What is th best Star Trek adventure you've ever run?

[silverthorn]

Okay then, the subject pretty much sums it up.

[Yuber Okami]

I have not run many adventures,but my favourite was one from the trekrpg.net:enter chimera.It was a lot of fun,& my players are still amazed by chimera´s resemblance to marvel´s carnage(well,without that spider in the torso...i had to describe it on my own...)

[Lt.Khrys Antos]

A long while ago I ran an episode simply called "Spy". Two of my PC's had turned maquis and it was the episode where they were captured by the other two PC's playing good Starfleet officers. One of the Maquis PC's turned out to be an intelligence operative for Starfleet-the look on the other PC's face was the stuff of legends. All my players enjoyed that episode immensily...and so did I.

[Capt Daniel Hunter]

The best adventure I've run (as far as I can recall) was the Kelvan invasion scenario (which I'm curerntly trying to do a writeup of). It's hard to portray in words the level of tension I managed to generate with my group (they were totally stressed out, and had to work HARD to beat this one) but it was a big favourite with them. After they'd stopped cursing me that is.

[Joe Dizzy]

Two come to mind... a body switch episode, where the crew is stuck in the bodies of romulan spies, hospitalized in psycriatic care on earth. While the spies are standing in as the characters, stealing all kinds of information, breaking all kinds of havoc.
They even got to play the evil Romulans acting like SF officers at one point.

The one, where the crew has to somehow get their hands on a Cardassian war criminal. Before the Maquis does and before the Cardassians manage to get him back home. It was really cool, because it could have become an action episode but took a very different course.

If I find the time, I'll try to write them down... and get them uploaded here.

[Owen E Oulton]

I think it would have to be "The Intelligence Wars" portion of my USS Excalibur campaign run under the FASA system way back in 1988-89.

It started with the characters attending a military convention (sorta like the Soldier of Fortune conventions run in Las Vegas) and the theft of a new weapons system which was on display. This lead to the exposure of a conspiracy between reactionary elements within Starfleet Intelligence (using a SOF-like group called The Brotherhood of Federation Patriots as a front) and members of the Klingon High Command to start a war and kill the d'entente alluded to in STIII and IV. It involved all sorts of action and derring do, puzzle and mystery solving, as well as space battles and guest appearances by the crew of the Enterprise-A. Some of the highlights: Setting a phaser to overload and tossing it into a turbolift, yelling "Bridge" in Klingon and beaming off the very-soon-to-be-ex-K'T'Inga; the joint project between Scotty and Chief Engineer Thelev to create the "Scott/Thelev Transporter Relay Satellite" to extend the range of the transporter in emergency situations; a firefight in a turbolift where a dozen shots missed and which was ended by someone in the corridor using wide angle stun to take everyone out; and an almost action for action (p)replay of the climax of STVI - two years before the movie came out. That last had the players looking for Paramount's hidden microphones in my living room when STVI debuted.

[Modem]

I think the ‘best’ game I ever ran (in recent memory anyhow), was I game that I can’t remember what I titled it…but if had to title/re-title it I’d call it “Reformatted”
The situation was that the ship was sitting at a medium distance from a Pulsar which was going to go nova in a matter of hours, the ship’s job was to record all information on radiation level, distance, and so on.

The problem was; the ship was hit with a massive energy-spike, cause by a sharding of the pulsar’s energy stream. The ship’s shields managed to save the ship from exterior physical damage, but the power surge crashed the main computer core, and disrupted the ODN links of the back-ups. Systems were shutting down all over the ship.
One PC got out of the turbolift just the nick of time (thing fell about thirty stories straight down, with a nerve-shattering SMASH at the bottom), only to find life-support systems about to fail on the deck he was on. He bailed into a working Holodeck, taking the crew that he could see in the immediate hall with him. Elsewhere, the counselor was beginning to die, and…wither. At his age, this was impossible. Under closer study, it was discovered that the counselor was in fact a ‘type-two’ clone (type-ones are direct clones, type-twos are those whom have been gene-spliced from the genetics of two people), unless fresh DNA was supplied (from a suitable donor), he would die.
And, on top of all this, the ship was drifting towards the sun (still going nova). No shields, no thrusters or impulse, or warp, and No manual controls or overrides (system lock-outs & no power in the first place).

Ultimately, it was one big ‘survival test’, and in the end one player (the ‘turbolift’ one), said “that was a good game…”. This is a guy who normally hates Trek, yet he (and the rest of the players) had a blast, because they were ‘flying by the seat of their pants’

[Michael Barratt]

The USS Perseus met up with the 5th fleet, all ready to go into battle, and the 5th fleet was ambushed by Dominion forces. But no one shot at the Perseus... then EPS systems started to overload all over the ship. Down in Engineering, the Chief Engineer (NPC) worked like lightning to contain the overload, and suceeded a little. Boom all over the ship - on Deck five the CMO watched as one of the favourite NPCs of the group was blown away trying to save someone from a rupturing EPS conduit (both the crewman and the patient died). On the Bridge, the Ops Officer (NPC) noted a pattern to the overloads, and also that the sensor module was decoupling (Nebula class), and worked like mad to correct the problem - then Boom on the bridge, fire everywhere...

Down in engineering, the PC Engineer (head of Environmental Control), sees that the Chief is dead, and half the staff injured, and the whole room is on half-power. She can't raise the bridge, so she starts barking out orders to stabalize the power imbalances. There's power building in the warp core, and there are two choices: try to bleed it out to nowhere (likely to make the ship blow up), or shunt it right into the warp drive and go to high warp until the power is used up. Alas, they can't contact the bridge, and navigational control down in Engineering is a mess.

The 3rd Navigational Officer, PC, went up to the sensor pod (he was assigned to emergency duty, after much cajoling with the duty officer to be assigned to said task last episode). When he got to the sensor pod he found the Chief Science Officer, a vulcan NPC, and the small number of science/ops crew in the Sensor Pod room trying to find a way to stop the decoupling before it actually detaches in the middle of a battle: and hey, how come no one is shooting at the Perseus?

The Vulcan decides it's pointless, and orders everyone to evac but himself. The Sensor Pod has the equivalent of low-level thrusters, and could maybe drop into the nearby gas-giant for coverage. He'll pilot, he says. The Ensign PC points out that he's a better pilot, and he'll do it. Science Officer can't argue the logic, and starts to tell the Ensign PC how to complete the decoupling... but the Ensign is already doing so. Which he shouldn't know how to do. When the Vulcan starts to question this knowledge, the Ensign phasors him on a high setting, blowing half the man away.

The entire table goes dead quiet, looking at the player of the Ensign Pilot. Almost as one, they realize they're not being shot at, the ensign played with the duty schedule to get himself assigned to be just where he is, and the module is detaching in a battle - and now he's aboard... Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a traitor.

Cut to the Bridge. The only two awake are two ensigns, one a nurse/medic, the other the pilot, who has a dislocated shoulder, is shocky, and might have a concussion. The medic (PC) runs around the bridge. The XO (NPC) is dead, the Captain is unconscious and in serious condition, the Tac Officer is very broken, but alive, the Ops Officer is dead (NPC), and they're screwed. Viewscreen isn't even working, they rely on sensors and only have about half the information they need. The Nav board shows a big buildup in power in the warp engines, leading up to a warp burst, without a heading. They scramble with the damaged computer to get a decent heading, and shunt it into the navigational systems, and the board turns green at the last second...

...and down in Engineering, the Lieutenant PC punches it and they blast off at high warp. Many more shipwide failures and system overloads, but they make it. When the power is gone and they drop from warp, almost half an hour has gone by, and they're still working on getting communications up. Emergency medical treatment is happening in one of the Bio-labs, many have died, the warp field needs to be recalibrated because the sensor pod isn't attached to the ship, and they're all about ready to collapse.

The End of the episode had the Captain in the finally restored sick-bay, with the CMO telling her the XO and Ops (and many others) are dead, the bridge currently held by the Ensign Chief navigator, and the Security Officer's second in command (PC) finding that the overload was sabotage,a nd only the timely actions of the Chief Engineer, Ops Officer (now both dead), and the PC Engineer kept the ship from exploding. Tracing back the sabotague, they find it leads to the 3rd Pilot, the one who went on the shuttle pod with the Science Officer (both presumed dead), until they find in his quarters equipment very Cardassian in design, and it slowly dawns on them that the guy was a traitor.

You should have seen them badger the poor player for information ("Why?! Why!?"), and the episode where he came back - and as his truly Cardassian self! - was a great sight to behold...

The Doc

[silverthorn]

It suddenly occured to me that I haven't actually said what the best adventure I've ever run. I apologise that I couldn't cut it down to 2 1/2 but whatever.

1) The USS Sovereign is awaiting the return of the Counsellor from a conference on Betazed when the Captain's Yacht returns without the Counsellor. The Deputy Tactical Officer then admits that the Counsellor has gone to her home world (a xenophobic religious nut house from which she escaped 10 years earlier) to rescue her sister who is part of a scientific resistence. The Sovereign travels at high warp to the planet where they discover that the rulers of the planet have a) captured and b) tortured the Counsellor. The Counsellor is beamed up and the crew discover that due to a geological imbalance within the planet, the planet's going to go Krypton in 3 weeks. While the engineering and science teams go to work on stopping or at least delaying the destruction, the Enterprise E arrives in orbit and help. Between the two crews, a way is discovered to delay the destruction for 4 more weeks (long enough for the people of the planet to be evacuated). The Chief Engineer and XO of the Sovereign (as well as Geordi and Data) beam down to the scientific enclave and start helping them to prepare for evacuation. At this time the leaders of the planet show the fact that they have primitive nuclear missiles by shooting one at the scientific enclave, not a good idea since the somewhat fragile nature of the ecosystem means that the detonation of one nuke within the atmosphere will lead to a catastrophic ionization effect within the atmosphere (in other words, the atmosphere catches fire). In desperation, the Captain of the Sovereignn transmits on all frequencies to the people of the planet that if they are not transported off the planet, they will die, and gives them a series of transport points for eventual off planet transport. The leaders of the planet decide to detonate a nuke in the capital and wipe out over 7 billion people (apart from about 15,000 people who were in the beam out spots that the two ships able to reach in time).

2 - Not so much a episode as a bit of another episode) The Counsellor and the same Deputy Tactical Officer from the last episode are late for their shifts and the XO asks the computer where they are. The computer responds that they are both in the Counsellors quarters. The XO comms the Counsellor and the Captain contacts the Tac officer .

COUNSELLOR: "Yeah, what?"
XO: "That's yeah, what Sir. Lieutenant. You're late for the shift. You have 2 minutes or you're on report."
TAC OFFICER: "Trueblood."
CO: "Mister Trueblood. You're 10 minutes late for your shift. Get off the Counsellor and get your ass up here or you and the Counsellor are on report."

Suffice to say the look on my face (not to mention the faces of the other players) was priceless.

[Timothy]

My favorite game I played was one where we (the crew) had to tranport and destroy these tricobalt devices I don not remember much from the game other then after that episode our ship USS VANGAURD became known as the "death ship"

My favorite GMing is the one I am doing right now but I have PC's with access to this site so I am not going to say much yet....sorry Brian.....

[Don Mappin]

Best Trek adventure (as voted by myself and my players) was about 10+ years ago using the old FASA system in the TNG-era. The players are at Haven (Betazed) doing some routine flag-waving when an MIA Starfleet vessel wanders into the system. The players do a meet and greet and find out that the vessel was stranded while on deep exploration because many vital systems, including their star charts, were irrevocably destroyed. The captain of the vessel died during the initial encounter years ago, leaving the XO in charge, who happens to also be the former lover of the ship’s counselor (a PC).

Well the returned heroes are brought over to the PCs ship and welcomed but of course everything isn’t as it seems. The counselor and the other XO don’t seem to connect for some strange reason. Later the counselor is unexpectedly found in a coma. The destroyed star charts appear to have been purposefully sabotaged. But by whom?

It seems that the other ‘crew’ are in fact shape-shifting aliens with the ability to mimic the thoughts and memory patterns of those that they ‘sample.’ (Usually by an invasive brain probe through the mouth.) The bulk of the real crew are in cold storage on the other vessel as…well, a food supply.

The neat part was that the aliens took over several key positions quickly: the counselor, the ship’s doctor, and the XO. Quickly the captain was relieved of duty as well.

The players secretly were playing their evil alien doubles which made the charade last quite a while. At one point the tactical officer pulls aside the alien double XO (played by the character’s player) and confesses to him that “something isn’t right.”

Meanwhile the real crew have to break out and rescue their comrades before they become the next course on the menu. The tension level was quite high with no one really knowing who to trust. Plus the players got the opportunity to play dual roles: themselves and their alien doubles.

It was a lot of fun. Best quote, after receiving three calls questioning his latest orders, the alien XO double answers the next page: “Who wishes to usurp my authority now?”

I ought to write it up properly sometime.

[erhershman]

I did an episode where a female Vulcan ensign who had been raised on Earth and had seriously out-of-control emotions every day, all the time, was the prime suspect in a sabotage on the ship. The plot wasn't that great, I'm just pleased that I ran her well and that one of my PCs wanted to take the Romantic Attatchment disadvantage towards her afterwards.

[Dave]

Ahh, memories...

In the original edition of the FASA game there was an adventure called "Ghosts of Conscience", it had a plot similar to "The Tholian Web". The crew was sent to catch up with and investigate a binary system passing quickly through space. The stars revolved around each other at such a speed that their gravitational fields were tearing apart the fabric of local space, creating an "interphase" phenomenon. The crew encountered a derelict ship suspended in "interphase". The derelict was fading in and out of existence.

Upon arrival, the players' ship became trapped as well, and the data needed for escaping was somewhere on board the derelict. The major obstacle to finding the data was the derelict's crew- who were also fading in and out of existence. However, the "interphase" had damaged the chemical balance and neural connections of their brains, reducing them to paranoid psycho-killers beyond all medical help. If the PCs could not escape the interphase area in time, they would surely meet the same fate. In "The Tholian Web" episode, the derelict crew had already destroyed itself in a fit of paranoia. However in this adventure, members of the derelict crew were still lurking about, usually armed, and sometimes fading into existence right in front of the PCs. Also, the turbo shafts didnt work, power was flickering and the PCs had to go from the bridge to the lower engineering decks.

I know, I know... Trek isn't supposed to be a shoot-em-up. But the atmosphere on board was creepy and it allowed the use of engineering skills. Best of all, it took place on board a Constitution class ship, so we used the 15mm deck plans and makeshift minis. A dark, empty heavy cruiser can be a scary place. The PC Captin got killed (God knows how many times I rolled for LUC) but it gave the player his first big loss and it brought home the fact that the TOS universe is dangerous. It was kind of a combination of the Poseidon Adventure and the TNG episode "Starship Mine".

[ghosty]

I have several, my personal favourite is my Christmas Special of 2001.

http://forum.lotrrpg.net/showthread....&threadid=3065

My favourite story arc which took numerous sessions many of 'em going into wee hours of the morning was the War of the Gods.

http://forum.lotrrpg.net/showthread....&threadid=2895

[Imagus]

I had my TNG crew involved in secret diplomatic negotiations with the Romulans at a top secret base in the Romulan Neutral Zone. Because of rampant paranoia on both sides, the base was automated and heavily defended, with the computer designed to go into total isolation mode if anything untoward happened. It can only be shutdown by passwords from both Ambassadors.

The players supply the bodyguard for the Fed team. A guest player is playing the head of their Romulan opposite numbers. They meet up and beam down and the Romulan Ambassador (who turns out to be heavily pro-Federation) decides to start things with a reception. The two sets of PC's meet and start growling at each other...

Reception starts a few hours later, Romulan Ambassador toasts the ensemble, and promptly turns bright green and falls flat on his face in the dessert. Alarms go off, the base seals itself off, and the Romulans take the body and retreat into their quarters, threatening "retaliation" if the Feds go anywhere near them. Meanwhile the Fed tactical officer has disappeared into the technical workings of the base, having noticed that the Romulan assistant Ambassador was not at the reception.

Suspicions abound... Especially once the Vulcan medical officer points out that the symptoms resemble poisoning from cannabis (I decided Vulcanoids find the substance poisonous) - which of course is only found on Earth.

The TO returns having found the body of the assistant - who has been killed. The Romulan PC accuses the Feds of assassination. The Fed CO works overtime to convince him their medical officer might be able to figure out what is happening if he can do an autopsy. Eventually this is arranged, and meanwhile the Romulan PC discovers he has a Tal Shiar agent in his contingent, who has been trying to signal another cloaked Romulan ship. He declines to inform the PCs of this.

Anyway to keep a long story short, it transpires that the Romulan has not been poisoned, he has succumbed to an illness for which he required regular drugs - and being slightly disorganised, he relied on his assistant to keep him on schedule. The assistant stumbled across the TS agent, was killed and failed to supply the drugs. Hence the death.

The Romulan PC uses the TS comm equipment to contact the TS ship which has the passcodes, and turns the agent over to his men...

The Fed PCs never discovered much of this, especially the TS involvement.

This was a fun session, both sides hiding secrets from the others while trying to solve the mystery and figure out how to get off the station. Lots of paranoia. Using a player for the Romulan officer also worked extremely well...