Thinking about new series

Ok..... as I'm preparing for my NX-era series finale next saturday I have begun thinking about my next Trek series.

My plan is a series that must be one of the most classis Star Trek: RPG concepts of all time...

Star Trek: Daedalus

I intend to let my playes Crew the first Daedalus-class starship meaning that I plan a series in the 2160's.
My basic idea is to have the first season taking place in 2161 (ending with the founding of the federation).

My problem is that I really like series with long-going stories with lots of political intrigue and not that much alien/anomaly/strange planet of the week episodes.

The 2150's are a great era for such stories with the pre-federation intrigue between Earth. Vulcan and Andor, the relation to Tellar, Alpha Centauri and Denobula and of course the foreshadowing of the Earth-Romulan war...
(I just wathed Kir'Shara and i LOVED the final scene!)

But in the 60's Erath, Vulcan and Andor are allies in the federation, Denobulans are extinct and the Romulans have returned to the shadows....

I really need help from you guys (and girls)...
What can I do to get the feel I want in the 60's?

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Originally Posted by BraidsMamma

Denobulans are extinct and the Romulans have returned to the shadows....

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I don't know were you got that idea, unless your basing it on the fact we never saw a Denobulan after the Ent. era. But that is not totally conclusive they could have shrunk into Isolation for all we know.

As to the Romulans I don't think there above the usual intrigue in times of peace and there resemblance to Vulcans backs the probablity that sleeper agents had infiltrated the Federation long before being outed in "Balance of Terror"

As to other hooks there is always the Orions who could've been more center stage in this period LUG had a significant battle between them and the Federation in 2167 if I remember right.

In addition just because we form a Federation does not mean we are one big happy family over night fringe groups could muck things up for awhile and each planet/race might still be pursuing there own agendas while still being apart of the Federation, American History would be a good place to look for Idea's especially the 1783-1815 period remember we were the United States (plural) and not the United State's (Singular) in those days.

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Originally Posted by Eric R.

I don't know were you got that idea, unless your basing it on the fact we never saw a Denobulan after the Ent. era. But that is not totally conclusive they could have shrunk into Isolation for all we know.

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A year before the outbreak of the Romulan war my players triggered a civil war on Denobula and since then everybody's been to busy to pay Denobula a visit.

I plan on having the series premire where the crew are sent to investigate the Denobulan silence just to find out that Denobulans are almost extinct (explaining the absence in later Trek).

About the Romulans it's hard to let the sleeper agent play any major role since I can't allow my players to realise the connection between Vulcans and Romulans.

I have planned one or two Orion Syndicate episodes but I think it's hard to write stories about them..... I wolud be really happy if someone could link me to any more information/adventure seeds concerning the Orion Syndicate.

Thanks for the help...

If you want politics, and less exploration, simply set it near Earth.

Have the ship carry / escort an ambassador, or have the captain act as one.

I want the crew to be a part of large scale political irtrigue...
Much like Trip and Soval are in The Vulcan Triology....

You could always have the Orions acting as a go between the Sleeper agent and the Romulans.

Here are some ideas for stuff to do:

-If you let your player bring in thier characters from your NX campaign they can bring along some sort of previously established relationships that you canuse for story ideas.

-Keep in mind that while the Federation is founded in 2161, that doesn't mean that everyone suddenly likes each other. The players could be very busy playing peacekeepers. Two of the member woulds could easily get into some sort of conflict that could threaten to break up the Federation or even war. That is, unless somone can prvent it. There should be lots of opportunities for diplomacy, skullugury and such.


-What happens when a ship from a plantary fleet gets into a jurisdictional or territorial dispute with a Starfleet vessel? Probably hasn't been worked out yet.


-What if a member planet gets caught doing something "wrong" to another member or even a non-member planet (or group)? Which side to the players support? Thier Allies, the strangers, or who is the most right?

-The ship could visit some of the worlds that have already been discovered (or ven discover some new worlds) to try and get other to join the Federation.

-The ship could visit some systems and make first contact with planet that may someday join the Fderation. After all, someone had to convince the Coridans, Betazoids, and Trill to join.

-The ship could help found a new colony. This could lead to more diplomatic problems (like can the colonial administer order the ship? Can the ship order the colonists? Are the colonists even under Federation control, as thier world isn't a member world yet? What if the Andorian colonists and the Telleraites argue over a section of land or supplies? And a nice fat transport ship is great pickings for ( forOrions, Naussicans, Klingons).


-Trade: Hey all thse new ships are going to need supplies like lithium/dilithium.

-With a handful of starship and lots of space to cover the Deadlaus will probalby get pulled in several directions at once. What if the ship is on a mission to get perishable vaccinces for a small colony, when the suddenly get a distress call. Do they answer the call (and risk the colony) or ignore the ship?

-What if someone outside of the Federation actually comes looking for the Deadalus for a reason. Maybe someone needs some protection.

-When the Orions and Klingons find out about this Federation f Planets headquarted at Earth, they will probably think that it is bing done an an alliance against them. Someone will have to convince them otherwise. Plus, SOMEONE has to offer the Klingons the chance to join the Federation.

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Originally Posted by tonyg

-If you let your player bring in thier characters from your NX campaign they can bring along some sort of previously established relationships that you canuse for story ideas.

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That's my idea.... one of my players got deeply involved in the founding of Section 31 (I havn't seen Affliction so please don't spoil anything) and I plan to put her as the XO on the Daedalus and have at least one plot that focuses on Section 31.
I also plan an episode with flashbacks from my NX campaign (thorugh a Vulcan mind meld).

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Originally Posted by tonyg

-Keep in mind that while the Federation is founded in 2161, that doesn't mean that everyone suddenly likes each other. The players could be very busy playing peacekeepers. Two of the member woulds could easily get into some sort of conflict that could threaten to break up the Federation or even war. That is, unless somone can prvent it. There should be lots of opportunities for diplomacy, skullugury and such.

-What happens when a ship from a plantary fleet gets into a jurisdictional or territorial dispute with a Starfleet vessel? Probably hasn't been worked out yet.


-What if a member planet gets caught doing something "wrong" to another member or even a non-member planet (or group)? Which side to the players support? Thier Allies, the strangers, or who is the most right?

-The ship could visit some of the worlds that have already been discovered (or ven discover some new worlds) to try and get other to join the Federation.

-The ship could visit some systems and make first contact with planet that may someday join the Fderation. After all, someone had to convince the Coridans, Betazoids, and Trill to join.

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I see your point here and I think there are some posibility for this kind of plots.. but I think it's hard to do lots of good RPG episodes around this kind of stories.... or at least I suck at it ;)

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Originally Posted by tonyg

-When the Orions and Klingons find out about this Federation f Planets headquarted at Earth, they will probably think that it is bing done an an alliance against them. Someone will have to convince them otherwise. Plus, SOMEONE has to offer the Klingons the chance to join the Federation.

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I'm still not sure if I'm going to introduce klingons yet..... but I like the idea of starting of the second season with a "find the Orions"-arc.... much like the first episodes of the Xindi arc...

Thakns for the ideas...

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Originally Posted by BraidsMamma

I see your point here and I think there are some posibility for this kind of plots.. but I think it's hard to do lots of good RPG episodes around this kind of stories.... or at least I suck at it ;)...

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And thats why we are all here, so our crazy, slow, backwords, or lame ideas can get get alittle better :D This is a huge brain trust use it . . . we can get you along fairly well with just a basic idea of what you want. Look at whats been generated with just your first basic post.

Yeah, all you need to do first contact scenarios is to have a culture, strange, designed with like three specific things different from what we as humans would think as normal.

Braidsmama,

One way to get the iplomatic stuff going is to write up 3 or more factions. Then work up a list of things that each side wants/agress with from the other and things that they don't want/disagree with.

Then create something new to toss into the fray and think how each side would react to it, and how they would react to the other side.

Introduce the new thing in the middle of another story and let the players and thier story affect/interact with the new thing.

Assume that nothing that happens is random, just one side's plot.

Then just let thing domino onto each other.


Here is an example based upon my last campaign. That campaign was set on an remote station near the Breen & Romulan borders (DS9 era). THe conteding powers in that campaign were:

The Federation: Mostly the Starfleet personal based on the station. For the most part thier goals are to protect the Federation. Pretty much typical Starfleet characters.


The Romulans: Under the command of a prominent Senator named Marcus. He was instrumental in turning back the Breen attack during the Dominion war, and ommands several powerful task forces. He spent time working alongside the Federation during the Dominion war and has a great respect for Starfleet. He is helpfue and even friendly towards the crew of the station, believe that the time has come for closer ties between the two powers. He is also an excelllent commander and is highly respected by the officers and soldiers under his command. All in all, Romulans don't get any better--at least from the Federation's point of view. But, his power, ambition, growing poularity and ability to work with Starfleet makes him a big threat to the Romulan Senate.

The Elin: This species was the major power in the sector a couple centuries ago, with an Empire that streached across over a dozen systems. Over the last century, the empire has declined through conflicts-some internal. They have a very rigid culture and wish to reain thier glorious empire. Unfortuately, they have poor supplies of dilithium and thier warp drives aren't as fast as those of the Federation or the Romulans.


The Baran: This species were once part of the great Elin empire, and have no wish to relieve the experience. Thier homeworld is rich in dilithium, making thier world highly desirable to the Elin-and others. They are a bit xenophobic and mistrust even the Federation-especially since the Federation is trying to maintain good relations with the Elin, and won't sell the Barans ships or weapons to defend themselves. The Barans also lack a strong central government, with many indendent factions.

Now here is an example of some of the things that occuried and how it wound up effecting the status quo.



1) A Frengi DaiMon (who the crew had good reason to mistrust, as hed had previously bugged thier communication relay and kdnapped the players went they we sent to do maintenace on it and discovered his bug), showed up at the player station and tried to unload a bunch of outdated disrupters (eqvialent to Type IV) t the starfleet crew. The crew didn't need the weapons (they had better), didn't like the Fergeni's price, and really didn't like the Daimon, so they turned him down.
The Ferengi would up selling the weapons to the Barans, who used thm to arm some of thier merchant crat and used them to raid ships heaing towards Elin. Including Federation ships.


2) A planet killer (like the one in the classic Trek series) comes into the sector and is heading staright towards Elin. The Elin lack strength to stop it, but will smile favorible on those who do stop it (be they Federation or Romulan, or anyone else). Both powers have to deal with the matter in order to keep on the Elin's good side.

3) The Romulan government, in an effort to secure trading rights, and over the objection of Senator Marcus, turn over an old D-7 crusier (with an old cloaking device)to the Barans. False evience is manufactured that will point the finger at the Klingons. They also have an undercover agent on board the starfleet base who is gathering information and working to sabotage the Federation's relations with the Elin and Barans.

4) The Romulan Senator, discredited by enemies, is accused of treason and ordered to return to Romulus for what would be a show trial and execution. Instead, he rebelled, and most of his fleet (including several warbirds) follows him. As the Seantor controlled most of the Romulan ships in the sector, it will take some time for the Empire to build up enough forces to hunt him down.

5) The Senator stopped at the Starfleet base seeking allies agianst the Romulan fleet that will eventually be sent after him. Natually the Federation won't get involved in an "internal Romulan" matter, and so the Senator takes his forces to Elin.


This was a very tenous sitation for the Starfleet characters. On the one hand the Senator was probably thier best ally. Still, if he allied with the (ambious) Elin, gave them a few warbirds,cloaking device technology and a warp drive that wasn't based on dlithium, the Elin could become a major player again.


Well, that's some examples of how just a few simple ideas and goals can turn a situation upside down. Just start small and let things grow.

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Originally Posted by LUGTrekGM

Yeah, all you need to do first contact scenarios is to have a culture, strange, designed with like three specific things different from what we as humans would think as normal.

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That will work. Now put two or three such cultures together and suddenly, you need diplomacy.

The, uh, Elin and a Barak sound kind of familiar... ¬____¬

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Originally Posted by C. Huth

The, uh, Elin and a Barak sound kind of familiar... ¬____¬

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Maybe. Senator Marcus was based on a composite of Julius Ceasar and Marcus Antonius. The ruling Queen of the Elin (anagram for Nile) was Queen Klea.

Surpisinly enough, only one pf my players caught on that I was running Anotny and Cleopatra. When Nemisis came out it really fit in well too.

Brilliantly disguised. I never would have caught on to the Elin. All of those notes are fascinating, and a great source to model on.

yeah... great way of working... I'll see what I can do...
Still.. my greatest problem is to find stuff for my players to do in the episodes.. I would be much better at writing stories for a Tv-show..

How do they not have "Stuff to do?"

Exploration

Negotiation

Solving scientific puzzles

Rescuing the helpless

Making alliances

Space battles

Catching Criminals

There are thousands of things to do with Star Trek (or any other RPG for that matter).

Well.....
For exemple...

I got a plot idea with a Romulan ship attacking the Daedalus (not knowing that the war is over)...

The question is what e.g. the Science Officer is supposed to do in such a plot.... more that just wathing the captain trying to hail the romulans..

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Originally Posted by BraidsMamma

Well.....
For exemple...

I got a plot idea with a Romulan ship attacking the Daedalus (not knowing that the war is over)...

The question is what e.g. the Science Officer is supposed to do in such a plot.... more that just wathing the captain trying to hail the romulans..

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Use the terrain of the nebula they charted to their advantage?

Scan space for ion trails left by the romulan ships.

Scan the romulan ship, once encountered for new technology, weapons, crew complement or other intel data useful in future encounters for starfleet intelligence.

Advise the captain of those findings.

Advise the engineer as to speed or other settings, to reduce those same ion trails emitted by the friendly ship.

Scan space for planets that the romulans might ambush from.

Recall known facts about romulan ships, and capabilities form past contacts with them.

Look at the galactic cartography database, and deduce where a likely system might be for a romulan base.

Run computer simulations as to the most likely type of tactics the romulans will use, based on past encounters.

Program computer simulations of possible responses to the above, based on the ship's weapons and meaneuvering profile.

Estimate chances of survival, for all of the above.

Deduce what are the romulans likely looknig for, in this sector, that makes a war worth it.

Estimate the value of (whatever) to the federation.

Best Guess as to when and where the Romulans will attack, and what will minimize that attack.

If you set it up that they start talking from the word go, then it's the captain's show. If you as the GM are the captain, then I guess your thing is what to do to keep form talking to yourself. This is why I never play the captain as an NPC, I hire a player.

But, usually, it is gonna be the captain's show anyway. But the captain can give it to someone else....

If the captain is an NPC, no problem:

If the Science officer is First Officer:
CAPT: "XO, take charge."

If the Science Officer is Sciences Dept. Head, but not the XO:

CAPT: "Science Officer, you're bridge qualified, correct? Let's use this encounter with the romulans as a live exercise of your bridge qualification skills, and starship command skills. Assume myself and the XO are incapacitated. You have the Conn. Take charge."

Simple. It builds skills in subordinates, who might face that exact situation at any time, without the safety net of having the Captain or First Officer there and available for advice or guidance.

The whole key is not to make it all a talking scene between the captain and the romulan commander.

Alternate talking with action, so that if they are talking the romulan commander switches off, and moves off, into a defensive posture, or just moves off to do whatever they were doing before the federation arrived to interrupt them.

Or the romulans could attack, or scan the fed ship. Maybe that was the whole prurpose of the encounter, for the romulans to rattle the cage of the federation, draw out a cruiser, and fade into the darkness.

In such a scenario, then it is a case of tracking the romulans, or reporting back to starfleet about their encounter, along with the intel data the fed ship got from their own scans of the romulans.

Just because it is a Daedalus class doesn't change the situation. It only changes the weapons and defenses, and sensor ranges. This is why Star Trek is so great, you can run exciting stories in any era.

how is that going to help the Science officer?

He may get to roll one or two dice but he won't get to play...

And what will the ship's doctor do in this story?

If it really is the case of the romulans are attacking because they don't know that the war is over, really then the theme is one of what price is the enemy willing to pay for honor. Will they die in the line of duty, against a percieved attacker, or relent, in the face of (to them) Sketchy evidence.

Telling them that the war is over, and there is a treaty, they might listen to a broadcast that the Science officer calls up from memory banks, which repeats the old treaty negotiations, conducted by hyperradio.

They might believe it, they might believe it is a trick.

If they keep attacking, the Captain's job is to prevent the war from restarting anew, and to defend the ship. The science officer's job is to know all he or she can about the engineering and other hard data of the Romulan ship, perhaps to find a weakness, and advise the captain.

Known weaknesses in later eras are: cloak takes a lot of power, and romulan plasma has relatively short endurance.

Maybe the Federation ship can keep the romulans at range, and do long range sniping with overpowered Lasers, disabling the enemy ship, with a lucky shot.

The specifics are up to you, and the setting, of course.

Ideally, I suggest, look at it like this:

What do the romulans want? Likely, Defense of their Territory (as they see it).

What does the Federation want? Continuing peace.

If the romulans go on the offensive, the Federation, after sending the historical treaty broadcast can go defensive (which might be a crapshoot, or if they ar elucky, resolve it right there if they score a few lucky hits on the romulans), or withdraw, to get reinforcements, and advise Starfleet that "A rogue Romulan Ship is on the loose out here, and the commander is unaware that the war has ended, despite our attempts to convince him otherwise."

So a small fleet of fed ships arrive, to hunt down this rogue Romulan...which might provoke a real romulan fleet to arrive...and thus galactic War might be in the offing, except that now there is a solution, in that the romulan can now be ordered by his admiral to stand down, to keep the peace. Mission accomplished, for both sides, negotiated by the Federation ship you started with, backed up by the science officer's recommendations.

The key is to always give PCs critical decisions to make, for the whole crew...

For a science officer, a lot of it will involve:

what memory banks of the computer to call upon for data retrieval.

what specific sensor scans to use...scan all bands and pick up more with less accuracy, or some specific bands, with a high degree of accuracy, but perhaps miss something?

How much information to give the Captain and crew...too much, when a brief synopsis is needed is wrong, just the same as a terse reply, when critically important information needs to be conveyed.

analysis of anything found at the scene.. nebular gases, debris, etc.
If you are going right for the battle in ACT I, you reach the climax too soon, unless the climax is a fleet battle, which you don't seem to be moving towards.

So start small... let the science officer early on find clues, hints...a piece of wreckage from a destroyed outpost, bodies of federation casualties, ion trails.

Suspecting romulans, or orion pirates, or, who knows what?

Then an orion blockade runner shows up...right as the captain is about to attack, the science officer discovers, "NO CAPTAIN, THIS IS NOT THE SHIP...the signatures are different." Thus preventing a tragic incident, as an Orion trade ship is nearly destroyed. Such things are the Science Officer's JOB, and makes him/her valuable as an advisor.

Then, stretches of empty space...

Nothing for light years. All scanning die rolls find nothing, over and over... until BLIP.

"Science officer, what is it?"

"Unknown, Captain. I am scanning now...possibly an asteroid...Ah, Metallic compounds, energy sig.. A ship, captain."

All this time, it is the Science officer's show. But the Science officer is the captain's eyes and ears.

All the while they are meeting this ship, they might see it on the main viewer, or whatever. But THERE MIGHT BE MORE THAN ONE. Thus the science officer is vital. If they get caught up in negotiation, someone else might sneak up. Keep up that tension. While the captain is talknig have the science officer make a roill, difficulty "Really high".

If they fail, "You scan empty space, still finding only the Romulan vessel you are
already aware of."

If they succeed, give them something more..."You detect that this Romulan vessel has a full load of (whatever weapon), with energy capacitors at full power...or the match for the signature detected from before...in fact an exact match.

But, if the federation is to prevent war, they must not fire offensively on this vessel, lest they break the treaty, etc etc. more plot complications. Perhaps with the Science officer actually handed a prop copy of the treaty, and quoting from it to the crew, "From memory."

Lots to do, for everyone.

Won't get to play?

What does a Science officer typically do in your games?

The ship's doctor can take the role that McCoy did, in Balance of Terror... Advise against war, against casualties, act as the Captain's conscience.

I mean, okay that is what McCoy was written to do... your series doctor might be a hard core hawkish guy who advises, nip this in the bud right here, I'll prepare the crew, set up aid stations, etc.

You are writing the scenario. Give the doc sometihng to do...like:

The romulan ship, lost in some time rift or maybe just out of contact, thinks the war is still on.

The Romulan Ship's executive officer is sick, from some disease caught on the last planet they were on, where they had to go to the surface to forage for fresh food, since they haven't seen a supply ship in months and months....THE Centurian XO of the Rom ship is down with a fever, that the rest of the crew is catching. Either their own doctor is helpless, or has succumbed, or is about to, from treating thier centurian, or THEIR DOC got eaten by some tiger like beast on the last planet they were on.

Running into the Feds, they have to put up a big front... but as they talk the romulan CO coughs, giving a hint to the crew, that there might be illness.

Scans show the romulan CO to have a higher body temperature than the rest of the crew, except for a few lifeforms in what is likely to be thier sickbay...

CAPT: Doctor to the bridge...

There's the Doc's cue.

Now, how to get him involved.. in the midst of "The Talk" the Romulan Commander slumps over in his chair and passes out. They switch off, and move away, trying to figure out what to do...their communications officer, who has listened to the history broadcast, says, "Federation Captain, I believe the words of the Praetor. If we were at war, and you saw my own commander fall, you would have attacked, seeing our weakness. I am now in command, by virtue of Rank. I would ask assistance, from your medical staff, as I do not desire my own Subcommander to perish in this spot, so far from Romii."

You work it out, do they beam to your ship? (possible risk of security and intel loss)or do you beam to thiers (not likely, since they are so hard core, but might be influenced by having better tools to work on romulan physique and medicines, as advised by your own ship's doctor, maybe healing or helping their doc first, or just going in, an case you have it that their doc was smoked, earlier, before meeting the crew.)

yadda yadda improvise from there.

As to having the science officer roll a few dice.. . don't you have them talk? Describe their actions? Make decisions?

Everything I described above for science officer actions would be a good half hour to an hour (or more, if I really wanted to make it detailed) of rolls, describing what they were seeking, my describing outcomes, the captain calling for new scans and course changes, etc.

Plus the deal with the doc, healing the enemy crew, the resultant scene where the Romulan CO wakes up in his own sickbay, thanking his doc, and seeing the Fed doc, standing side to side with the rom doc (or a rom nurse or equivalent), and then realizing, okay the war is over. I owe this Fed my life... And all the rest of it.

I mean that's a whole 4 to 5 hour scenario.

Thanks for the tips.....
I'll think about how to get them in use :)

Some other ways to get the science officer and/or docotor involved is to have something go wrong that ends up requring them to perform taks that are normally outside thier normal range of duties.

For instance, what if the ship takes damage, and some caracters need to figure ut a way to espae from the damaged section before it depressuizes.

Or what if the Captain is one of the ones cut off, and someone needs to resuce him, while someone else must ake command of the ship to fight the Romulans.

Maybe the attackt akes place while certain officers are off duty. Combat damage affcts the brige (disabling the turbolifts). Either the character who are on duty are frced to handle the crisis, or (if the bridge has been disabled) junior offers must handle the fight from auxiliary control.

The best way to figure out what someone can do is to look at the character sheet and see what skills they have. A Science officer with a level or two of Repair or Engineering could be put in charge of a vital damage control party (need to fix the phasers before the Roms ake another pass).

Oh yeah, makes for great subplots to do it that way. I like to do that stuff, too, or the players come up with it on thier own.

All good stuff, makes it feel more real.

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Originally Posted by LUGTrekGM

Oh yeah, makes for great subplots to do it that way. I like to do that stuff, too, or the players come up with it on thier own.

All good stuff, makes it feel more real.

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Subplots really help with a campaign. I've had a few things going where the players were more interested in the subplots than the main story.

Same here.

I once had a minor subplot in a Past series I ran about a Vulcan Engineer, that went to Vulcan for the death of his Mother. Contemplating the events, walking around in the desert on a week's leave, he entered an old archaeological dig, and found the shards of an ancient, ancient shield from antiquity.

Trying to restore the shield, and investigate its past led to 4 lengthy scenarios, involving crooked human antiquities buyers, breaking up an art theft ring on Vulcan, a trip to mount Selaya to discover more about the original owner, and a mind-meld with the long-dead katra/spirit of a warrior who once served a Vulcan mindlord. At the completion of the art, the original Vulcan Engineer PC resigned his commission (and left the series) to return to Vulcan to study in the monastery, letting the player generate a new pc to replace that one.

Great stuff, from the basic idea of "you find a part of an ancient, rusted shield."

Nice. That's quite a lot for a rusted shield. Was that done "on the fly" or did you plan it all out?

"Actually, it isn't native to Vulcan at all. It's a penny from Ferenginar. It dates back to the a time known as the "great fleecing" when the enconomy was in turmoil and inflaation was rampant. Good thing you didn't find one of their gumball machines." :eek:

Hilarious.

Well the scenario was the family visit, with in -depth NPCs.

Then the player said, after we did some of that, "In the tradition of the mystics of Earth, and my own people, I walk out into the desert of Ti-Vulka'ain, to begin a Spiritual Journey, logically utilizing the remaining time I have before comnpletion of my shore leave, since my family business has been thus concluded."

So I said, "You wander, and fast for days, walking among the shifting sands, travelling by night under the naked stars, and resting by day in what shade can be found. How deep will you go into the desert? (At this point, I was thinking that the character was ready to suicide by sand or something, not really sure.)"

The character said, "I walk until I find something to contemplate."

So, I just conjured up ruins, and this old shield, making it up as I went at that point. That followed with it was a warrior's shield, from ancient days. I had read the Kolinahr book, and had been thinking about doing something months down the road with Vulcan, but here it was, so I just went with it.

Instead of just contemplating the shield, the ruins, the find, for the character it became an allegory for trying to restore the past that was now dead, along with the relative.

So they returned to town, where I figured. conflict, and old shield, okay so there are these guys who would want it, to sell to some collector...

Thus next scenario I planned out the art theft ring, etc. which then grew from there, planning as I went.

Ultimately, they saw it as this shield of this warrior, even he too died, so that the character saw Starfleet as his military career, fading, crumbling into dust, with only dust and rust remaining, to be found upon the sands of Vulcan.

He said, "I do not desire my Starfleet Service to be my only legacy. I have a short time remaining, if I am to accomplish something significant to my people. Thus, I will enter the Monastery. I draft a letter of resignation, and will present it to the Captain, when I return to the ship."

So we did a stoic goodbye / farewell scene on the bridge, and a few players were upset, since they thought that the player was also leaving the group, but instead, he and I explained, no it is just the completion of this character's major story arc, only neither of us knew it at the time.

So, really, narrating is a great responsibility. From a rusted shield, ultimately this veteran of 20 missions retired. A new junior replacement PC arrived in a different department, and an NPC moved up into the vacated slot. (Since it was only a few days to travel to earth/Starfleet command to get a new officer, and they were heading that way anyway.)

That's how it went down.