About Star Trek: Avalon

Star Trek: Avalon is a character-driven Star Trek simulation set around the USS Resolute and the mysterious Avalon Station. The game begins in the prime Star Trek timeline in the year 2401, before a catastrophic subspace event sends the Resolute into an alternate reality in the year 2398.

In this alternate timeline, the Dominion War ended very differently. The Federation fell, Earth surrendered, Starfleet was broken, and the Alpha Quadrant has lived under Dominion occupation for more than two decades. The crew of the Resolute find themselves stranded in a universe where the ideals they serve were defeated before they ever arrived.

The game combines Starfleet survival, station-based storytelling, resistance operations, mystery, exploration, diplomacy, moral choices and character drama. While the setting contains dark themes, Avalon remains a Star Trek story at heart: hope, cooperation, courage and the belief that even broken futures can be changed.

The Starting Point

At the beginning of the game, the USS Resolute is a Starfleet vessel operating in the prime timeline. Characters joining before the main displacement event are expected to fit that setting. They may be Starfleet officers, enlisted personnel, civilian specialists, attached scientists, diplomatic staff, contractors, medical personnel, or other roles that would reasonably serve aboard or alongside a Federation starship in 2401.

During the opening mission, the Resolute investigates unusual subspace readings linked to stolen Dominion-era technology known as the Janus Core. When the device destabilises, the Resolute is dragged through a spacetime tear and emerges in the alternate 2398, badly damaged and far from home.

Avalon Station

After arriving in the alternate timeline, the Resolute is pulled into a hidden safe pocket deep within the Badlands, where the long-dormant Avalon Station awakens.

Avalon was built in 2375 as a last-resort sanctuary by the Federation and its wartime allies. It was intended to preserve Starfleet, Federation culture, allied governments, historical archives, scientific knowledge, military capability and the surviving hopes of the peoples who stood against the Dominion.

The station was completed but never manned. Its records were erased to prevent Dominion discovery, and for twenty-three years it has existed only as rumour and resistance folklore. The arrival of the Resolute brings Avalon back to life.

Character Applications

Character options depend on where the game is in the story.

Before the tear: characters may join as standard prime-universe Starfleet personnel or civilians attached to the USS Resolute. These characters come from the familiar Federation of 2401 and will experience the displacement alongside the rest of the crew.

After the tear: new characters cannot simply arrive as normal Starfleet transfers from the prime universe. Once the Resolute is stranded in the alternate 2398, new applicants should fit the reality the ship now inhabits.

Post-tear character concepts may include survivors of the fallen Federation, resistance fighters, Lantern Network contacts, former Starfleet personnel from the alternate timeline, civilians from occupied worlds, refugees, smugglers, defectors, allied specialists, Klingon rebels, Romulan operatives, Bajoran couriers, Cardassian dissidents, Ferengi traders, medical volunteers, engineers, scientists, or others who could reasonably become involved with Avalon Station.

The Command Team will work with players to make sure new characters fit the current story, the state of Avalon Station, and what has been discovered in play.

The Lantern Network

Beyond Avalon, scattered resistance cells continue to fight Dominion rule. Collectively, many of these groups are known as the Lantern Network. Its members, often called Lanterns, help move refugees, intelligence, medicine, supplies and hope through occupied space.

The Lantern Network is not a single government or military. It is a loose and often fragile web of Starfleet remnants, civilian organisers, smugglers, rebels, dissidents, former Maquis families, religious couriers, underground doctors, engineers, scouts and ordinary people who refuse to let the Dominion decide the future.

Tone and Themes

Avalon is a Star Trek game with darker edges. The alternate timeline includes occupation, oppression, collaboration, resistance, trauma, loss and difficult moral choices. However, this is not a hopeless setting. The heart of the game is what people choose to protect when history has gone wrong.

Players can expect stories involving the restoration of Avalon Station, exploration of sealed and forgotten areas, repairs to the USS Resolute, first contact with resistance groups, Dominion threats, faction politics, refugee crises, diplomacy with uneasy allies, and the long-term question of whether the crew can find a way home.

The game welcomes character-focused writing, personal logs, joint posts, mission action, ethical dilemmas, political intrigue, downtime scenes and slow-burn worldbuilding. Avalon begins as a ghost station, but through play it may become a refuge, a home and perhaps the beginning of something larger.

What Kind of Characters Fit?

Avalon works best for characters who have something to contribute to a damaged ship, a dormant station, or a fractured quadrant. Starfleet officers, engineers, doctors, counsellors, security personnel, pilots, scientists, diplomats and operations staff all have clear roles before and after the tear.

After the tear, the setting opens further to resistance fighters, local civilians, refugees, scouts, defectors, smugglers, informants, cultural specialists, repair crews, intelligence contacts, alien allies and people who have survived Dominion rule in different ways.

Characters should feel grounded, collaborative and suited to shared storytelling. Avalon is not about one hero saving the quadrant alone. It is about many people, from many worlds and histories, trying to bring light back to a place that has spent too long in the dark.