needs some helps with rumors

I have been running a TOS game for the last few weeks . I have been making up rumors , new stories and new discovery. Please could some of you post some rumors to help me out.

Here are few rumors I used

The klingon/ krintz war is going on . The Klingons has pull deep in to krintz space but has paused their advancment waiting for a Krintz's counter attack .

The Vuclan science Fleet has claimed to found a ship from outside the galaxy.

Mar advance reseach center has been working on worm hole gereator for faster then light travel. This could lead new way to cross millions of light years in seconds.

I would suggest some rumors for internal Starfleet events...

Admiral ? is retiring as the Chief of Strategic Operations and there is intense politics in the Federation Council between Andoria and Vulcan who both want a member of their species to take over this position. Both are in perfect agreement than a non-human should hold the position for awhile.

The USS Paragon has attained the highest efficiency rating in Starfleet for the second year in a row, while the USS Bush has the lowest efficiency rating in Starfleet. Some believe that the USS Paragon may be cheating on its efficiency reports.

Starfleet is planning on cutting its peacekeeping operations on several worlds as the result of budget considerations. This is feared that it may cause war to break out on several worlds were Starfleet is maintaining peace agreements.

Starfleet has decided to try again to develop artificial intelligence to help manage its starship. This program is secret due to the disaster of Starfleet's last attempt in this regard a few years ago.


I would also suggest some rumors for internal Federation events...

Ardana is considering withdrawing from the Federation due to increasing pressure on the member world to reform its society to bring equality between the cloud dwellers and those on the surface. The pressure of the Federation has led to protests and terrorist attacks by the surface dwellers to accelerate their equality.

The Federation Supreme Court has upheld (or rejected) the right of member worlds to inflict capital punishment on the citizens of other member worlds.

The Federation Olympics will be held on Alpha Centauri this year and rumors are that the Klingons may be sending athletes.

The Horta on Janus have reached an agreement with a mining colony in another system to pay for the transport of several hundred of their number to the new colony to set up a second Horta population. Starfleet is organizing the project, but several mining interests including the Tellarites are not happy with the prospect of Horta spreading across the Federation and rendering their new mining equipment obsolete.

I hope these are all TOS enough for you, I am right now running a 2290s campaign so some of these ideas make more sense then, such as Klingons at the Federation Olympics after Khitomer and the like.

...krintz?

I suspected he meant Kzinti.

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Originally Posted by Kirk Johnson-Weider

I suspected he meant Kzinti.

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I was getting visions of Klingons battling aliens shaped like snack food.

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USS Bush

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Named, of course, after the historical Earth singer, Kate Bush...


By rumours, do you mean just stories to have floating around for atmosphere, or actual episode seeds?

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Originally Posted by C. Huth

Named, of course, after the historical Earth singer, Kate Bush...

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No, actually, Horatio Hornblower's sidekick and the ultimate first officer...who else would you think I meant. ;)

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Originally Posted by Kirk Johnson-Weider

I would suggest some rumors for internal Starfleet events...

The Federation Supreme Court has upheld (or rejected) the right of member worlds to inflict capital punishment on the citizens of other member worlds.

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Is there a Federation Supreme Court? I know there is a judicial system. We've seen it on TOS & TNG but I think it was always Starfleet-centered. On TNG they had a JAG officer in the episode where Data had to prove he wasn't just a machine.

If there is a Federation Supreme Cour, then for Star Trek, I imagine that all Federation members must accept the Federation Supreme Court's jurisdiction on all disputes b/t Federation members & interpretation of Federation laws.

For example, if the Federation outlaws capital punishment, then all member worlds must comply & the Federation Supreme Court would handle issues pertaining to violations of that law. However, if there was no Federation law banning capital punishment, then each member world could decide for itself whether or not to allow the death penalty & the Federation Supreme Court would have no jurisdiction.

I have to go back & look at my LUG & Decipher books to see if there's any mention of a Federation Supreme Court.

Federation Supreme Court

It is also described in Price of Freedom, the LUG sourcebook on the Federation.

As for capital punishment it would be a tricky prospect during TOS. There is GO 12 (I believe) that allows the death penalty for violating Talos, which seems to indicate it is not banned by the Federation. I would imagine that most member such as Earth and Vulcan would have banned it, but Andoria has to keep it around as they have dueling built into their society. Thus you would have an interesting legal situation, if for example a human was convicted of crimes on Andoria...can they execute him, is an appeal by duel fair to him, and so forth. It is interesting. By TNG I think we can agree that the death penalty is gone in the Federation, but in TOS it could create some interesting situations.

Also as for the Federation Supreme Court, well by DS9 it is the unquestioned final court of the Federation, but in TOS I can imagine that its influence may be ignored by some members. It would parallel for example US federal courts which took time to build up their position as an equal branch of government and also international law, which is still not even close to being universally accepted though technically it is binding.

Very interesting and could be an adventure, or at least an opportunity for debate among characters.

I think the Talos thing might be a mental health issue than a justice one.

I'd imagine that unless something is prohibited or necessitated by the Federation Constitution (no caste systems, no totalitarianism, no economic exploitation), the member worlds would be given a lot of leeway.

I don't know about that, we are so concerned about your mental health that we will kill you if you endanger it by going to Talos. I assume you are kidding. ;)

I don't know about the direct prohibition requirement. Take US law for example, we have a lot of rights that are Constitutionally-based, such as privacy, that don't exist in the Constitution. That is probably more accurate to the Federation. Clearly, Federation society evolved considerably from TOS to TNG, so would the Federation Supreme Court's interpretation of the ideals of the Federation.

Consider this: families on starships. There are two possibilities, one Starfleet decided to allow families (which seems slightly questionable), or the Federation Supreme Court may have held that access to family is a fundamental right. This probably makes more sense, Starfleet had to conform its policies to a Federation Supreme Court decision. Families do seem a little forced in Starfleet by TNG. Possibly, the FSC also made mini-skirts optional (massive victory for equality between the genders). I would think that Starfleet is far more responsive and under the review of the FSC than contemporary militaries.

Of course, this is purely conjecture, but it makes sense and integrates Starfleet more into Federation society and gives the narrator another story device. Starship captains having to bring their ship into compliance with a FSC decision, such as what if the use of Vulcan mind melds was forbidden by the FSC as being permissible evidence (this is one I have long had in my campaigns). All interesting stuff.

Anyway, toadmage are you still out there?

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Originally Posted by Kirk Johnson-Weider

I don't know about that, we are so concerned about your mental health that we will kill you if you endanger it by going to Talos. I assume you are kidding. ;)

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Well, Pike and Spock were obviously disturbed by the possibility of encountering a completely convincing reality that exists only in your own mind–and, unlike normal delusional schizophrenia, this reality exists at the behest of a species with some possibly malevolent goals.

Now, given that Spock wasn't killed after "The Menagerie," we can assume that Starfleet rethought its attitude toward Talos IV.

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Originally Posted by Kirk Johnson-Weider

Possibly, the FSC also made mini-skirts optional (massive victory for equality between the genders).

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Number One wore pants... And, uh, I don't remember any miniskirts on Earth Starfleet, Vulcan or Andorian vessels. And there were manskirts among the Ent-D crew in the first couple seasons of TNG.

Yeah, there was clearly a pendulum swing when Kirk was in command of the Enterprise concerning attire of female personnel. Societies go through stages and all signs are that TOS was a little backwards towards women compared to ENT and TNG. Of course, you can write this off due to when the show was produced, but it is cute to work it into roleplaying. For some reason things went backwards. Fortunately, my campaign is in 2290s so a more 'normal' society at that time.

As for Talos, you don't threaten to kill someone to protect them...that is illogical. Clearly, Starfleet was worried about Talosians getting control of a ship and leaving their system and using their power and malevolence beyond their system. I would assume they would have the death penalty for unauthorized entrance into the system with the Guardian of Forever and similar cataclysmic powers and items. In VOY you have a similar protocol with the Omega particle.

I do agree that after Menagerie, I think Starfleet decided that maybe the Talosians are not as malevolent as they appeared. They did do a huge favor to Pike, which is a huge favor to Starfleet as it restored a semblance of a life to one of its greatest captains.

Hmmm...a return to Talos could be an interesting adventure for my campaign. 2290s so 30+ years after last contact, very interesting the wheels are turning.

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Originally Posted by Kirk Johnson-Weider

Yeah, there was clearly a pendulum swing when Kirk was in command of the Enterprise concerning attire of female personnel. Societies go through stages and all signs are that TOS was a little backwards towards women compared to ENT and TNG. Of course, you can write this off due to when the show was produced, but it is cute to work it into roleplaying. For some reason things went backwards. Fortunately, my campaign is in 2290s so a more 'normal' society at that time.

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Or, you know, fashion.

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As for Talos, you don't threaten to kill someone to protect them...that is illogical.

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I think you've got it backwards.

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Originally Posted by C. Huth

Or, you know, fashion.



I think you've got it backwards.

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I guess we could say fashion... it was also probably the fashion at the time that no women wanted to be anything other that communications and science officer, I mean who really wants to be a captain, commodore, or other such nonsense. ;)

Backwards? Maybe, let's see, if you do X we will kill you, because X could be bad for you. There could be a twisted logic there.

Anyway, back to Talos...alright, you got two mangled humans, one male and one female, you have high-tech, but not space travel, your race is dying, and you are masters of illusions. In 30 years, what would you have done to try to save your civilization?

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Originally Posted by Kirk Johnson-Weider

I guess we could say fashion... it was also probably the fashion at the time that no women wanted to be anything other that communications and science officer, I mean who really wants to be a captain, commodore, or other such nonsense. ;)

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Trek wasn't that progressive.

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Backwards? Maybe, let's see, if you do X we will kill you, because X could be bad for you. There could be a twisted logic there.

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...you're still not getting it. Why do you shoot a dog with rabies?

Anyway, the death penalty thing doesn't really mesh with the rest of what we know of the Federation. It might've been that deadly force was authorized when dealing with illusion-entrapped persons, but more likely would be transferrence to Tantalus V or another psychriatric facility.

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Anyway, back to Talos...alright, you got two mangled humans, one male and one female, you have high-tech, but not space travel, your race is dying, and you are masters of illusions. In 30 years, what would you have done to try to save your civilization?

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Do they want to save the civilisation, or simply provide new sources of illusion? I can't remember...

OK now I am understanding you...kill them to prevent then from causing harm or to put them out of their misery. Interesting. I do agree that sending violators to Tantalus V makes the most sense. As for the death penalty, I agree it is very un-Federation and is a bizarre anomaly in this case.

As for the Talosians, from Memory Alpha: "The Talosians have severely weakened because they haved used their mental powers for so long. They want Captain Pike and Vina as breeding stock for a new, stronger race to repopulate the barren planet surface, which was ravaged by nuclear warfare."

So in 30 years...I would guess they would have been able to use cloning or some method to begin producing a Talosian-Human hybrid species. So for adventure purposes, I guess the new race might want contact with the Federation (their ancestors), or in a worse case scenario whatever nobility the Talosian had may not have transmitted to their children. Taking augment-supermen elements and that could be applied to the Talosian-Humans, except they would be mostly mentally superior and not physically, in fact they would be weaker than humans. Interesting, still not sure how to approach this adventure wise.

I wonder if the Talosians would own up to their own dependance on illusion to the point where they'd abandon it. What if the hybrids want back in to the underground, into the illusory reality? Would they try to get the Federation to back them up in taking the power for themselves? What would a civil war fought with illusion be like?

The Worlds entry for Talos implies the illusions are the product of psionically-controlled machines... but if the hardwire lies elsewhere, the Talosians themselves may illusions, self-created ones.

Those are some cool ideas...I agree a civil war is a great idea, even better if it is civil war between a human race...an illusionary race...and whoever is behind all the illusions. The human race might very well want the Federation to help, but maybe the illusionary race wants the Federation help to prevent the humans from gaining the power of illusions and taking it beyond their system. That would be a nice twist, the Talosians (illusions) are sentient and free from the source of the illusions and they reject illusions. A very surreal adventure this would be.

Also a war with illusions, I am seeing the various Q episodes where he puts the various crews in alternate-illusionary realities.