between episodes

How do you handle the tiome between your episodes.
Do you just tell your players that thera has been a week of random warp flight and that nothing has happened?
Or?

Between episodes?

Routine duties. EG Ferrying Ambassador X to Starbase Y. Patrolling whatever border with very little happening, travelling across the galaxy to be in sector A so that the next adventure can take place if need be....

Or....*shocked gasp*.....PCs having some downtime to learn things, resolve inter-character issues, or further their back stories and so on.

Cheers

Tas

Assuming there is any downtime between sessions its almost invariably character story stuff, either private or in small groups. The kinda' thing you can gloss over in five minutes at the beginning of a session.

Either that or the players take advantage of the time loss to justify buying a new skill, feat/edge, losing a flaw, etc.

Of course depending on the existing situation the players may get a report of something that happened over that week that they couldn't feasibly have been involved in or heard about in good time. This was especially common during the Dominion War, for example.

Ditto what the others said. Normal stuff -- nothing of interest or something character-oriented that was not worth wasting time on.

As with novels and books -- don't waste time on stuff that doesn't advance the plot or character development.

Usually when I end an adventure, I go down a checklist of things:

1) After the XYZ incident your ship's been ordered to J for layover; You're patrolling the Neutral Zone; You're continuing on to H to pick up Ambassador U, etc.

2)I let the characters check on their own stuff. Throughout the game, I leave little subplot seeds for the characters to investigate on their own, or I let them run around on some ad-lib shore leave adventure. Here's where I generate the bulk of future adventures and where the PC's encounter the bulk of their contacts.

3) Then I leave a few subplot/plot seeds: So&so has been assassinated, the Klingons are moving fleets, pirate activity here and there, and has anyone seen Uncle Bob lately?

4) Finally the lead in for the adventure or an "Anvil Drop". An "Anvil drop" is what I call a proactive event for the reactive player. Sometimes PC's need a little fire lit under them to get them to move, or an anvil dropped on their head. Like blowing up a starbase while the players are on layover. A little explosive decompression is good for the soul.

I guess the time between adventures is best used to let them roam free in the Trek universe for a while, have a little fun. Pick up green chicks, start a fight, get drunk, gamble, whatever. It can't be just "Once again we've saved the universe as we know it" every week, you know?

J

Between episode stuff is usually character improvement, routine duties, or the like. However, sometimes I run mini-sessions in between regular sessions and focus on the character subplots. Maybe a department head has a staff meeting that we role-play out and he or she can get to know the staff under them a bit better.

It's also a good chance to explore bits from character histories that don't tie into a main plotline, and it's a chance to sow seeds for future plots or subplots. :)

One time I had a PC who loved to read news reports in his spare time. So I'd make up some reports and run a mini-session with just that player, and give him the reports and have a couple NPCs visit and discuss. I planted seeds in some of the reports that grew into full-blown episodes later in the series. The player really appreciated that work, and loved the fact that his character's hobby sparked a major story arc.