5 Best RPGs For Star Trek: Picard Fans

Published Oct 4, 2026, 9:00 PM EDT

Sharmila is an engineer-turned-gaming hardware journalist and freelance contributor at ScreenRant who has been covering the gaming and tech industry since 2021. While she first built her expertise writing about video games, she has since pivoted towards gaming hardware, with a focus on PC components, peripherals, handhelds, and performance-driven tech. When she’s not testing gear or writing about the latest hardware trends, she can usually be found diving into competitive shooters or keeping up with the evolving esports scene.

Star Trek: Picard had a different kind of pace from most sci-fi shows. Sure, you could still see starships, strange planets, and the occasional phaser fight, but much of the fun came from watching Jean-Luc Picard and his crew figure out what to do when there was no easy answer. The characters had plenty of room to argue, investigate, make mistakes, and occasionally save the galaxy along the way.

Needless to say, all of this sits really well with the RPG genre. The best role-playing experiences usually have you put together a crew you actually care about, explore unfamiliar worlds, and make decisions that affect the story. Some even give you the chance to sit across from an enemy and talk your way out of a fight, which feels very appropriate for anyone who grew up watching Picard negotiate his way through impossible situations.

5 Mass Effect Legendary Edition

If what you loved about Star Trek: Picard was watching a captain build a crew and slowly earn their trust, Mass Effect Legendary Edition is an easy recommendation. The collection brings together all three games in BioWare’s original trilogy, following Commander Shepard as they deal with a threat that could wipe out entire civilizations.

A lot of the appeal comes from the people you meet along the way. Shepard’s crew includes soldiers, scientists, aliens, criminals, and plenty of people with opinions about how the galaxy should be run. You can spend time getting to know them, helping with their personal problems, or simply listening to them argue with each other aboard your ship. The Mass Effect trilogy also gives you plenty of opportunities to negotiate, investigate, and make difficult decisions. Some choices can follow you across the series, which makes even the smallest conversations feel worth paying attention to.

The combat is there when you need it, but Mass Effect is at its best when you’re sitting in the captain’s chair, deciding who to trust and what kind of leader Shepard should become.

4 Star Trek: Resurgence

For anyone who wants the closest possible connection to Picard, Star Trek: Resurgence is the game you should get right now. It takes place within the Star Trek universe and follows the crew of the USS Resolute as they investigate a mystery involving two civilizations on the brink of conflict.

Interestingly, here, you get to play two different characters, First Officer Jara Rydek and engineer Carter Diaz, which gives the story two very different perspectives. Rydek spends much of her time dealing with diplomacy and the responsibilities that come with commanding a starship, while Diaz gets pulled into problems of his own. Their stories eventually begin to overlap.

The game is heavily focused on dialogue and exploration, so don’t expect a traditional RPG filled with skill trees and endless equipment screens. Instead, your choices during conversations and investigations can affect relationships, missions, and how certain situations unfold. And that is where Resurgence becomes particularly interesting for Picard fans.

Star Trek: Resurgence understands that a Starfleet officer sometimes has to make a decision before knowing whether it will work and glorifies this part of the experience. There are tense encounters and action sequences too, but the quieter conversations aboard the Resolute are where the game feels most like an episode of Star Trek.

3 Starfield

Starfield gives you something that Picard often highlighted: the chance to point a ship toward somewhere you’ve never been and see what happens. Bethesda’s space RPG puts you in control of a character who joins Constellation, a group of explorers searching for answers about mysterious artifacts scattered across the galaxy.

As part of the Starfield journey, you’ll visit planets, investigate abandoned facilities, deal with rival factions, and pick up more than a few strange jobs along the way. The main story has plenty to offer, but some of the best moments can happen when you wander away from it and stumble into something unexpected.

Your crew also plays an important role. Characters such as Sarah Morgan, Sam Coe, and Andreja can accompany you on your adventures, and getting to know them gives you a reason to care about what happens beyond the next mission. Their reactions are dynamic, meaning they can change depending on the decisions you make.

Starfield is much more focused on open-ended exploration than Picard, but that freedom is part of its appeal. You can spend an evening investigating a distress signal, another building relationships with your crew, and another simply flying around looking for somewhere interesting to land. For fans who enjoy the exploration side of Star Trek, there’s plenty here in Starfield to get lost in.

2 Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic proves how a well-written science-fiction story can do wonders with player choice. For context, you play a character who wakes up with no memory of their past and soon becomes involved in a conflict between the Republic and the Sith. The mystery surrounding your character is one of the reasons the game, despite being old, remains so memorable.

As you travel from planet to planet, you slowly learn more about the people around you, the conflict itself, and the role your character may have played in it. The focus on character should appeal to Picard fans who enjoyed the show’s conversations about morality, identity, and responsibility. Your decisions can also push your character toward the light or dark side, affecting how other characters respond to you and how certain parts of the story unfold.

Your companions too have their own histories, personalities, and problems, and spending time with them makes the journey feel much more personal. The graphics aren’t very appealing if you compare them to that of modern games, but it’s the writing that shines. If you can get past its aged look, Knights of the Old Republic has a thoughtful science-fiction story that gives you plenty to think about after the credits roll.

1 The Outer Worlds

The Outer Worlds combines outer space exploration with a strange sense of humor, and it works so well. The plot follows a character (you) who wakes up after being kept in suspended animation for decades and quickly finds themselves caught in a dispute involving corporations, colonies, and a rather questionable group of people in charge.

The journey takes you across different planets and settlements, giving you a variety of problems to solve. You can investigate what’s happening, talk to the people involved, and decide how you want to handle the situation. There are usually several ways to approach a problem, and the game is happy to let you make choices that have consequences. Your companions are a major part of the fun too. Characters such as Parvati, Vicar Max, and Ellie have their own personalities and personal quests, and taking them along gives you plenty of opportunities to hear their reactions to the strange situations you encounter.

The Outer Worlds is also packed with dialogue, so you’ll spend a lot of time talking to people rather than simply shooting everything in sight. Its corporate satire is much sillier than Picard, but the focus on colonies, politics, exploration, and the people caught between competing interests makes it a fun experience for Star Trek fans.

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  Jean-Luc Picard

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  Raffi Musiker

Star Trek: Picard follows retired Admiral Jean-Luc Picard, played by Patrick Stewart, twenty years after the events of Star Trek Nemesis. The series delves into Picard's life post-Starfleet, as he navigates a new chapter filled with unresolved past events and new challenges.