Star Trek: The Kazon Crucible

So, I'm sitting around with some friends, talkin' Trek games. Haven't run one in years and there's the start of an itch in there. I've never run CODA, but have everything but the Mirror Universe eBook. I've never run anything Voyager connected--but immediately dismissed the idea of yet another displaced Federation or Alpha Quadrant ship. Then one of the other guys utters the fateful words, "Why don't you run a Kazon campaign?" snickers all around the table.
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oh you stupid sonsovbeeches, what have you done?
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And I was off! (prolly in more ways than one).
The Setting: Ocampa homeworld, all characters are members of the Kazon Ogla sect. Young, ambitious, they have sworn a blood pact to work together to raise their fortunes. (cardinal rule: NO intra-party conflict! not negotiable.)
Ground Rule: only one non-Kazon PC allowed. (otherwise they will all run, not walk, to get away from playing a Kazon character.)

Types of adventures?
Off the top of my head, expeditions into the ruined cities of the ancient Ocampa. After a thousand years, no tech is likely to be found, but art works and other examples of material culture may well still be there. The Kazon don't value such things, but the Talaxian free traders and Sikarian dilettantes who pass by will pay a pretty bucket of the H2O for them.
So there's dangerous...treks...to the ruins, surviving the harsh environment, collapses, dust storms. and more likely rival gangs looking for treasures as well, or out to loot them from anyone lucky enough to find something valuable. (Combat Archaeology!)
There's "haunted" ruins, where intruders hear disembodied voices uttering dire curses and gory threats (Ocampa who have reached the surface using telepathy to try to scare off the "barbarians".)
There's Viidian organ-raiders looking for anyone isolated and vulnerable enough to be donor-ized.
There's the invisible, bloodthirsty murdering Thing that dwells in the ruins. (A Jem'Hadar survivor of a Dominion ship plucked and discarded by the Caretaker)
Want an Elder God of unspeakable form lurking in some cavern beneath a dead city? No problem! Not all the Nacene are charitable nice type sentients. Once the Caretaker is dead, one of them has slipped back to the planet with ill intent.

Eventually, the pack will gain enough Renown to merit their own raider-shuttle and take to plundering the stars!

There were stunned looks and uncomfortable coughs, but I have two tentative takers and a couple other prospects.

now, say it with me..."MWAH HAAA HAAAA HAAAAH!"

Ya know...this might just work!

Dun dun Duhhh!

Don't see why it shouldn't if your players embrace it. Best of luck with your campaign if it starts up.

A couple of quibbles/points of discussion:

First, despite the fact that we saw a glimpse of an extraordinarily passive, pacific society does not mean that the Ocampa are all of a piece. They will have scoundrels. rogues, and villains just like any other society- particularly once the Caretaker "abandons" them and real desperation begins to set it.

Imagine the fun if one such Ocampa actually joins your Kazon group for his own reasons...

You have the potential for infighting, political drama, and the ultimate questions "Who is manipulating who?"

"Are we advancing the Kazon Oglas's interests, or those of Ocampa X?"

Just because the players aren't allowed intraparty in-fighting doesn't mean you're not.

Second, the Ocampa homeworld is extraordinarily dead, dry, and barren. This is both boon and bane.

On the plus side, the lack of nucleogenic particles precludes rain- which means it prevents the formation of any other form of condensation as well. No moisture means no rust, mold, mildew, or "wet" rot.

These conditions will serve to preserve pretty much any non-organic materials- including the ancient technologies.

The greatest threat to such troves will (as you have already deduced) be raiders and looters- which means only that your party will need to go deeper, into the darker, more dangerous, more obscure locations to get what they need.

On the minus side, the planet is a massive, empty sandbox of death. After a thousand years with no water, no rain, no life- there's going to be almost zero native opposition and very little chance for conflict or drama. As the Narrator, you're essentially going to have to either create conflict in your party or import it from off-world.

In the meantime, the Ocampa will not (cannot) be idle. With the exception of their energy needs, the Ocampa live in a closed system. They have everything they need on hand except power. What would they trade to get it?

If there's anything their world is good for, however, it is solar energy. If they were to park a sufficiently large solar plant above their city, it would help- but not solve- a lot of their problems.

Of course, they'd need a security/maintenance force to protect such an installation from the elements and other raiders...

Playing your cards right, this could be anything from an equitable arrangement to a repeat of Bartertown from Thunderdome.

One possible solution to this is the fact that the rest of the sector is really no better off than Ocampa (the world).

The Talaxians have a star-faring culture, but Neelix was still amazed at all the water Voyager possessed. This suggests that the Kazon/Talaxian technology levels are pretty much par for the course.

If word were to spread that the Ocampa had begun reclaiming their ancient knowledge/technology and were willing to share/barter/trade for either supplies or advanced knowledge, their world would quickly become a magnet for treasure seekers, information brokers, applicants, supplicants, and profiteers of every sort.

The Trabe will be keenly interested in such a development for three reasons:

1) they would see any effort to arm/equip/unite the Kazon as a threat to themselves and will fear the altered balance of power a Kazon/Ocampa alliance would represent.
2) they will likely covet any recovered knowledge and technology for themselves,

3) they will see the Ocampa as rivals for power and control of the sector.

As such- and given their penchant for violence, treachery, and deceitful conduct, the Trabe have the potential to become the primary villains in your campaign.

The other two problems you're going to face are cultural and thematic.

Culturally, the Kazon are scavengers, not builders and warriors, not scholars.

Basic literacy will be a problem for all but a select few and you can forget any sort of advance theory. The onscreen evidence suggests that technical skills are passed down teacher-to-student in an apprenticeship-like arrangement. What training there is is going to be focused on practical applications, not the underlying theoretical principles.

This makes it all the more likely that your party will either begin with skill set necessary to operate a ship (which begs questions about not only where and how they got the knowledge, but why they were abandoned on the surface) or must acquire those skills.

If it's the latter, a "friendly" Ocampa teacher becomes that much more essential to the story line.

The thematic problem is more of a personal prejudice than a serious problem: take everything the follows with a grain of salt.

It's your group, your game. Do what feels best to you.

To me, the appeal of Star Trek is the "hopeful future" that Roddenberry created and others expanded upon. Even DS9- with its war-time theme, clung to the idea that humanity and human values have a bright future. Star Trek is as much about exploring the nobility of the human spirit as visiting strange, new worlds.

I am concerned that you will have a hard time both engendering and maintaining that same sort of atmosphere in your campaign- and that the hope will be lost in the pursuit of new technologies and new acquisitions.

Playing "barbarians in space" is all well and good, but it's not "Star Trek".

My concern is that you may wind up playing in the Star Trek setting rather than playing Star Trek.

If that is your desire (and the desire of your players), more's the better- but the dichotomy should (at least) be taken into consideration in your planning.

Here are some quick mission ideas, I came up with. Use them, discard them, burn them in effigy, if that's what makes you happy ;) :

- Power couplers in the Ocampa city are beginning to fail. The Ocampa hire the heroes to escort an engineering party to the ruins of an ancient Ocampan city to scavenge more. Automated defense systems or another scavenger party stand in their way.

- In an effort to reseed their world with nucleogenic particles, the Ocampa hit upon the brilliant scheme of altering the course of cometary ice to impact with remote sections of the planet's surface. In order to accomplish this, they hire the heroes to help resurrect an ancient Ocampan deep-space tug. Once the ship is space-worthy, the heroes have to locate and redirect one of the cometary bodies. The bad news is someone that has done their sums wrong and the cometary impact will cause tremendous damage to the Ocampan city. The heroes need to correct the trajector now, quick, and in a hurry. Will outsiders interfere with the project? If so, why?

- Long range sensors indicate an instrument pallet (a probe) using a tetryon reactor is nearing the last position of the caretaker's array before it was destroyed. The array itself was powered by tetryon reactors- is the probe itself Caretaker technology? What secrets might it hold?

- The Ocampa have uncovered records which make vague references to a vast, forgotten archive buried in the ruins of an ancient city half-way across the planet. They hire the heroes to travel to the library (either on their own or escort a party of scholars there). Although the archives are intact, the surrounding structure is in extreme danger of collapsing- possibly trapping the party.

- Traders appear offering to sell advanced technology- some of it Caretaker, some of it Federation in origin. Something is wrong... Are their wares genuine? Where did they acquire it? What are their real motives?

- (False) rumors surface of an ancient Ocampa super-weapon buried in the northern deserts. The weapon is said to have the potential to reshape the face of the quadrant. The heroes, the Ocampa, various other Kazons sects, Talaxian dissidents, and the Trabe are now in a cut-throat, winner-takes-all race to find seize, and control the weapon of the century.

So this is set post-Caretaker, pre-Think Tank?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by selek

Playing "barbarians in space" is all well and good, but it's not "Star Trek".

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Well, this is based on Voyager, after all.

Not decided on time period just yet. The Think Tank Vidiian issue, I think can be worked around. Been awhile since I've seen the episode, but I only recall hearing the claim that the Phage had been cured, but not necessarily that it had been eradicated. Suppose that the "cure" is more of an inoculation/vaccine that only the next generation will benefit from, or is a very expensive treatment that is not available to the masses just yet. Or that the treatment will take years to carry out. Lots of room to keep the Vidiians all icky and villainous!

Ocampa is certainly an option for the one non-Kazon PC slot. Lots of room to work there. I imagine using them as antagonists, their nature and abilities mostly unknown, sort of reverse elves who live underground, have brief lives but have access to all sorts of technical equipment and strange mental powers.

The Trabe are certainly high up there as a Threat Species. Utterly villainous from the Kazon point of view and pretty much irredeemable. Unlikely as the non-Kazon option, but I foresee using a Trabe slave with technical expertise and tricksy talents who might wind up manipulating his/her "owners" without them knowing it.

As for tone, I have no trouble with playing the setting. I've run many a dark Trek rpg game. From Klingons to a Tal Shiar campaign which saw the lead character noticing odd discrepancies around him and wondering if that "miraculous" rescue from the Cardassians early in the campaign really happened, or was he being subjected to the same holodeck style interrogation trickery that he himself has used many times? That character also had a "Paranoid" flaw, so the player couldn't be sure if I was working that angle, or if things really were seriously..."wrong". (the fact that I ended that fairly brief campaign with an off-screen voice saying; "End Program." didn't help. heh!)

But I think the more challenging goal is to see and play the Kazon from the inside. No one is a villain in their own story! While others see scavengers and thugs, barbarians in space, the Kazon see themselves as free, resourceful, cunning and bold. They escaped slavery for the freedom of the stars and now they have to work to stay free, with the Haakonian Order pressing in toward them and constant raiding from their rival Sects. Think "Wind and the Lion" meets "Pirates of the Caribbean" in space. Among the Kazon, no one holds a position of power who hasn't earned it--with combat and blood and strategy. They are fighting long odds to stave off their enemies, scrabbling for survival and fighting for their toehold among the stars! If they win, then the future is hopeful and bright. And free! for them, anyway.

After centuries of organ-raiding, some Vidiians might actually prefer their Frankensteinian self-creation.

Shiny. It sounds like you've got your concept well in hand. Lots of good ideas to play with.

This sounds like a terrific idea for a campaign setting; and something I'd definitely be interested in a sourcebook for.

I especially like Selek's idas.

And it reminds me of the video-game, Klingon Honour Guard (where the player is a Klingon Honor Guard trainee) - practically everyone in the game is a Klingon. Except for occasional Andorian or Nausicaan bad guy. No Federation, or Starfleet anywhere.

And BTW - I love Voyager. Well, some of the characters, and the general concept of the Intrepid class starship, more than the actual show and it's setting and premise.

I love Torres, Tuvok, and Paris; and years ago I played a security officer on an on-line game set aboard an Intrepid class ship operating in the Alpha Quadrant. Good game.

1999 - good year for on-line "SIM" gaming.

Heh! Selek's ideas are about two thirds of the way to a full on Ocampa campaign! I fully intend to steal a couple if I can get this game up and running.

Between the Trek Star Charts book and the Trek Encyclopedia, I've got enough vague references and located systems to run with for quite some time. Sourcebook wise, there's a lot of useful things I'd love to have and will eventually have to design in no one else beats me to them.

Right off the bat, there's the "Trabalian" freighter that Neelix mentions working on and that dangerous trade mission to Keloda. The Trabalians would be active rignt in the middle of the "Free Space" between the K-Ogla and the Haakonian Order.

Kind of thinking of two ways to go with the Trabalians. Trabal is AWFULLY close to "Trabe" which makes the planet a good candidate for a Trabe refugee settlement. It's right on the edge of the Order, enough to be protected from direct attack from the Kazon and still be within spitting distance of their old borders.

The other possibility would be a completely different species. I've been browsing unnamed aliens from Voyager and scrutinizing backgrounds from the series. I think this fellow, a map dealer that Neelix knows at the Nekrit Expanse station might be a good candidate for a "Trabalian":

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Unna...4th_century%29

After that my wish list includes Haakonian stats and Haakonian ships; Myleans (genetically viable with Talaxians so the Talaxian template is a good basis, but they seem to have a lot of variant traits--light sensitive eyes, fused vertebrae, etc); the Gree (they have hairy proboscis which figure prominently in their mating practices--I can't help picturing a blue-furred, small elephant-like trunk humanoid for them, but I suspect that is Muppets influence ); there's the Krowtonan Guard that Equinox ran into. (I was thinking maybe the green reptilian mine slave from "Faces"--but I also considered them for the triple-spined Yallitians).
There's Sikarians and their ships.
The Baneans and the Nimuri:
I got as far as BANEANS +1 INT +1 PRESENCE -1 VITALITY
NIMURI +1 PERCEPTION +1 VITALITY with secretive and devious traits.
but I have never run CODA, let alone designed anything for it, so it will take awhile before I'm comfortable trying to stat up new Species!

Ah. me. So much to do!

Oh yeah. I think I scribbled down a -1 PRESENCE for the secretive and hostile Nimuri.
And there's Ilidarians. Wholly unseen but advanced and friendly (most of the time) enough to be active space farers.

From Memory Alpha...

David R. George III and Eric A. Stillwell's original story involved the crew of Voyager encountering the race that had dispatched Gary Seven in the Original Series episode "Assignment: Earth". That race had boasted transporter technology that could transport individuals over thousands of light-years. According to Stillwell, "David and I speculated what might happen if the Voyager crew happened upon that civilization. What if they had the ability to transport our crew back to Earth, but because of some terrible failure caused by their intervention on another world in the past, they'd adopted their own kind of Prime Directive to avoid any such disasters in the future? This was the essence of our pitch." While Executive Producer Michael Piller was not fond of the TOS tie-in, he bought the pitch because he liked "the fool's gold nature of the story," which he compared to the film The Treasure of Sierre Madre. [1]

The scripting of this episode was influenced by the fact that the Sikarians were originally intended to become one of three recurring, antagonistic alien races in Star Trek: Voyager's first season (the other two being the Kazons and Vidiians). (Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages, p. 127)

As many of the old-timers here may remember, I loved Voyager in general and the Kazon in particular. They are, in my opinion, one of the least properly used adversarial races introduced into a Star Trek Series.

I enjoyed the back story of the Kazon race, their subjugation and victimization by the Trabe, the rebellion that led to their freedom, and the diaspora that followed. They are a race of barbarians, far more so that the Klingons or the Nausicaans. They live in factions remarkably similar to the L.A. gangs of the 1990s, with their varying colors and modes of dress and their internecine warfare.

I literally cheered when the Kazon took control of Voyager and dumped them on Hanon IV; I hoped it was a sign that the Series was changing course and that they'd have to figure out another way home while the Kazon-Nistrim used Voyager to ruin their region of space. But, alas, it was not meant to be. Darn you, Lon Suder!

In any case, they kind of vanished after that, which is unfortunate. They are a vibrant and violent group, capable of all kinds of subterfuge and other assorted nastiness (which, in my opinion, makes them a great choice for PCs, particularly in an all-Kazon Series like the one proposed).

I am following this thread with great interest.

mactavish out.

Progressing slowly.
More or less decided to have it both ways with Trabal. I'm placing an indigenous species there based on the "Map Dealer" alien from the Nekrit Expanse station. And, I see it as one of the far flung corners of the old Trabe order. There's a large and well established Trabe population there, who mostly live in refugee camps or in segregated communities in the major cities. The Trabe didn't endear themselves to the indigenous species, so the Trabalians are happy to let them live in squalor and desperation. There are even small pockets of unSected Kazons living on Trabal, remnants of the slave crews brought in by the Trabe for construction jobs during the "Colonial Period". The name "Trabal" itself is the name that the Trabe gave the planet when they first landed there.
The Haakonian Order arrived about a decade ago and immediately put an end to generations of squabbling and feuding among the planet's various minority populations. The Haakonians are generally well liked since the planet has thrived under their protection and Rule of Law. As a people, they are considered aloof, a little domineering, but generally dispassionate and fair administrators.
The Trabalians had close ties to Talax and welcomed Talaxian refugees during their war with the Haakonians. Many of those Talaxians moved on past the fringe of the Haakonian Order's borders, and now exist as free traders plying the unclaimed systems of Free Space. Talaxians have also moved into fashion and the arts on Trabal, bringing a more colorful and vibrant atmosphere to the urban trade centers.

And behind the scenes, as it were, I've been selecting mood, theme and inspiration music while tinkering and designing.

Pretty much the "series theme" comes from the "Conan the Destroyer" sound track--specifically the rising, victory music from the Conan smashes the mirrors scene. It's lighter than Poledouris' "Conan the Barbarian" music, but still has a nicely operatic martial sound to it.

And, while watching "Inglorious Basterds" again with a friend (the first time she saw it), Bowie's "Putting Out the Fire" song immediately struck me as inspiration for a nasty Nacene villain. Working on it...

SBob, I love your brain.

Have you given any thought to Seska's child? To Maje Culluh?

What about the Kazon-Nistrim in general? Did they survive their final conflict with Voyager?

I loved your idea of deranged Jem'Hadar soldier haunting the ruins, but what about the Ketracel-White addiction?

I always thought that there should have been all kinds of Alpha Quadrant races in the area around the Ocampa homeworld, pulled there by the Caretaker and then not returned, either because they attacked the array and were destroyed (leaving only survivors in lifeboats or shuttles) or took off before the Caretaker could send them back.

Maybe a Romulan (or a Breen) ship that cloaked and took off before the Caretaker could react, or a Cardassian ship formerly commanded by an overzealous Gul who chose to attack the array only to have his ship flung "away," but not back to the Alpha Quadrant.

I once had a whole notebook chock full of ideas about a Delta Quadrant Series, some of which I'd used and others that I wish I had. You've got me looking for that purple spiral notebook again... maybe in the garage...

mactavish out.