This is the third thread of the month on a crew screwing up and getting court-martialed for their trouble.....
For those of you who don't know it, I'm attempting to coordinate an on-going roleplaying meta-campaign for six different Star Trek clubs in the Utah/Idaho area.
A meta-campaign was set up with adventures for each ship- with four story arcs, and with each ship's adventures and reports building towards the climax and finale (a brush war which would culminate in the setting described in the Star Trek Online game).
I've been coordinating my efforts with the captains of each ship (club) and the Admiral and Commodore (who run the parent organization, the 7th Fleet).
My latest Star Trek session was an unqualified disaster......and depending upon how we choose to play it, may force me to re-write my entire campaign.
The setup was that in 2374, the U.S.S. Celerity had been lost in space and wrecked on an uninhabited world deep in Romulan space.
Commander Elizabeth Foster was the sole (critically wounded) survivor of the Celerity, and had been rescued by Romulan Admiral Tarius ( a member of the royal family who was going into a self-imposed "exile" in order to prevent political turmoil). Over the fourteen years since the crash, the Foster and Tariusbecame friends (and perhaps even lovers).
The mission was that in 2388 (nearly a decade and a half after the crash) the U.S.S. Retributor crew were to finally locate and secretly visit the wreck of the Celerity and then to follow the trail of breadcrumbs to Foster's location.
I had planned for the characters to have three basic options at this point:
- to convince Foster to return to the Federation
- to respect her decision to remain with her "captor"
or- to attempt to return her by force.
The overall aim was to "humanize" Tarius, to show him to be a person of integrity, honor, and compassion, and to set the stage for later events in the campaign.
Never in my wildest dreams did it occur to me that the heroes would decide to kidnap the Admiral from under the noses of the Praetorian Guard- and then run through a Romulan task group attempting to intercept them.
But that's what the players chose- and so they had to face the consequences of that decision.
The Commanding Officer is now under arrest for five violations of treaty, three acts of war, and countless Starfleet regulations- and Retributor herself is now a battered hulk awaiting the decision to either repair her or decommission her in disgrace.
Admiral Tarius, upon discovering the "invaders" guessed their purpose (decided that the attempt to recover lost comrades was honorable) and allowed them to speak (unhindered) with the survivor, and offered them safe passage out of Romulan space- provided that they caused no mischief and respected Foster's decision to stay or go.
For his troubles, Tarius was shot (stunned) in the back and kidnapped.
It was only when Retributor had been caught, pounded into submission, and both the Empire and Federation on the verge of outright warfare that the Commanding Officer decided to take Tarius at his word and return him.
The other wrinkle is that the roleplaying game is intended to supplement and augment the club activities- not undermine them.
It's supposed to add to the "Trek experience", not detract from it- and it was NEVER my intent to add "un-fun" to the mix. Yet I could not, in good conscience, deprive the players of the fruits of their labors.
I'm not allowed to destroy any of the charter ships (clubs) nor kill or maim any of the characters without express approval from the Admiral and Captain (this is essentially the same restriction faced by those writing Star Trek short stories or novels for publication. The "heroes" have to go back into the toybox in essentially the same shape as I found them.
So now the entire project is in limbo.........
I'm currently awaiting word from the Admiral on how he wants to proceed- either chalk up the mission as a "holodeck" exercise gone badly awry, or something else...
....but anything decided (everything except a complete "do-over") will force me to modify my campaign from here.
So.....the list of major charges is as follows:
- Violation of the Treaty of Algeron (Retributor carries an illegal phase-cloak with the knowledge and permission of Starfleet Security and the 7th Fleet Admiral)
- Violation of the Neutral Zone Accords (Retributor's unauthorized presence in Romulan space is (by itself) an act of war (and yet Starfleet authorized them to enter the Neutral Zone to search for the missing Celerity)
- Attempted kidnapping of a Romulan crown prince (a de facto act against a Romulan head of state, and potentially, an act of state-sponsored terrorism)
- Armed assault against the Praetorian Guard (an act of aggression against a security organ of a rival/hostile state).
Lesser charges, of course, are too numerous to list.
Ye gods, what a mess!
So.....any suggestions on how to deal with this mess?