I FINALLY get to game again!

[Chris Landmark]

First off, after two years of having to put most of my hobbies on hold, I've finished my Master's Thesis. Finally, I can get my fix again. I'm starting up a new CODA Trek group on Saturday. Woohoo! The withdrawal symptoms can now go away!

The plan: I'm going to start the players off as Fresh Faced Cadets[tm] at Starfleet Academy, late TNG era. If all goes well, and the game lasts long enough, they'll get a year or so of being young officers before the Dominion War breaks out, and they'll end up as senior officers by the end of it.

The characters: I know one person is planning on making a Human-Bajoran hybrid, but everything else awaits the weekend. I'm planning on adapting the LOTR rules for "Starting with no Order" for character creation. They'll all be assigned to the same "squadron" (or whatever the propper term is), ensuring that they all live in close proximity and do all sorts of activities together.

The Plots: I've got a few ideas percollating for things they can do while in school; along with character creation I'll start them off with a little Academy Orientation and some light "basic training" type stuff (so that senior cadets can yell at them for not saying "aye aye, sir" and so forth) as well as try to set up some friendly/rival NPC cadets. I've got a few things from an Academy game I played in a while ago which I can adapt. I'm also planning on stealing some plot seeds from my Dad's old "Tom Corbett, Space Caded" books (though none of the "dinosaurs in the jungles of Venus stuff, of course).

Why I'm Sharing This: I'd like to solicit a few additional ideas from the crowd which would work for Academy-based games, either as things that could happen within the Cadet Corps (depending on the dates I finally settle on, I might throw them into stuff from "The First Duty"), or excuses to get them off-campus (or off-planet) and into trouble; at the very least I can cap off each academic year with a big set-piece sort of thing, some sort of course-related excursion with complications, leading up to the Cadet Cruise (which will involve prospectors, pirates, and a rich Dilithium strike).

So anyone got any good ideas for Cadet plot hooks, or sources I can go to for Academy information (asside from the LUG boxed set, which I haven't got access to)?

-Chris Landmark

[calguard66]

One of Robert Heinlein's books.. "Space Cadet", I think, has some pretty good ideas for that sort of campaign.

And you wouldn't use dinosaus on Venus, but you could always use dinosauroids on Paxton V...

[Dave]

so what was your thesis topic?

[Phantom]

Originally posted by Dave
so what was your thesis topic?

I was going to ask this as well.

What year (school) were you thinking? Is this starting out from the day they walk into the door, or is a mid range game?

[AslanC]

The novel "Best and Brightest" while not the best or brightest novel IMHO is set at the academy and might offer some interesting stuff for you.

I think the groups are like roommates and called Quads but I could be wrong.

[J.T Edwards]

I'm thinking that a group of midshipmen would be a class. As in class of '73 or whatever...

Also in my humble opinion Bajorans wouldn't really be on the scene yet and are also nt members of the Federation, therefore not in Starfleet...

Of course, this can be made completely irrelevant quite easily, just thought I'd bring it up so you can make a story around it.

[Moriarti]

Originally posted by J.T Edwards
Also in my humble opinion Bajorans wouldn't really be on the scene yet and are also nt members of the Federation, therefore not in Starfleet...

Ro Laren, (Michelle Forbes) was in starfleet, kicked out of starfleet, all but drafted back into starfleet, left starfleet to join the Maquis, IIRC.

and most of that happened before the Maquis had a name.

[qerlin]

Sucks to be dry on the gaming for a while, doesn't it? Only had a spell of about a year where I couldn't game...hated it.

The campaign sounds like it's got legs.

[Diamond]

The Star Trek books "Kobashi Maru", "Dreadnaught", and "Battlestations" had good "flashback" scenes that I have lifted for the time when my crew started out as cadets in the acadamy.

Some good training excercises: The cadets are dropped off one by one, alone on an abandoned but safe space station. They each have a stunner, and if someone is stunned they're beamed off the station, "dead" for the purposes of the scenario. There are a hundred cadets spread throughout the station. The cadets are told if they "survive" they pass the test. They're also told that there's an assasin among them, one of their fellow cadets whose mission is not to survive but to "kill" as many of them as possible.

The idea there is to test to see if leadership qualities emerge. The best way to win is to get all the cadets together to co-operate and keep everyone safe. But the cadet rivalries and drive to be the best makes everyone paranoid. Of course, the cadet's rival will try to get them to fail by killing them out, etc etc. Play up the paranoia and have shifting alliances.

I upped the ante when I ran it. I had it so that there was no assasin when the scenario started. BUT, if someone got stunned out by the regular paranoia of armed rivalrous cadets on the station, that person was sent to Re-enter the scenario as the assasin. ALL subsequent kills, by the assasin or anyone else, re-entered as more assasins, so the pressure on the defenders to work together ramped up quickly. BUT, anyone "killed" for a second time did not re-enter so it was possible for the cadets to straighten up and fly right. At least, that was how it normally goes when Starfleet runs it. But of all the training excercises they do in the TNG era, a random one is altered to be their "Kobashi Maru", the unbeatable one which tests people's character in the face of a situation where they just can't win. In that case, the assasins keep coming back indefinetly, and after their third re-entry, they're led by an experienced officer. My PC's beat the Kobashi Maru test by leaving the station on the scenario's command ship, turning the tables on the instructor who had turned the tables on them!

[Chris Landmark]

Both Dave and Phantom wondered:

so what was your thesis topic?

"PM to AM noise conversion within a TFR-based chemical sensor system"

Aren't you sorry you asked?

It did teach me one important lesson, however. Once you've selected your topic and started searching the literature, if you encounter the phrase "this subject is extremely complex and beyond the scope of this text, so we'll just assume..." more than once, PICK A NEW TOPIC. It'll save you a couple extra years of work.

Phantom went on to wonder:

What year (school) were you thinking?

I was going to either start with the minute they stepped off the train (well, monorail mag-shuttle actually) on Academy grounds for the first time with all the other plebs, have a few crusty Master Chiefs with 30 years service bellow at them and form them into neat lines, and do the whole "wow, everything is so different and new and there's this huge guy screaming into my face from two inches away" sort of thing. Well, it probably won't be quite that harsh, since Starfleet isn't quite as strictly military as contemporary armed forces are, but there will be some discipline and drill and so forth pounded into them. This way I can throw all these characters who've never met before together, force them to talk about their backgrounds (ensuring my players have some character history) and then mold them into Starfleet officers through the four-year course of study. I figure on running a couple shortish Seasons, each covering two years of time, assuming I have an average amount of inspiration to draw events from.

J.T Edwards remarked:

Also in my humble opinion Bajorans wouldn't really be on the scene yet and are also nt members of the Federation, therefore not in Starfleet...

Moriarity already mentioned Ro Laren. Also, one of the cadets involved in the Nova Squadron incident (TNG's episode "The First Duty") was a Bajoran named Sito Jaxa, and that was one season before DS9 started. I've fixed on 2367 for the start of our school year, so the end of the characters' first year will be marred by that very incident (I wonder if I can get them on the Cadet Tribunal which decides Wesley's fate...). If the TV show has one Bajoran at the Academy already, I figure half a Bajoran in my game will be fine.

Plus, we already know that you don't have to be a Federation member race/world to enter Starfleet; in addition to the two above examples, we know that Worf and Nog both made it through the Academy without requiring either the Klingons or the Ferengi to join the Federation. Granted, Starfleet doesn't have a LOT of non-Federation races in it, but they're sprinkled here and there.

As far as names for "units" of cadets go, all I've been able to locate in the Cannon of Trek are Nova Squadron from above, and Red Squad, from the DS9 episode "Valiant." So I guess I can just pick what I like. I figure everyone will be a "Cadet Nth Class" unless they are assigned to a ship for training/temporary duty, at which point they get called "Midshipman Nth Class".

Thanks to calguard, Aslan, and Diamond for the literature suggestions. I'll see what the library has.

And Diamond, thanks for the training exercize suggestion. I figure I can do a number of things like that for all of the various "branches" the characters are aiming to go into (warp core breach scenario for Engineers, "Kobayashi Maru" type incident for Command, etc.), allowing each character a moment in the spotlight when his/her area comes up. It will allow them to demonstrate their Mad Skilz, and the instructors can get an idea of how they deal with conflict, pressure, and responsibility.

I'll post up character info and adventure seeds as my game progresses, for your amusement/plundering pleasure. I've done a quick skim of the "Adventure Seeds" thread: I wonder if THAT DAMN FISH would make a good training scenario.

-Chris Landmark

[FDor]

Originally posted by Chris Landmark
Tribunal which decides Wesley's fate...). If the TV show has one Bajoran at the Academy already, I figure half a Bajoran in my game will be fine.

Plus, we already know that you don't have to be a Federation member race/world to enter Starfleet; in addition to the two above examples, we know that Worf and Nog both made it through the Academy without requiring either the Klingons or the Ferengi to join the Federation. Granted, Starfleet doesn't have a LOT of non-Federation races in it, but they're sprinkled here and there.

-Chris Landmark [/B]

In the Trek game I GM we have a fairly mixed crew: Couple of frontier humans, a bajoran and a cardassian. Our game is at post-dominion war era (a year since war ended).
I don't think you have to stick to the official data but you can stretch is as much as you like and feel comfortable. =)
For example 'our' cardassian has of course some history why he was ever able to go through Academy and eventually join Starfleet as equal officer. But it is not that bad, he is now unique in Starfleet - as Worf and Nog were on their time.

Bajoran's history (she is ship's counsellor) also supports this. Although she is was not connected in any way to cardassian character before they met at the Academy she is a daughter of some relatively famous bajoran diplomat. I skipped most of the official versions and declared that he was a memeber of a bajoran team negotiating with cardassians for peace. He had a big hand negotiating DS9 to be returned to bajorans and to Starfleet. In that context the player character traveled to many worlds with her father and learned to respect many cultures. You could say that she is a cultural specialist since her total in Culture skill was 10 or 11. All that interest in other species was one reason why she made friends with cardassian. I know there are a lot of bajorans would will not like that.
I also recall that becouse of her father's rather unique position she was never in labor camps. Other piece of history that might (if revealed - if not already known) cause her some trouble. On the other hand her father DID had a big hand helping bajorans step free of cardassian hands. But it would not have been possible without bajoran resistance movement.
Well, I think the point is that don't be afraid to step out of official path once a while but don't lose that track either. =)
Oh, Voyager never happened in that universe. USS Voyager was lost but it has not been recovered.

Vesku

[Chris Landmark]

Computer, resume log entry.

Well, we had our "first game" last weekend. Not that much game was played, but the characters got created and the setup was established.

At the moment I have a Human who grew up in the deep space trader culture (sort of a "kid from the wrong side of the town makes good" motif going on) who wants to be a Flight Control Officer, a Human/Bajoran (who grew up away from the occupation) who wants to be an Ops Officer, and a Caitian (thanks to Sea Tyger for doing the hard work for me on that species, by the way) who wants to be a Command Officer. I think the next time we play we'll have a couple more people and hence a couple more characters as well, and a pretty comfortable group size.

For character creation I sort of adapted the "Starting with no Order" sidebar from LotR; while everyone picked their intended Starship Officer Elite Professions and Professional Development packages as normal, they don't receive the skill levels or Professional Abilities until I dole them out over the course of the game. For purposes of Advancement (should it come up, though experience accumulation will be a bit slow while I'm handing out their Professional Development Package stuff) they will be considered to have only the Starship Officer Basic Profession.

I'm planning to have the first "real" game cover their Academy orientation. Most of it will involve learning basic regulations and procedures, physical conditioning, and getting to know their fellow cadets and advisors. My big "action set piece" to cap the episode off will be the Obstacle Course, in which the various Cadet Squads will all compete to see who gets the best results (speed only being one of them). Of course, since everyone is on the course at the same time, different Squads of cadets will encounter eachother from time to time. A little cooperation here, a little underhanded skulduggery there, and I should have some Friends and Rivals all set up for their first year.

And I've decided to use THAT DAMN FISH as a cadet Command exercize at some point. It will make both a good "no-win scenario" and a good "you can't solve everything with photon torpedoes" lesson.

-Chris Landmark