Hello. I am new to the roleplaying world. I bought 4 of the Star Trek coda RPG books over the past few years, but I have never had a group interested in playing in a Trek game (they are interested in Exhaulted and D&D). But I finally may get a small group together and I can’t decide on which game to present to them. I am hoping you more experienced players may help decide on a game that will keep there interested. I have two possibilities to present to them.
Option 1: This is a game that I have had rolling around in my imagination since I was in highschool. I wish I could take credit for the entire premise, but unfortunately Babylon 5 is kinda the influence. This is a 5 year story build around an arc. Below is the quick notes version, but I have the entire 5 year arc mapped out in 5 spiral bound notebooks.
Note: This story will involve no time travel or “reboot.” The players will have to live with the repercussions of their actions.
Season 1 (year: 2376)*
*Season 1 is an experiment for me since I have never G.M.ed a game before. It’s my chance to get used to the rules, etc.
Season one begins after the Dominion War and the Alpha Quadrant is rebuilding. The Federation, Klingons, and Romulans have a joint occupation of Cardassia Prime. The RPGers will have a space station and a starship (just like DS9) and their mission is to help rebuild Cardassian space and its surrounding neighbors. (I am going to treat season one like the situation going on in Iraq).
* I have games lined up of diplomatic issues, hostage situations, some military actions, first contact, etc.
* Also in the background of the story I will drop in lines (through a news program) about 2376 being a Federation presidential election year and the candidates that are running for president.
* One of the candidates will be making a campaign sweep along the outer rim colonies of Federation space, making a promise to keep the Federation out of future wars (this person will win the presidential election).
Season 2 is were the story arc begins. I remember in the TNG finale “All Good Things” that the Klingons and Romulans had a war with each other(1). I started to think–what if that war began because of the Cardassian Occupation. About midway through season 2 the Klingon-Romulan war begins. Also the Federation President beings work on making his campaign promises come true. He declares the Federation neutral in the Klingon-Romulan War and he starts to cut back on the Federation starships being constructed and decommissions several ships. This starts to raise a flag with some Top Brass members of Starfleet.
(1) The RPGers will be introduced to “alien” that is playing both the Klingons and Romulans against one another in hopes of starting a war.
Season 3: The Klingon-Romulan War continues to spread throughout the Alpha Quadrant. Slowly the Romulans are being pushed back. In the Federation itself–terrorism is starting to spring up from no where– a group of radicals start to target civilian/military posts. In response to these actions, the Federation President declares Federation space under martial law and replaces key installations with people of his own choosing. The Klingon-Romulan war ends with the Klingons victorious and in control of Romulus.
Season 4: Several Federation worlds are not happy with Martial Law and try to persuade the President to rethink what he/she has done because the terrorism has stopped (doesn’t work). Vulcan and Andoria break away from the Federation. The President will not allow this and sends ships to bring them back into the Federation. More worlds leave. A Federation Civil War begins with ships staying loyal to the Federation and some breaking away to the Rebels (1). The Federation Civil War ends.
* It will be discovered during Season 4 that the Federation President was taken over by an Alien Parasite (similar to the one that was found in season 3) during his tour of the outter rim sectors in the presidential campaign. In the TNG episode “Conspiracy” Starfleet command was infiltrated by Alien parasites. I was always interested in this storyline, but nothing else was developed around it. So I decided to bring them back. Since the President has been in office he/she and its associates have been infecting key Starfleet personel, making them do what these aliens wanted.
(1) The RPGers will have to make a which side to fight for.
Season 5: The Federation is picking up the pieces in the aftermath of the Civil War. Like with Cardassia Prime, the RPGers will work to get things back to normal. But a new development takes place. Towards the Delta Quadrant, in the unexplored reaches of the Beta Quadrant, a new empire starts to move against the Federation–This empire was responsible to the alien parasites. Their plan was to make the Federation and the Alpha Quadrant weak through constant war so when they arrived the opposition would be less mightily. The RPGers will have to create a new alliance with the Cardassians, Klingons, and other worlds to fight off this new foe.
**I realize that this story will have to be modified for RPGs, but this is the basic outline. Any thoughts/comments on the game I have mapped out would be most appreciated. The next Option I have planned is in another post.
The post-Dominion War era is a good period, since there's not a lot of stuff from the show to get in the way of your plot lines. I used the Nemesis Romulan civil war (which was much expanded and more complex) as the big kick off for a closer ROmulan-Federation relationship, which got the UFP stuck between the Klingons and Romulans when they wind up at each others throats.
Our internal problems for the Federation come from a combination of a largely "leisure-class" society, coupled with a steady undermining of the moral and social fabric by Ferengi and Orion influence.
The UFP civil war thing pops up from time to time on these boards -- don't know you ned to go that far; more subtle politics, when most people are well-meaning but don't consider the consequences of their actions are more effective (and realistic) I find. A dovish president, following the DW, might not so much denude the fleet as have them focus on exploration, while the Fed. Council does everything it can to avoid another war...leaving them unprepared for attacks on the Fed by whomever. You could have the "why do they hate us?" crowd, the "we brought it on ourselves" crowd, and the "let's bust 'em in the chops" crowd (which I would think would be mostly younger DW vets.) You can present all sides of the issue and make it interesting.
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