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Voyager Sourcebook Chapter 7
This is a PDF of one of the chapters that I wrote for the now-defunct Star Trek Voyager sourcebook for the ICON system. Most of the material is system-neutral and the rest is easily converted to CODA, FASA and Prime Directive.
Please have a read and let me know what you think.
mactavish out.
Love that "Cosmibabble" chart you made. Good solid work on every thing else, thank you Mac.
Well I'm only half way through and that is a marvelous work! Thanks very much for releasing it to the community! Now to get back to reading... :)
I gave it only a cursory reading so far, but I like it a lot! :) Can't wait to see the whole product.
So has anyone else actually downloaded and/or read it?
What do you think?
mactavish out.
The first thing that hit me was the unfortunately derivative and "fannish" names given to the original Kazon Sects. "Mithral?" "Ygdril?""H'rothgar?" Please. That's just embarrassing!
One should try to avoid recognizable names from history/myth/or legend when assigning alien names, unless there's a damn good reason why said aliens would have a direct connection to the history/myth/legend.
That bit was so distracting that I have to go back and reread the work in general to assess it. My general impression was that it was well written and very useful, except for the side bar on Kazon Sects, which needs some serious revision to avoid being smirkable.
Not that Fannish. I dont know those 2.Quote:
Originally posted by Sheliak Bob
"Ygdril?""H'rothgar?"
Norse myth and "Beowulf". There were slightly altered variants of "The Hands of Orloc" and "Narnia" in there as well.
Basically, one shouldn't trust off the top of your head "Sounds exotic and sort of alien" names, especially if one has been heavily exposed to fan culture. It's too easy to, altogether accidentally, get tip of the tongue names that are derivative. Best approach, in my not altogether "humble" opinion, is to break down already established names into base syllables--or consonant/vowel patterns--and recombine to create new names that match the conventions established by published names.
Admittedly, I'm a language student and a professional. I would do that for my own games, but wouldn't expect another GM to go to the same length. If there is a chance in hell that something might be published, then yes, I do expect that level of professionalism.
Reread the material last night, and I'd like to go on record as saying that it is a snazzy-fun piece of prose. Other than the Kazon name issue, it is well written and terribly useful. Chock full of nifty ideas and story seeds as well.
Just in case anyone thought I was bashing mactavish in general. The 'tavisher does good work. I've only got the one criticism to level at it and that one is all to easy to fall into, especially if writing on the fly.
Quote:
A member of the Q Continuum
transported the first, the U.S.S. Enterprise-D, there in 2367; it was there that Starfleet first encountered
the race known as the Borg. The second Starfleet vessel to arrive in the Delta Quadrant was the
U.S.S. Equinox, commanded by Captain Ransom. The third Starfleet vessel to travel to the Delta Quadrant
was the U.S.S. Voyager.
Seem to be a bit of contradiction in these two sections, unless you spell out that the U.S.S. Schrödinger was displace other than via the Caretaker.Quote:
The Kazon-Kel’nar is one sect that is virtually unknown to the rest of the species. They are among the
most technologically advanced, having captured a displaced Federation Oberth-class science vessel, the
U.S.S. Schrödinger, several years earlier.
It was interesting to for you to have a Romulan take over a Kazon sect.
Spacefaring Powers: What about the Trabe, Ocampa, the race that conquered the Talaxian home world and the Talaxians? Considering that they have been found all over the Delta Quadarant from the Talaxian and Ocompa homeworlds to the mining colony to the Nebula near Borg Space to the other side of Borg territory? What about the various races/empires mention by Captain Ransom and the Equinox crew like the Praetorian Guard?
Barzan Wormhole Terminus - I though the Alpha Quadrant terminus was effected by the Ferengi's action so neither end of the wormhole was fixed. Atleast that is what I took away from the episode. I guess you could play it either way. So if the Barzan end is still fixed or considered fixed, it would allow for the narrator to run a few season in the Delta Quadarant then head back to the Alpha Quadarant via this wormhole.
Borg Corridor - I though this is were the Borg open up the enterance to Fluidic Space and there for was part of the reason for the Borg avoidance of the area except in large number of Cubes.
You might want to do a write up on the nebula that seperates the Borg Collective from the Kazon/Trabe/Talaxian space.
Omega Directive - It should indicate that the Prime Directive is supended for the mission to destroy the Omega Particle. Also that there is a specialized team or teams in Star Fleet to handle that mission. In an article I read it indicated that they would deal with why you could not go faster than Warp 5 (for I had not seen another episode dealing with it), I though this was the episode in question and that the area that had Warp instability was caused by the Omega Particle.
I admitt that I do not recall some of the Spatial Anomalies that you have laid out like Graviton Ellipse and Particle Fountain but Null Space Pocket and Subspace Void seem like they are the same anomalies for I do not recall them being seperate episodes. I remember the eposide about the Devore Imperium but nothing about Interspatial Flexure just a wormhole similar to the Barzan one.
Dam and Dam are both in the English and the German languages with different meanings. There was that Next Generation Episode were Picard was beamed down to the planet with the alien of the week were Data was trying to decipher the alien's metaphoric language. He made an inquiry of the computer about a word they had used and it came back with a number of different meanings from a number a different alien races. I would assume with millions of races and only so many sounds that could be made into words that they might have duplicate words that means something different.Quote:
original post by Sheliak Bob
The first thing that hit me was the unfortunately derivative and "fannish" names given to the original Kazon Sects. "Mithral?" "Ygdril?""H'rothgar?" Please. That's just embarrassing!
Spshu.. I think where he is suggesting alternative snapshots for the purposes of your own story arks, they aren't being counted in the 'official' timeline.. Though I am not too sure if the system the Enterprise D visited was in the beta quadrant - the Borg have been in the Beta quadrant quite allot (the hub was on the border more or less!) and wouldcount either :) But either way.. yes Story arks don't really count for timelines :)
The large nebula on the edge of Neelix's knowledge was I believe the 'expanse' - but it was still quite a way off the Borg yet, distance wise, they had a few more nasty people to bump into before then, such as the Swarm, Bothans and the Bomar etc. All of which could use a write up too.. that's half the problem there are SO many races who were in the show as 'alien of the week' all of them worthy offollow up episodes or returns, yet their linear story made that all but impossible!
The North West passage was a region of space where thousands of the Species 8472 ships had arrived in, causing the Borg to flee or be destroyed.. they most likelly detected it had a high degree of spatial anomalies (Why they believed the Borg left it alone) because of all of the sybspace rifts the Species 8472 had opened to invade! :)
The Omega directive had absolutelly nothing to do with the warp 5 limt.. the warp 5 limit was imposed in TNG because it was found that warp drives caused minor damage to the subspace/space in a region, which over time, will eventually degrade and the barrier will be broke, creating pockets such as that on the edge of Tholian space.. interphase.. This was a big problem in 'space highways' where ships ran over and over the same stretch of space.. somewhat similar to a rut forming in a road over time.. only no known space tarmac exists to fix it :D Apparently by the DS9 era they had developed deflector shield and warp drive alterations which prevented it or made it a significantly smaller problem as the ban didn't last too long!
Omega was introduced in TOS as a particle which could potentially damage subspace over several dozen lightyears, preventing all warp travel! It was an unusual molecule, which even in small qualtities could provide vast quantities of power, if kept stable and Seven personally wanted to find it for herself because it represented perfection for the Borg.
The Barzan Wormhole was apparently unfixed at both ends by the end of that episode.. All of those anomalies were in seperate episodes and had totally different properties. I also remember that Q (Junior) made an interspatial flexure using a deflector array to take him and icheb to trouble :D many many subspace anomalies were made in Voyager !!
Thanks for the comments.
Just as an FYI, the Ygdril, the H'rothgar, and the Mithral weren't meant as a fanboy homage or anything of the sort. In fact, the names H'rothgar and Ygdril were names I made up off the top of my head to use in a GURPS Space setting about ten years ago. I just thought they sounded kind of cool at the time.
Those names were actually placeholders until I revised for a final draft. What I posted was actually only a draft. I dumped the file onto a floppy years ago when I realized that it wouldn't ever go anywhere and just happened to find it when I started boxing stuff up to move.
SBob needn't worry about offending me. The names are goofy. I was working on breaking down the various sect names (Ogla, Oglamar, Nistrim, etc.) into monosyllabic chunks, adding some new ones, and recombining them (as SBob said he does) to make up some "linguistically-official-sounding" Kazon names.
As for the Oberth-class vessel that was captured by the Kazon Kel'nar, in my campaign they were dumped in the DQ via a temporal anomaly from a point slightly in the future (2392 or thereabouts). Again, I can't recall the specifics of the session, but it did make for some interesting adversaries.
"What do you mean their weapons have a Starfleet signature?!"
Regarding the various aliens that Equinox encountered as well as the various races Voyager ran into that I didn't detail, what can I say? I only had so much space. I could have gone on and on about the Swarm, the Devore Imperium, the egg-laying lizard men (from the one where Tom & Neelix found the egg), and so on. However, one can only do what one can do.
Geez, it's been so long since I even actually read the darned thing I can't recall everything that's in there. What I posted was actually shorter than the previous draft. I had more about the Think Tank, the Kravic and their robotic adversaries, the Dominion in the DQ, and so forth. Maybe I'll look for that stuff and post it later.
mactavish out.
Quote:
Originally posted by Tobian
Spshu.. I think where he is suggesting alternative snapshots for the purposes of your own story arks, they aren't being counted in the 'official' timeline.. Though I am not too sure if the system the Enterprise D visited was in the beta quadrant - the Borg have been in the Beta quadrant quite allot (the hub was on the border more or less!) and wouldcount either :) But either way.. yes Story arks don't really count for timelines :)
I am just say that the sourcebook should be internal consistent as to the show and additional information presented, i.e. canon for the purpose of the netbook. It was in a side bar for expanded information on the Kazon, not one for possible campaign twists.
It seems like they encounted a Borg ship that was disabled by a nebula near the expanse. Perhaps any Delta Quadrant/Voyager sourcebook could or should be spilt into 3 parts - Kazon/Trabe/Talaxian area, Borg area and near Alpha/Beta Quadrants. Or perhaps the Voyager Sourcebook could be followed up with a Delta Quadrant sourcebook covering everything left out of the Voyager netbook. Given that the attachment was just a chapter of the sourcebook, I should have predicated that MacTavish could have include or plan to include them in an alien races chapter.Quote:
Originally posted by Tobian
The large nebula on the edge of Neelix's knowledge was I believe the 'expanse' - but it was still quite a way off the Borg yet, distance wise, they had a few more nasty people to bump into before then, such as the Swarm, Bothans and the Bomar etc. All of which could use a write up too.. that's half the problem there are SO many races who were in the show as 'alien of the week' all of them worthy of follow up episodes or returns, yet their linear story made that all but impossible!
That is what I thought.Quote:
Originally posted by Tobian
The North West passage was a region of space where thousands of the Species 8472 ships had arrived in, causing the Borg to flee or be destroyed.. they most likelly detected it had a high degree of spatial anomalies (Why they believed the Borg left it alone) because of all of the sybspace rifts the Species 8472 had opened to invade! :)
Hmm I do not recall that TOS episode. I will have to track it down. I recall an article regarding that an episode of Voyager would address the issue of the Warp 5 limit. I have not see one that address that directly. But the Omega Directive was cleared only for Captains and above, thus the explaination would be that the Omega particle was experimented on near the subspace brake down. Given that Omega particle information was classified so they gave the bogus cause for it. Also it seems that the biogel packs were mentioned to make corrects to the warp drive to decrease the damage to subspace (possibly another bogus reasoning to avoid the Warp 5 limited, if the subspace "rut" was caused by Omega particles). Near the end of DS9 they were at war so the Warp 5 limit specified in emergencies situations the limited is suspended.Quote:
Originally posted by Tobian
The Omega directive had absolutelly nothing to do with the warp 5 limt.. the warp 5 limit was imposed in TNG because it was found that warp drives caused minor damage to the subspace/space in a region, which over time, will eventually degrade and the barrier will be broke, creating pockets such as that on the edge of Tholian space.. interphase.. This was a big problem in 'space highways' where ships ran over and over the same stretch of space.. somewhat similar to a rut forming in a road over time.. only no known space tarmac exists to fix it :D Apparently by the DS9 era they had developed deflector shield and warp drive alterations which prevented it or made it a significantly smaller problem as the ban didn't last too long!
Omega was introduced in TOS as a particle which could potentially damage subspace over several dozen lightyears, preventing all warp travel! It was an unusual molecule, which even in small qualtities could provide vast quantities of power, if kept stable and Seven personally wanted to find it for herself because it represented perfection for the Borg.
That is what I thought, so the way MacTavish describes it should be a side bar as alternative solution as to how to get the starship to the Delta Quadrant.Quote:
Originally posted by Tobian
The Barzan Wormhole was apparently unfixed at both ends by the end of that episode.. All of those anomalies were in seperate episodes and had totally different properties. I also remember that Q (Junior) made an interspatial flexure using a deflector array to take him and icheb to trouble :D many many subspace anomalies were made in Voyager !!
Well you can either change the copy to 'known' vessels, allowing you to add as many as you want at a later date, or simply write in the text that story plot ideas don't count towards canon (which really is implied!)
Because of the way that the series travelled linearly, often jumping from one segment of space to another, you could easilly divide the book into chapters on the races they encounter as the series moves on. Once the ship passed the Nekrit expanse, they did begin to pick up on early warning signs of the Borg, such as that small community of Borg who'd been abandonned on a planet when their ship was hit by some sort of magnetic radiation, and the planet of people who'd went into hiding because the Borg had visted..
The Voyager Era Borg could almost do with a chapter in their own right, with details on entities such as the Queen, and people's who've interracted with them, like Arturis and Species 8472 etc.
I am not sure if Omega was ever mentioned before in Trek.. but the point is that Episode "The Omega directive" had everything to do with the Omega particle and ***NOTHING*** to do with the warp 5 limit. No episode I can recall ever dealt with that in a direct way, but there may have something which mentioned it in passing.. but it was most definatelly NOT EVER mentioned in "The Omega Directive" the end :D
I suggest you watch the TNG Episode 'Force of nature' -> http://www.startrek.com/startrek/vie...ode/68628.html and the Voyager Episode 'The Omega Directive' -> http://www.startrek.com/startrek/vie...ail/72362.html and you should find clarity.
I've read many notions that the Intrepid class vessel has the restriction removed, but as far as i can recall, that has only ever been in a non canon context, and never appeared on screen. The phenomenon which caused 'damage' to subspace was because of massive re-tredding of warp tracks over and over again.. so it's not really an issue with Voyager in the Delta quadrant anyway is it! :D
For you old-timers still here about, does anyone have this PDF saved on your hard drive? I lost all of my ICON Trek stuff a couple of years ago, and - as I no longer have the site where the file was initially hosted - can't find this file anywhere.
Thanks.
mactavish out.