How to run a game Abrams style

[selek]

3. Lt Stiles can still be included in the story, although this time around he probably suspects Spock immediately of being in cahoots with the Romulans. Combine this with the Abrams-verse destruction of Vulcan, and you could pattern him as something akin to a Holocaust-denier. That could really work.

Because Styles-the-racist is too subtle for modern audiences, right?

I am interested in your reasoning though.

The Romulans just destroyed Vulcan and attacked Earth- and the only available evidence exculpating the Empire itself is the word of the attackers (if that).

Spock himself was instrumental in stopping those attacks.

So how does Style leap from a renewed Romulan attack to Spock-as-a-collaborator?

In the original episode, Style's antagonism was tenuous at best, made possible primarily by Styles latent prejudice and paranoia, and the mysterious nature of the Romulans.

Despite a long career, Spock himself was an enigma and a cipher at that point (Vulcans were not yet common in Fleet Service).

Style's antagonism never blossomed into a direct accusation. It never matured into anything beyond a suspicion and loathing of the other.

In the "reimagining", on the other hand, Spock is already a decorated hero of the Federation and both the Romulans and the fate of Vulcan are comparatively well-known.

So by what leap of logic does Styles get from the massacre of billions of innocent Vulcans to at the hands of the Romulans to Spock-as-collaborator- without coming across as foaming at the mouth loon?

It would be akin to accusing Major General Joseph Wheeler of aiding Sherman in a renewed "March to the Sea".

[BaronVonStevie]

I think it's the closeness of Romulan and Vulcan. It's a bit convoluted, but you can have Stiles try to see through Spock's involvement in the defeat of Nero. He's still a Vulcan and Vulcans are basically just as bad as Romulans. They're the same people; don't trust them because they share the same blood. If there are humans still so hateful of the Romulans, then they're going to jump through hoops to hate Vulcans too in spite of the Vulcan homeworld being blown up (and the subsequent actions of a certain Vulcan in saving Earth). That's what racists do; they delude themselves.

Besides, it wasn't the Romulans who destroyed Vulcan. The Vulcan/Romulan collusion still goes on. It was this war criminal from the future, Nero, right? I could easily see publicity for the incident be interpreted that way by anyone who hates Romulans and Vulcans in that way.

[selek]

Stevie-

In other words, the only way for Styles to arrive at the desired conclusion is to turn him into a tin-foil hat conspiracy theorist who wouldn't get past the first week of Academy psychological screenings.

That kind of Mars-needs-women paranoia would disqualify him for service aboard a starship and would either be rooted out early in his Academy training (or he would be bounced from the service).

It might be plausible if you were to pull a Ben Finney on him- but that, too, alters the nature of Style's conduct from unacceptable to pathological.

In the original Balance of Terror, Styles was a latent bigot with strong anti-Romulan tendencies (his detestation of Spock hinged on the Vulcan/Romulan similarities).

Despite that hang-up, he was nonetheless a good, solid officer (as evidence to his posting as a bridge officer aboard one of only thirteen Constitution class starships).

He was there as a foil and as an example of what NOT to be.

Styles served as an object lesson in that he was able to overcome his prejudices.

Styles-as-a-Ben-Finney madman is a totally different concept- and as per my example above, is no longer a lesson or example, but someone to be pitied (much as was Golen in LOTR).

In any case, it is further evidence of my contention that one cannot Abramize "Balance of Terror" and have it yet be "Balance of Terror".


On a side note, I also question your assumptions about how much information would be released vis-a-vis the destruction of Vulcan.

It has been my impression that the Federation has always been reticent about various aspects of time-travel.

Couple that with an attack that utterly destroyed a Federation member world (and a founding world at that), and you have a perfect recipe for widespread unrest and out-and-out panic.

Despite the utopian ideal that the Federation is supposed to represent, the existence of outfits like Section 31 suggest that that utopian ideal is ruthlessly enforced.

All things being equal, I have little reason to doubt that the Federation could and would classify the incident- and the true nature of the attackers- at the highest levels.

[BaronVonStevie]

I don't think Starfleet would need to run around saying Nero was from the future. The only pertinent information would be that it wasn't an action of the Romulan government. They wouldn't cover that up.

I think Stiles would still work - and you could still show him overcoming his prejudices. In this case, Stiles would eventually feel empathy to Spock's loss in some way. In the original episode, Spock bravely enters the phaser room. This could still be the case.

[Owen E Oulton]

I don't think the scenario withn Styles would work. The AbramsTrek Federation knows what Romulans look like. In the main TOS universe they didn't. It was only when Styles found out that Romulans and Vulcans were indistinguishable that he suspected Spock. He wasn't bigoted towards Vulcans as such. In this scenario, there is no sudden discovery and therefore no suddn connection to be made. It changes the basic motivation of the Styles character.

[BaronVonStevie]

it's a different set up, but the same character. you could even show the Stiles is in conflict over his prejudices since the destruction of Vulcan. instead of a holocaust denier, you could show that Stiles is getting over his mistrust of Vulcans... but then the Romulans show up again to cause trouble and he's thrown into conflict again.

[nightwind1]

To my mind, doing "Balance of Terror" will actually be harder given all the ideas introduced- and that's the problem.



Call the story what you like, but it will no longer "Balance of Terror" once it's been JJBastardized- any more than West Side Story would be "Romeo and Juliet in the Bronx" once they omitted the love-story between Tony and Maria in favor of a menage a trois with Anita (Rita Moreno's character).



The original plot was a classic duel of wills between Captain Kirk and the Romulan commander- tense, gritty, and psychological.

The story pivoted on the experience and judgement of the two antagonists- hinging upon their cunning and force of will, not zippy-doo special effects.

Kirk's internal doubts and assessement of the Romulan commander were the crucible in which the grist was ground and the fulcrum upon which the drama turned.

Everything else was "B" plot and set dressing.



By diluting that central conflict, you are fundamentally altering the nature of the story itself- just as removing or altering the central romance would destroy West Side Story.

Once that happens, it is no longer "Balance of Terror".

By mixing in the extraneous elements, you are robbing the story of its classic simplicity- and thus of its narrative power.

You can run a Abramized episode with elements of BoT, but in my opinion it just won't be "Balance of Terror".

But, then it shouldn't be, as we would be trying to run a roleplaying adventure, probably with different characters than the original crew. I'm sure no one wants to rerun a TV episode exactly for their RPG, just borrow some of the more interesting situations and ideas.

In other words, we don't want to play "Balance of Terror", we want to have our own adventure finding out why Romulans are attacking Neutral Zone outposts.

[BaronVonStevie]

oh yeah. when I ran Gurps and used Trek episodes for adventures, I literally just took a premise for an episode and let the players run around in that premise.

then I updated in "Abrams-tone"... just a couple contrived action scenes and a ramped up budget. Make the pace quick. That's all you have to do. I remember "A Taste of Armageddon" (season 1, ep 23) being really good. Players loved that one.

[BouncyCaitian]

or a variation of 'The Ultimate Computer'

1. The Enterprise (or Players ship) was not selected for the M-5 Refit. A Vengeance Class DN (I really Doubt that with Klingon Hostilities on the horizon that Starfleet is going to simply shelve that design) (U.S.S. Confederation) is refitted with the M-5 system.

2. The M-5 actually DOES function as advertised, the programmers being Genre Savvy and seems to be a good system to be used as MFD and ships AI.

3. Given the prevalence of drones these days, the M-5 has the ability to run various unmanned assault fighter wings efficiently.

4. The Klingons find out about the war games and attempt to destroy the ship through means gross and subtle. The M-5 recognizes them as a priority threat and shreds them in short order. The Confederation crew doen't really have much to do as M-5 does most of the leg work, giving it praise.

5. It starts going wrong: perhaps something missed in programming, or perhaps the M-5's programming works far too well, but M-5 has no qualms about heading for the klingon border and commencing raids on Klingon facilities. The Klingons will have severe problems with the ship as it reacts far faster than they do.

6. M-5 does not particularly regard SF vessels as enemies as it's screwed up programming still thinks it's in Wargames simulations. It will disable SF vessels as part of the wargames. It will have no compuction eliminating KDF Vessels

[BaronVonStevie]

yeah, I could see it. Especially the drones bit. Drone warfare is an issue I think Gene Roddenberry would take shots at; he wasn't afraid to do that in the 60s at all.

[Tricky]

BC: loved your "ultimate computer" update! The gamemaster could go the cliché route and have the M-5 decide that the best way to handle the Klingons is to wipe them out; the traditional answer to the 'mutant question' when it's handed over to the robotic Sentinels.

I'll table the drones for a second to hit another idea: it's already controlling drones, what if it was able to overwhelm the main computers of SF ships, essentially turning them into drones as well? Obviously the other ships wouldn't have the actual M-5 unit, but perhaps it could send it's OS into allied ships, presumably to take command of them if the crew was incapacitated? Looking to the future of the Prime timeline, the USS Prometheus was able to use it's multi-vector attack mode; this would be something similar (and dangerous, if some of the ships used had crews onboard).

You know, when I watched STID, the new torpedoes made me think of drones, just something about the look of them. I started thinking that if you had a good AI, or a controller, a small engine (doubt a warp core, but who knows), some shielding and a nice phaser array, you'd have a great 23rd Century drone. It's size alone would make it had to find and the shielding would help with that, and enough phaser power to attack a ship or installation, and if shooting it fails to take out the target, overload the phasers and let it become a missile! After all, aren't phasers on overload very dangerous?

[BouncyCaitian]

I was thinking M-5 As being a bit more selective in that it would be able to analyze relative threat levels and means to carry it out by the KDF. It's priority targets would be KDF ships building and repair facilities, as this would force the Klingons to invest resources that they do not have into rebuilding them and any ships destroyed at said facilities. Then it would prioritize by relevant threats to the Federation.

I had not considered the Computer hack angle. I could only assume that Starfleet thought of that and came up with the prefix codes. A nasty variation of that is have the Confederation hack the KDF vessels, which so far seem primitive compared to UFP vessels and turn them on the KDF

[BaronVonStevie]

what about an AI? Some kind of villain persona to attach to the M5 computer ala Hal from 2001? It would be cool to be able to talk to the ship's computer.

[Tricky]

Hmm, AI...M5 in the original continuity was programed with Daystrom's mental engrams, which led to it being unstable. What if they used someone else's engrams? Maybe a tactical genius (hmm, Garth of Izar?), but he's got lots of mental baggage and skeletons in his closet. What might be mild paranoia in a human might be attacking anything that might become a threat in a starship.

[BaronVonStevie]

Daystrom then. Yeah that would be cool. Make the voice of the computer some sinister version of him that he has to come to terms with in the episode. Or maybe it kills him. That's some good science fiction.