Narrator In Need: Help me develop my second season

Hello.

I'm planning to run a second season to my NX-01 campaign soon, and if you don't mind I'd like to bounce some ideas off of you here.
(Ripley, in case you are reading this.. I have to ask you not to and to avoid this thread. :) )

First some background information:
It's the NX-era, whatever year... in my game FutureGuy and the whole Temporal War don't exist. So instead of the events of "Broken Bow" propelling Archer and his crew into space, the Vulcans managed to postpone the start of the first human Warp-5 ship for a couple of years, and thus an entirely different crew (the PCs) was sent out on the Enterprise.
The Vulcans are a little more hands-on in my game. So the first mission of the Enterprise consisted of them exploring territories the Vulcans had considered "safe", i.e. following in the footsteps of the Vulcan space exploration.
The season ended with the first two casualties on Enterprise, one of them the Vulcan science officer.
After that Enterprise was called back to Earth. As the crew arrives, they are informed by Starfleet that Vulcan has removed all of its representatives from Earth and have retracted all their technological, scientific help and support from the Space Program (including maps of chartered space, information on known species near Earth, etc.).
The space exploration program has been put on hold indefinitely.

The second season will consist of only 5 sessions and I have a few things in mind for it.

Session 1 will be the re-introduction of the crew to the Enterprise and their new mission. Earth has established trade routes to its colonies and a few alien homeworlds along the way, but recently there have been attacks on freighter ships and traders. The Enterprise will have to deal with these space pirates.
I'm toying with the idea of having the Orion Syndicate responsible for it.

Session 2 will take place a few months later. Earth has decided to build the first deep space station near those trade routes. Enterprise along with two brand-new Warp 5 ships (Dauntless and "nameless-as-of-yet") will have to make sure it gets build and not sabotaged by forces not interested in secure trade routes. (like whoever was left from session 1)

Session 3. Deep Space One has been build and is working. Trade routes are more or less safe. It is time to have a closer look at the alien homeworlds the colonists and traders have made contact with.
I'd like this to be the pre-Prime-Directive episode. But I can't think of a plot hook to get things going.
I'm also toying with the idea of having one of the planets with which the colonists have been in contact with be associated to the Andorians. Maybe even introduce the Andorians this way.

Session 4 & 5. I have only very vague ideas for the end yet. What I want to include are some kind of attempt to reconcile with the Vulcans who have apparently severed all ties to other species in the Quadrant.
The reason being that they have information that an alien species plans to conquer Vulcan and all its allies. Instead of wasting time and resources dealing with aliens, they are preparing for war. The episode should tie up whatever loose ends have piled up during the first few sessions and end with a cliffhanger.
Something cool like:
"They are coming..." (cue dramatic music)

You can probably guess who "they" are. ;)

What I need are some plot ideas, plot-twists etc. anything to give the episodes some shape. I usually improvise 90% of the game when I GM, but since I have a definite time limit here, I'd feel better if I had some kind of plan I could steer towards. Especially the last three episodes are very vague.

Any suggestions, tips even.. criticism.. (but not too much ;) ) would be very much appreciated.

Joe

I wish I lived in Germany so I could play in your game.:D

I guess Romulans.

Perhaps have the PC's have a run in with the mysterious aliens, gaining information vital to the defense of Vulcan. The Vulcans may then reconsider their withdrawal, as the importance of allies is made clear. Nice little morality play, in the tradition of TOS. Also leads towards Federation.

dude, I like...

Here's an idea I was going to use - two planets, either nearby or in the same system, each with a different species. One is tall, skinny and fairly physically weak (but maybe capable of psychic projections as camouflage). The others are built like GW Space Marines. The weak ones are using the strong ones as warriors to protect them in their local wars (and have encouraged them to construct a small Empire) by appearing to them as gods. The Crew meet the warrior race first and only meet the second race when they come to 'escort' them away from their dirty secret.

Essentially the Games Workshoip thing of religious warriors (teh Legionnaires Astartes) Space Marine thing, the use of religion to create armies, (the Hashishim, Crusades, ad infinitum), the conflict of the provision of an armed force to another species for varous favours (the armies like Spoo, only found on the other species' world? and the weaker race is using them to grab power, or beat of some threat (the Borg, maybe, or someone equally harsh if you want to muddy those moral waters a little and up the survival stakes - how desperate would you get?

Anyhow, just a thought.

Ok, i just read my post and it's a little incoherent. And badly spelt. Below is a spoiler, so players turn away now to your Goatsin Bondage site, or whatever
:rolleyes:






Basically, what was on my mind was the question of exploitation and what level of exploitation is morally acceptable.

The story works on a number of levels as below


The Crew meet the warrior race, perhaps while exploring. At this point they seem paranoid and violent.

Then the other race steps in, realising that the Crew are intelligent, not harmful, whatever makes them step in. As the Crew maybe find out more through discourse, maybe, or observation, maybe they're allowed to pass through their space and suffer a talkative Sargeant. At this point they realise that the warriors are bound in service through trickery.

Naturally they want to do something, but the other race steps back in (maybe in a face-off over the administrator's desk) and points out that their exploitation is necessary to unite local worlds (and their resources) and fend off the Big Gribbly X. Again, another little twist, to get those Prime Directive muscles working...

I know I'm being vague here, but I'm trying to leave space for personal variation...

ANyhow, whdaaya think?

Hey Joe, how's it going? Still need help, or is everything working out?

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Session 1 will be the re-introduction of the crew to the Enterprise and their new mission. Earth has established trade routes to its colonies and a few alien homeworlds along the way, but recently there have been attacks on freighter ships and traders. The Enterprise will have to deal with these space pirates.

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OK, so you want Orions. Thats a good link. Perhaps you can help build the close of the season by having one of the freighters (or the episode focus) be a Vulcan freighter, thus allowing humans to aid the Vulcans and build a good contact?

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Session 2 will take place a few months later. Earth has decided to build the first deep space station near those trade routes. Enterprise along with two brand-new Warp 5 ships (Dauntless and "nameless-as-of-yet") will have to make sure it gets build and not sabotaged by forces not interested in secure trade routes. (like whoever was left from session 1)

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This is easy. As the most experienced ship out there, the crew is broken up to crew these other new ships... Name the third Eros, and let it be destroyed doing omething heroic (metaphorically flying too close to the sun - that was Eros wasn't it?) thus when the reshuffle comes those players that want new PC's can swiych and theres still justification to bring attached characters back...

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ession 3. Deep Space One has been build and is working. Trade routes are more or less safe. It is time to have a closer look at the alien homeworlds the colonists and traders have made contact with.
I'd like this to be the pre-Prime-Directive episode. But I can't think of a plot hook to get things going.
I'm also toying with the idea of having one of the planets with which the colonists have been in contact with be associated to the Andorians. Maybe even introduce the Andorians this way.

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OK, pre-Prime Directive... Well at that point Starbases are far less autonomous than later tech allows, and so it is constructed in orbit of a friendly planet. However its construction has led a subversive element to believe that they are now under occupation (put the DS9/Terek Nor boot on the other foot). On investigation this elements seem to be influenced by an outside element theselves (possibly the Romulans in disguise - thus tied into the finale)...

But during the mission, while events will leave the situation in a good place, as all stand-alone episodes should, events should help guide the definition of the Prime Directive, ie; in this case a hands on intervention in events on the planet for its strategic location for the Starbase...

And of course the agent should manage to escape by the skin of his teeth, leading to...

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Session 4 & 5. I have only very vague ideas for the end yet. What I want to include are some kind of attempt to reconcile with the Vulcans who have apparently severed all ties to other species in the Quadrant.
The reason being that they have information that an alien species plans to conquer Vulcan and all its allies. Instead of wasting time and resources dealing with aliens, they are preparing for war. The episode should tie up whatever loose ends have piled up during the first few sessions and end with a cliffhanger.
Something cool like:
"They are coming..." (cue dramatic music)

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OK, so for some reason they need to get that message. Maybe chasing the unknown agent from episode 3 they track the agent to the talks that are occuring between Earth and Vulcan. There they have to foil the plot that would assasinate several key diplomats and implicate the other side (thus sparking a war)... the Romulan agent is no longer in disguise, as he is now able to pose as a Vulcan...

Foiling the plot and stopping (actually force them to kill him to preserve continuity - shouldn't be difficult, simply engineer a 'him or thousands of lives situation) this gives two seperate focuses for the episodes... and gives them a moral dilemma with he death of the agent. leaving a comms Terminal and an incoming signal from X coordinates...

"Forces are in place, ensure all operations are prepared. they are coming..."

And there is your cliff-hanger...

I was busy the last couple of days doing some work on presentations and the like for my courses at Uni.

Now that I have a couple of days of free time I'll go over my notes again and will probably include most of what was suggested, in one way or another. :)

So thanks a lot. The game won't get started for some time, so keep those ideas coming. I'll post an improved outline of the season soon.

Joe

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Originally posted by Dan Gurden
This is easy. As the most experienced ship out there, the crew is broken up to crew these other new ships... Name the third Eros, and let it be destroyed doing omething heroic (metaphorically flying too close to the sun - that was Eros wasn't it?)

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It was Icarus, son of Daedalus.
Eros is another name of Cupid, god of love, son of Venus (at least according to my copy of Bulfinch's "Myth & Legend").

Why not name the 3rd NX-class ship Intrepid or Excelsior?


As for a pre-PD idea, IMHO there isn't much difference to an adventure being pre-PD or post-PD. What counts is that you show the players the consequences of their actions. If they broke some rules isn't that important if they managed to plunge a planet into global warfare. ;)

If you are short on ideas try the one I am running in my game now:
Escape pod from a freighter makes planetfall on a world that has about the same technology as Earth ca. 1870-1900. There are several nations, many of them with a heavy-handed military pulling the strings. Crew is assigned to retrieve the escape pod and the crewman who was in it as quietly as possible.
They find the landing site of the pod (near a large city), but neither the pod nor the freighter crewman are there anymore. The site is in a mountaineous region with lots of technobabble-ore that is mined by the natives but scrambles scans, so they have to search the city the "old fashioned way".
When they find the pod and the pilot both are in the hands of a guy who tries to unravel the technology of the escape pod to start a revolutiuon against the oppressive military.

How do the players react? That's up to them of course, but the (IMO) important thing is to revisit the same planet some time later and show them the consequences of their actions. If they acted in a clever and stealthy way the consequences should be more or less positive, but if they messed things up there should be either a bloody civil war or an equally bloody oppression of the revolutionaries.

However it ends, at the end of any pre-PD adventure with a "primitive" culture the result should be something that makes everyone think:
(A) We need something like the Prime Directive right now or
(B) some of the things we did should become standard procedure, hey why not call it "Prime Directive" or somesuch.

Thanks for the answers. This is my slightly re-worked season outline. I'm just writing down the essentials of the episodes. Now all I need is a good plot hook for the finale and I'm ready to go. :)

Session 1 -
Attacks on freighters. Crew is send to investigate. It turns out a number of ships attemt to bully human freighters into giving up their businesses. Classic western set-up. ;) Meaning the Orions won't back down without a fight. Should satisfy the old-schoolers among my gaming group.

Session 2 -
Construction on Deep Space One has begun. There are rumours that somebody will attempt to sabotage and possibly destroy the station before it can be brought on-line. The captain of the Enterprise will be in charge of defending and securing the Station, with the Dauntless and the Intrepid under his command. This obviously calls for a low-profile operation to stop the sabotage. The crew will find themselves at odds with the captain of the Intrepid who advocates a more aggressive and pro-active stance (i.e. attacking the Orions before they can attack DS-1) to intimidate whoever might be out to harm Starfleet.
The investigation will reveal that the saboteurs are in fact former members of the Orion Syndicate, who'll get killed by their own people as a message to Starfleet that the Syndicate had no interest in meddling in human affairs in this area.
While I like the idea of having a ship go out in a blaze of glory, I think it's too early for that. I might use it in the finale.

Session 3 - The PD-problem will probably tie back into session 1. One of the repercussions of the conflicts between Orions and Freighters has led to a radicalization of a planet's society, who prior to having contact with the merchants considered themselves to be alone in the universe. Now that they've realized that the Universe can be a pretty dangerous place, the gov't has gone all out paranoid and is arming itself with everything they can get their hands on.
This of course upsets the neighbouring planets in the area, who start buying weapons as well, thereby starting an arms race. The crew has to try to stop this development, before an interplanetary war breaks out.

Session 4 & 5
I'm sticking with the ending. ;)
The Vulcans are preparing for war and haven't told anybody. Since they expect to be the only ones under attack by the "unnamed romulans", it would have been illogical to pull others into the conflict via alliances.
The problem with this set-up is that there's no real reason why the crew should think otherwise and insist on fighting alongside the Vulcans.


Comments? Suggestions?

Joe

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Originally posted by Joe Dizzy

The problem with this set-up is that there's no real reason why the crew should think otherwise and insist on fighting alongside the Vulcans.


Comments? Suggestions?

Joe

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As you say. This is the serious problem and you cannot simply railroad your players into this, the suggestion should come from them... So what you need to do is to cause the group to sympathise with the Vulcan cause...

Or maybe with just one Vulcan/Crew.

You need an episode where they can work alongside and get to know a Vulcan crew, working well and complimenting each others abilities. So that when your cliff-hanger episode opens you can have them coming to the aid of an SOS beacon from their Vulcan friend, thus getting involved and saving the day against the initial wave of Romulan scout-ships.

This puts your crew in the middle of things, and in the loop for what the Romulans are likely to do. As well as offer an explanation as to why the Vulcans did not want to force this alliance.

Of course the Romulans are far less obliging, the crew and Starfleet are now involved. Like it or not. Now the crew have both an imperative, a vested interest and even orders from the Leaders of Earth as they get involved.

All because they came to the aid of their Vulcan friends.

Without adding a reason for the crew to support the Vuilcans, dont be surprised if, when told the Vulcans dont want help, your crew agree and fly off, to destroy 30 years of canon Trek universe... Besides, the alliance and Federation has to start somewhere. And as you are creating your own non-canon background to support the later trek, why not here with your own crew?

You could try a dry, political approach. A threat to Vulcan may well be a threat to the entire sector. Better to help the devil you know than risk the devil you don't.

@Dan - This sounds like a good way around the motivation problem, but I want to use Romulans very sparingly, i.e. only hint at them in a very general non-descriptive way.
While the players might suspect the Romulans behind this coming attack, I want to play up the unknown and unseen aspect of the war with the Romulans.

I really want to build up a sense of impending doom, without establishing what the unknown enemy is actually capable of. I want the Rommies to be this looming, inscrutable menace that strikes fear into people by sheer mention of their name.

I think that's what I'll go with. Maybe the Romulans try to destabilize the Alpha Quadrant via psychological warfare. If all major players are so scared and paranoid that they alienate one another and can't work together, the Rommies will have an easier time just picking them up one after another. "Divide & Conquer" - if that's not classic Romulan warfare, I don't know what is.
The only way to avoid the Conquest of the AQ is by sticking together, this way one could even explain why the humans of all people are so esssential to forming the Federation.

Now.. how to scare the inhabitants of the AQ out of their minds, without them catching on that they're being manipulated?

This message has been removed on request by the
poster

How to scare the AQ folks out of their minds without them knowing the Romulans are involved... Have the Romulans secretly intervene in low-level conflicts between AQ species.

For example, suppose the Andorians and Vulcans are having a big dispute over mining rights and the Andorians swear there will be a reckoning. The next day a cloaked Romulan ship destroys a Vulcan freighter.

Humans set up a scientific outpost against Vulcan advice. The next day the outpost goes boom. Destroyed by Tal Shiar agents. Be neat if one of them gets spotted just before escaping... ;)

Stuff like that is what I would go with.

I don't know. I think random acts of violence and unexplained attacks will most likely frustrate and anger the various species in the AQ, pitting them against each other. Thus turning the Enterprise's mission into a simple diplomatic one; acting as mediators between opposing forces.

But what I'm going for is fear. This idea of crippling despair that has to be overcome in order to succeed against the Rommies. The crew would have to unite the various species, or at least convince them to fight instead of accepting their conquest by the Rommies as inevitable.

I want the humans, and in this case the Enterprise, to play a pivotal role in organizing some form of resistance, and by doing so laying the basis for a United Federation of Planets.

If you've seen Firefly, the Reavers are what I'm going for. In Firefly everybody is scared of Reavers. We never see them actually do anything, but the Reavers are the darkest and scariest kind of horror to the characters.

How do I explain or create this kind of fear and escalating paranoia in the various species in the AQ?

Joe
"It's all in the mind, you know?"

All you need is the following...

1 colony completely devastated by orbital bombardment.

1 passenger liner that is destroyed while touring the Blah-Blah Nebula fields...

1 Convoy of Tellarite merchants, besiged and destroyed, only one gets away.

In all cases they never signal, warn or threaten, they just act.

And they take nothing.

What everyone doesn't realize is that they have strayed into Romulan space and the Romulans want no visitors.

I know that owuld get me pretty scared. YMMV :)

That's pretty much what I came up with yesterday as well. The crew is send out to investigate the disappearance of various ships and colonies, the respective home-worlds are gearing up their defenses etc.

It looks so obvious in hindsight, but for some strange reason it just didn't enter my my mind at all.

Ah well, now that I've got the basics, it's time to work on the specifics a bit.

Read all about it here! Same board, same thread. Stay tuned!

:D:D:D

As I've threatened above, I'll post the adventures as planned and if time permits a transcript of how they turned out. Maybe someone somewhere out there will learn from my mistakes. ;)

Season 2 - Episode 1 (episode title as soon as I have one ;) )

Background information:
It has been 9 months since the Vulcans have left Earth (in last season's finale). Unfortunately they've taken pretty much everything they were even losely connected to with them as well. That means Starfleet is now without access to the sophisticated space charts of the Vulcan Fleet, without the input of the Vulcan Science Directorate and without the Alien Exchange Program. What's worse the tech-department of the space program has suffered serious set-backs because of it.
None the less humanity has found a new challenge in space exploration and has embraced it eagerly. The last 9 months have seen an enormous increase in applications for Starfleet Academy and a great public interest in space exploration. Despite earlier set-backs scientists are getting unconditional support from both the government and the public.
4 out of 10 interviewees plan to live and work in space or outside our solar system, in some form or another. Be it as merchants, scientists or colonists.
7 out of 10 interviewees want to work in Starfleet.

ACT I - Exposition
First the new crew will be introduced to one another, then Admiral Forrest will explain their mission.
In the last few months, merchants have been repeatedly attacked and had their cargo stolen by unidentified attackers. While there was no open request for aid, some captains have mentioned that they would appreciate if Starfleet could help restoring order on the trade routes. The crew is sent to investigate these attacks and put an end to them.
Then I have a (hopefully) cool little scene planned, with "Fanfare for the Common Man" running in the background, as they approach the ship and the pilot talks about Enterprise.

ACT II - Investigation
Talking to the merchants will reveal that they've all been attacked at one of two areas. An asteroid field and a Twin Star System. Both locations are perfect for ambushes as they allow warp/impulse engine ships little room to maneuver.
They will also voice their suspicions about why some of their colleagues have not been attacked, yet. Rumour has it that they are working together with the "pirates".
Talking and/or shadowing them will reveal that they are not so much working with them, but have cut a deal with them. They pay them to pass the ambushes unhindered.

Investigating the places of ambush will reveal a residual gas trace, not inherent to the area. Scientific research will reveal that it is the by-product of a chemical process, a long time ago used as an energy source on Earth, but later abandoned due to its catastrophic ecological side-effects.
More thorough research (or talking to merchants) will reveal that some planets use this concept to power their space ships. One of the essential components for this kind of engine is a natural resource that is fairly rare. It can in fact only be found on a selected few Class-M planets.
One of which is not far from the ambush sites.

ACT III - Suspects
As the crew arrives in the system, they find two ships of unknown classification docked in some sort of primitive space station. Both ships feature the chemical propulsion system mentioned above.
The captain of one ship does not respond to hails, whereas the other welcomes them very warmly. The visual communication is slightly impaired, due to radiation eminating from the planet.
After a short chat, he invites them to join the festivities on board his ship.

As it turns out, the captains and their respective crew call themselves Orions. The captain, who invited the crew, has ordered a feast. In part because of some lucrative deal he has cut with his "associates" but mostly because he enjoys celebrating. There'll be some general orion raunchyness, including green-skinned slave girls ("....and there was much rejoicing.").
They will also meet the other Captain, who's still not very communicative. The crew will have to look for evidence that either of them had anything to do with the attacks.
Since the stolen cargo was quite specific, it would have been hard to sell everything in so short a time. Some of it must still be in the attacker's cargo bay.
The crew will have to split up. One group will have to keep the captains busy, while the other investigates the cargo bay of both ships.
They will find the stolen cargo on the ship of the Quiet Captain.
When confronted he will flee on board his ship and try to escape. The crew will have to chase after him and eventually find him inside a Nebula. There they will have to duke it out, as he seems unwilling give up or otherwise find a peaceful solution.
During the battle his ship will be heavily damaged. Since his propulsion is failing he isn't able to get out of the Nebula, but because of a hull breach the ship might blow up.
The crew can offer to save him and his ship, if he accepts to leaving the trade routes alone. Or they can just let him die.

So, that's it. I'll probably flesh out the two captains and their history together a bit more, and name everything (NPCs, places, substances, etc.)
As you might have noticed, this is very straight-forward. As this is the first session, I want the players to get into their characters a little, get used to the system and generally not rush anything.

I'm a little worried about the introduction, as it will be essentially me doing all the talking. I thought about letting the players introduce their characters themselves, but I know that my players don't have a very clear idea about their characters, yet.
Is there anything else I've completely overlooked? Some obvious short-cut, or a scene that could easily derail the game?

Comments, suggestions, advice?

Joe

It could turn out that the friendly captain was the "fence" for the stolen cargo, and performs that service for a number of pirates. He acts as a middleman to get top dollar for the stolen goods. Actually, it could be vice-versa. The Quiet Man is the fence, and had already completed the cargo transfer before the arrival of the PC's. Either way, it could lead to conflict with the Orions. Also, since the cargo is very specific, it could be a contract job for a third party who wants a discount on the cargo, and pays the Orions to steal it for them. Perhaps even the original buyer of the cargo, who pays less to have it stolen than purchasing it legally.

(I like plot twists.:D )

I've had something like this in mind, too.

The friendly captain (Yenric) would turn up again in episode 2 to deal with the quiet captain (Luken) who has gone rogue (assuming my players won't let him die) and tries to orchestrate the destruction of the starbase (formerly known as Deep Space One).

I might include plot twists like this tomorrow, if I feel the game is running short. Let's see how it turns out. Depending on how tired I am tomorrow after the game.. I'll post a report.

Report:

Well.. most of it happened as I planned.

ACT I
I had to cut the scene with Fanfare of the Common Man, because they were still a bit silly and cracking jokes and the scene would have felt misplaced. Otherwise.. no change.

ACT II
The investigation took a bit longer than I expected. Although the science officer quickly picked up on the idea of the gas traces being a by-product of "chemical fusion" (as I dubbed it during the game) and connected it to the pirates' ship. Unfortunately this idea was ignored at first, and they decided to explore the relationship between merchants and colonists first. Looking for traitors, etc. among the merchants. This of course was a red herring by me, which I tried to wrap up as soon as I could, realizing that the game would take a little longer than I expected.
Fleshing out "merchant-culture" a little was fun, as was introducing three different captains.
Once they figured out how the pirates attacked the merchants (they used a specific gun to knock the merchant's warp engine off-line and bullied them into giving up their cargo) the crew tried to find some kind of defense against the weapon.
And after finding out that bit about "chemical fusion" they tried to find a similar weapon of knocking out the pirates' propulsion. Which I found a little silly, but anyway.

Once they put the pieces together (gas traces => "chemical fusion" => needed components => planetary system nearby) they met the two captains.

ACT III
Yorek invited them to the grand party. The crew didn't much care for the raunchyness, though.
Capt. Bowman had a little chat with Yorek and largely ignored Lukem. Although I have to admit, I had trouble including him into the scene, too.
Yorek was throwing clues left and right, that he was not as clean a businessman as he claimed. The crew had data, that a ship of the same class as the ones of the two captains was behind a recent attack on a merchant ship. They had clues, but no evidence (yet).

This was were they surprised me:

They dicided to turn around and organize a convoy, which they planned to escort to the furthest colony on the trade route (Bismarck). Hoping to provoke an attack by the pirates.

Hmm.. very odd. I did not expect that, especially not that close to the end.

Session two is scheduled for next Wednesday. Write-up for my revised plan will follow.

Session 2

According to the captain, the crew will attempt to organize a convoy to get supplies to Bismarck. The organization will take some time and convincing, as most merchants aren't fond of the idea of Starfleet helping them.
Eventually they should be able to get at least a small convoy together.
If they use the regular route (Trade Route One), the pirates will attack as anticipated. Big battle and a chase sequence ensues. The pirates will retreat and escape unless the crew can out-smart them. Then they will fight it out inside a nebula.
In the end the ship will be either destroyed or will simply disappear.

Fast-forward a few weeks. SF HQ has decided to speed up construction on a starbase on the Trade Route One. The crew will be supervising and securing the sector with the Dauntless and the Intrepid. Merchants will mention the rumours of an attack. The crew will go to investigate in a Mos Eisley-like location. Possibly butting heads with various species, but mostly picking up rumours/news of the area: Vulcans leaving every planet, ghost stories hinting at the Romulans, the usual bragging captains and hints at a planned attack.
They will get a name of an alien merchant who's selling explosives to an unnamed group. If they shadow him they might be able to get a lock on the warp signature of the buyer. If they look out for such a signature near the construction site, they might be able to arrest the saboteur.

It will be a member of the Orion Syndicate. How they will deal with him is up to the crew. They can try to locate the cell he belongs to and arrest them.

That's the plan. I fully expect them to handle the investigation differently. And chances are they might even abandon the convoy-idea.

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Originally posted by Joe Dizzy


This was were they surprised me:

They dicided to turn around and organize a convoy, which they planned to escort to the furthest colony on the trade route (Bismarck). Hoping to provoke an attack by the pirates.

Hmm.. very odd. I did not expect that, especially not that close to the end.
[/B]

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Leave it to those pesky players to throw a monkey wrench in the works.:D
It is kind of TOS like. The direct approach, getting right to the action.

So, how goes it? I'm living vicariously though you.:D

Hey Joe! What do you know?
Come on now you're pulling a TNG:Best of both Worlds Part One on us. What happened?

7 of 11
A
:D

Well.. the wrap-up of session 2 went pretty much as planned. Instead of a convoy only one ship was hired, the crew followed them at a safe distance. The buddhist skandinavian science officer Hjoern Thorwaldson had developed a useful weapon against the pirate ships. Through extensive research he managed to develop a kind of explosive that would manage to ignite the gas residual of the pirates propulsion system.
As they shadowed the bait... I mean merchant ship through the interstellar Nebula stretching across Trade Route 1, they received a distress call from another merchant ship floating adrift in the same nebula. After a short discussion and after realizing that the captain of the first ship had already prepared to aid the ship in need - merchant's/spacefarer's code of honour and all that - they changed course. Naturally this distress call turned out to be a trap, the merchant's ship's propulsion was kicked off-line through a cleverly placed mine (standard m.o. for the pirate's) and ordered to prepare to be boarded by the pirates who had been hiding in the nebula, waiting for merchants.

The crew showed up shortly afterwards and after trying diplomatic means of dealing with the pirates opened fire. The fire-fight was quick and mostly inneffective, and the crew was itching to use the modified torpedo. The one that would ignite the residual gas of the pirate ship's propulsion. The same ship that had been staying inside the nebula for who-knows-how-long waiting for the merchants to arrive. (The players only realized this in hindsight.)
You can guess what happened next: a big KA-BOOM and a few fried circuits and damaged hulls later... the smoke clears and the crew sees the following:

- the merchant's ship has been damaged, but is still functioning, though at about 65% efficiency
- Enterprise's sensors and propulsion has suffered slightly due to the unexpected reaction the explosion had with the nebula
- the unnamed nebula's volume has been reduced by 29% due to the chain reaction of torpedo + gas
- the pirate ship has disappeared, presumably destroyed (the crew returned to the Nebula afterwards and found the empty remains of a Life-Pod-Module, which once carried some 30 life pods, which the pirate's might have used to escape)

The now reduced-in-size nebula also gained a name: Thorwaldson Nebula.

The merchant ship was safely escorted to Bismarck, the colonists in Bismarck rejoiced and all was well for now. The Trade Route slowly returned to normal, after the previous places of ambush turned out to be safe now.

Trade Route One was safe, but the pirates had escaped and a Admiral Forrest had a new assignment waiting for Bowman and his Crew.

Session 3 took WAAAAAAAAAAAAAY longer than I expected, stretching over 3 sessions instead of one. I'll type up the most interesting aspects of the three on Monday.

It was very heavy on investigation and the players took their time with their undercover mission. But you'll read that soon enough as....


Tiltillating thrills await you at the Space Station - the focal point of alien trade - that the Enterprise crew try to search for clues.

Hearty laughs as Capt. Bowman encounters the joy that is Tongo!

Heart-pumping action as our heroes explore an abandoned moon basis, that might have ties to the mysterious Orion Syndicate.

Nailbiting suspense, as a nefarious plot to cripple Starfleet is uncovered!

And an exciting and dramatic battle in the stars as the crew faces the evil mastermind behind it all.

All this and more in our next installment of

Star Trek: Enterprise
Season 2 - Kicking A$$ & Taking Names

Joe "Mr. Voice has nothing on me" Dizzy

Sounds like it's going well.:D

It took long enough... but now I finally have some time to finish up my game report. It's fairly low on details, unfortunately as the sessions took place over a month ago.

Episode 3 - Sabotage

Having successfully secured Trade Route One, Admiral Forrest had a new assignment waiting for Capt. Bowman and his crew. With the recent attacks on freighter ships Starfleet HQ realized it was time to speed up plans on a space station. It was decided that Deep Space One would be located in the orbit of Theben, and construction was to start at once.

Their mission was to support and secure the construction of the statio. To do so, they would get the help of Capt. O'Donahue and the USS Intrepid and of Capt. Osaka and the USS Dauntless.
Think of O'Donahue as a predecessor to Jellico. A hard-nosed, no-nonsense kind of guy with no diplomatic finesse whatsoever. Capt. Osaka was more of a diplomat; a specialist in first contact situations and questions of exploration as well as protocol.
When hearing about the two of them aiding Enterprise on this mission, the first words out of Capt. Bowman's mouth were: "Oh, hell.. not those dimwits."
Luckily communications officer Kama had cut the link in time, or had she? ;)

Anyway, Osaka and Donahue were sent away on routine patrolling missions, while Enterprise followed up on some rumours. A local trader by the name of Chekov who the crew had met in their previous mission, told them about rumours in the merchant circles; about somebody buying huge amounts of weapons and explosives. After some back and forth between the crew, they decided to go undercover. They headed for Risa, a very rainy planet whose only attraction was its orbital space station, which many alien traders used as a meeting point on their routes. They travelled as traders on a routine route, and mingled in the crowd of the space station's biggest bar then split up.

Capt. Bowman spend his time playing Tongo endlessly, while Chief Engineer Scott met his first Andorian. Science Officer Thorwaldson had an informative, though still fairly reserved chat with a Regulan captain (dubbed Mr. Kilrathi by the players) while Weapons Officer Warren kept an eye on the officers and the shady barman.
There was some mention of a Vulcan freighter captain, Vulcans having become a rare sight in the area in recent months as well as local myths and stories... such as the huge battle at the "Throrwaldson Nebula". Most merchants were impressed that somebody finally stood up to "them Orion Syndicate bastids", not to mention that at least half of the merchants claimed to have seen it with their own eyes and were shamelessly exaggerating when describing the battle and the firepower of the (supposedly) Terran Ship. One captain even claimed to have seen a huge bird painted on the ship. Though this was quickly dismissed by bar patrons as being old legend, myth and essentially hogwash.
They picked up bits and pieces of information here and there. It seemed as if a merchant by the name of Dys-Rembel had expressed a great interest in buying all kinds of weapons and explosives off of whoever was willing to sell, using the barman as middle-men who'd set up the meetings.

(to be continued....)