Try Before You Buy – Kobayashi Maru Free Supplement (Star Trek Adventures)

Are you smarter and more cunning than James Tiberias Kirk? Do you think you can beat Starfleet Academy’s unbeatable cadet “final exam” scenario? Maybe without being court-martialled? Mödiphius Entertainment offers you and your friends the chance, for free, with the Kobayasi Maru Supplement, available at Drive Thru RPG. This short adventure is suitable for either a regular STA group’s one-shot or a con game. There are suggestions for continuing adventures with the given crew as well. You will need the rules and either STA dice or polyhedral dice to play it through. I read the adventure and was impressed.

The 5 pregen PCs, of 3 species, all have the Untapped Potential Talent, to represent being cadets, and each has a good assortment of Focuses, Values, and Talents. The short backgrounds all offer something unexpected for the species, making them more interesting. I was also impressed that the statblocks use the non-gendered “they” to make the pregens more inclusive (but you might need to drop, or add, a T on the Vulcan names).

The GM for this one needs to be comfortable “winging it” during the test scenario proper, since the PC “bridge officers” will hopefully be thinking out of the box (forcefield?) too. Some guidance for often-used Kobayashi Maru tactics and common outcomes is given to get the GM started. However, something else is going on during this particular Kobayashi Maru assessment…Nope, not spoiling it, but it is very, very fitting. I think your group will enjoy (maybe that’s not quite the right word? Far from the right word?) essaying Starfleet Academy’s infamous No-Win Scenario.