I was recently looking over the series seed threads and found the basic style unsatisfying in a lot of ways and thought there could be a better way to do it so I came up with the following Idea.
Title Era – this tells when Type – What general type of series it is it Location – Where does it take place Details – this is a brief overview told in story persepective i.e. “Tired of seeing senior ships personnel at risk and dying in the process of conducting landing Parties/Away teams Starfleet has instituted a new program of purposely training and then assigning highly trained personnel in all branches to ships who are responsible for such operations.” (This is taken from Captain Zymmer’s series seed for Prime Directive) Narrator Suggestions – Just that specific things that relate to the plyers such as size of grup, size of ship, planets involved etc… Episode Seeds- a good section of 6 or 8 to get people going in the right direction Essential Elements – those things which the narrator should have for spice and flavor in the series.
Star Trek: First Ones Era: Pre-Enterprise Type: Exploration Location: Alpha Quadrant Details: In the days before Warp 5 starships and only a few slow moving merchant ships traveled the established space lanes lone adventures set from Earth to discover what was really out there. Possessing the spirit of the first people who crossed the great American plains three hundred years before these new mountain men seek to be rid of their toils on Earth and be free to see for themselves what is out there and perhaps make it rich. Packing into there little ships everything they own they are free to meet with new species, explore new worlds and set out to map out new space in advance of the generations that will follow them. Along the way they will make contact with the lone Earth colonies which dot space and perhaps even gain knowledge of new technologies which make their travels faster and take them further then before. Narrator Suggestions: The players can be a small band of these independent explorers and it is advised a non-human such as an Orion be used as a NPC to guild and accompany them in their travels. Their ship should be small, very small, forcing them almost daily to make planet fall to make repairs and for them to sleep. Episode Seeds:
___The Pilot: After a down turn in the Earth economy and as a result of just plain boredom the players set off into space to explore it for themselves but they have to get past the governments efforts to stop them and a pain the neck Starfleet officer who is chasing them down as they locate a starship for there use.
___The Commission: If the players fail to get off world in the pilot then Starfleet can reluctantly agree to allow them to go into space as part of a mission of discovery which is to last 5 years, 2 ½ years out and 2 ½ years back. However the players have to plan and recruit a team for their effort and above all get a ship of there own.
___A Friend in Deed: reaching their first station on these travels the players come to Bridger Colony which is the last Earth settlement for 10 light years as they restock supplies a local merchant seeks to undermine there effort by sabotage by infiltrating a non-human into the groups party, however this person wants to get away from the merchant and earnestly joins the group.
___Three Orions on a Dead Man’s chest: After trading with a group of Orions on an alien world the group unwittingly sells faulty goods, supplied to them by the merchant, to the Orions and is then chased by them into deep and unknown space and it will take all they have to get back on course. Lucky for them a lone Orion is also out there and may offer some help for the right price, that is if they find him.
___A Man Called Nausicaan: (For 1 or 2 players) When a few members of the group are left behind to explore a new world they are captured by Nausicaan raiders and held captive for an extended period of time. Alone they have to figure out how to escape and get back to the group on there own well still staying alive and resisting torture both physical and mental.
___A Strange World: The group comes upon a new world which has yet to be claimed or even mapped yet. They decide to stop and explore it as best they can but the world is home to a strange presence which they feel from the time they arrive and in the course of their exploration will discover its terrifying origin, an Orb of Terror long placed there by another unknown race.
___The Rendezvous: After some time in space the group encounters a large gathering of other space age “mountain men” at a small Earth colony. This is an opportunity to acquire new/sell equipment and trade goods and to swap stories and have a good time. All seems to be going OK until a Vulcan ship shows up and spoils the party in search of stolen property and those who stole it.
___What Border?: The group is exploring a new system when a Vulcan ships shows up and tells them they have trespassed into Vulcan space. The group should disagree with that argument and persist in their efforts to explore a promising new planet nearby. The Vulcans show up and proceed to arrest the group and they have to spend time in a Vulcan jail. Essential Elements: This type of series must focus on the fact that the players are alone, without backup of any Starfleet (or any other) vessels and the fancy resources their own nice starship could provide. They will be hard-pressed to communicate with alien species and finding parts and supplies for there continued adventures all of which must come from their own pockets. The groups varied backgrounds will be more important and more efforts made to come together to form a team.
Of course if you have chosen the Earth government supported expedition then some resources will be provided but after they leave Earth space there on their own. The mission of these explorers could include more covert ones such as spying on nearby neighboring inhabitant star systems and other worlds controlled by other interstellar powers such as the Vulcans and unknown ones as well.
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