Narrator In Need: Help me develop my second season

[AslanC]

All you need is the following...

1 colony completely devastated by orbital bombardment.

1 passenger liner that is destroyed while touring the Blah-Blah Nebula fields...

1 Convoy of Tellarite merchants, besiged and destroyed, only one gets away.

In all cases they never signal, warn or threaten, they just act.

And they take nothing.

What everyone doesn't realize is that they have strayed into Romulan space and the Romulans want no visitors.

I know that owuld get me pretty scared. YMMV

[Joe Dizzy]

That's pretty much what I came up with yesterday as well. The crew is send out to investigate the disappearance of various ships and colonies, the respective home-worlds are gearing up their defenses etc.

It looks so obvious in hindsight, but for some strange reason it just didn't enter my my mind at all.

Ah well, now that I've got the basics, it's time to work on the specifics a bit.

Read all about it here! Same board, same thread. Stay tuned!

[Joe Dizzy]

As I've threatened above, I'll post the adventures as planned and if time permits a transcript of how they turned out. Maybe someone somewhere out there will learn from my mistakes.

Season 2 - Episode 1 (episode title as soon as I have one )

Background information:
It has been 9 months since the Vulcans have left Earth (in last season's finale). Unfortunately they've taken pretty much everything they were even losely connected to with them as well. That means Starfleet is now without access to the sophisticated space charts of the Vulcan Fleet, without the input of the Vulcan Science Directorate and without the Alien Exchange Program. What's worse the tech-department of the space program has suffered serious set-backs because of it.
None the less humanity has found a new challenge in space exploration and has embraced it eagerly. The last 9 months have seen an enormous increase in applications for Starfleet Academy and a great public interest in space exploration. Despite earlier set-backs scientists are getting unconditional support from both the government and the public.
4 out of 10 interviewees plan to live and work in space or outside our solar system, in some form or another. Be it as merchants, scientists or colonists.
7 out of 10 interviewees want to work in Starfleet.

ACT I - Exposition
First the new crew will be introduced to one another, then Admiral Forrest will explain their mission.
In the last few months, merchants have been repeatedly attacked and had their cargo stolen by unidentified attackers. While there was no open request for aid, some captains have mentioned that they would appreciate if Starfleet could help restoring order on the trade routes. The crew is sent to investigate these attacks and put an end to them.
Then I have a (hopefully) cool little scene planned, with "Fanfare for the Common Man" running in the background, as they approach the ship and the pilot talks about Enterprise.

ACT II - Investigation
Talking to the merchants will reveal that they've all been attacked at one of two areas. An asteroid field and a Twin Star System. Both locations are perfect for ambushes as they allow warp/impulse engine ships little room to maneuver.
They will also voice their suspicions about why some of their colleagues have not been attacked, yet. Rumour has it that they are working together with the "pirates".
Talking and/or shadowing them will reveal that they are not so much working with them, but have cut a deal with them. They pay them to pass the ambushes unhindered.

Investigating the places of ambush will reveal a residual gas trace, not inherent to the area. Scientific research will reveal that it is the by-product of a chemical process, a long time ago used as an energy source on Earth, but later abandoned due to its catastrophic ecological side-effects.
More thorough research (or talking to merchants) will reveal that some planets use this concept to power their space ships. One of the essential components for this kind of engine is a natural resource that is fairly rare. It can in fact only be found on a selected few Class-M planets.
One of which is not far from the ambush sites.

ACT III - Suspects
As the crew arrives in the system, they find two ships of unknown classification docked in some sort of primitive space station. Both ships feature the chemical propulsion system mentioned above.
The captain of one ship does not respond to hails, whereas the other welcomes them very warmly. The visual communication is slightly impaired, due to radiation eminating from the planet.
After a short chat, he invites them to join the festivities on board his ship.

As it turns out, the captains and their respective crew call themselves Orions. The captain, who invited the crew, has ordered a feast. In part because of some lucrative deal he has cut with his "associates" but mostly because he enjoys celebrating. There'll be some general orion raunchyness, including green-skinned slave girls ("....and there was much rejoicing.").
They will also meet the other Captain, who's still not very communicative. The crew will have to look for evidence that either of them had anything to do with the attacks.
Since the stolen cargo was quite specific, it would have been hard to sell everything in so short a time. Some of it must still be in the attacker's cargo bay.
The crew will have to split up. One group will have to keep the captains busy, while the other investigates the cargo bay of both ships.
They will find the stolen cargo on the ship of the Quiet Captain.
When confronted he will flee on board his ship and try to escape. The crew will have to chase after him and eventually find him inside a Nebula. There they will have to duke it out, as he seems unwilling give up or otherwise find a peaceful solution.
During the battle his ship will be heavily damaged. Since his propulsion is failing he isn't able to get out of the Nebula, but because of a hull breach the ship might blow up.
The crew can offer to save him and his ship, if he accepts to leaving the trade routes alone. Or they can just let him die.

So, that's it. I'll probably flesh out the two captains and their history together a bit more, and name everything (NPCs, places, substances, etc.)
As you might have noticed, this is very straight-forward. As this is the first session, I want the players to get into their characters a little, get used to the system and generally not rush anything.

I'm a little worried about the introduction, as it will be essentially me doing all the talking. I thought about letting the players introduce their characters themselves, but I know that my players don't have a very clear idea about their characters, yet.
Is there anything else I've completely overlooked? Some obvious short-cut, or a scene that could easily derail the game?

Comments, suggestions, advice?

Joe

[tmutant]

It could turn out that the friendly captain was the "fence" for the stolen cargo, and performs that service for a number of pirates. He acts as a middleman to get top dollar for the stolen goods. Actually, it could be vice-versa. The Quiet Man is the fence, and had already completed the cargo transfer before the arrival of the PC's. Either way, it could lead to conflict with the Orions. Also, since the cargo is very specific, it could be a contract job for a third party who wants a discount on the cargo, and pays the Orions to steal it for them. Perhaps even the original buyer of the cargo, who pays less to have it stolen than purchasing it legally.

(I like plot twists. )

[Joe Dizzy]

I've had something like this in mind, too.

The friendly captain (Yenric) would turn up again in episode 2 to deal with the quiet captain (Luken) who has gone rogue (assuming my players won't let him die) and tries to orchestrate the destruction of the starbase (formerly known as Deep Space One).

I might include plot twists like this tomorrow, if I feel the game is running short. Let's see how it turns out. Depending on how tired I am tomorrow after the game.. I'll post a report.

[Joe Dizzy]

Report:

Well.. most of it happened as I planned.

ACT I
I had to cut the scene with Fanfare of the Common Man, because they were still a bit silly and cracking jokes and the scene would have felt misplaced. Otherwise.. no change.

ACT II
The investigation took a bit longer than I expected. Although the science officer quickly picked up on the idea of the gas traces being a by-product of "chemical fusion" (as I dubbed it during the game) and connected it to the pirates' ship. Unfortunately this idea was ignored at first, and they decided to explore the relationship between merchants and colonists first. Looking for traitors, etc. among the merchants. This of course was a red herring by me, which I tried to wrap up as soon as I could, realizing that the game would take a little longer than I expected.
Fleshing out "merchant-culture" a little was fun, as was introducing three different captains.
Once they figured out how the pirates attacked the merchants (they used a specific gun to knock the merchant's warp engine off-line and bullied them into giving up their cargo) the crew tried to find some kind of defense against the weapon.
And after finding out that bit about "chemical fusion" they tried to find a similar weapon of knocking out the pirates' propulsion. Which I found a little silly, but anyway.

Once they put the pieces together (gas traces => "chemical fusion" => needed components => planetary system nearby) they met the two captains.

ACT III
Yorek invited them to the grand party. The crew didn't much care for the raunchyness, though.
Capt. Bowman had a little chat with Yorek and largely ignored Lukem. Although I have to admit, I had trouble including him into the scene, too.
Yorek was throwing clues left and right, that he was not as clean a businessman as he claimed. The crew had data, that a ship of the same class as the ones of the two captains was behind a recent attack on a merchant ship. They had clues, but no evidence (yet).

This was were they surprised me:

They dicided to turn around and organize a convoy, which they planned to escort to the furthest colony on the trade route (Bismarck). Hoping to provoke an attack by the pirates.

Hmm.. very odd. I did not expect that, especially not that close to the end.

Session two is scheduled for next Wednesday. Write-up for my revised plan will follow.

[Joe Dizzy]

Session 2

According to the captain, the crew will attempt to organize a convoy to get supplies to Bismarck. The organization will take some time and convincing, as most merchants aren't fond of the idea of Starfleet helping them.
Eventually they should be able to get at least a small convoy together.
If they use the regular route (Trade Route One), the pirates will attack as anticipated. Big battle and a chase sequence ensues. The pirates will retreat and escape unless the crew can out-smart them. Then they will fight it out inside a nebula.
In the end the ship will be either destroyed or will simply disappear.

Fast-forward a few weeks. SF HQ has decided to speed up construction on a starbase on the Trade Route One. The crew will be supervising and securing the sector with the Dauntless and the Intrepid. Merchants will mention the rumours of an attack. The crew will go to investigate in a Mos Eisley-like location. Possibly butting heads with various species, but mostly picking up rumours/news of the area: Vulcans leaving every planet, ghost stories hinting at the Romulans, the usual bragging captains and hints at a planned attack.
They will get a name of an alien merchant who's selling explosives to an unnamed group. If they shadow him they might be able to get a lock on the warp signature of the buyer. If they look out for such a signature near the construction site, they might be able to arrest the saboteur.

It will be a member of the Orion Syndicate. How they will deal with him is up to the crew. They can try to locate the cell he belongs to and arrest them.

That's the plan. I fully expect them to handle the investigation differently. And chances are they might even abandon the convoy-idea.

[tmutant]

Originally posted by Joe Dizzy


This was were they surprised me:

They dicided to turn around and organize a convoy, which they planned to escort to the furthest colony on the trade route (Bismarck). Hoping to provoke an attack by the pirates.

Hmm.. very odd. I did not expect that, especially not that close to the end.
[/B]

Leave it to those pesky players to throw a monkey wrench in the works.
It is kind of TOS like. The direct approach, getting right to the action.

[tmutant]

So, how goes it? I'm living vicariously though you.

[7 of 11]

Hey Joe! What do you know?
Come on now you're pulling a TNG:Best of both Worlds Part One on us. What happened?

7 of 11
A

[Joe Dizzy]

Well.. the wrap-up of session 2 went pretty much as planned. Instead of a convoy only one ship was hired, the crew followed them at a safe distance. The buddhist skandinavian science officer Hjoern Thorwaldson had developed a useful weapon against the pirate ships. Through extensive research he managed to develop a kind of explosive that would manage to ignite the gas residual of the pirates propulsion system.
As they shadowed the bait... I mean merchant ship through the interstellar Nebula stretching across Trade Route 1, they received a distress call from another merchant ship floating adrift in the same nebula. After a short discussion and after realizing that the captain of the first ship had already prepared to aid the ship in need - merchant's/spacefarer's code of honour and all that - they changed course. Naturally this distress call turned out to be a trap, the merchant's ship's propulsion was kicked off-line through a cleverly placed mine (standard m.o. for the pirate's) and ordered to prepare to be boarded by the pirates who had been hiding in the nebula, waiting for merchants.

The crew showed up shortly afterwards and after trying diplomatic means of dealing with the pirates opened fire. The fire-fight was quick and mostly inneffective, and the crew was itching to use the modified torpedo. The one that would ignite the residual gas of the pirate ship's propulsion. The same ship that had been staying inside the nebula for who-knows-how-long waiting for the merchants to arrive. (The players only realized this in hindsight.)
You can guess what happened next: a big KA-BOOM and a few fried circuits and damaged hulls later... the smoke clears and the crew sees the following:

- the merchant's ship has been damaged, but is still functioning, though at about 65% efficiency
- Enterprise's sensors and propulsion has suffered slightly due to the unexpected reaction the explosion had with the nebula
- the unnamed nebula's volume has been reduced by 29% due to the chain reaction of torpedo + gas
- the pirate ship has disappeared, presumably destroyed (the crew returned to the Nebula afterwards and found the empty remains of a Life-Pod-Module, which once carried some 30 life pods, which the pirate's might have used to escape)

The now reduced-in-size nebula also gained a name: Thorwaldson Nebula.

The merchant ship was safely escorted to Bismarck, the colonists in Bismarck rejoiced and all was well for now. The Trade Route slowly returned to normal, after the previous places of ambush turned out to be safe now.

Trade Route One was safe, but the pirates had escaped and a Admiral Forrest had a new assignment waiting for Bowman and his Crew.

Session 3 took WAAAAAAAAAAAAAY longer than I expected, stretching over 3 sessions instead of one. I'll type up the most interesting aspects of the three on Monday.

It was very heavy on investigation and the players took their time with their undercover mission. But you'll read that soon enough as....


Tiltillating thrills await you at the Space Station - the focal point of alien trade - that the Enterprise crew try to search for clues.

Hearty laughs as Capt. Bowman encounters the joy that is Tongo!

Heart-pumping action as our heroes explore an abandoned moon basis, that might have ties to the mysterious Orion Syndicate.

Nailbiting suspense, as a nefarious plot to cripple Starfleet is uncovered!

And an exciting and dramatic battle in the stars as the crew faces the evil mastermind behind it all.

All this and more in our next installment of

Star Trek: Enterprise
Season 2 - Kicking A$$ & Taking Names

Joe "Mr. Voice has nothing on me" Dizzy

[tmutant]

Sounds like it's going well.

[Joe Dizzy]

It took long enough... but now I finally have some time to finish up my game report. It's fairly low on details, unfortunately as the sessions took place over a month ago.

Episode 3 - Sabotage

Having successfully secured Trade Route One, Admiral Forrest had a new assignment waiting for Capt. Bowman and his crew. With the recent attacks on freighter ships Starfleet HQ realized it was time to speed up plans on a space station. It was decided that Deep Space One would be located in the orbit of Theben, and construction was to start at once.

Their mission was to support and secure the construction of the statio. To do so, they would get the help of Capt. O'Donahue and the USS Intrepid and of Capt. Osaka and the USS Dauntless.
Think of O'Donahue as a predecessor to Jellico. A hard-nosed, no-nonsense kind of guy with no diplomatic finesse whatsoever. Capt. Osaka was more of a diplomat; a specialist in first contact situations and questions of exploration as well as protocol.
When hearing about the two of them aiding Enterprise on this mission, the first words out of Capt. Bowman's mouth were: "Oh, hell.. not those dimwits."
Luckily communications officer Kama had cut the link in time, or had she?

Anyway, Osaka and Donahue were sent away on routine patrolling missions, while Enterprise followed up on some rumours. A local trader by the name of Chekov who the crew had met in their previous mission, told them about rumours in the merchant circles; about somebody buying huge amounts of weapons and explosives. After some back and forth between the crew, they decided to go undercover. They headed for Risa, a very rainy planet whose only attraction was its orbital space station, which many alien traders used as a meeting point on their routes. They travelled as traders on a routine route, and mingled in the crowd of the space station's biggest bar then split up.

Capt. Bowman spend his time playing Tongo endlessly, while Chief Engineer Scott met his first Andorian. Science Officer Thorwaldson had an informative, though still fairly reserved chat with a Regulan captain (dubbed Mr. Kilrathi by the players) while Weapons Officer Warren kept an eye on the officers and the shady barman.
There was some mention of a Vulcan freighter captain, Vulcans having become a rare sight in the area in recent months as well as local myths and stories... such as the huge battle at the "Throrwaldson Nebula". Most merchants were impressed that somebody finally stood up to "them Orion Syndicate bastids", not to mention that at least half of the merchants claimed to have seen it with their own eyes and were shamelessly exaggerating when describing the battle and the firepower of the (supposedly) Terran Ship. One captain even claimed to have seen a huge bird painted on the ship. Though this was quickly dismissed by bar patrons as being old legend, myth and essentially hogwash.
They picked up bits and pieces of information here and there. It seemed as if a merchant by the name of Dys-Rembel had expressed a great interest in buying all kinds of weapons and explosives off of whoever was willing to sell, using the barman as middle-men who'd set up the meetings.

(to be continued....)