"Paranoia"

[Lt Cmdr Matt]

This is the first draft of the first half of the episode I am wokring on. Any comments welcome. Ph yea. DS16 Spoilers.




=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=/\=
=\/=\/=\/=\/=\/=\/=\/=\/=\/=\/=\/=\/=\/=\/=\/=\/=\/=\/=\/=\/=\/=

"Paranoia"

Narrator Notes: This episode is suitable for any ship. It doesn't really matter the size of the ship. This episode can be fitted into any existing campaign. It is especially useful in a war campaign, possibly a homebrew war or canon wars. For this episode I chose to have the Romulans as the main antagonists, just because they are available to everyone but the Romulans can easily be cut for a homebrew/canon race. For the demonstration purposes the players are on an Intrepid class ship. This episode can be run in two ways, Senior Officers and Junior Officers.

Act I Scene 1

The scene opens with the Delta shift on the bridge. Most senior officers are off duty and asleep awaiting the Alpha shift. On sensors there is an old abandoned starbase 1 light year off the port bow.

Have the Operations Officer roll 2d6+ SYstem Operations(Sensors)

TN10: Large Metallic Structure 1 LY away
TN 15: Starbase 1 LY away
Tn 20: No life Signs

As the ship approaches the starbase all senior staff are transported to the bridge of the ship and it is suddenly alpha shift. The Starbase is no longer there. Chief Operations Officer should roll 2d6+System Operations(Sensors)

TN 5: Transwarp Residue, 500,000KM off the starboard bow.
TN 10: Transwarp Residue, 500,000KM off the starboard bow. Large metallic oobject 1,000,000 KM off the Starboard bow.
TN 20: Transwarp Residue, 500,000KM off the starboard bow. Spherical Ship 1,000,000 KM off the Starboard bow.
TN 25: Transwarp Residue, 500,000KM off the starboard bow. Spherical Ship 1,000,000 KM off the Starboard bow. Spherical ship is closing at maximum impulse. ETA: 1 Hour

At this point it is up to the players to what they want to do. Most probably they would have a briefing to decide exactly what is going on. After 1 HR they head back to the bridge.

When the Borg ship arrives, combat ensues for a little over 10 rounds if the players can stand that long. After that the Borg Sphere stays near the players ship but does not fire on them. If sensors are still online have the Operations Officer roll System Ops(Sensors) to see if they can find any reason for the Borg Cube to not be attacking.

TN 15: Some sort of tear in the fabric of space
TN 20: Large biomatter entity is moving on intercept to the Sphere.

In approximately an hour the Bioship will be there.

Battle will ensue with the Borg Sphere and bioship. A few stray torpedoes and beam shots will end up hitting the players ship, enough to make sensors go compltetly down(If needed fudge this). After a few minutes "in the dark" have the players ship rock violently becuase of a massive explosion of the Borg ship. At this point it is very important for you to play on your players paranoia. They should realize that it is a battle of the titans. The Borg and Species 8472.

The ship should rock a few times every once in a while, and then an intruder alert alarm should go off. NPCs of yours should,report to the senior staff of awful sights. Species 8472, Borg, Assimilated crewmen, and other assorted traumatic sights. There should be one Species 8472 onboard but dead. it should be brought to the senior staff's attention and have an unknown cause of death. Afterall what can kill 8472? You may add in as much suspense, and paranoia as needed here. Out of character you may want to play suspenseful music, add sound effects. Becuase of system malfunctions have a doors open and close, consoles beep, sparks falling.

Once the crew is unsure and paranoid about each other. Have Assimilated crewmen in the hallways. For the grand finale, have all consoles show BORG sysmbols and displays.

**THE SHIP EXPLODES, EVERYONE DEAD**

What really happened was that a Romulan mind control device was onboard the Starbase. It was directed at all senior staff of any approaching ship once it got within range. The Species 8472/Borg adventure was a nightmare that played on the fears of the crewmen.

Ths Junior officers have to try and find out why all the senior staff was unconscious. When they finally break through is when the ship explodes in the dream.

[Capt. K. Vaughn]

It sounds like it has potential, do you intend for the junior staff to go over to the Starbase to determine and find the means to reverse the effect on the senior staff?

Regards,
CKV.

[Lt Cmdr Matt]

Yup just have not written that part yet. In my series the Romulans are actually the Gammittians. I just chose Romulans for generic aliens that everyone knows.

[Cptn. Taggart]

Okay, looks like it could be fun. Here are a couple of things for Narrators who use this to remember.
1. How did the Rommies target only the senior staff? Your players may want to know. Simple explanation, the beam was targeted at the alpha wave patterns of sleeping non Romulans. This also allows one senior staffer to be free of the effects due to insomnia or racial tendencies. Why just one? Because it wouldn't be as much fun if there were more. Also it allows the hallucinating senior staffers to be awakened one by one slowly leaving the last man standing situation

2.I have had players fight a Borg Sphere. I doubt many vessels could last more than 5 rounds max against the Borg in a one on one situation. I say this so that if you use this scenario. plan for a short battle and build when you must. The Borg are nobodies pushovers. Well nobody in the Federation anyway.

[Jabara Eris]

With a title like "Paranoia", you should have the ship's computer go really bonko and start assigning characters specific "color-coded" security levels. Y'know, from red-shirt troubleshooters all the way through the spectrum ...

Players could be suspected of having mutant powers, which are (of course) against the rules of Starfleet.

When a player dies, a duplicate suddenly beams aboard via the transporter. This can only happen five times, however -- the sixth clone is the last one ...

And, of course, have the ship's terminals randomly state cheerful messages such as, "The computer is your friend" and "You've been chosen to donate your body to the food-processing vats. Have a nice day!"

And so on ...