Help brainstorm ideas for a new Trek RPG series

[Ineti]

A friend of mine and I are starting to toss plot ideas and plans around for a new Trek RPG that we would co-Narrate. What we have so far:

When: Post DS9
What: Starfleet-based, exploration focus
Where: The frontier of the Federation

We want to set the series in a little-explored section of space that happens to have an independently-run space station in it. The owners of the space station invite the Federation to use their base as a home for whatever ship the Federation sends into the sector to explore. (Someday the Federation will establish a starbase in the sector, but that's a ways off.)

What the Federation doesn't know (and what we'll learn in the pilot) is that the owners of the base also invited other species to do the same thing (Romulans, Klingons, etc.).

Why? There's something in the sector that the base owners can't handle alone, and need help figuring out or understanding. It needs to be a big deal, big enough to be a running plot thread through the series and that we can use as needed in an episode.

We've already seen a wormhole, and we've already seen archaeological big deals. What could the "big thing" be in this sector? It needs to be important/valuable enough to interest most species enough that they would be willing to fight for it.

Could it be some sort of new power source?

Some sort of ancient device/thingy that does Cool Stuff?

Ideas welcome!

[Dan Stack]

Something could be...

An Iconian portal (working as you see fit)

An inactive Doomsday machine

A partially stable wormhole - endpoint drifts

[C5]

Some idea just sprouting out of my mind...

In the sector, an unknown ship has been encountered. Its technology is quite alien, it resists to evey scan, and of course it seems to be heavily armed and shielded. People report having seen it, dead in space, then it disappears at incredible speeds. Those who fired at it were either ignored or utterly destroyed. And sometimes, it is reported to have attacked ships without provocation and depart immediately after their destruction. The reports are so vague about it (it leaves no warp trail of any sort), that the station owners even doubt it exists at all, but some ships have indeed been disapearing and there are some undeniable scans (mainly simple pictures of the ship). They don't even know if there's a single ship or many others. Since they are beginning to be worried, they tried to have the three powers in the station in case the ship attacked.

As for who or what this ship is... I'll let it to you. It could be an automatic probe of a very ancient race, still completing its initial mission, advanced creatures testing the races of the Quadrant, or even ordinary people trapped inside this very advances ship trying to figure out what the various programs in the computer do... or anything else.

Just one crazy idea of mine...

[Ineti]

Interesting ideas, guys. Keep 'em coming!

[ComaBoy]

Originally posted by Ineti
What could the "big thing" be in this sector?

Anna Nicole Smith

[vegasthroat]

Post - DS9.

You want Some reason to invite two empires?

Suggestion 1 : Set it on a border of Tholian space that MAY or MAY NOT be claimed by the Tholians.

They're Sufficiently weird to cause headaches to any species.

I'd suggest making the Starbase have an interesting history, perhaps it was first used by an Orion Pirate/Trading Guild over a hundred years ago. Then got bought out and was used by an Orion Guild Corporation, then finally became and independently owned and operated port.
Make something normally valuable nearby, perhaps nearby worlds contain elements that were once useful (that can be synthesized now) or it just sat a little out of range of sensors, but close enough to the major spacelines to serve as a 'pirate's cove" (me, I'd have a whole secret plot where the players discover the base has a couple of old Romulan cloaking devices hidden on it.)

The new owners are a little more legit.
They have had some problems with what could be Tholian ships, or just anomolous subspace behavior.

being Orions, they Invite the Klingons AND the Federation, to try to keep the powers in check to a certain degree.

HEck, they might even consider some 'underground operations' under the noses of their guests.

My other idea, was a Preserver artifact that is hidden in a "Quantum SubSpace Fold" that weirdly affects space-time on it's erratic orbit, maybe causing Warp Tunneling effects, or worse depending on the plot device needed.

just some food for thought.

[Ineti]

Good stuff, vegasthroat. We had already decided that the base would be independently-run and sort of seedy. We think it could be seen as "neutral" ground by others, so that the Federation, Romulans, and others could be on the station and have to put their differences aside.

And yeah, there would definitely be shady things going on right under the Federation's noses. And they couldn't do anything about it since they're also invited guests.

I like the hidden cloaking devices idea.

Not sure about the Tholians though, I think we're hoping to create a new threat species.

Keep 'em coming.

[vegasthroat]

Thanks.
Personally I think the 'new' threat species isn't to my taste, cuz I think there are plenty of races in canon that havent been explored very well.
The Breen, The Tholians, The Gorn, etc.

I chose the Tholians because, well they're mentioned in TNG so we know they're still around.
And they're weird and enigmatic and cause all sorts of freaky problems with space-time with their vessels. They are also TRULY alien unlike a lot of the canon races.

Also placement of the starbase is very important.
Romuland, Klingons have a common border, but from what I've seen the Cardassians, etc are on the other side of the Federation to a certain degree, although they may have edges of their empire that are common to the Klingons (hence their war, duh.)

I like the Orions for the base operators, I think they're good and underused stuff, look at the LUG sourcebook for Original Trek's take on the Orions, then I'd steal copiously from the VILANI and VARGR cultures from the TRAVELLER setting, and bam you have a really awesome race to be around the players and running the starbase, not to mention GREEN ORION ANIMAL WOMEN! WoohoO!

Now if you're totally set on a new threat race then location is going to be a lot more important.
because why hasnt anyone ever SEEN these guys before?

[Paul Dowsland]

'cos it's on that little explored Z-axis of the galaxy?
Maybe the Big Thing has found a way across the energy barrier into our galaxy from a distant galaxy. Maybe that was why the energy barrier was set up in the first place... to keep it out....

Also explains why you're close to the Orions who have been hanging around the core of the Federation for centuries by this point.

Maybe a secretive former superpower was encountered early on (like the Romulans - the border ran very close to sector 001), but unlike the Romulans, they made a frosty, unambiguous and total info blackout peace. "Thank you for your overtures of friendship, now go away and never darken our door again." This is why they've never been mentioned. But their gradual decline and fall has triggered all this piracy and Previously Unencountered Big Thingery on their former borders. They're still trying to swagger round like they mean something, and have some powerful edges over our UFP heroes, but are not what they once were (potentially making them much more hostile and unpredictable).

I think the Orions are neglected too. One of my players was highly pleased with the Orion redshirt crewman from TOS era I'd pregenerated for him for a one-off game a while ago. "The only Orion in Starfleet" (same deal as Spock). A handy, sneaky character to have on the team.

[Ineti]

My co-GM and I have mentioned the Tholians, and the Breen. And I like parts of the Orions idea...Maybe we can have an NPC Orion crewmember if none of the players choose one.

And I'd like to see more of the Andorians.

Good thoughts, all, keep going.

[Balok]

Possible new threat races would include different Orions. If you've seen "All Our Yesterdays", one of the last books the LUG folks published, you know that the Orions have been around a looooooong time (not canon, but game canon, which is the next best thing). Periodically, archaelogists find Orion artifacts Federation science still can't adequately explain.

You could create an "Orion" civilization which has managed to hang onto a lot of their tech. Questions to resolve would be: how do Orion crewmembers deal with this? What are the implications for the Federation?

Another possibility is a challenge similar to one my crew will eventually face: a race that operates like this: they infiltrate a planet -- they take control of the inhabitants through various temporary means (like hypnotism). The controlled people then report to surgical stations where permanent control devices are implanted in their brains. They work for their new masters, and they do it gladly (because the masters told them they were glad to serve).

This race is based on some books I read many years ago, about a similar race that took control of Earth, and how they were eventually defeated.

I tweaked 'em around somewhat, but the idea is to pose some moral challenges to the players -- to what degree does the Prime Directive apply here, if it does at all? Should the Federation intervene, and risk war?

Another possibility would be the discovery of a planet whereon are found people who have disappeared from Federation, Klingon, and Romulan colonies (and possibly others). There is clear evidence (in the form of obelisks or other artifacts) that the ancient race known as The Preservers is responsible. The people don't seem to remember their origins, and they are living together peacefully. This presents a number of possible questions to the players: are The Preservers still active? Why did they "kidnap" these people? What happens if we try to return them to their families? What happens if their families find them and wish to visit?

[Cochrane]

A powerful, mysterious, dangerous energy being.

[Paul Dowsland]

The BBC's Sky at Night this week was about dark matter, which reminded me of the suspected dark matter entities encountered by Janeway when she took the misfits of the VOY crew on a teambuilding exercise. Powerful, mysterious, virtually undetectable, and a Federation ship has already (accidentally) annoyed them.

[Sarge]

Here's my idea, which builds on some of the earlier ideas in this thread: A long-lost Orion colony wants to renew its ties to the rest of the Orion Empire. They have a powerful, charismatic leader with the potential to unify all Orions and lead them to galactic domination.

How could he/she pull that off? Frelled if I know...

[Capt. K. Vaughn]

The aliens from interphasic space from TNG might be one suggestion from TNG.

Perhaps a company is experimenting in a new type of energy, looking for more efficient ways to provide it given the devastation caused to the war but they are not so concerned about following certain guidelines for safety and in doing their testing have endangered the stability of space in the region allowing for these aliens to come through but the same instability prevents them from tracking the aliens.

This corporation has some people on the station that are being paid off to look the other way and doctor information so these tests cannot be discovered until the corporation can make the most of it. After all, something is disrupting their tests and they want it stopped but not at the expense of what they are developing.

This should allow for intrigue and some interaction that puts certain goals at cross-purposes.

Eventually, the interphasic aliens are discovered and dealt with but they manage to destroy the controlling interest in the corporation just before the experiments are uncovered. The experiments once revealed show the potential for nearly unlimited energy but to refine the process, certain liberties need to be taken to finalize development. Perhaps, one theory even suggests that when used to refine the power matrix for warp flight it increases speeds significantly.

Given the state of most of the powers, who wouldn't want this power source and be willing to fight for it. Starfleet at the very least would probably want to keep it out of the other powers hands.

What would the Orions do to get ahold of it and sell it on the black market? Does it have potential for increasing warhead strength or as a weapon itself?

Regards,
CKV.