Campaign help

Greetings after a long hiatus, I have a group willing to play Star Trek with me.
The group has agreed play a Rainbow Six sort of game set in the TNG-DS9 era.
That being said I am thinking of setting my game in 2372, at the beginning of the second Klingon-Federation War.

I have thought that with the end of the Khitomer Accords, and the years of peace allowing for commerce between the two interstellar powers, there must be citizens of each power on both sides of the border. Whereas I can see Klingons on the Federation side being able to freely return back to Klingon space, using some mechanisim of protection by a designated "neutral third party", I cannot see the Klingons to be as reciprocal. For instance see the treatment of Japanese Diplomats in the US compared to that of US diplomats in Japan.
I wouldn't imagine that conflict between the two powers were limited, although they maybe focus on, occupied areas of the Cardassian Union, therefore, it leaves entire areas of the border which could be the setting of a campaign.

The reason why the group wants a Rainbow Six type setting is that this is actually a side/secondary campaign to a main one that is being ran by my friend using the nWoD in an quasi-Avatar type setting.

Therefore, from what I have said above, I need to create "episodes" modules, that can be easily picked up and dropped, as the main game ebbs and flows in frequency given that all the players have real life difficulties and responsibilities.

I was thinking of missions like Civilian Rescue, rear area Reconnaissance and targetted abduction/killing of high value compatants, etc.

I was thinking of organizing the two-five players as part of a RRT, much like was in the Price of Freedom book, that would resemble like a present US Special Forces A-Team (12 total players and NPCs)
What recognizable cannon ship can be used for them to have independent movement?

The obvious answer is a Defiant-class: small enough to be sneaky, tough enough to fight, and fast enough to escape.

A less-obvious alternative would be an old rust-bucket tramp freighter, which would attract a lot less attention for covert ops. Souped up warp drive and tactical systems optional. I'm not sure what you could find that would be both canon and recognizable unless you gave them the Millenium Falcon. :rolleyes:

Or they could go diving under the Golden Gate Bridge and dredge up Admiral Kirk's BoP from San Francisco Bay.

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Originally Posted by Sarge

Or they could go diving under the Golden Gate Bridge and dredge up Admiral Kirk's BoP from San Francisco Bay.

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I never understood why, given the level of tech possessed in ST, why that was never recovered given the relative shallow depth within the Bay or just outside it to the Farallon Islands.

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Originally Posted by Sarge

The obvious answer is a Defiant-class: small enough to be sneaky, tough enough to fight, and fast enough to escape.

A less-obvious alternative would be an old rust-bucket tramp freighter, which would attract a lot less attention for covert ops. Souped up warp drive and tactical systems optional. I'm not sure what you could find that would be both canon and recognizable unless you gave them the Millenium Falcon.

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The players wanted to be more of a ground based game, so I was thinking they are more along for the ride then part of the ships crew, especially if given something larger than a crew of 50.

I like the idea of them being in a seemingly unremarkable commercial transport rust-bucket, like an old Antares class freighter. It's large enough to fit a runabout or two in its massive cargo bays and other surprises if masked properly.

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Originally Posted by JALU3

I never understood why, given the level of tech possessed in ST, why that was never recovered given the relative shallow depth within the Bay or just outside it to the Farallon Islands.

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Considering how eco-friendly the Federation is, I'm sure it was recovered. No ecologist would be happy about a warship leaking deuterium, crude oil, asbestos, DDT, and all the other intrinsically evil Klingon elements into the new home of the humpback whales.

I don't remember what the Antares-class looks like. If it's one of those instantly forgettable ships-of-the-week that popped up with a different species of crew once a season, that's probably the right ship for your mission.

Was Cassidy's freighter an Antares? If not, that's another possibility to consider.

Cassidy's freighter was a Antares class; looking through the SRMs I couldn't find the stats for her.

Never mind, found it.

I wonder if that is right, given that the vessel drawfed a runabout underneath her.

http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__...a_runabout.jpg

Maybe she isn't a size 3 but something like a size 4 or 5?

Why would you think it hadn't been recovered?

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Originally Posted by The Tatterdemalion King

Why would you think it hadn't been recovered?

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Just because it was never mentioned in any canon or non-canon source that I have read.

I was thinking the freighter, possibly a commandeered or "fed"eralized non-federation vessel, could be used as a cover. There are many instances during the early parts of World War II when civilian vessels, especially those antagonist foreign flagged vessels in port, were taken over by the government of the port and impounded and later given a temporary commission for the course of the hostilities. Such as the Hermes, which it occurred twice to her.

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Originally Posted by JALU3

Just because it was never mentioned in any canon or non-canon source that I have read.

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They probably have quite a few, since it wasn't dismantled by Starfleet Intelligence the second they got to Vulcan.

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I was thinking the freighter, possibly a commandeered or "fed"eralized non-federation vessel, could be used as a cover. There are many instances during the early parts of World War II when civilian vessels, especially those antagonist foreign flagged vessels in port, were taken over by the government of the port and impounded and later given a temporary commission for the course of the hostilities. Such as the Hermes, which it occurred twice to her.

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The Antares class is generally a Federation or Federation-built design. Assuming it's actually just a name for a pattern of freighter built by Antareans, there's probably versions floating around that are centuries old.

That said, the Federation doesn't really go "sneaking around." Abduction of Klingon elements of planetary (Governors) or interstellar (High Council members) government doesn't sound like it would past muster in the Federation Council, especially with the risk that they might just kill themselves when in custody. Nonlethal sabotage of military assets would probably be on the table, though.
If they want to do things without being detected, there's a dozen episodes in DS9 where a Runabout flies through a planetary magnetic field or adjusts it's warp field reading to hide its presence or identity. A cover ship might not be necessary.

There is that hulk that was stored in the Surplus depot that could be of use. This would be similar to how they used Dukat's captured K'Vort in order to infiltrate enemy lines to Ty'Gokor .

Although target killing or capture might not appear to be condoned by Starfleet, I can imagine Starfleet Intelligence, my want to "rescue" their intelligence assets when needed; or Fleet Operations would want listening post or observation posts made combat ineffective, such as the one in Star Trek VI. I need to think of tasks that a Starfleet Rapid Reaction team would do along the Klingon border during open hostilities:
Raiding targets
Gathering intel
Training and assisting insurgencies
Rescue

If you're looking for shades-of-grey scenarios, have the PCs raid one Klingon house and frame a rival house for the attack.

My TMP-era campaign was built on this premise except it was Klingon and Romulan versus Klingon, with a bit of Federation blame.

A couple less-prominant Klingon houses had planned a coup and had allied with a Romulan Senator who was acting of her own accord. The Klingons and the Romulans built a mock-up Federation Constitution-class ship within Romulan territory, close to Klingon space.

The idea was to use the mock-up to invade into Klingon space and attack Klingon targets, thus ending Federation/Klingon diplomacy that was going on and stir back up the Cold War. With the Fed once more at odds with the Klingons, the coup would take place on Qo'nos and cause infighting between the houses. The two lower houses assumed, due to their alliance and Romulan aid, they could rise to the top.

The thing that started it off was that the Federation had a merchant spy vessel that had passed close by the space hangar where the mock-up was being built. Due to the low-light levels, the images were not too clear, and though the shape looked close to a Connie, Starfleet wanted to investigate. So, they hopped up a Miranda with a few sneaky systems to allow it to move close, via stealth, to Romulan territory to see what it was that was going on there.

Once there, the they sent stealth probes into Romulan territory, while flying very close to the Neutral zones. Finally a probe returned from its huge eliptical loop and dumped data that the mock-up was hanging in the space hangar. Now the question was, what do they do about it? Their orders were that they were on their own - that the Federation would not condone any actions taken by them. Starfleet would claim that the Miranda's captain had gone rogue, if anything 'went down'. Of course, my PC's were given the option to back out of the 'black ops' mission at its onset, if they chose.

So, they decided to contact the Klingons and were fortunate to get a captain of one of the other, non-coup houses. Their transmissions were picked up by a few patrol ships of the traitorous houses, and all hell broke loose. The Romulans unleashed their awkward Connie that was slung with a plasma torpedo launcher on the underside of the upper disk.

The Miranda PC ship and the non-traitorous Klingon captain team up to take on the bad guys. It ended up being a blast.

So I was thinking of the following for the Preliminary Episode. It will allow the Play characters to interact with the world their first time (none are Star Trek fans) and get to experience combat both in space and on the planet

• From different assignments the Player Characters share time in a recreational facility on Sherman’s Planet
  
  USS Ashenville, Rigel-Class
  USS Java, Merced Class
• Klingon Merchants and Warriors share the facility in the spirit of cooperation given the alliance between The Federation and The Klingon Empire
• Klingons are acting strange, and have a bit unease about them; some strapping Bat’leths to their back
• News of the Strike on DS9 reaches the station and Klingons begin to attack the authorities on the Planet
• Klingon ships fire on the spaceport and all but one Federation vessel is destroyed or damaged to the point where they cannot warp out of the system
• PCs beam up to the SS Mactan
  
  a demilitarized Miranda Class
• PCs assist Merchant Crew to escape to Deep Space K-7
  
  USS Java covers their escape

This is meant to set the PCs up to know the world, experience the mechanics.
Any suggestions?