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I was thinking of ways for me and my players to start right before the NG comes out and also of how best to teach them when it hit me.
Run several missions for them to play...as cadats! Ofcourse ending with the much loved, Kobayashi Maru. Ofcourse, this is easier if your playing starfleet but I thought I'd share incase anyone else was looking for agood way to teach the game.
Kyle
The obstacles you need to keep in mind-
No XP award system yet. For a hold over, I'd suggest using the old ICON xp system but mutiple the awards by 200.
No starship rules/data. It will be a bit tricky to get around this. Basically I'd advise against do much with ships until the NG comes out. Don did write up a couple of ships in th CODA threads that could be used for "training" purposes.
Whats the ICON xp system? I was just planning on winging it, plus I was thinking about awarding them less xp then I normally would because they are still just cadets.
Kyle
As for starship combat - there is really no reason why you couldn't use Spacedock is there?
Of course I'm not one for using systems as they come off the shelf.....
Tiliarium,
The ICON XP system: The NArrator awarded 1-5 xp at the completion of an adventure (In ICON the costs to raise things was a bit different that CODA.) Mutiplying ICON's awards by 200 we get:
Pts Circumstance
200 Failing to accomplish objectives, but learning from failure
200-400 Successful accomplishing goals
-200 Accomplishing goals in a way that causes addional problems.
+200 Accomplishing goals in a exemplary and clever fashion.
+200-400 Roleplaying Character well (above average)
-200-400 Roleplaying character Poorly
+200-400 Character did something that was of extra ordinary service or beneift.
+200 Charactrer triumped over overwhemling odds or tremendous obstacles.
Since CODA awards are much higher, the narrator could vary things a bit more, (like awarding +250xp for good roleplaying rather than 200 or 400).
toadkiller,
If you want to use SPACEDOCK or ICON ship combat with CODA you would need to adjust the diffiuclties to CODA's TN scale and probably use SPACEDOCK's optional rules for COURAGE POINTS.
Thanks guys! The help is greatly appriciated. In the first episode (currently untitled) my players will be starting as 4th year cadets.
It puts them in the USS Archer, an Intrepid class starship. No ship combat but depending on how the two players act on the planet there can be plenty of combat :).
Kyle
Are they Academy Graduate on thier cadet cruise? Or still at the academy on some sort of training mission?
If the first case they are technically no longer cadets but midshipmen .
Still cadets, it'll start up roughly a month before graduation. There is five cadets total, they are essentally a mox crew, much like Nova Squardren. They'll be on a training/observation "mission", I'm still working on some reason. But the Archer is doing more then just showign the cadets around, it's picking up a romulan V.I.P. near the neutral zone and is taking him to earth for a series of several speechs.
The action picks up when the bridge crew picks up traces of deprease orbiting the one of the planets near the NZ. Shortly there after theres a gravamatric explosion on the planet. Because of sever ionazation in the planets atmosphere it's impossible to scan the surface and transporters won't work. The Captain sends down the First Officer, the CMO, a junior grade science officer (Geology specilist) and the Chief of Security. The romulan V.I.P. requests to go down along with the cadets (He had a liking for one of them). On the shuttle down the ride gets bumpy then there is an explosion, one of the nacelles explodes.
The explosion sends the shuttle into a hard tail ship nearly being split in two when it lands on the surface. With the explosion the FO is killed and in the crash the CMO is fataly wounded dying shortly after. The rest are battered and bloody but generally ok...and the adventure begins.
Kyle
And yes, the Archer is named for Captain Jonathon Archer
I think these are a little high. I'd go with multiplying it by 100, personally, and make Advancements more precious. That's five picks we are talking about, after all. :)Quote:
Originally posted by tonyg
Mutiplying ICON's awards by 200 we get:
Pts Circumstance
200 Failing to accomplish objectives, but learning from failure
200-400 Successful accomplishing goals
-200 Accomplishing goals in a way that causes addional problems.
+200 Accomplishing goals in a exemplary and clever fashion.
+200-400 Roleplaying Character well (above average)
-200-400 Roleplaying character Poorly
+200-400 Character did something that was of extra ordinary service or beneift.
+200 Charactrer triumped over overwhemling odds or tremendous obstacles.
I tend to be stingy until I get a good feel for the system. Better to give bigger rewards later than have to pull back from an initial windfall. The most I'd ever give out in one adventure would likely be about 200-300 to start with. That's four or five sessions or more to get to the next Advancement.
My suggestion: Don't even worry about XP. Give them five picks at the end of the 'Academy' portion of the series, perhaps 1 pick if someone does something truly special during the game.
Anomaly,
Well according to the chat we had a few weeks ago, adancements come at about this rate. Don and DOug said about one advancement per two adventures or so.
Advancments are like level in D&D. Expect a faster progression.
Tilarium,
Reason for Cadets being in space- Cover.
Having a buch of cadets on a training mission is a great cover for some sort of espionage/secret mission. Possibly directed against the ROmulans, OR it could be with the Romulans. Liek something between Section 31 and the Tal Shair.
You could drop some clues, or just keep the entire thing secret from the players, leading them to wonder why they are out here.
Other ideas
-someone is trying to kidnap and subtitute an imposter for the VIP.
-Someone is trying to assassinate the VIP. Starfleet personnel are suspected so "cadets" were chosen as being more relaible.
-Perhaps it is a cadet ship, with a few officers and a cadet crew. THis give the players a taste of command, but still allows you to keep them cadets until they get the hang of things. A cadet ship would be a nice campaign, watching the fleding character mature into competent officers.
-A ship with a reason to enter the Neutral Zonewould have an excellent opportunity to plant steath probes and such.
-As a complication: Instead of killing off the NPC officers, maybe it would be better to have them injured and incapcitated. That would give medical characters something to do, and would provide a strong motivation for the PCs to get back tot he ship before the FO and CMO die. It also is typical TREK.
Is the shuttle named the Porthos? :D
Lots of good ideas Tonyg. I still have about a weeks time before the pilot so I can still make changes and I'm considering some. The suspected plot to kill the VIP might work.
The FO has to die, it's put of the big picture (Besides, the nav station is completely destroyed when the nacelle goes up. The CMO won't die outright, but she'll be severally wounded and unable to give help in treating her or any of the other wounded.
For XP I'm going to be keeping tabs on what they earn (I'm cutting the amounts by 1/4) but they won't get any untill graduation. With graduation I was already planning on giveing them one advancement over the XP earned (unless they do amazing jobs in this, the next, and the final episode as cadets they won't get more then the one advancement.
I'll post what happenes in the episode here, when it's done. I think everyone might like it :).
Kyle
One neat thing about secret missions is that you don't have to explain them.
In one series of Star Trek novels Kirk and Michel are serving as cadets aboard a starship when it does some unexpalined stuff. They don't get to find out what was happening until two books and several years go by.
Could be a nice trick to foreshadow a future adventure.
Welp, finally got both my players togather and got them to pick a time frame and a make characters. After spending about 15 minutes talking to them about not playing Chesty LaRoe and Hooty McBoob, the Margaret Houlihans' of Starfleet, I got them to play two starfleet cadets.
They picked to play the Klingon Civil War time line, ofcourse I didn't tell them that Gowron losses :cackle:. Ofcourse we're starting in 2367 so it isn't written in stone yet but I don't think the actions of 2 Starfleet cadets will change history that much...
Kyle