Series Profile - Star Trek: Icarus

[Dan Stack]

Series Profile - Star Trek: Icarus

Setting
Era: 23rd century (years 2268 - 2272 - mid-season two of classic Trek until just before Star Trek: The Motion Picture)

Region: Alpha and Beta Quadrants, primarily Organian Treaty Zone on Klingon Border

Traveling: Starship, transporters, shuttles


Crew
Organization: Starfleet

Missions: Primarily Exploration, Intelligence, and Military

Composition: Multi-species (predominantly human) starship officers


Base of Operations
Base Type: Mobile; Constitution-class U.S.S. Icarus, NCC-1071


Technology
Era Technology: 23rd century

Available Technology: Starfleet technology, specialized espionage equipment


Adversity
Threat and Opposition: Varied, primarily Klingon Empire

Crisis and Disaster: Various by episode



Feel
Swashbuckling adventure, cold war thrillers



The voyages of the Starship Icarus take place aboard a Constitution-class heavy cruiser, much like the [/i]Enterprise[/i], starting in the middle of and up to a few years after the famous five-year mission of the Starship Enterprise. This allows the crew to participate in follow-up adventures to various television episodes.


With the game starting in the year 2268, the Icarus resembles the Enterprise as seen in the classic Star Trek series. The familiar warp core of later eras is not yet present, instead there is the engineering set that Scotty so often dwelled in. We have food slots which give food which strongly resembles Styrofoam (which is also what the coffee cups are made of), briefing rooms with irregularly shaped tables, computers with flashing lights, and bright red railing on the bridge.

The uniforms are also brightly colored – the classic gold for command, red for operations, and blue for sciences. And in the words of Jadzia Dax, “women wear less”, with the miniskirt being an official part of the uniform.

Matching the bright colors and time period is the attitude. The frontier is still largely unexplored, Icarus will often be “the only ship in the quadrant”, the characters will long be out of range of Starfleet command, and the Prime Directive seems little more than a “general guideline”. The spirit of adventure seen in the classic Star Trek is full in force and the characters will routinely get involved in missions which would cause an interstellar war in the period seen in Star Trek: The Next Generation.

While this game has many of the elements seen in the classic Trek (horrible or misunderstood monsters, exploring Earth-like planets, etc.), many adventures will also evoke the feel of Cold War thrillers like the James Bond movies/novels or the works of John Le Carre (like The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy). The Organians, powerful energy beings, have forced a peace treaty between the Klingon Empire and United Federation of Planets. They have created the Organian Treaty Zone, a vast region of largely unexplored space between the Klingons and Federation where contested planets are awarded to the side that can best develop them. The Klingons, as seen in episodes like “The Trouble with Tribbles” have shown they are not above using subterfuge to achieve their goals (and these are the non-ridged Klingons of the classic Trek – don’t ask why they don’t have ridges, they do not discuss it with outsiders!). The crew of the Icarus may find themselves performing intelligence missions on behalf of the Federation and has been outfitted with gear to help them in these missions. Though the Organians have shown they have the power to prevent full-scale war between the Klingons and Federation, they seem willing to allow skirmishes to take place. Many of the adventures will take place in the Organian Treaty Zone.

However, the spirit of the original Star Trek still shines through – despite espionage missions, in the spirit of the James Bond movies, there is no doubt who the good guys are. And these espionage missions are not the bulk of the missions of the Icarus, which is… to explore strange new worlds; to seek out new life, and new civilizations... to boldly go, where no man has gone before.

[PGoodman13]

You looking for players in the Amarillo, TX area, Dan? This sounds like all sorts of fun....

[Dan Stack]

Well if you want to make the commute... Though who knows, if my jobsearch makes me relocate, maybe I'll be in Texas soon...

Actually the group is currently small, which is a bit of a good thing since one of our players is about two months old (my wife recently gave birth to a baby daughter) which could prove to be very distracting to those who don't know us well...

I actually found the exercise of writing down the capsule for the series to be quite useful. Since this is a bit of a "reboot" of our TOS game, I had been leaning towards setting it in the movies, but as I wrote the details down I found the period of the original show to be much better suited for what I have in mind (though I personally love the period of the movies and wouldn't mind eventually reaching it...)

Personally, I like the espionage aspect of it - gives a nice different sort of action which suits my group rather well - one of our players is trying to get a job in the CIA or FBI and is interested in that sort of stuff so that when he made his security officer, he joined the Spy Elite Profession.

[Dan Stack]

Mac's thread got me experimenting with one variation (hey, if Aslan can have public displays of flightiness, so can I!)

Series Profile – Star Trek: Icarus

Setting
Era: Late 23rd century (years 2296 - 2300)
Region: Alpha and Beta Quadrants, primarily Klingon and Romulan borders
Traveling: Starship, transporters, shuttles

Crew
Organization: Starfleet
Missions: Primarily Exploration, Intelligence, and Military
Composition: Multi-species (predominantly human) starship officers

Base of Operations
Base Type: Mobile; Constitution-class U.S.S. Icarus, NCC-1071

Technology
Era Technology: Late 23rd century
Available Technology: Starfleet technology, specialized espionage equipment

Adversity
Threat and Opposition: Varied, often factions of the Klingon Empire, Romulan Star Empire
Crisis and Disaster: Various by episode

Feel
Swashbuckling adventure, post-Cold War technothrillers



The voyages of the Starship Icarus take place aboard a Constitution-class heavy cruiser, much like the Enterprise, starting two years after the end of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. This allows the crew to participate in follow-up adventures to various television episodes and the tense peace treaty signed at Khitomer between the Klingon Empire and Federation.

With the game starting in the year 2295, the Icarus resembles the Enterprise as seen in the Star Trek VI. The familiar warp core of later eras is present, the transporter room resembles that of the Enterprise-D as seen in Star Trek: The Next Generation. However, the technology is only slightly more reliable than it was thirty years prior, during the classic Star Trek series. Icarus herself is beginning to show her age – although she has been refitted and refurbished over the years, the fact of the matter is she is approximately fifty years of age and the Consitutution-class starship is slowly being phased out in favor of the newer Excelsior, Constellation, and Miranda class starships. That said, despite her age, Icarus is still well suited for long-term missions of exploration and is more than a match for most hostile vessels.


In Starfleet, there is a new spirit of energy. With the signing of the Khitomer Accords, the Cold War with the Klingon Empire is at last over. Starfleet had devoted much of its resources to dealing with the Klingon threat at the expense of exploration. Now, at last, missions of exploration have again come to the forefront. The frontier is still largely unexplored, Icarus will often be “the only ship in the sector”, the characters will long be out of range of Starfleet command, and the Prime Directive seems little more than a “general guideline”. The spirit of adventure seen in the classic Star Trek is full in force and the characters will routinely get involved in missions which would cause an interstellar war in the period seen in Star Trek: The Next Generation.

However, despite this optimism, there is a dark undercurrent to modern events. The Romulan Star Empire is less than pleased with the recent Khitomer Accords and has shown it will do all it can to disrupt the Klingon Empire and the Federation. The vile Tal Shiar, the intelligence arm of the Romulans has just secured even greater powers for itself and Romulan raids on Klingon space have stepped up in recent years. With the destruction of the moon Praxis, in orbit of the Klingon Homeworld, the Klingons resources are stretched very thin, to the point they cannot properly protect their frontier regions from the Romulans or secessionists trying to break free.

Also, all is not well within the Klingon Empire. There are signs that the Empire may soon splinter into hundreds of successor states – nearly independent warlords have setup their own pocket empires, refusing to acknowledge the authority of the Klingon Chancellor or High Council. Worlds once conquered by the Empire are declaring their independence. This has rippled into Federation space – primitive worlds the Federation and Klingons were forced to form alliances with during the Cold War are determined to do all they can to secure their place in the galaxy. Many have formed alliances with Klingon Warlords or obtained surplus Klingon or Starfleet weaponry.

The frontier has become a very dangerous place. While the Icarus’ primary mission is one of exploration, her crew is often tasked with performing missions of espionage as well. One week the crew may be exploring an Earth-like planet, the next they might be tracking down Klingon arms shipments. Perhaps they might find themselves helping the Klingon Empire deal with a Warlord or protect a Federation Starbase from Capellan terrorists. To aid in these missions Icarus has been outfitted with substantial amounts of espionage equipment and the Federation is currently negotiating with the Klingon Empire to obtain a cloaking device for her.

However, the spirit of the original Star Trek still shines through – despite espionage missions, in the spirit of the James Bond movies, there is no doubt who the good guys are. And these espionage missions are not the bulk of the missions of the Icarus, which is… to explore strange new worlds; to seek out new life, and new civilizations... to boldly go, where no man has gone before.

[mactavish]

WOW! That's awesome, Dan! You are truly the man in this instance.

I particularly like the fact that its a <i>Constitution</i>-class ship that is "showing her age." That kind of captures the whole TOS feel but with better special effects/technology. Plus the uniforms are better than TV TOS.

I would be more apt to put the crew on an <i>Excelsior</i> or <i>Miranda</i> or - my personal favorite - the <i>Oberth</i>-class.

I think that the idea of having members of Starfleet still angry about the Praxis situation and, in fact, the whole Klingon ordeal is a very good idea. This could allow for a whole lot of political intrigue as the bad seeds are rooted out.

The Klingons, too, would make a really great set of adversaries. Perhaps not the Empire as a whole, but several of the more militant Houses and probably some independents. Perhaps the Romulans, their cloaking devices slowly improving, make forays into the Neutral Zone, Federation space, and Klingon space for purposes of reconaissance and sowing the seeds of dissent.

I would also consider including a non-canon race, perhaps an ancient empire in its final stage of ruination, on the side of the UFP opposite the Klingons. This could allow a lot of possibilities without really messing up what is established fact.

mactavish out.

[Dan Stack]

Glad you like.

One think I hope to attain with such an idea is while I like the idea of politics and espionage, I'm also a big fan of being "the only ship in the sector". One thing I didn't like about the classic films is they made the galaxy feel much smaller than it did on the TV show. Early TNG recaptured the feel of a big galaxy, but it too made the galaxy feel too small for my liking by the end.

However, I do think the movie era can capture that vast feeling. Most would agree that the Horatio Hornblower novels are a major inspiration for this period and many of the novels have Hornblower out of touch with his command base. Indeed, my favorite of the novels I have read thus far, Beat to Quarters really captures the Trek feel, with Hornblower commanding the lone British ship on the Pacific side of the Americas. And it has a little espionage as well, though I won't give away the details to anyone. I think what TOS did wasn't so much intentional but more a result of a limited budget - having extra ships appear was expensive! In a film-era game wanting to preserve this feel one would have to be careful avoiding characters from constantly running into other Starfleet vessels. Doing so reminds the characters they are the ones who need to make the big decisions.

"I thought the Federation was helping the Klingons" after Star Trek VI. True, but I would posit that the Q'onoS isn't that far from Earth - look at "Enterprise". There is historical precedent for the centers of conflict to be far from the nations involved - look at the conflicts between Britain and France, taking place all over the globe. Or the Cold War between the USA and USSR, taking place in Africa, Cental America, Southeast Asia, etc. I would suspect that any relief efforts along the "frontier" of the old Neutral Zone would be rather sparse when compared with the relief efforts for the Klingon Homeworld. This allows the characters' ship to be the only one in their sector.

With this in mind, I could see the politics and intrigue coming not so much from other Starfleet captains but from Federation colonies, renegade Klingons, aliens that were caught in the crossfire in TOS (see "A Private Little War", "Friday's Child"). An occasional bitter Starfleet captain would definitely have its place.

It should also be noted that Klingons need not stay buddy-buddy - in "Yesterday's Enterprise" we learn how close the Federation and Klingon Empire still come to a full-scale war, even after Star Trek VI.

A few minor notes about this campaign in general. I mainly have a soft spot in my heart for the Consitution-class, hence the class designation. However, there is something to be said for a ship which is not the best at everything but instead has some character and history. That said, if I knew more about the Constellation or Excelsior classes I'd be more tempted to use them.

I'm not 100% convinced which of the two settings I'll wind up using. The adventure I have ready can use either. My main concern with the post Star Trek-VI one is making certain exploration is still at the forefront. I think doing so means setting it in an area of space adjacent to both govermnents, possibly one with a renegade Klingon House setting up shop. Something like the Imperial Klingon States from the Triangle sounds reasonable. Far from the nearest Federation or Klingon Starbase, too far from supply lines to take it out. But too powerful to ignore. I see something perhaps like the Three Kingdoms era of China - indeed, nothing in Star Trek lore prevents the Empire from totally shattering - it just needs to be reunified by the time of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

[toadkiller]

Well, I like the TOS era idea a bit better myself. Which is odd, because I like the movie-era better overall....

Just being ASLANC-like I suppose .

Would tend to agree though that the "Big-C" is the best class to go with the Excelsior's are just to big and powerful to feel small during the movie era.

Sounds like a good game.