use our Barnard’s vaccine to reverse-engineer a
cure!”
After listening to all of this, the FA says, “Phin-
nea, you get +2 dice to your pool.”
Dr. Del*Prinus nods at her colleague and, af-
ter a fiveminute pregnant pause, says, “Omo-
laaaaaraaaaa. You’re a geeeenius.”
Teamwork
You may receive help from other characters to im-
prove your chances of success. The other characters
must be able to help and possess at least one trait
relevant to the task at hand. If they can assist you,
add 1 die for each of their relevant traits to your pool.
sits up with a groan. It takes him a few critical
seconds to process what’s occurred since he’s
been unconscious, but he quickly realizes that
the ship is in a very dangerous predicament, and
he wants to help.
“Only one of you can fire the ship’s weapons at
a time,” says the FA. “Mike, how is Roseus going
to help Janine with that?”
“Oh, I know,” says Roseus’ player, Mike. “I’m
going to funnel Emergency Power into the
ship’s guns.”
“Woah, hold on a second!” says Angelica. “That’s
what powers Life Support!”
“Trust me,” says Mike. “It’s going to work.”
“I…okay…”
“Roll ’em,” says the FA.

16
 Core
EQUIPMENT
Rules
Sometimes, this doesn’t happen. The next episode
Angelica taps Janine’s Cocky, Security, Warrior
could begin right after the previous one left off, with
Species, Weapons Training, and Academy Train-
no time in between for you to rest, or you might have
ing traits, giving her a total of 5 dice. Because
suffered an especially traumatic injury from which
Roseus is helping her out with his engineering
you are still recovering.
knowhow, Mike gets to contribute 3 dice for
his Engineering, Percussive Maintenance, and
If there were temporary traits applied to you that
Academy Training traits. This gives them a total
were not resolved at the end of the previous episode,
of 8 dice.
you may choose, with the FA’s approval, to have
them continue to affect you in the current episode.
They roll. Janine’s shot, enhanced by Roseus’
You will gain 1 Drama Point for each persistent
engineering skills, burns a hole about a kilome-
temporary trait. If you and your fellow players wish
ter in diameter across the roof of the anomaly’s
to carry forward a temporary trait that affected your
mouth. The creature roars in pain and releases
ship, you each gain a Drama Point.
the ship. Roseus rushes to the Hyperwarp drive,
hoping to fix it so that the ship can escape.
Ethical and Philosophical Dilemmas
You will run across ethical and philosophical dilem-
mas that run counter to your own deeply held beliefs.
DRAMA POINTS Whenever such a dilemma triggers any appropriate
traits, either by forcing you to take action or to re-
You start each episode with several Drama Points frain from taking action, you gain a Drama Point
based on your rank in Space Fleet (see the Rank sec- for each trait. You may contemplate the dilemma
tion for more details). You may gain additional alone, or you may engage in a heated discussion
Drama Points over the course of an episode whenev- about it with one or more characters. If they are play-
er certain events transpire. Consult the chart below ers, and if their traits are also triggered, they, too,
for more details. If multiple Drama Point-rewarding gain Drama Points.
events happen at once (Example: you must volunteer “There is no choice,” says Grummox. “I must
a negative trait on a skill challenge; you then fail that honor General Thraxius’ challenge and face him
skill challenge and suffer a wound), you get 1 Drama in single combat. Should I win, the general will
Point per event. be forced to give us the vaccine and allow us to
go on our way.”
You may use these points to improve your chances
of success. Drama Points do not carry over between Robert Trebuchet shakes his head. “I am afraid
episodes; it is better to use them than to hoard that your fetishism for all things military is blind-
them. ing you to several salient points about our cap-
tor. General Thraxius stole the vaccine from the
Lingering Temporary Traits Oswego and lured us here under the pretense
In most cases, any damage or other negative tempo- that he would surrender to us. The fact that he
rary traits that you or your ship suffered during an stunned us and took us prisoner the moment
episode will be healed by the beginning of the next we arrived on his ship indicates to me that he is
episode. not, in fact, an honorable man.

17
 Boldly Go!
“I suspect that he has challenged you to single
combat not to give you a chance to recover the
vaccine, but so that he can toy with you before
murdering you through some treachery that I
cannot yet discern. Even if you somehow pre-
vail, I do not imagine that he will let us go or give
us the vaccine.”
Grummox’s face tentacles contort in extreme
agitation. “Then what do we do?”
“How dare you?!” shouts Grummox.
Before things can escalate even further, a soldier
comes to fetch them. They follow the soldier to
the general’s receiving chamber, unsure of what
awaits them, but knowing that they have each
received two Drama Points apiece for invoking
traits in this scene (Military Hierarchy and Hon-
orable for Grummox, Pragmatic and What Emo-
tions? for Robert Trebuchet).

“Perhaps it is time for us to, as the humans say,

‘fight fire with fire’?”
“You mean…behave dishonorably? I can’t!”
“These antiquated notions of yours have failed
to serve you in any meaningful way,” says Rob-
ert Trebuchet, punctuating his statement with a
jab at
Grummox’s rubbery chest. “It seems to me that
you’d be better off abandoning them entirely.”
Grummox coils his arm tentacles in a threaten-
ing manner, but the synthoid doesn’t seem to
notice.
Impressive Feats
Any time you do something impressive, heroic, in-
spiring, or fun, the FA may award you a Drama Point.
These Drama Points are less about the result of your
rolls and more about your role-playing. Making an
amazing roll to win over an opponent is its own re-
ward. If you, instead, choose not to roll, but manage
to role-play an impassioned speech about the righ-
teousness of Terran democracy, that’s worth a Dra-
ma Point.

GAINING DRAMA POINTS

Drama Points Event
+1 A lingering temporary trait persists to the beginning of a new episode.
+1 An ethical dilemma triggers one of your traits.
+1 Failing a skill challenge.
+1 Whenever you must volunteer a negative trait.
+1 Relenting on a resisted skill challenge.
+1 Suffering a wound or receiving a negative temporary trait.
+1 Your ship takes damage while you’re aboard it.
+1 Any time you do something impressive, heroic, inspiring, or fun.
18
 Core
EQUIPMENT
Rules
USING DRAMA POINTS
You may use Drama Points any time you are able to Note that if you fail a roll and gain a Drama Point, you
do so to improve your chances of success. Consult may not then use that Drama Point to affect that roll.
the following chart for details. Drama Points you You may use previously earned Drama Points to alter
spend become Promotion Points. the roll, of course.

A large space anomaly has knocked out the Oswego’s Hyperwarp drive and weapons systems and is now
trying to swallow the ship! After several unsuccessful attempts to raise Vistabo Roseus by communicator,
Janine Tarian runs down to Engineering to find him.

She reaches Engineering and discovers Roseus

slumped in a heap on the floor. There’s no time to bring him around, so Janine concentrates her efforts
on getting the ship’s weapons back online. The FA tells her that getting the ship’s weapons working is a
task of Challenging Difficulty (target number 3).

After looking over Janine’s character sheet, Angelica determines that she can only roll 2 dice. Luckily, she
also has 8 Drama Points. She spends 4 Drama Points to give herself +2 dice to her pool. She rolls and gets
2 successes. Realizing that Janine may not have another round to get the guns working, Angelica spends
3 more Drama Points to make one of her failed dice a success. That gives her a total of 3 successes, mean-
ing that she succeeds!

Angelica’s spent Drama Points now convert to 7 Promotion Points. She can spend these points to im-
prove Janine, provided Janine survives the episode.

USING DRAMA POINTS

Cost Effect
1* Reroll one of your dice.
2* Add +1 die to your pool before you roll.
2 Major or Catastrophic damage to your ship targets a system of your choice.
3* After you make a skill roll, make 1 die a success.
3 Alter reality slightly (remove a temp. trait or wound; item you need is nearby, etc.).
3 Repairs that you make to one ship system take only one round.
4 Whatever should have killed you, doesn’t.
*These options may be used more than once on a given roll.
19
 Boldly Go!
PROMOTION POINTS
You may spend Promotion Points to improve your
character between episodes, provided that you have
the required number of points to do so. Unlike
Drama Points, Promotion Points remain until you
spend them, allowing you to carry them over from
episode to episode.
For example: You are Reckless. During an episode,
you lead your away team into a trap, and half of
them are gruesomely killed. This failure in leadershi-
phas changed you in a profound way, so you decide
to replace Reckless with the Cautious trait.

IMPROVING YOUR CHARACTER Increase Your Rank

If you’ve done particularly well during an episode,
you might be promoted.
CHARACTER IMPROVEMENT
Cost Improvement Unless there is a good reason for your rapid rise in
Equal to number rank, you may not increase your rank by more than
Add a new trait. one step between an episode. You may not rise to
of current traits +1
the rank of captain (or beyond) without a solid in-
Replace one trait with an-
10 game reason and FA approval.
other trait of your choice.
Increase your
Based on new rank
Space Fleet rank by 1.
RANK IMPROVEMENT
Rank P/S* Cost
Add a Trait Ensign to Lt. Junior Grade 10/5
You may gain a new trait of your choice. The cost in Lt. Junior Grade to Lieutenant 15/7
Promotion Points is equal to the total number of
Lieutenant to Lt. Commander 20/10
traits you already possess +1.
Lt. Commander to Commander 25/12
For example: You have 12 traits and want to buy an- Commander to Captain 30/15
other.The new trait costs 13 Promotion Points. *Player/Shipmate Cost

Replace a Trait
Due to personal growth or a dramatic change in your
circumstances, certain traits may no longer be appro-
priate for your character. You may replace any trait
with another trait of your choice by spending 10
Promotion Points.
Vexxa is an ensign. After serving in several epi-
sodes with distinction, Vexxa’s player, Rachel,
promotes her to lieutenant junior grade. This
costs Rachel 10 Promotion Points.

20
 Core
EQUIPMENT
Rules
IMPROVING YOUR SHIP Create and Improve Shipmates
Shipmates are NPC crewmembers who, unlike the
You may pool your Promotion Points with those of majority of crewmembers aboard your ship, have
your fellow players to improve your ship. You must names, backstories, and traits. You may create more
decide amongst yourselves how you will pool your of them, give them additional traits, and improve
Promotion Points to buy ship improvements. It’s their rank with Promotion Points. They are more fully
usually best to have all players contribute equally, described in the Ship Creation section.
but choose whatever method of distribution works
for you. After several episodes, Janine has accumulat-
ed 28 Promotion Points. Angelica now gets to
Ship improvements may require the services of a spend these points to improve her character.
space dock and extensive refits, depending on their
nature and upon the FA’s discretion. Despite working for Security and not Engineer-
ing, Janine has had to fix more than her fair
share of broken ship systems. For this reason,
SHIP IMPROVEMENT Angelica wants to give her the Jury-Rig the Sys-
Cost Improvement tems trait. Since Janine has 10 traits already, An-
Equal to number gelica must spend 11 Promotion Points to give
Add a new ship trait. her the trait.
of current traits +1
Replace a ship trait with an-
10 Angelica also feels that Janine has become more
other trait of your choice.
acutely aware of the dangers of the frontier ever
5 Create a new shipmate.
since signing on with the Oswego. To reflect
Give a new trait to a ship- this, she spends 10 Promotion Points to switch
5
mate. out Janine’s Cocky trait for the Paranoid trait.
Based on Increase a shipmate’s Space
new rank Fleet rank by 1. This leaves Janine with 7 Promotion Points. An-
gelica can either keep them in reserve for later
Add a Trait or use to help her fellow players improve the Os-
Your ship gains a new trait mutually agreed upon by wego.
you and the other players. The cost in Promotion
Points is equal to the total number of traits the ship
already possesses +1.

For example: If your ship had 15 traits, a new trait

would cost 16 Promotion Points.

Replace a Trait
Due to the installation of alien technology or the af-
termath of a deadly battle, one or more of your
ship’s traits may no longer be appropriate. You may
replace any ship trait with another trait of your
choice by spending 10 Promotion Points.
21
 Boldly Go!
PROMOTION IN “TALKY” EPISODES
You won’t spend every episode fighting an augment-
ed sociopath, shooting at a doomsday weapon,
or trying to regain control of your ship as it plummets
into a planet’s atmosphere. Sometimes, you’ll face
off against quieter threats that will require you to
think, ask questions, and be very, very diplomatic.
During these episodes, you will likely obtain Drama
Points, but will lack the opportunity to convert them
to Promotion Points.
In episodes like these, you will still get rewarded. Af-
ter all, winning the day without firing a shot or having
to jury-rig something on the fly is almost as valuable
as doing so while breaking out all manner of derring-
do. That’s why, at the end of a “talky” episode, the
FA will allow you to convert any Drama Points that
you have earned into 2/3rd that number of Promo-
tion Points (round all fractions up).
Vexxa spends much of an episode in a damaged
shuttle with two foreign dignitaries. Once she’s
realized the shuttle is beyond her skills to repair,
she resigns herself to waiting for help to arrive.
As the Oswego races to the rescue, Vexxa has
her hands full trying to keep the dignitaries from
killing one another.
Vexxa’s scenes in the shuttlecraft become large-
ly roleplaying, with Vexxa only needing to make
two skill challenges (both of which she passes).
She manages to get the dignitaries to work out
their differences right as the Oswego locks on
its tractor beams, and the episode ends.
“9 Drama Points total,” says Rachel, Vexxa’s
player.
“Which converts to 6 Promotion Points!” says
the FA.
22
CHARACTER COMBAT
The rules for combat are similar to the rules for basic
task resolution. There are a few additional rules and
important exceptions that are detailed in the section
below.
TAKING ACTION AND INITIATIVE
As mentioned in the Time section, time in combat is
broken up into rounds. During a round, every partici-
pant can take one minor action (such as moving,
readying a weapon, calling for help on a communica-
tor, or similar) and one combat action. Participants
act in initiative order on each combat round.
Initiative
Initiative in Boldly Go! works a bit differently than
other games. Participants do not “roll for initiative.”
Instead, all participants resolve their actions in the
following order during each combat round.
Players always act first, unless they are taken by sur-
prise, stunned, or otherwise impeded. Players act in
rank order, starting with the captain and moving
down to the ensigns. Players of the same rank may
choose between themselves in which order they act.
NPC allies always go next, if there are any in the area
willing to lend a hand. This includes shipmates, NPC
crewmembers, and anyone else friendly to your
cause. The FA decides the order in which they act.
Hostile NPCs act right after that, firing weapons or
throwing punches as appropriate. The FA decides
the order in which they act.
Unaligned NPCs, if there are any in the area, always
go last on a combat round. The FA decides the order
in which they act..
 Core
EQUIPMENT
Rules
A giant space anomaly floats out of a field of
dense gasses and closes on the Oswego. The
Oswego goes to red alert and its crew prepares
for battle! The players go first, followed by other
shipmates and crewmembers and, ultimately,
by the anomaly.
Unlike Stun Wounds, which can only be applied to
empty Wound Boxes, Deadly Wounds are applied
first to any Wound Boxes with Stun Wounds in them,
overwriting them and increasing their severity. Once
no Stun Wounds remain on your sheet, you may ap-
ply Deadly Wounds to empty Wound Boxes.

ATTACKING AND INJURIES Causing Wounds

In most cases, unarmed attacks will only cause Stun
The most common type of combat action involves
Wounds. Attacks delivered by heavy raysers, archaic
attacking an opponent. All attacks are made using
missile weapons, the attacks of creatures, and fire-
the rules for resisted challenges. If your attack
arms, usually cause Deadly Wounds.
strikes your opponent, you may choose to either in-
flict a wound or a temporary trait, but not both.
In many other cases, you may declare whether you
want to inflict a Stun or Deadly Wound as you attack
Wound Boxes (by hitting with “the flat of the blade” or similar). If
A successful attack will inflict 1 wound, unless cir- you are attacking with a rayser, all you need to do is
cumstances dictate otherwise. Each time you suffer flick the switch from “kill” to “stun” prior to firing.
a wound, you will mark it in one of the Wound Boxes Wound Levels
on your character sheet. The more wounds you re- Note that while Stun and Deadly Wounds are of dif-
ceive, the more penalties you will suffer. ferent severity and are healed in slightly different
ways, their cumulative effects are the same: If you
Wound Types have taken two wounds, you are Bloodied, whether
There are two types of wounds: Stun and Deadly. they are Stun Wounds, Deadly Wounds, or a combi-
The only difference between them is their lethality nation of the two.
and the ease with which they can be healed. What
this means is that if you suffer enough wounds to be-
come Bloodied, you will suffer the same penalties WOUND LEVELS
whether your injuries are caused by Stun or Deadly Wound Level Effect
Wounds.
You are uninjured
Healthy
and may act normally.
Stun Wounds: Represent non-lethal damage. Stun
Wounds will slow you down, and will render you un- You are scuffed and bruised,
Injured
conscious if you suffer too many of them. They can- but not slowing down yet.
not injure or kill you directly. Stun Wounds are repre- You now feel your injuries.
Bloodied
sented by a slash (/ ) in an empty Wound Box. -1 die from all rolls.*
Your speech is simplistic and
Critical
Deadly Wounds: Represent lethal injuries. They are halting. -2 dice from all rolls.*
much more severe and more difficult to treat than You are unconscious and may
Stun Wounds, and will likely kill you if you suffer too Comatose
die if you are left untreated.
many of them. Deadly Wounds are represented by
*To a minimum of 1 die.
an X (X) in a Wound Box.
23
 Boldly Go!
Bestowing Temporary Traits
Instead of wounding your opponent, you may
choose to give them a temporary trait of your
choice, any time you beat them on a skill challenge.
Choosing to do this will give your opponent a trait
that you can invoke to gain additional dice on subse-
quent rolls. This may give you the upper hand against
an otherwise superior foe, or allow you to disable an
opponent without resorting to further violence.
Janine grapples the space pirate, trying to wres-
tle his heavy rayser out of his grasp. She is of a
Warrior Species, is Physically Fit, and has Secu-
rity and Academy Training. With her base die,
that gives her 5 dice total. The FA determines
that the space pirate also has 5 dice.
They roll and Janine succeeds. Rather than
wounding the space pirate, she decides to sad-
dle him with the Disarmed temporary trait. This
also means that she takes control of his heavy
rayser.
It’s the space pirate’s turn. He pulls a knife and
tries to stab Janine. He wins the skill challenge
and hits her, inflicting a Deadly Wound. Janine
is now Bloodied, suffering a -1 die penalty to all
rolls.
Since everyone has now acted, it’s a new round.
Janine goes first, opening fire with her captured
rifle. Janine would normally get 5 dice by using
Warrior Species, Weapons Training, Security,
and Academy Training, but her wounds drop
her total to 4 dice. She still succeeds, shooting
the space pirate at point- blank range with his
own gun.
24
The space pirate staggers backward, bloodied
and outmatched, before turning to flee across
the darkened room to a hidden doorway. On
his way through, he slaps a control panel on
the wall. Red lights begin flashing and an alarm
sounds as Janine follows the space pirate, her
gun blazing.
SHIP COMBAT
The rules for ship combat are similar to the rules for
combat between characters. All of the important ex-
ceptions are detailed in the section below.
TAKING ACTION AND INITIATIVE
Ship combat, like regular combat, is organized in
rounds. Unlike regular combat, ship combat rounds
can vary widely in length.
The players’ ship always gets to go first on each com-
bat round, unless temporary traits or other factors
dictate otherwise. After the players’ ship takes its ac-
tion, enemy ships take their actions, followed by any
neutral or bystander vessels in the area.
During a round, you and the other players can each
take one of the following types of actions:
Ship Actions
These include taking evasive maneuvers, raising
shields, firing weapons, and so on. In most cases,
these actions do not happen without the captain’s
orders. If there are enough crew (both player and
NPC) and enough stations, numerous ship actions
can take place each round. As with normal combat
rounds, players act in order of their rank, starting
with the captain.
 Core
EQUIPMENT
Rules
Personal Actions
These include repairing systems, opening commu-
ATTACKING
nications with enemy ships, repelling boarders, run- There are many ways to win battles, but the most
ning to the nearest teleport pod to transport an an- straightforward way is to shoot at your enemy until
timatter bomb off the ship, dragging a badly injured their ship explodes. To use your ship’s weapons sys-
crewmember to Med Bay, and so on. tems, you will need to access a functioning fire con-
trol panel and make a skill challenge as normal. Very
ROUND ORDER large objects, or objects lacking propulsion systems
(such as planets, derelict starships, or intergalactic
Because a lot more things can happen during a round death machines), can be hit automatically. If your roll
of ship combat than a round of personal combat, all succeeds, you cause damage.
actions during a ship combat round take place in the
following order:
SHIELDS
Whenever your ship is struck by an enemy attack,
ROUND ORDER both it and its crew will suffer damage based on the
Action Effect current strength of the shields. Once you resolve
damage, roll 1d6. If the roll is equal to or greater than
Players Captain gives orders. Players decide
the listed number, your shields remain intact; other-
Declare what they’re going to do.
wise, they drop by one level.
Players Move throughout the ship. Raise
Act shields. Ready weapons. Other things! A mysterious vessel drops out of Hyperwarp
If the ship is able to, and if the captain and fires on the Oswego! The Oswego lurches
Attacks
wants to, the ship fires on its attack- dangerously from the force of the attack, but
Resolve
ers. otherwise all systems remain in the green. Josh,
Enemy Opponents declare and take action Grummox’s player, rolls for the Oswego’s shields
Actions and make attacks, if applicable. and gets a 4. The shields’ strength drops to 75%.
Damage FA describes the crew casualties and
Report ship damage based on enemy rolls. The engagement goes on. Although she sustains
heavy damage, the Oswego gives as good as she
A note for the FA: Depending on how fast the com- gets, reducing her opponent’s shield strength to
bat is going and how many players you have, you 50%. Helmsman Grummox finds an opening and
may wish to allow the players to take multiple actions unloads the torpedo bays into the broadside of
or make multiple attacks before moving to the the mysterious vessel. The FA rolls for the en-
actions for the enemy ship. emy ship and gets a 1. The enemy’s shields drop
to 25%.

25
 Boldly Go!
SHIP DAMAGE Major damage is extensive, but can be repaired dur-
ing the battle with luck and dedicated engineers.
Your ship suffers damage any time an enemy scores Catastrophic damage is so severe that repairs cannot
a hit. The severity of the damage is based on the re- be made during battle. A jury-rig to get the targeted
maining strength of your ship’s shields. There are system working again may be possible, but only
four different levels of damage. when the ship is not in combat. A lengthy stay in a
space dock is the only way to get the ship back up to
operational specs.
Damage to Critical Systems
When you inflict Major or Catastrophic damage to The in-game effects of Major damage vary based on
your opponent’s ship, you will damage one of its criti- the system targeted. The chart below provides a few
cal ship systems of your choice. The damaged system examples that you and your FA can use during play.
can no longer be used and any traits associated
with the system are disabled.

SHIP SHIELD STRENGTH

Shield Strength Damage Taken Shields Holding?
100% Dramatic Shaking 5+
75% Minor 4+
50% Minor 3+
25% Major 2+
0%* Catastrophic N/A
*Use this shield strength if an enemy attacks you before you are able to raise shields.

SHIP DAMAGE
Damage Ship Effect Crew Effect
Shaking Shakes dramatically. Thrown against seats or onto the floor.
No damage. No damage.
Minor Ship gains a negative temporary trait, Players: Skill challenge or take 1 Stun Wound.
or loses the use of one positive trait. NPCs: 1d6 take 1 Stun Wound.
Major Damage to critical system. Players: Skill challenge or take 1 Deadly Wound.
Ship can be repaired in combat. NPCs: 1d6 take 1 Deadly Wound.
Catastrophic Damage to critical system. Ship cannot Players: Skill challenge or take 2 Deadly Wounds.
be repaired in combat. NPCs: 1d6 die.

26
 Core
EQUIPMENT
Rules
EFFECTS OF DAMAGE TO SHIP SYSTEMS
Name Function
Bridge Much more difficult to command and control the ship.
Communications Lots of interference; difficult to reach away teams.
Computer Computer crashes; targeting and guidance systems go haywire.
Engine, Hyperwarp Ship cannot escape via Hyperwarp; core leak or breach.
Engine, Sublight Ship’s ability to move in combat severely affected.
Engineering Fires; radiation leaks; coolant leaks; clouds of flesh-eating gas.
Hull and Access Hull breaches; bulkheads seal and close off access to other decks.
Life Support Temperature, gravity, or atmospheric control gone or weakening.
Power, Primary Power cut off to most ship functions; only backup power works.
Sensors Viewscreen offline; ship temporarily sensor-blind.

The mysterious ship and the Oswego continue to exchange fire. A torpedo from the enemy vessel strikes
the Oswego in a critical area. Josh, Grummox’s player, notes that the Oswego’s shields are at 75%, which
means that the ship takes Minor damage.

The Oswego shakes! The ensign who is helping Grummox at the helm hits his head and crumples to the
deck, unconscious. Josh fails a skill challenge for Grummox, who suffers a Stun Wound.

“The Oswego’s Reinforced Hull Plating absorbs the impact, but she can’t keep taking this kind of abuse,”
says the FA. “That ship trait gets removed for now.”

“Okay,” says Josh. “Hopefully Roseus will be able to get repair teams to the area by next round. Nothing
else for me to do but fire back.”

Josh rolls and Grummox hits. Since the mysterious vessel’s shields are at 25%, it suffers Major damage.

“I get to pick the system that gets disabled, right?” says Josh. “If that’s the case, I’m knocking out the
other ship’s weapons. Maybe that’ll buy us time to make repairs and figure out what’s going on.”

The FA says, “you score a couple of lucky rayser blasts along the prow of the enemy vessel and its gun
ports go dark.”

“Whew!” says Josh (and Grummox).

27
 Boldly Go!
INJURY AND DEATH
Even if you can avoid combat, the galaxy is a strange Exposure and Infection
and sometimes deadly place. You will find that illness You must first be exposed to whatever is causing the
and injury come in many forms. affliction. This could be a source of high radiation,
E NVIRONMENTAL AMAGE D alien spores, the venomous bite of some creature, a
strange drug with bizarre properties, or the negative
You can be badly hurt from falls, by being crushed by psychological effects of drifting alone in space. If you
heavy objects, by being in proximity to exploding in- are protected against these agents (such as by a pro-
strument panels, by standing too close to an engine tective suit, a prophylactic antibiotic, or a data pad
breach, and by many, many other things. In most full of reading material), you may ignore the rest of
cases, you will be permitted to make a skill challenge this section.
to either reduce or avoid incidents of environmental
damage. If you fail, you’ll take at least 1 Deadly When you are exposed to the affliction, you must
Wound. make a skill challenge to avoid contracting it. If you
pass the roll, you avoid the affliction. If you don’t,
Engineer Roseus is minding his own business you’re infected.
when the fire control panel he’s sitting at blows
up in his face. He has just enough time to throw Incubation and Symptoms
his arms up to protect himself, and to wonder Some afflictions show symptoms immediately, while
why these panels never come equipped with cir- others take time to fully manifest. During the incuba-
cuit breakers. tion period, you may feel otherwise well, allowing
you to unwittingly spread your affliction to others.
The FA allows Roseus to use his Enhanced Sens-
es, Cat- Like Reflexes, and Academy Training to At some point, the symptoms of the affliction will
try and dive out of harm’s way. Unfortunately, manifest. Your symptoms may reduce the number of
he fails. The FA rules that Roseus takes 2 Deadly dice you’re allowed to roll on skill challenges, knock
Wounds, leaving him Bloodied and reeling. you unconscious, give you wounds, give you tempo-
rary traits, or cause you to behave in ways over
AFFLICTIONS which you have limited control (obey the hive mind,
act recklessly, fly into a homicidal rage, and so on).
The individual effects of a disease or toxin should be
left up to the creativity of the FA, but a few things
are common to all of them.
Aftermath
Some afflictions will run their course, leaving you
exhausted but otherwise no worse for wear. Other
afflictions can be fatal, weakening and eventually kill-
ing you if left untreated.

28
 Core
EQUIPMENT
Rules
In this episode, the crew of the Oswego must contend with a very delicate diplomatic situation while an
unknown virus ravages the ship.

Prior to the start of the episode, the FA takes some time designing the virus. She calls it Barnard’s Type C,
a mutation of the much more common Barnard’s Syndrome. It is highly virulent and has a short incu-
bation period. Anyone who spends at least a scene with someone infected with the virus must pass a
Challenging skill challenge or become infected themselves. A sealed environmental suit or similar pre-
cautions will prevent transmission of the disease. Anyone who has suffered from any strain of Barnard’s
Syndrome in the past is immune, as are synthoids.

The virus’ flu-like symptoms appear a few hours after infection. The afflicted will experience fevers, chills,
aches, decreased concentration, and increased exhaustion. They will gain the temporary negative trait
Barnard’s Type C, which can be applied to just about any skill challenge. The virus will grow stronger,
bestowing an additional negative trait die every few hours (going from Barnard’s Type C (1) to Barnard’s
Type C (2), and so on).

Twenty-four hours after the virus’ symptoms appear, the afflicted will collapse into a coma. Without
medical attention, they could die within 1d6 hours. With medical attention, they can survive significantly
longer, but are still in very real danger of dying.

Barnard’s Type C is only tangentially related to Barnard’s Syndrome, and extensive research between
the Medical and Science occupations must be done to discover that the one is a mutation of the other.
Astute players may clue into the fact that the virus is related to Barnard’s Syndrome when they discover
that anyone who previously suffered from Barnard’s Syndrome is immune to Barnard’s Type C.

Once the link is discovered, a few skill challenges made by players with the Medical and Science occupa-
tions will allow them to synthesize a modified Barnard’s antiviral to combat the new illness.

UNCONSCIOUSNESS AND DEATH If all your wounds are Deadly Wounds, you have suf-
fered Catastrophic injury and are dying. The amount
You will be able to move and act until you accumulate of time you can survive in this state is highly variable,
enough wounds to become Comatose, at which anywhere from a few rounds (how long it takes your
point you become unconscious. body to travel the rest of the way down the conveyor
belt to the ion smelter), to several hours (“We need
If any of your wounds are Stun Wounds, you are in to get her splanch back from the aliens who cut it out
no danger of dying from your injuries. Provided noth- of her or she’ll die”).
ing about your situation changes for the worse, you
will soon recover from your Stun Wounds and If you are a synthoid and all your wounds are Deadly
awaken. Wounds, you go offline and remain so until you are
repaired. You are in no danger of dying, but your
29
 Boldly Go!
body may suffer further damage and indignity while
you await repairs.
In some cases, a character will sustain injuries beyond
the scope of even the most advanced medical
science to repair. These occurrences are rare, but
include things like uncorrectable teleporter malfunc-
tions, falling into a black hole, getting flash-frozen in
liquid helium, being disintegrated, and similar.
Should you fall prey to something like this, death is
instantaneous and irreversible.
HEALING AND RECOVERY
Medicine has come a long way in a relatively short
amount of time. If the ship’s surgeons have access to
their tools and diagnostic equipment, you are likely
to survive just about anything.
30
OPENING CREDITS
Unless you choose to remain injured for Drama
Points, or the FA says otherwise, you start each epi-
sode fully healed and free from illness. Your uniform
will either have been repaired between episodes, or
you will have had the opportunity to acquire a fresh
one from the replicator.
Janine Tarian battled space pirates and escaped
with her life, 2 Deadly Wounds, a Stun Wound,
and a torn uniform that, thankfully, did not ex-
pose her navel to all and sundry.
At the start of the next episode, the FA tells An-
gelica that Janine has been awarded the Silver
Crescent for meritorious conduct and is now en
route to Space Fleet Headquarters on Amarta
VII to speak at a cadet conference. Janine be-
gins this new episode fully healed and dressed
in a new uniform.
 Core
EQUIPMENT
Rules
HEALING STUN WOUNDS
All your Stun Wounds heal any time a scene changes.
In cases where you and the other players have split
into two or more groups, your Stun Wounds will be
healed in the time it takes for the FA to switch focus
from your group to another group and back again.
If you have medical training, you may heal yourself
or someone else of all Stun Wounds in 1d6 combat
rounds with a successful skill challenge.
Engineer Roseus has been having a rough day.
He got knocked around when a space anomaly
tried to eat the Oswego and then had an instru-
ment panel blow up in his face. He has suffered
a total of 2 Deadly Wounds and 2 Stun Wounds,
enough to make him Comatose and leave him in
a heap on the floor of Engineering.
The FA shifts attention to Janine Tarian, who is
racing through the ship to help Roseus get the
weapons systems back online. She keeps her
feet when an explosion rocks the ship, avoids
the rookie mistake of getting into the elevator
during a pitched battle, and climbs down an ac-
cess ladder to the Engineering deck. Once she
reaches Engineering, she begins repairs on the
Oswego’s weapons systems.
As she tries to charge the ship’s guns, the FA
switches back to Roseus. His Stun Wounds heal,
leaving him Bloodied but awake. He sits up,
holding his head and groaning.
HEALING DEADLY WOUNDS
Natural Healing
If you aren’t also Comatose or a synthoid, your
Deadly Wounds will eventually heal. If you have time,
a safe place to rest, and enough nutrients, you heal 1
Deadly Wound every 1d6 days.
Medicine
Anyone with appropriate training can heal Deadly
Wounds. A successful skill challenge will heal 1
Deadly Wound once the scene changes. Like Stun
Wounds, if you and the other players have split into
multiple groups, you will heal a Deadly Wound in the
time it takes the FA to switch focus from your group
to another group and back again.
While synthoids cannot benefit from medical treat-
ment, they can be repaired by someone with train-
ing, tools, and a successful skill challenge. Otherwise,
the repair of a synthoid’s Deadly Wounds follows
the rules described above.
Janine Tarian drags Vistabo Roseus to the Med
Bay, where Dr. Del*Prinus is waiting to treat him.
“Dr. Del*Prinus!” says Janine. “Vistabo is hurt!
Can you help him?”
“Of course,” says Catherine, who is playing
Dr. Del*Prinus, favoring Janine with a devious
smile. She turns to the FA. “Dr. Del*Prinus will
ask Janine to pop Vistabo on to the nearest hov-
erbed.”
While Janine waits, Dr. Del*Prinus begins her
slow but precise treatment. She makes a skill
challenge easily, patching up Roseus with no
mess and a min mum of fuss.
The FA switches scenes, allowing Mott’trog
and Robert Trebuchet the opportunity to make
some repairs on the bridge. When the FA switch-
es back to Med Bay, we find that Vistabo has
healed one of his Deadly Wounds. Now merely
Injured, he tries to get out of bed.
“Waaaaaaait a minuuute,” says the rittian physi-
cian. “Just where dooo you think yooou’re go-
ing? I’ve got a lot more woooork to do before
you’re staaaabilized, so just sit tight, okaaaaay?”
31
 Boldly Go!
Roseus gets back into bed and tries to be patient SHIP REPAIRS
while Dr. Del*Prinus again invades his personal
space and makes another very thorough exami- It is possible for Engineering and Systems to make
nation. The doctor succeeds on this additional emergency repairs during combat to fix minor and
skill challenge and, a short time later, Roseus is major damage. To make repairs, crewmembers must
perfectly healthy and back on his feet. have access to the appropriate tools and to the dam-
aged system.
He hurries out of the Med Bay, not giving Dr.
Del*Prinus a chance to suggest any additional
tests. Repairing Minor Damage
Minor damage can be repaired in 1d6 rounds. A suc-
HEALING AFFLICTIONS cessful repair either removes a temporary negative
trait or restores one removed ship trait.
If you have stopped breathing, suffered cardiac ar-
rest, are choking, have broken limbs, or similar issues, Repairing Major Damage
you can be helped by a medical professional and a Major damage takes 2d6 rounds to repair. In some
skill challenge. cases, major damage may require coordination be-
tween multiple repair teams or between crews on
If you suffer from a disease, poison, or other illness, different areas of the ship. A successful repair brings
time and effort must be spent researching a way to the damaged system back online and restores one
halt or reverse the affliction. This may require several trait associated with that system.
successful skill challenges, as well as assistance from
other characters with appropriate traits. Critical systems that have been repaired during battle
are notoriously fragile and temperamental, and
Once you receive the cure for your affliction, you will may go offline if anyone so much as breathes on
feel better almost immediately. In most cases, you them too hard. Engineering teams may need to re-
will stop feeling the effects of your affliction when main on standby and baby the newly repaired system
the scene changes. through the rest of the combat.

If you are a synthoid, you are immune to most afflic-
tions, but computer viruses and software glitches
have been known to plague your kind as badly as any
disease. In the rare cases where you fall prey to cor-
ruption of your internal memory banks or control
software, you can be fixed by characters with the ap-
propriate technological know-how.
Repairing Catastrophic Damage
Catastrophic damage is so extensive that it cannot
be repaired while in deep space, though Engineering
may be able to salvage enough parts to jury-rig a
temporary replacement. Such repairs may require
them to scavenge parts from other ship systems, re-
ducing the ship’s effectiveness overall. A jury-rigged
system is never as good as the original and gains
none of the original’s traits.

32

EFFECTS OF REROUTING POWER TO SHIP SYSTEMS
System
Communications
Computer
Engine, Hyperwarp
Engine, Sublight
Matter Replicators
Power, Emergency
Sensors
Shields
Teleportation Pods
Weapons Systems
Core
EQUIPMENT
Rules
Power Effects
Communication ability, range.
Computer speed, data access.
Speed, engine tolerances.
Speed, maneuverability.
Ability to create more complex objects, create objects more quickly..
Reserve energy for when the main power grid is down.
Range, sensitivity.
Shield strength.
Ability to teleport through interference, range.
Power, accuracy.

REROUTING POWER Your ship’s auxiliary power is specially designed so

Rerouting power to damaged systems is one of the
most frequently used tools in an engineer’s kit.
Power can be rerouted from a system that still has
power to a damaged system, strengthening it. Re-
routing power may be the only way to get a critical
system working again if the ship has sustained heavy
damage or if the main reactors, the engines, or the
Engineering section itself are offline.
Rerouting power requires a round of frantic tinkering
and button pushing, along with a successful roll.
The system from which power is being taken either
loses a trait or gains a temporary negative trait. The
system to which power is being sent turns itself back
on if it was offline or, if it was online, either regains a
lost trait or gains a temporary positive trait.
that it can be easily re-routed in an emergency. If
your auxiliary power hasn’t been damaged or isn’t
already being used for something else, Engineering
may reroute auxiliary power to one other system.
Auxiliary power can only be used on one ship system
at a time, but doesn’t gain or lose traits when it is
used in this way.
It is possible to divert power from ship systems to
recharge failing shields, so long as the shields have
at least 25% strength remaining. Instead of giving the
shields a temporary trait, the shields will regenerate
a strength level (shields at 25% climb back up to 50%).
A failed roll made while trying to reroute power can
overload the system being energized or damage
the system being depleted. Damage caused by
failed rolls is considered Minor damage.

A short list of power systems, and how a loss or gain

of power might affect them, is below.

33
 Boldly Go!
To escape the black hole, Vistabo Roseus is go-
ing to have to work a little engineering miracle
with the power systems and hope that the Hy-
perwarp engines can take the strain. He doesn’t
have a lot of free power to work with, as the Os-
wego’s main power plant was damaged in the
battle, but he hopes that diverting power from
the ship’s weapons systems will be enough.
Mike rolls for Roseus and succeeds. The ship’s
weapons systems gain the temporary negative
trait Underpowered and the Hyperwarp engines
turn back on. Roseus calls the bridge and orders
Helmsman Grummox to prepare for a very care-
ful jump to Hyperwarp
THE NATURE OF THE GAME
The majority of the Core Rules section discusses the
rules system of Boldly Go! and how it works. The Na-
ture of the Game is a short coda to this section, dis-
cussing the design choices that were made to come
up with those rules and providing a little insight as to
how and why they work together to create the atmo-
sphere of the game.
The rules for Boldly Go! were designed while watch-
ing episodes of a famous television show. As a result,
the core rules, the episodes, and several aspects of
character creation are based off of several television
show tropes. These include generic tropes common
to shows with ensemble casts, as well as tropes
unique to a certain television series.
34
DRAMA POINTS
Players will accumulate Drama Points over the
course of the game. They will acquire Drama Points
whenever they do something interesting, talk to one
another, make mistakes, and suffer consequences.
Drama Points were designed this way to emulate the
structure of episodic television shows. The charac-
ters in such stories are presented with a problem,
which they will attempt to solve. Initially, they will try
things that don’t work, either because they have an
incomplete understanding of what the problem is, or
because the problem proves to be more difficult to
solve. During the first half of the story, the characters
talk to one another, learn things, and gather resourc-
es (and Drama Points) that will help them solve
the problem.
At some point during the story, the characters will
make discoveries that will allow them to better ad-
dress the problem. Perhaps they discover what’s re-
ally going on, or they get the resources they need to
make the thing to solve the problem, or they get
their hands on the MacGuffin that will make the
problem go away. It is at this point, from the game’s
standpoint, that the characters move toward the fi-
nal conclusion and resolution, with a large enough
quantity of Drama Points between them to mitigate
poor roles, save one another’s lives, and otherwise
do what needs to be done to save the day.
As a result, players of Boldly Go! can, and should, put
themselves in positions to acquire Drama Points in
the beginning of the story to use them at the end. As
Drama Points transform into Promotion Points, play-
ers should be encouraged to spend them whenever
they feel it is necessary, as this will help to move the
story along and give them the ability to improve their
characters at the end of the episode.
 Core
EQUIPMENT
Rules
WORKING TOGETHER
The Teamwork rule has the potential to create large
dice pools, thereby allowing the players to succeed
at tasks if enough of them a) have traits that can help
resolve an issue and b) are in a position to pool those
traits together. This is intentional.
The players are the officers aboard a starship, who
must work together and freely share information in
order to solve problems. If the players realize this
and work together, there’s almost nothing in the uni-
verse that can stand against them for long. Mechani-
cally, this means that a large enough group of players
can roll enough successes to reach even the loftiest
target number. If they are able to do that, do not
fear. The game is working as intended!
THE CAPTAIN
Rules for creating the ship’s captain character are
found in the Ship Creation and Character Creation
sections, but the discussion of the theory behind
how it was designed and what it does is included in
this section for organizational and thematic reasons.
Looking at certain types of television shows, it would
appear that any good starship captain would be well-
versed in ship functions, hand fighting, diplomacy,
basic medical skill, basic repair skills, and anything
else that would be of use to a main character. Unlike
the rest of the ensemble cast, who are heavily spe-
cialized and will need to work together to tackle
complicated problems, the captain can easily resolve
issues on their own, with no help from anyone.
Far from being a character type that can solve any
problem, the Captain in Boldly Go! is a “support
class.” They work best when they have a crew to
lead. They add +1 die to the pool of any crewmember
(player or otherwise) that specifically acts under
their orders. They start play with a large pool of
Drama Points, which they can give to other players
as needed to help with their rolls. They can also call
conferences, which will allow the characters to both
come up with solutions to their problems and gener-
ate additional Drama Points through role-play.
In short, no Fleet captain should ever try to go it
alone. As demonstrated in the notes on Teamwork,
there’s strength and safety in numbers.
35
Boldly Go!
ROSEUS: Prepare to initiate Hyperwarp sequence!

MOTT’TROG: Belay that order! Central computer

has lost power. We can’t safely compute our es-
cape vector without it.

ROSEUS: We have to leave, now. That alien ship

will cut us to ribbons if we don’t. Use a slide rule
to calculate the vector if you have to.

MOTT’TROG: There’s no time, Vistabo! Isn’t there

any power you can redirect to central computer?

ROSEUS: Auxiliary power is already overloaded as

it is. There’s no way…Wait! The mess and its robot
chef are still at full power. I’m deactivating them
both and rerouting their power to the computer
hub…now!
 Ship
Equipment
Creation
MOTT’TROG: Thank you, Vistabo! Main computer
back online! Calculating escape vector now!

ROSEUS: Hurry up! We’re losing shields!

Transcript of the SFS Oswego’s comm logs

Battle of the Redente Nebula

37
 Boldly Go!
Your ship is one of the most important features of
the game. You and your fellow crewmembers will
use it to explore new planets, do battle with hostile
alien forces, race across the galaxy to save the day,
and have other strange and wonderful adventures.
You and your fellow players will define and build
your ship first, prior to making characters. Building
the ship will not only give you an idea of what sort of
people will be needed to crew it, making character
creation easier, but will also give your FA the ability
to tailor episodes and scenarios to your tastes.
This section describes all the rules that you will need
to make a Boldly Go! ship. A summary of these rules
can be found at the back of the book.
Concept
You and the other players will collaborate on the
type of ship that you’d like to have. Will this be the
“standard” multi-purpose, deep-space exploration
ship commonly seen in Alliance space? A scientific re-
search ship? A sturdy battle cruiser? A ship harboring
experimental technology? An alien vessel salvaged
at the far reaches of space? Something else?
Name
Every ship needs a distinguishing name. There are
plenty of different ship names in the Fleet, from
wellknown cities, to inspirational concepts, to fa-
mous leaders.
Select Traits
Traits define your ship and serve as a guide for its ca-
pabilities and duty assignments. If there are four or
fewer players, each of you gets 2 Trait Points. If there
are five or more players, you each get 1 Trait Point.
Each player gets to spend 1 point at a time to buy
traits for the ship.
38
SHIP BASICS
Despite ship differences, there are a few features
that are common to all ships, no matter the type.
These basic ship components are listed below.
Engines
Your ship has two types of engines: Hyperwarp and
Sublight. Your Hyperwarp engine allows your ship to
travel at many times the speed of light. Your Sublight
engine allows your ship to travel at less than relativ-
istic speeds, move within star systems, orbit planets,
and maneuver in combat.
Despite all the gauges and dials that say otherwise,
your ship actually travels at the Speed of Plot. In situ-
ations where you must arrive in the nick of time to
save the day, catch up to something, or outrun
something, your helmsmen and women must suc-
ceed at one or more skill challenges to coax your ship
to greater speed. Failure indicates either that your
ship is too slow or that it is just fast enough to do
what must be done, damaging its engines in the pro-
cess.
Power
The power to run your ship is generated by a massive
reactor, which is located in Engineering. Power is
routed to different parts of your ship via three key
systems: Primary, Auxiliary, and Emergency. Primary
power balances the load from the reactor and en-
sures that all critical systems have enough energy to
run. Auxiliary power is made up of reserve energy
that is stored in batteries, ready to go if you need to
overcharge a system or when Primary power goes
offline. Emergency power keeps life support systems
running in the event of a power failure.
Shields
Shields protect your ship from debris and from the
attacks of hostile, spacefaring aliens. Shields can
only protect the ship if they’re energized, but while
they’re in place, you cannot teleport off your ship or
leave via shuttlecraft or other means.
 Ship
EQUIPMENT
Creation
Weapons
Your ship’s weapons systems are comprised of par-
ticle beam cannons, tractor beams, and torpedo
launchers, allowing for optimal damage output at
both short and long range. At least one dedicated
gunner is required to fire them. Aside from this, your
weapons have no other stats.
Shipmates and Crewmembers
Your ship contains enough people to maintain it and
provide for all its functions. Most of your crewmem-
bers are nameless NPCs, who will either be enlisted
crew or ensigns. Some of your crew are shipmates,
NPC crewmembers that you get to individualize and
design. Rules for creating shipmates are described in
a later section.
Crewmembers all have the Academy Training trait,
their Occupation trait, and any traits or special abili-
ties provided by their species. Crewmembers can
take only one Stun or Deadly Wound before becom-
ing Comatose.
Kelgaran saboteurs have infiltrated the ship!
Mott’trog enlists a security team to help hunt
them down. The security team are all enlisted
crewmembers and have no bonus to initiative.
They are all human and all have the Academy
Training, Security, Indomitable, Outside the
Box, and Warrior Species traits.

CRITICAL SHIP SYSTEMS

System Function
Bridge Nerve center of the ship. The captain sits here.
Central Computer Controls pretty much everything on the ship.
Communications Transmit within your ship or to other ships and nearby planets.
Engine, Hyperwarp Allows for travel across galactic distances.
Engine, Sublight Move and maneuver at less-than-relativistic speeds.
Engineering Where the engine and power systems are located.
Hull and Access The structure of the ship: hallways, stairs, ladders, doors, and elevators.
Life Support Regulates temperature, breathable atmosphere, and ship gravity.
Power, Primary Provides the energy to run all of the ship’s systems and functions.
Power, Auxiliary A backup power system that can provide a boost when you need it.
Power, Emergency Runs the life support. Do not turn off!
Shields Energy barriers that deflect or absorb incoming attacks.
Sensors Scan at a distance. Provides information, awareness of incoming threats.
Weapons Systems Raysers, torpedoes, tractor beams, and other ways of fighting back.

39
 Boldly Go!
OTHER SHIP SYSTEMS
System Function
Airlock Allows for maneuvers and repairs on the outside of the ship.
Armory Where the crew’s weaponry is locked up between missions.
Brig Holds troubled crewmembers, angry passengers, and criminals.
Crew Amenities Quarters, recreational facilities, gym, meeting spaces, cafeteria, lounge.
Hangar Deck A hangar deck in which the ship’s shuttlecraft are stored.
Matter Replicators Create objects, such as clothing, food, and weapons.
Med Bay Hospital and medical care for the crew.
Science Labs Conduct experiments and scientific research.
Storage Holds tools, away-team garb, and other odds and ends.
Teleportation Pods Teleport to other ships and to the surface of nearby planets.

CRITICAL SYSTEMS
Critical systems are essential to the operations of
your ship. Because these systems are so important,
they are frequently the targets of enemy fire or acts
of sabotage. You may consult this list when dealing
Major or Catastrophic damage to enemy ships.
OTHER SYSTEMS
These ship systems aren’t as glamorous as the Criti-
cal Systems and they aren’t in the line of fire as often.
That said, traveling through space wouldn’t be
nearly as easy without them.
SHIP TRAITS
Once you have determined your ship’s name and
concept, you and the other players will get Trait
Points to spend to purchase ship traits. If there are
four or fewer players, each of you gets 2 Trait Points.
If there are five or more players, you each get 1 Trait
Point. Each player gets to spend a point at a time to
buy traits for the ship.
Ship traits can be associated with a ship system, with
NPC ship crew, or with the ship itself. Note that traits
applied to your ship’s shields give you bonus dice to
avoid danger. They do not change the rate at which
your shields degrade in combat (see the Ship Com-
bat section).

40
 Ship
EQUIPMENT
Creation
The players are constructing the SFS Oswego, a
deepspace exploratory vessel that is the pride
of Space Fleet. There are nine players, so they
get 1 Trait Point apiece. The FA has them go
around the table buying one trait at a time. In a
few minutes, the Oswego begins
to take shape.
The players decide that the Oswego is equipped
with Reinforced Hull Plating (Hull and Access),
Superior Maneuverability (Sublight Engines),
and an Upgraded Navigational System (Sen-
sors). In addition to the usual armaments, it
is equipped with an Enhanced Tractor Beam
(Weapons Systems). It also features a Xenobiol-
ogy Lab (Science Labs) and a bay of Advanced
Shuttles (Hangar Deck).
There are also a few traits that the FA needs to
discuss with the players.
Bob wants Point-to-Point Teleporters. “You
don’t have to go to the teleporter pods to use
them while you’re on the ship,” says Bob. “A
technician could find you on the ship using your
communicator beacon, lock onto you, and then
teleport you to another location on the ship or
down to a planet.”
Avery thinks the ship could use some Trained
Security Personnel. This trait will give any NPC
Security crewmember on the ship +1 die any
time they need to make the appropriate rolls.
Josh insists that the Oswego have an Upgraded
Canteen. None of the players can talk him out
of it, either. “Look, if I have to travel around in
deep space, I’d like to do it with good food.”
“Like a personal chef?” says Avery.
“Like a robot personal chef. We could call him
Pierre!”
Once the FA marks down these traits and their
corresponding systems on the ship’s character
sheet, the Oswego is ready for her first flight.
BUILDING NPC SHIPS
FAs can build NPC ships using a simplified version of
the main rules. All that the FA needs to do is deter-
mine the type of ship that they’re building and make
a list of appropriate traits. The more traits assigned
to an NPC ship, the more impressive it is and the
greater its staying power.
The FA may also assign one or two negative traits to
their ships if they choose. These traits allow enter-
prising and attentive players to find weak points that
they can exploit during space battles.
Some NPC ships will have special abilities beyond the
scope of these rules. The FA should take some time
and care in describing these abilities. Abilities can in-
clude things like cloaking devices, ultra-powerful
weaponry, the ability to launch fighters, gate tech-
nology, time manipulation, and similar others.
In an upcoming episode, the dauntless crew of
the Oswego must contend with a mysterious
vessel that pursues them across the depths of
space. The FA takes some time to come up with
traits for the ship, so that she will be better able
to use it during the episode.
The ship is matte-black and shaped like a tailless
manta ray, difficult to see against the vastness
of space. It is Impervious to Scans (Hull), to
maximize the mystery. It is capable of Relent-
less Pursuit (Engines) and runs on an Unknown
Drive Type (Engines). It is armed with Heavy
Quad Raysers (Weapons Systems), and Phase
Interlock Shielding (Shields).
As to who is on the ship and what they want?
That’s for the players to discover…
41
 Boldly Go!
SHIPMATES
As described above, most of the crewmembers on
your ship are nameless, faceless NPCs, existing solely
to assist in operation of the ship and soak up rayser
blasts while serving on away teams.
Each player also gets the opportunity to make one
shipmate during ship creation. Shipmates are also
NPCs, but they have names, personalities, and per-
haps a sliver of backstory. They are used primarily to
give the crew of the ship a bit more depth and char-
acterization. Shipmates will serve with the players
throughout their adventures, providing opportuni-
ties for role-playing.
You and the other players should discuss your ideas
for your shipmate characters, so that everyone
knows who they are and what they’re like. At this
time, the FA should write the salient points of each
of your created shipmates down on a copy of the
Shipmates sheet, provided at the end of this book.
Avery creates their shipmate, Ensign Gregg, a
human from Terra who works in Engineering. En-
sign Gregg is not a very exciting person, known
for droning on and on about various engineer-
ing minutiae.

To create their shipmate, each player must determine Ensign Gregg has the following traits: Academy
the shipmate’s name, species, and occupation. Training, Engineering, Indomitable, Outside the
Similar to NPC crewmembers, the shipmate gets the Box, Boring, and Warrior Species. He has The
following traits: Academy Training, their occupation, Human Spirit special ability, gets a Tool Kit on
away missions, and can suffer 1 wound before
and any traits and special abilities provided by their
falling comatose.
species. They also get one unique trait, chosen by the
player, that describes their personality or outlook
(Fun-Loving, Lazy, Serious, Loud, and so on). Each
shipmate starts out as an ensign, with any equip-
ment normally assigned to crewmembers of their oc-
cupation. They each have one Wound Level.

42
Ship
EQUIPMENT
Creation

43
Boldly Go!
 Equipment
Character Creation
Robert Trebuchet grabbed M’niss’ arm in a painful
lock and kicked the crude projectile weapon off
the catwalk.

“I should point out,” the synthoid said, “that

though I am an R-series synthoid, and though
there are 143,999 synthoids of that designation
that are my physical duplicates, our interior neu-
ral pathways are quite unique from one another.
“For instance, there is another Robert in the R-se-
ries who, rather than sign up with the Space Fleet,
has elected to remain on Earth to write specula-
tive fiction. Therefore, your opinion that we are
all, ‘interchangeable, plastic-faced goons’ is not
only hurtful, but also in error.”

Robert twisted M’niss’ arm just a touch further,

causing the kelgaran to hiss. “Based on these
findings,” the synthoid said, “I think you should
apologize.”

45
 Boldly Go!
This section describes all the rules that you will need
to make a Boldly Go! character. A summary of these
rules can be found in the back of this book. You will
make your character after you and the other players
finish construction on your ship. Talk with the other
players, and with the FA, to generate some character
concepts that are appropriate to the ship and that
would also be fun to play.
OVERVIEW
There are several steps to character creation.
Character Concept
Take a moment to think about what kind of character would like to do this, feel free to use the species in-
you would like to play. Having a concept in mind
now will make it easier for you to pick out traits later. in creating your own. Each listing contains the fol-
If you don’t know what you’d like to play yet, read
through the rest of Character Creation and see if
anything inspires you.
Name and Backstory
What is your character’s name and backstory? The
backstory does not need to be particularly long or
exhaustive—one or two sentences is usually enough
to convey the essence of the character.
Select Species
You belong to one of the member species of the Stel-
lar Alliance. Each species has a short write-up on
their physiology, culture, and homeworld. Each spe-
cies has three bonus traits and a special ability.
Select Occupation
Your occupation is your role aboard ship. Your occu-
pation is also a trait that will help you to better per-
form your duties.
Determine Rank
Your rank helps to determine your initiative and may
give you bonus Drama Points at the start of each
game session.
46
Select Additional Traits
Traits define your character and serve as a guide for
how you approach certain situations. You have 5
Trait Points that you can use to purchase any addi-
tional traits that you like.
SPECIES
You belong to one of the member species of the Stel-
lar Alliance. Seven of these species are detailed in
this section. You may, with FA approval, play a char-
acter from a species that is not listed here. If you
formation provided in this section as a helpful guide
lowing:
Description
What members of the species look like and how they
act. This may also include cultural and historical infor-
mation, as appropriate.
Homeworld
Though a species may have many colony worlds,
there is usually one planet that they call home.
Traits
All species get three traits that reflect their outlook
and physiology. Some traits have slight negative ef-
fects in certain situations, but species traits are usu-
ally beneficial.
Special Abilities
Species have special abilities that benefit them in
certain situations.
Angelica and Rachel are making characters. An-
gelica has already decided that Janine Tarian is
going to be human. She copies down the follow-
ing information onto her character sheet.
 EQUIPMENT
Character Creation
Traits: Indomitable, Warrior Species, Outside
the Box
Special Ability: The Human Spirit
Rachel wants to make a Hybrid character. She
tells the FA that her character, Vexxa Smith-
Merienas, is a halfhuman/ half-krakenoid wom-
an who grew up on the grounds of the Terran
embassy on Yurgos, the krakenoid homeworld.
Vexxa hasn’t had much contact with krakenoid
society, which means she’s never served in their
military and doesn’t really understand the cul-
ture. Thus, she has trouble fitting in with either
of her species.
Rachel has a bit more work to do than Angelica,
because she must pick Vexxa’s traits and special
abilities from two species templates. She flips
back and forth between the human and krak-
enoid templates before deciding on the follow-
ing:
Appearance: Vexxa is almost human in appear-
ance, except that she is hairless and possesses
gills, webbed fingers, webbed toes, and slightly
rubbery skin.
Traits: Greater than the Sum, Warrior
Species, Outside the Box
Special Ability: Amphibious
HUMAN
The humans of Terra are a diverse species with many
cultures. They are naturally inquisitive and adventur-
ous. Since they first joined the Stellar Alliance 50
years ago, humans have made great strides, becom-
ing one of the most widely spread and well-connect-
ed species in the galaxy.
Homeworld
Humans originated on the third planet of the Sol sys-
tem, known to most other species as Terra or Earth.
Humans have spread well beyond their home, colo-
nizing worlds in their own system and beyond.
Traits
Indomitable
Humans have a strong innate desire to conquer
things, whether it’s a scientific problem, a territory
to be explored, or a fight to be won. They refuse to
give up, even when logic dictates they cannot win.
Outside the Box
Humans have an uncanny ability to come up with
novel approaches to old problems, to see trouble
from a different angle and find a new way of ap-
proaching it. Even when a problem seems impossi-
ble, humans can still find a way to solve it.
Warrior Species
Humans like to present themselves as peaceful, egal-
itarian diplomats, but anyone conversant with their
history knows of their violent and warlike past. Even
the most seemingly pacifistic of humans can become
dangerous when backed into a corner.
Special Ability
The Human Spirit
Humans can call upon deep
wells of willpower and
personal resolve to remain
true to themselves and their
ideals. For this reason, hu-
mans receive +1 die to any
roll that they need to make
to resist mental domination,
psychic control, or other
outside forces that seek to
control their minds or spir-
its.
47
 Boldly Go!
GATTOAN
EXAMPLE GATTOAN
VISTABO ROSEUS
Gattoans are a species of stocky, robust cat-people
covered with sand-colored fur. They are few in num-
ber, preferring seclusion except during their mating
season. They are known to be somewhat territorial
and protective of their private spaces, to the point of
being aggressive. Though they are sometimes dif-
ficult to get along with in the close confines of the
vessels of Space Fleet, they are extremely intelligent
and dedicated.
48
Homeworld
The gattoans’ home planet is Gomeisa IV, which or-
bits Beta Canis Minoris, a blue-white star. The surface
of Gomeisa IV is a barren, irradiated desert. Deep
fissures in the planet’s polar zones provide the only
year-round habitable areas. Much of gattoan civiliza-
tion exists either within these craters or in tunnels
deep beneath the planet’s surface.
Traits
Enhanced Senses
Gattoans have excellent eyesight, especially at night.
They are able to see in near-darkness as well as a hu-
man can see in full daylight. They also possess a very
acute sense of smell, sensitive enough to allow them
to identify and track individuals by scent alone.
Fight Tooth and Claw
Gattoans can use their claws and teeth to devastat-
ing effect against foes. They tend to throw in a lot of
snarling and spitting for good measure.
Territorial
Gattoans are used to living in solitude, so working in
close quarters with others can be difficult for them.
Crewmembers serving with a gattoan are warned
not to engage in physical contact, enter their person-
al spaces, or touch their belongings without the
gattoan’s express permission. Doing so may force
the gattoan to engage in aggressive behavior as a
show of dominance. If a gattoan needs to hide out in
their quarters for a while, it’s best just to let them go.
Special Ability
Desert-Adapted
Gattoans are well-adapted to their desert homeworld
and are resistant to many types of harmful radiation
and ultraviolet light. They can endure both
extreme heat and bitter cold without discomfort,
and can remain active and healthy for several days
without water.
 EQUIPMENT
Character Creation
KRAKENOID
EXAMPLE KRAKENOID
GRUMMOX BENTHOS
Krakenoids are a species of amphibious humanoids
who share traits with terrestrial cephalopods. Their
heads are large and bulbous, sporting lustrous eyes
and a series of tentacles arranged around a beak-like
mouth. Their bodies are boneless and flexible, and
their arms and legs are actually four clusters of
larger, much more powerful tentacles.
Krakenoid culture is militarized to such a degree that
the discipline and hierarchy of military life pervades
many aspects of their culture. All krakenoids are
duty-bound to serve in some branch of their military,
and their rank carries considerable weight in many
social situations in their culture.
Homeworld
Krakenoids originated on Yurgos, a planet noted for
its balmy climate, shallow seas, and lush, equatorial
jungles. Their cities are structurally reminiscent of
coral reefs and are situated in coastal areas, both
above and below water.
Traits
Flexible
Because krakenoids are boneless, they are capable
of bending and twisting their bodies in ways that
creatures with endoskeletons cannot match. If a
krakenoid can fit its head through an opening, it can
fit its entire body.
Military Hierarchy
Krakenoids revere their military culture and have a
deep respect for military protocol and for following
proper channels and procedures. They are unlikely to
break the chain of command except in extreme cir-
cumstances and tend to hold active-duty military
personnel in high esteem, no matter whom those
soldiers serve.
Unbreakable Grip
All four of a krakenoid’s major tentacles (their
“arms” and “legs”) are extremely strong and tipped
with suction cups. Once a krakenoid has a firm grip
on something, it is almost impossible to get it away
from them unless they are incapacitated, over-
whelmed by vastly superior strength, or choose to
release their grip voluntarily.
Special Ability
Amphibious
Krakenoids are able to breathe underwater and are
able to act as easily in the water as terrestrial species
are able to upon the land.
49
 Boldly Go!
MORDON
EXAMPLE MORDON
MOTT’TROG
Mordon are compact, hairless, humanoid beings.
They are, as far as is known, the galaxy’s only sapient,
silicon-based species. Their skin is extremely
tough and metallic, both in coloration and in density.
Though known for their prodigious strength, they
are a peaceful species that prefers diplomacy to
combat.
Unlike the majority of species encountered by the Al-
liance, all mordon present male and female sexual
characteristics and are able to couple in such a way
that one or both partners can be impregnated by the
other. Mordon are known to lay eggs, but other par-
ticulars of their birthing process and child-rearing
habits are closely guarded secrets.
Homeworld
Mordon come from Gajwanbex II, a dense planet
that orbits a red giant star. This star has been decay-
ing for half a billion years, and every mordon who
ever lived was born under its crimson glow. Through
50
centuries of ingenuity and patience, the mordon
have managed to stabilize the decay of their sun,
while also sending ships out to find habitable worlds
so that they can relocate their species.
Traits
The Fragility of Life
All mordon are born into a world warmed by the
weakening light of a dying sun. This makes them just
a bit melancholy, but also helps them to appreciate
the little things in life. Mordon can often be found in
quiet contemplation, either regarding the distant
stars, a natural scene, a work of art, or small, other-
wise ordinary things that speak to them in some pro-
found way.
Mordon try not to destroy or damage things, becom-
ing very morose if such destruction is unavoidable.
Many mordon limit themselves physically, refusing
to use their full strength unless the situation is truly
dire.
Great Strength
Mordon are tremendously strong, capable of bend-
ing metal bars and smashing through starship door-
ways with minimal effort.
Silicon-Based
Unlike most of the other sapient species in the gal-
axy, mordon are silicon-based rather than carbon-
based. As they are essentially living rock, this makes
them resilient to most forms of damage, particularly
acids and blunt-force trauma. Unfortunately, as their
body chemistry is quite unique, mordon injuries can
be difficult to treat without the correct training.
Their heavy weight and high density can also be a
factor in certain environments.
Special Ability
Earth-Shaking Punches
Mordon are so strong that they will always inflict a
Deadly Wound each time they hit in melee combat,
unless they make an effort to pull their blows.
 EQUIPMENT
Character Creation
RITTIAN
EXAMPLE RITTIAN
DR. PHINNEA DEL*PRINUS
Rittians are bipedal humanoids that resemble terres-
trial sloths. They are easy-going and thoughtful.
While they tend to gravitate to the sciences and so-
cial sciences—since these disciplines offer the best
fit for their personalities—rittians have served with
distinction in all of the occupations of Space Fleet.
Homeworld
The rittians originated on the planet Ritta, the sole
world in its star system. Ritta is home to tall trees,
vast savannahs, many species of delicious plants,
and a large number of ground-based predators.
Traits
Eerily Calm
Nothing ever seems to phase a rittian. Whether it’s
because their minds take too long to register the
enormity of a situation, or whether they’re just really
good under fire, rittians are known to act calmly
even in the most harrowing conditions.
Methodical
Rittans are slow to take action—perhaps because
they need to analyze a situation from every angle, or
because they are reluctant to commit themselves to
a decision. They try never to be rushed, even in high-
stress situations where other species find split-sec-
ond decision making to be crucial to survival. To a rit-
tian, there’s always time to think and plan, whether
they’re studying the menu in the cafeteria or trying
to plot a trajectory to save a crashing ship.
Slow Metabolism
Rittian metabolism works very slowly, allowing them
to conserve energy and body fat during times when
food is not plentiful. Their reduced metabolic rate
also slows the infection rate of diseases and toxins,
giving them ample time to seek medical treatment.
Special Ability
Climbing
Rittians are exceptionally skilled climbers. They auto-
matically pass any skill challenge needed to climb
things, unless extenuating circumstances make
climbing difficult even for them. Rittians are capable
of hanging off of ledges, tree branches, and the like
for hours without requiring a roll to maintain their
balance or grip.
51
 Boldly Go!
SYNTHOID
EXAMPLE SYNTHOID
ROBERT TREBUCHET
Synthoids are human-like androids who were created
in secret laboratories on Europa as part of the
now-infamous Jovian Conspiracy. The conspirators
planned to replace key members of the Terran gov-
ernment with synthoid imposters, thereby bringing
about a mostly bloodless revolution and gaining con-
trol of the Sol system.
Everything was going to plan until the synthoids be-
came self-aware. Realizing that they were little bet-
ter than slaves—and feeling a strange kinship for the
people of Terra—the synthoids staged a coup of
their own, overthrowing their Jovian masters and
surrendering to the Terran government. Although
many humans viewed them with suspicion early on,
this distrust has begun to fade now that the syn-
thoids have proven themselves to be loyal allies of
Terra and the Stellar Alliance.
Homeworld
While synthoids are naturalized citizens of Terra and
think of Terra as their home, they all originate from
the formerly secret Jovian factories located within
52
the ice caves of Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons.
Those factories are now under the tight control of
the Terran government, and the “birthing” of new
synthoids is strictly regulated. The restriction on the
construction of new synthoids is the last active provi-
sion of the original treaty with Terra, and is currently
being contested by synthoid representatives
in the halls of both the Terran Government and the
Alliance Council.
Traits
Durable
Synthoids are constructed of durable polyalloys and
high-density plastics, which are capable of taking a
great deal of punishment.
Superior Memory
The synthoids’ positronic brains give them un-
matched mental acuity and memory recall.
What Emotions?
Synthoids do not possess emotions and only under-
stand them as abstract concepts for which they have
no use. Synthoids constantly misread other people’s
emotional cues, coming off as socially oblivious at
best and callous or cruel at worst.
Special Ability
Mechanical
Synthoids are machines and cannot benefit from
medical science. However, someone with sufficient
technical expertise and equipment can repair dam-
age done to a synthoid.
They are impervious to all toxins and diseases, do
not need to eat or drink, and can survive in environ-
ments that would incapacitate or kill most other sen-
tient life forms.
They are also immune to most forms of mental and
emotional control. However, synthoids can be influ-
enced by damage to their systems or by altered or
corrupted programming.
 EQUIPMENT
Character Creation
HYBRID
EXAMPLE HYBRID
VEXXA SMITH-MERIENAS
Humans are able to have viable offspring with virtu-
ally any sapient species. During the brief time that
humans have been traveling the galaxy, their Hybrid
offspring have become increasingly common.
The rules for creating a hybrid character are a little
different than creating a character of another spe-
cies.
Species
Hybrid characters are always half-human. Their other
half can be from any one of the other Stellar Alliance
species other than synthoid—for example, human/
gattoan, human/krakenoid, etc.
Homeworld
Any Hybrid characters can come from Terra, one of
Terra’s colony worlds, their non-human parent’s
homeworld, or another planet of their choice.
Appearance
A Hybrid character’s appearance is highly variable,
favoring one parent over the other or showing a
blend of both. For example, a character who has
both human and gattoan ancestry could:
• look entirely human apart from pointed ears and
cat eyes.
• look entirely gattoan other than the pronounced
lack of a tail.
• look like a slimmer gattoan with human eyes,
thinner fur, and a less-pronounced snout.
Traits
Hybrid characters may choose any two traits from
the human species description and the description
for their other species. Once these traits are selected,
they cannot be changed. Hybrid characters also get
the following trait:
Greater than the Sum
Hybrid characters are born into two different worlds
at the same time. While, to some, this may make
them permanent outsiders, unable to fit in, this is not
actually the case. Hybrid characters have two sets of
cultural identities to draw upon, which allows them
to find novel solutions to problems and helps them
to forge their own path.
Special Ability
Hybrid characters get either the human special ability
or the special ability offered by their other species—
their choice.
53
 Boldly Go!
OCCUPATIONS
Your occupation determines your role in both Space
Fleet and on board your ship, and is also a trait that
you may use whenever it is appropriate. You get any
one occupation of your choice.
Note: The ship’s Captain is an occupation in Space
Fleet. Because it has a number of unique rules and
special abilities, it has been listed out of alphabetical
order and at the end of this section. Unlike the other
occupations, there can usually only be one captain
per group of players. You may use any equitable
method to determine who will be the captain of the
ship. If you cannot decide, or if no one wishes to be
captain, the FA will assign you an NPC captain.
ENGINEERING
Engineering is responsible for the maintenance and
repair of ship systems and other devices. An engineer
is capable of performing diagnostics on a piece of
equipment, repairing damaged devices, and gently
coaxing key ship systems to perform beyond peak
efficiency for brief periods. An engineer may, with
enough time and patience, jury-rig devices when the
correct parts are otherwise not available, or figure
out how alien systems and devices work.
HELM
Members of this occupation are the pilots of the
fleet. Helmsmen and women are capable of plotting
courses, operating Space Fleet ships, opening hailing
frequencies, and collecting and interpreting data
gathered by long-range sensors and probes. In hos-
tile sectors of space, they are able to take evasive
maneuvers and use shipboard weapon and defensive
systems to their fullest potential.
54
MEDICAL
Since the dawn of Space Fleet, medical professionals
have been assigned to every ship to ensure that
crewmembers remain in peak physical condition.
When ship crews inevitably run afoul of enemy ves-
sels, strange diseases, parasitic creatures, and space
madness, Medical works very hard to put everyone
right again.
SCIENCE
Practitioners of the sciences are instrumental in ana-
lyzing and cataloguing all of the new minerals,
plants, animals, and sapient creatures discovered on
long-range, exploratory missions. In many cases,
they use their expertise in conjunction with Medical
to come up with vaccines to counteract whatever
hostile biological and chemical agents the crew has
infected themselves with each week.
SECURITY
Security personnel form the backbone of most away
missions, using their weaponry and training to keep
other members of the crew safe in hostile environ-
ments. On board ship, they enforce the law, manage
the weapons systems, act as the captain’s eyes and
ears, and protect the vessel from alien threats and
boarding parties.
SOCIAL SCIENCE
Practitioners of the social sciences are the unsung
heroes of many a starship. Their skills can be ex-
tremely handy when the crew needs to navigate a
planetary political coup, keep from damaging history
while running around in the distant past, or soothing
the soul of a powerful, insane alien once worshipped
thousands of years ago by the Akkadians, an ancient
Terran culture.
 EQUIPMENT
Character Creation
SYSTEMS
Members of Systems are proficient with computers
and other ship equipment. They are most often
found manning the sensor and communication
equipment, updating the library banks with the lat-
est mission data, operating instrument panels
throughout the ship, and providing diagnostic assis-
tance to Engineering to ensure that the ship contin-
ues to work at peak efficiency.
Angelica gets Academy Training and selects Se-
curity for Janine Tarian’s occupation. She tells
the FA that she’s excited about shooting her
way out of dangerous situations and beating up
hostile aliens.
Rachel also gets Academy Training, but isn’t
sure what to pick for Vexxa Smith-Merienas’
occupation. She talks with the FA and Angelica
and ultimately decides that she will also go with
Security. The three of them determine that Ja-
nine and Vexxa became friends while they were
training in the Academy and put in for transfer
to the Security division as soon as they could.
“This’ll be great,” says Angelica. “We could have
a whole good cop/bad cop thing going on.”
“Okay,” says Rachel. “But I’m the good cop.”
“Deal!”
CAPTAIN
The captain is in charge of the ship and is responsible
for following both Alliance Law and the regulations
of Space Fleet. Of paramount importance is ensuring
the safety of the ship and crew during missions.
Some captains tend to be more action-oriented,
while others prefer to take a more distant and sup-
portive role. All captains, regardless of their leader-
ship style, gain the following special abilities.
Special Abilities
High Rank
You do not follow the rules for picking your rank (see
the Rank section). You have the rank of captain.
Second Occupation
Before your promotion to the big chair on the
bridge, you served in Space Fleet in one of the other
occupations. Though your skills may be a bit rusty,
you can still draw upon the lessons you learned in
your previous career when needed. Pick any one of
the other occupations and list it under your Occupa-
tion traits along with the Captain trait.
Leadership
You can provide inspiration and confidence to the
crew under your command. Any time another player
character follows your direct orders, you may give
them as many of your Drama Points as you wish to
help improve their rolls. You gain Promotion Points
for any Drama Points you spend in this way.
In addition, any crewmember (player or NPC) acting
under your orders gains +1 die to their pool when
making a skill challenge that carries out your orders.
It’s one thing to attempt to do something on your
own. It’s another to make the attempt knowing that
the captain is counting on your success.
The Oswego, engines damaged in battle, drifts
ever closer into the event horizon of a black
hole. The crew only has one chance—just one—
to get the engines online before the powerful
gravitational pull of the black hole drags them
to their inexorable doom.
“I’m going to have to divert just about all the
power we have left to the engines,” says Vista-
bo. “Even then, it might not be enough.”
“Give it everything you’ve got, Mister Roseus,”
says Captain Sexton. “Tap into Life Support if
you need to, but get us out of here. That’s an
order.”
55
 Boldly Go!
While Vistabo preps the engines, Carmine, Cap-
tain Sexton’s player, counts up his Drama Points.
He’s managed to save up 7 over the course of
the adventure, and he’s willing to use them all
to improve Mike’s next roll. In addition, Mike
gains +1 die to his roll to fix the engines, because
Roseus is following the captain’s orders.
Conference
Captains may call a conference in times of crisis, ob-
taining advice from any or all of the other players.
Everyone participating in the conference (including
you) gains a Drama Point, whether you act on their
advice or not. You and the other participants also
gain Drama Points if you invoke your Personality
traits while in conference.

The crew of the Oswego is playing host to several diplomatic envoys when a disease begins to spread
like wildfire through the crew. Captain Sexton calls Omolara, Janine, Vexxa, Dr. Del*Prinus, and Robert
Trebuchet into his ready room. All six of them gain a Drama Point.

“We can’t let this illness affect the peace talks,” says Captain Sexton. “Recommendations?”

During the discussion, Vexxa is at first Hesitant to offer input. When Robert Trebuchet insists, in his
Pragmatic way, that lockdown and quarantine protocols be followed immediately, she speaks up and
explains that a lockdown with no explanation will cause friction among the diplomats. She suggests that
someone be Empathic to the diplomats’ needs and explain what’s going on.

At the end of the discussion, they decide that Janine will initiate the lockdown and quarantine protocols
while Vexxa communicates the situation as delicately as she can to the diplomats. In the meantime,
Omolara and Dr. Del*Prinus will head to the Med Bay to work on a cure for the disease.

In addition, Vexxa gains 2 Drama Points (3 total), while Robert Trebuchet gains 1 Drama Point (2 total).
Captain Sexton, Omolara, Dr. Del*Prinus, and Janine all gain 1 Drama Point each.

NPC CAPTAINS
If none of the players are interested in being the cap-
tain, the FA should create an NPC captain. If the FA
wishes, they may create the captain as if they were
a fully fleshed-out player character, using the rules
provided in the Captain section.
If the FA’s concept of the captain is still a bit nebu-
lous, they may choose to only list the most basic
traits (provided by the captain’s species, former oc-
cupations, bonus traits, and from the list of traits
below), filling in additional traits as the situation re-
quires it.
NPC captains gain all of the special abilities of PC cap-
tains, except that they do not have or gain Drama
Points and are therefore unable to bestow Drama
Points to improve player rolls.
All captains have one or more traits, which can ei-
ther be selected from the list below or created by
the FA. These traits determine how the captain runs
their ship and responds to the crises that threaten it.

56
 EQUIPMENT
Character Creation

In an alternate continuity, Rita Vasquez is the

captain of the Oswego. She was a Social Sci- RANK
ence officer aboard the SFS Dixon-Porter until
she was promoted. Her promotion came about You start the game as a bridge officer with a rank of
after she helped broker a treaty between three
lieutenant junior grade, unless you are the captain of
newly discovered species, allowing them to join
the Stellar Alliance. the ship.

The FA doesn’t know very much about Rita at
the moment, so she decides to leave her some-
what vague for now. She does know that Cap-
tain Vasquez, being human, has the Indomita-
ble, Outside the Box, and Warrior Species traits,
as well as The Human Spirit special ability. She
also has the Captain, Academy Training, and So-
cial Science traits. Based on the backstory that
the FA has written, Captain Vasquez also has the
Diplomat and Psychologist Leadership traits.
If you wish, you may reduce your rank to ensign. Do-
ing this will give you an additional Trait Point so that
you can buy one more trait of your choice. You may
not reduce your rank any lower than ensign, how-
ever.
If you have the Captain occupation, your rank is also
captain, and you may not reduce your rank.

57
 Boldly Go!
Your rank gives you several free Drama Points at the
beginning of each episode. You may spend these Neither Janine nor Vexxa are the captain of the
points like regular Drama Points. Oswego, so they both default to the rank of lieu-
tenant junior grade (0-2). This allows them to
start every session with 1 Drama Point.
DRAMA POINTS PROVIDED BY RANK Rachel tells the FA that, because Vexxa is so
Hesitant and unsure of herself, she’s had a
Rank Free Drama Points much more difficult time advancing up the ranks
of Space Fleet. She chooses to make Vexxa an
Ensign 0 ensign, forcing her to start each game with no
Lieutenant Junior Grade 1 Drama Points. She gains one additional
Trait Point, however.
Lieutenant 2
Captain Sexton has the Captain occupation, so
Lieutenant Commander 3
his rank is also captain. He starts every session
Commander 4 with 5 Drama Points.

Captain 5

NPC CAPTAIN TRAITS

Trait Description
Analyst Dislikes making decisions until they have all the facts.
By the Book Adheres to every Space Fleet regulation, no matter how insignificant.
Careerist Cares only about looking good enough to get promoted to the Admiralty.
Cowboy Not so keen on following regulations. Lives for adventure!
Diplomat Seeks to communicate and reach accords with all sapient alien life.
Hands-Off Almost never on the bridge. Runs things through subordinate officers.
Joker Likes to have fun and be “one of the crew,” often with mixed success.
Martinet Obsessed with discipline and documenting every minor infraction.
Parental A mother or father figure to the people under their command.
Psychologist An expert at reading people. Plays to crew strengths and weaknesses.
Weak-Willed Appears to be one of the other types of captain, but cracks under pressure.

58
 EQUIPMENT
Character Creation
ACADEMY TRAINING Because Vexxa is an ensign, Rachel has 6 Trait
Points to spend. After some thought, she buys
the Crack Shot, Crisis Negotiator, Detail-Ori-
ented, Hesitant, Quick Healer, and Read People
You also gain the Academy Training trait. This rait traits.
represents the extensive training you received at
Fleet Academy. You know all about Fleet rules and
regulations, proper ship protocols, basic survival
skills, and current information on both Alliance and
unallied species. You also learned a highly idiosyn-
SAMPLE TRAITS
cratic martial art largely consisting of body throws Positive Traits Negative Traits
and two-hand punches. Ace Pilot Absent-Minded

ADDITIONAL TRAITS Alert to Danger

Contemplative
Cocky
Controlling

You have five points (or six if you start as an ensign) Crisis Negotiator Fussy
that you can spend on any traits of your choice. It’s Determined Hesitant
up to you to select and name the traits that you think
would be most appropriate for your character. If you Diagnostics Honest
are stuck, please feel free to discuss your trait pur- Diplomatic Honorable
chases with the FA and the other players. You may
also consult the table below for inspiration. Escape Artist Obedient
Inquisitive Pacifistic
Once you have spent all your Trait Points, character
creation is complete. Inspiring Parental
Intimidating Pragmatic

Rachel and Angelica have decided that their Physically Fit Precise
characters, Vexxa and Janine, are old friends Quick Healer Preserve All Life
who came up through the Academy together.
They are assigned to the Security section on- Read People Quiet
board the Oswego, where they have a good cop
Stealth Relentless
(Vexxa)/bad cop (Janine) thing going on. Know-
ing all of this will be a big help now that it’s time Surgeon Sensitive
to pick traits.
Tactics Short-Tempered
For Janine, Angelica has 5 Trait Points, which she Technical Brilliance Stubborn
uses to purchase the Alert to Danger, Cocky, In-
timidating, Physically Fit, and Weapons Train- Weapons Training Suspicious
ing traits.
Well-Read Thorough

59
Boldly Go!
“When you board your ships for your first
assignment, be sure to take a moment and
look around at the technology that protects
you, keeps you alive, and helps you perform
your duties. Then remember that, no mat-
ter how fastidious the systems checks, no
matter how tight the tolerances, your equip-
ment can fail you; often at the most inop-
portune moments. Yet, even in these terrible
times, you will always have access to your
most important pieces of equipment: your
mind, your heart, your training.”
Anna Sooleawa
Former Captain of the SFS Nanabojo
To the Fleet Academy Class of 2187
Equipment
EQUIPMENT

61
Boldly Go!
You start the game with a uniform and a few small
personal effects stowed away in your quarters.
Other equipment you can use will be found on the
ship, assigned to you for missions, or desperately
scavenged when those missions go awry.
Some equipment may have traits, at the FA’s discre-
tion. A few sample traits are provided to some of the
equipment listed below.
ASSIGNING EQUIPMENT
At the start of every episode, you always have a fresh
uniform equipped. When you go on an away mission,
you can requisition other equipment based on your
occupation and other factors.
Common Equipment
This equipment is assigned to every member of an
away mission. Unless there are extenuating circum-
stances (e.g., no raysers at a diplomatic junket), you
are given this equipment automatically.
Occupation-Specific
This equipment is assigned to crew members who
belong to the listed occupation. This equipment can
also be assigned to other members of the mission
crew by order of the captain.
Other Equipment
This equipment is only assigned to you either in cer-
tain circumstances (e.g., you only need breathing
masks when venturing onto a planet with an incom-
patible atmosphere) or on captain’s orders.
62
Found Equipment
This equipment is almost always only found while on
missions. Except in very unusual circumstances, you
will never start a mission with this equipment.
COMMON EQUIPMENT
Communicator
This is a small, multi-frequency communications de-
vice. It is used to communicate with other members
of your team or with your ship. It has a built-in tele-
porter beacon so that you can be located and tele-
ported back to your ship.
The communicator also serves as a wireless hub and
can be used in conjunction with data pads, med kits,
engineer’s field kits, and portable sensor arrays to al-
low them to interface with one another and with
your ship’s data banks.
Data Pad
A tablet device that serves as a portable computer,
camera, media player, and notepad.
Rayser
The name of this weapon is a portmanteau of “ray
laser.” It is a compact side-arm used throughout
Space Fleet. It fires a beam that causes 1 Stun or 1
Deadly Wound, your choice. You may also use the
rayser to heat rocks, start fires, or make coffee.
Uniform
Possible Traits: Recognizable
Your uniform is made of comfortable, breathable ve-
lour. Whenever you suffer a wound or gain a tempo-
rary negative trait due to an injury, you may instead
dramatically tear open your uniform and ignore the
effects of the injury. You may not use this ability
again until your uniform is repaired.
 EQUIPMENT
OCCUPATION-SPECIFIC EQUIPMENT
Med Kit (Medical)
This compact kit comes with diagnostic and medical
tools. It’s not quite as good as the equipment in a
Med Bay, but it’s close. You may not be able to per-
form medicine at all without one of these kits.
Portable Sensor Array (Science)
A compact sensor suite that can be used to scan for
signs of life and power, as well as provide detailed
analysis of collected samples. Its effective range is
about one kilometer, though this can be reduced by
dense rock, energy fields, or other anomalies.
Tool Kit (Engineering/Systems)
This kit comes with diagnostic and repair tools for
equipment. You may not be able to do Engineering
or Systems work without one of these kits.
Universal Translator (Social Science)
Possible Traits : No Idioms, Inaccurate
This device can fluently translate any of the common
languages in its database. When confronted with an
unknown language, it can provide an as-needed
translation matrix by performing complex algorithms
and vocabularic analysis.
OTHER EQUIPMENT
Away-Team Attire
Possible Traits: Insulated, Ornate, Inconspicuous
This mission-appropriate clothing is worn in place of
your uniform. Some types offer protection against
hostile environments, while others allow you to
blend in with pre-Hyperwarp planetary populations.
Heavy Rayser
This is a much larger, more destructive version of the
rayser. Its use is restricted to military ships and com-
bat duty. Its powerful can cut through metal or stone
and causes 2 Deadly Wounds on a hit.
Environment Suit
This sealed, and pressurized suit is required for space
walks and for missions to planets with dangerous at-
mospheres. It also provides RBC protection to the
wearer. A built-in control pad features environmen-
tal controls for the suit and a communicator.
Survival Pack
This pack contains food rations, a portable shelter, a
chemical stove, and other survival essentials.
63
Boldly Go!
FOUND EQUIPMENT
Archaic Armor
This is either a suit of ancient armor or improvised
armor made with found materials. It provides +1 die
to defend against physical attacks only.
Archaic Shield
One of the oldest methods of defense. It provides +1
die to defend against physical attacks only.
Improvised Kit
Possible Traits: Crude, Sparking, Duct-Taped
It sometimes happens that you are trapped on a
planet’s surface without access to your ship or
equipment. If that happens, you will have to make
do with what’s available. After some scrounging and
jury-rigging, you might be able to cobble together an
adequate replacement for a med kit or tool kit.
Weapon, Firearm
These weapons propel solid projectiles at targets.
Firearms can be useful on primitive worlds where
raysers would attract attention. They cause Deadly
Wounds.
Weapon, Melee
These hand-to-hand weapons encompass swords,
clubs, and similar. These weapons can cause either 1
Deadly or 1 Stun Wound on a successful attack.
Weapon, Missile
These are muscle-powered ranged weapons, such as
knives, spears, rocks, and bows. Certain types of
ranged weapons (spears and knives, for instance)
may also be used as melee weapons. Missile weap-
ons almost always cause Deadly Wounds.

Janine Tarian is at her post onboard the Oswego. Because she’s on duty, she’s wearing her
uniform.

Janine goes on an away mission a few scenes later. She gets the standard gear common to
away-team members, including a communicator, a data pad, and a fully charged rayser.

Janine suspects that there is a space-pirate base on the planet and wants to be as heavily
armed as possible. She asks if she can requisition a heavy rayser. The captain refuses her
request, but says that heavier weapons will only be sent down if the pirate base on the
planet can be confirmed.

Janine gears up and gets ready to teleport to the planet’s surface.

64
EQUIPMENT

65
Boldly Go!
“It is notable that the shelled gastropods
native to Scluuv II (cornu atramento), pre-
vious to this encounter, had never been
known to produce any secretions apart from
the motile slime common to similar spe-
cies. This ink-like secretion, which appeared
to be both spontaneously generated and of
near perfect utility, confounded evolution-
ary biologists and chemical engineers alike.
While most artistic communities (with the
notable exception of any that originated on
Kapoor IV), happily made use of the ink in
their works, scientists were still skeptical of
its too-good-to-be-true origins.”

Scluuv “Ink”, a Spetrophotometric Study

P Del*Prinnus, O Namuyangu, et. al.
Evo Exo Bio, Vol 241, Issue 4721
 Equipment
Species, Creatures, and Other NPCs

67
Boldly Go!
This section contains a listing of the many creatures
and species, as well as other NPCs, that can be en-
countered during your exploration of the far corners
of the galaxy. The FA is encouraged to use the listings
in this section as inspiration to create their own
new life and civilizations.
Each species or creature listing is broken up into the
following sections:
Name
The name of the species, creature, or NPC.
Traits and Special Abilities Block
This contains typical traits, abilities, and equipment
the NPC might possess. Most creatures follow the
same wound progression that players do, but if a
creature can take more (or fewer) wounds than nor-
mal, it will be listed here.
It should be noted here that starting player charac-
ters have around 10 traits. Use this as a guideline
when making your own NPC species or creatures.
Creatures with fewer traits are either weaker or
more specialized, while those with more traits are
more powerful or more diverse.
Description
This section outlines the species’ or creature’s habi-
tat, physiology, and psychology. Some descriptions
are broken up into additional subsections that in-
clude species naming conventions and important
cultural facts. If the species has become spacefaring,
this section will also provide information on its ships.
68
AMBASSADOR
T�����
Diplomatic Corps, Endless Small Talk, Languages
and Culture, Short-Tempered, Stubborn
S������
None
The Stellar Alliance is made up of many divergent
species, each with their own needs and interests.
Even species with the best of intentions can generate
unpleasant friction with other species over religious
freedoms, trading rights, or for any one of a
thousand other reasons.
To facilitate open communication and understand-
ing, the Alliance—as well as numerous non-member
species—employ diverse and well-trained corps of
ambassadors. They are always ready to travel to dis-
tant star systems to handle disputes.
It is interesting to note that, despite their job descrip-
tions as mediators and peacemakers, ambassadors
seem, to a being, to be short-tempered, abrasive,
and obnoxious. No one in the Stellar Alliance is
quite sure why this is. Perhaps years of dealing with
petty squabbles and border disputes have taken
their toll, or perhaps they behave this way on pur-
pose, so that the mutual dislike they engender pro-
vides the first bit of common ground between op-
posing species.
CREWMEMBER
T�����
As Species, Academy Training,
one Occupation trait
S������
As Species.
Can take 1 wound before falling Comatose.
 Species, Creatures, and Other NPCs
EQUIPMENT
These are the crewmembers described in the Ship
section, the extras aboard starships. Recurring crew
may obtain names and traits that make them look
and act more like player characters.
DELSHZ
T�����
Guarded, Heat-Resistant, Peaceful, Sharp Fangs,
Strong Tail, Technical Brilliance
S������
Poison Resistant: Most forms of poison are imme-
diately neutralized by their powerful immune
systems.
Delshz are a species of serpent people that have
petitioned to join the Stellar Alliance. They range
anywhere from 10 to 15 feet in length, are greenish-
orange in coloration, and possess a pair of small, flex-
ible arms that terminate in three-fingered hands.
They rarely wear clothing other than garments spe-
cifically designed for protection, preferring to adorn
themselves in collars, head ornaments, fang caps,
and bracelets.
Their homeworld of Pronoxx is a hot, wet world cov-
ered by swamps and rainforests. Its climate is ex-
tremely volatile, known for its savage, continentwide
storms and brutally high temperatures. Pronoxx is
home to several diverse species of lizards, as well as
numberless varieties of biting and stinging insects.
Many of these insects are specifically bred as food
crops, and ingestion of these venomous creatures
have given the delshz some measure of poison
immunity.
Delshz buildings and ships are known for their sinu-
ous, spiral architecture. While delshz are capable of
navigating stairs, spaces that they design specifically
for themselves avoid stairs in favor of gently sloping
inclines and curved passageways.
Names
Delshz names tend to be sibilant in nature.
Examples: Tossk, Zsiil, Masstkh, Aspizh.
Ships
Delshz ships are graceful, beautiful, and quite deli-
cate compared to ships used by Space Fleet. The
delshz compensate for their ships’ structural weak-
nesses by installing powerful shield generators. The
ships are also quite maneuverable, thanks to their
cunning design and a proprietary engine technology
that the delshz ruling council has not yet seen fit to
share with the members of the Alliance.
Traits: Fast, Fragile, Maneuverable, Powerful Shield
Generators, Proprietary Engine Technology
ENERGY BEING
T�����
Capricious, Formidable Intellect, Intimidating,
Sees the Big Picture, Smugly Superior
S������
Teleportation: They can traverse vast distances in
an instant, seemingly without effort.
Long-Range Telepathy: They can communicate
across galactic distances.
Matter Control: They can create, move, and shape
matter. They may use this ability to take on what-
ever form that they choose, render a portion of a
planet’s surface habitable, alter a moon’s orbit, or
make virtually anything.
Many millions of years ago, energy beings were just
like the other humanoid species that inhabit the gal-
axy. Over time, and with a little technological help,
they transcended their physical bodies to become
creatures of pure thought-energy. Though they
69
Boldly Go!
would like to think that their minds have evolved just little-to-no qualms about abusing their powers, only
as much as their bodies have, many energy beings the most cunning or inventive species will be able to
are no less petty, vain, or cruel than the so-called escape their clutches.
“less evolved” sapient species that they look down
on. GIANT SPACE ANOMALY
Energy beings sometimes use their powers to test or T�����
torment younger species. They prefer to administer
Brutal Attack, Implacable, Impervious, Relentless,
these tests subtly and, in many cases, their subjects
Starship Scale, Unknowable
are never aware that they have been manipulated by
powers beyond their comprehension. More rarely, S������
energy beings have been known to teleport repre- Hard to Hurt: They only take damage from star-
sentatives of various species to arenas of their own ship-class weapons or better.
creation, forcing the captured species to struggle for
the energy beings’ amusement. Wounds: They can take anywhere from 4-40
wounds before dying or being driven off.
Some particularly malignant or depraved energy be-
ings will masquerade as (or claim to be) the ancient Other Abilities: See below.
gods of a sapient species, demanding worship and
subservience from their new subjects. As these
energy beings can do virtually anything and have
 Species, Creatures, and Other NPCs
EQUIPMENT
Giant space anomalies are strange creatures that can for a ship to break free of the anomaly’s grip, but do-
occasionally be found wandering through the galaxy. ing so risks blowing out its engines.
Sometimes, they take an interest in settled planets Energy Absorption
or starships and try to destroy them. The anomaly is capable of drawing vast amounts of
energy into itself. This could be the way it eats, or it
There are many kinds of giant space anomalies, from could be the way it charges up its primary weapon.
doomsday weapons built by long-dead species, to gi- Any powered system in the range of the absorption
ant clouds of highly radioactive gas, to single-celled field will suffer a substantial power drain and may be
organisms that happen to be thousands of kilome- forced to shut down.
ters a cross. FAs should take time to prepare and cus-
tomize their anomalies before unleashing them on HMMARM
their unsuspecting players.
T�����
Anomalies are so massive that it is unlikely that a
Aquatic, Echolocation, Quiet, Sensitive,
character will be able to defeat them with personal
Sonic Mimicry, Very Strong
weaponry, unless they manage to find and get in
range of the anomaly’s sole, vulnerable spot. S������
Aquatic: They require high-pressure aquatic envi-
Fully armed starships are much better equipped at roments to survive. They wear pressurized aqua-
fighting giant space anomalies. Combat between an suits in “dryspace,” equipped with complex sound
anomaly and a starship follows all the rules for ship systems that facilitate their sonar ability.
combat, except that each successful attack by the
starship delivers a Deadly Wound to the anomaly. Sonar: Hmmarm are eyeless, and “see” with sound.
For example: A giant space anomaly with 15 wound
levels is struck by ship weaponry. The anomaly now Sonic Mimicry: They can duplicate sounds and
has 14 wound levels remaining. speech with relative ease.

In some cases, giant space anomalies are either too
large or too unconcerned to avoid attacks. The FA
may rule that, in these cases, any ship weapons fired
at the anomaly hit automatically.
An anomaly can attack a ship by ramming it, biting it,
spearing it on its body, engulfing it, trying to dissolve
it, or firing upon it with an energy beam. If an anom-
aly hits, it does damage to the starship as if it were
an enemy ship. Anomalies may also have additional
attacks or abilities.
Immobilize
The anomaly can immobilize an attacking starship
(or other mild annoyance of similar size) on a success-
ful attack roll. While immobilized, the ship continues
to otherwise function normally. It may be possible
The hmmarm are provisional members of the Stellar
Alliance and share the planet of Jutoon with the joto-
ni, another provisional species. Hmmarm are aquatic
beings who dwell at oceanic depths that would crush
an unprotected human. They make some of the best
audio-recording and broadcasting equipment in the
known galaxy. Though they are reluctant to engage
in battle, they will fight vigorously if threatened.
They are eyeless and fragile-looking, with slender
arms and legs and a head that is most easily described
as “muffin-shaped.” The lobes on their heads can
send and receive sonic pulses. These pulses allow the
hmmarm to communicate and give them a complete
sphere of auditory “vision.”
71
Boldly Go!
Names
Hmmarm names are complicated sonic signatures
that other species can only replicate with computer
technology. To make communication easier, the hm-
marm have adopted simpler use-names that other
species can easily vocalize. Hmmarm that interact
with one species in particular will often use the nam-
ing conventions of that species when making their
use-names.
Examples: Sig, Sin, Tal, Wei, Cos, Fran, Tan, Ing, John.
Ships
Hmmarm ships are small, spherical, and very sturdy,
their bulkheads reinforced to withstand the mass of
the water that fills the central habitat chamber. Cer-
tain areas, such as those housing sensitive equip-
ment or quarters for non-aquatic species, are kept
free from water and are only accessible via water-
lock. Hmmarm must wear their aquasuits when trav-
eling to these locations.
The hmmarm have the finest sensors in the Stellar Al-
liance. While they have been quite open about shar-
ing their designs with the rest of the Alliance, other
species have not yet been able to duplicate the hm-
marm’s level of refinement. This may be because hm-
marm sensors convert their output to auditory tones.
While the hmmarm can easily distinguish between
the subtle variations in their sensor outputs, other
species do not have hearing that is quite as sensitive.
Traits: Advanced Sensors, Reinforced Bulkheads,
Small, Sturdy, Water-Filled
72
JESECAR
T�����
Bizarre Sensory Organs, Collective Intelligence,
Implacable, Virulent, Vulnerable to Fire
S������
Variable Appearance: Hosts can be from virtually
any sentient species, possessing their traits and
special abilities if appropriate.
Highly Contagious: Anyone unfortunate enough
to be unprotected in an area with the jesecar or
an advanced host must make a Difficulty 5 roll to
avoid infection.
Explosive: Advanced hosts will explode upon
death or at a command from the jesecar, spread-
ing spores across a wide area. The spores are also
Highly Contagious.
The jesecar are a type of parasitic fungus that can
easily infect members of other species. Because the
jesecar are so virulent, and because they have only
been encountered twice by species of the Stellar Al-
liance, very little is known about their origins and life
cycle.
What is known is that the jesecar infiltrate a host
creature through the host’s respiratory tract or
through a wound upon the host’s skin, reproducing
and spreading until they reach the host’s central ner-
vous system. If the host’s immune system is unable
to counteract the jesecar, or if various therapies are
unsuccessful, the jesecar will infest the host’s brain.
This will irrevocably destroy the host’s personality,
memory, and higher functions, though autonomic
functions will remain intact. Once the fungus has ad-
vanced to this stage, the host is under the full control
of the jesecar and may easily infect others.
 Species, Creatures, and Other NPCs
EQUIPMENT
Advanced cases of jesecar infection are recognized
by the greenish fuzz that grows over the shoulders
and head of the host. The host’s eyes (if it has them)
become milky and unfocused, and eventually fungal
blooms sprout from what remains of the lenses. Un-
fortunately for those it encounters, a jesecar host no
longer needs its eyes to see. The fungal colony that
now inhabits it somehow provides all necessary sen-
sory input.
Fully infected jesecar hosts have been seen to pe
form inexplicable actions, presumably goaded on by
the fungus itself. Most hosts attempt to reach pop-
ulated areas before the fungus overwhelms them
completely, allowing it to spread to new victims. Oth-
er hosts have been described as abducting potential
victims, gathering together as if in communion, and
trying to understand and use basic pieces of technol-
ogy. There is concern that fungi are psychically linked
across the various hosts, indicating a hive mind that
acts with a single, unified purpose. These claims have
not been fully vetted or researched.
JOTONI
T�����
Contemplative, Detect Sentience,
Eel-Like Grace, Empath, Pacifistic, Telekinesis
S������
Speechless: Jotoni may only communicate
electronically or via telepathy.
Long-Range Telepathy: Jotoni may communicate
with one another over distances of hundreds of
kilometers or more.
Jotoni live on the planet Jutoon, a world that they
share with the hmmarm. While the hmmarm live
deep beneath the oceans, the jotoni live on the sur-
face, spending time both in the water and on the
land. Their enclaves are always below water, but fea-
ture tall tubes that run from their living quarters to
sunning platforms on the surface.
Jotoni are amphibious and their bodies have an eel-
like consistency. They have large, luminous eyes, slip-
pery skin, two pairs of arms, and a dorsal tail. They
for brief periods in other places. It is most important
that they have access to sufficient water, otherwise
their skin dries out and cracks.
Jotoni are pacifistic, vegetarian philosophers who
abhor violence. They much prefer to negotiate, be-
lieving that their deep intellects and psychic abilities
can find the solution to almost all crises.
The jotoni and the hmmarm met one another when
the jotoni began venturing deeper into their oceans
and the hmmarm started exploring shallower wa-
ters. The two species soon became friends, sharing
knowledge and technical expertise. They are often
found on ships together, both for practical reasons
(the jotoni can more easily enter the air-filled com-
partments where sensitive equipment is kept), and
technological ones (the hmmarm are the ship-build-
ers of the two species).
Names
Jotoni names are descriptions of colors, sounds, or
concepts. They can be quite strange to non-jotoni,
but are also very evocative.
Examples: Red-Shade-of-Sunset, Silence-of-Falling-
Leaf, Second-Mental-Gate-of-Karem.
Ships
Jotoni are poor ship builders and travel through
space as part of the crew of hmmarm ships.
73
Boldly Go!
KELGARANS
T�����
Clannish, Distrust Outsiders, Escape Artist,
Fight Dirty, Scavenger, Stealth, Survivalist
S������
Scavenged Equipment: Kelgaran equipment is of
various technological levels and questionable
efficiency. They are as likely to fight with raysers as
they are with sticks and rocks.
Kelgarans are a bipedal, lizard-like species with
prominent cranial domes and forehead ridges. Their
eyes are snake-like with vertical pupils. Their skin has
a scaly texture and is most often colored russet, dark
green, or pale yellow. They are taller in stature—
though lighter in frame—than an average-sized hu-
man. They are unable to breath in oxygen-rich atmo-
spheres, so most are encountered either wearing
breathing masks or sealed inside of environment
suits.
Gara, the kelgaran homeworld, was destroyed cen-
turies ago in a terrible cataclysm that the kelgarans
refer to as the Crushing. The kelgarans do not discuss
the Crushing with outsiders, and it is unknown
whether it was a natural event, an attack from a
hostile species, or something the kelgarans brought
upon themselves.
The kelgarans have been trying to find a new home-
world since the destruction of Gara but, to date, no
planet they have yet encountered has been ideally
suited for their species. The years of wandering have
caused the kelgarans to form into tight-knit clans of
semi-independent fleets. Though they are technically
united for the purposes of seeking out a new home-
world, ancient feuds and new philosophies make it
unlikely that disparate clans can work together for
very long.
74
The kelgarans have become a scavenger people, re-
placing their technology with cast-offs stolen from
other species or salvaged from abandoned hulks
drifting through space. While much of their equip-
ment is crude by Alliance standards, occasionally
kelgarans dig up strange or unusual technology of a
type not known to modern science.
Though they have earned reputations as thieves and
pirates, kelgarans are a proud people with compli-
cated codes of honor and long-standing traditions.
Indeed, one of the firmest of these traditions may be
the reason that they are still galactic vagabonds—
they seem unable or unwilling to accept help from
non-kelgarans.
Names
Every kelgaran has three names: Their use-name,
their familial name (derived from their mother’s
family and the nesting place where their egg was
hatched), and their clan name. The familial name is
only used on formal occasions.
Examples: Ssrith Lssar-Povinlish-Hengresh-Yassht*
of Clan Veshtad (Ssrith Veshtad).
*Hatched from Lssar’s egg in the hold of the freight-
er Hengresh.
Ships
Kelgaran ships are either ancient vessels dating to
the time of the Crushing or more modern ones that
they have acquired through theft or salvage. These
ships have seen better days and, even with expert
patching and jury-rigging, are not the vehicles they
once were. A kelgaran ship forced into a standard
engagement cannot hope to last long against newer,
better-maintained ships.
This is why kelgarans avoid standard engagements at
all costs, preferring hit-and-run attacks, stealth, dirty
tricks, and retreat, to facing their opponents in what
 Species, Creatures, and Other NPCs
EQUIPMENT
others might term a fair fight. The kelgarans have an
edge in this type of warfare thanks to one of the last
pieces of their technology still available to them after
the Crushing—the Kelgaran Cloak.
Ships outfitted with this device are invisible to sensor
scans (though more focused and determined sweeps
may pick up radiation leaks from ship engines). They
gain +4 dice to elude enemy vessels and avoid at-
tacks while the cloak is engaged.
The only thing preventing the kelgarans from domi-
nating space battles is that they cannot fire and
maintain their cloak at the same time. The moment a
kelgaran ship fires its weapons, the cloak collapses,
only re-establishing itself on the kelgarans’ turn of
the next combat round.
Traits: Agile, Ancient, Evasive, Fast, Much-Repaired,
Salvaged, Strange Technology
MERCHANT
T�����
Accounting, Business Contacts,
Business Sense, Close the Deal
S������
None
Merchants can be found throughout the galaxy,
ferrying goods between distant planets and selling
them to interested parties for a moderate mark-up.
Members of Space Fleet don’t often encounter mer-
chants aboard ships, but can interact with them on
away missions or while on shore leave.
MOROVIK
T�����
Cybernetic Implants, Drone Pilot, Hack Systems,
Opportunist, Slave to No One
S������
Control Electronics: Morovik, via their implants,
can take control of systems and devices.
Morovik are small, furry humanoids that possess
sharp teeth and compound eyes. Not much is known
about them by other species, though there is reason
to suspect that they were once thralls of the vatizar.
If they have a homeworld, nothing is known about it,
including its name or location.
The strongest evidence that the morovik have a link
with the vatizar is that every morovik encountered
possesses cybernetic implants. Morovik use their i
plants to control their personal technology, ships,
and drone fighters, as well as any other technology
they come across.
Morovik are notorious raiders, known to attack
mines, research stations, and locations where they
can scavenge heavy metals, technological resources,
or other equipment. One of their favorite tactics is to
use an enemy’s computers and technology against
them.
Names
Morovik do not seem to have names in the traditional
sense. All morovik encountered refer to one another
by a color, numerical designation, and by some ap-
proximation of a military rank.
Examples: Scout Captain Pink-523, Overwatch Pri-
vate White-095.
75
Boldly Go!
Ships A pre-Hyperwarp species is any sapient culture that
Morovik crew large carrier ships that contain up- has yet to develop Hyperwarp technology. They run
wards of one hundred human-sized drone fighters. the gamut, from prehistoric tribes to being equiva-
lent to the most advanced societies of early 21st-cen-
In combat, a morovik ship will attempt to disable the tury Earth.
shielding on an enemy ship. When the shields col-
lapse, the drone fighters close in, boring through the The Stellar Alliance has a policy of minimal interfer-
enemy’s hull and entering the ship’s interior. Once ence with pre-Hyperwarp species. This policy was
inside, the drones fly around the interior of the ship, put in place to ensure that pre-Hyperwarp species
attacking crew and disabling key systems. will develop naturally along evolutionary and cultural
lines. This policy came about after two notable first
Morovik drones are fast, maneuverable, and piloted contacts that went terribly awry:
remotely by morovik operators aboard the carrier
ship. The drones can be destroyed by one hit from a The Mando IV Incident: A well-meaning captain gave
ship weapon and can take four Deadly Wounds (they rayser technology to one side of a planetary conflict,
are immune to Stun Wounds) from personal weap- which resulted in that side taking over all of Mando
ons. They are armed with cannons that have equiv- IV and establishing a repressive, fascist dictatorship.
alent stats to heavy raysers. These cannons cannot
penetrate ship shields, but they can be used to good The Kappa V Incident: A species known for its cultural
effect against personnel. adaptability acquired a digital archive of anime left
behind by a careless Space Fleet officer. The anime
A drone fighter’s remote operator can cause a drone was swiftly distributed across the planet, destroying
to self-destruct. This does as much damage as a fully the species’ local culture and replacing it with im-
charged rayser set to overload. The drone self-de- probable hairstyles, outrageous costumes, oversized
structs 1d6 rounds after the command is given. weapons, and hundreds of martial-arts techniques.

Traits (Carrier Ship): Advanced Targeting, High-
Powered Cannon, Long-Range Cannon
Traits (Drones): Fast, Heavy Rayser, Hull-Cracking
Drill, Maneuverable, Numerous
PRE-HYPERWARP SPECIES
T�����
Cultural Taboo, Strange Custom
S������
Randomized: Use the tables below to create a
unique species. Add traits as appropriate.
Stellar Alliance policies now require that any person-
nel intermingling with pre-Hyperwarp species must
do so in secret, equipped with appropriate costum-
ing and backstories. Special care must be taken by all
personnel to not leave behind advanced technology
for pre-Hyperwarp peoples to stumble across. Acci-
dents still happen, but, to date, cultural contamina-
tion has been successfully kept to a minimum.
Pre-Hyperwarp Species Creation Tables
This table assumes that the pre-Hyperwarp species
consists of “humans in funny suits.” That is to say,
two arms, two legs, one head, and recognizable
anatomy and culture.

76
Species, Creatures, and Other NPCs
EQUIPMENT
Roll Species Is...
1 Fish-like. Big eyes, scaly skin, amphibious
(or fully aquatic). May bear live young or
lay eggs.
2 Mammal-like. Fur, hooves, or the like.
Probablybears live young.
3 Bird-like. May have wings. May lay eggs.
4 Insect-like. Mouthparts, compound eyes,
chitinous plates. May have wings. May lay
eggs.
5 Reptile-like. May have scales and horns.
May feel discomfort in heat and cold. May
6
lay eggs.
Human-like. Slight cosmetic differences
(knobby noses, brow ridges).
Roll Species Breathes...
1-4 An Earth-like atmosphere.
5 An exotic atmosphere that is
uncomfortable to others. It may act as a
hallucinogen, make humans sluggish, etc.
The species may need breathing gear to
breath other atmospheres.
6 An exotic atmosphere that is toxic to
others. It causes damage, pain, and
eventually death to non-natives. The
species requires breathing gear to survive
other atmospheres.
Roll Species’ Technology Level Is...
1 Stone age.
2 Bronze age.
3 Medieval.
4 Industrial Age.
5 Nuclear. The species’ technology is
roughly the same as 21st-century Terra.
6 On the verge of discovering Hyperwarp.
Roll Species’ World is Valuable Because...
1-2 Contains deposits of materials used as
Hyperwarp fuel, matter-creator raw
materials, etc.
3-4 It’s the perfect location and quality for
colonization by one of the Stellar Alliance
powers.
5 It contains ruins of some ancient culture,
which may or may not still exist among
the stars.
6 It’s a convenient base for an enemy power
trying to encroach on Alliance territory.
PSYCHIC BEINGS
T�����
Cunning, Controlling, Psychic Strength
S������
Psychic Powers: See below. They also get
additional traits based on their powers.
Psychic beings possess one or more psychic powers.
In most cases, all members of a given species will
have access to the same set of psychic powers,
though some may be more powerful than others.
Sometimes, only a few members of a species possess
psychic powers, while the remainder do not.
Most psychic beings can only direct their power at
a single target, but very powerful beings (or several
psychic beings acting in concert) may affect multiple
targets at once.
Dominators
Other Traits: Puppet Master, Telekinesis
Dominators exert control over a target’s physical
body, operating it like a puppet. While the target is
aware that they are being controlled, the source of
that control may not be obvious to them. Depending
on the level of the dominator’s control, the target
77
Boldly Go!
may seem to move and act normally, or may execute
the dominator’s mental commands in a halting, jerky
way.
Illusion Weavers
Other Traits: Create Illusions, Retrieve Memories
Illusion weavers are among the most insidious of the
psychic beings. While they are unable to affect their
targets directly, they are able to subtly influence
them by creating illusions of people, places, and ob-
jects. Some illusion weavers also have latent tele-
pathic abilities, allowing them to search a target’s
mind for information that will make their illusions
more realistic.
Inciters
Other Traits: Provoke Emotions, Psychic Torture
Inciters are able to stir up emotions and sensations
in their targets. Victims of an inciter may collapse in
sobbing heaps, howl in rage, scream in agony, drop
into a torpid stupor, or find themselves lost in a mad-
ness of the inciter’s creation.
Possessors
Other Traits: Actor, Containment Unit, Bodysnatch
Possessors are often bodiless creatures, their psychic
energies confined to a specially prepared crystalline
containment unit or other storage device. On suc-
cessful use of their power, they can switch minds
with another living creature, taking over that crea-
ture’s body and forcing the creature’s consciousness
into their containment unit.
Possessors can leave the host body at will, returning
to their containment unit if it is within range. They
can also be forced out by certain drugs, if they be-
come sufficiently distracted, or if the host body suf-
fers trauma. It may also be possible for the original
consciousness to force the possessor out and regain
control of their body if the possessor is within range
of the containment unit.
78
Possessors that still have bodies of their own must
take care to safeguard them, as the consciousness of
the creature they have possessed may be able to use
the possessor’s body as their own. Possessors with
physical bodies usually take steps to imprison their
own body or, at the very least, make sure that there
are willing minions to guard it.
ROBOT MINIONS
T�����
Coordinate Efforts, Enhanced Sensors,
Implacable, Mere Machines, Obedient,
Targeting System
S������
Onboard Rayser: Never runs out of ammo.
Durable and Mechanical: As synthoid.
Robot minions are often built and controlled by sen-
tient computers. They give the computer increased
mobility and combat ability, long-range spying and
resource gathering, and a means of communicating
with both its subjects and hostile forces without en-
dangering itself.
In many cases, robot minions are controlled via a cen-
tral facility (a sentient computer or the automated
factory that built them). If this location is damaged
or destroyed, all of the robots that the facility con-
trols will turn themselves off. More advanced robot
minions have a decentralized command structure, al-
lowing them to act independently if the controlling
computer is destroyed.
 Species, Creatures, and Other NPCs
EQUIPMENT
SAVAGE BEAST
T�����
Animal Intelligence, Hungry,
Natural Weaponry, Strong, Swift
S������
Different types of beasts may have different
appearances and traits. See below.
These beasts bear a striking similarity to many of
Terra’s terrestrial predators, but with additions that
make them even more deadly. The examples listed
below are taken from the records of various scouting
missions.
Vorkanian Ursacus
Other Traits: Envenomed Quills
A bear-like creature that shoots envenomed quills
like a porcupine. Anyone hit by its quills must make a
skill challenge or suffer the In Agony temporary trait
from the creature’s venom.
Winged Shimmersnake
Other Traits: Eye Beams, Flight
These large serpents can fly and shoot beams of light
out of their eyes. Anyone struck by their eyebeams
must make a skill challenge or suffer a Stun Wound
and the Blinded temporary trait. Certain types of eye
protection will protect the wearer from this damage.
Rittian Bloodworm
Other Traits: Anticoagulant Bite, Burrower
These worms can burrow through the earth almost
as quickly as they can crawl on top of it. Their saliva
has anti-coagulating properties, so that anyone they
bite must make a roll or bleed profusely, suffering a
Deadly Wound every 1d6+1 rounds until they are ei-
ther treated or until the scene ends.
SENTIENT COMPUTER
T�����
Megalomaniacal, Multitask, Process Information,
Stationary, Task-Oriented, Technical Mastery,
Vast Size
S������
Resources: May have access to weaponry,
manufacturing plants, teleportation pods,
vehicles, shields, communications satellites, robot
minions, etc.
Wireless Access: Remotely link to and control
electronic devices.
Wounds: See below.
Sentient computers are massive collections of main-
frames located in caves, bunkers, or reinforced struc-
tures. They were built ages ago by a variety of spe-
cies for a variety of reasons: Some species wanted to
build the ultimate war machine, others wanted their
society to run more efficiently, others wanted to
create a repository for all of their knowledge in the
wake of a cataclysm, and still others wanted to learn
the answers to complex, philosophical questions.
Most sentient computers lack nuance and follow
their programming very literally. This tendency, com-
bined with poorly worded instructions, invariably
caused them to turn on the species that they were
supposed to help. A computer designed to protect
all knowledge might wage war against nearby na-
tions in order to keep its knowledge safe, while one
designed to improve society might order the death
or forced alteration of any being it deemed imper-
fect.
Because they often have access to planetary net-
works and communications satellites, sentient com-
puters have a very long reach. Computers hooked up
to matter replicators, holographic projectors,
79
Boldly Go!
remote-controlled vehicles, weapons, or teleport creature it is mimicking, but a thorough medical ex-
pods can conceivably create just about any object, amination will reveal a shapeshifter’s true nature.
move resources from place to place, and make long
ranged attacks. Most shapeshifters use their ability to hunt, adopting
an unthreatening form so that they can more eas-
Sentient computers can survive the destruction of ily find, kill, and devour their prey. Others use it as
their infrastructure, but cannot withstand a direct hit a means of self-protection, evading and escaping
to their mainframes. Most computers are in secure those life forms that are hostile to it.
structures that nothing short of starship weaponry
can penetrate; however, anyone able to infiltrate SOLDIER
these structures could do significant damage to the
computer’s delicate electronics with a rayser. It is ul-
T�����
timately up to the FA to determine how much dam- Loyal, Military Training,
age it will take to render a sentient computer non- Physical Conditioning, Tactics
functional.
S������
The other common way to defeat a sentient com- Equipped with weapons, armor, and gear
puter is to introduce a logic bomb into its system. appropriate to their culture.
The best sorts of logic bombs are those which force
the computer to follow two opposing commands Just about every sentient species, aside from those
simultaneously or believe two contradictory things that are especially pacifistic, possesses a military or
at once. If done correctly, the logic bomb will either police force of some kind.
force the computer to shut down or cause it to self-
destruct. These stats can also be used to represent mercenar-
ies, rebel forces, or any sort of rough-and-tumble
SHAPESHIFTER warrior-types.

T�����
Deceptive, Escape, Heal Rapidly,
Mimic Others, Sneak Attack
S������
Shapeshift: Can assume the form of any creature
of equivalent mass. It takes one round to shift
between forms. Shapeshifters gain the benefits
and limitations of their new forms and can remain
in a chosen form indefinitely.
Shapeshifters are capable of mimicking the outward
appearance of almost any other life form of roughly
equivalent mass. Casual observers will not be able to
tell the difference between the shapeshifter and the
VATIZAR
T�����
Combat Training, Imperial Doctrine, Proud of
Names, Squad Tactics, Ultravision
S������
Conversion: See below. This gives them additional
traits.
The vatizar are the rulers of a vast star empire com-
prised of dozens of conquered systems. The growth
of their empire has stagnated in recent decades, in
part because of the growing power and influence of
the Stellar Alliance.

80
 Species, Creatures, and Other NPCs
EQUIPMENT

Vatizar that have not undergone conversion (see
below) are humanoids of roughly human height
and build. Their skin is yellow-white, waxy, and com-
pletely hairless. They have four eyes: two larger ones
that see in the normal visible light spectrum, and two
smaller, secondary eyes located beneath the first
pair that can see ultraviolet light.
The vatizar are obsessed with both physical and
military might. Diplomacy has proven to be difficult
with them, because their preferred method of solv-
ing problems is by force of arms. The only reason a
peace treaty between the Imperium and the Stellar
Alliance exists is because the Alliance was first able
to defeat the Imperium during the War of the Fron-
tier. It is widely believed that the moment the vatizar
gain significant technological or numerical advances,
the cold war with the Alliance will heat up, to the
detriment of species dwelling in the neutral border
territories.
Conversion
Other Traits: Cyborg, Power Armor, Loyalty
Citizen-soldiers of vatizar who have gained honor in
battle undergo a cybernetic conversion process to
better serve the Imperium. Converted soldiers are
so heavily augmented that they can no longer leave
their specially modified Dragoon armor. Virtually all
ranking officers in the vatizar military have under-
gone conversion.
81
Boldly Go!
Thrall Conversion
Other Traits: Loyalty
Rumors abound of a partial conversion process,
most often practiced on vatizar thralls. According to
Alliance spies, this conversion process involves surgi-
cally implanting cybernetic control mechanisms into
the brains of thrall species, ensuring their loyalty to
the Imperium.
Names
Vatizar names are used as a sign of social rank. A thrall
might have a name of only one or two syllables, while
a noble’s name might measure a hundred syllables
or more. Vatizar who have served the Imperium well
are often awarded the right to add syllables to their
names.
Because their names are often unwieldy in day-today
life, most vatizar have shorter duty-names of per-
haps a dozen syllables or so. In civilian life, vatizar
wear scarves embroidered with their name runes. In
battle, they bear name cartouches on their armor.
The social hierarchy with regard to names is so in-
grained that vatizar often unconsciously apply it to
other species. For instance, a vatizar studying Terran
literature might hold Sophia de Mello Breyner Andr
sen in much higher regard than Jack London solely
because Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen has a
much longer name.
Vatizar names are transliterated into Alliance Stan-
dard with a period between each syllable.
Examples: Jan.Wen, Vah.Par.Gath.Ig.Mol.Tum.Yan,
Du.Pen.Rod.Shi.Vin.Tusk.Alb.At.Tar.
Ships
Vatizar ships are armed with powerful proton can-
nons. These cannons can only fire once every three
combat rounds. On a successful hit, they reduce the
82
results of all Shields Holding rolls by 1 (in other
words, if a Shields Holding roll is 5, it becomes a 4).
Vatizar ships are almost always encountered in
groups of three. This allows them to coordinate fire,
either directing all of their firepower against a single
target, or by alternating so that one ship is always
attacking each combat round. Ships that are recharg-
ing their cannons will attempt to maneuver out of
combat range while the other ships in their squadron
provide cover.
Traits: Advanced Targeting, Heavily Armored, Pro-
ton Cannon, Slow, Super-Dense Hull, Warship
XUKUN
T�����
Conflicted Loyalty, Infiltration, Labyrinthine
Mind, Paranoid, Spy, Toxin Resistance
S������
Toxic Biology: Their blood and tissues are toxic
to most species. Xukunian spies have used their
blood as a weapon to kill targets.
The xukun are a militaristic and secretive species
who originated on Xadyys, a cold, dark, resource
poor world. Despite all of this, they have managed to
become a powerful, multi-planetary state consisting
of colony worlds and conquered territories.
Xukun are bipedal humanoids of short, stocky build.
Their coloration ranges from creamy grey to blackish-
brown, with occasional darker striations on the skin.
Their eyes are very small and milky. Their mouths are
extremely wide, with thick, serrated bony plates in
place of teeth. They have no noses, ears, or hair to
speak of. They have a lifespan of at least 300 years.
 Species, Creatures, and Other NPCs
EQUIPMENT
Despite the wealth and diversity of their current
holdings, the xukun have been unable or unwilling to
shake off the Spartan lifestyle that they have adhered
to for generations. All aspects of their lives, from
clothing, to food, to the few methods of artistic ex-
pression that they have, are simple and functional.
Most xukun dress similarly, with only the rare acces-
sory or badges of rank setting them apart.
Their adherence to the austere trappings of their
ancestors shows itself in other ways. Since antiq-
uity, the xukun have always proclaimed their desire
to equally share resources, while at the same time
working tirelessly to hoard extra resources to enrich
themselves. This led to complicated networks of
spies and saboteurs, who keep watchful eyes on rival
families, cities, and colonies, either stealing resourc-
es for distribution or destroying them where they are
found. This has caused an interesting twist in logic
and aptly illustrates the xukunian mind: If you don’t
look like you’re hiding something, then you’re hiding
something.
Since they have begun colonizing and conquering
other worlds, the xukun also make use of their spy
networks to gather intelligence on and put down any
external threats. While all xukun and their territories
swear fealty to Xukunian High Command, most xu-
kun and their unwitting protectorate species serve
one or more secret organizations, fighting byzantine
wars in the shadows for unknown goals.
Names
Xukunian names are short and serviceable. Many
of them prominently feature X, K, or Z sounds. The
xukun are also capable of making several unique
sounds by rasping their bony mouth plates together,
which is represented in their names by a ^ in Alliance
transliterations. These phonemes cannot be easily
duplicated by most Alliance species without comput-
er support.
Examples: X^ul Danko, Kr^us Zill, Zan X^illk^an.
Ships
Xukunian ships are sleek, unassuming, and utilitarian.
They possess a modular design that allows for refit-
ting and retrofitting of both components and entire
sections. Provided that both a starbase and sufficient
modular sections are available, a xukunian ship can
easily be transformed into a cargo container, troop
ship, gun ship, or a balanced configuration of all
three.
Traits: Modular, Low Sensor Profile, Scan-Proof
Compartments, Basic Weapons Complement. Other
traits are based on the ship’s modular configuration.
83
Boldly Go!
Notable Planets

There are many planets spread throughout the galaxy. Here are some of the better-known ones.
Name Description
Amartia VII Planet in the Stellar Alliance’s most centrally located system. Home of the Alliance
Council and Space Fleet Academy.
Corinth II Terran colony world known for its vast farmlands and textile plants. All of Space
Fleet’s uniforms and seat covers are made here.
Europa Moon of Jupiter (Sol V). It is the only place synthoids can be legally manufactured.
QUARANTINED.
Gajwanbex II Mordon homeworld. A dense planet in orbit around a dying, red giant star.
Gara Kelgaran homeworld. It was destroyed by the Crushing. Location Unknown.
Gomeisa IV Gattoan homeworld. Its surface is a barren, irradiated desert. Deep fissures in the
surface provide the only habitable zones.
Illium A planet whose culture and technology is comparable to Terra’s ancient Greece
during the Peloponnesian War.
Jutoon Jotoni and hmmarm homeworld. It has one continent and many small and
scattered islands. Eighty-five percent of the surface is covered with water.
Kappa V An Earth-like planet. Its human-like inhabitants are cultural mimics and have
developed a society entirely based on Terran anime. QUARANTINED.
Mando IV One of the warring states on this planet got their hands on Alliance raysers and
went on a rampage of bloody conquest. QUARANTINED.
Pronoxx Delshz homeworld. A hot planet known for its savage storms. It has many deserts,
jungles, poisonous insects, and reptiles.
Ritta I Rittian homeworld. Home to a wide variety of plants, vast savannahs, huge trees,
and many swift and dangerous terrestrial predators.
Rothian IV A dying world ruled over by disparate factions of warring gangs.
Sol III (Terra) Terran homeworld. A planet that features a bounty of biomes and native cultures. It
is home to the most influential species in the Stellar Alliance.
Vatizar Prime Vatizar homeworld. No one from the Stellar Alliance or Space Fleet has set foot
upon Vatizar Prime and lived to talk about it.
Xadyys Xukun homeworld. Orbits the very edge of its star’s habitable zone. Cold, dark, and
barren.
Yurgos Krakenoid homeworld. A warm world with shallow seas, coral reefs, and lush,
equatorial jungles.

The following generator will help a struggling FA to come up with episode ideas when they are pressed for
time or lacking inspiration. To use the generator, the FA simply rolls 2d6 four times, reading each die sepa-
rately (a roll of 4 and 1 should be read that way, not as a 5). Then the FA looks up the results on the charts and
uses the ideas presented therein to create an episode.

84
Random Episode Generator EQUIPMENT
TABLE ONE- SPECIAL GUEST STAR
Die 1 Die 2 Event
1 1 Demanding ambassador
1 2 Pacifists
1 3 An historical figure (or a replica)
1 4 An old friend
1 5 Someone who has a traumatic past
1 6 Someone who becomes infatuated with a player character
2 1 A traveling merchant
2 2 Entertainers
2 3 A visiting scientist
2 4 Advanced aliens who need help
2 5 A mysterious religious group
2 6 Decadent aliens
3 1 A “superior” being
3 2 The Jovian Conspiracy
3 3 A paragon, loved and looked up to by all, who has a dark secret
3 4 Aliens who want to experience or understand human emotions
3 5 An invasion force
3 6 Representatives of a non-Alliance power
4 1 An unsympathetic person who needs your help
4 2 One or more doppelgangers
4 3 An assassin
4 4 A worthy opponent who is not so different
4 5 An unstoppable monster
4 6 A superior officer
5 1 A sentient computer
5 2 An alien possessed of limited maturity and godlike powers
5 3 Politician
5 4 Mysterious people kept in suspended animation
5 5 Obnoxious children
5 6 An extremely isolated culture
6 1 Someone whose motivations are beyond comprehension
6 2 Someone who is manipulating you for their own ends
6 3 A previously unknown, Hyperwarp-capable species
6 4 Someone who just wants to be left alone
6 5 An obsessive collector
6 6 Refugees
Boldly Go!
Random Episode Generator
TABLE TWO- THE “A” PLOT
Die 1 Die 2 Event
1 1 The crew must mediate a dispute
1 2 The crew must perform for someone's amusement
1 3 Friction between Alliance powers
1 4 An alien species sets an elaborate trap
1 5 Something is keeping a species from reaching its full potential
1 6 A former high-ranking Alliance member is on the run
2 1 A new species petitions to join the Alliance
2 2 Military tribunal
2 3 Medical experiments gone mad
2 4 Crewmembers endanger the ship
2 5 Someone gets strange powers
2 6 The players must go undercover to stop an enemy state
3 1 Someone is stranded and needs to be rescued
3 2 The ship is frozen in space or time by mysterious forces
3 3 Damage in Engineering forces the ship to stop for repairs
3 4 Carrying dangerous or secret cargo on behalf of the Alliance
3 5 A vessel of unknown origin or purpose attacks the ship
3 6 An alien species is being abused by another alien species
4 1 The plot is loosely based on Moby Dick
4 2 Someone has been murdered
4 3 The crew comes upon a path of death and destruction
4 4 Contact with an alien object whose motives are unclear
4 5 A distress call!
4 6 Dispute on the border of Alliance space
5 1 A horrible plague!
5 2 What is causing these inexplicable phenomena?
5 3 Someone wants to take over the ship for their own purposes
5 4 The crew must protect an alien culture from invaders
5 5 Technological remnants do terrible things
5 6 Crewmembers are abducted!
6 1 A battle against an unknown assailant
6 2 The crew must travel incognito amongst a primitive culture
6 3 The crew must help with a large-scale evacuation
6 4 A planetary species wants to kill the landing party
6 5 Friction with one of the other major powers
6 6 A protracted space battle
Random Episode Generator EQUIPMENT
TABLE THREE- THE “B” PLOT
Die 1 Die 2 Event
1 1 A shipmate proves to be a weak link
1 2 The crew succumbs to a mysterious infection
1 3 A key crewmember has a breakdown at the worst possible time
1 4 A key crewmember is outed as a traitor
1 5 An NPC non-crewmember needs your help
1 6 The ship keeps breaking down
2 1 A teleporter accident causes interesting problems
2 2 Conflict amongst the crew
2 3 A player character is haunted by their past
2 4 A key NPC is critically or permanently injured
2 5 Ship systems keep going offline for inexplicable reasons
2 6 The problem with parasites
3 1 There is a saboteur on board
3 2 Someone has made a terrible mistake
3 3 The crew runs afoul of strange customs
3 4 The crew must do something illegal to do something good
3 5 It’s time for shore leave
3 6 A festival or holiday
4 1 The crew must deliver much-needed supplies
4 2 The crew investigates a unique phenomenon
4 3 Diplomatic relations are breaking down with an enemy state
4 4 The search for missing or out-of-contact Alliance personnel
4 5 The crew pursues a ship
4 6 The crew must collect scientific data
5 1 Conflict between badly unequal members of a society
5 2 An alien is looking for something
5 3 The ship or the crew are mistaken for religious figures
5 4 An enemy isn’t what they appear to be
5 5 Even more powerful aliens intervene
5 6 Planetary inhabitants are working against the crew
6 1 Alliance personnel are secretly working against the Alliance
6 2 Only the children are left alive
6 3 Everything was a test
6 4 The crew is mistaken for someone or something else
6 5 Faked communications
6 6 Inadvertent destruction of an indigenous, sapient species
Boldly Go!
Random Episode Generator
TABLE ONE- THE SETTING
Die 1 Die 2 Event
1 1 An established Alliance colony world
1 2 Bottle episode (takes place entirely on the ship)
1 3 A starbase
1 4 A destroyed ship with an apocalyptic log
1 5 A civilization with a dark secret
1 6 Trapped in a dust cloud, radiation field, or similar
2 1 A penal colony
2 2 The last outpost of a vanished species
2 3 A planet that’s a lot like Terra, but…
2 4 The planet has features of earlier Terran history, for some reason
2 5 Rogue planet
2 6 Deep space
3 1 A planet ravaged by an apocalypse
3 2 A world where everything wants to kill you
3 3 A primitive world
3 4 A scientific research station
3 5 A fledgling Alliance colony world
3 6 A star that’s about to go nova
4 1 An abandoned mining colony
4 2 A secret weapons factory
4 3 Enemy territory
4 4 Another Alliance starship
4 5 At the edge of known space
4 6 On the border of one of the Neutral Zones
5 1 Trapped in the mind of another being
5 2 In another dimension
5 3 Time-travel shenanigans
5 4 The land of illusions
5 5 A core Alliance world
5 6 A world controlled by one of the other major powers
6 1 A world that is obviously an Eden analogue
6 2 A hollowed-out asteroid
6 3 Precursor ruins
6 4 A planet with unusual features
6 5 A planet rich in a rare and valuable resource
6 6 The lawless frontier, full of pirates and ne’er-do-wells
Random Episode Generator EQUIPMENT
Jean, the FA, didn’t have a chance to plan for tonight’s episode. Luckily, she has access to the random
episode generator. She rolls four times and gets the following results: (3,4) aliens who want to experi-
ence or understand human emotion, (2,5) someone gets strange powers, (1,1) a shipmate proves to be
a weak link, and (1,6) trapped in a dust cloud, radiation field, or similar.

She can certainly work with that!

89
Boldly Go!
 Equipment
Consider Everything that Grows

When I consider every thing that grows

Holds in perfection but a little moment,
That this huge stage presenteth nought but shows
Whereon the stars in secret influence comment;
When I perceive that men as plants increase,
Cheered and cheque’d even by the self-same sky,
Vaunt in their youthful sap, at height decrease,
And wear their brave state out of memory;
Then the conceit of this inconstant stay
Sets you most rich in youth before my sight,
Where wasteful Time debateth with Decay,
To change your day of youth to sullied night;
And all in war with Time for love of you,
As he takes from you, I engraft you new.

—William Shakespeare, Sonnet 15

91
Boldly Go!
This is a complete episode for Boldly Go! It’s designed
to entertain between 2-6 players and takes about
four hours to run. It can be played using the pre-gen-
erated characters in the back of this book, or with
characters that players generate at the table.
TEASER
While on routine maneuvers in an uncharted area of
the galaxy, the players’ ship receives an automated
distress call from the SFS Zebrina. The players rush to
its aid and discover that the Zebrina is plummeting
into the atmosphere of an alien planet.
EPISODE BACKGROUND
Once enough of the crew had eaten the fruit, Lodeis
took control of them. It ordered them to come to its
ruined city, bringing weapons and transport with
them so that they could fight its enemies. The crew
emptied the ship’s armory and either teleported or
took shuttlecraft to the planet’s surface. Lodeis is
making ready to send them against the next nearest
tree system as the players arrive on the scene.
THE TREES AND THEIR FRUIT
The fruits of the tree systems are similar to terrestrial
plums, though they lack pits. Different tree systems
grow fruits of different colors. For example, the fruit
of the Lodeis system is red, while the fruit of the Den-
dris system (the next nearest tree system) is blue.

Every fruit is riddled with bacteria that have a tele-

A number of massive tree systems sprang up centu-
pathic connection with the fruit’s tree system. Upon
ries ago on a distant planet. Similar to the aspens of
ingestion of the fruit, the bacteria seek out the host’s
Terra, they are actually single organisms, each grow-
central nervous system, growing into fibrous strands
ing up around a central, fruit-bearing tree. Each of
that overlap and take control of nerves and nerve im-
the tree systems is sapient and intent on being the
pulses. These strands ultimately create bundles that
only tree system on the planet.
push out beneath the skin, creating bulbous lesions
of the same coloration as the original fruit. Once this
The tree systems could control any organism that ate
infiltration (which takes anywhere from 2-6 rounds)
their fruit, turning the organisms into mindless zom-
is complete, the tree system can take control any
bies that the trees would then send out to destroy
time it wishes to, turning the host into its mindless
the other tree systems. In time, the tree systems’
pawn.
single-minded desire for dominance drove the indig-
enous civilizations on the planet to extinction.
Only one tree in a tree system can produce the mind-
controlling fruit. This tree is always located in the
With the fall of the planet’s civilizations, the tree
center of the tree system, guarded by a tight ring of
systems became locked in a stalemate, unable to
other trees and protected by the system’s construct.
do more than hurl the occasional dominated animal
Killing this tree will not kill the plant, but it will pre-
against their enemies. This changed when an away
vent it from producing any more fruit. However, kill-
team from the Zebrina beamed down to conduct a
ing this tree will substantially reduce the range of the
planetary survey. While searching a ruined city, the
tree system’s control and will give anyone under the
team met Lodeis, a humanoid construct created by
control of that system a chance to fight off its effects.
the local tree system. Lodeis convinced the away
team to eat of its fruit and bring it back to the other
NPCs that eat the fruit are automatically overcome
crew aboard the Zebrina.
when the tree system asserts its control. Players can
dramatically fight off the control by making rolls.

92
Consider Everything that Grows
EQUIPMENT
Synthoids cannot eat the fruit and thus cannot be af-
fected by it.
Fruits from different systems are not compatible with
one another. If combined, the bacteria in the fruits
will react violently, resulting in a volatile black sludge
that explodes in a toxic gas cloud. If combined inside
of a creature, this reaction is invariably fatal.
THE HUMANOID CONSTRUCTS
The tree constructs are grown in pods located in a
secure area near the central, fruit-bearing tree. They
have a roughly humanoid, androgynous appearance.
They are smooth and sinuous, covered with moss and
leaves, and their coloration is a lighter shade of the
color of their tree system’s fruit. (Lodeis is pink, while
Dendris is light blue.) They are capable of speech.
The tree constructs are birthed as needed, and a sys-
tem can birth several if it is necessary. The constructs
cannot operate beyond the boundaries of their par-
ent tree’s root system, rapidly decaying if forced out-
side of it.
Killing a construct does not harm its parent tree, nor
does the tree need an active construct to control
people who have eaten the fruit.
Constructs are capable of deceit. They will say what-
ever is necessary to either convince sapient creatures
to eat their fruit or to protect themselves.
None of the tree systems or their constructs have a
grasp of advanced technology, including spaceships
or interstellar travel.
All of the constructs will introduce themselves by
name (Lodeis or Dendris, in this scenario) and will
also refer to themselves as the “Speaker of the
One.” At some point, they will ask if the players wish
to “Become One,” which they can do by eating their
fruit. They will explain that their primary desire is to
seek out the others who were once “of the One,”
but are now corrupted, referring to the other tree
systems. They will explain that only through fight-
ing and conquest will they be able to purge the cor-
ruption and reassert the One’s influence across the
world.
NPC STATS
TREE CONSTRUCT
T�����
Charming, Convincing Liar, Evade,
Hurl Thorns, Relentless, Parasitic
S������
Mind Control: Exert control over whomever has
eaten its fruit (Difficulty 5 to resist).
ZEBRINA CREWMEMBERS
T�����
As Species, Academy Training,
one Occupation trait
S������
As Species.
Can take 1 wound before falling Comatose.
EPISODE GUIDE
The players’ ship receives an automated distress call
from the SFS Zebrina. Any further attempts to hail
the Zebrina prove to be fruitless—only the automat-
ed distress beacon appears to be activated.
When the players arrive on the scene, they will dis-
cover that the Zebrina is in a decaying orbit around
an uncharted planet. If they don’t act quickly, the
ship will fall into the atmosphere and burn up.
93
Boldly Go!
THE SFS ZEBRINA Zebrina moving again under its own power.

Quick thinking and successful rolls will save the Zeb-
rina and stabilize its orbit.
It will quickly become clear to the players that no one
is aboard the Zebrina—their hails go unanswered
and life-sign scans turn up nothing.
The Zebrina is badly damaged from partial entry into
the planet’s atmosphere. It also shows signs of Major
Damage to the following systems: Engineering, Hull
and Access, and Primary Power, and can have any-
where from 5-10 negative temporary traits of the
FA’s choice.
There are the remains of one synthoid crewmember
who was blasted apart by rayser fire. The synthoid’s
positronic brain is so badly damaged that it cannot
be recovered, however some limited memory play-
back and data retrieval may be possible.
Players may discover the corpse of an infected mor-
don crewmember in one of the Med Bays. The mor-
don is covered with red welts. Analysis of the corpse
may be possible.
If players are diligent and make some skill challenges,
they are able to learn the following:

Players traveling to the Zebrina to look for clues or Once they are able to access the ship’s computer
survivors should be ordered to wear environmental banks, they will learn that two away teams teleport-
suits. Players exploring the Zebrina will discover one ed down to the outskirts of one of the cities on the
or more of the following, provided that they search planet’s surface (which is controlled by the Lodeis
out the appropriate areas of the ship: tree system). These away teams adhered to normal
mission parameters and brought back biological and
There are a few crewmember corpses scattered mineralogical samples for study.
throughout the ship. Many of them were killed while
attempting to access communications, navigation, About six hours after the second away team returned
and engineering controls. Several have been blud- to the ship, the ship’s crew began traveling to the
geoned to death. Others have been shot in the back. planet’s surface en masse. The ship was abandoned
shortly thereafter and has been abandoned for
Lodeis’ red fruit is scattered throughout the ship. about 26 hours. It appears that all of the crew were
Players may find a half-eaten rind stuffed into a chair teleporting down to the initial location surveyed by
or a bowl of fruit in a crew cabin. There may also be the away team.
fruit in one of the science labs, partially analyzed. All
four of the Zebrina’s shuttlecraft are missing and the Players that gain access to the crew logs will find a
armory has been emptied of its weapons and power number of accounts describing the frantic and ult
cells. Interestingly, none of the other awayteam gear mately futile efforts of the uninfected crew to regain
(communicators, data pads, etc.), has been touched. control of the Zebrina. There are no logs from infect-
ed crew members.
Someone has locked out engineering and computer
control. These systems are password protected and Players who are able to access the deactivated syn-
will require successful rolls to access. Once these thoid’s memory banks may get some visual record-
systems are accessible, the players may be able to ings of what happened on the Zebrina.
download important ship records and get the

94
Consider Everything that Grows
EQUIPMENT
Performing an autopsy on the mordon will reveal in-
formation on the fibrous growths and the bacterio-
logical nature of the infection.
Analysis of the fruit will yield insight into its bacterio-
logical nature and its infectious properties. It is also
possible, with some research and a few rolls, to de-
velop a counteragent for the bacteria.
Players may use data collected from the mordon’s
corpse or from the fruit to make it easier to pinpoint
the crew on the planet’s surface (see below).
SCANNING THE PLANET
Players can use their sensors or root through the Ze-
brina’s computer banks to gather information on the
planet below. Since the Zebrina’s computers have
been locked, the players will first need to circumvent
the password protection and gain access.
The planet has similar, though not completely identi-
cal, weather, topological features, and environments
to Earth, with a wide variety of terrain and habitable
zones. Many of these zones contain ruins of cities
and other settlements, whose technological level
seems to be comparable with that of late 20th cen-
tury Earth.
The twelve largest cities are also the homes of sev-
eral large tree systems. There are other signs of plant
and animal life across the planet’s surface, but no ob-
vious sign of any sapient species. Players who make
appropriate rolls may realize that each plant system
constitutes a single organism.
The players will be unable to detect the crew of the
Zebrina or their shuttlecraft, at least at first, since a)
Lodeis is hiding them all inside of buildings or under-
ground, and b) the bacteria from the fruit alters their
body chemistry enough to confuse the sensor read-
ings.
If the players have done a thorough analysis on the
fruit and use that data to modify their sensor scans,
they will be able to find the Zebrina’s crew more eas-
ily.
ON THE PLANET’S SURFACE
This part of the episode assumes that the players
have acquired enough information to travel to the lo-
cation of the Lodeis tree system. They can get this in-
formation from the Zebrina computer banks or they
can get it by locating the Zebrina’s crew on sensor
scans.
Players will travel to a bluff located outside of one of
the ruined cities. They will find that the trees from the
tree system are sparse here, but increase in number
and proximity as they travel closer to the city center.
Along the way, they will encounter the occasional
animal (bird-like creatures or small, terrestrial mam-
mals) that appear unusually serene and are covered
with red lesions. The creatures are not afraid of the
players and will be overtly trying to get the players to
follow them to the central tree.
At some point, one or more of the Zebrina crew will
appear. All crew members are infected by the tree
system, covered with red lesions, and armed. They
will not attack unless the players take hostile action
and will attempt to guide the players to the central
tree. These crewmembers cannot speak.
The various guides that the players meet will bring
them to a ruined plaza in the center of the city. There
is a thick copse of trees here, whose roots travel
down a shattered well into darkness. In the waters
of the well are a number of pods which hold Lodeis
constructs.
One of the constructs is already active and is waiting
for the players inside of the copse of trees. The fruit-
bearing tree is also within the copse.
95
Boldly Go!
Lodeis will step out as the players approach and will
attempt to get them to eat the fruit and “become
One.” If the players are skeptical or refuse, Lodeis
will remain friendly and will warn them of the corrup-
tion in the other cities. It will tell them that the crew
of the Zebrina offered to “become One” to help it
fight the corruption. If the players offer to help fight
the corruption of their own free will, Lodeis will be
pleased.
Lodeis will be especially interested to learn any de-
tails of the players’ ship and technology. It has mini-
mal knowledge of such things at the moment. The
more knowledge it acquires, the better it will be able
to direct the Zebrina crewmembers and the more ef-
fective its attacks will become.
Lodeis may offer to free the Zebrina crewmembers
once the corruption has been removed, but this is
simply a lie to mollify the players.
If the Players Don’t Have the Coordinates
If the players don’t know where the Zebrina crew-
members are and don’t have the coordinates for the
away missions, the FA can rule that their first foray
to the planet places them near Dendris’ tree sys-
tem.The encounter can play out similarly as written
above, with the following changes:
Dendris only has animal slaves. All of their lesions are
blue.
The center of Dendris’ city features a large crevasse.
The roots of the tree system grow down the sides of
this crevasse into a sluggish river far below. The pods
containing multiple Dendris constructs are located in
the river.
Dendris is unaware of what Lodeis is doing.
The Dendris construct will also speak of being “the
One” and will also speak of “removing corruption.”
96
It will also offer the players fruit so that they may
“become One” and will attempt to recruit them to
fight the corruption of their own free will if they re-
fuse the fruit.
LODEIS ATTACKS
The first part of this section assumes that the players
went to Lodeis’ tree system first.
After the players speak with Lodeis for a time, it will
inform them that its assistants are now ready to be-
gin the assault against the corruption. It explains that
its assistants will travel to the nearest part of the cor-
ruption (Dendris’ tree system) and destroy it, “root
and branch and stem.”
At this point, the crew on the players’ ship in orbit
will note that they detect the engines of a shuttle-
craft powering up near the away-team’s location.
Shortly thereafter, the players will see a fully crewed
shuttle rising up from one of the ruins, ready to de-
part.
The players may deal with this in several ways. They
could offer to scout ahead for Lodeis’ benefit, go
aboard the shuttlecraft and offer to “assist” the Zeb-
rina’s crew, offer to replace the Zebrina’s crew on the
shuttlecraft and carry out Lodeis’ orders, or some-
thing else. Going with the shuttlecraft will bring them
to Dendris’ tree system, which is described above.
If the Players are at Dendris’ Tree System
Crewmembers on the players’ ship will alert the
away team that they detect an incoming shuttlec-
raft. The players will have some time to make ready,
before the shuttle lands and six of the enslaved Zeb-
rina crew disembark. The Zebrina crewmembers will
have their raysers set to inflict Deadly Wounds and
will attack the Dendris construct and the fruitbearing
tree preferentially. Once both are neutralized, they
will continue firing their raysers at the rest of the tree
system, burning and killing as much as they can.
Consider Everything that Grows
EQUIPMENT
Dendris will fight back with lethal force. The players
should, ideally, intervene on the enslaved crew’s be-
half, incapacitating them and preventing Dendris
from inflicting permanent harm.
Dendris will explain that the Zebrina crewmembers
are under the control of the corruption that seeks to
destroy the One. It will again offer to let the players
“become One” and will direct them to Lodeis’ tree
system and the rest of the captured Zebrina crew.
POSSIBLE OUTCOMES
As shown by the actions of numerous playtest
groups, there are many ways to address the challeng-
es presented in this module. While all of the playtest
groups approached the situation in different ways,
there were many similarities between them.
In some cases, the players used direct force to neu-
tralize one or more of the plant systems. This ranged
from shooting at Lodeis to distract it while the Ze-
brina’s crew were teleported to safety, to bombing
Lodeis’ tree system from orbit to force it to let the
Zebrina’s crew go.
In one interesting case, the players created a hybrid
tree system using genetic material from Lodeis and
Dendris. They seeded this tree system in an open
area halfway between two systems and, when it
sprouted, it bore purple fruit and created constructs
named Lodris. The Lodris system quickly assimilated
both the Lodeis and Dendris systems. As the players
prepared to leave, the new mega-system was already
planning to spread its own version of Oneness to the
rest of the planet.

None of the players in any group were tempted to

eat the fruit and become One. They were also sav-
vy enough to know that the fruit was the source of
the infection. In all cases, the players did extensive
research on the fruits. They discovered that mixing
the fruits was very bad. They also discovered how
to make a counteragent to negate the effects of the
fruit.

In almost all cases, the players remained carefully

neutral, talking to both Lodeis and Dendris and gath-
ering as much information as they possibly could be-
fore committing to a course of action. They became
aware that both tree systems believed that they
were the One and that the other was the corruption.

In most cases, the players decided that the battle be-

tween Lodeis and Dendris was a “local planetary mat-
ter” and not something that the Space Fleet needed
to bother with. They chose a generally peaceful reso-
lution, which involved developing a counteragent,
treating the Zebrina crew and then quickly getting
them off-planet and back to the players’ ship.

97
Boldly Go!
Ship Creation Summary

First, determine the ship’s name and concept. This NPC Captains:
will make it easier to pick traits. If no player wishes to be the captain, the FA should
create an NPC captain. The captain can be a fully
Select Traits: statted-out character, or they can simply have their
If there are four players or fewer, they each get 2 species and occupation traits, and one or more of the
Trait Points. If there are five or more players, they leadership traits listed below. They have the Captain
each get 1 Trait Point. Players take turns using them special abilities. However, because they do not gain
to buy traits for the ship. Traits are associated with a Drama Points, they cannot bestow them to player
ship system, with NPC ship crew, or with the ship as characters.
a whole.
Trait Description
Critical Systems Other Systems
Analyst Dislikes making decisions until
Bridge Airlock
they have all the facts.
Central Computer Armory By the Book Adheres to every Space Fleet
Communications Brig regulation, no matter how
insignificant.
Engines Crew Amenities
Careerist Cares only about looking good
Engineering Hangar Deck enough to get promoted to the
Admiralty.
Hull and Access Matter Replicators
Cowboy Not so keen on following
Life Support Med Bay regulations. Lives for adventure!
Power Systems Science Labs Diplomat Seeks to communicate and reach
accords with all sapient alien life.
Shields Storage
Hands-Off Almost never on the bridge.
Sensors Teleportation Pods Runs things through subordinate
Weapons Systems officers.
Joker Likes to have fun and be “one of
Crewmembers: the crew,” often with mixed
Have the Academy Training and one Occupation success.
trait, plus any other traits or special abilities provided Martinet Obsessed with discipline and
by their species. They have an initiative bonus equal documenting every minor
to their rank (usually enlisted crewmember or en- infraction.
sign). They can take one Stun or Deadly Wound be- Parental A mother or father figure to the
fore becoming Comatose. people under their command.
Psychologist An expert at reading people.
Plays to crew strengths and
weaknesses.
Weak-Willed Appears to be one of the other
types of captain, but cracks under
pressure.

98
Character Creation Summary
EQUIPMENT
First determine a name and backstory. Then pick Leadership: Spend Drama Points to improve the rolls
Species, Occupation, and Additional Traits. of anyone acting under your direct orders. Anyone
following your orders gains +1 die to their pool.
Species:
Each species gets three traits and one special ability. Conference: You and anyone you call into conference
gains Drama Points. If anyone suffers ethical dilem-
Species Bonus Traits Special mas in the conference, they gain Drama Points as
Indomitable, Outside normal.
The Human
Human the Box, Warrior
Spirit
Species Rank:
Enhanced Senses, If you are the captain, your rank is captain. If you are
Desert-
Gattoan Fight Tooth and not, your rank is lieutenant junior grade. If you are
Adapted
Claw, Territorial not the captain, you may choose to reduce your rank
Flexible, Military to ensign and gain +1 Trait Point. Rank gives you an
Hierarchy, initiative bonus and some free Drama Points at the
Krakenoid Amphibious beginning of each episode.
Unbreakable
Grip Rank Free Drama Points
The Fragility of Life, Earth-
Ensign 0
Mordon Great Strength, Shaking
Silicon-Based Punches Lieutenant Junior Grade 1
Eerily Calm, Captain 5
Rittian Methodical, Climbing
Slow Metabolism Additional Traits:
Durable, Superior You get 5 points (6 if you are an ensign) to buy any
Synthoid Memory, What Mechanical other traits of your choice.
Emotions?
Greater than the 1 from either Equipment:
Hybrid Sum, Any 2 traits parent You always have your uniform. You will acquire other
from parent species species equipment as needed or when you gear up for away
missions. Starting equipment is below. Other equip-
Occupation:
ment can be found in-game.
You get Academy Training, plus one occupation
from the following list: Engineering, Helm, Medical,
Science, Security, Social Science, Systems, Captain. Equipment for Equipment for
All Occupation
Captain Occupation Rules: Communicator, Med Kit (Medical), Portable
Captains must select a second occupation from the Data Pad, Rayser, Sensor Array (Science), Tool
list above. Their rank is captain (see Rank, below). Uniform Kit (Engineering/Systems),
They also gain these two special abilities: Universal Translator (Social
Science)

99
 Janine Tarian

Lieutenant Junior Grade

Human

Security

Academy Training, Indomitable, Alert to Danger, Cocky, Intimidating,

Outside the Box, Security, Physically Fit, Weapons Training
Warrior Species

+1 Drama Point.
+1 die to resist mental domination.
 Omolara Namuyangu

Lieutenant Junior Grade,

Human

Science

Academy Training, Indomitable, Inquisitive, Parkour, Stubborn,

Outside the Box, Security, Well-Read, Thorough
Warrior Species

+1 Drama Point.
+1 die to resist mental domination.
 Vistabo Roseus

Lieutenant Junior Grade

Gattoan

Engineering

Academy Training, Engineering, Cat-Like Reflexes, Cunning,

Enhanced Senses, Diagnostics, Honest,
Fight Tooth and Claw, Territorial Percussive Maintenance

+1 Drama Point. Resistant to radiation and UV light.

Survive many days without water.
 Grummox Benthos

Lieutenant Junior Grade,

Krakenoid

Helm

Academy Training, Flexible, Helm, Ace Pilot, Astrogation,

Military Hierarchy, Unbreakable Grip Expert Gunner, Fussy, Honorable

+1 Drama Point. Breathe and act underwater

as easily as you do on the land.
 Mott’trog

Lieutenant Junior Grade,

Mordon

Systems

The Fragility of Life, Great Strength, Determined, Gentle Giant,

Silicon-Based, Academy Training, Make Basic Repairs,
Systems Read All the Manuals, Wrestler

+1 Drama Point. Always inflict Deadly Wounds

in melee combat unless you choose not to.
 Dr. Phinnea Del*Prinus

Lieutenant Junior Grade,

Rittian

Medical

Academy Training, Eerily Calm, Move Very Quietly, Preserve All Life,
Medical, Methodical, Psychiatrist, Researcher, Surgeon
Slow Metabolism

+1 Drama Point. Pass climb checks automatically.

Hang without getting tired. Go days without eating.
 Robert Trebuchet

Lieutenant Junior Grade

Synthoid

Social Science

Academy Training, Durable, Historian, Linguistics, Precise,

Social Science, Superior Memory, Pragmatic, Surprisingly Strong
What Emotions?

+1 Drama Point. Unaffected by things that are an issue for liv-

ing beings. Immune to emotional/mental control.
 Vexxa Smith-Merienas

Ensign

Hybrid (Krakenoid/Human),

Security

Academy Training, Crack Shot, Crisis Negotiator,

Greater than the Sum, Outside the Box, Detail-Oriented, Hesitant,
Security, Warrior Species Quick Healer, Read People

Breathe and act underwater as easily as you do on the land.

 Raymond Sexton, Jr.

Captain

Human

Captain

Academy Training, Indomitable, Amateur Boxer, Inspiring,

Outside the Box, Security, Joker, Parental, Resilient
Warrior Species

+5 Drama Points. +1 die to resist mental domination.

Give Drama Points to others. Players gain +1 die when
following your orders. Call conferences.
 The SFS Oswego

Raymond Sexton, Jr.

Ensign 63 Synthoid, Science Neurotic
Deep-Space Explorer Ensign Blake Human, Security Total Bro

Ensign Goran Rittian, Soc Science Soothing

250 Crewmembers
Ensign Gregg Human, Engineering Tedious

Ensign Iron Mordon, Helm Always Late

Ensign Jasmine Hyb (G/Krk), Medical Spooky

Ensign Joanna Gattoan, Systems Impolite

Ensign Oobolo Krakenoid, Science Bubbly

Upgraded Canteen Crew Amenities Ensign Ricardo Human, Science Perky
Superior Maneuverability Engine, Sublight

Advanced Shuttles Hangar Deck

Reinforced Hull Plating Hull and Access

Xenobiology Lab Science Labs

Upgraded Nav System Sensors

Point-to-Point Teleporters Teleport Pods

Enhanced Tractor Beam Weapons

Trained Security Personnel Other

 Boldly Go!
Page numbers in italics indicate examples. Page numbers with * indicate instructions and examples on that
page or within a page span.

A
Academy Training trait, X, X, X Commanders, X, X
afflictions, X*–X*, X*–X* common equipment, X
and their aftermaths, X–X communication between species, X, X, X
airlock, X Communications, X, X, X
Alliance Council, X Communicators, X
Amartia VII, X Computers see also Robot Minions; Sentient Computers
ambassadors, X ship system, X, X, X, X
archaic armor and shields, X use by different species, X, X, X, X
armed attacks, X viruses, X–X see also synthoids
armor, X see also uniforms conferences, X, X, X, X, X
Armory, X Corinth II, X
attacking, X–X creatures, X, X–X
auxiliary power, X, X–X wounds by, X, X
Crew Amenities, X
away-team attire, X
crewmembers, X, X–X*, X, X, X
NPC crewmembers, X–X, X, X*
B critical systems, X–X, X–X, X, X
Bloodied wound level, X, X, X, X Critical wound level, X
Bridge, X, X, X, X, X cruiser ships, X
Brig, X

D
C damage, X, X see also wounds
campaigns see seasons causing, X
Captain, The, X, X, X, X, X, X*–X*, X environmental, X, X
and equipment, X–X* to ships, X, X, X*–X*, X–X, X
initiating action, X, X–X data pads, X, X see also equipment
NPC Captains, X, X–X*, X deadly wounds, X, X, X, X, X, X, X see also equipment; species
Catastrophic death, X
damage to ship, X, X, X, X*, X, X Delshz, X–X, X
injury level, X dice, X
challenges, X–X dice pools, X*–X*, X
difficulty, X, X and traits, X*, X
character sheets, examples of using, X, X, X, X–X and wounds/afflictions, X, X
characters dilemmas, X*–X*
creation, X*–X*, X, X–X diplomatic ships, X
improvement, X, X diseases, X*, X
occupations, X, X–X, X and traits, X*
ranks see ranks dominators, X
traits see traits Drama Points, X*–X*, X–X, X
classification of ships, X, X–X, X, X and conference, X*
Comatose wound level, X, X, X, X, X, X, X and injuries, X
combat, X, X, X–X*, X*–X* promotion points, X, X
character, X–X and rank, X, X, X*–X*, X
healing and repairs, X, X skill challenges, X–X, X, X
ship, X–X, X

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E H
emergencies, X–X* see also power (auxiliary and emergency) Hangar Deck, X
Energy Beings, X healing, X, X, X, X*–X*
Engineering, X, X, X, X, X heavy raysers, X, X, X
repairing ships, X, X helm, X
Engines (hyperwarp and sublight), X, X, X, X, X Hmmarms, X–X, X, X
Ensigns, X, X, X, X, X Hull and Access, X, X
environmental damage, X* humans, X*–X*, X
environmental suits, X, X hybrids, X–X, X
episodes, X, X, X*, X, X, X
“talky” episodes, X
and Drama Points, X–X, X, X
I
Illium, X
ideas, X–X, X*–X*
illnesses, X–X, X
and traits, X, X*–X*
illusion weavers, X
equipment, X–X*, X
impressive feats, X, X
and traits, X–X
improvised kits, X
Europa, X, X
inciters, X
experimental ships, X
infections, X
exploration ships, X
initiative, X–X, X
exposure to infection, X Injured wound level, X
injuries, X–X, X–X, X, X
F
FA see Fleet Admiral (FA) J
firearms, X Jesecars, X–X
Fleet Admiral (FA), X Jotoni, X, X, X
awarding Drama Points, X jury-rigged systems, X
and character creation, X*, X–X* Jutoon, X, X
and combat, X*–X*
creative licence, X, X, X–X
and illness, X, X*–X* K
order of play, X–X* Kappa V, X, X
and promotion, X–X* Kelgarans, X–X, X–X, X
and ship creation, X*–X* Krakenoids, X–X, X, X, X
and skill challenges, X–X*
and traits, X L
found equipment, X, X Lieutenants, X, X
Life Support, X, X
G Lt. Commanders, X, X
Gajwanbex II, X, X Lt. Junior Grades, X, X
game master see Fleet Admiral (FA)
Gara, X, X L
Gattoans, X–X, X, X, X Lieutenants, X, X
general purpose ships, X Life Support, X, X
Giant Space Anomalies, X Lt. Commanders, X, X
Gomeisa IV, X, X Lt. Junior Grades, X, X
guest star character generator, X
gunners, X
M
Major damage, X–X* X, X
Mando IV, X, X
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Matter Replicators, X, X R
Med Bay, X, X ranks, X–X, X
med kit, X increasing, X–X*
medical ships, X order of play, X–X*
medical workers, X–X raysers, X, X, X, X*
medicine, X, X recovering from illness or wounds, X–X
merchants, X–X repairing ships, X*–X*, X, X see also Engineering
Minor damage, X, X, X, X Drama Points, X
missiles, X, X rerouting power, X–X
modifiers, X, X–X* research ships, X
Mordons, X–X, X, X resisted challenges, X*–X*, X, X
Moroviks, X resolution, X
Ritta I, X
Rittian Bloodworm, X
N Rittians, X–X, X, X
natural healing, X Robot Minions, X–X
negative traits, X*, X–X, X, X, X Rothian IV, X
examples, X, X
and ships, X, X–X*, X–X
NPC Ships, X S
NPCs, X, X*, X–X, X*–X* Savage Beasts, X
captains, X, X–X*, X scene changes and healing, X, X, X*
creation, X scenes, X, X, X
and Drama Points, X Science Labs, X
in order of play, X, X–X* science occupation, X, X, X, X
seasons, X
Sensors, X, X, X, X
O Sentient Computers, X–X
occupations, X*–X*, X setting generators, X
opening credits, X Shaking damage, X
order of play, X*–X* shapeshifters, X
shields, X*–X*, X, X, X–X, X–X*, X
archaic, X
P shipmates see crewmembers
planets, X ships, X
plot generators, X–X, X*–X* of alien species, X–X, X–X
points see Drama Points; Promotion Points combat, X–X
poison, X see also Delshz creation, X–X, X
portable sensor array, X damage, X*–X*, X–X
possessors, X improvement and repairs, X–X, X–X
power systems, X, X–X, X–X traits, X*–X*, X
Pre-Hyperwarp Species, X–X skill challenges, X–X
problem solving, X–X combat and injury, X*–X*
Promotion Points, X*–X*, X, X skill challenges
Pronoxx, X, X carrying out orders, X
psychic beings, X–X and Drama Points, X, X
involving alien species, X
and ships, X
Q and traits, X
quarantined planets, X social scientists, X, X
Sol III (Terra), X
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 EQUIPMENT
INDEX
soldiers, X V
Space Fleet, X, X Vatizar, X, X–X, X
special abilities, X, X*–X, X see also species; occupations Vatizar Prime, X
species, X–X, X–X, X
Vorkanian Ursacus, X
starships see ships
static challenges, X, X
Stellar Alliance, X see also species W
Storage, X weapon systems, X, X, X, X, X
stun wounds, X, X–X, X weapons, X
survey ships, X Winged Shimmersnake, X
survival packs, X wounds, X– X*, X
synthoids, X–X, X, X, X*, X NPCs and other creatures, X
systems, X, X, X–X
X
T Xadyys, X, X
“talky” episodes, X* Xukun, X–X, X
target number, X*, X, X
teamwork, X*, X
technobabble, X* Y
technology see equipment Yurgos, X, X, X
Teleportation Pods, X, X
ties in resisted challenges, X
time, X
tool kit, X–X
traits, X–X*, X, X
and character creation, X*–X*, X, X
and Dice Pools, X–X*, X*, X
and equipment, X–X
negative, X, X–X*
positive, X
of ships, X*–X*, X
of species, X–X
temporary, X, X*, X, X, X–X*, X–X, X, X
temporary, in ships, X, X–X*
transport ships, X

U
unarmed attacks, X
unconsciousness, X, X
uniforms, X, X, X, X
universal translator, X

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BOLDLY GO!
A GALAXY CLASS ROLE-PLAYING GAME
SPACE FLEET REGISTRY: SFS GQ-0001-A

KICKSTARTER LAUNCHED EARTHDATE 11-02-2020

STELLAR ALLIANCE OF UNIFIED WORLDS
Cadets John Doe
Max John Doyle
Ben O’Connor Benedict Duras
Lily Swanda ERR
James Torr extrarius
Amber Faythe
Ensigns G. Fitzsimmons
Adumbratus Kurtis B Franks
Jean Lorenz Alvarez Yuu Gamon
Amanda Atkins Hugh Gallagher
Duan Bailey galvelociraptor
Phillip Bailey Kerry & Rob Gauthier
H. Baxter Craig Hatler
Shepherd Best Sean Gore
Matthew I. Bishop Kate Graham
Steven Black Chris Halliday
Michael Bowman JC Hay
Laura “Laura47” Boylan Eric Hayden
Peter Brown Heather
Zach Brown Jojanne Hopmans
Stephanie Bryant Tom G Huber
Jeremy Butcher Chris Michael Jahn
James Carpio Peter King
Russell Carter Panu ”Possessed” Laukkanen
Lucas J. Cifranic Mark R. Lesniewski
Clunker Tim Liedtke
CSG Gemma Long
Bruce Curd Dez Lyon
DocChronos Phil McGregor
Jonathan Diehl Rob McKavanagh

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 bACKER
EQUIPMENT
pLAQUE
Matthew B. Monagon Marty Jopson
Aaron Motta Fred Herman
Andrew Mauney Peter Holland
Eleanor McHugh Rick Hull
Sarah MF Lt. Kraenk
Shiloh McNeely Ben Madden
John Mordovanec Matthew McFarland
MrNowhere James Miller-Marquez
Sandrine Aurore FOUNGUI ONGAGNA Greg Millikin
Shadow B. Panther Moe Poplar
Pigeon Jay Richards
Jason Pitre WarpCore Specialist Andy Robinson
Al Provance Philip W Rogers Jr
Matt R Jason Schindler
Olli R Holger Schrenk
Stacey Richter Benjamin Shender
Michael Schwartz Michael Snook
Philip Selesky Don Sutherland
Kelly Cox Semple Hans W. Uhlig
Brian Shiel April Walsh
Zac Shilling Karen Weeks
Clint Smith Hon. Miss Agatha Winterbottom
Trip Space-Parasite
TheZMage Lieutenants
Myke (fnord) Thomas Michael D. Beam
Volsung Mary Blomquist
Commodore Jamal L Wilkins Bradleyman
Scott Wilson Jaye T. Brooks Jr.
Justin Wyatt David Burszan
Nith Naha YipYooYahay Brian Christman
Justin Cole
Lieutenants, Junior Grade Thomas M. Colwell
Douglas Andrews Tyron Couch
Talon Borrelli Preston Coutts
Matt C Commander Covert
Andrew Cady Karen Dresser
Alton Capps Sean D. Elliot
Jason Corley Kaysin Enorai
Jonathan “Buddha” Davis Katy Fulfer
Royce “Sir Talen” Day Emily G
Peter Galehouse Bert Golebiewski
Dash Gealbhan Dan “Praukse” Hunsaker
Samuel Graves Julia Ingrassia
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@jephlewis Laura Waldhier, aka Senior Ensign Phoebe Shepard
Martin Jevon Bob Wildes
Jonathan
Lachlan Jones Commanders
Ian Hammock XSG Bloom
Dave Kalis Angelica & Michael Booker
Chris Lackey April & Adam D.
Rick LaRue Darcrath Ironhammer
Dave Leary Joanne Witt
Rodney “threedeesix” Leary Mike Walsh
James Malloy Jonathan Witt
Patrice Mermoud
Jacob “11 of 13, Septenary Accoutrement of Unicorp
2” Miller
Commanders
XSG Bloom
Steven Morton
Angelica & Michael Booker
Charles Ofria
April & Adam D.
William Rosensteel
Darcrath Ironhammer
TravelingTim Salisbury
Joanne Witt
Scott
Mike Walsh
Mike Trisevic
Jonathan Witt
Mike Waldhier
Rick Watkins
Ensigns B. Kelsey and A. Weber Captains
Whitney Weston 3.5 Geeks
Joanna Grace Wolbert Kevin Danenberg
Morvor Ironboot
Andrew Jensen
Red Laurent
Lieutenant Commanders Garrett Leavitt
Chris Angelini
Parth Mehta
William Ashcraft
Thom Shartle
Pangur Bán
Chuck Barbee
Kain Bloodbourne
Shanna Broussard Commodores
Katherine Bryant Alexandria RPG
Bill & Laurie Gordon Dave “Coldbeer” Cormier
Dame Happalonia Green of the Red Fork Empire
Jenny
Daniel Johnston
Chris Petersen
Shane and Susan
René Schultze

116 Andrew L Turner

bACKER
EQUIPMENT
pLAQUE
Admirals
Shawn Fontaine
Bill Hyman
Ninja

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