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Hey Folks:
Has anybody tried run a Non- Starfleet / Non-Military, Civilian Camapign ? I was considering working on somthing like that for my next campaign but I'm unsure as to how it would work.
Has anybody got any success stories or for that matter horror stories with this type of campaign?
A group of Free Traders for example?
Erik
I did. It was called "Star Wars." :)
Seriously, though, I've never run anything other than a Starfleet game with the Trek RPGs (Icon and Coda).
Star Trek = Starfleet to me, and all my players want to be Starfleet when playing Star Trek. I've never considered trying anything else with the Trek RPG.
yup. it tanked. espionage campaigns and military/starfleet stuff works best in our experience.
I've run a few rogue-style campaigns in the Trek universe using the old FASA system. One was a merchant campaign set on a star liner in the FASA Triangle. Another was a pirate group, and a third was a bunch of misfits wandering around looking for adventure.
It's not much different than running a Traveller campaign, except that the background in that of Trek, and the characters aren't necessarily forced to be crooks just to survive.
I'm playing a Federation Intelligence campaign. No Starfleet regulations. All of my characters have no military experience.
The basic thing I always keep in mind is that rules don't matter and that they don't have commanding officers. They basically do things they way they think it should be done.
Starfleet all the way :)
Ya know, way back when, I complained about CODA and why would anyone want to play anything except Starfleet.Quote:
Originally posted by Ineti
I did. It was called "Star Wars." :)
Seriously, though, I've never run anything other than a Starfleet game with the Trek RPGs (Icon and Coda).
Star Trek = Starfleet to me, and all my players want to be Starfleet when playing Star Trek. I've never considered trying anything else with the Trek RPG.
But I got slammed for it and took on the mantle of being a non-conformist.
I've run mixed Starfleet/non-Starfleet types like DS9 and it worked quite well. The only problem I felt we had was it was sometimes difficult to make an adventure which would motivate all of the characters, coming from such diverse backgrounds.
I dunno, seems to me more a Star Trek issue - all of the Star Trek series have been from the perspective of Starfleet Officers, so it seems only natural that that would be the "default". But, like I said, I found that CODA worked finr for non-Starfleet.Quote:
Originally posted by Sawyer II
Ya know, way back when, I complained about CODA and why would anyone want to play anything except Starfleet.
But I got slammed for it and took on the mantle of being a non-conformist.
In addition to our 24th century Starfleet game, we also have a 23rd century rogue campaign, based around the old FASA Triangle. It seems to work fine, though I found myself adapting my orginal campaign idea (a bunch of traders working for an Orion company) into more of A Farscape meets Lexx sort of set up. And it works quite well.
Starfleet only, Really is no reason to explore otherwise. Logicaly at least
I ran an Intelligence game. There was one player and he posed as a merchant throughout the campaign. He was really part of S31. It worked out well and he busted some Tal Shiar agents scouting a planet to put a Romulan Base that would have been cloaked...
I played in one short lived merchant campaing that was just too much fun :)
Though we did have an ex Starfleet with us and eventually we were recruited by Starfleet Intel to run a mission for them.
Still loads of fun.
I've ran a CODA Triangle based campaign with Klingon rogues/pirates/mercs.
Pretty much the PC's were out for themself. Screwing over everyone they could ;)
I am currently running a non starfleet campaign set in my own highly modified version of the Triangle.
The party is a band of mercenaries operating in a cyberpunk style environment.
Everyone is having a blast and nobody misses starfleet. In fact they sometimes want to dodge starfleet.
So yes, it is possible to run non starfleet campaigns and have fun doing it. In fact I have never run a starfleet campaign. The players just havn't been interested in being tied down into a command structure.
My Dominion campaign started out as non-Starfleet, although two of the PCs were ex-Starfleet. But as the campaign evolved and the PCs got a ship it became more Starfleet.
Had various side-lines off of our long term game:
Group of scientists on a unexplored planet watching over a transported colony of aliens.
Orion pirates - hee, hee, hee
A few "short stories" set on a few different colonies, colony-federation interactions mostly.
A brief, but interesting, "talamasca in space" -style attempt to bring a supernatural bent to trek. Didn't work real well but could get interesting IMHO. A lot of the exotic aliens Kirk et al run into could be followed up on by such an organization...
Ran a couple of campaigns with all rogue (but good-hearted) rogue groups:
1) A flipside of the "Think Tank" from Voyager. Scientist and engineer PCs who roamed the AQ in their own ship helping people solve problems (and who Starfleet couldn't help due to the Prime Directive).
2) "Noble renegades" campaign with a bunch of people of dubious employment (smuggler, bounty hunter, former netgirl, ex-assassin) on the run from the authorities and former associates who wanted them dead, occasionally helping those in need. The group "leader" was the ex-assassin, who was half-Romulan and had worked for the Tal Shiar before he finally woke up to the fact that his victims weren't always "enemies of the state".
3) Traders (and part-time smugglers) in a jazzed-up freighter who got whisked Voyager-style far from the Federation (around 30,000 light-years) by a subspace anomaly and now have to get home. But without Starfleet regs and the Prime Directive the moral issues won't be quite so clear-cut...