Forum Rpg

[JALU3]

So that is 5-6 people who are interested. Is that all? I imagine that there is more.

I say, if we are able to get 7-8 people . . 2-3 who are willing to GM and play. And the rest, normal players . . . there shouldn't be a reason why we can't get this off the ground.

[JALU3]

I just thought of a Campaign idea . . . does anyone know the story of the PanAm's Pacific Clipper.



What if the beginning setting was on an outdated Marinda, ultered to be a cargo/passanger ship, which was sent out to the cardassian far rim, for some reason. And then the CU (Cardassian Union becomes hostile) . . . and the only way to make it safetly home is to go around the CU and reach friendly space . . . all the while discovering areas that Federation vessels haven't been before . . . and constantly being harrassed by new Dominion forces looking to show the neighberhood who's the boss. Armed with only light defenses, and out of date deflector shields . . . and maybe an old pre-danube runabout (used mainly for ferrying cargo to and from planets) . . . it would not be a picture perfect comfy Starfleet adventure with everything at the players finger tips . . . but it would be an adventure.

[Tricky]

Interesting idea; you get the retro tech that means that all plot problems can be fixed by simply diverting something through the main deflector dish; the drama of the DW era; the uncharted territory of Voyager (stop booing); and the added benefit of doing something relativly new to Trek.

It could work.

[JALU3]

And it needn't be Starfleet centered . . . if anything it would be merchant marines, or some form of private operator with merchant marine wartime credentials (much like how most US flagged ships operate). Maybe they're maybe be a couple retired Starfleet type aboard, or some who may have been drummed out. Maybe a captain who was drummed out due to some incident (which may or may not be his fault), who has been looking to make his/her way back into the Fleet's good graces.

Furthermore, imagine the type of passangers that may have been aboard. Xenoarcheology specialist, missionaries, adventure travellers, post-college early 20's explorers, cardassian expatriots looking to avoid the reach of Cardassia, criminals under false pretenses having heard of some riches on the rim, an elderly couple looking to visit a son or daugter at a Federation school (much like the American Universities found internationally), a staff department of state individual who was leaving from a far flung consulate. Each with their own personality, with their own story, with their own objectives.

But maybe not a Miranda, maybe a Deneva, or if looking for something older what about a Whorfin-Class Transport, or a Ptolemy-Class Carrier, or an Apollo class light-cruiser.

[Sea Tyger]

I'm in if we do merchant marines. Nothing like a little quasi-military setting.

[Tricky]

You know, a DW, Merchant Marine story could be the BG-Trek Campaign that everyone always seems to want:
Ship: ill equiped to handle a large crew for too long (and the added benefit of not being a 'warship', so we would be out gunned all the time...unless there's a SF engineer onboard, and we DO have a Main Deflector Dish )
Crew: not really ready to be a group of heroes (at least they think that), and some of the passangers bring their expertise to the table.

Oh, this could be a good one....if we all can agree!

[TorItara]

Again, I'll admit to a lack of knowledge about the Merchant Marines - but hey, I'm willing to try it. Sounds like a cool setting, if you ask me. The variety of characters is a definite plus - you could get a regular, Babylon-Five or DS9-like mix of varied and intriguing PCs and NPCs. In summary, I'd certainly agree to the setting.

[Sea Tyger]

The Merchant Marine is a military-support civilian goverment organization of sealift ships designed to move men and materiel en masse across the oceans. It was at its height during WWII, where the US "Liberty" ships steamed food, guns, bullets, fuel, tanks, and so on from Stateside to both battle theaters. They were the why our logistics were as successful as they were, and greatly contributed to our victory.

In a Star Trek setting, you can easily see how a merchant marine would be useful. Even though the replicator makes life aboard a starship easy, colonies may not have such utopian luxuries. And wartorn systems could use the quick influx of supplies that a merchant marine vessel would provide.

The Icon ideal of the merchant mariner had them in different types of uniforms from Starfleet personnel, but still uniformed to give a sense of cohesiveness. There may be a few Starfleet crewmen and junior officers onboard, but the majority of the crew are merchant marines. I see no reason to deviate from that idea.

So, the question is: Icon or Coda?

[JALU3]

Well, since they are really well written up in the Players Guide in ICON, I say go with that, plus I own the book, but I can't speak to great knowledge of it, just very rudementary. If anything, I say it has a VERY small contingent of Starfleet if at all. Maybe a Liason, an engineering specialist, at most.

Maybe some retired NCOs or officers, or something like that, long past their prime.

[Cpt. Lundgren]

A Miranda sounds great to me. There was a TNG episode (the one with the aging disease) where you had an old Miranda as a freighter. If I recall, they had a crew of 12. As this would be more "Deep Space" I guess the ship would have 1/4 or 1/3 of the normal Starfleet crew. That would give a lot of ship to convert into cargo space.

Hm, would a former starfleet officer, dishonorable discharged (for something like planting his fist in the face of another SF officer), be allowed to to serve on this ship? Got an idea of a character whose ship crashed on a planet that is still in the Greek/early Roman age. As he managed to hold on to his communicator, he could contact a science vessel after trying to blend into that society for some 15 years. But, as he realize, he does not fit in anywhere, any longer. But, as I won't have much time to spend, he would need to have a low amount of "screen time"

I guess he would be to proud to be a janitor, and forgotten to much during those 15 years to have any important role. Maybe a member of the security department?

[C5]

I'm not quite fond of the concept of Merchant Marine, but I'm first of all eager to play, so I don't mind the setting much.
I'd have a preference for CODA, though (AFAIR, the data in the ICON books was mostly background, so it can be used with another system without trouble).

As for a character concept... I have few ideas right now (or too much ) but I'm working on it... Maybe a member from a new species...

[Tricky]

I've been running various ideas through my head at work. (gotta do something)
They are sorta like adventure hooks; feel free to never use them, or to make them episodes:

In my quest to 'not play humans'; I've been working on some ideas for an alien species that the ship would run into, that would end up joining the crew. My current reasoning is that our ship is part of a convoy, or at least has an escort from SF (something small), since there are Marquis and raiders and possible rouge Klingons out there. As the ship approaches CU territory, we are attacked met with force, and told that no FED vessels will be allowed to pass. A battle ensues, and while our escort bravely sacrafices itself for us, we run, ending up in some new species territory. They give support and aid to our ship, only to be attacked when the Dominion/CU forces attack them. One officer of the ship/station that was helping us remains onboard our ship.

This connects to something very DW/BSG: the possibility that one or more of our passengers are Changelings! I'm thinking that would be a sub plot; little clues, red herrings and all that. Maybe at our 'season finale' we catch someone in mid-transformation, or are led right into a Dominion Ambush (or maybe the Dominon is about to take us out, and then one of the crew/passengers shifts and tells us to open a channel....).

Thats all for now, except one little thing....does it matter which system we use? Are we really going to be rolling dice for our actions? using skill tests? expanding Drama dice (ok, i use Drama Dice everyday..but enough about my love life....)? Maybe I'm not getting something here, but since AFAIK we are only using the books to build characters, for basic stats and data, and background, does ICON or CODA really matter?

just askin

[Sea Tyger]

Tricky, I vastly prefer the CODA game mechanic over ICON, primarily because the skill resolution formula allows both natural talent (attributes) and skill to dirtectly contribute to the result. Also, I prefer the way skill levels and attributes are separated in CODA.

The streamlining of the edges and drawbacks (taking out the "roleplaying" advantages and disadvantages) is also better in my mind.

The other thing is that I've gotten rid of all my LUGTrek core books, so I'd have to rely on someone else to physically make my character for me, and I despise that thought.

[JALU3]

Well we can free form this . . . but then we'd do nothing better then word play . . . which is OK . . . but doesn't provide any real foundation to conflict resolution in regards to skills, actions, combat, etc. If we are doing CODA, maybe I can write up an ICON character and someone can do the conversion for me, and since the GM will have all the character sheets saved, they will be doing the rolling . . . so only they would need that information.

As for the initial setting. That seems interesting Tricky . . . but we need to come up with a reason why the vessel needs to circumnavigate the CU, and its area of influence. That means we need to be on the farside. For instance . . . why is it that the Pacific Clipper didn't go back to the States, which would technically be a shorter distance. The reason for why they did what they did, was due to security. The area between New Caledonia and the United States was vast, and unsecured, and within the hands of hostile forces.

Thus we need a starting location on the Far side, or north or south of the CU. For instance, if on the farside, what if the shortested distance was through the neutral (up to the third year) Breen Confederacy. Or if you go south, you have other formerly hostile race territories.

If anything, our vessel could be a Supply Vessel attatched to a humanitarian task force. Say somewhere on the farside, of the CU, there was a disaster, or something like that. And for some reason, the task force was given permission to enter CU space. A Hopsital ship, and two cargo ships . . . of course escorted for "our protection by Dominion/CU" ships. Then all of a sudden . . . the Hospital ship gets hit, as does the other cargo ship . . . leaving us the final target . . . and some how . . . we make it out . . . with few, if any survivors being able to beam over . . . leaving us with more passangers then the ship can normally handle.

Maybe even the neutral observer a Grizzelas beams over before his ship is destroyed.

Well these are ideas for the GM to work out.

[TorItara]

To toss in my two cents (Canadian cents - that translates to roughly 1.79 US Cents) - I'd prefer ICON - I preferred the selection of skills, though that may have just been me, and it seemed more in-depth (that, and my race of choice had a sourcebook on them in ICON) but, per usual, am willing to play CODA if the group wants. My book selection for the two is about the same, so the choice really doesn't affect me overmuch, save for the fact that making a CODA char requires referencing errata (which is only a minor annoyance), what with the (fairly) significant changes they've made to character generation.