Why not use Voyager BORG?

[Captain Zymmer]

I know there is a nickname for them, pussy-BORG I think it is...but let's face it...unless you want to sacrifice your players, any encounter with the BOBW Borg will result in assimilation.

The ugly mean TNG BORG are unstoppable unless your name is Picard and you can hear them talking to each other.

So why not use the Pussy-Voyager-BORG and let your players win once in a while?

[Robbert Raets]

Well, if you want them to be grabbing for the Technobabble-cannons whenever a problem arises.....

It's your choice, Capt. Zymmer.

[SIR SIG]

Originally posted by Captain Zymmer
So why not use the Pussy-Voyager-BORG?

Cause they suck!

Seriously though they're still pretty good if you take out all refs to Voyager whopping them.

[Captain Zymmer]

This is my point...I run a game for my players to have a good time and save the day...In my game they are as important as the crews of the Ent, DS9 and Voyager.

Besides, I agree with Sig...the Voyager BORG are not a push over, if you take the writers mistakes out

[Dan Stack]

[Pre-emptive Moderator Hat on...]

I can sense VGR-bashing on the horizon...

I do agree that there are differences between the Borg of Voyager and the Borg of TNG. I would also agree that the TNG Borg are much more "omnipotent", for lack of a better term.

With that in mind, let us endeavor to focus our discussions on the impact of using those two styles of Borg in campaign (or in finding a compromise). Let us try to avoid declaring Braga %@$#s...

[Moderator Hat off, Narrator Hat on]

I tend to minimize the use of Borg in my games. They appeared in just one out of over 30 adventures, with the crew of the H.G. Wells decimated as a result of that encounter. They survived only by being saved by the Prophets (it was an alternate universe game where the Borg won at Wolf 359 and the characters were helping the alternate Sisko find the Celestial Temple).

If you want to use the TNG style Borg, I don't believe they can be a frequent adversary. The advantage to this is the mere mention of them sends chills all around the gaming table.

However, you can still leverage the Borg, putting them in the background - tales of the compromises ethical people will make to defeat the Borg (a Leyton like coup, a chance to destroy them like in "I, Borg").

If you want them to appear frequently, you do really need to weaken them, which is what Voyager did indeed do. This can have the impact of Cyberman syndrome, as seen in Dr. Who. (The Cybermen grew less fearsome with each encounter).

[Captain Zymmer]

Agreed on both counts sir

I just feel that the Voyager BORG can be as much of a threat without having to be seen as unbeatable...I mean really, I don't want my players to give up all hope the minute I bring in a BORG cube.

What would you guys say are the primary differences, without bashing, between the two?

[Dan Gurden]

If you want to use 'Pussy' Borg, so that your players can win, As has been said thats your own affair.


I dont subscribe to the Voyager 'beat a borg a week' style, and in ordewr to ensure that my players stand a chance.

I dont use them.

Really, its that simple. If the Borg show in my game its as a plot device, just as they were most of the time during TNG... Watch the episodes and you'll see the Borg werte only the main adversary once, during Best of Both Worlds, the rest of the time it was the Threat of the Borg...

And before you say it, in Descent, the bad guy was Lore, not the Borg, they were the sidekicks...

But at the end of the day it comes down to what you want, whether it be Borg that can be beaten or Starfleet Victory class Star Destroyers...

[Phantom]

Look at it this way, Voyager was able to get info from different races who were either fighting the Borg or had fought them off, there were one or two mentioned in the series that had done this. So with this info they were able to adapt their tech and tactics to be more effective...such as beaming a torpedo into a scout ship when the shields were down (I loved that). The weapons in Endgame...Well you could say they were the natural extenstion of this new tech. Then again I haven't heard how a transphasic torpedo works, but I did think that it only one to destroy one cube was a little...silly

You also have to remember that Voyager was stuck in the Borg's home quadrant, of course there aregoing to be more of them around.

But I think run properly the powerful Borg could be stopped, it just takes care and intelligence on the PCs part. We as humans are very adaptable, not as much as the Borg but almost.

[Captain Zymmer]

Originally posted by Dan Gurden
But at the end of the day it comes down to what you want, whether it be Borg that can be beaten or Starfleet Victory class Star Destroyers...

What is that supposed to mean Dan? I don't get it.

By using the BORG as a threat but not unbeatable, why does that compare to having uber-stupid ships?

And how do the BORG in First Contact rate?

[Dan Gurden]

Originally posted by Captain Zymmer

What is that supposed to mean Dan? I don't get it.

That comment was supposed to mean that at the end of the day, what you want to run in your games is up to you... Whether it be... yada, yada, yada...

Thats All it was supposed to mean, you read a little more into it than was meant!

[Captain Zymmer]

My bad Dan, certainly I did not think you meant to offend.

But in the end, this is a problem I have noticed in Trek discussions, those who diverge from the standard sometimes get lumped into the same bucket as those who go way off the beaten track. So I guess that was in my mind.

I apologize if my reply upset you.

Back on topic?

So how do the First Contact BORG get qualified?

[Lt.Khrys Antos]

The 'sissy' BORG from VOY had many weaknesses that the show brought up to defeat them, to name a few:

1) Inability to detect those that did not pose a threat to their vessel, or where irrelevant. Have the BORG never heard of internal sensors?

2) Species 8472 which kicked their butts in a few shows.

3) The internal DNA thing which made certain drones 'dream', never liked this one either, why couldn't the BORG just check for REM during this deep dream mode.

There are more, but I can't remember them all

Now the TNG borg were omnipotent, unstoppable, everlasting, nearly immortal. You hit them with everythin you got and they keep coming. Even Picard lost to them( he was assimilated), and the Trojan Virus-like plan was shelved, because it was unethical. It took the best and brightest long to figure out how to destroy ONE cube.

VOY took on countless cubes and won.

If you need an enemy to make your players run screaming pleading for mercy and redemption(like mine do), then use the BORG ala TNG. If you need an impressive, powerful vs phasers kind of enemy which will act without emotion then use the BORG ala VOY style.

I have only used the BORG once, half my PC's died or were assimilated, the only good side was that one managed to save a Cardassian vessel also stuck inside. The assimilated PC's later make cameo appearances as plot devices.

[Captain Zymmer]

Originally posted by Lt.Khrys Antos
1) Inability to detect those that did not pose a threat to their vessel, or where irrelevant. Have the BORG never heard of internal sensors?

I think this was established on TNG and certainly in First Contact.

Like Bees, unless you are percieved as a threat, they have no need to mess with you.

Just out of curiosity, how many cubes did Voyager destroy by themselves?

And Species 8472 was established as being something truely disturbing in their power level. I don't think they beating the BORG made the BORG anymore weak, it simply showed how powerful they were. IMHO

[Lt.Khrys Antos]

I think that in TNG, the Borg still reacted if you had weapons on you though. First Contact did in fact show them acting that way.

I don't know exactly how many they destroyed since I never taped the show, but they did attack the central Borg lair. There were the three in Endgame.

Species 8472 was just a bigger, badder and meaner version of the BORG like they were supposed to be in TNG. Resistance was truly futile against the TNG BORG and Species 8472. An unstoppable force which cannot be beaten, though they later were.

Why can't the good guys lose sometimes?

[Anarchy Bob]

I think (in my own very humble opinion) that the people who use the Borg just once are missing on a good way to make them even scarier.

The way i run the Borg is so: You CAN defeat them. It just takes a new way everytime and there are sacrifices to be made.

If you destroy one cube by making a star go supernova or whatever (sacrifice), the next time you meet one.. they are going to have metaphasic shields or somesuch.

I think it gets scarier all the time.

Another way to look at it for the purists out there... In order to DEFEAT the Borg, you don't have to destroy them. You have to deny them their objective.

In my MSH RPG games, i've pitted my players often times against unbeatables like the Juggernaut. And almost everytime, my players prevailed by working around the problem instead of trying to directly overcome it.

So i think there's way to have you cake and eat it too.