New Series/Story Arc idea

[IceGiant]

I'm a Cthulhuphile and I know Dan (maybe Don) use overtones in his games. But What I'm think is that Cthulhu has entered a region of space totally shattering reality. For this I want to nick the reavers from Firefly/Serenity, but in this case their loss of sanity is related to Cthulhu not the drug.

I also belive that TOS would the best era with the vast distances and great unknowns. I would totally do the rumors of the weirdness from the rim/edge of space. Have incidents and attacks reported. Slowly have starfleet begining investigating and losing ships.

This would be a horror/ST story but i'm not sure if it would be sustainable or not. In the end I would imagine SF would quarantine/blokade the area of space and set up a ring of defense stations.

I would also include stuff from the Armageddon rpg about the mark that the faithfull carry and their "powers" . Would be alot of fun to setup and run I think.

Thoughts?

[Phoenix]

Federation Starships covered in blood and bodies... Eww, gives me a chill.

Of course you just cannot have your PC's challenging "Things Man Was Not Meant to Know?" with their phaser banks and shields, something needs to get in the ship.

[Evan van Eyk]

This actually sounds like an intersting twist, although I am only vaguely familiar with the Cthulu myth.
But, I would not use the TOS for that campaign, since I find it too "colourful" - just look at the uniforms. What I find more suitable would be the Movie-Era. At least some of the movies are pretty dark ( TWK come into mind ) and the ship's interior is not so bright as in TOS. Since it is not too much in the future of TOS, the overall feeling of "unknown" should remain.
Also you might want to include some sort of "Section 31", which actually works for the "Ancients" and sabotages the characters efforts...
These are my ideas anyway...

[IceGiant]

Federation Starships covered in blood and bodies... Eww, gives me a chill.

Of course you just cannot have your PC's challenging "Things Man Was Not Meant to Know?" with their phaser banks and shields, something needs to get in the ship.

Oh totally Phoenix. It wouldn't be cthulhu without the ickies getting on board and npc's going insane and trying to blow them all up!

And Evan, yeah I love the movie era so that's a good suggestion too. Though setting it after the dominon war and saying that the deaths of millions allowed Cthulhu to sunder reality into our realm has possibilities as well.

[Owen E Oulton]

Triggers during the movie era could be an experiment-gone-wrong -- think Genesis, but make using protomatter have more dire consequences. Another possibility is that the Praxis explosion opened up a rift (can we use that word, or will Kevin S slap a C&D order on us?) -- think Klingon zombies.

[Evan van Eyk]

And Evan, yeah I love the movie era so that's a good suggestion too. Though setting it after the dominon war and saying that the deaths of millions allowed Cthulhu to sunder reality into our realm has possibilities as well.

I had thought about that as well, since that era is very dark and destructive ( just think of the cool sequences in First Contact ). However I discarded it because the galaxy is far more explored in that century.

-- think Klingon zombies.

I really like that idea. Klingon zombies, muahahahaha

[Doug Burke]

Triggers during the movie era could be an experiment-gone-wrong -- think Genesis, but make using protomatter have more dire consequences. Another possibility is that the Praxis explosion opened up a rift (can we use that word, or will Kevin S slap a C&D order on us?) -- think Klingon zombies.

"Star Trek" meets "DOOM"!

I did a similar adventure a couple years ago as a Halloween episode for my game. Although mine was more like "Operation: Annihilate" meets "Night of the Living Dead".

[Phoenix]

Klingon Zombies... Reavers... I'm not seeing much of a difference here.

[Tobian]

Trek tends to be in oposition to actual supernatural - ghosts and gods tend not to exist: That said actual reasons for super powerful wierd extra dimensional aliens can exist, it's just no one knows what they are It could be fun for a story ark.

In a mechanical sense, the subspace crossover, or 'interphase' seen in TOS was seen to drive men mad, so maybe there's a region where subspace has leaked into realspace, and the barriers of reality break down.. and a ship flying in wouldn't imediatelly notice the effects.. and if the region was large enough, whole civilisations could be infested with this madness, and things which leak through from the other side. As a twist, the Tholians seem quite at home in this sort of twisted space, so maybe the Federation could ask them for help?

[Owen E Oulton]

Mythos "Elder Gods" aren't gods in the religious sense, but simply extremely powerful entities - indeed, most of them don't even notice the "puny hoomons" they encounter. Trek has no shortage of malevolent entities - Redjac and Jake Sisko's Muse to name two. Some of the antics of various members of the Q Continuum could easily qualify, and Species 8472 could be taken for Mythos besaties.

[The Tatterdemalion King]

Rewatch "What Are Little Girls Made Of?" if you don't think TOS could do a decent job of lovecraftian horror.

[stule]

Watch the movie "Even Horizon".

I used that movie for a game I ran a few weeks ago.

I had an old Constitution Class ship dissappear while conducting subspace experiments. They were trying to discover another way to break the Transwarp barrier. They were experimenting with folding space.

It was missing for 80 years.

While my group was exploring a Nebula they discovered the ship. Empty of its crew and no power.

My players boarded the ship, finding blood and dead bodies all over the ship. It kinda freaked them out.

My players spent hours trying to reactivate its systems.

The ship had gone to a hell dimension. While there the crew killed themselves. As they died, their spirits were absorbed by the ship, causing the ship to develope its own AI. It began to live off of absorbing the life essence of living people.

The ship seduced one of the members of the away team, who went back to their ship and sabatoged it. The ship began to beam people off of my players ship (it needed a new crew and yes it could work its own systems) and onto itself. It then took the crew back to its dimension.

The remaining crew followed the ship to its own dimension and recovered the crew.

It was a great game and the horror factor fit right in.

Just my 2 cents.

[LUGTrekGM]

Agreed, Event Horizon was a great Horror/SF film.

[IceGiant]

See I was dissapointed with event horizon. I went in looking for the haunted house in space idea and it just didn't feel like it to me. I do need ro rewatch it mind you.

[LUGTrekGM]

it's not so much haunted house in space as it is..supernatural happening in a hard sci fi setting. I thought the concept quite daring, when first released. Obviously it didn't do well across the board, but to those that enjoyed it, they tend to really enjoy it.

I rank it up there with Alien, and Pitch Black, as great sci fi films.