Trying for crazy-awesome, but did I just manage crazy?

[Pluribus]

Okay, got a really strange idea for a campaign. Strange enough to make me want to actually learn to narrate a Star Trek game to begin with. Let me know what you think.


The plot revolves around pulling the rug out from under the players pretty early. Probably by the second or third session. Start by having them make characters in Next Gen era. A new crew on their maiden exploratory voyage.

Things start out more or less how you'd expect for a Trek adventure. Encounter a new life form and have some conflict with it, but the "main" plot is actually a red herring. The ship seems beset with strange temporal and spacial anomalies. Events happening out of order, doors lead to the wrong decks, stuff like that. Stranger still is that a handful of junior officers seem to know a lot more about what's going on then they'll say. In fact there seems to be a conspiracy going on.

Things escalate until the junior officers start trying to set off a series of explosions in the ship, in Morse code pattern. This further degrades the situation. It becomes more and more obvious that the events going on aren't actually real. They're on a holodeck. But the player characters aren't in a malfunctioning holodeck program, they are a malfunctioning holodeck program. The junior officers are the real people trapped inside with them. The Morse code explosion and other strange things they've been doing are attempts to communicate with people on the outside.

The actual year is 2486 (about seventy years after the events of the MMO), and they're part of a docu-drama on a Klingon ship. Mobile emitters exist, allowing them to get off the holodeck. How they go about this is still being decided, but holodeck malfunctions have been known to hack a starship pretty extensively.

The Borg invasion is over, but repelling them weakened the Federation enough that the Klingon empire took over. The Empire certainly isn't going to want to let a couple of renegade holograms run around, especially ones that think they're Federation officers.

Going through historical records they'll be able to find out what happened to "themselves" in their future/the past. They went on to become one of the legendary crews of the federation (IE the kind that get a TV show following them), hence even the Klingons having an interest in their "early adventures". They could learn about the things they would later accomplish. One went on to become an admiral, one an ambassador, one turned traitor and became one of the most notorious turncoats of the 24th century...

The players will be able to 'update' themselves to understand modern technology. For example their medicine skill remains the same, but now they know how to incorporate 25th century medical equipment.


From there on out the campaign's main focus is them trying to evade capture and possibly rescuing/reviving the Federation.




So anyway... That's more or less what I have planned so far. If I do decide to run this game it'll still be quite some time before it actually happens. I have to do a couple of small things like actually learn the system and such.

[Doug Taylor]

That's a pretty amazing story, and it sounds like it will be a lot of fun to run! Your players are really in for some surprises, as this could really pull the carpet out from underneath them! Nicely done!

It could certainly be done; just make sure you have detailed notes for those early times in the story, as players will notoriously go "off the grid" and in directions you never planned for.

What system are you leaning towards running this with?

[Pluribus]

I figure most important is developing a timetable of when the "real" people do what and when certain malfunctions might crop up. Plus some interesting things for them to be overheard saying, like "The negotiations take two days remember? We have plenty of time." when the negotiations have just started.

As for the 'main' plot of first contact, it's tempting to not worry about making it inherently solvable since the plan is for it to be derailed by the subplot of anomalies. Of course that would just be lazy. Plus you never know when the players might just be dead set on the main plot and ignore the anomalies. Trouble is if they successfully resolve the first contact situation then the program is over and the holodeck shuts down. Of course, in order to not be a cruel Narrator I'll have to make sure to drop plenty of hints and find excuses to attract attention to what they're really supposed to be paying attention to.

So right now I'm in the impossible situation of trying to guess what the players will do, and planning for it. I think instead I should focus on making there be multiple ways things can go wrong.


I'm planning to get to really investigating the systems soon. For now I'm still contemplating the story. I am open to suggestions about which system suits this kind of thing.

I suppose what I'll really be looking for is something that would be compatible with player character holograms. I figure my best bet is looking for a book released after Voyager and see if it has details regarding characters like Emergency Medical Holograms.

Fighting would also be kind of different, and I'd want a system that worked with that. I figure that as holograms the characters wouldn't have to worry about most kinetic attacks, except the ones that hit the very small target of a mobile emitter, unless they really needed to hold onto something.

I could easily justify energy weapons disrupting or overloading their holomatrix. So something with good energy weapon rules would also be nice.

[Dan Gurden]

Trouble is if they successfully resolve the first contact situation then the program is over and the holodeck shuts down.

OK, heres an idea out of left-field... If this happens after they realise they are holograms, and if they manage to hack into the ships computer, why not allow them to find the schematics for the Doctors mobile emitter from 100 years ago (after all the Klingons would be less worried about the temporal prime directive...

Thus they may be able to save themselves by constructing a mobile emitter.

Best not mention the paradox that said mobile emitter is made of holographic materials, although its possible that holographic replicators are able to replicate physical materials with a bit of re-jigging??? Otherwise its weird techobabble handwavium technology at work.

I suppose what I'll really be looking for is something that would be compatible with player character holograms. I figure my best bet is looking for a book released after Voyager and see if it has details regarding characters like Emergency Medical Holograms.

There are some Voyager books and there was also some old STO material about holographic rights from a couple of years back.

In short, Starfleet tried to take the Doc's mobile emitter for analysis, but he had to prove his sentience (I am guessing a large dose of the episode 'Meaure of a Man'. And the Doctor EMH mk1 has managed to be accepted as sentient, but none of the other EMH have (although the prospect of similar circumstances developing sentience is a worry).

Eventually, as part of Project Full Circle in 2380's, a specialised Starfleet Medical Vessel was developed with extensive use of EMH technology for additional medical resources. Also on the crew was another experimental hologram, developed by Barclay, Zimmerman and the Doctor who was not even aware that she was a hologram (a bit Blade Runner there).

Thats the semi-offical stuff from the novels.

To be honest I was always a bit uncomfortable with the 'holographic rights' issue presented in Voyager, that edfunt EMH mk1 units were not upgraded, they were replaced and the old technology assigned to mine diliythium, sailing precious close to Federation sanctioned slavery for my tastes... In my own universe this led (will lead) to a revolt, and the older EMH technologies will be released and are made available to the population as a medical resource (useful on small crew freighters, or for long-term medical care of individuals)...

Thats all back in 2380's mind.

100 years on, its quite likely that there may remain sentient holograms fighting a resistance against the lingon invasion, perhaps even hiding in their computer systems? Perhaps the players sentience is not an accident and they may find some help from another mysterious source from one of these older programs who helps them from time to time?

Just another thought and a possible escape clause should you need it, alongside a guest star slot...

[Pluribus]

OK, heres an idea out of left-field... If this happens after they realise they are holograms, and if they manage to hack into the ships computer, why not allow them to find the schematics for the Doctors mobile emitter from 100 years ago (after all the Klingons would be less worried about the temporal prime directive...

That's pretty much the plan. Though it occurs to me that I'll need some reason to limit the quantity of mobile emitters they can make. After all, why not just back yourself up every morning and download into a new emitter when something goes wrong? They never really addressed this in Voyager that I know of. They knew enough about the emitter to repair it when it got damaged, but never thought to build a new one. And it's not like they've never put something in the replicator and said "I don't know what this is, but make some more of it." In the DS9 episode "Rivals" they were able to have the replicator reproduce and even modify (enlarge) devices that alter probability. Heh, bit of a rant there


I figure the best way to limit it is say that an essential component of the device is made of something unreplicateable. Powered by some rare form of dilithium, or with an unobtainium casing, or whatever Treknobable seems appropriate. That could also allow for a quest to obtain more of that resource a driving goal. If you get a whole bunch of mobile emitters you can start making entire holographic crews made of nothing but the best and brightest, or at least what history remembers of them.

Eventually, as part of Project Full Circle in 2380's, a specialised Starfleet Medical Vessel was developed with extensive use of EMH technology for additional medical resources. Also on the crew was another experimental hologram, developed by Barclay, Zimmerman and the Doctor who was not even aware that she was a hologram (a bit Blade Runner there).

I'm thinking of having the ship they're on having holographic projectors on multiple decks of the ship. They mentioned this in the Voyager episode "Life Line" that newer ships were being equipped with those in the interest of the EMH being able to make house calls.

Now I imagine there would be a system in place to prevent the holodeck from "leaking" into the hallways. Which should provide an interesting obstacle for the players to trick, circumvent, or hack. Once they do they'll be able to use real replicators, or other means of production, to make mobile emitters. Or maybe they don't at first. Maybe they're stuck on the ship until they can find materials to make mobile emitters.

100 years on, its quite likely that there may remain sentient holograms fighting a resistance against the lingon invasion, perhaps even hiding in their computer systems? Perhaps the players sentience is not an accident and they may find some help from another mysterious source from one of these older programs who helps them from time to time?

Just another thought and a possible escape clause should you need it, alongside a guest star slot...

Now that is a great idea. I think for my purposes a virus intended to mess with holodecks would be the way to go. If there was an AI stowaway that orchestrated the events then the players would most likely look to them to take charge after the escape. I'm looking for a "alone in the universe" feel, at least at first. Probably give them a while of adventuring before they find out their creation wasn't so accidental after all.

Maybe instead of rebuilding the federation the players might end up joining or creating an alliance of disgruntled AIs.


It actually forms an interesting parallel with the first contact the holodeck program is originally about. A planet full of robots that have created humanoids and can no longer control them. Think I'll go and throw that up in the adventure seed thread.