Horatio Hornblower in Space

[Antonsb214]

Horatio Hornblower in Space: I've heard it remarked that Star Trek is Horatio Hornblower in space, and I've been watching my H. H. DVD collection and just finished "The Fire Ships" and think that the basic storyline can be used for an adventure, but I think it would only work from the Enterprise to TOS eras, because the tech of TNG might make getting around the obstacles(plague ship, "fire ships", etc.) too easy.
So does anyone else who has seen or read Horatio Hornblower have any ideas of turning these great stories into adventures?

[tanksoldier]

The only problem I see is that HH was generally the sole hero... the entire plot revolved around him. especially in his Midshipman days he had a very Wesly Crusher effect. Designing an adventure to "spread the glory" to an entire group might take quite a bit of re-writing the plot lines, might signfigantly chang the adventure.

One possible solution is for each adventure episode to have a "star"... plague ship stars the medical and/ or science officer... fire ship stars the engineer and/ or tactical officer. etc.

[Dan Stack]

I've only read the series up through Beat to Quarters (chronologically speaking - I believe that Beat to Quarters is actually the first published).

I think the series works very well as an inspiration for a TOS-era series (including the time of Captain Pike and the Star Trek movies).

A few things come to mind right away... First off the autonomy given to captains is a good inspiration on how to run a TOS adventure - without communications captains are the law.

I think Beat to Quarters itself would make for a fantastic multi-part adventure. Spoilers follow...



Basically the plotline of the book has Hornblower making trouble for the Spanish and working with a Spanish rebel of questionable character who is fashioning his own brutal empire in the Americas. Hornblower captures a Spanish ship and then delivers it to the Spanish rebel. Later on he discovers that Spain has now allied itself with England. Oops... Need to get the ship back...

Transferring to Star Trek... The Klingons don't quite work for the place of the Spanish. Romulans might be a little bit awkward. A good chance to use a minor power - perhaps something non-canon yet popular, like the Kzinti... So this minor power is an ally of the Klingons. I'll use the Kzinti so I don't keep saying "minor power".

So out on the frontier the Kzinti are allies of the Klingons and have been harassing Federation shipping. It's far, far from the Federation shipping lanes, with only a few colonies in the area. The characters travel weeks to go there to work with a Kzinti rebel who is willing to help the Federation. En route they engage a Kzinti captain using a Klingon D-7 (or something similar). Make it an exciting battle - outgun the characters, but make the environment give them opportunity to win. And then they must deal with the rebel.

After they sign a treaty with the rebel (and he wants the ship they captured) they then discover via a subspace message that the Federation and Kzinti have signed a peace treaty. They now need to take out the rebel (who they may have just helped).

For some fun, add someone like Lady Barbara into the mix, for some good fun Captain Kirk-style romance...

Just off the top of my head...

[tonyg]

Roddenberry stated that Hornblower was the concept behind the ship Captain (April/Pike/Kirk) in TOS.

This is one of the reasons why Kirk was always in the landing party instead of on the Enterprise.

As tanksoldier pointed out, the problem with the concept is that it focuses on one character to the determnt of the others. Not bad for fiction, but not good for your players.

In the real world, this resulted in friction and animosity between Shatner and much of the TOS cast.

IF your group is fairly small (2-4 players) you can get away with this a bit, by ties the PCs in to each other, so they can all be invloed in a story. The Kirk-Spock-McCoy relationship evolved for just such a reason.

With larger groups ensemble style adventures are better so everyone can contribute to the game. No one wants to show up everweek just to get the hand the Captainto sign the PADD (electronic clipboard).

[Antonsb214]

Well, taking the situation in "The Fireships", the plague ship situation can be easily modified to keep everyone in the PC group busy, the trip to the non-aligned plantet to negotiate for vital supplies, or the freighter can be an old tub with all sorts of technical surprises to throw at the players over a couple of weeks at low warp. Even the examination for promotion can be worked into it, one the holodeck (just don't let the players know it's the holodeck).
And just for fun, throw in some Orions or Klingons.

[tonyg]

Lot of good ideas to swipe. A "fireship" could be much moe of a poblem if it is a runaway starship and/or one wth a warp core about to lose containment (and can't be ejected).

You could make that bullying midshipman a Klingon Exhange Officer, or even an Andorian, making dueling a possiblitiy in a Star Fleet setting.

Orions make for good Barbary Pirates or Buccaneers.

[Antonsb214]

The Fireship will be a stolen ship or maybe an automated attack ship, whose mission is to blow up a starbase.

[tonyg]

Originally posted by Antonsb214
The Fireship will be a stolen ship or maybe an automated attack ship, whose mission is to blow up a starbase.

I think sending at some sort of large civivlan center would be more dramatic that a starbase. Or if you want a Starfleet target use Starfleet HQ, SpaceDock-001, or Even the old orbial SFHQ from TOS). Basically send after someplace unique.

A runaway warp core or suicide ship (with a crew or automated defenses that could add another level of difficulty) would be a nice adventure.

[tanksoldier]

I agree with much of the above, except the target for the "fireship"... if it's anything really important, you have to explain why there aren't 10 other ships trying to save SFHQ along with yours. A colonial outpost makes much more sense to me for most such things.

[tonyg]

True, if it is a strategic target (although there were plenty of times in TREK where the ENTERPRISE was "the only ship in the quadrant").

THe biggest obstacles I foresee are tractor beams (just the sort of situation where they would be useful) and how the PCs get aboard the ship. Anything that can catch up with the ship probably stands a chance of stopping it.

[Antonsb214]

The reason that there aren't 10 other ships trying to stop it is because the "real battle" (which they went to fight in) is really a diversion. The PC ships is in for repairs, along with several other "capitol" ships. So they'll have to stop it with runabouts or shuttles or.... workbees....
The "fireship" is almost as bad as "Dreadnaught" from VOY. So it may look like a freighter but has substantially more capability. And sabotage has brought down the starbase's defenses. Oh, and the starbase has a bunch of admirals/ambassadors/nuns and orphans on a fact-finding-mission/inspection/evacuation/tour and are really annoying to the PC's, until the PC's are the only ones who can save the day.