Your mind has been take over by...

[Lancer]

Has anyone done an adventure where PCs/NPCs have been possesed by some sort of alien mind bug / energy being / plot devcie?
If so, please share some experiences with me: How did it play out, would you run such an episode again, IYO what players are best used in such a plot, etc. etc....

I want to run an adventure along those lines sometime and I feel like I could use some input from y'all.

Here's the idea so far:
You remember Apollo from the TOS episode "Who mourns for Adonis"? Ever wondered why no other "gods" have been encountered by Starfleet? The reason is this: Some of those "gods" have been imprisoned by their fellows after some major falling-out between the gods and now it's time for the USS Galahad to stumble upon that prison. While the gods can't just leave their prison (an asteroid in the middle of nowhere) they can send out their minds and take over other beings that come close enough.
With the resources then at their disposal they will try to break their bodies (and maybe some technobable thingies) out of the prison all the while playing their own games with the rest of the crew (just to have a little fun after all those years)
What happens next? No idea! Planning further ahead would be rather futile, knowing my players.

The gods in question would most likely be:
Zeus or Poseidon as the man in charge, bossing everybody else around;
Aphrodite for some fun;
Hermes (painted as a clever trickster) as a balancing element to the gruffy ways of the 'boss'.

Now, while I had that idea a long time ago, I never used it, mainly because I am not too sure about that mind-control part. OTOH I hate it to waste a good idea.

[Dan Gurden]

I have never run this kind of plot, but if I were it would depend on how many player there are.

I am presuming that you have a group larger than 3 players, from your choice of Greek Gods... Now if you have enough players I would be tempted to bring the players into the plot, and pass them a note stating what/who they are, what their likely behaviour would be, what they know, and what their intentions are and what they are capable of...

That way the actual administration of the Gods is in their hands and you can concentrate on running the plot...

Also I think Greek Gods are out, I believe Apollo stated that they were all dead. Either way, I imagine they would prefer their own bodies from events in 'Who Mourns Adonis'.

HOWEVER, seeing that the pantheon religions often included several similar god types, it shouldn't be too difficult to alter the names for the same gods...

[Lancer]

Dan, whatever Apollo said doesn't have to be true. The good thing about greek gods is, that about everybody is familiar with the mythology and has some basic idea about the culture.

Since I usually have 4 players only 1 or maybe 2 of them would be taken over, the other gods choosing some NPC hosts. With 3 of 4 players under some sort of mind-control the final player would easily be overwhelmed.
But with two NPCs and one PC taken over things could get veeery interesting I guess, with the "god PC" acting against the rest of the group in secret.

[Robbert Raets]

Great idea. 'Power Play' and 'Dramatis Personae' were very good 'out of character' character-developments in the series, so this should work out the same, or even better.

[Lt.Khrys Antos]

I have run two episodes in which the PC's are "possessed" by an entity or a disease makes them act irrationally.

I usually pick players who would welcome the change of pace for their character, the medical officer is a Vulcan and was infected with a virus which boils your blood, but first makes you act "illogically". He enjoyed it, spouting lines like; "You disgust me" and "I find you repulsive", then proceeding to attack them.

An episode with an entity is easier to run if you have cue cards on which is written, the name of the entity, the purpose and the goal in a few quick lines. These should be given to the crew as they are possessed. I personnally don't have a problem communicating secretive info to my players, almost each speaks a language the others don't , so I can just switch between languages.

Great idea using the Greek Gods from TOS, sounds alot like the Q imprisonment episodes.

[Captain Zymmer]

I love this idea, but I will use it sans gods...but instead powerful beings who were imprisioned there for being a little too malicious and making themselves gods

They take over three of the PCs and tell them to take them to their asteroid and free the bodies....

Now all I need is the race that wants to stop the PCs at all costs...

Hmmmm....good idea

Very TOS

[Lancer]

Captain Zymmer: If you want some more TOS in the mix, why not use the Meltrons (sp?), the guys who set up the fight between Kirk and the Gorn?
If these are the beings imprisoned you could set up something like prophets vs. p'ha wraiths with the Gorn taking the part of the Bajorans.

[Captain Zymmer]

Interesting idea Lancer, but not what I was going for...I was going for a more mysterious and single episode...Ie, the ramifications do not extend beyond that ep...like Spectre of the Gun for example

But interesting idea using the Gorns as the plighted...never thought about them as victims before.

[Polanski]

Did that once in D&D campaign ...

Players went to sleep and woke up three months later with no memories of the past three months and with unknown skill and unknown class level on their character sheets ...

That was mighty fun ...
Now everytime I give them their character sheets at the begining of the seession they actually quickly examine them ...