Modyfying TNG's 'Starship Mine' for RPG play

[Rebel1701]

Alright, you guys all know the episode, right? Baryon sweep, terrorists get on board to steal trilithium resin from the warp system? OK.

It sounds like something neat to give to my players to fool around with, but there are some issues that wouldn't work out that I'd like to ask some help with.

First off--how would a bunch of junior officers happen to get left behind when main power goes offline? Picard had an excuse--his saddle.

Second--How many terrorists should there be? In the episode there was only one, non-uniformed Starfleet captain... I've got 3 PCs. Phasers dont work, granted... but how should the terrorists get cramped out of Engineering, where the field diverter is? Or should I just leave that to the PCs?

Now that I think about it, I might just be overanalyzing it... but any one else have any kind of input? Thanks.

[Capt. K. Vaughn]

Give them an assignment that they have to get finished but due to a couple of NPCs cutting early for shore-leave it takes the PCs far longer to finish up...

...they get it finished in time to learn that they really are running late.

The number of terrorists depends on the relative skill level they have versus the PCs. I ran something a bit different then this with a Vorta and Jem'Hadar at the beginning of the Challenger campaign.

Since the PCs will likely pull a divide and conquer ploy so I would make the main body of the terrorists slightly less skilled then the average PC and their leader slightly more skilled. Probably two terrorists per PC plus their leader. Maybe one more terrorist sitting off in a ship nearby waiting to pick them up.

Just a couple of quick thoughts.

Regards,
CKV.

[buck rogers]

l tried a similiar adventure based on the movie "Die Hard". The PC's were visiting family on a brand new Star Base the big mushroom kind. Since it was still under constuction and had a skeleton crew onboard it was easy for the "Terrorist" to take over. The adventure was played out with "Die Hard" as my road map although I did make some changes, to through the players off. I also used "Under Siege" as a model. That one was great except everyone died when they decided to self destruct the ship. Oh well you win some, you nuke some.

[Capt. K. Vaughn]

That's the joy and chaos of PCs, sometimes they take the extreme to a whole new level.

Regards,
CKV.

[Owen E Oulton]

I'd use a different McGuffin, just to make it a bit less derivative.

I used a Founder on the old USS Constitution in the Starfleet Museum of Space Flight. The PCs were on a tour when the Founder was detected and had to hunt it down. I used my old Franz Joseph deck plans as a player resource.

Another scenario is a sudden core breach alarm and "abandon ship" order. An NPC friend of the PCs slips, falls and knocks him/her/itself unconscious, and before the PCs can get him/her/it to their lifeboat station, the lifeboats are ejected and the ship goes to maximum warp. Someone (possibilities are endless) has infiltrated the ship and taken over the computers - the CONN does not respond, nor do any other systems, including communications. The PCs have to locate whoever is controlling the ship and regain control.