War...huh...What is it good for?

Probably a sour topic to be talking about now but I am curious.

Have any of you used a war in your series? How did you handle it? Also have you used any non-canon wars? If so, enlighten us please!

In the last campaign in trek we had a war between the Federation and the Tal Shiar elements of the Romulan Empire. On the Fed side were elements of the Rommie military and the moderates looking to pursue detente in the wake of the Dominion War.

It made for a bunch of very tense adventures and provided a strong denouement to the series.

In this campaign, Romulan civil war will also be an element, as the moderates -- swept into power after a coup attempt (not done by Remans -- I'm ignoring Nemesis) failed -- find themselves beset by vassal races through the RSE and the hardliners, displeased by the 'collapse' of the empire. The hardliners will be supported by elements of the Klingon Empire, lookng to prevent any improvement in relations between the UFP and the RSE.

In one of my old TOS-Movie campaigns, my crew's ship was part of a fleet sent to intercept an invading fleet of Romulan and Klingon vessels.

They became the key to victory when they saw an opportunity to deal the enemy a crippling blow, and disobeyed their formational orders in order to exploit the weakness.

My current campaign is set during the Dominion War, and has influenced the campaign in several ways.

They were assigned to convince the Kzin Patriarchy to join the Alliance, their current mission is to return a purloined Orb to Bajor, and they will soon be involved in a Starfleet Intelligence scheme to build a superweapon to use against the Dominion.

In my three-season campaign I ran ages ago, we had a war arc that lasted the last third of the second season and all of the third season.

Sounded like a good idea at the time, but in retrospect, it ended the campaign before its time. The crew heroically lost their ship in the last episode of the third season, and it was such a note of finality that my co-GM and I never got back to it.

The war was okay, but we dragged it on for way too long (18 episodes). I would have made it last half as long.

Wars can be good in a game (like DS9) but try to alternate "war" stories with non-war stories to keep things fresh.

Never used a war. I've found it hard to come up with a variety of plots and ways to involve the PCs in it that weren't already used in DS9. Besides, I hate war in Star Trek. It's all about exploring the final frontier to me. Sure, wars probably happen to any major civilization now and then, even the Federation, but I don't like to focus on those things in my RPG game. Which explains why I don't like seasons 4-7 of DS9.

Had a fantastic Dominion War series set on a Klingon Bird of Prey, the borta'SwI (if I spelled it right, or in English, the Avenger).

Lots of fun telling it from a Klingon perspective. I really enjoyed it. A variety of adventures, with the characters focusing on raids, ambushes, and the like. Some very nice Klingon elements to the tales. It was very fun.

Current running an alternative version of the Dominion war in my series. A lot of socio-political action and adjustments have grown out of it, and the series has taken a few turns in rather odd directions because of it.

1) in 2365, The Federation had a First Contact with a species known as the Merkhut. After a few false starts, it was determined that the species had descended from the genetic warlords of the Late 20th- Early 21st century that hadn't been accounted for and had managed to escape to greener pastures.
But that was where the simularities to the warlords had ended. After several centuries of conquest, constant conflict with several species (including occasional run ins with the Borg), and genetic 'assimilation' of several species, the Merkhut have enginnered themselves into something not quite Human any more......
I basiclly designed this species to be dark reflection of Humanity. The desires are recognizable in them as essentially Human, but with enough differences to make them creepy and not someone the Human characters would be comfortable around.
A) A relative lack of 'survival' instinct: The Merkhut mindset has been formed by two main things: A low level collective telepathic group mind that functions somewhat like the Borgs collective, tho no where near as invasive.
B) No Culture to Speak Of: The Merkhut have rarely known peace and this has hammered thier society into some rather odd directions, as art and finer points of civilization are rather lost upon them. A proponent of Forward thinking amongst them, known as the Regent, saw all of th things other species did and thought his could stand room for improvment. But many cultural reference fall completely flat with them.
C) Predatory behavior: The species as a whole is rather paranoid and always checking for threats and the Reaction of some Terrans and Starfleet as a whole has caused considerable friction between the two empires. Nearly to the point of shooting, until saner heads on both sides reigned.
D) Ruthlessness as a cultivated trait: Given thier past, ruthlessness is a nessesary survival trait for the Merkhut against stronger and more powerful enemies, it tends to make interaction with them....tense to say the least. Combined with their relative selflessness, many tend to speak carefully, in thier presence

Combining this with thier relatively superior technological base (say 75 years ahead of the Federation), it makes them an potentially dangerous third party to have in any situation. Currently cooler heads in the Federation have managed to negotiate with them and tenatively friendly exchanges of information and tehcnology have begun....

Starbase Genesis; the series we are playing are right now trying to coexist, even with the backdrop of the Klingon/Federation War that has broken out, as was seen in the DS9 series---we don't allow all of our adventures to be war based though. As with a majority of wars, even around today, you still have your problems on the Homefront, as well as branching out adventures in other areas of space. I believe that the writers bring wars into the Star Trek series to remind us that everything is not always cozy out on the frontier :(

My Dominion War-set game is progressing slowly but surely towards the climax of the Dominion War. I run for two different gaming groups. One is on the front lines and the other is on the far side of the Federation from the fighting. Frequently events from one gaming group have some effect on the other.

My current FASA Star Trek rules game is set in 2374 just after the retaking of DS9 at a base called Farbase (DS18).It's a Regula station mixed with the FASA Deep Space Research Station , several repair docks & Transport/Tug Cargo conatiners w/ ship parts. We had a Klingon liasion (& Fleet) & a small Starfleet fleet attached to the station. I brought forward from the classic movie time period game I used to run a merchant ship( the player captain wanted to play it again,so I said what the heck) . We have or Federation crew,our Klingon crew,our Female Ferengi doctor & our Merchant crew. Everyone has 2 or three characters(at least) & we run anything within that time period.one week the Klingon group goes out in search of Dominon foes, & the next the merchant crew finds out they're running supplies to the Marquis. My 1st Season Ender is comming up, a Dominion Fleet is going to hit the station.

The Dominion War is merely a far-distant backdrop to my Star Trek: Relic campaign, although game-present is rapidly coming up on the end of the War. Personally, I prefer a campaign with a touch of Cold War tension, allowing for occasional hostilities, but a full-scale war tends to drive events too much...

I have talked about the wars fought in my campaigns in other threads. But I only touched on the specific things those threads were posted about. I have spoken about ship designs and plots and such. I ran wars in my trek series because they are the perfect backdrop for comedy and tragedy, for heroism and cowardice. I used it to tell an epic story, but I never let the horror that is war be forgotten. I am running things in an exploratory mode now. The crew seeking answers to get home and when they do they will have a series built around a spatial phenomenon that will lead to a new first contact.

What I am rambling about is this. War, Exploration, Research, Diplomacy, Rescue Missions. these are all brushes that I use to paint on the canvas of the Star Trek universe. I plot several adventure seeds and then I look at my brushes and decide which one would paint the better picture. Not saying that there is anything wrong with a single type of campaign setting, I just enjoy using all the tools I have at hand, so as to make the best use of the pallette that lies before me.

War is not glorious, it is not romantic, and it is not something to be wished for in and of itself. But I used it to create the images that have created the tapestry that my players won't let me step away from. They have been given nothing powerful that I have not taken away. Their characters have suffered and cried and seen friends turned to ash before their eyes. Characters have retired because the horror of the situation was too much for them to bear. But the players make new characters and build them and we have fun.

I suppose that so long as everyone has fun and you as the narrator can use the brushes at your disposal with any skill, then war can be a viable tool in your story development. But if you haven't seen what war does to someone, or someplace, then maybe you should consider using a different brush. but if you choose to paint with the colors of war, remember that no war is ever fully won. No war was ever truly desired whether they were needed or not. And the first victim is always innocence.