Has anyone turned Star Trek books into RGPs?

[Adm. Warren]

Just curious to see if anyone has done this. I have ready many Trek books and I think some might be good to try out as an RGP. If you have done this, how did the game go? did the players feel like they were cheated out of a unique setting, how much improvising was there when they deviated from the plot, etc. thanks for your comments!!

[Capt. K. Vaughn]

I have not directly used an entire plot but I have used elements and people from various novels including the Hydrans from one book and the rogue starship of Magna Romans from Captain's Honor to name but two.

Regards,
CKV.

[Ezri's Toy]

I've not used them in a game yet, but the concept of Hellguard (not the Hellmouth ) from the Wrath of Khan novelization and The Pandora Principle has always had lots of juicy story tidbits and character ideas going for it.

[Doug Burke]

I'll be honest. I lifted the major subplot and characters in it from "The Battle of Betazed" to complete the embryonic idea I had for the previous adventure in my game. I changed a few details (location of the station, its purpose, how many ships they had present, and so on) and let the players plan their own assault of it (complete with hijacked Cardassian freighter and a force of volunteers surgically altered to look Cardassian) and it turned out similar in some ways, yet completely different in those that really mattered.

[IceGiant]

I plan on running a game that follows the DS9 relaunch books. Avatar and Mission Gamma.
Except the players will be on an Intrepid class instead of the Defiant. I'm still debating with myself if i should put Vaughn in charge or a new captain.

[Ramage]

I haven't used specific plots, per se, but I have lifted info and ideas from both The Final Reflection and The Romulan Way.

They were always my fave Trek books

[Capt. K. Vaughn]

Originally posted by Ramage
I haven't used specific plots, per se, but I have lifted info and ideas from both The Final Reflection and The Romulan Way.

They were always my fave Trek books

Both decent books. I used tidbits from both in my old FASA days and then there is the whole Klingon Supplement for FASA.

Regards,
CKV.

[darkwing duck1]

I count the events of the first two of Duane's Rihannsu books as cannon, along with the Debt of Honor graphic novel. I also use the characters from the Starfleet Academy comic series from Marvel.

[Capt. K. Vaughn]

"Captain's Honor", "Foreign Foes" and "Vendetta" are the only novels that are direct historical events in my timeline and main campaign.

I have also included the jump off point for Peter David's New Frontiers novels but will very likely rewrite a good portion of it in my campaign.

Regards,
CKV.

[C5]

I plan to adapt the novel Possession (I think it's the title) in a near future. And I sometimes keep interesting takes on things we never see on screen from the novels.

[Hadley]

I've not adopted any of the Star Trek novels into scenarios, mostly because I have not read many of them. However I have adapted a number of stories from various Star Trek comics. These have gone from the short-lived series published by Marvel after the release of The Motion Picture to those done by DC and Malibu Comics. Some of them are readily and easily adaptable to most eras.

[JonA]

I'm really looking forward to running this campaign (it's one of those you'd love the play in yourself)!

I'm planning on a campaign based upon John Vornholt's Genesis Wave books.

Okaaaaay, I use the word based as I have only really taken the idea of Dr Marcus being kidnapped from Pacifica...

...by the Dominion early in the war.

The rest is my own ideas but lets just say Starfleet gets rather desperate about Genesis falling into the hands of the Dominion and being developed and used.

Cue a nice dark campaign with the players only being told certain facts by their superiors (lots of Admirals saying "it's a need to know basis and you don't need to know, just follow your orders" kinda stuff - guaranteed to nark players off). Run ins with Section 31, Tal Shiar, Dominion and Cardassians forces. Starfleet Command and Federation Council representatives performing what can only be described as a panic fueled cover up on Earth. And generally a stress filled campaign where everyone seems to know more than the players and they aren't willing to share the info.

The players will be kept so in the dark they'll go crazy with unanswered questions. Until they find a Federation Council file in a dead Tal Shiar agent's database towards the end of the campaign. The Genesis Report (as copied from The Genesis Wave Bk1).

Cue: massive desperate acts by all parties and the players sitting with a proverbial grenade superglued in their hands and one of those moments when everything clicks together and you feel very alone.

My only stumbling block is finding the time to copy the report on UFP Headed paper.

Oh well.

[Greg Smith]

I've used significant elements from 'The Battle of Betazed'.

[tmutant]

I've run TOS era adventures based on "Trek to Madworld", "The Galactic Whirlpool", and one based on a Dyson sphere whose title I can't remember (I loaned the book out about 15 years ago. Does that qualify as 'lost'? ) It can even be interesting if the players are familiar with the book, as long as you throw them enough changes to surprise them.

[Captain Sonek]

"...one based on a Dyson sphere whose title I can't remember ..."

That one was The Starless World.

My Star Trek Movie Era campaign used a variety of elements from various novels and comics.

While the crew was back home awaiting completion of their ship's refitting, I introduced a group called the Keep Earth Human League demonstrating and picketing in San Francisco (the K.E.H.L. is from the novel Sarek).

Eventually the refit is complete, and the ship departs on it's new mission, patrol of the region of space around the Klingon border. While on patrol, the ship receives a distress signal from a Klingon agricultural (?) colony, stating that it is under attack by a Federation vessel. Upon arrival, they find the Klingon colony devestated. On the surface searching for survivors, they encounter a group of mercenaries claiming to be from the starship "Renegade", who are on the surface to get rid of any survivors of the attack. Up in orbit, the "Renegade" - a Miranda class starship - decloaks (!), fires a salvo of photon torps at the PCs ship, and beams the mercenary and landing parties up. The XO on the PCs ship tracks them to the enemy ship and manages to beam them off. The Renegade runs and cloaks...just as a Klingon ship enters the system. Tense moments follow as the PCs scramble to convince the Klingon captain that _they_ aren't the Federation ship that was attacking the colony (Elements of this encounter were taken from a DC Comics storyline by Peter David).

In the battle's aftermath, the PCs discover a message bouy left behind by the Renegade. The message states that they represent a terrorist group that will "take the battle to the Federation's ememies" while the leaders of the Federation try to treat with them (the game was set just before Star Trek VI The Undiscovered Country, and I was trying to illustrate the escalation of tensions that led to the events depicted in that movie). The terrorist group called themselves LEGION, for "we are many." (I was trying to establish a Sinn Fienn / I.R.A. style relationship between the K.E.H.L. and LEGION...I was reading Patriot Games by Tom Clancy at the time )

The PC realize that the LEGION group are making terrorist attacks on Klingon border worlds and assets. They realize to their horror that they must work with the Klingons to catch the Renegade.

Eventually , through hard research, searching, and a little bit of luck, the PCs and the Klingons think they have the world that will be the Renegade's next target. Climatic Battle ensues as the Renegade decloaks and the PCs ship and the Klingon vessel come out of hiding!

In the cleanup after the battle and the Renegade is captured, more mystery develops: first, the Renegade is actually a Starfleet vessel, the Zephyr, hijacked when her Captain went rogue and became part of LEGION. Secondly, the ship's systems have been augmented by all manner of exotic advanced tech and hardware.
Clues are also found that indicate that that the Zephyr's Captain was not acting alone - he may have been aided and abetted by other LEGION elements, and a conspiracy within Starfleet itself! (More foreshadowing of Star Trek VI)

The PCs take their evidence to the Federation President, and he charges them to find out just how deep the conspiracy runs. One PC apparently 'self destructs' her career, and is approached and recruited by LEGION. She and the rest of the PCs learn of LEGION's new plan: to steal a prototype weapon called The Peacekeeper. The Peacekeeper is David Marcus' worst fears made flesh: a protomatter device that uses elements of Genesis technology incorporated into a weapon system. Any ship that carries the Peacekeeper will have an unthinkable tactical advantage; size truly won't matter in a ship to ship engagement. (The concept of The Peacekeeper was taken from another Star Trek DC Comics storyline by Howard Weinstein)

The "Rogue" PC, along with other LEGION agents (PCs playing temporary characters) become part of a LEGION guerilla unit that
will steal the Peacekeeper prototype and associated research and then deliver it to a set of coordinates where the Peacekeeper can be mounted on a "suitable platform." They reach the coordinates and LEGION's Starfleet mole is revealed as...Commodore John Styles, ex-Captain of the Excelsior!

Styles congratulates the team on their work, and reveals the final secret, the reason for LEGION's existence: last year, he explains, elements under his command made an amazing discovery: a derilect Starfleet vessel that had apparently come through a temporal anomally from approximately 78 years in the future. The vessel, a Battlecruiser, was like nothing the Starfleet of this time had, and it was a ship of war. The name of the ship? USS Enterprise; NCC-1701...D. Even more disturbing was what they wre able to recover from the ship's computer core: that it was the product of a decades-long war with the Klingon Empire, a war the the Federation of that time period was losing. None of the Battlecruiser's crew had survived, Styles tells the group, but _he_ will make certain that their sacrifice was not in vain...by salvaging the BattleCruiser, mounting the Peacekeeper on it, and using it to defeat the Klingon Empire...BEFORE the war starts!

Startling revelations as _ALL_ the PCs around the table draw phasers, and everyone finds that they are _EACH_ an undercover agent for a different group, sent to infiltrate LEGION! (Starfleet Intelligence, Vulcan Security, Andorian Special Forces, and oh yes...the PCs core group)

Styles beams back to the Battlecruiser Enterprise to try to escape, but the PCs starship - who was clandestinely following the LEGION group - comes in to attack. Grand Climatic Space Battle Ensues, ending when the PCs Captain RAMS Style's ship!
Storyline ends as medals and honors are passed out to the PCs for preserving the Ideals and Honor of Starfleet and the Federation!

Epilogue: elements of the Klingon military loyal to General Chang make an amazing discovery: a derelict Kvort class Klingon vessel that has apparently come through a temporal anomally from approximately 78 years in the future. The ship has an advanced design cloaking device, and might be salvageable . . .