Welcome to Bridgetown

[Dan Stack]

The following is the notes I've been developing for my campaign. Perhaps it will be of use to others. My TOS game, while fun, gave some trouble - I discovered how much more I like the model of a tiny ship and limited resources. A Starfleet crew based on Bridgetown with just a few runabouts, now that's limited...

Much of the following material is based on what appeared in the DS9 Core Book, though rather expanded. Any names which sound like ex-LUG developers must be coincidental...

Bridgetown… Located over two hundred years away from the nearest Federation Outpost, Deep Space Nine. Though if you looked at a starchart, they might look like they were on top of each other. Which, in effect, they are, for Bridgetown and DS9 both share common XY coordinates, it’s just that Bridgetown is 200 light years higher on the Z axis, sitting “above” Bajor. A subspace highway, one of those valuable regions where subspace far less dense than it normally is, makes journeys between Bajor and Bridgetown quite fast, taking about two days for a ship at Warp 6, where it would normally take months. This puts it a quick trip away from major sites such as Cardassia Prime, Ferenginar, and the Badlands.


What is Bridgetown? At its most basic, it is a mining outpost in an otherwise dead solar system, built onto one side of an enormous asteroid. It takes its name from a bridge over a massive chasm on the asteroid, where much of the early mining took place.

No one knows who built Bridgetown, it is like an ancient city on Earth, built and rebuild upon, layer after layer. No one has mapped out every cavern of Bridgetown. It is powered by a mismash of generators made by species that no one has even heard of. Its life support network is chaotic, it has no central computer network but rather numerous competing networks. It has been abandoned, discovered, and abandoned again over the millennia.


The newest discoverer was the pirate Evets Gnol, who came across it 25 years ago. It was the perfect hideout from Cardassian and Federation authorities. Yet such a hideout does not stay secret for long and within years Bridgetown was teaming with pirates, mercenaries, and outlaws. They built something of a working anarchy and eventually attracted more legitimate citizens – traders, prospectors, salvagers, and scientists. But it is still a rough outpost, with no real government. For all intents and purposes Evets is the “leader” of Bridgetown, but only on the truly large issues – things which endanger Bridgetown itself. For the most part, one must fend for oneself on Bridgetown.

Now, Bridgetown serves as an informal trading outpost. It is located on the fringes of the Kellinan Reach, a vast expanse of unexplored territory. Rumor has it that on the other side of the reach, over 150 light years supposedly, lies the Kellinan Empire, though no known first contact has occurred. A few minor Cardassian and Federation colonies have been set up on worlds within a few light years of Bridgetown. Traders make some business supplying these colonies, but the true money is to be made in more adventurous activities – establishing trade relations with unknown civilizations, salvaging the ruins which seem to be all too frequent within the Reach.


In addition to Evets Gnol, there are a number of interesting groups and individuals on Bridgetown, among them:

• Krist Mor, an important member of the feared Orion Syndicate. He is always accompanied by his bodyguards Arzix and Cahill. Many rivals would pay a huge amount of latinum for his death, but his bodyguards have sworn to avenge him.
• K’hite, the bizarre scholar-mercenary, known to write epic poems about his fallen foes.
• D’on, leader of a rival organized crime syndicate. Rumor has it he unfinished business with Azrix…
• “Daimon” Incini, a new arrival, manager of Incini’s Bar. Incini claims to have connections everywhere and can get you anything… for a price. He is often accompanied by his former shipmates, the Nausicaan enforcer Throk and his former engineer, the Cardassian Krel Ardana.
• Commander Jasmine Kharn, leader of a small contingent of Starfleet officers assigned to explore the reach. New arrivals, it is unknown how they will proceed, though Incini has smoothed things over for them. It is unknown what he gained in return.
• Sublieutenant Ayrton. Though his low rank would normally cause him to be overlooked, Ayrton is a member of the feared Tal Shiar, the Romulan Intelligence Agency. Indeed, he is the official representative of the Romulan Star Empire and not to be trifled with. He often works with the Starfleet contingent.

As for Bridgetown itself, what is it like to live there? It is a vast network of competing ecosystems. There is plenty of space, meaning anyone can own a chunk of it. However, very few of the 20,000 beings calling Bridgetown home choose to actually own their own property, for that means being responsible for its upkeep – life support, power, computer access, etc. This has resulted in a small class of “landlords” who do maintain their own areas and rent out space to clients. Some specialize in one field, like residential apartments, others own tiny mishmashes. It is easy to tell where one zone ends and another begins – there is usually an airlock, to prevent one landlord mooching off another.


The most valuable location is within the bridge itself, which is owned and maintained by Evets and his staff of engineers and technicians. It is leased by various shopkeepers, bar owners, and the like, making the three levels within the massive arched bridge a sort of “main street”.


A series of large towers sit at the end of the bridge, owned by various interests – pirates gone legitimate, Ferengi traders, you name it. Most of them are also “protected” by the Orion Syndicate. These towers are popular places to live and many have been built in the past quarter century. To lure renters, many of these towers have beautiful observation galleries or gardens on the top floors.


Starfleet has purchased its own small tower for the personnel it has stationed here. Starfleet would have preferred to build its own tower, but resources are far to short to allow that. As a result, power and life support must be rented, just as in the rest of Bridgetown. The personnel stationed here are in the process of setting up emergency power and life support as insurance against such dependency. As Bridgetown tradition strongly “discourages” landing craft on this side of the chasm, forcing Starfleet to rent out a docking bay across the chasm for its runabouts.


Docking bays line the walls of the chasm opposite the towers. This is a convenient arrangement for merchants within the Bridge, as it forces travelers to cross the Bridge to get to the residential towers and Clifftown.


Clifftown, as the name suggests, is a series of locations carved within the walls of the chasm on the same side as the towers. Many of them have an impressive view of the chasm itself (though that is only if you find such things impressive to begin with…)


Finally, the last settled portions are the Burrows. This is a generic name for the many caves which can be found deeper within the surface of the asteroid. Most of the power generators and life support equipment can be found within the Burrows which is often sold to the landlords of the towers. Somewhere (the line always shifts) is the division between the Burrows and the Unexplored Caverns.


The Unexplored Caverns are rather dangerous to explore – life support is sporadic at best, dependent on centuries (or even millennia) old equipment still running, an unlikely event. These caverns are usually quite dull, but every so often something incredible is found and sometimes the discoverer lives to tell the tale… Other times an ancient trap or guardian is tripped. No one knows how deep these caverns go – K’hite claims that one could cross from one side of the asteroid to the other via the caverns.

If the campaign works out, I'll probably post this to my webpage, along with an incredibly rough map of Bridgetown.

[Michael Barratt]

I have wanted to do a Bridgetown campaign ever since I read the description in the DS9 book. Like what you've done with it. Did you want feedback/ideas?

I'd add in some Bajorans - it's close enough to Bajor, and given the occupation, quite a few might have "Settled" in Bridgetown... even better if a lot of them went back to Bajor after the end of the occupation, and the ones left on Bridgetown are, for the most part, those who didn't feel they could give up "the life."

In the rough-sketch I have in my own notes for the Bridgetown game I hope to someday run, I included a human doctor who lost the love of his life in the early days of the Dominion War, and went on a "walkabout" to try and restore his faith in life/humanity, and ended up in Bridgetown, where he operates a "free clinic." The fact that he's Starfleet is something he doesn't announce, he wears no uniform, and he's on "indefinite leave" from Starfleet, approved by the counsellor that he spoke to after the death of his love. He was going to be PC - and the "contact" of the incomming Starfleet crew, the only one they have to really get them in the door.

The Doc

[Dan Stack]

Feedback and new ideas are always welcome! I'm kicking off the game tonight, so a lot is subject to change - I'm trying to avoid carving too much in stone in case some way cool ideas do come along, either from my own over-active brain or from others...

[Michael Barratt]

Originally posted by Dan Stack
Feedback and new ideas are always welcome! I'm kicking off the game tonight, so a lot is subject to change - I'm trying to avoid carving too much in stone in case some way cool ideas do come along, either from my own over-active brain or from others...

Oh man! I'm so jealous of your playing in this setting! I tried to get my players into the setting, but they wanted to move around a lot more (ie: starship) so I acquiesced. I'll be watching this thread with eagre eyes, that's for sure. What's your trigger for putting the SF crew there?

The Doc

[Dan Stack]

How to get the characters there? The following is based on what I sent to one of my players. Basically, this is a sequel to my H.G. Wells campaign, about a Defiant class ship, the Wells (orginally named Avenger but refitted and renamed for scout duty after the Dominion War). Wells found herself bouncing from time to time, dimension to dimension. Her crew was a mix of Klingons, Romulans, Smugglers, and Starfleet (the Tal Shiar Agent Ayrton and the Cardassian smuggler/engineer Krel Ardana are characters from the Wells campaign who will be back for Bridgetown). Wells eventually stopped bouncing deep in the Gamma Quadrant within the Dominion, months from the Bajoran Wormhole. But they took a shortcut home via an Iconian portal they ran across. More follows...

The Cardassians checked out Bridgetown a bit when they ruled Bajor but didn't view it as worth the trouble. Space around Bridgetown is barely explored, with rumor of new species being one of the coins of the realm. It's been labelled the Kellinan Reach, after an empire supposedly located somewhere in the vicinity, though if anyone's made official contact with them, it is unknown. Starfleet always meant to explore the area, but exploration of the Gamma Quadrant through the Bajoran Wormhole occupied them for a few years and then the Maquis situation, war with the Klingons, followed by the Dominion War, put all this exploration on the back-burner...

Enter the H.G. Wells. Just prior to her destruction, her crew discovered an Iconian map room. It was very coarse, and there wasn't time for fine study of it. But it clearly marked an Iconian artifact, perhaps even a Gateway, somewhere in the Kellinan Reach. Maybe even in Bridgetown, though the tech of the builders does not seem to be Iconian...

The Wells crew comes back with their report. Starfleet is very intrigued. It wants to investigate further - Iconians had technology thousands of years more advanced than that of the Federation. And with the past decade spent battling the Borg and Dominion, the Federation could use all the help it can get... But it can't spare much in the way of resources for the small chance there is something valuable in the Reach - the fleet is in shambles, worlds like Betazed have been ravaged by the Dominion. All they can spare is a few runabouts and a small Starfleet team. To lead this team they send a poltically unpopular, but heroic commander, Jasmine Kharn, who years ago was recruited by Section 31 but has gotten less and less cooperative in her relationship with Section 31. Section 31 didn't quite have the influence to bounce her out of Starfleet, given her heroism during the Dominion War as commanding officer of the USS Avenger (later to be renamed the H.G. Wells). But using their influence to send her to a far-off outpost, with limited resources, that has a certain appeal. Indeed, the odds are quite stacked against her - unlike Commander Sisko, Commander Kharn isn't even in command of Bridgetown - no-one is. She's just in command of the small Starfleet contingent and a couple of runabouts...

But more than just the Starfleet crew from the Wells know about the Iconians. The Klingons who were aboard do, as do the Romulans and a band of smugglers. The Klingons are allies of the Federation, so they haven't raised too much of a stink. The Federation has promised to keep them appaised of future developments on this front and the Klingons plan on sending its own team to investigate this at some point, but they are a tad busy trying to preserve their empire in the aftermath of the Dominion War. The Romulans are supposedly allies too... Just like the USSR and USA were allies in World War II... They have sent their own observer, a Tal Shiar agent quite familiar with the Iconians and has worked with Starfleet before - Sublieutenant Ayrton.

But the band of smugglers knows about the Iconians as well. And their leader Daimon Incini is always the opportunist. He took his settlement latinum from the Federation (he sued Starfleet over the loss of his ship, which brought him and his crew to the Wells) and instead of buying a new ship, he opened a bar on Bridgetown. He arrived weeks before Commander Kharn. He established himself quite well. And he referred customers to his good friend Krel Ardana who proved quite talented in helping to maintain the nightmare of technologies present on the outpost - for a price of course! She saved a the outpost from a catastrophic life support failure shortly after arriving (of course some believe she and Incini sabotaged the life support system in the first place, but Incini would refer them to his director of communications, Throk...)

So when a poor, lily-white Starfleet crew arrived to try to set up their own installation on the outpost, they were less than welcomed. Except for a simple bar owner who offered to smooth things over for them. For a price. He wanted a piece of the action. He and Krel Ardana promised secrecy of course...

So the three main PCs are...

• Commander Jasmine Kharn - Joined female Trill. Character from our original LUG-Trek game. Lt. Jasmine (prior to being joined she had just one name) and the other characters in that game were junior officers aboard the Icarus and briefly found themselves working for Section 31. It is now several years later. Jasmine is now a joined Trill (something that happened in the Icarus game) and actually commanded the ship which would one day become the Wells, though she was not part of the Wells game (though her player was).
• Krel Ardana - Cardassian smuggler and engineer. A member of Daimon Incini's crew with a mysterious past - it is known that there was some nasty matter about her parents and the Obsidian Order, though details are unclear. Like Incini (an NPC), she is usually looking for a way to get some latinum. A running joke on the Wells game were the Troodon (late Cretaceous dinosaur) eggs which she and Incini hid in Cargo Bay 4...
• Sublieutenant Ayrton - Male Romulan Tal Shiar operative. Ayrton wound up as part of the Wells crew as well as he had booked passage on Incini's ship when it was destroyed and the survivors wound up on the Wells. Loyal to the Romulans, Ayrton is quite cold and willing to do anything to advance the empire. He had a Cardassian Gul as prisoner aboard the Wells (whom he was transporting when the campgaign began) who told a most remarkable story about how the Federation falsified information about the Dominion in order to trick the Romulans into joining them in an alliance...

[Dan Stack]

I like the idea of the Bajoran presence on Bridgetown. I can see many former freedom fighters who crossed the line to terrorism far further than Kira did during the occupation and found that they couldn't fit in with post-occupataion Bajoran society. Many have become pirates, thieves, mercenaries, and bounty hunters... A darker side than "noble religious freedom fighter" picture of Bajorans we often have. Could even have an adventure where the Bajoran Truth and Reconciliation Commission tries to bring some of them home.

[Michael Barratt]

Originally posted by Dan Stack
I like the idea of the Bajoran presence on Bridgetown. I can see many former freedom fighters who crossed the line to terrorism far further than Kira did during the occupation and found that they couldn't fit in with post-occupataion Bajoran society. Many have become pirates, thieves, mercenaries, and bounty hunters... A darker side than "noble religious freedom fighter" picture of Bajorans we often have. Could even have an adventure where the Bajoran Truth and Reconciliation Commission tries to bring some of them home.

*nod* That was my take on it, too.

Like I wrote in the "Series Seeds" thread, there's so much the crew would have to accomplish in a place like Bridgetown: getting themselves a "base of operations," making relations with the locals, establishing some semblance of order - or finding a place within that semblance of order... The fact that they can replicate relief supplies and would have high-end medical abilities would be two of their more effective bargaining chips, methinks.

The Doc

[Phantom]

Ever seen the movie Outland with Sean Connery? Its like High Noon in space. Good material for this setting, especially for a Security Officer bent on arresting that Syndicate guy.

[Michael Barratt]

Originally posted by Phantom
Ever seen the movie Outland with Sean Connery? Its like High Noon in space. Good material for this setting, especially for a Security Officer bent on arresting that Syndicate guy.

One of the more interesting parts of the Bridgetown setting is that SF is a fish out of water: they have no jurisdiction there, no real claims beyond whatever "laws" exist there. You can walk right up to someone, call them a murderer, prove it, and then stand there looking foolish, unless of course SF Security or whoever has given you "Bounty Hunter" rights or however you'd put that...

The Doc

[SIR SIG]

Hate to rain on your parade Dan.

But coming from a MapMaker's point of view, your in the wrong spot.

The Kellinan Reach is..."located 'above' the rimward portion of Federation space"... (DS9 CB pg 20)

You've got the positive Z axis right but it sounds like you've mixed in a bit of the Draconis Outback which is in the Bajor area.

The Kellinan Reach would be down Klingon way or Southish/6 o'clock way from Sol.

Depending if this is a big issue for you or not depends on your campaign. Just thought you'd like to know.

[Dan Stack]

Pshaw! (How do you spell that?)

Yeah, I decided to ignore that. Lots of the characters (PC and NPC) have a connection with the Bajoran/Cardassian area, so I took advantage of the godlike powers of the narrator and rearranged the universe to my whim.

[SIR SIG]

What can I say but I'm a MapMaker with an attention to detail!

Hope it works out then oh great universe shifting one!

[ghosty]

This place cries out for a bar like Rick's from Casablanca a sort of neutral ground for all the various groups, factions and syndicates who populate Bridgetown.

Also did you give any thought to a band of Maquis survivours using Bridgetown as a base of operations against the hated Cardassians. The war may be over, but their hate of Cardassians and Starfleet has not gone away...they may be in possession of a lot of equipment salvaged from Maquis caches after the Dominion wiped out the Maquis...so watch out...maybe they've given up the struggle and now use the weapons, materiel and contacts they acquired during the resistance to the Cardassians to build a criminal empire.

[Michael Barratt]

Hey Dan - I found my notes on what I was going to do with Bridgetown - pick and choose and laugh out loud at any of the following:

Cast of Characters

• Evets Gnol - "Crafty Egotistial Pirate/Scalawag" - Has his own ship, is the "Prince of Thieves" of the place. Half-Cardassian/Half-Human? Has the most "information" in the form of maps of Bridgetown, but as far as technological knowledge is concerned, he's on the lower end of the scale. A finger in every pie: has some pretty far-reaching influence, through methods both legal and not.
• Krist Mor - Orion Syndicate member on Bridgetown, has two Nausican bodyguards: Arzix and Cahill. Runs, among other things, an establishment of ill repute with Orion Animal Women (and various other species). Harsh, runs a protection racket among many other things. Likely to clash with Federation security early on, and often.
• K'hite - A scholar mercenary, probably the most enigmatic. Play him a little like Garak: he knows so much, how did he learn it? Race not listed in book, would potentially like him to be Dopterian, to avoid Telepathic scans of him to keep him that much more unreadable. Back history only explored through little tidbits given a bit at a time. Morally flexible.
• Yask - Ferengi. Runs a fighting pit/arena like extablishment and bar. The fights are some of the most populated events on Bridgetown. Pays a lot for contenders, rakes in profit from betting: but many of the fighters die, so its getting harder to find willing combatants.
• Aliya Chowhardry - A scavenger, technical know-how above average, has been on Bridgetown for a while. Sort of Robin-hoody with her technological skills: and likely the single individual who knows the most about Bridgetown's technology, though even she doesn't know even half of it. Restores power to populated areas, that sort of thing.
• The Doc - PC, has been on Bridgetown since the death of his love in the early days of the Dominion war, granted a "longterm leave" from his counsellor. Knows many of the ins and outs of the place. Rank: Lieutenant. Runs a free clinic that functions mostly on barter: people give what they can, when they can, and he helps everyone he possibly can. Well respected. Doesn't have half the supplies he needs.
• Marshall Baird - The head of the "Trader's Guild," an organization that formed itself into a group in order to avoid getting stomped on. He speaks for the great myriad of traders, shopkeepers, and the like on Bridgetown, and doesn't much trust outsiders with big promises.
• Atanan - K'tarian prospector, there is no "prospector/miner" guild, but he would be the head of one if there was. He tends to speak for the miners and prospectors, but they're not very organized. Very distrustful of the Federation.
• Lieutenant Commander Esha Meral - Betazoid Female, Federation Merchant Marine shipcaptain of the USS Klondike. Often nearby, keeps a trading store open on the Mall. Another source of info for the incoming characters.
• Civillian Populations - includes a fairly large Bajoran "Quarter." This includes a Bajoran kid who works with the doctor and who the doctor has almost "adopted," and the kid's mama, who runs a restaurant/bar with the supplies of the Bajoran-run Hydroponics farm, the largest source of local food in Bridgetown.

The Mission
Officially, the incomming starfleet officers are coming to provide a Federation presence at close range to the local Federation colonies who don't have a whole lot of Federation support - especially since a series of recent piracy acts occurred with said colonies.

Unofficially, they're here to begin the eventual Federation-ization of Bridgetown, and to dissuade the criminal element thereof.

Ships
Since the Federation is picked clean at the moment, nothing huge: A Berlin Class Security cutter might be about right, with a Runabout or two so that if the ship is away, there's still a way to get spaceborne. Maybe use the USS Sam Steele and her crew...

Episode Ideas (in no real order)

• "Bridging the Gap" - Pilot Episode. Introduction of crew, getting there, making contact. Main focus on the Doctor, who is "Reactivated" by SF Command, and somewhat against his will, assigned to this mission. A technological problem among the civilian quarters begins: Federation solving this problem ends with the Civilian quarters giving a large enough section of their part of Bridgetown to the Starfleet Crew, which allows them to begin their efforts there.
• "Trade" - Replicators are on low power here, and Starfleet Technology isn't integrating well. Exploration of the 'barter market' and the large "Mall" that exists across the arch along the cavern. Someone has poisoned the Bajoran crop, and curing it would be another boon for the Federation: also note K'hite and the scavenger character within this episode, K'hite for coming up with the poison's antidote (for a price), the scavenger for helping them integrate some tech.
• "Culture" - Sociol/Cultural clash between Fed and the locals: the bar fights of the Ferengi kill someone, and it's someone one of the crew has befriended in an earlier ep. Solution that might present itself: Put the federation security officer into the fight, but he refuses to kill the opponent, saying a non-lethal rematch could settle the score. Explaining to the Ferengi that profits would increase if he didn't have to pay the fighters so much for potentially dying in the ring, and more fights could occur with just as much enjoyment.
• "Militia" - Attack on Bridgetown by a pirate raider or three, causes some damage, steals some stuff, and leaves the Federation saying "You people suck at defending yourselves with any sort of organization!" The organization of a local militia is in order, but who would run it, and how would it be equipped/etc?

Anyway, those were my notes.

The Doc

[Publius]

Are there any ideas on the physical dimensions Bridgetown?

Looking for ideas to use in my tabletop game, I happened on this thread last weekend. It fit in very well with a thread I have wanted to resume in my game so I decided to use Bridgetown as a setting. The players have basically 'just got there' and I gave them some rough sketches based on the descriptions above. Seeing as how I plan on continuing there for at least one adventure however, I thought that I would expand on it a bit and I am presently working on some maps of the place.

Anyone have any thoughts on how large a scale they had imagined for Bridgetown?