Incorporating JJ-Trek into campaigns

While I'm going to ignore the alternate history parts of JJ-Trek, I've decided to use the 2287 events as background. As of 2282, a Narada-type mining platform has been sent to Cretok Nor's system, and there is beginning to be some unrest in the Romulan delegation, as they are aware of the impending supernova. Ambassador Spock and a team of Vulcan scientists are already hard at work trying to come up with a solution. I'm keeping the so-called "red matter" a closely held state secret, mostly so I don't have to deal with its scientific implausibility. I plan to have the Rommies try to decentralise (pretty much unsuccessfully, in the aftermath of Nemesis) before the event, but the Star Empire will be finished as a major player. There will probably be a revolt among the Remans and a possible alliance with the IKS. Much fun can be made from this.

How do you intend to treat it? Ignore it, incorporate it, or what?

Treat Red Matter as a form of condensed or degenerate matter. The stuff that neutron stars and such are made from. It is one step away from exploding into pure energy... or if you keep it under technobabble suspension the right amount of gravity-manipulation will cause it to implode into a short-lived singularity. A quantum black hole. Quickly evaporates into Hawking radiation and microwaves. Quickly as defined as number of 1D6 second per microgram. Use a dice mechanic of your choice to determine if by some quantum fluke it becomes stable and lasts 2D6 minutes longer than anticipated. Roll again to determine if it becomes a wormhole... game-master discretion as to where it leads. :)

As for the political aspect... I see the situation leading to where we were in AGT. The Klingons eager for blood pounce on what is left of the Romulan worlds. The Federation is busy trying to deal with the Klingons and trying to assist the Romulans who ask for help.

Thanks. I hadn't thought of the similarity to AGT. I'll have to look into that!

Okay, stop me if you've heard this one: They divide the empire into two halves...

MINING PROCEDURE FOR LARGE TYPICAL PLANETARY OBJECTS AND MOONS:

1) Orbit planet.

2) Locate ore concentration.

3) Descend partway into atmosphere and engage station-keeping mode.

4) Run mining specialty software to determine drilling locations.

5) Deploy drilling platform. With beam set to WIDE ANGLE burn away overburden. Drill shafts to specified depth.

6) Drop mining charges into shafts. Detonate charges

7) Using automated drones and shuttles retrieve chunks of ore-laden materials.

8) Retract drill and repeat procedure until all ore has been stripped from planet or moon.

(Note: In low gravity situations such as as a MERCURY type body or a LUNA type moon some ore will escape the gravity well. Procedure is to deploy "catch tentacles" in a wide dispersal pattern and activate the micro tractor-beams in each tentacle.)


ASTEROID MINING PROCEDURE FOR OBJECTS SMALLER THAN VESSEL:


1) Locate ore-rich asteroid.

2) Deploy tentacle structures to surround object.

3) Activate micro-beam assemblies in each arm to burn away the over-burden (if present).

4) Using transporters beam mining charges to appropriate locations. Detonate charges to fracture object.

5) Use micro tractor-beams to pull fragments into the cargo-hold for processing


FOR OBJECTS LARGER THAN THE VESSEL: Use mining beam and mining charges to fracture object into easy to process chunks.


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Add appropriate skill checks where you see fit.

I came up with this after watching the movie again last night. Planetary mining on this scale would require a high degree of automation and some serious skill. For example you'd have to be able to evaluate the location of fault-lines. Will detonating charges HERE affect the rest of the planet? If I detonate my charges in this type of atmosphere will I set off a catastophic reaction that will damage the drill and/or the vessel?


The Romulan mining method described above would also be usable for planatary assault... which is what we see Nero doing. Perhaps those seismic disturbances that were reported were the result of Nero triggering fault lines in a deliberate attempt to distract the Vulcan Command from his true efforts.

I have no trouble envisioning a "Simple Miner" like Nero having been conscripted into the military for X number of years where he learned planetary fracturing and seismic attack methods. Once he served his time he hooked up with a "civilian" mining outfit and quickly earned command of his own platform.

Slightly off-topic, but the Death Star would have been an excellent mining platform! :rolleyes:

I've built the 2387 supernova into my ongoing Trek saga - with a Vulcan officer being 'warned' by a temporal castaway 20 years before the fact. Ensign Tessin knows that Romulus and Remus will be wiped out - but she has no actual proof. It's causing her a lot of sleepless nights.

With a little luck, I plan to have my campaign deal with the post-nova mess.

For a campaign I'm hoping to start up soon, which is going to be set shortly after the destruction of Romulus, I was figuring that the Empire would split into a civil war as various figures sought to restart the Empire but with themselves as the head. The Klingons would use this as an excuse to start claiming territory and a weak border conflict begins.

As for the events of the new Trek film, most of it is going to be ignored since it's an alternate timeline and I prefer to see where "our" universe is going.

There is a lot of drama to be had in the impending supernova: What would an aggressive gov't like the Star Empire do knowing they were doomed? Attack all their old enemies and go out in a blaze of glory? Try to move their whole civilization (again)?

The Klingons would most likely strike their old foe/ally at the most vulnerable moments, which would put the FED in a difficult postion; help their first enemy, and risk losing the alliance with the Klingons, or turn a blind eye and do nothing.

As for the Narada, in one of the Trek graphic novels, it is revealed that Borg tech made it the monstrosity we see in the film, but I would think a mining ship would be kinda big anyway.

Lastly, as the the other time line: maybe do the old comic "What If/Elseworlds" with it someday; a nice little crossover to mix stuff up.

I can see the 'claw structure' of most of the Nerada being there to serve a dual purpose.

First - it's the outline of the ore storage volume. Why bother building a pressurised hull big enough to contain millions of tons of semi-pure minerals? Tractor beams can hold the stuff in place.
Second - the 'claws' define the perimeter of the shield bubble. The operators are going to want to protect the materials they have just extracted.

For my campaign, I'm ignoring the whole film. Star Trek Online is set in the early 25th Century of real Trek, however, and incorporates the destruction of Romulus.

I just don't find the supernova credible- how could two inhabitable worlds circle a sun about to go supernova without it being noticed already? Why would Romulus even have been settled by spacefaring Vulcan refugees if the sun was close to supernova?

Finally, the Romulans use compressed black holes in their stardrives- surely of all the interstellar great powers, they are best equipped to minimize or control a supernova at least long enough to provide time for an evacuation?

Plus, Romulans are one of my crew's favourite baddies... :)

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Originally Posted by Mazza

I just don't find the supernova credible- how could two inhabitable worlds circle a sun about to go supernova without it being noticed already?

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In Countdown, the supernova was a star called Hobus, not the Romulan primary star.

And it might not have been a natural phenomenon.

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Finally, the Romulans use compressed black holes in their stardrives- surely of all the interstellar great powers, they are best equipped to minimize or control a supernova at least long enough to provide time for an evacuation?

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Like Praxis, there's vanishingly little we're told about the event, so the actual events involved–whether it's natural or artificial, whether something was tried and failed or tried and sabotaged–are up to Narrators to use.

If you want to keep Romulus and include the supernova for lip service to canon, an adventure where the PCs travel back in time to prevent it might be in order.

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Plus, Romulans are one of my crew's favourite baddies...

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Well, a couple planets does not an Empire make...

I am not convinced that the destruction of Romulus in the "prime" universe is the only interpretation of canon, but I think whenever you get reboots involved these things get complicated. There is a lot more wrong with the Abramsverse than can be explained by the single time travel incident so frankly I am more comfortable with the whole movie being a reboot. Fine for what it is, but non-canon wrt the original universe in which my series is set.

My .02Cr...

First, we should classify this as an unprecedented stellar event that created what could only be described as a subspace explosion. To go with a pseudo-scientific result, I'd say this "subspace supernova" (for lack of a better term) consumed all the interstellar medium in its path, and also any larger bodies, like Romulus and (likely) the rest of the Romulan System. Given that, to even threaten Romulus, the event had to be a faster-than-light event, it would almost-certainly create short or long-term navigational effects in that region of space. (Let's assume Hobus was 6-12 ly from Romulus, somewhere within the boundaries of the star empire. This would mean the explosion was traveling at a velocity of approximately wf9-9.25 (MCU).)

Second, the Romulans probably only had 2-3 days' notice at best, given that the Vulcan's "fastest ship" was likely close to Voyager's wf9.982 (MCU) top speed (I estimated it at 7000c). At that speed, the Jellyfish would take a little over three days to reach Romulus (60ly away, according to Star Charts). Complicate this with the fact that the stellar event itself was unprecedented; the Romulans may not have immediately realized that the Hobus subspace supernova was a threat to their star system.

Using a 6ly radius blast from within the RSE (that doesn't threaten Federation outposts before the destruction of Romulus), Star Charts inhabited planets Menkent, Terix, Belak and Algorab would also have perished. Nearby systems Romii, T'Met, Gacrux and Archenar would have survived.

The result is that most Romulans living in the Romulan system perished before they could evacuate, as well as any Romulans living on colonies within the path of the event. I would expect that the Romulan military and civilian leadership survived (they, at least, would be evacuated), though the total number of surviving Romulans likely number in the millions (or less, considering their penchant for isolationism).

So, what we have is a relatively new Praetor (less than nine years in office) having to move his seat of government to Romii (the closest surviving Romulan system). He was likely still in consolidating his power base, still dealing with enemies and forming lasting (well, in a relative sense) alliances. Some of the problems would have been eliminated, others exacerbated. Regardless, his grip on power is likely more tenuous...unless he acts decisively.

The Praetor broadcasts an impassioned speech, dedicating himself to rebuilding the glory of Romulus, calling on his fellow Romans to help him and warning the enemies of the empire that while it may be wounded, it is still a powerful force to be reckoned with (the RSN is likely still mostly intact). The star empire turns inward in a massive national project to turn Romii into the new center of Romulan culture. They attempt to defend their border against the Klingons, while continuing diplomatic overtures to the Federation (mostly in the hopes that the Federation will keep the Klingon dogs at bay).

If forced to fight, they will, but they would prefer to isolate themselves for a while to rebuild their strength.

However, I think that there will be more Neros out there than the Praetor desires...and some of them will be wearing a naval uniform...or, worse, a Tal Shiar uniform...those who have lost just about everything have nothing to lose, and with a battleship at their command, like along the Federation border will be "interesting" for a while...

We've had 'stellar-level' events before; the Praxis accident and the Amargosa collapse come to mind. Leaving aside the flat 'blast wave' of Praxis, which smacked into Excelsior light-years away from Kronos, the devastation of such an occurrence surely would have come to the notice of the 'true patriots' of Section 31...

Who's to say that Section 31 didn't get wind of some terrible Romulan plot aimed at the Federation, so to stop it they use some super-gadget they had hidden away - only for it to go terribly wrong...:eek:

In STO there is some hint that the Remans may have had a hand in the destruction of the Hobus star to force their desire for Independence. It's STO and not canon but has makes some sense to me.

If you wanted to keep the event, but ditch the entire Nero/red-matter/Spock subplot you could drag in something to do with the Omega molecule, perhaps?

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Originally Posted by Nuclear Fridge

We've had 'stellar-level' events before; the Praxis accident and the Amargosa collapse come to mind.

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Praxis was a moon, not a star, so it's not a "stellar" event. And, given that it was the Klingons' major source of dilithium, I'd expect a subspace shockwave from a catastrophic breakup of the moon. Not to mention, the only known effects outside its star system were to damage a Federation starship that happened to be caught in the shockwave.

Amargosa's effects were limited to its immediate area.

That's why I called the Hobus star's supernova an unprecedented stellar event. It's not because it was a stellar event, but because of the massive interstellar effects of the explosion. Planets light years away were destroyed!

Perhaps Hobus was contaminated with dilithium or somesuch and then underwent a hypernova, which caused a "subspace burster" reaction?? Essentially, it would be to a supernova what Praxis was to a nuclear meltdown :)

So an uber-powerful gamma-ray burster, emitting in a spherical shell, at superluminal velocities.

Nasty...

Perhaps (thinking of ways to incorporate a twist into an episode) a subspace event was the trigger for Hobus to explode, which would be the first indication of something which could then reach light-years away. Characters attempting to discern the cause of the supernova may be pointed to ancient alien supertech or some subspace entity or domain wherein they confront the real problem.

I've copied the STO timeline writeups through to 2390 to mine for ideas. My campaign is currently set in 2381, just a couple of years after Nemesis, set on Cretok Nor, yet another abandoned Cardassian station, patterned after 1950s Berlin.

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Originally Posted by Sea Tyger

Praxis was a moon, not a star, so it's not a "stellar" event. And, given that it was the Klingons' major source of dilithium, I'd expect a subspace shockwave from a catastrophic breakup of the moon. Not to mention, the only known effects outside its star system were to damage a Federation starship that happened to be caught in the shockwave.

Amargosa's effects were limited to its immediate area.

That's why I called the Hobus star's supernova an unprecedented stellar event. It's not because it was a stellar event, but because of the the massive interstellar effects of the explosion. Planets light years away were destroyed!

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Mea Culpa.
Perhaps my thinking is being influenced by too much Hollywood. Really Big Bangs are cool and all that...

And we are still talking about a franchise whose writing has popped out a few howlers over the years. I loved Harry Kim's analysis of Borg ship debris -- "damaged, but intact". How does that work, exactly?

So okay, in terms of the blast radius and devastation, Hobus going 'pop' is an unique case.

Since I've been doing a crapload of research for my JJ-Trek campaign, I wanted to toss out some info that I've accumulated in case people haven't read my thread.

1) Admiral Janeway did some exploration of the Romulas and Hobus systems after the supernova and has decided they were definitely not the result of a natural event. She theorizes, based on things she finds, that Hobus went nova as a result of the Romulans experimenting with Borg tech and subspace weapons. The reason Spock works so hard and so fast to try and stop the explosion is that they are afraid the wave will continue destroying systems all across the Alpha Quadrant because of the nature of subspace weapons.

2) Taking into account things I've learned playing STO so far, here is how they explain some things: Warning, Possible Spoilers:

a) With the Romulans so devistated, the Klingons go apeshit on them to the point of withdrawing from the Khitomer Accords.

b) Species 8472 become the new "shapeshifter menace" in the galaxy successfully infiltrating most major governments and even some of the smaller powers. This infiltration leads to the Klingons conquering the Gorn to expose the Undine presence.

c) Rogue Klingons begin dredging up old Eugenics information and are attempting to figure out how to genetically modify Klingons without the disasterous results from before.

There's quite a bit more, but I don't want to spoil too much. That should give you some extra oomph.

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Originally Posted by Hadeshorn

a) With the Romulans so devistated, the Klingons go apeshit on them to the point of withdrawing from the Khitomer Accords.

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This also jives with "All Good Things..." although there's also the possibility of various revanchist elements of the Empire at the edges of their territory. The RSE is a big place; if the barbarians sack Romulus, where's their Constatinoplion?

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Originally Posted by The Tatterdemalion King

This also jives with "All Good Things..." although there's also the possibility of various revanchist elements of the Empire at the edges of their territory. The RSE is a big place; if the barbarians sack Romulus, where's their Constatinoplion?

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Constantinoplion was never the same after it was sacked. That's why it's now known as Istanbul&#!+.

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Originally Posted by Sarge

Constantinoplion was never the same after it was sacked. That's why it's now known as Istanbul&#!+.

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Constantinople was sacked by Venetians eight hundred years later after Rome... and Istanbul is a Turkish pronunciation of the medieval Greek for "In The City." The Ottomans themselves still called it Constantinople until the rise of the Republic of Turkey.

The point, though, is that there are probably outposts which will maintain continuity with the old Romulus, like the Eastern Empire of the Romans.

Perhaps, the areas closest to the Klingon border and the areas effected by the "event" (whatever you want to make of it) become the Western Europe of the former RSE, with Remii and a few other scattered systems attempting to carry on, like the Byzantine Empire did, itself, with a loose alliance with the Federation. Or worse, it is propped up by the Federation to attempt to maintain some semblance of control, where no control actually exist outside of its own system, save a small compound in the other systems that give lip service to allegiance. In that way it could be like an interstellar Afghanistan type scenario.

On the map its still all RSE, but "on the ground" allegiances are not what they seem. Actual control is to Klingon backed elements, that use the Klingon Empire for cover to recoup and to launch raids, all while Q'onos gives lip service to peace and continued alliance, while those uncontrolled houses carve new territory for themselves in the RSE. Remii is corrupt, with what assistance the Federation supplies is used to line the pockets of different fifedoms. Warlords, nominal members of the RSN, control the star lanes between systems, and rarely travel outside their area of control, making the RSN ineffective as a total fighting force.

Just an idea.

Just read through this entire thread and there's a lot of good ideas in here. In our campaign the RSE is still active and strong (we're playing in 2380, just after Nemesis). I plan on incorporating some use of Iconian Gateways (which are effectively stargates) to bring some far-away menaces into the Beta Quadrant - likely Borg and probably Species 8472 as well.

Some of the stuff here is inspiring me to add in some long term plans WRT to the Klingons and how they might have designs on the RSE. Not to mention that I'll likely have the Romulans tinkering with subspace weapons and possibly incorporating found Borg tech as well. Perhaps I'll have the Borg come through a Gateway with the sole purpose of trying to recover their tech. If the PCs stop long enough to figure things out (rather than just slaughtering them on first sight), they'll be able to realize this.