Star Trek party of "adventurer's"

[IceGiant]

My wife likes star trek, has been a role player since high school, but really can't wrap her head around role playing a star fleet officer. I've suggested we try something different. Starting play on board a old decommissioned bird of prey [mostly so I can use the deck plans from the owner's manual ]. She suggested playing as adventurer's or like generic explorer's not connected to the Starfleet. I'm just not sure what kind of adventures to plot out. So I'm looking for some help with idea's. I guess I could adapt existing adventure's and just file of the Starfleet portion of it. But seeing as Starfleet has the mandate for just about everything not really sure how to handle this. Thoughts?

[The Tatterdemalion King]

Assuming the PCs aren't being supported by a government, the question becomes how they support themselves. Are they:
1. Mercenaries? If so, see if you can find a copy of Raiders, Renegades and Rogues from LUG.
2. Merchants? Here's the GMing section from the unpublished Merchants book.
3. Prospectors? The same questions as with merchants probably apply. Are they prospecting for mineral resources, biological resources or something else?

[Pericles]

Old Traveller or Serenity/Firefly adventures would translate into a civilian ship skating on the edge of legal very nicely.

[Tricky]

Similar to TK's "prospectors": Archaeologists, possibly in the employ of a university, corporation or private individual (and are they legitimate? a cut out for some other group? do they have a secret agenda?) might be a good fit. Heck, a small team of archaeologists might even resemble a traditional D&D party, with a Healer (team doctor), a smart guy able to pull off miracles (science specialist, or maybe an engineer?), the expert in getting into and out of places (OPs officer) and the tough guy in charge who gets into fights (captain?).

[The Tatterdemalion King]

Similar to TK's "prospectors": Archaeologists, possibly in the employ of a university, corporation or private individual (and are they legitimate? a cut out for some other group? do they have a secret agenda?) might be a good fit. Heck, a small team of archaeologists might even resemble a traditional D&D party, with a Healer (team doctor), a smart guy able to pull off miracles (science specialist, or maybe an engineer?), the expert in getting into and out of places (OPs officer) and the tough guy in charge who gets into fights (captain?).

In that case, the "medic" specialty might be taken by the paleoxenobiology specialist, or the archaeoterraforming specialist.

[Owen E Oulton]

If it's Starfleet that's a sticking point, perhaps my Federation Scout Service found at http://www.coldnorth.com/owen/game/s...urce/scout.htm could be a solution. This could also be used as a University of Corporate-sponsored dig, or even just a dig sponsored by someone like Elon Musk. Picture it as Indiana Jones with a team in the stars.

[Fugazi Grrl]

We use a Federation Merchant Marines. And several individual civilian characters. From civilian scientists who "often work with Starfleet", to Dabo girls that moonlight as spies.

[WaveMan]

another option is a Section 31 infiltration scenario, the team is sponsored by Section 31 and is tasked with infiltrating into whatever organisation you choose.

I have played several 'mercenary' scenarios from Raiders, Renegades and Rogues from LUG, there are plenty of options in that book, the DS-9 sourcebook also discusses non Starfleet teams.

[Fugazi Grrl]

The old FASA adventure, Orion Ruse, is a very good adventure for Rogues and Mercenaries.

We've used Section 31 as a "Big Bad" (to use the term from Buffy) many a time. Our Flag-ship Captain's son was brainwashed, and later killed by 31.

And, yes, the Captain actually used the line "You 31 bastard, you've killed my son !"