Star Trek is one of the greatest sci-fi franchises of all time. In a world where most science fiction tends toward the melodramatic, mystical, andoften dystopian, the expansive universe established by Gene Rodenberry’s original show and expanded on in the decades since is a haven for character-driven storytelling in a relatively optimistic vision of the future, and one which, when it breaks from that optimism, often explores serious and tragic issues and situations to brilliant effect.
For any universe this large to lack tabletop gaming options would be a massive waste, and, sure enough, there are plenty of Star Trek tabletop games for fans to choose from. Here are some of our favorites!
Modiphius Entertainment: Star Trek Adventures: Second Edition
Play your own adventure in the Star Trek universe
From the company responsible for the Fallout, G. I. Joe and Dune TTRPGs comes a full-on TTRPG set in the Star Trek universe.
Any universe as expansive as Star Trek’s setting needs a TTRPG based on it, and, fortunately, Mophidius, the company that already makes several otherTTRPGs based on existing sci-fi franchises, including Falloutand Dune, has made one for the Star Trek franchise.
The first edition of this game is already out, but we’re recommending the second edition, which is due for release this August, and available for pre-order. Its core rulebook is going to give you everything you need to play your own custom adventure in Star Trek’s galaxy, allowing you to play as a variety of iconic races, and to set your campaign in various different eras and locations.
Star Trek: Frontiers - Mage Knight Theme Board Game
Every element of space exploration you could hope for is here
An unexpected fusion with the smash-hit game Mage Knight, Star Trek: Frontiers reframes its mission of conquest as one of exploration, and brings its intricate mechanics to bear in service of a Star Trek experience.
Nothing about the original Mage Knight would make you expect a Star Trek version of it to be made. It’s a fantasy game rather than a science fiction one, and it is pretty emphatically about war and conquest, with the player essentiallytaking the form of a traditional evil overlord.
However, on closer inspection, a person familiar with Mage Knight’s mechanics might be able to see how they could be retooled for exploration, and that, indeed, is what’s happened here. One to four players work alone, or together, to settle and possibly fight over an unclaimed area of space. We alluded to a lack of combat a second ago, but if you prefer for it be there, no worries. This game gives you the choice to play cooperatively or competitively.
Star Trek Away Teams Starter Set
Re-enact famous battles from the Star Trek universe
For the most part, Star Trek presents a relatively optimistic vision of the future, but there’s still plenty of war going on there, meaning there’s plenty of material for a miniatures wargame!
It’s easy to forget that Starfleet is essentially the Federation’s military. In the end, despite the strives toward peaceful ideals that humanity has made, there’s still plenty of war in this universe, and that means there’s tons of material for a tabletop miniatures wargame.
Away Team isn’t as expansive of a game asWarhammer 40kor even Mophidius' Fallout wargame. It uses spaces instead of the rulers those games use for movement, but its combination of card and dice mechanics still make it more than involved enough to be called a member of its genre. This base set is focused on reenacting the battle of Wolf-359, but there are additional sets allowing you to play as a wide variety of Star Trek factions.
Star Trek Fluxx
It’s no surprise that such a complicated universe would be in Fluxx
Star Trek Fluxx provides a sci-fi twist on a well-made and popular card game, whose core attribute is the intriguing fact that its rules are always changing.
If you’ve never heard of Fluxx before, you’re missing out. It’s a very interesting card game. At the start of the game, it only has a couple of simple rules, just the bare minimum that make it possible to play. It doesn’t even have a win condition. It gains that, and various other mechanics, limitations, and alterations, as it’s played, with many cards having the effect of altering the game’s rules.
Much like games such as Monopoly orUno, there are numerous versionsof Fluxx, themed after a variety of franchises, each of which is a must-have for fans of their respective franchise.
Star Trek Cryptic
Solve a series of puzzles to play through this game’s story
An intriguing and impressively immersive puzzle story, Star Trek Cryptic is a strange tabletop game, but in a way that makes it a unique and extremely worthwhile experience.
Similar to the “escape room in a box” games we’ve covered on previous lists, Star Trek Cryptic offers a series of puzzles for you and your friends to play through, which string together to tell a cohesive story in the Star Trek universe.
Like many similar puzzle games, this is a one and done experience, lacking the replay value many of us are used to from board games. However, it’s an extremely immersive and rewarding experience, with a lot of interesting puzzles. The fact that it takes place in a well-established universe also makes it a good opportunity for roleplay.
Star Trek - Galactic Enterprises
Learn your rules of acquisition
This commerce simulation game casts players as one of the secondary factions within the Star Trek universe, the duplicitous and greedy Ferengi, competing with each other to make the most profit.
Most of the games on this list are focused primarily on the Federation and Starfleet. This is understandable, as the bulk of the franchise focuses on those things. However, this game does a good job mixing that up, and moving the camera to another faction, the Ferengi.
The Ferengi are the capitalistic foil to the post-scarcity, communist federation, embodying greed and corruption. They’ll do anything for a bit more money, and they’re totally untrustworthy, which is why it’s so fitting that this game is about betraying each other to undercut each other’s prices. The core of this game is figuring out when to honor agreements and when to break them, mostly by predicting when your opponent is going to do the same. It’s a very tricky, and very engaging, social dynamic.
Star Trek Chrono-Trek
A very interesting game
This highly intriguing and strategic card game casts players as a wide variety Star Trek characters and charges them with changing or maintaining the integrity of the timeline.
Another Star Trek re-theme of an existing game, this gem of a card game is based on the also-excellent Chrononauts, a game that charges players with moving about the timeline, making changes to cause or prevent a wide variety of things from happening. Every player is cast as a different Star Trek character, and each character has a wide variety of goals, either to preserve the timeline or make specific changes to it.
What’s so impressive about this game is how well it simulates the act of changing the timeline, by having each tweak affect a wide variety of the game’s cards. Time travel is a major element of Star Trek, and this game does a great job bringing that element to life.
FAQ
What is the hardest tabletop game in the world?
This depends on if you mean this in terms of difficulty or complexity. Many of the most complicated games in the world are Tabletop RPGs, some of which have a lot of very intricate rules. In terms of difficulty, the hardest modes of various cooperative tabletop games, like Pandemic, Flashpoint Fire Rescue, and theForbidden series of survival gamesare often the most challenging.
What is the most complex game ever?
There’s also an important distinction to keep in mind between how difficult a game is to learn and how complex it is mathematically. According to the standard measures of game complexity used by game theorists, trading card games like Magic the Gathering are often the most complex in the world, but this is sort of a technicality. Magic the gathering has countless potential gameplay elements because of its many thousands of cards, but only a miniscule portion of that complexity will show up in any one game, and the game certainly isn’t thousands of times harder to learn than mathematically simpler games like Go.
