Revised some of my ideas on the Game I want to run

[Jerod]

A while back I posted this:

Series Outline
(Tentative)

Season 1: Late 2375–2376
* Presidential Campaign and election
* a Mad-Man terrorizes the captain and later the crew
* Character development episodes

Season 2: Year 2377
* Presidents begins to implement policies to “protect” the Federation
* Captain gets fed up with Mad-Man and goes after him ( and ends the conflict)
* Some of the Federation members begin to question the President’s actions.

Season 3: Year 2378
* Federation Members begin to break away from the Federation. The President uses this event to show that there is a threat against them (est. Martial Law)
* President will issue orders to attack the cession members, which will prompt some Starfleet officers to “declare their resignation.”
* Endeavor will break away to help the rebels

Season 4: Year 2379
* Federation Civil War heats up–the rebellion will be led by the Endeavor captain
* Eventually, the rebels begin their push to liberate Earth
* Earth is devastated by the conflict

Season 5: Year 2380 ??????
Season 6: Year 2381???????
Season 7: Year 2382 ??????



**try and work in during the last 3 seasons a threatening force out towards the Delta Quadrant ( besides the Borg) and have them declare war on the Alpha Quadrant, forcing all of the AQ powers to unite and combat this threat (klingons, romulans, federation, cardassians, breen, you name it).



I wasn't really excited by my original plan of starting a Federation Civil War by a corrupt president. for one reason it seemed like it mirrored TOO much off of B5, but i still would like to have some kind of Civil War because that is what interests my players. so i came up with this idea:

1. I recently saw the episode "Conspiracy" from the First season of TNG when the Federation is infiltrated by some mysterous organisms. Well, i got to thinking and came up with an idea that they returned during the tail end of the Dominion War. The person running against the current president of the UFP is "infected" with this organism and must abide by its wishes. This Infected Person wins the election and after some time in power begins to implement policies that causes some systems to question the President which cause them to eventually break away from the Federation. The President orders these "rebel" star systems attacked because they represent a threat to Federation security (hmm....his security), which causes several Federation vessels to break away from the fleet to defend these colonies. Civil War begins. In the end, the war is carried to sector 001 and before the conflict is over the "organism" is able to do considerable amount of damage to earth.

2. also I wanted an threatening empire to come up for the last 3 seasons, some one other than the Borg from the Delta Quadrant, and I thought these organisms could be that threat. after trying to take the Federation over from within, they being a direct assault with their fleets.

Anyways this is my current idea. I wanted to pass this by and see what people thought about it. thanks for your comments.

[T'lara]

Jerod, it is still reminds me of B5 and like what other people said it is not a bad thing. Don't be too paranoid. We would not have Sci Fi if we never based ideas on something else.
Who ever thought a TV Show that was described as "Wagontrain to the Stars" would ever be around for nearly 40 years.
I preffer calling it Star Trek.

I could sit back and point out all your simularities but they are still there and I do not want to scare you. Run your game it will me fun.

[Ergi]

Jerod, if you really want to run a campaign like this you may do so, but to me this doesn't feel very like much Star Trek. Of course there has been similar events during the DS9 era but these never became the center of the story line. And you could always recognize the good intentions behind the characters actions.

And I really think you should get rid of this Federation civil war idea of yours. If you tell your players that you want to run a Star Trek game they could be confused or even disappointed by these events.

I also don't believe that there will ever be military action against a Federation people by their own government. If any species should decide to leave the Federation they will surely be allowed to do so.

One last thing you should think about is your planning ahead so far. You have outlined 4 years of game time. Either you are one of the lucky gamers who have a lot of free time or the events could just rush by too quick.
I never bothered very much with series planning, neither in Star Trek, nor in any other self-made campaign. Honestly I believe that the pages devoted to this in the Core books are a waste of space.

[Publius]

Cool idea Jerod. The Parasitic Invaders from conspiracy were referred to as "Bluegills", which I always thought funny as it is neither a gill nor blue. I guess that sounds better than coral nipple, which is actually what they looked like from the outside. I don't know how widespread the use of that particular name was, but I'll use it here.

Actually, I recall all of the Federation Civil War threads and find this to be the most plausible cause. Rermember that the Bluegills had a plan to bring in lots more of themselves and take over whole populations, so it is entirely possible that massive numbers of people on captured worlds will become hosts for the Bluegills (enough to create the need for the Federation to attack whole worlds, perhaps not so much that you cannot have a 'resistance style' campaign on these worlds). How fast can something like this spread? How much "coverage" can it get? These are some key questions to ask. Be sure to make the bluegills take on new tactics: a different placement which is not so easily detected perhaps or a strain of genetically modified Bluegills specially modifed to take over Starfleet (which after all is going to check right off for the purely physical signs after their little problem in "Conspiracy").

It may or may not be TNG-style Trek (maybe DS9 style would be closer), but hey, it's your game and a darned good idea too. What more heart-rending thing can happen than a crew of Bluegill-controlled officers attacking your ship? Every casualty you inflict, every victory you take from the 'enemy' is a living nightmare. It could practically paralyze any sane leadership trying to fight against them, which in fact is used by the Bluegills. New weapons might be developed such as a refinement of the energy draining weapon of the Breen (perhaps causing the Crew to deal with the Breen themselves for the weapon's specifications and other unsavory aliens to modify it) but until then you have to blow up your Bluegill-controlled opponents in ship-to-ship combat. What about loved ones? The Dependent disadvantage becomes really important once you find out they have been taken over by a Parasite