Campaign Idea

[JustaGM]

Hey all. I thought I would share my Campain Idea with you all. I am in NO WAY a Star Trek afficiando...in fact i was never a regualr watcher of any of the series, though I liked DS9, TNG and yes, I admit it, Enterprise (please don't throw things at me for it). So if I get anything wrong here let me know...or am missing something cool, let me know please.

Well, I am going at this from a different point of view.

The Players are being told to create characters that will be on DS9, and eventually, will have a small part in the coming Dominion War. The time periode is about 2-3 months before the official occupation of DS9 by the Federation.

I told them I would be starting the game with their arrival onboard DS9. To be honest...that's a lie. I am starting the game onboard a transport freighter heading to DS9.

While they are on the transport there will be a murder, where the PCs will have to be the main investigators. What they do not know is that the murder is part of a coverup by a group of hijackers. The hijackers will be foiled, hopefully by the PCs, BUT not before the ship's systems are damaged and the vessel enters a all-but forgotten system.

Unfortunately for the cast and crew of the vessel, this system hides a small base full of peoples that simply do not want to be known about.

The resluting attack on the PCs crippled ship is devistating...and do to the raiding tactics the PCs never get a clear look at the attackers when they board. (They knock the power out, and using special optics board the transport.)

The PCs will be given a small chance to escape aboard escape-pod-shuttle-things... However the only place to go is a small moon of a immense gas giant. The gas giant all but negates most scans of the system...especially to soemthing that close to it as the moon is.

So the PCs now have to survive on a hostuile world, find a way to get off or get help...all the while having an enemy after them.

I was going to give them a goal, their shuttle sensors picked up something that looks like a point to get to that may have a way for them to get help, but its some 1000-2000 km away!

I was going to put a lesser-primitive-alien speices on the planet to have be aids and enemies of the PCs. Natural storms and travel dangers. Predators. Enemy patrols. perhaps even encounters with other escapees here and there.

As for the "unknown" enemy. I was going to have the base be a Dominion faciltiy. It's primary objective is a listening post on the "area" with a secondary objective of espionage (if needed) and a tertiary objective of Jem H'Dar creation and processing.

Imagine the PCs faces when they come upon a waste pile of jemh'dar bodies, rotting and what not...they will have no idea as to what they are, who they are...how or why they are there...

Thoughts?

JustaGM

[qerlin]

Definitiely a good start.

[Dan Stack]

Moving to Narrator's Ready Room

(as a general rule, items such as adventure ideas, campaign ideas, etc. usually belong there as they are of interest regardless of the system used)

-Dan Stack, Moderator

[JustaGM]

Ahhh. Thanks, for the note, I missed that. Sorry about that.

[Lt.Khrys Antos]

Just a quick thought, if any of your players are sticklers for the rules such as the LUG Prime Directive and Starfleet code of honor, it could make it interesting to see how they avoid the primitives. It would complicate things for them, because they would have to avoid both the primitives AND the Dominion.

[JustaGM]

As you said the PD would come into play...do they avoid, do they help them against the *unknown aliens*...keeping in mind that they have no idea what species the "pale reptellian-dragon-men" would be, as no one has seen them before in the area, much less attached the name of Jem H'dar!

Here are the PCs so far...just a rough description, no stats.

A female Klingon law enforcement officer (soldier). She is on the transport in an official capactiy of escorting a prisoner back to DS9. This prisoner is a NPC, named Treag Vex, who can be found here: http://forum.trek-rpg.net/showthread...&threadid=4046. Eventually, if/when they get off of the planet they will get back to DS9, leading whoever they can convince back to the planet...where nothing will be found except crator marks...or something to that effect...that's a long way off so I have time to deal with that issue. Anyways, she would be offered a job by Odo is she handled herself well.

A Ferengi hot-shot pilot. I know its cruel allowing a pilot when there will be very little flying involved int eh game, but hey...sooner or later he'll get to do some flying.

A Starfleet Science Officer. He is a betazoid telepath. He and his fellow science officers are heading to DS9 to be part of the science team to investiagte the wormhole.

There are a few more players, but I haven't nailed them down yet...we go for the "PC-GM work together" mehtod of making PCs.

The main point of starting out this way is to bring the PCs into a team with a trial by fire. That way when things get really bad with the war they should be experienced and ready to work against thier foes!

JustaGM

[Sho-sa Kurita]

First, I like the idea, but I'd be prepared to move on fairly quickly if your players don't like your 'little' twist.

Second, a problem (canon-wise). If this is 2-3 months before the official occupation of DS9 by the UFP, then the wormhole hasn't even been discovered yet, so there's no way there could be a Dominion base in the Alpha Quad, and it's another couple years before anyone even meets a Jem Hadar. This is easily fixed by changing the time frame, or simply taking the chance to introduce your own enemy group/species.

-- Daniel

[JustaGM]

Well a good narrator knows his players, what they like and how to give it to them. I do not fear whether they will "like it" or not, they come to play and be adventerous. They expect things not to go their way all of the time...actually they silently beg for it! (It takes narrator ears to hear it...listen...)

Now as far as cannon goes just because the wormhole hasn't been discovered by the Federation doesn't mean that others don't know that it exists, does it? COULDN'T the Dominion known about it and sent something through prior to Federation occupancy of DS9? ((Note, I am not versed in the historical mythology of the wormhole and how it was "discovered" by Sisko and Kira (They were the ones to *discover* it right?)?))

As far as fitting the starfleet guy into the picture that means I can set it right at the begning of Federation occupation of DS9 and the first month or so of investigating the wormhole, not 2-3 months before. Setting it than is no big deal for me.

I think I set it up 2-3 months before becuase that way the PCs would have a few months to get off of the planet and still be some of the first in place on DS9. If they get there a few months after the Occupation of DS9 doesn't really make a big deal one way or another if you know what I mean.

Now, as far as your comment about ..."and it's another couple years before anyone even meets a Jem Hadar"... Who is to say that someone couldn't have run into them before they make their first appearance in the show. They obviously existed before the episode they appeared in, right? So, to put them into action earlier is simply a matter of NOT naming them or allowing anyone other than the PCs to interact with them.

Let's say that they get off of the base-moon. Lets say they get back to Federation space...maybe even DS9. They make a report. What do they say. We encountered a strange alien and give a general description. They have no name. They have no evidense other then what they say they saw.

The Federation sends a ship...waa-laa...nothing there. Sure there are signs that something was (or might have been) there...but nothing else is there...

The nice thing about that is that the more the PCs push it the more irrational and delusional they seem. Keep in mind that you don't have to limit what happens in your game because of "canon"...especially canon that can be worked around with as simple explanantion of..."The PCs don't know it's the Jem H'dar that they encountered until a few years later...when they make their "first appearance".

Something is only canon as long as some new-canon thing comes along. Sure Picard made "first-contact" with the ferengi, but Archer had his little un-official run in long before...


JustaGM

(Who loves annoying too-die-hards with Enterprise stuff)

[Steele1701]

Enterprise did something similar with the Ferengi. I think it is a good idea. the Dominion could have known about the anomoly (what the Dominion calls the wormhole) for sometime before the Federation. They could have been using it to set up bases in the Alpha Quandrant before revealing themselves. If anyone is familiar with the Alternity Stardrive setting and has read the Externals then you would see how the enemy could have done this.

[Sho-sa Kurita]

Obviously you don't have to stick to canon. You said you were in "NO WAY a Star Trek afficianado," and "if I get anything wrong here let me know," which I took as an invitation to point out non-canon aspects of the setup. There was always the possibility you weren't clear on the timing of early DS9 events. As an aside, it was Sisko and Jadzia Dax who found the wormhole.

As far as meeting the Jem Hadar "early," there's no problem with this as long as you're already breaking from canon and are going with an early, covert Dominion presence. As I said, I like the setup.

Good luck -- Daniel

[Dan Gurden]

Originally posted by Sho-sa Kurita
Second, a problem (canon-wise). If this is 2-3 months before the official occupation of DS9 by the UFP, then the wormhole hasn't even been discovered yet, so there's no way there could be a Dominion base in the Alpha Quad, and it's another couple years before anyone even meets a Jem Hadar. This is easily fixed by changing the time frame, or simply taking the chance to introduce your own enemy group/species.

-- Daniel

That is true...

2-3 months before the 'Official' administration of the station (I am fairly sure the Bajorans wouldn't use the term 'occupation' ...

It seems clear that the Cardies were in Occupation until a few days before the events of Caretaker, from the mess they are scripted to have left behind them, while the DS9 Tech Manual states that the SCE (Starfleet Corps of Engineers) spent several weeks /months retrofitting the station for Starfleet compatibility, upgrading power generation systems and computer capabilities...

So to mix and match... and gain compatibility...

The SCE arrived with the first wave of Starfleet, along with the Runabouts and Wormholes... The official handover would occur in 2 months... Meanwhile Sisko and co. would build a relationship with the Bajorans...

However the discovery of the Wormhole forced the station into over-drive, and Starfleet to re-assign personnel ahead of schedule s the Station went into full operations mode alongside the station upgrades...

I hope that helps builds the backstory for you.

[toadkiller]

And as far as the Dom's go. Perhaps they detected Sisco & co's first incursion into the Gamma and sent a special covert team to look into it.

If there is one thing the Dominion seemed to be good at it was Intel. Also if these are "special Intel troops" that allows you to make up a few nifty toys that the "regular" JH didn't have in DS9 to surprise your players with (once they figure out what they're dealing with).

A longer term thing might be that the covert team fails (because of the PC's efforts) leading the Dominion to proceed according to "plan B" as seen on TV.

I like the idea overall.

Oh, oh - here's another idea. Maybe the Dom team is there looking for the "lost" changlings (like Odo) and aren't even all that interested in the UFP...

Hmm - that most likely needs work.