Anyone ever do a straight exploration game?

[Dan Stack]

One possible campaign I'm thinking about is an exploration-only game, taking place outside of known space. In doing so I am removing the "Federation colony in distress" adventure possibility, so I am making sure I think this through all the way.

The game would likely take place during the NX-era, aboard NX-99, Challenger, which loses contact with Earth early in her mission, one of the relays gets destroyed by Klingons, meaning they don't learn about what is happening with Enterprise, helping me avoid contradicting Enterprise.

So, anyone out there do a similar style game, where there are no Starbases, no Federation colonies, barely any friendly ships? How'd it go? Would you do it again?

[Ineti]

Sounds a lot like Voyager.

I've never tried it myself. All of my campaigns have had some sort of connection to Starfleet, be it a supply ship, starbase, or the like. I've never tried sending a ship off all by its lonesome.

[mactavish]

Dan, I have copious notes on just such as Series... somewhere.

As most readers here know, I was a huge fan of the <i>Voyager</i> premise, and I am also a fan of the <i>Enterprise</i>-era setting. For these reasons, I have been writing out a variety of Series seeds and individual episode possibilities.

While I am perfectly happy posting lengthy diatribes about these topics, perhaps I'd best start with something small.

<b>Lost in the Wilderness</b>

While investigating wreckage of a Klingon cruiser in a previously unexplored (though Sol-local) star system, the crew of the NX-02 - the <i>U.S.S. Journeyman</i> - manages to save a lone survivor in a lifeboat. Krang, seriously injured, receives treatment from the ship's CMO. Suddenly, the crew experiences a series of anomalous sensor readings. Then they find themselves disoriented, sucked wholly into a stange subspace corridor. Traveling at impulse speed for several days, unable to free themselves from the debris-cluttered passage, the <i>Journeyman</i> is suddenly and violently expelled back into normal space.

Sensor readings show no sign of the anomaly that they had tracked, and further indications suggest that they are no longer in the same star system. Correlating their position based on known stellar phenomena, the <i>Journeyman</i> crew finds itself over 70,000 light years from the Sol system, deep in the region termed the Delta Quadrant by Starfleet.

Damaged (though repairable), the Journeyman finds itself suddenly far more alone than ever before, lost in a completely unexplored region.


Unlike the journeys of <i>Voyager</i>, the galactopolitical makeup of the Delta Quadrant is considerably different. The Kazon still labor under the Trabe yoke. The Ocampa are living peacefully under the benign protection of the Caretaker. The Talaxians have yet to discover interstellar travel. The Vidiians are Phage-free and actually fairly decent folks (if somewhat xenophobic). In fact, I was thinking that the Phage might be the result of contact with humans (specifically the Klingon refugee)! Ain't that a kicker?!

The subspace corridors, of course, are those originally used by the Vaadwaur. The lack of powerful sensors prevent the PCs from finding/accessing them with any consistency or regularity, though it does nmake it considerably easier to transport them where I need them to be for a particular episode. This might also bring them into conflict with the Turei, one of the races that put a beat down on the Vaadwaur ~700 years earlier.

Since this is likely never to be covered in any Star Trek television series, I'd say its pretty safe to do whatever the heck you want with it.

mactavish out.

[Dan Stack]

Mac -

A very useful reply, thanks.

One thing I'm curious about... One thing which makes me nervous is that a lot of the standby adventure ideas - save a Federation colony, shuttle an ambassador, etc. are rendered unappropriate for such a game. Did you find yourself missing this?

As for me, as I've noted, I have a tendency to overdo the political aspect in my games, going into far too much detail. Similarly, I have a player who is a big fan of Trek, especially TOS, but does not have the "encyclopediac" knowledge the other players in the group do. I'm thinking about allowing this player a shot at being captain (he has asked about it but is nervous given his lack of "detail"-based knowledge) in a pure exploration game, where his lack of knowledge would not be a hinderance - indeed, it would be very much in character with the type of game, especially for a pre- (or early) Federation-era game.

[Cptn. Taggart]

I am just finishing a full season where I sent the crew of the Steamrunner class Wanderer into a whole other galaxy. How'd I do that you say? What about the galactic barrier you say? How about some cheese dip and nachos you say?
Well i can't help ya with the cheese and nachos <pouty face> but I managed to pull this off via a malfunctioning device I call a stargate. No I didn't rip off the movie and series for this. The stargates I used are massive devices that can swallow a Borg cube. They are big hoops that float in space and hold a quantum singularity in check with intense gravity fields. You adjust the gravity field to attune the stargate with another stargate and voila a wormhole opens and zips you halfway across a galaxy or just to the next system.
So anyway, there is this ancient Stargate in galaxy M-94 which is one of many. The people there don't use warp drive, they use the stargates to get from point to point in their galaxy and so have a galaxy spanning central government. The ancient and malfunctioning, Stargate opens a wormhole to the ever funky Yannix star in the Be-Tau sector causing our intrepid heroes to be sucked in and whisked off to a whole new galaxy to explore. They have great advantages in that they can go places that the natives cannot due to having warp drive, but they can't overwork thier drive since they don't want to burn out their dilithium supply. The natives use hypervelocity rail guns that lob shuttle sized projectiles at high impulse speeds and with limited guidance systems so they aren't the terrors of the galaxy. And to start it all off I stole their ship in the first episode. It took three episodes to get their ship back without using any of their advanced tech except for a few phasers, tricorders, medical kits and an engineering kit. I am ready to bring them home now, so their constant search for a means home will soon be rewarded. But first they shall know pain, they shall know fear. And then they will get a new ship cause the old one will be all broked.

[Capt. K. Vaughn]

Dan,

I do not really have time to post in detail but I have run purely exploration games in the past that have been cut off from Starfleet. The last actually had the starship in unknown space bordering both Taurhai and Romulan space which will lead to future consequences in another campaign.

I am in the process of considering another such campaign but the short answer to your question is I did not find I missed them because I replaced them. Same types of plot hooks but using local races or powers. Instead of a Federation colony in distress it was a Hergirren Colony. Instead of a Federation ambassador it was a Dereskan Ambassador, etc. It made things far spicer because quite often there were other complications including it turning into a first contact situation.

Regards,
CKV.

[StyroFoam Man]

This message has been removed on request by the
poster

[Dan Stack]

So here's what I'm thinking...

Either NX-99 Challenger or ND-02 Icarus (Daedalus-prototype.

Three players in the group right now (possibly more come summer).

The Captain will be a human member of Starfleet. The player is a big fan of mountain climbing having climbed Kilamanjaro recently and I can see him adding that sort of background to the character - less of an engineer than Archer, more of a scout/survivalist (given the player's discomfort whenever games enter technobabble mode).

As for the remaining two players, the slots I see being most useful are sciences and communications, as the game will focus on exploration. One of these players run a "Neelix"-type - a friendly alien somewhat familair with the area - a wandering Trill or a Vulcan or Andorian representative. The other may well be an ex-boomer - taking advantage of the other two players being a little more familair with the nitty-gritty of the Trekiverse.

The ship will be on its own - much more so than Enterprise given it will be going into a slightly more hostile region of space and have its comm-relays destroyed by hostiles. While I want to avoid too much politics, it is good to have some consistent bad guys. I will incorporate Klingon "vikings" much like "Enterprise" and also have the occasional Romulan adventure (and I've figured out a way for face to face contact if I so desire). For new baddies, instead of the Suliban (who may drop in) I am thinking of sending the ship towards the Kzinti Patriarchy, as detailed in Larry Niven's "Known Space" series (and who made an appearance in animated Trek). "The Cats of War".

Wheras Enterprise has the temporal cold war, in the background I believe I will have the ruins of the Thrint (Slaver) Imperium - also found in Niven's works (and animated Trek). I'm not going to be going for something as grand as the Iconian Gateways and artifacts I've used in the past, instead I am planning on these being more "Raiders of the Lost Ark" style hunts for lost Slaver artifacts - the Kzinti want to get their hands on as many of these weapons as they can for the purposes of taking out Earth and its protectors, the Vulcans.

This metaplot will not be the focus of the game, but rather serve a similar role as the temporal cold war of Enterprise - used as a continuing storyline.

[pathstrider]

I've actually just started an almost pure exploration game set post voyager.

It's not _quite_ out on their own - there is one Galaxy class ship way back at the Federation/ unkown space border, but it's too far away really to help.

It's three episodes old now, with next Sunday kicking off the major exploratie bits. It's going well so far, and it's forcing the players to be a lot more creative and cautious being out on their own. Which can only be a good thing

I do have one worry - the players get to desperate and go native - i.e. dodgy dealing and losing the starfleet idea. I don't mind it from a IC approach, but I think it's easy to loose sight on how hard it is for a human from the 24th century to do that sort of thing compared to one of the 2oth century.

After all, we thing chopping people's heads off and putting them on spikes is abhorent (I hope! ) but in the 16th century it was condoned. The same should hold true for 24th century humans in regard to lying and stealing.

Mark

[mactavish]

What region are you thinking of exploring? The Draconis Outback might be a good place for adventures and exploration. It can also lead to contact with the Cardassians and/or the Bajorans (if you're so inclined).

I love the idea of a Trill "Neelix" going along for the ride, too. That is genius. A joined Trill with a couple of lifetimes of experience would be truly useful in that setting. Just make sure to use the crested Trill instead of the spotted!

For even more fun, have a Vulcan and an Andorian on board when they "get lost." That would provide good dramatic tension as well as a source for some good interpersonal storylines. Of course, I personally would keep the Trill as well.

I think it would be pretty nifty to use the Suliban, too, though sparingly. They are actually a pretty cool villain race.

How about a Krenim Imperium vessel that got displaced through some temporal or astronomical anomaly and ended up in the region? That would make for a very interesting recurring enemy group. Could also have some ramifications concerning the whole temporal cold war angle, too.

Just some ideas.

mactavish out.

[Dan Stack]

For Trills I won't worry too much about spotted vs. crested. If you're thinking of Jadzia disguising herself aboard Kirk's Enterprise I figure that it was probably a safe precaution, given that almost the whole crew was human. One more beehive-wearing human female wouldn't attract casual notice, but one more alien would have. (Whether that alien be Trill, Vulcan, or Tellarite).

It just occurred to me that my wife's Trill for our TNG game has as her symbiot's background that had a host which was the Trill ambassador to the Federation... I wonder if I could fudge canon a little and have Trill join the Federation shortly after its founding (in my game I have it taking place prior to TOS but never specifically given). If I do this game I'll mention that as an option - playing a past self.

[pathstrider]

Oh, and in terms of a 'native guide' (Neelix) one of my players is a retired starfleet officier. Before the Dominion war he was involved in mapping the region (i.e. an Oberth class ship going 'oo, that's a nice long range scan - pass it to the explorers') and then retired there for the past five years living with one of the more advanced races.

He's just been kheel-hauled back into service

Mark

[Dan Stack]

So I've been brainstorming NX-era.

But I would be negligent if I did not brainstorm other eras as well.

I notice, for example, that a lot of people tend to use extraordinary means to *poof* the crew to someplace very far away, much like Voyager. I suppose the advantage to that is it removes the safety net right away, though I can see that quickly leading to Gilligan's Island syndrome.

So assuming a later era, I wonder what sort of ship would be used. My instincts say the bigger ships, but I wonder if that is an incorrect assumption. SJohn Ross wrote a neat article on exploration adventures suggesting something less "top of the line" for its era, given that Starfleet doesn't expect the crew to run into much (of course they are wrong).

[Kronok]

Where was this article? I would like to read it!!!

[Dan Stack]

http://www.io.com/~sjohn/untaken.htm

(It is the "Exploration for the Narrator" article.)