In playtest, the players were sweating bullets over how to deal with the scenario presented as more information came slowly trickling in and the full scale of the situation bgan to present itself
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In playtest, the players were sweating bullets over how to deal with the scenario presented as more information came slowly trickling in and the full scale of the situation bgan to present itself
At this point, a large fragment outside the ships hull will bump into it. While no penetrations result, it will knock out the rather threadbare systems that were still functioning (lights, gravity, etc.), rendering the ship completely dark, as well as dislodging anything that had been secured by ‘sticky’, leading to a rather surreal lighting scheme as the light tumbles through the hall and impacts from various flotsam can be heard. The radio booster, being magnetically clamped to the floor, will not be affected. If they players think to listen, they’ll pick up the following:
“Net? What was that?”
Synthetic voice responds: “It would appear that this particular impact had rendered the xeno-ships power systems inoperable, Commander Felna. Gravity Plating appears to be offline.”
“Wonderful. Anything else I should know about?”
“General Frothgar is currently not very pleased with you. I’ve had to divert a rather vociferous report to back home.”
“Story of my life. It will make packing this body up a little easier.”
“You’ve become cynical, Erma.”
“I seem to remember Derzon and how a few well meaning officers tried back-benching me because I was female. Then I went and got shot in action and became an icon. They were real pleased about that.”
“True, but this is a different situation all together. I can only dampen and divert these kind of reports for so long before someone starts noticing. It’s only recently that the Creator protocols activated allowing me to spread and clean up the damage caused by the Net Editing tool that was deployed. I cannot be too blatant or someone will start notice that I’m up and running again.”
*sigh* “Understood. It’s just…this is so different than what I signed on for.”
“Societal breakdowns will do that. That incident with your former lover was not pleasant.”
“Don’t remind me. You think I need a S.P.I. Re-Eval when I get back?”
“Hardly. A bit of downtime might be in order, however.”
“Toki will love that. She hates getting in the flightsuit.”
“True.”
“Cracking Chem-sticks.”
At this point, the players will see a soft green light in the in a room several doors down and will see a glowing rod float out and attach itself to the far wall. A bit of grousing will be picked up over the com channels as Erma is attempting to maneuver a body bag as well as several evidence bags in Zero-G. astute players monitoring their tricorders will also notice a rythimic pulse being send out from her suit every few seconds as she enteres the hull. A simple test will indicate that it is a millimeter-wave radar unit attached to her space suit and feeding into her helmets HUD. The tension at this time should be relatively high as the ships hull will have fragments grinding against it, the power has gone completely out and players who have managed to get to cover will notice that Erma is packing a machine pistol on her right hip (actually quite lethal to the players).
How the players wish to handle this is up to them, but caution is advised. Erma is not likely to shoot first given her EDF indoctrination and general rationalist culture background, but she will be unpleasantly surprised to find survivors. The ships damage and general reports from the various crews has shown that their have been no possibility of survivors (well….to the local tech level it would seem impossible), and to have living xenos show up (particularly any humans) might actually make her go into panic mode (given the sordid ‘mars needs women’ meme floating around, the GM is encouraged to come up with all sorts of bad ideas to have go through her head). Or a look of wonder. Or possibly one of inquiry. She will however inform her command ship that she has made first contact.
{ed note: I'll be popping in a few sample questions a bit later on to give an idea on what sort of things our poor NPC will ask}
Ponder...
What happens when a Federation ship sails up and the CO gets on the line to these aliens, and says "I am James T. Kirk of the Federation of Planets. The object that your salvage crews are working on is on of our ships. We want it back, if you don't mind, and would like to open a dialogue with your planetary leadership explaining the Federation, and discussing your world's potential alliance or Membership in it."
I mean, some players might see what is more or less a Saturn V rocket wedged into a saucer, and just sail on up into parking orbit, and "Go for it."
I'm not clear on what the planned theme for this adventure is.
Is it:
Can we play Gods to Space-going kitties?
Do we deny the Kitties their religion by proving we are not Gods?
Who owns a starship wrecked in another's backyard, who is already taking it apart?
Or
How can we be sneaky and recover our ship, while at the same time covering our backside, politically, while being the oh-so-cool and friendly Federation?
I mean if the situation was reversed, and some alien catlike race sails up to one of Earth's first space going vessels wrecked into some weird space folding ship, and says, Hi, this is our ship, you can't have it, **BOOM*** it explodes, PS You aren't ready for this technology...and sails off. who are they to decide?
But if they approach and say, "We are part of a group of 1000 peaceful worlds, we want to talk to you." there's paranoia, but someone up in the chain will see okay they didn't torch New York, London, Mexico City, and Bangkok right off, so maybe we can talk to them.
I mean, if they are space-faring, ultimately, the Federation will have to deal with them at some point. The possible advance to their tech via re-engfineering of Fed tech is a much more secondary side issue, I would think.
I see a Ship's CO (Empowered as Ambassador by Regulations), Doc (To explain/study thier physiology or as a psych consultant), one or a pair of security guards (just because regulations demand it, and generally a good idea), and a handful of Caitians/whatever cat-like race you have in your specific setting (for empathy/ like-mindedness, even if overly simplistic) beaming down, and having a big talk, with the feds getting a slightly faster warp drive via improved use of anti-matter conversion, and the Dornathantii learning of the big wide world, and perhaps getting clues as to their origins.
If they react badly, the Federation vessel would more than likely be able to defend itself, tractor the ship out, plunge it into the sun and warp out, etc.
What theme are you trying to prove with this?
The theme in this case is Unintended Consquences, really. The Dornithanti are a bit twitchy after breaking away from their ConFed homeworld (explained later) and have never really met a Xeno (as most of the local planetary cluster is compsoed of species that jumped from homeworld and settled). They are aware of humans indirectly, and have no idea what to think if they bumped into one. While rational...then tend to err on the side of caution.
A human (but not terran) corpse was found on a vessel in their system recently and thier technology is obviously dirived from the vessel (thier is lower grade, but thier are way to many similarities to conclude otherwise). DNA analysis renders them as being build from human DNA with thier own species traits integrated into it.
Which opens a very disturbing question for them: Why? until they found this evidence, the concept of God or a creator was sort of a vague abstraction that wasn't really addressed much except in local chat sessions (cultural trait, they are a chatty bunch) as a thing of academic interest. Now that they have phsyical proof, local society is losing it's collective mind, half in wonder, the other half in terror of what the Creators are like, and every question under the sun, half of which never occured to them previously, is being asked.
Their previous evidence of Humanity (xenos) indicates a highly secretive bunch that created a collection of spieces whole cloth, gave them tech to reach for the stars and do as they will.....and no guidance whatsoever. Not exactly what you could call friendly.
Then the Nebula shows up. And it appears to be the same species with other spieces (?!?) coming to check up on them. In a far more advanced vessel. With incredible devices. And their ship was trashed in system via local intervention (even if it was an accident). But they don't know how the Creators will take that
Every nightmare scenario for the players to deal with. And it wasn't the Federation's fault on this one, but they have to deal with it before it spirals out of control.
This part of the post is actually a very relevant question. Consider how many of us like TOS and that style of game. Someone will surely point out that in TOS this was a very common, acceptable thing. Kirk swings into the system and announces his presence and who he works for. Starfleet/Federation ask for alliance with a new race to beat the Klingons to the punch. If the players play in that genre of Star Trek, the GM should be prepared with knowledge of the responses likely by the catfolk. I'd like to see what you intend for those of us who don't follow the Tip-toe Around Every Situation playbook distributed by Starfleet during TNG.Quote:
Originally Posted by LUGTrekGM
Alex, exactly my point.
In my TOS Movies Era campaign, this scenario would last a half hour, tops, expressly because as you said, the pressure to get them to join before they join the Klingons would force the issue.
Not that this is a bad concept, it just wouldn't fit my campaign style at all.
Still working on this. Just been very busy. Am also working on some graphics and species templates.
Re-reading this thread, I am struck anew that this seems like material for a novel, with all of the back and forth dialogue going on behind the scenes, among the salvage crews that find the wreckage.
I'm not saying it's not a good scenario, just that the way it's laid out, it feels like material that would be seen in a novel format, rather than as a game scenario, which typically focusses on the crew's perception of events.
It's also good for lazy GM's... generating a lot of fluff material like this can be extremelly timetaking, yet essential for this type of game-spin - the slow reveal with human details makes it more engrosing than rolling a bunch of dice and revealing a blip on the radar :D
Have we done a work up on the factions within this system? General characteristics, make up, leadership, likely reactions? What of the popular media . . . or commonly broadcasted intellectual media?
If they have done their Recon . . . and had the oppertunity to do so . . . their contingent of xenosociologist can be a very valuable resource (that is if they have one)
True, seeing all this backstory, that is the story, essentially.
It makes me wonder if it thus might be adaptable as the Federation accidentally crashes their own saucer into the God-like aliens' rocket (or the equivalent).
A work up for all of the factions will be forthcoming with the system write up. now that I have the time to accutally do it :DQuote:
Originally Posted by JALU3
I'm just finding this thread now, so forgive some replies to stuff from Page Two. :) (And Three)
"Um, Captain, I think the issue of first contact has already been resolved here: intentionally or not, the Hawking has made First Contact with these people. As for how we procede from this point, I cite the precedent of the people of Mintaka III: when a Federation anthropological study team accidentally revealed advanced technology to the Mintakans, Captain Jean-Luc Picard decided the best way to minimize the effect on their society was to make open contact and explain the situation.Quote:
The players might need to be reminded that the Locals still appear to be pre-warp civilization, therefore FC is proscribed.
"These people are less likely to mistake us for Gods than if they were in the Bronze Age, but I think we can safely say that they are now aware of intelligent life in the universe beyond their solar system, so we don't have to keep our existence secret anymore."
:)
From what I've read, the plan goes like this:Quote:
Originally posted by kridenow:
I don't understand how the player crew is supposed to go close to the wreck without being detected.
"How close can we get to the Hawking while always keeping one of these Really Big Rocks between us and all of the alien ships, Helmsman?"
"Pretty darn close, sir. Well within Transporter range."
"Make it so."
Yes, in reality asteroid fields are not the dense clusterings of rocks seen in SF films, but Trek is one of the SF franchises that has asteroid fields that are penteratable only by stunt pilots. :) (Just look at the one in "The Pegasus", or "Booby Trap".)
I already see one thing: it won't do the job. Parts of the ship have already been removed, and other parts may have been removed to distant locations. Since the objective is to prevent anyFederation technology falling into their hands, the players need to figure out what's been taken and get it ALL back before they blow it up.Quote:
Actually I am looking for a way to prevent players to use such an easy solution.
Although I believe the cause of the accident was them testing an FTL drive, there is no evidence of them possessing any FTL capability: they travel around their system in fusion-powered ships, which is a fair description of a ship using an Impulse Engine.Quote:
Originally posted by Tobian:
This civilisation is technically not a pre-warp culture - their technology uses alternate means to provide faster than light travel, but it still does so.
Well, even if it was not aware that it was a hybrid, it might well be aware that it did not evolve on the planet upon which it resides. Faced with a total absence of your ancestors int he fossil record (beyond a date a few thousand years back), there are 2 obvious conclusions one might draw:Quote:
Originally posted by Tobian:
I mean a cat Hybrid would not know it was a hybrid with a cat, unless it had seen both a cat and a human and done DNA testing.. Unless they have very advanced genetics, they might not be able to tell their DNA is not natural anyway. If cats are common on their world, then how would a cat photo be significant?! A cat, to them, might look like a wierd baby, like the way Greys often look like distorted children (or even foetuses) to us.. it's just a thought.
1) GOD created your kind and plunked you down upon this planet, or
2) ALIENS transplanted your ancestors to here.
Then you find an alien spaceship, one that uses technology clearly far in advance of your own, and on this ship you find a photo that shows a member of its crew holding in their lap someone who looks remarkably like your cousin. :)
I can see someone in this situation looking at the cat and realizing that it looks too similar to his own people to be anything but an ancestor (or a descendant of a common ancestor).
This means either that this ship belongs to the people who transplanted you here, or that the Chief Engineer on this ship was God. :)
Hmm. This seems ... familiar. Is it a coincidence?Quote:
A bit of grousing will be picked up over the com channels as Erma is attempting to maneuver a body bag as well as several evidence bags in Zero-G.
Nope: no coincindence. Been there, done that, bought the RPG. :)Quote:
Erma is not likely to shoot first given her EDF indoctrination ...
Boys and girls, this is a franchise cross-over.
Not that there's anything wrong with that.
:)
Keep it coming, I like it so far.
Quote:
Originally Posted by spyone
I was waiting for someone to notice :D
Which franchise, Wing Commander?
A little known comic that's been published over the Last 20 years Called Albedo Anthopomorphics. It's follows the trails and trivails of one Erma Felna, a Flight Officer in the Extra Planetary Defense Force. It takes a very hard science approach to space travel and the author stated he used anthros to eject what he called 'human perceptual baggage' from the storyline all together. it'sa young civilization, given access to space flight technologies and advanced A.I. and left behind by it's creators for reasons which no one really has been able to figure out.
It'sa lot better than most writing seen on TV and it's pretty deep stuff. It does emphasize problem solving over combat in the stories, only because when the EDF and the ILR really cut loose on each other, massive destruction ensues. A good read if you can find it
Did you read the RPG?
I've got it, but haven't cracked it open really. I've got most of the comics and collected "Command Review" issues that puts the serial into an easy to read form for reference.
I've made soem adjsutments obvious for the adventure, but I wanted to throw a curve ball at the players and make this a more problem solving than shooty scenario
Contact: Um…Take Us To Your Leader?
Obviously handling this rather delicate situation is going to take some work, depending on how the players handle it. They could try to sneak away. Erma’s sensor is a simple radar/ladar system that could be jammed using tricorders, but considering her general level of paranoia, she might consider that the ship itself might be interfering and may have it’s own A.I. working under it’s own power. Or perhaps surviving crew.
The other option is to initate First Contact protocols and approach her. How the players attempt to do this is up to them, but any one who does a medical scan on her will detect heightened stress levels consistent with nervousness and more than a little fear.
Questions for Erma will be rational, probing, and perhaps a bit resentful. Awe and worship is something her collection of species haven’t really had the time to consider as they concept of “Who made the Universe?” hasn’t really crossed their minds as of yet, so her questions will be more practically based. Some examples might include.
Who are you?
What are you?
What do you want?
Why did you create my people? Food? Breeding stock? Hunting Game?
Why is this ship in our system? Were you spying on us?
If the answers are relatively honest and mild, Erma will become more friendly, as she is not one to give into flights of fancy, and the concept of Xeno’s lying hasn’t really occurred to her.
[updating as I can, but massive overtime has thrown my game writing time into turmoil]