So, this dropped on my email list yesterday (Thursday) morning — Modiphius has hit us with another sourcebook for 2nd Edition Star Trek Adventures. This time, it’s the Species Sourcebook — the one I actually was hoping they would do. The PDF was already available with the physical book on pre-order and most likely due in about two to three months. This has been the production tempo thus over the last year for the line.

The artwork is consistent with the rest of the sourcebooks, with Paolo Puggioni — who gave us the excellent cover for the 23rd Century sourcebook — replacing Rodrigo Gonzalez Toledo on cover duties. The interior of the cover on this one is the first to not have some form of useful material — a map, uniform guide, or timeline, but the art is still quite nice. Unlike prior sourcebooks, we do see a fair amount of recycled artwork: the Barzan and Betelgeusans from The Federation-Klingon War Tactical Guide, Caitains, Efrosians, and Bolians from first edition works, just to name a few. Most of the pieces are good and yes, why spend for more art when you’ve got stuff right there?

So what do we get in the book?

There’s a nice spread across the various shows and movies, and a few of these were originally included in the first edition, but didn’t make the cut for the core book in the latest iteration. A few are variations on a theme, but we do get Terrans for you Mirror Universe fans. There’s a heavy representation from the animated series — both TAS and Lower Decks, as well as Prodigy: Edosian, Aurelians, and Caitians, but I was especially amused by the Blue Orion (Or-ee-ons!) and Kzinti. There are some obvious choices: Deltans, Augments, Xindi, Klepians, Vorta and Jem’Hadar… The chameloid was an interesting addition, but the lack of Ariolo, Arcadians, and Coridanites from the same sourcebook as the Betelgeusan was curious. I did like the “human” Klingons from the original show being included.

I actually used the Medusans that very evening at Nerd Night™, and the Terrans will be useful very soon.

So, is it worth it? At 133 pages, it’s right in the ballpark for the current run of splatbooks for STA2, and while $60 is a touch much, in my opinion, for this particular book — it’s definitely worth it. I’m already seeing this one as a high use resource for the game. 

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