Soon going to Run and Enterprise-Era RPG

[Adm. Warren]

I would like suggestions on what can be done with an Enterprise Era series. Has anyone run a game like this? I was thinking about a Voyager type series, but with an NX class ship. thanks

[Joe Dizzy]

My current game is set in the NX-era. I've run one season so far, and will start Season 2 tomorrow. I've written about my outline for it here (It's the thread nobody's posting in.. )

I think the main differences to the other Trek series is that space in this era is more dangerous, chaotic and violent. It has a much stronger frontier feel than either TOS or DS9.
Aliens are distrustful more often than they are friendly and humans in general have to make a name for themselves first. It's low-tech. Compared to the later series, the ships seem to run on steam and good faith alone.
I also think that the missions these ships take on are bigger and have far-reaching consequences. Starfleet's first ships are the stuff of legend by the time Kirk or Picard start thinking about joining Starfleet.

Generally I'd go for exploration, first contact and combat missions (securing frontiers, defending outposts, etc.). The bigger, the better. I feel that trying to have low-profile missions during this era is kind of missing the point.

And whatever you do.. avoid time-travel!

[tmutant]

I agree with Joe. Think Drake, Magellan, Columbus. Voyages that change the way humanity looks at the universe, leading eventually to the foundation of the Federation. Big stuff.

[Antonsb214]

Since there is no Federation at this point, you don't have to go nearly as far as Voyager to get that feel, or you could run into a wormhole and just end up at the edge of the galaxy, 100 years before Kirk. The possibilities are only limited by your imagination. Warp drive isn't nearly as fast as it is in TNG, subspace radio is slower, and if you're out of range of a subspace relay, that leaves you to conventional radio. It doesn't take much to put an NX-class in a situation which would take it a couple of years or even decades to get home.

[BouncyCaitian]

Here's a little nugget I ran at a Convention to give a feel for NX-Era

Earthdate: (Whatever suits the GM).

System: 15 Lyncis (contains a certain felinoid species that shall go nameless lest Paramount get cranky). General tech level, about 50 years behind earth.

Situation: Relations between the Vulcans and the Andorians have been fluid over the last few months and it appears that the Ceasefire between both races has broken down due to a squabble over resources present in the 15 Lyncis system. The (insert ship name here) has been sent by Starfleet /UESPA to help negotiate a scaling down of hostilities between the hostile parties at the behest of Commander Shran.
As the players ship comes into system, the Vulcan/Andorian ships open fire on each other near the third planet (Homeworld fore the local species). After a few minutes of trying to get things calmed down (players discretion), the Players notice a cluster of ship launches from the second planet in the system (primary colony and major orbital shipyard for the system).
The locals do not have a real warp drive to speak of and impulse is a rather crude chemical Internally-Metered-Pulse drive and are using a gravitic 'traction' drive to a) gravity whip around the second planets primary moon to gather speed and b) charge capacitors for weapons platforms and the igniters for the impulse drive. The distortion in the gravity field should draw some interest from sciences as well as the cross chatter from the aliens (who aren't too happy with two powers playing ' have a nuke' on their front doorstep.
Should the players try to contact the locals, they will be polite, but business like as they head for the Vulcan/Andorian armadas. intent on firing a spread of atomics via capacitor charge mass drivers.

potential complications: For those who like the TCW-angle from Enterprise, the Suliban and 'Shadowman ' would like to hose over the <name of fuzzy species deleted by Paramount Legal Department>'s entry into the proto-Federation for reason of thier own (my version was to deny the Federation the shipyard capability, which in certain offical publications, was listed behind Utopia Planetia for sheer size and volume of ships they coudl pump out).
The Suliban cause one of the Vulcan ships to fire a photon torpedo at a tectonically vulnerable are on homeworld, activating a volcanic chain. lots of player possabilites here as they try to help.
Andorian/Vulcan Skullduggery: The Andorians are sponsoring the aliens for the reason of access to resources and as a stick in the eye to the Vulcans (who are nervous having a Andorian ally so close to Vulcan space), and are more than annoyed with the Vulcans (who came in and set up a dilythium mining operation on the 6th planet and didn't bother telling the locals).
The Vulcans, on the other hand, think the aliens are too primitive to exploit the local resources (true), and will not prosper under the Andorians other than as a protectorate (not entirely true).
The aliens would prefer that both sides get out of thier system at this point.

Things to keep in mind when doing that 'rough and ready' feel:
1. given that Starfleet vessels are still relatively fragile compare to the other powers, suiting up before going into combat (keeping helmet slung off the suit,with gloves nearby for quick seal) might be SOP for Starfleet.
2. I stuck a protoype sheild generator on the NX-03 challenger. It was debatable if the silly thing would work at all (did when a nearbye ship went up in a M/AM explosion. They had to reset the sheild capacitors when it was done, but it did work.
3. Universal Translator....isn't
4. Bad movie night on the ship. A little thing to remind the players why they are out there...aside from wanting to explore. Actually it give them an incentive to explore. Finding better cinema.
5. No Holodecks.
6. Boredom: when faced with this, players can come up with all sorts of interesting ways to keep themselves occupied. I stick little things like this in occasionally to sneak in the isolation feel. Tends to work.
7. Think submarine, not starship: This might be an oddish way of thinking, but given the small crew and primitive conditions, the players got a 'submarine' mentality going for the characters, tending to jump at every little noise I snuck in.
8. Enginnering is usually busy: let's be honest. Each of the NX class has it's own little quirks that will show up. play this for all it's worth
9. Atomics: Yes, I know The NX-class carry Photonics. But nuclear detonation charges and missles are probably a still in inventory somwhere.

As it stands, this went over extremely well at the convention and people had a ball playing the characters. hope it's of some help