Adventure Seeds

[Dan Gurden]

Now to turn THAT DAMN FISH into something useful to anyone that isn't in Styros RPG group... Or in other words, instead of slagging it off, heres how I would have run the same plot to make it more Trek in my mind.

Here be Monsters
Would suit TOS or TNG

OK, a giant spaceborne lifeform is terrorising a spacelane. Several ships have been destroyed and several crews are dead. The local authorities have sent a small fllet to intercept it, all of which was destroyed.

They have turned to Starfleet to help out, and the players have been assigned the mission.

The nature of the creature is up to you, from extreme giant catfish laden with unfeasable torpedos or giant space amobia... Depends on the era, TNG or TOS, the older the cornier (rule of thumb). The motivations should range from a mother protecting her children (Perhaps its near a stellar nusury or asteroid patch where the young are) or simply feeding or territorial protection.

Motivation is the important aspect as that will give the clues hat will help the players deal with the situation. Ideally they will protect the creature, discover why it is taking action and either negotiate with the traders to avoid their favourite space lane, or simply learn some form of communication and arrange a truce...

Alternatively they could fight the creature only discovering its motivations when injuring it, and maybe having to take over the creatures role and heal it in the meantime.

For a quirk, perhaps hunters arrive to kill or capture the creature, and the crew have to deal with both sides?

[Robbert Raets]

>From this point on, whenever your gang rolls a certain number in regards to Sensor Tests (I chose 8) That Damn Fish will pop out of cloak and cause havoc. No amount of fire-power can destroy it.

Sithspawn and Hellfire
Not even a Munchkin deserves an enemy like that. Oh, and we don't negotiate with terrorists, it was eating lifepods.

[ghosty]

TITLE: The Science Project
SERIES TYPE: Exploration
ERA: TNG

During a routine diplomatic mission, the Captain is off the ship with the senior staff to finalise the membership application of a planet so a bunch of junior officers are left in charge of the ship.

Down in the crew quarters, the children are doing their annual science project. One child genius designs a sub-harmonic frequency distortor (?). Unknown to him its not a study is high frequency dynamics but sends out a subspace wave which tears the fabric of sub-space which drags the ship through the rip into a...well you can see where this is going. To cap it all off, the kid's no Wesley Crusher, it was all a mistake and only the PCs can get the ship out of this one.

[Captain Zymmer]

Neat idea Ghosty...lots of different ways it could go...MIrror Universe, FLuidic Space, etc...

I may have to steal this one too

[ghosty]

Originally posted by Captain Zymmer
Neat idea Ghosty...lots of different ways it could go...MIrror Universe, FLuidic Space, etc...

I may have to steal this one too

Hey get your own adventures or at least make sure taht I get credit for designing it

[Captain Zymmer]

Originally posted by ghosty


Hey get your own adventures or at least make sure taht I get credit for designing it

Sheesh...you'd think you had posted it in an Adventures Seeds thread or something on a public forum!

What the heck was I thinking?

He he he he

[Captain Zymmer]

Title: Mind's Eye
Setting: Starship
Time Period: Any

The player's ship comes across the ruins of an ancient civilization...in the centre of the "city" is a large sculptor of somekind, but it turns out to be a computer or machine...psionically pwoered, it activates and the characters are suddenly emboiled in the last days of the civilization, as outsiders? natural disaster? etc claim the planet. While there is nothing to win, or defeat, it may be a good chance to do some serious role-playing as the players interact with the people, who just come out of no where.

Just a seed, anyone want to help it grow?

[StyroFoam Man]

This message has been removed on request by the
poster

[Michael Barratt]

Title: "Scars"
Setting: Deep Space Station
Time: Post-Dominion War, or other economically bad time

Security ensign (half-Napean, or Betazoid), found unconscious in a cargo bay much travelled of late, after an explosion due to some imbalanced geological material that could have been made into a bomb and had no business being there.

On board station: Orion Slaver with a male empathic metamorph for sale. Ferengi negotiating deals. Terraformer and his wife from a colony where many died during the war. Other red-herring peoples.

Terraformer trading geological material illegally with Orion for industrial grade replicator, but also, his wife, the colony doctor, trading some even more dangerous material (biomimetic gel?) for the male empathic metamorph (since the massive deaths, the terraformer has been totally ignoring her to try and fix the colony).

Crew would have all of the above to uncover, and the explosion was caused by the empathic metamorph who took the opportunity to cause the explosion during the trade by knocking the mineral aside when the empathic ensign "felt" very tense people in the cargo bay.

[Michael Barratt]

Title: "Prime Direction..."
Setting: Exploration Starship / Testbed or Shakedown
Time: Any

Testbed for warp drive upgrade put on a ship, which, after engaging, thrusts the ship into a subspace maelstrom, overloads, and tosses the ship out of the maelstrom near a planetary system where the maelstrom doesn't reach fully.

The planet has a series of artificial satelites which forms a "calm" spot that the planet natives have increased around their planet. Otherwise, the area is a giant subspace anomaly. The "gate" that the ship fell through (thanks to the malfunctioning drive) opens for only two or three days, then will be gone for a month.

Crew dilemma: the planet's civilization is pre-warp, and capable of sensing the ship if it gets closer. Also, there is an asteroid belt, quite far away (at least three days on current broken impulse engines), where natural minerals seem to repel the subspace maelstrom. Obviously, the planet does the same itself, and the natives used this in the creation of their shielding. Crew can either go to the planet (violating prime directive) and steal/scan how to adapt their shields, or go to the asteroid belt and learn how, likely not leaving for another month - or two - back to their home space.

I used this scenerio as a "Cadet Cruise" one-shot nightly adventure, and killed off or critically wounded many of the officers, leaving junior officers and cadets in charge.

[Michael Barratt]

Title: "Brute Orbit"
Setting: Exploratory starship
Time: Any

Ship encounters a hollowed out asteroid fitted with somewhat low-tech engines that launched the asteroid out from its home system. When ship gets close, the people hail them, claiming to be a colony "seed" - they were aiming for a planet, where they'd reverse, set themselves up in orbit, and then land. However, many things went wrong, they're now tumbling at random, and gosh could you tow us back to a nice planet and help us land?

Truth: they're criminals, and their home planet jails people this way: give them basic supplies, put them in a hollow asteroid, and then engage engines built onto the asteroid and shoot them away. The equipment they do have is from another race that already made contact with them (Orions, or maybe Ferengi) and they overthrew, but didn't manage to capture their ship...

Their tech levels, basic bad natures, and the orbit, if plotted, would all be clues that these aren't your average colonists...

(Note: I'm stealing most of these Episode Seeds from SF books I've read. )

[Michael Barratt]

Title: "Gang Warfare"
Setting: Starship of any sort
Time: Any

A relatively small peanuts somewhat-warlike race suddenly starts winning battles in their area, and where they're getting supplied ships and weaponry from is under investigation. The crew comes up in battle against one ship, and then another - and the ships seem to be identical - right down to some crew members!

The alien race has decided that it was going to lose, so it has begun using quantum fissures to bring alternate dimension versions of itself through to help fight the battle - from other dimensions where the battle has gone even worse... basically evacuating ships, weapons, and crew from dimensions where they really were losing, to here, where they have a chance - and a slowly growing chance, since new ships are arriving every day.

Doc

[Michael Barratt]

Title: "Pennies from Heaven,"
Setting: Shuttle-Mission, from Space Station, or a small explorer ship
Time: Any

A system with a fairly large and mineral rich asteroid belt calls in for a Federation shuttle or small team to come take a peek - someone, somehow, is stealing their asteroids. Once the ship arrives, the shuttle weaves in, notices a strange drift pattern, and then vanishes through a small wormhole, along with a big honkin asteroid, and crashes into a planet.

The "Stealing" isn't stealing, it's the wormhole, which has two drifting apexes, but which right now is situated with one end in the asteroid belt, and the other end is close enough to an almost-warp capable society that it has been dropping asteroids on the planet for nearly three months. The planet is in chaos, anarchy, gangs, and the like, and those who have managed to harvest the mineral-rich rocks have all the power. The crew trapped on planet have to fix their shuttle (including getting some dilithium from the asteroids) and then get the hell out before the wormhole moves too far for them to get home...

[Michael Barratt]

Title: "The Eight,"
Setting: Exploratory Ship
Time: Any

A la Neville's "The Eight," an archeological series where pieces of an ancient race's "puzzle" or "game" have been scattered among various systems. This puzzle, while archeologically of value in and of itself, also shows how to manipulate organic compounds and create a "fountain of youth" type treatment - something that will slow cellular degredation to almost nil: you'll live a very very very long time.

Players could do battle with rogues trying to find the items for themselves, the guardians of the pieces (all of whom took the treatment before the items were scattered), Klingons, Romulans, renegade S'ona... etc etc etc.

The Doc

[Michael Barratt]

Title: "Reassociation Run,"
Setting: Risa or other vacation setting
Timeline: Any, post Fed awareness of Trill as joined beings

While vacationing on a planet Trill security officers and a trill doctor all are seeking a duo of Trill who have been reassociating - but also kidnapping another trill, who they apparently plan to implant the symbiont into!

The players, if there's a trill with them, could easily be "Drafted" even while on vacation to stop this horrible event from happening. Otherwise, just basic Starfleet Officer on vacation nose-where-it-doesn't-belong might be enough.

Either way, the truth is that these two are indeed reassociating - they're in love, and have been for two lifetimes now, and one of them is dying. The "kidnapped" trill isn't - he's a member of a small underground movement on Trill that thinks the symbionts should be allowed to maintain their partners, and is a willing upcoming host to one of the symbionts - given that the symbiont can't normally gain a new host post-reassociation.

This is very much a ethical/cultural/intellectual game - especially heated if you have a PC joined trill going.

The Doc