Need ideas for 'Elite Force' style game

[Rebel1701]

Hey guys. Wondering if any of you have any ideas for a series based on the crew being a part of the security force on board a Defiant-class ship. Each player's character has a specialization, in addition to security... field medic, technician, et cetera.
The issue is that the players do not have direct control over the starship per se, so most of it would have to center around away missions... else I would have just perused around the adventure seed thread. =)

So, any suggestions?

[Lancer]

There are a few plots you could try:

- Team returns from a mission to discover the crew of the ship has vanished / is infected with a deadly virus / is being controled by some alien influence.

- Threat species has planted a spy or saboteur on board and the team can't be sure whom to trust, so they try to solve the mystery alone. Can be combined with the "alien mind control plot" above.

- Q places the team in a weird/dangerous/humerous situation. "Ah, so your ohh-so-very-enlightened species has decided to create some military special forces team. Let's see how militaristic you really are."

- The ship has to escort a diplomat/scientist/important civilian through dangerous territory. The bigwig get's abducted by some hostiles and the team is sent on a rescue mission.
For a plot twist have the apparent hostiles be from a minority on the planet the diplomat is traveling to. All they want is for the Federation to help them negotiate equal rights on their homeworld.
Add another twist and make one of this group an agent provocateur of the powers that be who wants to blame the rebels/freedom fighters for killing the diplomat. Of course he has to kill the diplomat for that to work.

- A variation of the above could have the team on a seemingly minor mission when some fugitives crash land on the planet pursued by their homeworlds authorities, who claim the fugitives are political criminals. Maybe that is even true, but on a Federation planet the alien law enforcment guys have no authority and the final fate of the fugitives rests in the players hands for now.

- Rescue some shipwreck survivors from a planet protected by the Prime Directive. A good scenario if your players rely too much on their high-tech toys to solve every problem for them.

- Another undercover mission could have the team placed on a civilian ship or station to foil a criminal plot that Starfleet Intelligence is certain will take place, but they are not sure who is involved and when and how it will take place. For a real change of scenery you could place this on a luxury cruise liner and watch your players squirm. Sure, they can assemble a phaser rifle blindfolded in 10 seconds, but do they know which fork goes with the Ktarian fried Uxtrak?

[Publius]

I like the concept Rebel, and Lancer's done a great job with those suggestions, but I figured I'd add something to the mix just the same. It can be frustrating when no one responds to one of these You mentioned a Defiant-class posting specifically:

• The ship is escorting a civilian vessel through a dangerous part of space when suddenly the civilian vessel goes silent. Make the section of space somehow problematic for sensors (which is why they needed a close escort). The Captain and bridge crew beam over after attempts to raise the civilian vessel but do not return. That means it is time for the combat section to beam (or use actual physical entry) over for a more aggressive "look-see". Check out my Java Class deckplans for the freighter in question.
• Pirates are cool, who doesn't like Pirates? Well, Starfleet for one. The Crew's ship is sent to deal with some pirates. There could be two linked adventures, the first where the players are on a frontier settlement, trying to get information on these Pirates (and maybe facing down a few of them who are tipped off by this attempt and are about to warn their buddies), the second where the Players, now that they know where the pirates are thanks to the first adventure, are doing a combat insertion on the pirates base to knock it out (maybe after getting another species help in using a cloaked vessel for a physical dock; this gives the players some possibilities to do some social-oriented gaming in securing/persuading a non-Starfleet asset).
• I've always like shore leave style adventures, where the players start on shore leave and end up getting involved in some difficulty, but what about the flip side? Another vessel takes shore leave on a class-M and seemingly non-hostile world (perhaps after a detailed 4-week survey 'confirms' this for the ship's CO), but whole groups of shore-leavers suddenly disappear. The ranking officer of this Nova-Class, now with half of her crew missing and perhaps a non-Command branch Lt. herself, puts out a distress call for some backup and your fast little ship is the closest one to the planet. Track the missing crewmen down for a rescue op with the help of the Nova-Class NPCs.

If you wanted to go with something else for a ship posting you might get more mileage from the concept simply because the pcs would be the combat team on a non-combat vessel (like a Nova or another research style vessel). This would give them something that they would be specialized for on a small vessel with lots on non-combat duties, kind of like the Security folks in the SCE novels. If you still want to use the Defiant-class this could also be a one-shot or two adventure arc that could involve them being temporarily posted to another vessel for a specific mission because the other vessel has no "Elite team" of their own.

[Cptn. Taggart]

Originally posted by Publius
[*]I've always like shore leave style adventures, where the players start on shore leave and end up getting involved in some difficulty, but what about the flip side?

Be careful not to overuse the shore leave thing. My crew has banned all use of the term after I had a small Borg incursion pop up during shore leave on Alpha Centauri. It was about the fourth time I had used the shore leave concept. The say they are getting liberty or a vacation or just plain leave. But Shore Leave? Only newbies call it shore Leave on the Wanderer.

[Publius]

But that is the beauty of this setup Capt. Taggert, the people on that other ship were on 'shore leave' and have already put their foot in it; the Elite Force team has to go in there and save their rear ends. That creates a little distance for the players ("Yeah, but it wasn't my shore leave").

Okay, maybe it is something that suffers from overuse in general, one solution I try for in these circumstances is to make certain that there is a logical reason for this sort of thing to happen. What would make sense is to have the nasty thing a subterranean race, or maybe a race with advanced cloaking technology over their settlement or something or maybe a cthonic horror if you go that route (some here do). They really would 'lie in wait' when a survey mission came onto the planet. Also, because Novas are so cramped, these little "shore leaves" are quite commonplace, especially after the crew have had the chance to give the planet a thorough survey (or one they think is thorough).

Perhaps the "Shore Leave' aspect is misdirection. An espionage agent masquerading as a Crewman (or civilian scientist travelling with them) on board waited for this opportunity to call in the cloaked vessel for an extraction of the ship's CO and it has nothing to do with the planet per se. A garbled communication partially got out to the on-duty crew but did not tell them what was happening with any specificty; perhaps a (second if you use the other idea) communication was faked by the extraction crew to mislead the ship for a possible escape. Something then went wrong during the extraction (like the CO and some crew fought back) and now there is a disabled ship in orbit (or on the planet) and the players will have to round up the clues during the adventure to find out where they are and rescue them. This way it looks like a standard "shore leave" related adventure but actually is not.

Alternately I guess it works as well being a simple survey mission that has led to a major snafu, its just that with a shore leave there would be less crew onboard once everybody on the planet (or away from the landing site if this is a Nova) starts disappearing. That gives rise to a younger more junior officer (the highest ranking officer left) calling for backup and not having to deal with a CO from the other ship pulling rank until (perhaps) well into the rescue.

[Rebel1701]

Thanks for all the useful suggestions guys... keep 'em coming if you want!

[Polanski]

Check out Star Trek Away Team PC computer game ...

[Trinity Zeldis]

Here's a thought. One of them has a bad reaction to some alien food (part of a diplomatic mission).

No symptoms occur except:

Hallucinations; Keeps seeing people who aren't there, things missing or moved.

Sleepwalking; Since it's likely no one sleeps with their comm badge, having him running around sabotaging equipment that is seen (through the hallucinations) as something else.

And to make it worse, have this happen to one of the PSI characters (if you have one) so that these things can be transmitted and the rest of the PC's beleive they are really happening.

Now here's the kicker....

The PC's don't know they are doing it but are in charge of finding out who is.

[Publius]

Hey Reb, how's this series/campaign shaping up? Any ideas got shaken out? Any changes? You already start?

[Rebel1701]

Well right now I'm putting the final touches on the prep for the introductory adventure/episode... I'm just having a little trouble finding time for the group to meet, we're all pretty busy.

If you *really* want to know, I'll give the details on that... but not unless you ask. =)

[Game Show Man]

Cool thread, man. I for one think this kind of campaign would be equally fun in a Movie Era campaign. Post the characters on a Connie, or a brand-new Excelsior, come up with some new Movie Era toys for them to play with, and let 'em go to town. Any ideas for a Movie Era campaign like this (in addition to the ones already here)?

[Publius]

Reb: That's exactly what I think the board is for in part , you have a nice starting concept, I for one would like to see how it plays out. I also sympathize mightily with you on the lack of time thing, my own group has had a lot of problems with this lately and I am well past starting to go through withdrawl here (it doesn't get any better over time though).

GSM: Most of the ideas will work in any time Era, but I understand what you mean, how to specifically root it in the Movie-Era? I can think of one phrase to best apply here: "Klingon Pirates". Of course they are wandering around the Federation Boarder with fully armed state-of-the-art ships and crack combat crews but they have absolutely no connection to the Homeworld government ::nod:: ::nod:: This kind of activity might only get worse after Praxis because some of the old warhorses (like Chang would have been had he not been blown up) will continue to thirst for war against the Federation. A few situations where the players have to run security for a conference or discover why a diplomat has been killed might also be appropriate in this vein.

Also, any of the TOS stuff that went unfinished but magically disappears by the time we get to TNG (which would also be good if you are setting this in the TOS era). The First Federation for example (Capt. Vaughn's nice concept for a Ground Series Campaign below notwithstanding), or dealings with Platonis which has started kidnapping people again or Ardana or the Gorn. The Orion syndicate survives on to the DS9 era, but we see no Orions, mix 'em up with an Orion Trader doing things in violation of the Prime Directive. Perhaps after the PC Crew confiscate his load of bona fide Orion Slave Women, this self-styled "Merhant Prince" starts capturing girls to be surgically altered and drugged to appear as Slave Women for some petty potentate (among whom is inevitably the daughter of the Admiral or something).

Another idea might be anything to do with the Romulans before they shut-up their boarders. One of the adventures might be able to characterize this, as the Romulans suddenly just pack up and leave near the end for no apparent reason.

[Modem]

“Ghost Ship” (or “Flying Dutchman”, if you wheel)…

Player’s, all comfy inside their ship after ‘another successful mission’, when ‘it’ happens: sensors detect the form of a ship floating derelict in space (a transport, a cargo hauler, a scout…). Upon further exterior scans, it discovered that this ship (listed to the Federation/Starfleeet) has been ‘MIA’ for quite some time (60-100 years, but your mileage may vary). Starfleet Command would insist upon an investigation as to what happened.

The ship is coated with particles that refract and deflect the scans to the interior, and transporters can’t penetrate, so a shuttle must be used. Once over there, the crew of the shuttle discover that the ship has little life-support (no heat, thin atmosphere, lighting that's hit-and-miss...mostly miss), so on go the e-suits (making them ‘a little slower’ in the reaction department). Armament wise, the best the players could get ‘for this mission’ are type-II phasers, and each character has a tricorder (mostly the ‘generic’ ones, with a few ‘specific’ one: Engineering, Tactical/Security, Medical,…).

While over there, the crew discover that the ship’s crew were attacked and killed by something that they brought aboard…that’s been in hibernation on ship since the last of that ship’s crew was killed/died…until the shuttle’s docking woke it up.

The ‘creature’ could be anything: A new breed of Jem H'adar warrior, a eugenics soldier, a borg, a…well, you get the idea.

In any case, the ‘creature’ seems impervious to phaser fire (via armor, shields, phasing, or any combination of them). Oh, and have a few ‘Ensign Jimmy’s on hand to hand demonstrate the ‘creature’s’ powers, abilities, and just ‘mean spiritedness’.

The best two sci-fi example of this idea are ‘The Thing’ and the DS9 episode ‘Empok Nor’, the latter especially ‘Trek-wise’.

[Publius]

Very cool concept Modem, but I have to ask you a question first which might cause us to stray a bit:

Is an 'Ensign Jimmy' a warm-and-fuzzy subspecies of redshirt? you know one of those nice bright faced kids who have signed up to see this part of the Galaxy with Starfleet and end up as somebodies lunch (re: "There must be 50 Ways to Kill an Ensign"). The kind of Redshirt that says a few lines about their mom or girlfriend waiting back home for them a scene or two before they are eaten/"blowed up"/explosively decompressed/disintegrated/plasma cooked/Borgified? The kind that grips our character's hands in a death scene and says something like "Is the word given...?" before he expires messily?

"Ex-cellent" ::evil-gutteral-laugh.wav::

For a (only slightly) more serious note: Hey Reb, make sure that you stock your crew with some Ensign Jimmys and plain-ol' Redshirts (make sure two of them are named Gildenstern and Rosencrantz (sp?), its a good gag when they both die in one horrific event). These are such a staple of Trek that I cannot envision them not being used/abused.

[Modem]

Well Pub; ‘Ensign Jimmy’ actually stems from an old Frantics (an old Canadian comedy trope) skit I saw a couple of times on a taping of the ‘Just for Laughs’ Montreal comedy festival.

Two members of said group pulled off this fantastic spoof of ‘Trek’; Rick Green (whom some of you might know as ‘Bill’ from ‘The [New] Red Green Show’ or as ‘himself’ [among others] on ‘History Bites’: http://redgreen.com/cast/rick_green.htm ) portrays Capt. James T. Kirk.

Peter Wildman (whom some of you might know as ‘Buzz Sherwood’ on ‘The [New] Red Green Show’: http://redgreen.com/cast/peter_wildman.htm ) plays…well, everybody else.

The shtick/reference come from a line by ‘the Captain’: (rough quote)
“We have to beam down…Spock, Bones, Chekov, Sulu, Scotty, Uhura, and 'Ensign Jimmy', you’re with me…”.

About ten-fifteen seconds later (following a brief ‘walk’ down a ‘hall’ [complete w/‘sliding doors’], and a ‘transport effect’…funny, damn funny), the landing party reemerge on the ‘planet’. Couple of seconds more (and after getting over the ‘transporter’s effect’) ‘Kirk’ goes, “We…have to look around…Ensign Jimmy, go see what behind that rock…”

Wildman snaps to attention (like an Ensign would), and sprints to another part of the stage…then begins “Captain!!! Over here…I found a…a…AAAAAA!!!”

‘Kirk’ and ‘Bones’ (Wildman again) arrive split-seconds after this, but it too late:
“He’s dead Jim; ripped to pieces…”
‘Kirk’: “Bones…is there…nothing you can do…”
‘Bones’: “DAMMIT JIM, I’m a DOCTOR not a MAGICIAN…”

So basically, ‘Ensign Jimmy’ is my substitution for ‘Redshit’…esp. as how many ‘Redsirts’ actually wear red shirts from Next Gen. up.

Anyhow, back to ‘on topic’:
One other thing I must stress with my scenario is remember to have ‘the creature’ drive the characters away from the shuttle; thus when things go awry, they can’t simply ‘pack up and go home’…also remember those particles on the ship. They block ‘outgoing communication’ and disrupt ‘internal communication’ (“We [BZZZ!!!]…cargo-bay [HISSS!!!]…going [ZZUMM!!!]”), making ‘calling for ‘back-up’’ not a real possibility.