Bitten by the Bug Again

[Dan Stack]

It seems I’ve been bitten by the Trek bug again. Still enjoying my current Star Wars game, but over the past few weeks my interest in Trek has been coming out of hibernation, to the extent that I’m again considering it for my next game.

So I’m going to pull an AslanC and ask y’all to develop my campaign for me.

Well, maybe not that bad. But there’s a lot of brainpower which I’d be a fool to ignore.


There are currently four players, including me, in the group. I’ve probably the most in-depth knowledge of all the series save Voyager. My wife is very familiar with TNG and DS9 and has familiarity with Enterprise and TOS. Another player is most familiar with DS9, Voyager, and Enterprise, with passing familiarity of TOS and TNG. The final player is familiar with TOS (especially the movies) though isn’t much of a fan of the modern Treks – doesn’t dislike them, just not too familiar with them. Though he does catch Enterprise every once in a while.

Given that, I’m mulling over how to do this. My instincts say to find a premise which screams both adventure and simplicity.

Adventure… I need to get an overload of ideas. Similarly, it should help my players get excited.

Simplicity… It shouldn’t really depend on any hardcore Trek knowledge. A player who just knows what a Klingon is should be comfortable. Any alien, even familiar Trek ones, deserve an episode to introduce them. Similarly, their homebase should be instantly recognizable to them. Not all my players are hardcore Trekkies and I have a tendency to over-do the details.

For some reason I find myself gravitating towards an Enterprise-era game. Could be because it’s the newest show, could be because it makes Mr. Gamemaster’s life easiest. Similarly, it’ll force me to avoid using all the species introduced in later shows. The player familiar with TOS loves to play Vulcans and Romulans, though his portrayal of them is more Enterprise-like – cold and somewhat harsh, which would fit with the show rather well. I’m thinking of giving them the starship Challenger, NX-99. I’d prefer to use my Daedalus plans, but the Daedalus just doesn’t have that instant recognition factor which Enterprise does.

These are the first seeds of an idea. I’ll brainstorm a little more, but I’d love some comments. And other ideas.

[Ineti]

A friend of mine and I are emailing each other with ideas for a Trek series we may be co-GMing together. We're looking at a post-DS9 era game on a smallish exploration vessel.

I can't help you with an ENT-era game; I don't watch ENT and I don't have an encyclopedic knowledge of TOS.

Simplicity isn't a problem as long as you don't let the crew get caught up in galactic politics. Give them the classic "plot of the week" and get their feet wet in the series. If things go well, you can start building in bigger story arcs.

[Dan Stack]

For the record, there's a few other ideas I have floating out there...

One is something set in the 2340's. It seems a neat way of splitting the difference between the TOS Movies guy and the TNG-era ladies. I can use some TNG stuff (Cardassians, but not Ferengi) and I can also have Klingons as baddies - it seems relations were pretty poopie around that time.

I like the post-Dominion-War era a lot, but I find I have a tendency there to DS9-ify everything - super-involved plotlines, etc. I think that's one of the reasons I'm contemplating Enterprise-era - to force me away from politics.

The advantage to a post-Dominion War game is I can, ironically, get rid of a lot of technobabble - one thing I enjoyed in early TNG (say seasons 1-4) is the ship was almost "magical" - they really emphasized the automation, allowing them to focus more on storylines.


What I think is most important to avoid overdoing the politics is the "iconic Trek" - a starship "out there", patrolling the fringes of known space (with lots of colonies) and exploring unknown space.

[Ineti]

Originally posted by Dan Stack
What I think is most important to avoid overdoing the politics is the "iconic Trek" - a starship "out there", patrolling the fringes of known space (with lots of colonies) and exploring unknown space.

That's the approach we'll probably take as well. I love the latest DS9 novels and their focus on exploring the Gamma Quadrant. You can do a post-DS9 series and not focus on the politics. Say that things revertedto "normal" following the war, and have the Federation and her allies get back to what they're meant to do--explore.

[Dan Stack]

Interestingly, the Mission: Gamma series kinda match something I was thinking about towards the end of last year when Trek burnout finally hit.

What I was thinking was having the crew explore the Gamma Quadrant in a direction away from the Dominion. For example, if the Dominion were Canada and the wormhole popped into Lake Superior, the game would focus on exploring the United States.

The problem is one of my players is unfamiliar with the whole Dominion War thing.

What I suppose could be done is have a pilot episode something like "Emissary" where we possibly feature a flashback to the Dominion War - maybe portray an early Dominion War battle, with the characters knowing very little about the Dominion. The characters first battle the a Jem'Hadar vessel and then lose their ship, only to escape to a planet and have to battle a Jem'Hadar squad which hunts them down... Might be a quick way of introducing the setting...

[Ineti]

Well...you could just summarize the war for the player outside the game and go from there, but I like the idea of using a flashback or something in-game to introduce the situation. Maybe some of the crew served together during the war and are back together again to explore the Gamma Q, or maybe...

Maybe during the war the crew (or one PC in specific) fought the Dominion in the Gamma Q and Something Happened, either to them or that somehow affected them. They get caught up continuing to fight the war, but now that it's over, they pull strings to get assigned to a new ship charged with exploring the Gamma Q. Their hopes are to explore and maybe find out what that Strange Thing was that occurred during the war.

It might work better as an individual character's subplot, who knows. I think something that I find really interesting about the DS9 relaunch novels is the overarching theme of self-exploration that Vaughn especially exhibits.

[Lt.Khrys Antos]

Well in terms of simplicity; a TOS era campaign would be easiest.

You could have the alien of the week show up, no major technobabble to confuse people unfamiliar with the setting and has more of the exploration feel. TOS also has little in terms of major aliens influencing the geopolitics, so you could stay away from that.

A crew set aboard an Oberth-Class with a small crew would allow for lots of character development.

Just my thoughts.

[Dan Stack]

Some interesting ideas.

For whatever reason, straight TOS seems to have difficulty working with my group. Not quite sure why. Mind you I'm just publically brainstorming here, so my next post might have a super idea for a game set during TOS.

I do find myself thinking about some "in-between era" games. The problem with Enterprise-era games is while I want to avoid a lot of politics, there ain't no Earth colonies at all to rescue! I have thought about a pre-TOS game on occasion and of late I've been thinking of the interim-era game (somewhere in the middle between Star Trek VI and "Encounter at Farpoint").

[Silverthorne]

Depending on the characters made. If a majority of the party is not perse.. Federation, then you can go with the easy, find a ship and repair it. Escecially after DS9. A samll group of friends, gain permission to salvage a few parts for the scrapped ships flaoting about DS9.

The Federation side of this is that most weapons and shields have already bee stripped. The hulls are still there, and anything you do not want to players to get a hold of. This idea works well if there is an engineer type in the group..

If the players decide of a militay campaign.. yes i know SF is not a military group, it does have military type settings.. Then have a runabout assigned to inventory the hulls. To keep looters away. While star fleet is salvaging ship pieces.

[AslanC]

Now bear with me.

Starbase Delta.

Basically set about 20 years after DS9 so you have a wide open slate. Lenara Khan, using the information returned by Voyager has managed to stabilize both ends of the Barzan Wormhole (but you could move either end to suit your needs instead of being in the Barzan or the Delta system).

A starbase has been built on the farside with one purpose. resupply and repair for the Delta Quadrant Expeditionary Force. Their mission is to ascertain the current state of the BORG.

Just an idea.

[Sho-sa Kurita]

Anywhere from post ST VI to post-DW --

Since one of your players definitely likes Vulcan, perhaps a Vulcan Science Academy ship with both VSA and Starfleet personnel aboard. They could be on a retired/refit Miranda, which would be visually recognizable, but would be more of a science vessel.

-- Daniel

[Sho-sa Kurita]

In basically any period --

Have the crew be part of a Starship R&D team based at McKinley - some engineer/designers, some engineer/technicians, and various other personnel. Their job is to test new tech in ships, sometimes missions would be short, other times long. You could change ships basically at will and keep the team together. It also means that when equipment doesn't work, it's not a cheesy plot device, it's built right into the story.

-- Daniel

[Lt Cmdr Matt]

Maybe you should try out the Enterprise Era. It has great technical limitations, very little transporter usage and low warp speed. They also are not armed quite as good as a 24th Era ship so they might have to use reasoning and logic.

[Dan Stack]

Matt -

To be honest, the Enterprise-era does have a lot going for it, not the least of which being all my players are at least reasonably familiar with it - it is the only show for which every player is at the very least a casual fan.

A few keys to that era - if I wind up fully gravitating in that area, I'll probably start a new thread.

First off, it is important to avoid stepping on Enterprise's toes. That means no first contacts with known species - as there is always a chance that Enterprise will feature such a first contact.

Secondly, there is the problem of making more NX class vessels - an episode might come out saying that they are still working on the second NX class vessel.

What I'm thinking of along those lines is a game which lags behind Enterprise by about a year, allowing follow-up adventures and new first contacts with aliens of my own design.

For a pilot episode, I see an Earth ship being called to be a neutral observer in the evacuation of the P'Jem monestary. Andorians and Vulcans would participate in this. Some external threat would force them to work together. And they would stay together after this first mission on an experimental joint misison.

One problem is what sort of ship. An NX doesn't seem right and a Daedalus seems too early.

I'm thinking of a light cruiser, with a crew of about 40 or so. The design is something I'm stuck on. Possibly something like a rocket ship - like the Phoenix, only bigger - maybe shaped like one of the Star Frontiers or Buck Rogers XXVc ships - but I'm worried it might not be something that sticks in the players' heads. Basically I need both a picture and deck plans.