Star Trek: The Golden Age

[K.G. Carlson]

A couple of events have prompted me to want to start posting a campaign digest.

I have recently dusted off my first Star Trek campaign after a three year hiatus. I have really been enjoying it, the RP is great, and I didn't realize how much I'd missed it. The group is great and their tale deserves a telling.

About a year ago, my "professional" group, the one that run events at conventions, allowed our group website to expire, mostly due to group apathy. I'd generated quite a bit of content; fortunately the ship conversions didn't go to waste since Patrick Goodman has given them an alternate drydock for your viewing pleasure. Unfortunately, all of my convention campaign digests are gone.

I have two non-convention Star Trek campaigns started, one set in the years before Kirk and company's original five year mission, and the other set in the TOS-movie era. The TOS-movie era is my personal favorite time period, and the pre-TOS is special to me for RPG related reasons.

Although I started my actual gaming career with D&D back in 1990, the game that drew me to the hobby was the Star Trek RPG products advertised in the official Star Trek III movie magazine. I'd become a Trekkie when my father took 10-year-old me to see Wrath of Khan in theaters, and I spent the mid-80s immersing myself in the seeking out of new worlds with the Enterprise. And as I read the expanded universe novels of Pocket Books, I eagerly set about turning them into RPG scenarios.

Fast forward to 2008. I'd played and run a wide variety of RPGs, even getting to play Star Trek under the FASA rules in the early 90s for a brief time. But I'd yet to get behind the screen and run Star Trek. Word of the "new" Star Trek caused me some dispair; my maiden voyage adventures of the [I]Enterprise's /I] maiden voyages under Captain Robert April and based on two Diane Carey novels (Final Frontier and First, Best Destiny) were about to be officially de-canoned.

By 2008, my three active groups were all good RP groups; I'd had trouble in the previous 2 decades of getting the kill-loot-collect crowd to get into the cooperative, enlightened mindset of a good Starfleet crew. Of these, two of the groups were willing to give Star Trek a try and one of them had an old FASA fan like me in. The dream would finally launch. Aboard the USS Coda, my favorite rules set for Trek, I was finally leaving Spacedock.

In the quarter century since my mind began weaving together adventures in the 23rd century, the territory has been further explored in comics, novels and short stories. And I even had a few original ideas to plug in as well.

I hope to share all our adventures together with the Trek community here. If I ever catch up, I'd even like to use you as a sounding board for upcoming adventures.

Between the holidays and a hectic work schedule, my posting may take some time before its reliable; please be patient. And thanks in advance for any positive feedback or suggestions you'd care to make.

Coming soon, more details on my pre-TOS campaign, Star Trek: The Golden Age

[Orville]

Hello Mr K.G Carlson
I am eagerly awaiting to hear more about your adventures and campaign. I am running a pre tos camopaign myself but in the new universe since my gaming group are not a bunch of trekkies. We have had a great deal of fun with my Starfleet academy campaign and I plan to run the next adventure 29th of december. I hope we can exchange some ideas about our campaigns.

I have posted my stuff under series seeds and I have described the campaign as Starfleet academy with a harry potter touch. :-)

You have been in to rpg:s for about the same length of time as myself but I didn´t become a trekkie untill around 1990 or 91 when I saw the movies and rented TNG from the only vcr rental in town. I could also add that here in sweden, sci fi isn´t very big if you aren´t talking star wars but there are some brave fans around like myself ;-)

Ok, looking forward to your posts here and happy holidays

[K.G. Carlson]

Hey Orville, thanks for posting and I hope you will enjoy my little adventure digests. Also, Happy Holidays to you as well

I am running a pre tos camopaign myself but in the new universe since my gaming group are not a bunch of trekkies.

I hear this frequently from gamers who worry that not being a Trekkie will prevent them from playing Star Trek as an RPG. I usually point out that one needn't have read the collected works of RA Salvatore to play in a D&D Forgotten Realms campaign. For some reason Trek is intimidating to the casual viewer gamer.

We have had a great deal of fun with my Starfleet academy campaign and I plan to run the next adventure 29th of december. I hope we can exchange some ideas about our campaigns.

Thats cool! I have started both of my Star Trek campaigns with Starfleet Academy mini-series as "season 1" of the campaign. I like to give people new to the Coda system a chance to play around with the rules in a low risk environment to get a feel for how things work before asking them to save the Federation and/or galaxy

I look forward to browsing your posts once I've provided some reading material of my own.

[K.G. Carlson]

Star Trek: Golden Age Cast

The gaming group I run my pre-TOS campaign for has a steady core of three members; we are the remnants of a much larger gaming group from my "gaming golden age" of the 90s, which was a rather stable size of 8-10 players. For the last 10 years or so the group has condensed down to we three. It has occasionally (and temporarily) gained a handful of new or returning members, but for my Trek stints the group has been 2-3 players plus myself as narrator.

Here is my cast of player characters

Garin Niles Seasons 1-3
A human command officer from New Berlin, Luna. His brother was at one time working for Starfleet Intelligence but is currently missing. A very thoughtful and tactical command officer, who is occasionally a wild card.

Wilson Payne Seasons 1-3
A human security officer from the Deneva colony. A veritable combat monster, ladies' man and Nile's right hand man. By season 3 he is XO and chief of security, which he handles very well.

Richard Wu Season 2
A human engineering officer from China. Wu's unorthodox technical skill have saved the ship and the day on numerous occasions. The same player runs Roger Wu, Richard's son, in my TOS-movie era campaign. Since he married, his ability to play in more than one group has been revoked. Wu attended Starfleet Academy as a non-traditional student, and so is older than his superior officers by about 6 years.

Lonnie Parsec Season 3
A Betazoid medical officer. Although his world is not yet a member of the Federation, Mr. Parsec is out to see the galaxy while serving Starfleet. His time among more "savage" races is leading him to explore his psi abilities in ways that might cause concern among his own people.

[Fugazi Grrl]

I am really looking forward to seeing your gaming Logs. And I'm fascinated by your crew.

I've always appreciated your approach to gaming, and love of the CODA system. Since it is my favorite Trek system as well. So, I am looking forward to seeing this example of CODA in action !

BTW - maybe you can help me with a bit of a conundrum. When would you say the earliest a Betazoid character would be involved with Starfleet would be ? You have one in TOS, and I've had an idea or two for Betazoid characters in the pre-TNG eras of TOS and the TOS Movies.

But, everything I've looked up seems to put them at no earlier than the early or mid 24th century.

[K.G. Carlson]

BTW - maybe you can help me with a bit of a conundrum. When would you say the earliest a Betazoid character would be involved with Starfleet would be ? You have one in TOS, and I've had an idea or two for Betazoid characters in the pre-TNG eras of TOS and the TOS Movies.

But, everything I've looked up seems to put them at no earlier than the early or mid 24th century.

Since the player desired to play a Betazoid well before their membership in the Federation, I decided to apply a little history to the ruling of yeah or nay.

Historicallly, non-US citizens have enliisted in the United States military (often from the South Pacific Islands). So I saw no reason to bar his Starfleet application based on homeworld. Naturally, a non-Federation applicant might have a more thorough background check before being accepted. Especially if they were a Klingon

Next came the question of contact. I've never looked it up on the "official" star charts, but I don't get the impression that its a fringe world. So its entirely possible that Betazed is in contact with the Federation without being a member. Given the peaceful nature of the Betazoids and the tensions between the UFP and the Klingons, they might not find membership appealing in the mid-23rd century.

So even though Betazed itself is not a Federation world, I saw no reason to deny a Betazoid Starfleet officer in a pre-TOS series.

I hope that helps!

My schedule is pretty hectic for the next 7 days, so I don't know how soon I can get started on those game logs, but they're on the way...eventually. Please bear with me.

[Fugazi Grrl]

Oh, I agree, completely, on allowing people from non-member worlds into Starfleet. Like you say, they may do a more thorough background-check, but if the individual passes the entrance exams, they're in.

I think that precedent is set on the shows with the Bajorans, like Ro Laren and Sito Jaxa in Starfleet even though by the end of DS9 Bajor is still not a member world. And when Picard is objecting to Ro Laren being assigned aboard the Enterprise on her début episode, he says "There are other Bajorans in Starfleet; assign one of them !"

The Player's Guide says Betazed joined the Federation in 2294. So, First Contact could have happened 30 or 40 years before based on some worlds, like Bolius, and Bajor taking a while to become members.

[Orville]

Star Trek: Golden Age Cast

The gaming group I run my pre-TOS campaign for has a steady core of three members; we are the remnants of a much larger gaming group from my "gaming golden age" of the 90s, which was a rather stable size of 8-10 players. For the last 10 years or so the group has condensed down to we three. It has occasionally (and temporarily) gained a handful of new or returning members, but for my Trek stints the group has been 2-3 players plus myself as narrator.

Here is my cast of player characters

Garin Niles Seasons 1-3
A human command officer from New Berlin, Luna. His brother was at one time working for Starfleet Intelligence but is currently missing. A very thoughtful and tactical command officer, who is occasionally a wild card.

Wilson Payne Seasons 1-3
A human security officer from the Deneva colony. A veritable combat monster, ladies' man and Nile's right hand man. By season 3 he is XO and chief of security, which he handles very well.

Richard Wu Season 2
A human engineering officer from China. Wu's unorthodox technical skill have saved the ship and the day on numerous occasions. The same player runs Roger Wu, Richard's son, in my TOS-movie era campaign. Since he married, his ability to play in more than one group has been revoked. Wu attended Starfleet Academy as a non-traditional student, and so is older than his superior officers by about 6 years.

Lonnie Parsec Season 3
A Betazoid medical officer. Although his world is not yet a member of the Federation, Mr. Parsec is out to see the galaxy while serving Starfleet. His time among more "savage" races is leading him to explore his psi abilities in ways that might cause concern among his own people.

Ok. So Niles is the character with a background that has a background that has a background that you could use for adventure build up. Do they have more extensive backgrounds? Any flaws taken that helps the gm ?

[The Tatterdemalion King]

Ok. So Niles is the character with a background that has a background that has a background that you could use for adventure build up. Do they have more extensive backgrounds? Any flaws taken that helps the gm ?

I would've guessed 'ladies man' would be the more useful trait for a GM there...

[K.G. Carlson]

Well, since I'm not working today, I guess I'm all out of excuses not to update this fine community on my pre-TOS series, Star Trek: The Golden Age.

The first portion of season 1 is comprised of a Starfleet Academy mini-series. Both of my ongoing Coda Trek series have started this way, and unless a group coalesces with a majority of players who already know the Coda rules, I will start every campaign this way. Its a great way to introduce the players to the Coda rules in a low stress environment via training scenarios.

Adventures during the Starfleet Academy episodes did not follow traditional adventure designs as the "regular" season episodes to follow. I put together training scenarios that allowed the players to test drive various rules without having the pressure of needing to save the ship/planet/Federation/galaxy; that would come later.

That is not to say that the player characters were never in true danger; as you will see in the Mercury mission, cadet lives were in jeopardy. And I borrowed elements of William Shatner & the Reeeves-Stevens Starfleet Academy novel Collision Course for some cloak & dagger intrigue.

To keep the Academy sessions from being too much about game mechanics, they were broken up by purely roleplaying scenes of two types, classroom and social. The classroom scenes allowed me to convey information and ease the worry of two casual Trek watchers in a game run by an avid Trekkie. In addition to expounding on Federation and starship history, there were also cautionary lessons for the future day when they had a ship of their own, like why starship combat at warp speed is not a good idea. By the time the Academy mini was over, the social RP had me a little worried; I wasn't sure if it was Starfleet Academy or National Lampoon's Animal House. But when the regular season started, they were dedicated, professional officers...when on duty.

The cadets attended Starfleet Academy from 2241 to 2245, graduating just in time to sail aboard the USS Enterprise's maiden voyage under the command of Captain Robert April. Other historical developments during their school days include Richard Daystrom's development of the duotronic circuit and the Battle of Donatu V, which starts the Federation and Klingons on the road to war. When possible, I have tried to keep the years of events in sync with the Okuda's Star Trek Encyclopedia, but occasional tweaks had to happen to fit events into the campaign.

Up next is an introduction to the NPCs of the Academy mini-series and an overview of the training missions. The only missions I won't be reviewing are the starship combat simulations; I did not keep a record of those. The simulator missions were merely a set of combat encounters vs increasingly powerful opponents, starting with gunboats and working up to cruisers (see PGoodman's site for my conversions from FASA to Coda ships).

[K.G. Carlson]

Ok. So Niles is the character with a background that has a background that has a background that you could use for adventure build up. Do they have more extensive backgrounds? Any flaws taken that helps the gm ?

Initially, the character backgrounds were merely what had come up during character generation via the personal development segment.

In the lull between season 1 and season 2, three years were going to pass off-camera. I asked Niles and Payne to send me some notes; I will be posting their notes when I reach the end of season 1 postings. Those notes and things that have developed during game play have given me a rich field to draw from in terms of game development. I just don't want to leak any spoilers ahead of time. Slow but sure, I'll get to that.

As far as edges go, I don't have the character sheets with me. I'll have to check the next time we play and see whats developed. I do recall that a Contact edge resulted from their first voyage on Captain April's Enterprise, but that would definitely be telling ahead of time.

[K.G. Carlson]

Since the list of players in season 1 is short, the NPC list is fairly long. Although later in both Trek campaigns I would find this to be the most NPC heavy game I run, as time rolls by and I find myself wanting to detail the entire crew of the starship.

For the nine most important instructors, I "adapted" my own college professors to Starfleet. Some had to have their content area changed drastically, but I tried to keep close to real life where I could; my poli sci professor was teaching Interstellar Politics at the Academy. I think most of them would have been flattered to be teaching at the Academy, but to err on the safe side the staff will remain nameless.

Although I'm sure the scarcity of non-human Starfleet officers in TOS had more to do with budgets than interspecies conflict, I'd decided to play this angle up in the campaign. So while humanity had come to terms with its own internal conflicts, there was still some work to be done before the Federation was living up to its charter. I've always felt that the Babel conference in the TOS episode Journey to Babel was the beginning of a more integrated Federation and Starfleet, as shown in the Animated Series and TOS movies and later of course the TNG era. So while most (all of the Academy mini-series) of the NPCs of Star Trek: The Golden Age are human, I've tried to make them culturally and ethnically diverse. Additionally, with the exception of Cadet Naderi and the PCs, all are from Earth.

For class-time the cadets' specialty area didn't often matter, but for many of the training exercises I organized groups of cadets as if they were department heads on a starship. I'm sure it would make more sense for training to be separated by Command, Security, Medical, Science and Engineering disciplines, but that would just result in players of the non-focus disciplines sitting around waiting, so the department-specific training took place off-camera.

This first group of NPCs are the cluster the PCs work with in group assignments.
Elissa Corso, Italian female, Science
Philip Dewhurst, English male, Medical
Alexis "Lexi" Hamilton, American female, Helm
Salim Mubarak, Egyptian male, Engineering
Doug Paisley, American male, Communications

The next group of NPCs are just a general sampling for social interaction; I just made a handful of NPCs outside the PCs grouping without being concerned about representing all the professional disciplines found in Starfleet.
Zoe "Z" Bayloff, American female, Command
Ronald Del Mar, African-American male, Engineering
Andrew Jude, French male, Security
Kate Naderi, Martian colonist female, Engineering
Harry Rollins, African-American male, Science (astrophysics specialty)
Fred Schwartz, Jewish male, Science
Charles Silver, American male, Command

Finally, there is a special NPC, one designed to be the guy everyone loves to hate, politically well-connected, arrogant, talented; the alpha-male. Naturally, Niles and Payne took an immediate dislike. One of my favorite expanded universe novels of the 80s was Diane Carey's Dreadnought! and I was determined that I would adapt it for at least one of my Trek campaigns, so just in case there was player overlap I would keep Vaughn Rittenhouse for a TOS-movie era campaign and created his father, Robert, for the pre-TOS campaign.
Robert Rittenhouse, American male, Command

Niles and Payne worked hard to undermine Rittenhouse at every turn; at first of course only they dared to speak out against him. By graduation time, not only had they convinced the other cadets that his shine wasn't so bright, they'd lured some of Rittenhouse's training crew to their social circle. And then, there was...the Incident. More on that later. Even if we don't get to the Dreadnought! storyline, the players have made a permanent nemesis that has made for some great plot lines.


Up next, a look at some of the training scenarios during the Academy mini-campaign.

[Orville]

It is fun to see how you tell about your campaign and I feel I have wanted to tell a similar story. I really like how you choose to divide between classroom and social and the guy that the alphas always wants to hate. I have that guy to (Named him Trevor Belmont..)

Ok, this is really fun reading. Can´t wait for more.

[Fugazi Grrl]

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.

[K.G. Carlson]

While not new to gaming, Coda combat is different from the heavily d20-influenced gaming world of the early 21st century. An average defense number of 7-9 with opponents rolling 2d6 plus their combat skill means that getting hit is more of a conscious choice of action than having the right levels and equipment stacked up.

Most of the personal combat training using energy weapons took place in an imaginary arena based on the various Photon and LazerQuest arenas that I'd frequented in my youth. The maze/bunker/tower layout emphasized the importance of using cover to increase defense. It also allowed me to remind the players that unlike many other current RPGs, in Coda a moving target is harder to hit. Aside from straightforward team and single combat in the maze, I also had some special scenarios from my paintball days like capture the flag, protect the ambassador and rescue the hostage. The players also got to see that stunning is a very effective use of the phaser.

The players had a fairly good understanding of the melee and hand to hand style of Coda fighting, since Niles' player had GMed Lord of the Rings for the group about 3-4 years before I ran Star Trek. This was a good chance to test out my house rules for knock-out, since beating on someone until their out of Health levels is the one major flaw I've found with the Coda system. (My house rules are on a famous site over here).

During the indoor training missions, the cadets were using phasers locked in Stun mode. For the outdoor survival/elimination training, they wore sensor harnesses and the weapons were signal-beam set, and a starship in geosynchronous orbit beamed up anyone "killed" (wouldn't want a stunned cadet falling off a cliff or into a river and dying).

Each team on the survival mission was beamed downed to a separate area of the training grounds with some basic survival materials and a few pieces of personal equipment. Since the scenario was assuming they were beaming down for an intentional landing party, they were permitted to request permission for items beyond the basic survival needs. Niles and Payne asked if there was any way to rig their communicators for hands-free operation; I thought that rather clever and allowed them with a minor Repair roll to link those ubiquitous communications ear-booms to their communicators in a retro-bluetooth kinda way. Niles decided that its better to be over prepared, so he ordered all landing party members to bring a tricorder.

The training was to take place on a Starfleet reservation, so there was little danger of encountering anyone other than another team of trainees. The cadets' tricorders contained a map based on their ship's "orbital scan" that contained the rendezvous site for pick-up. Other teams of cadets were to deemed hostile forces. The scores were based on how quickly each team could reach the beam-out site and how much of the team was still "alive." Naturally, Niles and Payne added "make sure Rittenhouse doesn't make it" to the mission parameters.

The first day, Niles and Payne force a fast pace from the team, using Courage to boost their Persuade attempts to keep the others moving in the face of mounting Fatigue. Having determined the most likely place that the other teams would cross the river bisecting the training area, the planning of Rittenhouse's doom proceeded. Payne wanted to use the tricorders as a life-sign masker. I ruled that, with a proper Repair TN of 15, a tricorder could be bent to that purpose with the caveat that it worked as a double blind (no hiding inside the field and scanning out), said tricorder could not be used for any other purpose while jamming life readiings, and such use would drain the tricorder's batteries in 4-5 hours.

Setting aside half the landing party's tricorders for making duty, a rotating shift of a solitary spotter placed outside the field but in view of the shielded and camouflaged rest area while the others recovered from their long day's march.

The next morning, a few hours after sunrise, the next team is approaching the river's ford; its Rittenhouse's team. I don't recall who was on sentry duty, but the last tricorder set aside for masking duty had been running for about two hours. The sentry scurried back into the masking field and everyone rolled Stealth to avoid being visually tracked. The ambush went down by the numbers, and to add insult to injury Niles and Payne offered the survivors a chance to surrender after "gunning down" Rittenhouse. The sour look on his face as he was beamed out of the scenario gave the players something to crow about.

Up next: the Mercury mission