"The Vanished" Game Report

[EricB007]

Greetings to all:

(This post is not for those that don't want to know plot secrets of this adventure).

Last night I finished narrating a successful 4 player FASA Trek adventure called "The Vanished" (which I hear could easily be played on LUG or ICON as well). This was my first narrated game with more than 2 people. So the personalities made a great blend of questions and actions. In all, we had three 3 hour sessions on the weekends.

The landing party solved the mystery of the missing research station crew and had alot of run-ins with the IIglii lifeforms. They had a lot of fun looking through all the clues and trying to get a scan on the creatures. The cheif engineer bypassed all the locked doors without setting off any alarms.

The Captain almost died when she was attacked by one of the creatures in the experimental transporter contol room. As they rematerialized the crew, they had a great time figuring out ways to keep the people from falling on their faces (after being in the transporter for many hours, each one fainted upon rematerialization). They ended up filling all the offices in the wing with the bodies.

The IIglii were fun to role play. They have very few complicated skills and did nothing but squeel (they spoke an unknown language).

Anyway, I thought many of you would find my report interesting. We ended with the crew given commendations (and a critique for losing a station crew team in the transporter when a stray phaser blast hit the controls). Starfleet sent them to the area of space where "A Doomsday Like Any Other" will be played (within a couple weeks)!

[Capt Daniel Hunter]

Hey sounds like you had a good session.

I recently won a copy of The Vanished on eBay, and am looking forward to running it. Any chance you might post a more detailed synposis of your session? I'd certainly enjoy reading it.

[AslanC]

One of my all time favorite FASA adventures

I am going to be doing some playtesting for GURPS:PD and when I don't have one of their adventures to run I am going to run old FASA mods

"Doomsday Like Any Other" is my other fav FASA btw

[Capt Daniel Hunter]

Ah I just love those old FASA modules. I've spent a small fortune on eBay filling all the gaps in my collection.

The Vanished has such an interesting, unusal alien race it's just too cool. And Ghosts of Conscience, is another cracking adventure, though I've yet to run it.

[AslanC]

I too have wasted lots and lots of money on Ebay for FASA Trek product (and one LUG item as well), but I regret none of it.

I still have a half dozen items I need to complete my collection, but at least 3 or 4 of them appear to be the ones everybody needs.

[Darth Sarcastic]

Ah, The IIglii...one my favorite races. Mainly because they're just out looking for the next meal, the players instantly become a Happy Meal because they're there. I've run this adventure for different groups, it gets better as you run it more often. I had one player try and mind meld with the IIglii...can you say White Castle burger?...I knew you could. Next time I had someone playing a Betazoid...he felt hungry ALL the time and didn't understand why, even after eating a few meals on the station.

I think maybe I'll tailor it for my current bunch of Klingons and see how quickly they incinerate the station.

[Capt Daniel Hunter]

Originally posted by AslanC
I too have wasted lots and lots of money on Ebay for FASA Trek product (and one LUG item as well), but I regret none of it.

I still have a half dozen items I need to complete my collection, but at least 3 or 4 of them appear to be the ones everybody needs.

What ones are you missing Aslan?

[Imagus]

Originally posted by AslanC
I too have wasted lots and lots of money on Ebay for FASA Trek product (and one LUG item as well), but I regret none of it.

I still have a half dozen items I need to complete my collection, but at least 3 or 4 of them appear to be the ones everybody needs.

About the same here - although I've avoided eBay so far (apart from my picking up the first edition deluxe set of the rules for £25 including shipping ). Second hand games racks in games shops are worth a look - I did quite well out of Crazy Igor's at Origins. 8 modules for about $80 US. Not all are in the best condition, but several were still in their factory shrink wrap!

[EricB007]

Greetings:

While the crew had first contact with the Iglii (the 2 who were devouring cafeteria food), they freaked out and blasted them with everything once stun didn't work. Then they realized they never got a tricorder scan!

Since the lifeform was too unique for conventional scans, they needed such a scan to detect others. So the science officer scanned the jelly-like remains. Unfortunately, I told them the scan was incomplete. Since the Igllii was eating, the remains were "contaminated" with potatoes and other junk. So when they scan, they will get unreliable readings.

For most of the game, the landing party thought the crew had become Igglii. They also spent alot of time in the Bio-Genetics lab. I kept them on their toes with weird sounds and experiments.

At the conclusion, I let the science officer have her name recorded in Starfleet records as the person who discovered the Iglii.

Due to time constraints and brain burnout from business and family obligations, I'm sorry I could not give more detail!

[Dan Stack]

Wanted to resurrect this one...

My website has a writeup for our version of "The Vanished"

http://home.attbi.com/~danielstack/A.../vanished.html

It was my group's first adventure - I've heard a lot of people use it as such. Which makes sense - it is very self-contained, true to the spirit of Trek, and very adaptable.

One variant of it which occurs to me is to use it in a starbase type game - have the characters have their starbase experience those events - possibly while the characters are briefly away. mactavish, that might work for your game if you're following this...

[Owen E Oulton]

I have re-done the deckplans for The Vanished to be more "Trekkish" in feel as well as more aesthetically pleasing. If you wish to use them in running an adventure, they're at:

http://www.coldnorth.com/owen/game/s...hips/fdr39.htm

I have also redone the deckplans for the Doomsday Machine. If anyone wants them, click on my E-mail link and I'll send you a set. These are based on the original FASA adventure plans and keyed to the book description, but are much more alien and again, more aesthetically pleasing (if I do say so myself!).

[EricB007]

Owen and Dan: Great information! I would love to know what the original writers from '83 would think about how their work inspired gamemasters nearly 20 years later!

--Eric