Miniseries seed - need ideas.

OKay, I've got a miniseries in the works for my crew, and it's going to go something like this:

Title: The Last Ship
Era: Post-TNG, possibly VOY.

The crew encounters a Temporal Anomaly Of The Week (TM), and is (surprise, surprise) displaced forward in time about ten months.

Very soon after they disappeared, the Borg sent a multi-cube fleet in and devastated the AQ powers. All that is left are graveyards of fleets and scattered remnants of civilization.
"The Federation's GONE! The Borg are EVERYWHERE!"

The crew's priorities will be to survive, to link up with any other survivors, and to find some way (if they can) to undo what's happened.

Their assets:
1 Assimilation-resistant NPC human.
1 Defiant-class ship in excellent condition.
7 Misfit, nutty, but very brilliant PC's, one of whom knows the location of the Guardian of Forever.

Here's my problems:
1: Why did the Borg finally attack en masse? Is there new technology? Why would they change tactics?

2: How can the crew stop them? Assuming that they do take the Guardian option, what can the crew change in the past to stop a Borg invasion? (I originally thought of having the Borg be the cause of the temporal rift via a new weapon, assimilated from a newly-conquered world, and having the crew simply try to prevent that world from being assimilated, but I don't know if that will work anymore... then I thought about sending the crew farther into the true timeline's future, to help Future Janeway get the tech that she took to VOY to destroy the transwarp hub, thus preventing the multicube attack... but that got too weird too fast)

Any suggestions would be appreciated...

OK, I'm not that good with Trek timelines and remembering what happened when, so I don't know if this can be tied into existing episodes. But a possible answer to question 1 would be some sort of threat to the Borg. Maybe it was something the Federation did or was planning to do and failed, or some technology they had just developed that made it worthwhile for the Borg to invade the entire Federation. Or somebody pretty nasty in another part of the galaxy hit the Borg, and the Federation was in the way of the Borg's retreat. Something like that.

Well to carry on from LizardQueens post.

How about, the Borg have managed to find out about Voyagers peace treaty/alliance (call it what you will) with Species 8472.

The Borg send a fleet of tactical cubes(never liked the concept) to destroy the Federation. The Borg think that the Federation will give Species 8472 a way to prevent Janeways nanoprobes from affecting them, rendering the Borg defensless.



How's that.

I like that... but how do we keep it from happening? Stop the Borg from finding out? Stop the tac cubes en route?

Hrmm... call species 8472 before the cubes get here?
"Hey, we've got some nasty cubes heading this way, could you stop 'em?"
*Boothby8472* "Stop them yourself! We're busy here!"

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1: Why did the Borg finally attack en masse? Is there new technology? Why would they change tactics?

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The Borg run up between a rock & a hard place, perhaps with species 8472?

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How can the crew stop them? Assuming that they do take the Guardian option, what can the crew change in the past to stop a Borg invasion?

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The Borg adapt assimilate technology, right? They had to get Transwarp (Perry - ;) ) (tm) technology from somewhere! The crew gets into a race with the Borg for the schematics for Transwarp Cane (tm - ;) ) (ala Transwarp Perrryyyyy ;) )

All kidding aside, the Borg DID get TW tech from somewhere, & the crew has to stop them from getting it (or from getting assimilation tech).

Well, I didn't intend to go back in time THAT far, and alter what's already canon about the Borg. Which means I can't undo assimilation or transwarp, since they already have those by the time of the show.

I just want to prevent this one incident. I may need the Borg later, I don't want them undone in my universe.

The danger with the Borg is they are pretty... dull. At least in my opinion, from a narrating standpoint.

They are great for an occasional "omigod" style of adventure, but with a campaign, you have to be careful. If you do want this universe to be the focus of the game, I think you want to be very careful what sort of adventures you are thinking about. Compare trying to cross a Federation ruled by the Dominion vs. one ruled by the Borg. A Dominion-ruled Federation could have corrupt Cardassians to bribe, a resistance perhaps infiltrated by members of the Obsidian Order, etc. The possibilities of the Borg as a major foe are a bit more limited.

That said, if you do use them, it may be best to focus less on the Borg and more on the effect the Borg have on people. The Borg don't care about territory. If they wanted to wipe out the Federation, they wouldn't kill every member, conquer worlds, etc. They would do exactly what was needed to remove them as a force.

Which means outlying colonies might very well be Borg free. Perhaps the planet with the time portal is now controlled by the Romulans. Maybe the Romulans even feel safe - the Borg arrived, wiped out the Federation, and ignored them. The Romulans might try to stop the characters from restoring history.

Oh I like that idea for a Dominion Controlled Federation. Basically one where the Cardassians never turned and the Fedeartion Alliance fell. :)

I am so gonna steal that one :)

As for the BORG, well they are dangerous to use as the are pretty much a force of nature and difficult at best to stop.

I caution treading lightly. :)

How about this;

The Borg attacked because a ship, not Voyager, that the caretaker gabbed had some sort of high tech Starfleet gizmo, for sake of the conversation lets say a Solar bomb ala Andromeda. When a Borg Scot in the Delta Quadrant found the ship and the bomb they quickly deduced they had to make a supreme effort to take the Federation out once and for all. Never mind the fact the Borg realize the bomb dosen't work, its the fact the Federation is even attempting to build it.

So once you intriped band of PC's make there way to the Guardian (plenty of adventure there) they find out they have to go back and stop the Federation from even starting the project in the first place which means they have to find a method short of killing those involved. Of course you could use future time travel so that the crew can find the historical records on the topic in a less Borg dominated time, fight Section 31 at some point (at your option) and of course go back in time to stop it from happening which brings all the important time paradox questions needed for such a Trek episodes :).

What about this one.

The from 23 in future timed from Voyagers' Return, in 2376 I think. Trying to stop Voyager getting back to the Federation, but due to the Virus that was put in by Janeway, the Borg was off by 10 months, and Voyager had returned. The PC ship just happened to be at ground zero of the exit point and was displaced. But, because that was travelling at warp, the warp field stopped the very light ship being thrown to the distant future.

IMHO one of the easier ways would be indeed to have the Borg assimilate a species whose technology could give them a very significant edge over StarFleet - be it a way to cut through Fed shields like the Dominion's phasers did at the beginning, a technology allowing them to beam nanites through raised shields, a phasing cloaking device, allowing Borg cubes and drones to pass through matter and regain their solidity whenever they want, or anything cleverer. Maybe the Taurhai or the Dominion (weakened after the war) could do the trick, otherwise any Delta Quadrant species of your choice (Krenim ?).

After this assimilation, however, the Borg would be made aware that the Federation will soon have reached a high enough tech level to counter this advantage (either through statistical estimations, or by some Borg having travelled to the past to warn them - why would Janeway be the only one to do that ? ;)). They then proceed to assimilate the Federation as soon as possible to prevent it from inventing this counter tech, since they're the most advanced power in the galaxy in that area. Once the Federation assimilated, no one will be able to oppose this new technology - and the Borg.

The crew could then either help the species to avoid assimilation, prevent the Borg from learning of the Federation's advance (if they did because of another time travel), or on the contrary bring it back from the future to counter the Borg's invasion force in time. Or even try all of these courses of action, should one of them fail.
Lots of challenges and time travel anyway - the Guardian will be needed :)

An alternate idea would be the Federation to be the one initiating the attack - but having failed. This would require the Borg to have tried something very dangerous to the Federation, to the point of bringing it to launch a preemptive strike.

This could also happen if a Romulan (or whatever) spy infiltrated the Federation at a higher level and influenced its politics toward this strike by falsifying data to make StarFleet think it could be won. Such a premise has the advantage of avoiding putting the players directly against the Borg, since they'd only need to foil the spy's plot to correct the timeline.

Okay, that's got me thinking...

The Borg assimilate a Federation deep-space science / medical research vessel out on the 'edge' of explored space... a vessel which was exploring the ruins of planets that had been assimilated and left behind by the Borg, and looking for a 'vaccine' against Borg nanites. The CMO had just make a breakthrougfh and found a treatment which would make treated humanoids as hard to assimilate as Species 8472.

The Borg realize that, given time, the Federation will use the research that the Science vessel has already sent back to develop a vaccine anyway, so they decide to launch a preemptive strike, which results in the wholesale assimilation.

This gives the crew two options:

1. Prevent the ship's assimilation, thus keeping the borg from knowing about the vaccine.

2. Prevent the vaccine from being discovered.

Of course, they're going to choose option 1, since its easily the most moral choice. So now I have to find something bad to happen because they chose it that will force them to choose 2 instead.

Maybe when they change history the first time, the Guardian snaps them back, not to the time they left, but to the future, where a darker Federation has defeated the Borg and has somehow (??) twisted the vaccine technology to their own ends... maybe even becoming LIKE the Borg?

Then they can go back and make the hard choice.

Then, the 'proper' timeline restored, the Guardian can 'involuntarily recruit' the crew to 'fix' other timelines... thus setting up my "SliderTrek" arc.

Just one other problem... I need to engineer a confrontation between my assimilation-resistant NPC (he's got a mutant immune system) and the Borg, so that he gets semi-assimilated and disrupts the Borg systems before appearing to die. It's an essential part of a larger story arc.

"Commander! What's going on?"
"I think, sir... that HE's assimilating THEM."

If you want something a bit easier for the group to tackle, how about:

Someone found a derelict Borg ship in the Alpha Quadrant, and messed with it. While examining it, they managed to activate some Borg, who assimilated the crew and ship of the explorers.

The Borg then took over a nearby planet with the benefit of surprise, and sent a signal back to Borg space. Possibly setting up some sort of device to help open a subspace corridor to the new world.

The rest of the Borg arrived, and using the newly assimilated planet as a base took over the rest of the quadrant.

This keeps things small scale, and gives you a "catalyst event" that your players can try to stop.

As for who is responsible, you have several options:
A culutre not familar with the Borg would be a good option, since the don't know what they are getting into.

One of the major powers, such as the Cardassians, trying to get a technological edge over thier rivals (especially good during the Dominion War, either as a despare act by the Dominion, or by an anti-Dominion Cardassian group).

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Originally posted by First of Two
Of course, they're going to choose option 1, since its easily the most moral choice. So now I have to find something bad to happen because they chose it that will force them to choose 2 instead.

Maybe when they change history the first time, the Guardian snaps them back, not to the time they left, but to the future, where a darker Federation has defeated the Borg and has somehow (??) twisted the vaccine technology to their own ends... maybe even becoming LIKE the Borg?

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Either that, or there could be some essential component of the vaccine wich would have dreadful effects on the very long term. For instance, it could subtly alter the DNA of the treated humanoids, resulting in a mutation wich would become apparent some generations later only (and gradually). The effects of the mutation could range from slowly erasing individualities to making humanoids unable to cope with other of their kind (like Zakdorns, but much stronger), and of course, this would lead to the destruction of the Federation.
The flaw of this option is that is avoid the moral debate, if this is what you wanted to happen to your players.

Another option would be that the vaccine could make treated people vulnerable to certain forms of mind control from other people (depending on respective willpower), making it tempting for unscrupulous individuals (S31, anyone ?) to use it. Thus, the players would have to go back to option 2 just because the vaccine could be misused.

As for your confrontation with the assimilation-resistant NPC... maybe the Borg could have already established a Borg outpost on the Guardian's planet, and some fight would be in order to reclaim it. I don't know if that fits into your plans, though (BTW your quote made me think to Terry Pratchett's Carpe Jugulum. Coincidence ? :D).

I would like to prefaced the following by saying that I wanted to post on this topic yesterday when I first saw it, so most of what I write is a repeat of some of the fine ideas suggested. Great minds think alike I guess???

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Originally posted by First of Two

1: Why did the Borg finally attack en masse? Is there new technology? Why would they change tactics?

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Why not use a little canon reference? If you time it right, you could have the reason for the attack based upon Janeway’s destruction of the Borg Transwarp Conduits. The Borg realizes what a deadly blow this will be (WAS??? I hate Temporal Mechanics!!!), so they decide to destroy Janeway & the Federation before they have a chance to destroy the conduits. I would have to watch “Endgame” again to get more of the details, but I remember that the episode involved the Klingons, seedy undercover merchant trading, & time-travel themes.
As far as new technology, are you talking about the Federation or the Borg?
As far as tactics, I think that assimilating the Federation IS a tactic that they would love to accomplish if they could.

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2: How can the crew stop them? Assuming that they do take the Guardian option, what can the crew change in the past to stop a Borg invasion? (I originally thought of having the Borg be the cause of the temporal rift via a new weapon, assimilated from a newly-conquered world, and having the crew simply try to prevent that world from being assimilated, but I don't know if that will work anymore... then I thought about sending the crew farther into the true timeline's future, to help Future Janeway get the tech that she took to VOY to destroy the transwarp hub, thus preventing the multicube attack... but that got too weird too fast)

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Well, if you keep true to the way the Borg should be run (IMHO); you cannot stop them. I think of it like this- You can will the battle, but not the war. The movie “First Contact” depicted this perfectly. Picard, Data and crew stopped the Borg during one incursion, but they still exist as a major enemy of the galaxy. Always keep this theme and they won’t become impotent like they did during the Voyager series. However, if you are trying to rationalize the way Janeway and friends did so well against the Borg, I would suggest you use the “insider information” slant. Species 8472 had a way to block the assimilation process on the cellular/molecular level. Maybe the Federation is about get into peace talks with them and the Borg need to assimilate them before they can complete diplomatic negotiations? Plus, 37DD of Nine must have some information on how to beat the Borg in certain areas: shield harmonics, weapon configurations, sleep function activation, etc.
The Guardian of Forever is a crazy wildcard as to how it can be used. Do the PCs use it to go back in time to where the Borg first formed and perform genocide on the race before it has a chance to even begin? Do they go and stop Janeway from altering the timeline? The possibilities are almost endless.

Hope this helps.

C5: Having never read Carpe Jugulum, I'll have to say it's coincidence.

Kronok: Unfortunately (as I remembered while trying to figure out a VOY tie-in much like you suggested), my story is set during the Dominion War, before the events in "In the Pale Moonlight," which makes using materials from later impossible until they happen.

In fact, I WAS considering 'creating' a reason that the Borg became so easy to defeat during 'Dark Frontier" and "Endgame" and tying it in to my adventure (like, say, the assimilation-resistant NPC somehow triggers the Unimatrix Zero revolution?), but since the PC's will probably never know about it, I discarded it as irrelevant.

PC ship displaced in time.
Voyager returns home.
Borg assimilation of admiral Janeway and her future tech a trap.
Borg lose the future tech to Janeway's nano-virus.
Federation now has future tech that lets them vaporise cubes with a single torpedo.
Borg must launch an allout attack before the Federation can assimilate the new tech.
PC ship returns.
Alpha Quadrent a wasteland.
Borg have survived, but have taken MASSIVE casualties.
MASSIVE casualties is a must otherwise PCs return and are assimilated at once.

So what do you think?

The Borg probably got transwarp from the Voth.