Star Trek's Chris Pine Explains Why He Thinks Dungeons & Dragons Should Be Played In Schools

STAR TREK: LOWER DECKS (Image: Paramount+), Chris Pine (Image: Paramount), the d20 dice system, and 1978’s STAR TREK: ADVENTURE GAMING IN THE FINAL FRONTIER.

APRIL 3, 2023 – Star of Trek's Kelvin Timeline, Chris Pine, is coming off the release of his latest movie, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, which looted $15.3 million on its opening day. Chris was interviewed by Slash Film to talk about the film and he spoke about his introduction to Dungeons & Dragons,

My entry point into it [Dungeons & Dragons] is my nephew, who's a huge player… He took me in my family through a campaign that he wrote. And what I saw, especially for a family of actors, is how immediately accessible it is… This idea that it's like "geeky" or "nerdy" or whatever, the gospel of Dungeons & Dragons that I think is so important to know, why I think it should be played in schools, is that it immediately teaches cooperation. It exercises the imagination.

Given the communal experience of gaming and Star Trek fandom, it's no surprise that Star Trek has seen its share of crews partaking in tabletop gaming from a recent outing with the lower deckers of the USS Cerritos playing Bat'leths & BiHnuchs, to the crew of Deep Space Nine getting far too immersed in a game of Chula. But until the Ferengi begin selling Bat'leths & BiHnuchs at a store near you (and hopefully the Wadi aren’t forcing anyone to say Allamaraine) it may be best to stick with the officially licensed Star Trek tabletop games for you and your crew.

Paramount first licensed Star Trek to Heritage Models in 1978 to produce Star Trek: Adventure Gaming in the Final Frontier which drew upon The Original Series and The Animated Series. The gaming license has passed through a number of hands since then, including Milton Bradley who produced Star Trek: The Next Generation Interactive VCR Board Game in 1993, an interactive game that also inspired the creation of  Bat'leths & BiHnuchs as seen in the Star Trek: Lower Decks third season episode “The Least Dangerous Game”.

One of the most recent contributors to tabletop Trek gaming is London-based Modiphius Entertainment with their series, Star Trek Adventures which operates on a d20 dice system that D&D players ought to find familiar. Modiphius has released several expansions and stories crossing multiple eras of the Star Trek franchise. 

This only scratches the surface of Star Trek gaming, but it really is a wonderful way to share and connect with friends and tell stories from the final frontier. As Chris Pine says in his interview about his gaming experience, “It's joyous, it's improvisational. And within a matter of minutes, everybody's on the same page…I think it's about the coolest thing I've encountered in a long time.”

To read the entire interview, roll Initiative, add your Dexterity modifier, and head over to Slash Film.