Newbie Narrator and "bad guys" PCs

[Njxt]

Hi.
I'm willing to start a ST Coda serie with my usual players.
They're not quite fond of the ST Universe, more by ignorance than by taste. Except a few TOS episodes, I don't think thy've seen anything else.
As we are usually playing "good guys" (world saviors ) in our other games (mostly DD3E, LOTR and a french contemporary cop RPG, this year), I was wondering if I could "catch" them in the ST Universe by letting them play "bad guys", or at least a team (of mercenaries for example) with less moral duties than a Starfleet team.
As a first episode, I was considering writing a module based on the DS9 Season 1 Episode "Armageddon Game".
They (the PCs) would be hired by an unknown group or individual to steal an Harvester sample or the Harvester formula from .
The contact (and contract) would be made by Quark on DS9.
So, it would be a spying/infiltration/extraction/maybe survival mission.
To get them immediately in action, I'm planning to give them pre-generated characters.
I would like some advices about the best characters I can give them for this mission.
Well, in fact, any advice or idea about a first "bad guys" episode for newbie players (in ST) would be nice

[Balok]

Soldier and rogue come to mind as good profession choices. The rogue could be an Orion, although that's a bit stereotypical -- maybe make the rogue character some race that's not usually dodgy, like a Deltan, or even a Vulcan who has abandoned the teachings of Surak.

Former Starfleet officers would be good if you're giving the characters a few advancements (which they'd need to change professions).

[Owen E Oulton]

Ive run a few rogue campaigns in the Trek universe - check out my <a href="http://www.coldnorth.com/owen/game/startrek/lucas/lucas1.htm">Star Trek: Lucas</a> site for some details on one such campaign.

Running a rogue game on the fringes of the Federation can be a lot of fun, whether you're running pirates, mercenaries, or just a bunch of guys just cruising on the fringes...

[Lt Cmdr Matt]

You could always run a Maquis game, not sure if that is "bad" enough or not, although you do get to attack Federation ships and stuff, sounds good to me. There is a great Maquis book around here somewhere...

[ghosty]

How about making 'em Section 31 agents...hey how about that I get to rape, pillage and slaughter all in the name of "protecting the Federation". Cool

[Njxt]

Thx for the answers.

A vulcan rogue is a good idea.
I don't want to give them too "exotic" races. Rather some typical ... should I say iconic ? ... ST races.
I was also thinking about the not-original-but-so-typical Klingon Soldier.
And a classical Ferengi smuggler ?
An ex-starfleet officer sounds good too. Bajoran perhaps. I can give this PC some basic background information about the UFP, Starfleet, DS9 etc. along the game, because he is suposed to know that sort of things.

I agree that I should give those characters a few advancements to be immediately interresting to play (and it may be a "one shot" game).

I don't really want to let them play psychopaths, so slaughtering is not my primary goal but Section 31 might be an good idea too.
I want them to feel free to act as they want to, their primary goals should be thrill, adventure and money

And what about the scenario ? Any comments or better ideas ?

[C5]

Hello and welcome to the boards, Njxt! Glad to see another froggy out there

I take it your players know Star Trek as "the series with the pointy-eared guy" (like too many people around here), right ?
Then I agree it's better to use very basic races.
Your choices so far seem good, don't forget humans (after all, humans do about everything in the Trekverse), since, if the players have not seen DS9, it could be easier to play than Bajorans; a Betazoid (pilot or doctor) could also be interesting (and not too hard to play), and allow the players to taste how psionic feels in Trek.

They could also have a small ship of their own, and I suggest them to be associates from the beginning of the game (maybe being some small group of freelancers). A dozen of advancements could help them being competent enough.

As for the adventure, a couple of suggestions :

- The players discover a disabled StarFleet vessel, with everybody unconscious/dead on board. If they can revive some of the crew or find a survivor, they could be asked to help (for a reward) to find what happened (and this could be either an Unknown Alien Menace, a new Romulan/Cardassian weapon, etc).
- The players pick up a distress call and discover a merchant ship being attacked by a warship (you can choose at will the powers to whom both belong : Cardassian merchant/Maquis fighter, Federation transport/Orion pirate, etc). If they decide to help the merchant, they can be asked to escort it (for a reward), and to investigate how this attack could have happened, since the transport's course was supposed to be secret.
- The players are recruited as mercenaries by a warlord of a technologically backward planet (22th century technology for instance). They are asked to deliver weapons, train their soldiers, etc. Howerver, every warlord of this planet is helped by another galactical power (Cardassian, Klingon, Romulan - not Federation because of the Prime Directive), and they'll constantly be bothered by them.

Hope some of these are interesting

[Njxt]

Originally posted by C5
Hello and welcome to the boards, Njxt! Glad to see another froggy out there

I take it your players know Star Trek as "the series with the pointy-eared guy" (like too many people around here), right ?

Voilà.

Then I agree it's better to use very basic races.
Your choices so far seem good, don't forget humans (after all, humans do about everything in the Trekverse), since, if the players have not seen DS9, it could be easier to play than Bajorans; a Betazoid (pilot or doctor) could also be interesting (and not too hard to play), and allow the players to taste how psionic feels in Trek.

Very good idea. And I'd like to confront the Betazoid player with a Ferengi or another "mindshielded" race ... after a bunch of easy "mind reading" encounters of course

They could also have a small ship of their own, and I suggest them to be associates from the beginning of the game (maybe being some small group of freelancers). A dozen of advancements could help them being competent enough.

The small ship was obvious to me. I'd like them to discover the ship operations system, in teamwork. I believe it's one of the great qualities of the ST Universe and the Coda System.

As for the adventure, a couple of suggestions :
SNIP
Hope some of these are interesting

Quite so! Thanx.

To sum it all, the crew candidates would be :
- A Klingon or Cardassian soldier/rogue
- A Human or Bajoran pilot (ex-Star Fleet Officer)
- A Vulcan tech/engineer/science officer (mmhh ... quite typical, isn't it )
- A Betazoid diplomat/merchant/smuggler
- A Ferengi merchant/smuggler
All of them with a dozen advancements during build.

Since the players will be 4 ... I have to get rid of someone. The Ferengi probably.

[Lt Cmdr Matt]

Well you don't have to cut one, I would suggest keeping a main NPC in the crew so that you can shove the PCs in the right direction when they get way off the beaten track that you had envisioned. Not a lot, but just a couple hints dropped in