Hi all, After spending a long time deciding what roleplaying game I should try and run, I decided i'd stick with my great love - Star Trek, and after watching Nemesis I thought it'd be fun to set it after the film, just as the Federation is about to begin peace talks with the Romulans. So here's what i've got so far:
The year is 2379. The Romulan Empire, and the Romulan Empire slowly regaining strength after the Shinzon disaster earlier that year. The acting Senate have asked that the Federation render both military and humanitarian aid, for Shinzon had made sweeping military cutbacks, along with the closing of hundreds of hospitals, which was publicly condemned by Romulans, especially with an outbreak of Tarellian Plague in several major cities. In response, the Federation has complied, hoping this will cause an end to nearly two centuries of conflict. The U.S.S. Damocles is one of four ships sent to help...
Part 1: Meeting the Proconsul
The crew shall start the adventure assembled in transporter room 2 of the Damocles, ready to beam down to the surface of Romulus. Captain Riker, who is on the surface will signal when to beam down. When the crew rematerialises, they find themselves in a large hallway, presumably just outside the Senate. The door in front of them opens, revealing an aging (165+) Romulan, who introduces himself as Vice - Proconsul Koral, and has been asked to coordinate the help effort.
He speaks of rumours of several factions of Remans still on Romulus who still seek to regain control, and warns that some may still have thalaron weapons. He asks that any Remans caught be handed to Romulan Intelligence. He extends the use of the Planet's facilities to any off-duty crewmembers, but asks that they observe Romulan law, and carry no scanning equipment or weapons.
Part 2: The Masad
After about two days in orbit, when most of the senior staff are on the planet, the Damocles recieves a distress call from the Romulan Warbird Masad, under attack from an unknown vessel. As the ship is on the other side of the system, it will take approximately twenty minutes to reach the ship (including five to recall key personnel. note that Captain Walters remains on Romulus, therefore relinquishing command to the first officer, who is a player character).
When the Damocles arrives, they find the Masad adrift, with life support barely functioning, and with only seventeen lifesigns aboard, three very faint. The Masad hails the Damocles, Subcommander Neral in charge. He request immediate evacuation. The quantum singularity drive is damaged, and could blow at any moment. The remains of a second warbird float aimlessly in the background.
Sensors indicate that the ship is salvagable, and that maintenance crews could bring auxiliary systems online in 36 hours. Subcommander Neral insists on beaming aboard to help with repairs, and insists that Starfleet Personnel refrain from examining the ship's database, and science labs.
Part 3: The Subcommander's secret
Subcommander Neral has distanced himself from the Romulans on board the Damocles, and his report that the destroyed warbird had been under the command of Reman sympathisers doesn't seem to wash with many of his crew, especially a young Uhlan called Torat, who lost the use of his voice during the attack. Many of his 'shipmates' preport to never having seen him aboard until today, and he can only offer the excuse that it was a new posting for him.
At 0200 hours, the Security officer will recieve a call from the bridge. Someone has accessed the communications array without authorisation, but the terminal can't be traced, but it uses an algorithm bearing similarites to certain vowels in the Reman language. A computer use: retrieve (TN 12) will reveal that the message was transmitted from Neral's quarters.
If the Security officer goes to Neral's quarters, he will find the door has been locked. A simple override of the mechanism (TN 6) will open the door. Neral is lying on the floor, and is holding a vial in his hand. He is slipping in and out of consciousness, and his computer terminal simply says 'Transmission end'. Neral is in pain, and may not survive without proper attention.
If the Security officer decides to take him to sickbay, The doctor will require a roll of TN 5 to correctly administer the Inaprovaline to stabilize the Subcommander before he can be questioned.
Part 4: Interrogation
Now on a bio-bed in sickbay, Neral is now well enough to be questioned, and the Security Officer and Commander may ask him any question they wish, his response for all will be: 'It was for the Empire'
Meanwhile, the Engineer may attempt to use his skills to find the destination of the message, and may even attempt to decode the message, but will require a difficult (TN 20) computer use check to decode it. It will only require a challenging (TN 15) computer use check to discover the destination - Remus.
Part of the message appears to be a sequence of numbers, presumably military strengths in the sector, and another appears to be a set of blueprints, but the only word the computer could decipher was 'thalaron'. It is at this point that the Captain will contact the ship, requesting their return to Romulus, as there has been a disturbing development...
Part 5: Accusations and Revelations
Upon returning to Romulus, Captain Walters and Vice - Proconsul Koral will beam aboard, accompanied by Commander Rakal of the Romulan Military. Rakal demands to see the Subcommander, while the Proconsul and Captain ask to see the senior staff in the briefing room.
The remains of a third Warbird have been recovered on the far side of the second moon of Romulus, and it appears to have been blown apart by Starfleet photon torpedoes. The ship had been destroyed no more than 18 hours ago. The Proconsul and the Captain do not believe Starfleet have any implication in this, and think the the attack on the Masad had something to do with it, and that maybe the Commander of the Masad was close to uncovering the secret, so he was eliminated before he could warn the Senate. Indeed, Koral does not recognise Neral, having personally selected the crew for the mission.
It emerges that the Masad belongs to the Tal Shava, the covert ops division of the Romulan military, and that it was close to discovering a second plot to wrest control of the Empire, in much the same manner as Shinzon had. Koral also reveals he is the head of the Tal Shava, and he also asks that the Damocles leave the system, so they do not become involved in this matter. The meeting will then be interrupted by the Ops officer, with a priority one message from Earth for the Captain.
The Captain will ask his executive to accompany him, and in his ready room they will recieve a message from Admiral Rossa, ordering them to leave Romulan space and head straight back for Federation space. It appears that the U.S.S.Bellerophon was destroyed two days ago on a survey mission, and that hull analysis shows Romulan disruptor energy residue on the hull. He bluffs the Admiral, telling her that he will leave the system immediately
Part 6: A Race against Time
Captain Walters does not believe that the Bellerophon was destroyed by the Romulans, who he believes they are genuinely serious in their peace effort. Using a contact in the Romulan government, he manages to persuade them to allow their presence, but only for another 72 hours. The Captain orders the Engineers to crack that message, and orders Starfleet Response teams 11 and 12 (who reside on the ship) to covertly beam down to Remus, to find out what's going on down there.
That's all so far. I'll post more as soon as I have it. I'd appreciate any advice, opinions etc that anyone has to offer, but at the moment i'm working out how to link the destruction of the ships (I have a bit of an idea, i'm not too sure if it'd work though)
Last edited by Mirror_Sulu; 03-15-2005 at 03:56 PM.
Do I understand it right, that this is your first attempt at Narrating? If it is, take some time to think through what the player characters will do. Otherwise you might risk that the NPCs take over the game. Also, remember that the players will come up with ideas that you never thought about. But that is just part of the fun.
If you have been Narrating before, then you can just ignore what I just said as you already knew it.
About the destruction of the ships. I usually work those things backwards while planning. Who is behind this, and what are they trying to achieve? If it is a Romulan (or Reman) only conspiracy, the attack on the Romulan ships might have been done by a fake Federation ship. The UFP ship might just have stumbled over a rendevous between the false UFP ship and one of the conspirators. Or, it can be a diversion, with the only purpose to draw the PCs ship away from the scene (you can have the admiral demanding that the ship has to go there. The captain can then leave the PCs behind to continue the investigation ).
Yes it is my first time Narrating, and what i've done so far is just a loose guide for me to follow, and hopefully the players won't stray too far (although one would much rather bombard Romulus from orbit and take it by force, hardly starfleet behaviour ) and with them devising unorthodox plans, i've cooked up some belters in my time, so that (should) be covered.
And with the destruction of the Ships, so far i've invented a separatist Romulan group, the 'Tal Vosha' who are seeking to reinstall the Emperor to power, and this is as good a time as any, with a power vacuum and weak economy on Romulus. They're using an old Miranda class ship to destroy Romulans ships, and Neral is actually a member, having beamed aboard the Masad before his ship's destruction, along with thalaron research purchased from the Remans, and they plan to use it at the peace talks in two days.
Whether the crew manage to work it out is another matter...
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) and with them devising unorthodox plans, i've cooked up some belters in my time, so that (should) be covered.