Query?

[IceGiant]

So in my post dominion war game I"m going to be running the players will have asmall station and a runabout. Kinda like DS( lite I suppose. I was wondering something. If they come across a derelict/abandoned klingon 12 man Bird of Prey would starfleet let them use it? I think the klingons wouldn't care. Yes the group should senda message letting klingon high command know they found it but I think it would be on the end of a long list of things more important to the empire at the time. The group will also be out on the extreme end of the beta quadrant.

Starfleet is another matter I suppose. Because it's a klingon vessel it wouldn't break the treaty of algeron and it would give the players a much needed "upgrade" while they are running around. I suppose I could have the cloaking device be so badly damaged that it unrepairable if it was an issue. But I think because of the alliance and the lack of vessels to police with, that starfleet would make use of the vessel while of course advising the empire of what was going on.

Thoughts?

[Pericles]

I figure that as long as the report the find, I agree the Klingons have to many problems to worry about recovering one small damaged ship. I would imagine as long as the dead were properly interred, then they would tag the message received and will get back to them later.

Disabling the cloaking device neatly removes in conflict of interest with the Treaty of Algernon, but you could have your engineer tinker with it on his spare time so at a critical moment, you could make a much needed escape.

I know for a fact during the Second World War, the use of captured equipment was very common, so using a salvaged ship in a remote area desperately short of supplies makes perfect sense.

[Owen E Oulton]

Starfleet would almost certainly approve the use of the BoP if not the cloak. Perhaps the group of players would even want to have one of them play a Klingon exchange officer. If so, it would remain officially in Klingon service and the use of the cloak could be argued to be legitimate. Do you have the Haynes User's Guide to the BoP? It has full decak plans and is a great resource.

[IceGiant]

Yeah I have the Haynes guide. I just wish the actual deckplans wern't spread across the spine of the book. But I agree Owen, it's agreat resource.

[The Tatterdemalion King]

If you're asking 'Does it make sense to use it?' I'd have to go with no, due to equipment compatibility issues, system familiarity and, hey, does the Coast Guard find an abandoned yacht and call dibs?

But, assuming from your post that you've already decided 'I want the PCs to have a BoP to tool around in,' here's some ideas:

• The ship was built on the cheap, and has numerous hidden flaws in important systems; the kind of thing Federation safety standards would never let fly. These will, of course, only be evident once the ship's systems are stretched to the limit in a crisis.
• A Ferengi shows up and claims—accurately?—to have leased salvage rights for the area from the relevant local government, and that the Starfleet crew is in illegal possession of his property. He'll probably try to repossess the ship when it is otherwise helpless, i.e. in the middle of another huge problem.
• A Klingon shows up and basically accuses the PCs of murdering the crew and stealing the ship; legal under Klingon law (if they were in honourable combat) but obviously something the Federation frowns on. This is best if you can manage it that the PCs have little or obscured evidence to the contrary.
• A Klingon shows up and repossess the ship as part of the previous owners' (a fallen House) bankruptcy payments. Klingon salvage law recognizes the salvage as valid only if 'taken as the spoils of victory,' and possession of military hardware without personally killing the owners themselves as the grievous dishonourable practice of civilian battlefield scavenging, putting the PCs in a problematic legal position.
• It doesn't have a science lab, specialized stellar cartography or geological sensors, or even a lot of basic medical equipment—exactly what the PCs need when they get hit with a stellar anomaly or medical crisis.
•*The BoP has a listening device, hidden computer program or other 'left-behind' installed on it by a hostile power's intelligence service. This might be a specific device for a singular important mission, or just one of many hidden devices spread across the Klingon fleet.

[Dan Gurden]

My first thought was the echo of Owens opportunity for Klingon Liaison Officer. After all the Beta Quadrant places the locale closer to the empire than Sol... Probably... As you say its old tech and the Klingons probably wouldn't care that much, but in the post DS9 world with the close ties between the Empire and Federation a Liaison may well be on the next transport which would also allow for activation of the Cloak under his supervision (ish)

A few thoughts.

• Perhaps its an older BoP, with the flawed cloak either outdated and easy to spot with modern sensors or with a tactical flaw akinto Generations. Which may make it less of a breech of treaty if it remains operational.
  
• In a post DS9 universe (and post Dominion War) the fleet is somewhat thin on the ground and rebuilding may take time, this could be the core of the Starfleet approval to utilise the asset.
  
• Back to the older BoP and Klingon Liaison officer. Why was it abandoned while in relatively good condition (enough to be operational). Perhaps the liaison officer is from the house of the original commander and seeks an answer to the loss of crew... And what indeed happened to them?

[Owen E Oulton]

I like Dan's addtitions to the scenario, especially the last. Could be a continuing arc.

[Nuclear Fridge]

Some excellent ideas floated... I'm going to have to steal a few!

[IceGiant]

It's funny you mention that Dan, I had thought of making it one of the D12's with the defective coils like the Duras sisters used in generations. And I love your last Idea about why the liason oficer would be sent. Any brainstorming on the missing klingon crew?

[Dan Gurden]

When I suggested it,, at the back of my mind I had an image of a planet upon which the survivors had sought shelter... A civilisation now hopelessly contaminated under the influence of the Klingon overlords, who might not have remain freindly with each other.

Something like that.

Now why they abandoned ship? Perhaps a mutiny, or some alien contamination, perhaps one of those energy based Aliens that would reactivate an force your crew to resolve its presence in the first place?

[IceGiant]

I"m still not form on what caused the crew to abandon the ship but I believe I will tweak the CODA module Crusoeeffect for where the crew is. It will be interesting seeing the dilemma with the klingons there trying to go by the prime directive while dealing with the klingons who don't have that compunction. Should be a nice roleplaying exercise.