Please tell us about your sessions featuring god-like NPCs and what happened.
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Please tell us about your sessions featuring god-like NPCs and what happened.
Haven't had one, but I'm looking forward to hearing other tales....
For our monthly visit to the U.S.S. Ticonderoga on Friday, the crew and I are preparing a light-hearted April 1st mission featuringPoints will be awarded for in-character play and for "imported" movie dialogue.
Many years ago, I ran a FASA Movies-era campaign. The Sherriff of Gothos was a scenario published in a short-lived RPG magazine - essentially, Trelane had gotten hold of John Ford westerns.
So, the crew of the USS Constellation found themselves in Gothos City, about to have a showdown with the Clinton Gang, a worthless bunch from over the border. Trelane had grabbed a Klingon crew to join in the 'fun'...
Yeah, that was great. I'm liking all these scenarios. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by The Tatterdemalion King
Of everyone, Trelane (or Charlie X, or is probably the easiest to use, since he's emotionally immature and has understandable human motives. Q or the Organians or less obviously crazy powerful aliens usually just show up to mess with you 'as a test...' and I'm not sure most players would go for the Kirk ('...What does God want with a starship?') or Picard ('Q go home.') responses which are most classically Trek, since it's pretty much daring a godlike entity to smite them into dust. Most RPG players have a hard time putting aside the survival instinct long enough for that!
That said, I have some episode ideas for the Olympians and another Traveller I should post...
Yes! Very well-put. This is probably the only reason why I'm holding off on running an episode on this subject.Quote:
Originally Posted by The Tatterdemalion King
I know what you mean -- Way back when I was a player, not a GM, I took part in the local gaming club's D&D sessions. The Dungeonmaster delighted in annihilating us wholesale. I suppose his homebrew dungeon complex kind of gave it away with level titles like "Blood Boulevard" and "The Meat Grinder". Once, it took us 3 hours (and 37 characters) to explore one small room and a 30-foot stretch of corridor.Quote:
Originally Posted by The Tatterdemalion King
Still, getting wiped out by monsters that level 15 characters could barely handle when all he allowed you to have was level 1 novices really was grinding rock salt into the wound...
In my GM career, I've veered away from the "God Mode" situations as a result.
I had used a female Q once as a sort of meta-plot device. We were converting from ICON to CODA, so I had the players being abducted by this Q into a bubble universe, where they were able to change a little bit of their past and live the result in a pocket universe (basicallly, convert their characters to CODA, while being allowed to tweak them here and there, and play a sample game to get the hang of the system).
Had we kept playing, I intended to have this Q return once or twice, mainly to offer the players some temporary and very tricky boons (like becoming temporarily changelings in the middle of the Dominion War, or being offered 1 free time travel each). But our last game was a few years ago, and I don't think there will be another one. :(
I posted a reply to this thread a few minutes ago, and even saw it go up on the board, but now it is gone. Very, very weird. Let's see if this one sticks this time...Quote:
Originally Posted by C5
I wanted to say that it's sad to hear your Trek game wont be continuing. It sounds like you had a great idea for how to handle the transition between systems, and any changes that might effect the characters during the conversions. And also an interesting way of injecting your female Q into the plot-lines.
In my post that disappeared I also made an observation - perhaps a bit of a silly one - but if you have a Q character who turns up ever so often to give advice to the crew do you call those moments of Q-wisdom "Q-Tips" ?
Sounds like something Jack O'Neill would come up with !
Our Narrator has a strong dislike for trying to Narrate for novice, or "low level" characters. Ergo we have a rule - no PC starts with fewer than 7 advances. And it works - imagine TNG if Data, Riker, and Geordi are trapped in a small room and some Cardassians are filling it with poison gas. And Neither Data or Geordi can hot-wire the door open. Picard would be looking for a new XO, and Chief Engineer.Quote:
Originally Posted by Nuclear Fridge
Tamanny (our Narrator) creates very elaborate plot-lines and stories, and likes to see them played through. She doesn't like ending an ep at what (on TV) would be the 20-minute mark, or first commercial break because some novice PC failed his dice-roll.
We actually played out one episode where a group of novice-characters were sent into a dangerous away-mission. No more experienced characters were allowed on the mission (all the PCs had to have fewer than 3 advances). All the novices got themselves killed, or severely injured and the mission failed.
And we held a court-martial for the CO NPC who sent the greenies in - because he endangered the lives of those youngsters without sending in at least one experienced leader as part of the team who could have held things together.