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Originally Posted by Jerod
I finally decided last night to run the NX-Class game.
As good a period as any. I'd prefer it as a referee over a mercenary ship or trader/merchant game. I've got some suggestions below.
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Originally Posted by Jerod
I have decided that instead of having one of the players be the captain, I will take on that role as “Captain”/Narrator.
The general thought on this seems to be divided.
Some refs say:
NEVER to use a PC Captain (because of power/effectiveness of each player in the scenario differentials, and potential for control freaks/martinets to abuse their social position in the group). This also allows a referee more control, as any one player can be overruled, and the Captain / Ref says "Okay, we will do this." Watch out, so that you as referee are not totally railroading the group/scenario.
Give them choices "Within" the scenario. As Captain/ Ref give them a goal, a mission, and let the PCs carry it out, and hold them accountable for their actions, but unless what they do is totally off base, don't sweat the exact method that they use.
I.e. if the mission is to find a missing officer on an inhabited, technological societies' planet's surface, don't be picky if they use Ship's Sensors, hand-held Tricorders, a search party, or somehow involve the starfaring locals.
As Captain, give general orders, and don't micromanage them, or their decisions, is what I am trying to say. Stardate magazine issue # 3/4 (as I recall) had an excellent article "Gaming the Captain" which discussed all of this.
Conversely, some referess believe it is best to
ALWAYS To use a PC Captain. I personally fall into this faction, most of the time, but I do not feel that this is or should be true for every group.
If the person selected to portray the Captain is a good player, a real natural leader, concerned about the mission and the group, it brings much more to the game, as a whole. It frees the ref up to portray NPCs freely. One problem I always had was if I am portrayting the Captain, and also the Romulans and Klingons, I always felt like I was splitting myself, especially in combat.
All kinds of doublethink along the lines of, "If the Romulans do this, then the Captain will order that, but then how will the Romulans counter, etc."
It gave me a headache, or felt like I was always giving the crew a soft ride, since as Captain, the CO would make the "correct decision" for the scenario...with the players always winning. Hard to describe what I mean, here.
In the role of threat NPC races (and very low-ranked crew), I felt more free to "Play the Bad Guys" freely.
When "My side" inflicted a hit on the ship, it was more like a low-level battle of wits / tactics / decisions as NPC vs the players, with the players usually, but not always, coming out on top, with the scenario goal / plot as a guide as to how difficult the challenges should be. Without that kind of setup (long ago, I used an NPC Captain) it seemed like I was rolling dice, and moving ships for both sides, while the players watched. Having a real player in the role, for me personally is always a lot easier.
But again, there is the danger of someone who is a micromanager, taking over the whole thing, trying to do every bridge crew member's job him/herself... I have seen Captain PCs who came up from Helm branch try to "Grab the controls" off of a Helm Officer, when flying through an asteroid field or other space anomaly, metagaming, that "They have a higher Helm skill, than the LT." This was just nonsense, but with a real player, you will get stuff like that, sometimes.
I haver also seen a Captain's Player cutting players out of the scenario by "ordering" them to stay aboard ship, while the landing party gets all the fun.
Even though the crew is subject to orders, it is still supposed to ber a challenging scenario for everyone, so both of those situations are a real danger to the group. With your Captain as NPC that won't happen.
Also, when the enemy would contact the ship, It felt weird to be the romulan NPC and the Captain, talking to each other, while the crew watches, usually bored.
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Also, I am thinking of making out a character sheet for the “captain.” Should this also be done?
Of course it should. It's a character in the setting, limited by skills, experience, and history. Otherwise you will either be making it up as you go, or you won't have a good handle on the role or it will be inconsistent. I'd never "Not make up a sheet," except for the most casual of encounters, like a waiter, or someone they will meet once, and never see again. A captain is central to the whole story.
I'd suggest do it, and make them complex, with flaws, hopes and dreams. Maybe they are young and brash, like Kirk, maybe nearing (or past) retirement age. They might have led a full life and want to "Earn their star," bucking for Admiral. Maybe they want to "Do this last mission" and retire. The captain will color the whole story. Choose one carefully.
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The major idea I am running for this game is that the crew of the NX-03, Challenger, are swept into the Beta Quadrant beyond Romulan Space.
One thing here as a caution. In this Voyager-like scenario, you are saying basically you are on your own, with no help, other than any friendly aliens you might meet.
You must then carefully select the challenges for the crew, as they will not typically be able to reapir after some heavy combat, unless you give them a base, or something, teamed up with an alien culture of ship engineers, or something.
I'd think about how I was going to solve this, or provide for it, unless you plan on no heavy combat whatsoever, or if you want the crew to be toally self-reliant in repairs, forcing them to sneak off to some place to retreat, like a planet inside a nebula, out of sight of any enemy forces, or something.
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The first “season” deals with their trying to survive in a dangerous area of space.
I like that you have laid out your seasons already. This is far and away the best part of the narrator's guide advice from the Decipher system as a whole.
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The second “season” the ship enters Romulan Space.
Consider, what if the crew pushes/urges the Captain to fly around? They might. And as Ref, I'd let them.
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Since an Earth vessel has “invaded” their space, this is a stepping stone to the Earth-Romulan War.
If this happens for season two, okay consider the implications. You see it as a stepping stone to the war. If they are spotted, In fact it will be the first skirmish of the war, and it will last one engagement, the romulans hitting them, and them hitting a planet, after being scarred by nuclear-tipped romulan missiles, since they have one ship and the romulans have a small fleet.
That is, unless you have the player ship flee at first contact, or they set up some kind of mini-romulan treaty wit hthe local romulan sector commander, or something. Or a scenario where, unknowingly they enter romulan space on accident and are roughly escorted to the border, thus forced to "Fly around", as above.
Will the romulans let them fly around? Maybe. Maybe they might do a kind of zig-zag pass thorugh romulan space, running silent (or as silent as warp travel will allow) most of the time, with the attendant hazards.
This is not to say that you won't be able to have scenarios where they get boarded, andf fight off the romulans, or perhaps they make peace with a few of them, but I'd really think about the whole thing. If they enter Rom space for any length of time, it is not only alone, it will be alone, outnumbered, and behind enemy lines.
As the captain, assuming the crew is "Trying to get home" (maybe not, maybe they will explore the frontier for posterity), would the captain, after scanning an area of space with some ships, or meeting some, and finding them hostile, really try to enter their space? If the time saved is worth the risk, he might. But if they can take time, and go around, why not?
If, instead,something happens where the crew is low on dilithium crystals or some other plot complication forcing them to try to cross through, well there it is.
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What aspects of the NX-Era should I take into consideration. I watched all the episodes of Enterprise, and while I may not agree with some of the shows methods, I want to try to honor the cannon established for all of Star Trek history.
All contacts will be by Radio, if you follow the early Canon, as laid out in "Balance of Terror". Since the players know what and who Romulans are, I suggest you make up a Romulan name for them. A black screen, and radio contact. "We are the Av'stallam. Leave our space, or be destroyed." Don't clue in that these are the Romulans, cousins of the Vulcans.
I do not think that they had cloaked ships yet, in the time period you are running, but they might have some kind of stealth technology, making them harder to find/spot with sensors.
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I do have issues with the “photonic torpedoes” since the Earth-Romulan War was fought with atomic devices. Also, I felt it was too soon to introduce photon torpedoes into Enterprise. I much preferred the missiles they had in season 1 and 2.
Same here. Lasers and accelerator cannons, and nuclear bombs are the order of the day. Shields will be crappy, if they exist at all. But I 'm an old FASA Trek referee, so that's just my take on it.
Combats will likely feel like a modern era naval or sub battle. somewhat medium range missiles, coming in for what seems like forever, until it kills you, and no way, really to fight it , except by trying to break lock / escape. Whoever fires first, puts the enemy on the defensive.
Hard core, success only. The losers become a puff of smoke.
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The Player Character choices are (standard Starfleet positions). Since there are only 5 players, one of these positions will not be filled...
Be aware that since the crew is alone, they might meet a race that joins up with them, as an advisor / visitor / exchange race. I'd personally be open to this idea, so create your NPC races carefully, if you intend to allow this. Or not. I would definitely not have a romulan come aboard, in any case. But just suggesting, it might be interesting and part of the open arms to the galaxy idea, if it comes up in your game.
Conspicuosly missing from your list was Navigator, and / or First Officer. In the TOS era, at least, what would later become Next Gen's Bridge Ops was always split between helm/weapons (Sulu) and nav/shields (Chekov and that guy we see a few times in his chair).
Comms was also in charge of damage control reports, in addition to engineering crews also doing it.
I'd highly agreee with, and recommend leaving Comms as an NPC also. I used to allow players to do it, but in the end, it was them repeating my damage reports messages to the crew. And perhaps Navigator might be your first officer.
Spock was the first in star fleet to hold the XO and science officer positions both.
I've often had the Helm/Weapons guy as XO/First Officer, or the Navigator as XO.
I have never allowed a Science Officer/XO, because of Spock's special case. I'm not a slave to Canon, but I'm not going to shred some basic principles of it, either...most of the time.
Sounds liek you have a good setup. I'm interested to hear what ultimately comes of your efforts.
Best of luck with it.
