Series Idea I'm putting together

Set after the dominion war in 2375, the federation is reeling from it's loses during the war. Ships that are left are sent to the various borders to protect the federation while it attempts to rebuild. Internal security is being tasked to home fleets and a patrol fleet consisting of Danube class runabouts. Quick and easy to produce frome even the smallest shipyard it puts much needed eyes in the far corners of the federation while various nefarious elements attempt to take advantage while it's attention is elsewhere.

The PC's will be assigned to one of thees runabouts. Assigned to patrol federation interior space towards the beta quadrant. While on their first patrol they will discover a very remote outpost (I will be using the future armada-vanguard station for my purposes). Once the Pc's enter they will discover a slaughterhouse and no idea what this little outpost was or what it is doing all the way out there in the middle of nowhere. Once they start digging and clean up they will discover that it was being used for federation based supersoldier experiments using the angosian template that the Enterprise D encountered. All this to try and compete with Jem Hadar soldiers. It will come to light that the only surviving supersoldier escaped, killed everyone on board in horrific fashion and stole the supply runabout.

Once they report all this back to staffleet headquarters they will be ordered to secure the station, attempt to ascertain where he supersoldier went and if it all possible capture her. And also to investigate who was operating the station and what was done. There will be an inquiry that will be quietly swept under the rug and the PC's will be left with no real answers which is what they want. There will be no attempt to kill them, or sabotage the station. The powers that be will let it be the mystery it is and let it play out.

So the PC's will be put in "charge" of the station with the runabout as their "ship" to patrol and police the area near them. I want to start small and let the PC's earn a bigger ship in the future and making them work for things with such little at their disposdal. The supersoldier will be there overall nemesis thru the series.

Nice concept, and I have to say (having bought them all on drivethrurpg.com) that those future armada/armada codex plans are beautiful ! I love the small Vanguard station and actually toyed with it as a remote Federation station for a frontier themed game ... hasn't got off the ground yet unfortunately.
I think the Cygnus with alternate deck 1 that includes the transporter is pretty usable as a tiny scout as well ... and pretty much all the freighter sorts would work for a RRR type civilian campaign.

(Didn't mean to hijack your thread, just nice to see someone else appreciating those non-trek plans and incorporating them)

Future Armada plans are pretty cool. I have a bunch of those.

I have some questions about the supersoldier. Why did she slaughter everyone? What motivates her? What are her goals? Drug-induced insanity and/or revenge for what was done to her are the obvious answers, but I'd like to see something more interesting and less obvious than that. Did you have something else in mind? Would you like us to brainstorm?

I like your plan of having the characters take over this little station as a home base, with the added perk of mobility through having the runabout.
Are you planning on having them assigned there as the sole crew or others coming in to beef it up? Or, as the lit on the station has it, rotating security personnel to cover the patrolling?
With the escaped super soldier, do you have plans for it to all remain a mystery for awhile, or her coming back as an adversary at some point, or all up in the air at this early stage?

Another thing to think about is what systems are nearby this station? Were those systems effected by the war in a serious way? Was this far from the front lines? Had it been within enemy held territory and bypassed as it was unknown? Would there be systems with refugee issues? Systems who have a negative view of the Federation due to what occurred during the war, and its impact on that populace? What of non-Federation systems within nominal Federation space?

Also, what supporting casts will you have? Pre-DW older 'Fleeters? New battle hardened Combat Veterans? Called up reservists? Recalled retirees? New recruits who thought they were going to join the battle but weren't trained in time? All those can impact what interpersonal events occur.

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Originally Posted by Sarge

Future Armada plans are pretty cool. I have a bunch of those.

I have some questions about the supersoldier. Why did she slaughter everyone? What motivates her? What are her goals? Drug-induced insanity and/or revenge for what was done to her are the obvious answers, but I'd like to see something more interesting and less obvious than that. Did you have something else in mind? Would you like us to brainstorm?

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lol, I hadn't thought that part out. I was thinking part that and part thet unlike the angosians who are pacifists they picked someone with heightened agression and that pushed her normal agressions thru the roof. But Brainstorming would be good as well.

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Originally Posted by RealPity

I like your plan of having the characters take over this little station as a home base, with the added perk of mobility through having the runabout.
Are you planning on having them assigned there as the sole crew or others coming in to beef it up? Or, as the lit on the station has it, rotating security personnel to cover the patrolling?
With the escaped super soldier, do you have plans for it to all remain a mystery for awhile, or her coming back as an adversary at some point, or all up in the air at this early stage?

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I pretty much intended for them to be the sole crew depending on the numberr of players I end up with.

I want it to remain a mystery for a while as they discover bits and peieces as they go along. And the plan is for her to be their big adversary for at least season 1.

I like the sounds of it ! What about cybernetic enhancements to build supersoldiers? Taking knowledge of the Borg and or seven of nine and trying to use that to go the next step beyond angosian soldiers even ... unfortunately researchers and scientist were too confident they could adapt borg technology, only to discover in one case something went terribly wrong ... for unknown reasons that the characters will have to discover along the way either to defeat or help bring the soldier back to sanity/humanity etc.

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Originally Posted by RealPity

I like the sounds of it ! What about cybernetic enhancements to build supersoldiers? Taking knowledge of the Borg and or seven of nine and trying to use that to go the next step beyond angosian soldiers even ... unfortunately researchers and scientist were too confident they could adapt borg technology, only to discover in one case something went terribly wrong ... for unknown reasons that the characters will have to discover along the way either to defeat or help bring the soldier back to sanity/humanity etc.

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Huh, that's a really god idea. A modified borg nanite system they thought they had erradicted any borg traces but they adapt like everything else of the borg and she is a kind of hybrid borg.

Right on. Then the whole conundrum of whether she needs to be eliminated or saved ... just forget the seven of nine reference, I forgot you're set around 2375 so I don't think she's back yet ... but could be based on knowledge through the borg interactions, Hugh the separated borg and de-assimilating Picard ...
Well meaning experiment gone awry ...
Gives you time to think about what you want to do with/about her and whether to consider adding her to the cast down the road ...

Was thinking about your Super-Soldier: Who was she? Unlike Kahn and his ilk, she was a fully functional (maybe) person. Was she an agent of Section 31, a most loyal and dedicated agent, hand picked to become the vanguard of a new weapon against the FED?
Was she the opposite? Someone who was in prison for crimes, but with a skill set or attributes that were deemed needed for the project, offered a second chance if she let them do this to her. (then you wonder if she's going to settle some scores with her new abilities)
Under my 'maybe' category: You go Robocop style: she was a good candidate, but was laid low by injury or disease. Legally dead, she was the perfect choice to see how far the process could work. (once again, she's out to right her death or finish what she started before her 'death')

Another idea I had was what if she WASN'T the original test subject at all? This works well if you do use modified Nano-probes. She was just someone who worked on the project, when she became infected (or, maybe the nanites broke free and took her over). Now she's a prisoner in her body (maybe), or fighting her dual nature.

Also, perhaps she won't look anything like a Borg; the nanites hosting in her body don't build new eyes and weapons, they just modify her body, brain and maybe her mind. Perhaps they give her abilities like being able to override computers, resist a high level of phaser power levels (like Yuta from 'Vengence Factor") . She may be suddenly be super smart (like Barclay after that probe hit him), perhaps the nanites are able to upload new skills into her brain, or maybe even have given her a new personality. For fun, come up with a bunch of "maybe powers", and slip them into the info the Characters will uncover, so they won't know what to expect.

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Originally Posted by Tricky

Also, perhaps she won't look anything like a Borg; the nanites hosting in her body don't build new eyes and weapons,

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Exactly, don't want to just do a seven of nine clone ... I would think something like a federation soldier who they tried to modify and it went awry ... so if she's salvagable she wouldn't be a science brainiac like Data or Seven, she'd be a combat machine and maybe suitable for a security position

Incidentily, which system do you use? If LUG I'm sure you already know about MacTavish's excellent Artificial Lifeforms and Borg .pdf's ... some ideas could be gleaned from them if you go this route ...

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Originally Posted by RealPity

Incidentily, which system do you use? If LUG I'm sure you already know about MacTavish's excellent Artificial Lifeforms and Borg .pdf's ... some ideas could be gleaned from them if you go this route ...

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Not only that but there is a full write up of the Angosioan Super Soldier Drugs on page 143 of the LUG Players Guide...

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Originally Posted by Tricky

Another idea I had was what if she WASN'T the original test subject at all? This works well if you do use modified Nano-probes. She was just someone who worked on the project, when she became infected (or, maybe the nanites broke free and took her over). Now she's a prisoner in her body (maybe), or fighting her dual nature.

Also, perhaps she won't look anything like a Borg; the nanites hosting in her body don't build new eyes and weapons, they just modify her body, brain and maybe her mind. Perhaps they give her abilities like being able to override computers, resist a high level of phaser power levels (like Yuta from 'Vengence Factor") . She may be suddenly be super smart (like Barclay after that probe hit him), perhaps the nanites are able to upload new skills into her brain, or maybe even have given her a new personality. For fun, come up with a bunch of "maybe powers", and slip them into the info the Characters will uncover, so they won't know what to expect.

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THIS....I like alot.

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Originally Posted by RealPity

Incidentily, which system do you use? If LUG I'm sure you already know about MacTavish's excellent Artificial Lifeforms and Borg .pdf's ... some ideas could be gleaned from them if you go this route ...

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I'm still on the fence on this one. I've played a fair bit of LUG, but I've only ever run using FASA or decipher. I had toyed with converting Far Trek ( a home brew) into Mini6 (a star wars D6 mod) but I will likely pull something out of the box as I'm lazy by nature. lol

Glad you liked my suggestions on super-soldier origin/abilities. Good to know I "still got it" when it comes to antagonist creation.

Last night I had an interesting thought cross my mind about your idea: What if they weren't creating a Super Soldier? The J'em Hadar were a bit threat in the war, but they weren't the thing that gave the FED the willies, were they? They feared the ultimate infiltrator, a being that could perfectly imitate friends, family, anyone. A life form that could pass through all their sensors, fool all their telepaths, walk right up to the FED President in the shape of his wife, kill him in front of everyone, resist sustained phaser fire, and jump out a window to escape.

What if the people at that station were trying to domesticate/indoctrinate/brainwash a FOUNDER?

We know the Founders released lots of baby changelings (a hundred or so) into the galaxy, to find their own way home. We've seen 3 of them. What if someone got a hold of one, and thought they could turn it to their own devices. A changeling loyal to Section 31 would be a powerful weapon, able to blend in anywhere, not needing food or more than 4 hours of rest, resistant to stun and telepathy effects, and not showing up in scanners.

On DS9, they said that Section 31 used Odo to create the anti-Founder plague, but what if they had another source to work with?

Just food for thoughts.

Hmmm..I wonder If a founder doesn't "up" the lethality a bit. Look like anyone, near impossible to kill. It add some interesting roleplaying possibilities to be honest. The characters interacting with the now behind their borders Dominion. Do they help the fledgling founder go home or keep it locked up? I'm torn to be honest.

As for systems, I am leaning towards Savage Worlds. I want a rules lite system I can run with. Still not %100 but *shrugs*

Small update: I've decided to switch out a runabout for an old Ju'Day patrol vessel. I've taken Owen's excellent revised plans and tweaked tem for my needs. I like the Idea of an "actual" starship better able to handle itself but also a very old one, not able to handle anything big mind you. I've always thought of the Ju'day as the federation looking at the BoP and going we can make something like that.