Poll: What kind of adventures for new sourcebook project

[Lancer]

As part of the ongoing discussion about a new fan-based sourcebook project called "Planets and Adventures" (http://forum.trekrpg.net/showthread....&threadid=2439) I am starting this poll to find out what kind of adventures you would like to see in this book.

The categories in the poll are taken from the TNG Narrator's Toolkit.

Comments / ideas / new categories welcome !

[Greg Davis]

Well, my vote would be for exploration and discovery, especially in light of the overwhelming complaint that Trek has lost its "exploratative edge" (though I don't see how, as that seems to be the foundation of Enterprise, but that's another topic altogether).

Personally, my group does a lot of introspective, morality-based adventures, but I find that those sorts of adventures are hard to generalize, and really need to be group-specific, at least IMO.

So, let's boldy vote for exploration and discovery....somewhere, it'll make Gene smile.



Greg

[Dan Gurden]

As Greg said... But there should also be a small amount of Action, Morality Play and Suspense/Deadline... Maybe 1 of each for every exploratory, or even concealed within...

Theres also the Allegory. Real World events adjusted for Trek, either current affairs or historical, a common staple of the Trek universe.

[Lancer]

Originally posted by Dan Gurden
Theres also the Allegory. Real World events adjusted for Trek, either current affairs or historical, a common staple of the Trek universe.

Thanx for the pointer Dan.

Since the plan for the project is to present some new worlds and add adventures that use those settings, the possibility of allegories would depend on how well the settings work for that.
If settings/planets will be influenced more by the adventure ideas or vice versa I don't now at the moment. It's all still in the planning stages.

[Don Mappin]

Uh, all of the above?

Sorry, this just strikes me as a really pointless poll.

[Lancer]

Originally posted by Don Mappin
Sorry, this just strikes me as a really pointless poll.

I don't think so Don.

If a lot of people wanted to have, eg. action-packed adventures the timeframe and location for the adventure should IMHO be better something during the Klingon or Dominion War.

Espionage adventures OTOH would be easier to do on a Federation world than on some planet that has just been discovered and has no political connection to the rest of the galaxy.

While going against a cliche is all well and good this project will be easier to do if the adventures fit the settings and vice versa.

To me it just makes sense, but if you disagree I have no problem with that.

[eharborclub]

I think we've hit a good bump in the road, so to speak, with this poll.

I haven't voted yet because I'm not sure I personally have a favorite type of adventure. My primary, somewhat selfish, reason is that my TOS game bounces around, without a central theme beyond the TOS series intro, "To Boldly Go".

This poll hits on a very good alternate topic of writing in general; that of writing to your interests or to that of the audience. I do both and with a topic like Trek, we all are; now that I think about it.

I was going to agree with Don's statement about this being a pointless poll but now I must humbly disagree. The very fact that we post to these forums exemplifies that (deep down) we all wish to "play" to a greater audience. (Insert suitable Shakespeare quote here.)

If this poll has a secondary effect Lancer, it should be to expand our thought process when we write for those of us who reach beyond for grand adventure; to ingratiate others with our egos; and discovering the best part of role playing Star Trek is to run away from our (however enjoyable) lives for a short while.

I apologize for the run-on sentences, but they felt right. Okay, I think I can vote now!

Erik

[Don Mappin]

Would I like to see exploration adventures? Yes. Mystery? Yes. Espionage? Yes. Action? Yes. Morality Play? You betcha.

My point is, simply, give me a bunch of adventures spanning the different types you might see in a Star Trek campaign/episode and let me pick the ones suited to my own game. You can’t be everything to everyone.

To limit my voting response to what one type of adventure would I like to see seems self-defeating to me.

Right now exploration is winning. Does that mean that you’re going to do solely exploration adventures? Were you not going to put any in at all had no one voted for it? Right now Horror has zero votes. Does that mean no one would like to see a horror adventure? Probably not. Likely they voted for exploration.

Not intentionally trying to be obtuse but…

[Don Mappin]

Originally posted by Lancer
While going against a cliche is all well and good this project will be easier to do if the adventures fit the settings and vice versa.

Seems like you’re putting the wagon before the horse. Where's the poll for the settings?

Shouldn’t you be voting for the types of settings that are more representative of the campaigns that Narrators are running and then customize the adventures around these settings?

If you do a whole bunch of adventures centered around “Action” and tie closely with the Dominion War and a bunch of contested worlds, that doesn’t do us much good, say, if 80% of the people here are running a campaign five years prior to the Dominion War.

Food for thought…

[eharborclub]

Excellent points Don! Thank you for furthering the discussion by explaining your original post to this thread.

A few further questions and thoughts for both Don and Lancer purely in the spirit of clarification and debate:

1) Lancer, Don asked you that since the poll shows Exploration adventures were winning, does this mean you (Lancer) are going to solely post Exploration adventures?

My thoughts: I would hope Lancer, your idea was to add more adventures of a type which "wins" the polls. I would like to see adventures of all types included in this sourcebook you are creating.

2) Don, you wrote to Lancer, "If you do a whole bunch of adventures centered around “Action” and tie closely with the Dominion War and a bunch of contested worlds, that doesn’t do us much good, say, if 80% of the people here are running a campaign five years prior to the Dominion War."

My questions:
Don, are you saying (writing here though, I suppose, eh?) that any adventures created for role-playing Star Trek in another time period than a groups game have lesser value to the narrator of that game? Can an adventure placed in a seperate time period not add to another's inspiration simply because they are not set in the same time period as a particular group's game? For example, I adapted prior material from FASA (as many of this board have done) to suit the requests of my players. Conversely, to those who read this post, please keep in mind that I would never slight original work simply because it does not draw directly upon Paramount authorized material!

3) Don, you asked Lancer, "Shouldn’t you be voting for the types of settings that are more representative of the campaigns that Narrators are running and then customize the adventures around these settings?"

My thoughts: Excellent point, and it provides a good place to start a response to my questions put forth above. Perhaps Lancer, your sourcebook should be narrowed in it's title to reflect Don's question. My primary suggestion to your sourcebook would be to take the results from the poll and post the adventures in the fashion you desire but provide some general guidelines to make the sourcebook a Star Trek: Expanded Universe type work. Of course, if I just read that, a gigantic thought of, "UGH", would enter my brain about now!

Erik

[Don Mappin]

Originally posted by eharborclub
I would hope Lancer, your idea was to add more adventures of a type which "wins" the polls. I would like to see adventures of all types included in this sourcebook you are creating.

Me too, hence my original query and confusion with the basis of the poll. I could have told you that exploration was going to win by a healthy margin without a poll.

Don, are you saying (writing here though, I suppose, eh?) that any adventures created for role-playing Star Trek in another time period than a groups game have lesser value to the narrator of that game?

For an experienced Narrator, this doesn't present a problem. An experienced Narrator picks and chooses what they need for their own and transplant as necessary.

Such a book, however, seems more suited to an inexperienced Narrator, so to a degree, yes, I am saying that limiting your focus to a specific setting or adventure type is self-defeating and unnecessarily limiting.

Can an adventure placed in a seperate time period not add to another's inspiration simply because they are not set in the same time period as a particular group's game?

See above on an experienced Narrator vs an unexperienced Narrator.

Perhaps Lancer, your sourcebook should be narrowed in it's title to reflect Don's question. My primary suggestion to your sourcebook would be to take the results from the poll and post the adventures in the fashion you desire but provide some general guidelines to make the sourcebook a Star Trek: Expanded Universe type work.

I think they should write whatever they feel like writing. I'm just throwing out some thoughts and seeing if they stick.

[calguard66]

I voted exploration and discovery.

I would have voted "all of the above", but I realize that's impractical... each book needs to focus on a theme or era.

One thing I would really like to see is ajustments for vessel type, or even scenarios designed just for smaller ships. My group plays aboard a Nova class surveyor. It's an excellent ship, but doesn't have the resources a Galaxy or Nebula would.

After the exploration book I'd really love to see a DW adventure pack.

[Lancer]

Originally posted by calguard66
One thing I would really like to see is ajustments for vessel type, or even scenarios designed just for smaller ships. My group plays aboard a Nova class surveyor. It's an excellent ship, but doesn't have the resources a Galaxy or Nebula would.

Hey, why not join our merry men and write something along that lines for the project yourself?

Originally posted by Don Mappin
My point is, simply, give me a bunch of adventures spanning the different types you might see in a Star Trek campaign/episode and let me pick the ones suited to my own game. You can’t be everything to everyone.

I never intended to be 'everything to everyone', I have a hard enough time to try and get everything for myself.
Bad jokes aside, I started this poll for two reasons:
1. To get some discussions started over at the sourcebook thread and
2. because I was really curious what people would vote for.

While I suspected a big vote for 'exploration' I was not really convinced of it. After all this is about what people would like to see in an adventure collection and not what they are playing in their own campaigns.
Personaly I have no trouble comming up with exploration-style adventures for my own game, but find it more difficult to come up with, eg. espionage or horror stories.
There could have well been enough voters thinking "I can never come up with a good (...fill in the blank...) story myself, that's something I would like in the book" to make for a much different result of the vote.

Originally posted by Don Mappin
Such a book, however, seems more suited to an inexperienced Narrator, so to a degree, yes, I am saying that limiting your focus to a specific setting or adventure type is self-defeating and unnecessarily limiting.?

And as I stated before I didn't intend this vote to rule the project, but rather to see if it points us in a certain direction, which obviously it does.
Where we take it from here is certainly not set in stone right now and still open to discussion, but for that discussion this vote provides a good starting point.

And Don, a focus IMHO is always limiting to a certain extend. That's just the nature of it - it gives you a certain direction to go in, but OTOH limits your options.
If I had to choose between the extremes of a very focused project or a mish-mash of unconnected bits and pieces I would choose the first option, but that's just me.
But I DO hope the project leads to something between the extremes.

Originally posted by Don Mappin
Seems like you’re putting the wagon before the horse. Where's the poll for the settings?

Shouldn’t you be voting for the types of settings that are more representative of the campaigns that Narrators are running and then customize the adventures around these settings?

A valid point Don. I had to start somehwere and as the saying goes: "It seemed like a good idea at the time."

My reasoning was, that some people had allready posted outlines for the settings and adventures they could write in the soucebook thread. I was of the opinion that these settings could be made to fit any sector or era of the Trek universe more easily than the adventure ideas. So i decided to go with an adventure poll first.

As for the possible eras to set the book in, we allready had a poll on "when is your game set" a while ago and most votes were for TNG and Other. If you look at all the posts in the forums about games set after the Dominion War I don't think it's far fetched to assume that this is indeed the timeframe the 'Other' votes were for.

Originally posted by Don Mappin
I'm just throwing out some thoughts and seeing if they stick.

Hey, no problem with me.

In fact I am as gratefull for the 'brainstorm' you are giving us, as I am for the forum you provided.