Star Trek: The Golden Age

[K.G. Carlson]

Thanks for the kind words, Orville. Sharing with the Trek community here is something I've been wanting to do, since so many here have inspired me with the work they have shared. I hope you continue to enjoy and if you get a chance to share some more tales of your own.

All these characters really make me wish this was a Trek TV show - Naderi really interests me, given her background. Do you have any stats for someone from the Martian Colony ? Or are they just humans who happen to be born there ?

Maybe a new Personal Development Package is in order.

I didn't do any tinkering mechanics-wise to the core settings, just character development options for colonists.

The sad part about Naderi is that I had done some work developing a Mars training mission, heavily influenced by the movie Total Recall and my own perception of Trek's Mars as sort of like the post-Reconstruction American South. I always figured from the few canon clues we are given about Mars is that they were proud colonists who'd won their independence from Earth, only to get sidelined when the Federation was formed. The way I figure, Mars was probably important in the Earth-Romulus War, but when the Federation was established and the guidelines for membership meant that a low-population planet like Mars was not eligible for membership. Their only recourse to entry was as an Earth outpost. And the bitterness ensued.

My Mars mission was heavy with political intrigue, and since the Collision Course elements and the cadets one mission outside the Sol system had that, I didn't want to overdo it. Since I hated to see the Mars plans go to waste, I decided to bump that scenario to the Starfleet Academy mini-series for the TOS-movie crew.

[Fugazi Grrl]

I forgot to comment, earlier, when you posted how you used your House Rules in combat that we've used your knockout rules extensively.

A wonderful addition to the CODA system !!

Using your rule, we've had several very good fist-fights, including an extensive brawl between an Andorian security officer and an Andorian pirate, ending with the Zaldan engineer bashing the pirate on the head and knocking him out.

Your House Rules are really gaming genius at work !

[Orville]

I love this. With your permission I will use it in my campaign (Orvillify it of course )

Also thanks for the suggestions on the knock out rules that can be used for fistfights.

[PGoodman13]

Your link is broken. Here, try this one.

[Orville]

Thanks goodman

[K.G. Carlson]

For a variety of training purposes, my Starfleet Academy has the USS Drake, a Daedalus-class cruiser. In Star Trek: The Golden Age, the warp core is currently undergoing a rebuild; since none of the player characters in Season 1 are engineers, this won't become important until later. For now, the impulse engines generate enough power for puttering around in the Sol system.

While Niles, Payne and company are merely along for the ride to Mercury for their first off-planet training exercise, they see that the 3rd and 4th year cadets serve as crew for the Drake's training voyages.

The 1st year cadets are to get experience working in a hostile environment, and for that Mercury is perfectly suited. They are to experience a basic planetary survey, including soil sampling, while also experiencing the joy of working in a restrictive space suit (Payne takes the Suit-Trained Edge on his next advancement).

The Drake will be dropping off a half dozen training missions scattered across the night side. Since Mercury's atmosphere is, well, mercurial, the cadets' tricorders include the location of the nearest automated monitoring stations in case they are unable to contact the Drake in an emergency.

Since we have yet to endure any actual peril, its time to bring the heat. Cadet Paisley's suit experiences a malfunction, and naturally the cadets are unable to raise the Drake. Niles and Payne swing into action, putting their command skills and stamina to the test getting all the cadets organized and into the monitoring station. Niles supervises while Dewhurst treats Paisley and Mubarak attends to repairing Paisley's suit. Meanwhile, Payne tries to raise the Drake using the monitoring station's subspace transmitter only to find that this station is overdue for some technical maintenance.

Since neither of the player characters are tech-oriented, their challenge is to keep the other cadets calm and motivated in getting things patched up. And for some added pressure its only five hours to sunrise, meaning they'll be stuck in the monitoring station for 59 Earth days until night and it will be safe enough to be on the surface again. Yeah, I know what you're thinking; why would cadets be dropped so close to the day terminator? Hey, if the players didn't spot such an obvious lead-in, just go with it.

Some good role-playing and the judicious use of Courage sees the cadets safely back aboard the Drake with 30 minutes to spare.

For courage in the face of real danger, Niles and Payne received a Letter of Commendation and a point of Renown.

[K.G. Carlson]

Aw shucks, Fugazi Grrl, you're too kind.

Orville, borrow away! And enjoy.

Patrick, thanks for the technical assistance. In any universe, you've got my vote for chief engineer.

[K.G. Carlson]

The flight training scenario was a short one and rather rules heavy, but it went a long way to helping the player characters get over the fear of taking the helm.

A short trip aboard the Drake brought the trainees to the flight test range at Jupiter. There are two parts to the pilot training scenario.

The first training session was based on the flight simulator in the original X-Wing PC game of the early 90s. A series of platforms projected a holographic arch, and the trainees had to fly the shuttlecraft through the arch, with the bottom of the shuttle oriented towards the projection platform; although it still cost the trainee points, crashing through the non-solid arch was preferable to hitting the platform. There are five levels of difficulty, starting with a Systems Operations (helm or flight control) TN 5, with each successive level increasing by 5. Starfleet cadets are required to score at least level 2 before being rated as qualified pilots. A little flavor text while the trainees maneuvered the course kept them on the edge of their seats; Payne scored a level 3 success and Niles scored a perfect level 5 on his first run through the course.

The next part of pilot training involved high speed touch-and-go landings to simulate emergency insertion or pick-up missions. There were several different locations on a variety of Jupiter's moons for flavor (different environmental conditions), but mechanically speaking the Systems Operations (helm or flight control) was TN 15, with a marginal success on three out of five attempts needed. Failure meant the LZ was overshot, Complete failure meant that the pilot had set down hard enough to dent the shuttle and Disastrous failure meant a full-blown crash. Although Payne did dent his shuttle on one of his touch-and-go runs, both player character cadets passed three out of five attempts on the first day of training.

Up next: the events of junior year, the Incident, and the intrigues of senior year at Starfleet Academy.

[Fugazi Grrl]

I'd love to run some of my pilots through this course. I play a lot of pilots - and usually seat-of-the-pants "Jack Dalton" types, too.

[K.G. Carlson]

While the cadets are attending the Academy, big things are afoot in the Federation.

During Freshman year, the cadets were shown the "Ships of the Line" presentation attached below.

From the pre-Federation NX, the Daedalus and the Ranger-class as presented in the Starfleet Operations Manual, its clear that the distinct saucer shape of the TOS Enterprise was an evolution of sorts. I decided that the Class 1 starships from the Starfleet Technical Manual (reprinted in 1986) would be the first of the "new breed". The Constitution-class heavy cruiser, the Ptolemy-class tug, the Hermes-class scout and the Saladin-class destroyer (the last two of which are externally identical, hence the "missing" graphic). These prototype ships were under construction based on Ranger-class hull refit and would begin trial runs in the summer of 2243, while the cadets were on field assignment before starting their junior year.

In October of 2243, Dr. Richard Daystrom unveils his duotronic circuit, which revolutionizes Federation computer technology. Because of the timing of this event, the NCC-1701 will enter actual service before the class leader Constitution; the Enterprise will be built with the duotronic circuits, while the Constitution needs to be rewired with the new technology after completing trial runs. Just in time for Robert April to take the cadets on the mission of a lifetime fresh out of drydock...but I'm getting ahead of myself.

[K.G. Carlson]

While I'm sharing player aids, here is the threat profile of potential enemies that the cadets would face in the simulators while at Starfleet Academy (not to mention a little foreshadowing).

Up next: the pre-junior year field assignment, or "how you can earn Renown before graduating from the Academy."

[K.G. Carlson]

Two "current events" I forgot going on in the background as I integrate and update my pre-TOS series toward the TOS era.

One is a massacre at Hellstrom IV. Based on background information in the Collision Course novel, canon events from TOS like the incident at Tarsus IV and the isolationists shown in Enterprise, I figure that this era of Trek history has its share of violent uprisings; the Federation has yet to become the harmonious society we see in the "near" future.

The second is that phase pistol research has been reopened. Sometimes the continuity glitches in Star Trek can be fun to unravel and explain. So I decided that before the Babel conference which starts the Federation down a more cooperative road, many of the member planets are not keen on sharing all their knowledge. So the phase pistols of the 22nd century Earth Starfleet lacked the punch of the laser weapons listed in the Players Guide, and those nasty Reman shock troops needed killin'. But the successful adaptation of phaser technology to starships will lead to another attempt at hand weapons of this variety.

I have the players using phaser prototypes, the pistol shown in The Cage and using the Phaser Type I (23rd century) stats.

During the Four Years War, in Season 3, the phasers we know and love will come into service.

[K.G. Carlson]

While the canon doesn't address this, I sort of assume that Starfleet Academy has semester breaks. But given the importance of their intended careers, sometimes training supersedes vacation time. And naturally, this is one of those times that tweaking the nose of their politically well-connected nemesis Cadet Rittenhouse comes back to bite the Crew.

The summer before junior year, most cadets are assigned a six-week special deployment assignment. The lucky ones get starship duty or maybe even work at Starfleet Command. The not-so-lucky get sent to Eagle Station. Guess who drew that one?

Cadets Niles, Payne, Schwartz, Paisley, Hamilton, Naderi, Corso and Dewhurst are assigned to Eagle Station, a drydock facility near the Class H Eagle Nebula. This quiet little assignment tucked in among the heart of the Federation, although its not on any major trade routes. Translation: boooring. As an added bonus, the station commander, Lieutenant Commander David Carlson (easter egg!) likes to take advantage of the trainee crew, and arranges for his staff to take a two-week leave while the Academy babysitters are there to keep an eye on things.

Because its off the beaten path, Eagle Station doesn't worry about unnecessary maintenance routines, like the main sensor arrays. There's nothing out there to see anyway, right?

While it may be a dead-end assignment in the 2240s, Eagle Station was once a strategic outpost; of course, that predates the Federation. During the Earth-Romulus War, Eagle Station was right in the thick of things; in fact, a minor engagement had take place nearby. And when Naderi and Schwartz set about upgrading a realigning the sensors out of sheer boredom, they discover an unknown mass adrift in the nebula.

Notified of the crew's discovery, Niles and Payne set to work on identifying the discovery. The nebula is making scanning from the station difficult; about all they can ascertain is that whatever it is, it will drift further into the nebula and out of Eagle Station's sensor range in about 2 hours.

Since the normal crew complement is on leave, its up to the cadets to solve this little mystery. But how to get there? Shuttle pods and workbees are not really up to exploration. There is a Type G Shuttlecraft available...but just in case they want to go in style, there are three starships in dock, which could be readied for impulse flight with just a little work. Two Starfleet vessels, the USS Coronado and USS Pioneer, and a star yacht, the SS Arctic Queen (see drydock attachment). In the end, the cadets opt to use the shuttlecraft as they don't want to risk damaging the larger ships maneuvering in a nebula. Leaving Paisley and Corso to monitor the station, the others depart.

Some fancy piloting rolls bring the crew in close enough to identify the mysterious object, revealed as the Scan 2 attachment below.

Since the scanners indicate no power to the vessel, the crew land the shuttlecraft on the hull and suit up for a spacewalk and override the controls on an airlock. A thorough investigation finds that the crew destroyed any useful intelligence (computers, hard copy files, etc) but a few Reman corpses would seem to confirm the authenticity of their find.

A high-powered beacon is attached to the derelict before the crew departs, and once clear of the nebula they call Eagle Station to have them notify Starfleet Command about their discovery. Although a starship arrives in less than two hours, Starfleet Intelligence arrives via high-speed courier in a mere 45 minutes.

The crew is questioned rather thoroughly. The derelict is located by the responding starship and towed back to Earth for a full investigation. The cadets are commended for their work and the incident is classified top-secret.

[Fugazi Grrl]

KG - I love that Drydock ! I've really enjoyed the stuff you've posted on this thread. And following the thread in general.

About vacations, at the Academy - I'm not sure about the policy during the 2240s. But in the TNG-era novel, The Best and the Brightest, the cadets were allowed leave between semesters. I remember two of the lead characters took their break on Risa. And one of them had to go back to Trill on her break to face the initiate institute.

I haven't read the book in a long time, but I remember it was a great glimpse into Academy life.

[K.G. Carlson]

Thanks, Fugazi Grrl. I'm just glad to be able to contribute to the forum that has been so inspirational to my gaming.

And I'd also like to second your praise of Best and Brightest. I devour all the expanded universe fiction I can, although not as quickly as I used to. I especially enjoy novels like this one that give us a glimpse into seldom seen corners of the Trek-verse.