How would you do it?

[Paul]

My Trek game is taking a turn - for the better or worse, time will tell. probably better.

One of the players has had a dummy spit (he wasn't happy with the way the game was going - he wasn't the center of attention). As a result, the game in its current form has folded (by mutual agreement). The game is possibly going to do something not seen much in Trek at all - at least, not on-screen.

THe players are now talking a "Black Ops" setting - a small ship, outfitted for stealth and infiltration, minimal crew complement, lots of tech and automation. Running around doing the dirty, sneaky stuff that SI would like to do, but needs to keep its hands clean of.

It will be a Starfleet vessel and crew (I've already made one design - Size 5, crew of 10; the ship is filled with mostly equipment...), set after the Dominion War (but haven't decided how much later, yet - I'm thinking 6 months to a year). Problem is I'm not as familiar with the post-DW setting...

How would you run such a game, and what obstacles would the PC's likely face?

[Owen E Oulton]

I'm not sure what you mean by Running around doing the dirty, sneaky stuff that SI would like to do, but needs to keep its hands clean of, while still making the characters Starfleet. That's what Starfleet Intelligence does - or at least part of what it does - covert operations. Why not just make them Starfleet Intelligence? Their cover could be that they're just run-of-the-mill Starfleet officers on some missions, and civilians on others...

You can run them through the SI character generation, or have them transferred in from other Starfleet branches. One may be an ex-RRT member, f'rinstance. Some of them may be ex-rogues given provisional rank (as with the Maquis in Voyager. Hell, you could even let one or more of them play a Klingon or Romulan.

[Captain Leana Craig]

I assume by "dirty" stuff, that your players want to go around using more "aggressive negotiation methods" (shoot/killing) than a normal SI operative group could get away with?

Is that the general gist?


As for their proposed ship, size 5 is not small.

[qerlin]

I'd go with a Size 3, max. Somethingg along the lines of a Nova or Defiant. I'd make the venue someplace frontier-ish. Maybe dealing with the Breen or some new threat that has popped up politically due to the war.

Best ideas would probably be: 1) Cardassian UNion splinters into warlord factions. These guys are working with Starfleet & the main Cardassian leadership to prevent the warlords from gaining the upper hand, powerwise. 2)Cold war stuff with the Romulans in some place uncontrolled by the original Romulan Treaty -- I used the Draconis Outback & placed it where the Cardies and Rommies could both get to, then played a lot of strange politics -- worlds with populations split during the war due to occupation -- Fed race/Cardies on one, Romulans under Cardie control on another, and the like... 3) The major powers are hurting bad from the war; a lesser power, like the Orions for example, move to gain power in the region. The crew is watching and trying to stop them from grabbing colonies or other non-aligned worlds. Loads of training indigenous guerrillas, etc...

But the best idea..? Combine 'em all.

[ds9guy]

To throw things for a loop and make it really dark you could have your group either work (unwittingly) for section 31 or be tasked by Starfleet Intelligence to try and expose them.

[Paul]

Owen: the dirty, sneaky stuff I refer to is, a Captain Leana put it, the darker side of Covert Operations. The we don't mind shooting first, asking questions later routine. These guys will be the ones who move in where the standard SI outfit won't go, for political reasons. If getting the Bad Guy means blowing up a building or two...then so be it.

Captain Leana: Size 5 is about what I came up with, anyway. The ship is about the same size as Defiant - 1 less deck, but longer and a bit wider. And faster. Also has a Cloak - I like cloaks.

qerlin: cool ideas, dude! The sit on the frontier and see what comes back at you theme sounds good... The ship I've built is about the same size as Defiant (like I said above) - size 5. I tried Size 4, but ran out of room before the weapons and shields were installed.

ds9guy: Nice twist. I envision the group to be somewhere between Starfleet Intelligence and Section 31: SI trained, but more maverick - almost mercenary - than a regular SI team. But less ruthless than Section 31.

But all ideas are food for thought. Thanks!

[Phantom]

Ok two things;

1) There is the Eclipse-class in the computer core at the main part of this site. Or were you looking for SD stats?

2) Where would the cloak come from? The only cloak was the one on the Defiant, did the Romulans give the Fed. another to put on the Defiant II? I'm not sure I see the Romulans allowing unlimited use of a cloak, the Treaty of Algeron is still in place.

Note: this is not a knock, I just want to know how you intend to bring in a cloak.

[Shoshuro]

Sounds like what you want to do then is play a campaign using Section 31 as the basis. The ones that do all the dirty stuff the Federation and Star Fleet can't do or at least can't be caught doing.

As for the ship I'd make it about the size of a Runabout if there's not that many crew memebers. On Tools of Star Trek they have a Lir Class Runabout. A lil too federation looking but should be small enough to do what you need to on it.

http://simsherbrooke.com/strpg/download/lirclass.jpg

[Lancer]

Originally posted by Paul
The ship I've built is about the same size as Defiant (like I said above) - size 5. I tried Size 4, but ran out of room before the weapons and shields were installed.

"running out of room" sounds like you built this with SD rules. How about posting your design in the Spacedock forum so we can all have a look at it - and maybe share some ideas on how to reduce the size to something more fitting for a crew of 10?

[C5]

Sounds like your guys could easily be mixed with Section 31... how about some friction with the normal StarFleet ?
Imagine some guys like Bashir and O'Brien, who learned about S31 and decided to go on a personal crusade against it... now your poor Crew will need to avoid them without harm to anyone (cause the "crusaders" are StarFleet after all and your guys are no Section 31 - are they ?). Could be some interesting semi-recurring threat.

[Dave Biggins]

This is a good thread.

How about the people running the ship being regular Starfleet and the team being a part of black ops? That could make for some interesting conflict especially between the captain and the Black Ops team leader...

[Capt. K. Vaughn]

One mini-campaign I started but unfortunately had to shelve due to player conflicts was a joint operations team between Starfleet, Bajor and the Klingon Empire.

The PCs formed a Spec Ops team and their performance would determine whether this proposed program actually went anywhere.

They had a real problem integrating with one another and in some cases respecting regular Starfleet crews...but slowly they came together.

They were going to become part of an Andorian science vessel crew and go into the Gamma Quadrant where they were to search for members of the Circle and other dissidents while maintaining their cover as part of a science crew.

This was to be a few months prior to the Dominion coming through and wiping out all the colonies and in fact the PCs were going to become involved in one of those attacks. On a colony they would finally find members of the Circle and plans for another attempt to take DS9 when they would lose contact with their ship. A short time later the colony is attacked by Jem'Hadar and the PCs must lead the colonists in a fight for survival and eventual escape back through the wormhole.

Regards,
CKV.

PS - Hello Dave, long time no see.

[Evan van Eyk]

Just two things. Noone is 'familiar' with the post DW setting - there is nothing official and the second thing is why not name your ship USS 'Section 31' Or USS 'Sloan'?