TMP - The Price of Freedom - Adventure Help

[Morticutor_UK]

OK, so I am planning a Movie Period one-shot session - immediately after the Khitomer Accords. The Federation is trying to make nice with the Klingons, while the Romulans are planning to destabilise them both, if possible - or at least destroy the peace.

Now The Undiscovered Country is my favourite film, and I wanted to catch the fun, ott attitude, and zeitgeist of it.

The only problem is that I can't decide how to do it.

My first plot is that a client race of the Klingons is encouraged by the Romulans to shrug off their master's reign - just when the Federation starship happens to stop by.

This one starts with a rigged transport explodes in a docking bay, destroying a Klingon starbase. The Crew are redirected to a nearby planet and treated to a meal by the planetary governor and the Romulan Ambassador. During the night, the locals (the same ones to blow up the starbase) rebel. Cue pitched battle (as the Crew have to stay on the planet "for security", and can't leave Klingon space for the same reasons). They get passed from one side to another, hopefully try to negotiate and then find out that the Ambassador was behind it.

The second one involves the normalisation of the Klingon-Federation border. Cue the Marquis, a hundred years early. This one I like, but need Romulans somewhere believable - maybe willing to step in as a third party mediator? (oh, the irony)

The last one is the sketchiest, but involves some (better written) version of Nemesis, leading to the Romulans returning to isolationsism as they attempt to recover from the Big Bad Thing (TM).

So, thoughts? Suggestions?

[Evil Kirk]

Originally posted by Morticutor_UK
OK, so I am planning a Movie Period one-shot session - immediately after the Khitomer Accords. The Federation is trying to make nice with the Klingons, while the Romulans are planning to destabilise them both, if possible - or at least destroy the peace.

Just something to chew on...

The Romulans could also use Hardcore Old Guard Fedaration and Klingon types (surely those who conspired in the film aren't the only ones who feel that way) as dupes. Give rebel elements in both fleets key intelligence on where to strike, that kind of thing.

I agree it was a very good Trek, but TWOK is still my #1.

-Evil Kirk

[Morticutor_UK]

Yeah, I did think of that for the colonial rebellion thing, and would enjoy play up the whole trying to get over teh KLingons as enemies and the wierdness of having to accept them. I actually thought of a Human brought up as a Romulan, or vise versa (couldn't you see the Vulcans going nuts to get hold of someone brought up as a Romulan?).

With the Zeitgeist thing, I wanted to do something reflecting the current issues around us. For example, the fall of the Klingons is obviously the USSR, leaving small ventures - nice sticky moral issues over ethic cleansing, intervention (Liberia?) and the like, with the Romulans merely exacerbating and tiring the Federation-Klingon peace .

How about this? A new race, similar to Romulans, with personal cloaks appears - they're one of the colonies that broke off from the exodus and this sets off the Romulans (to get them) and the Federation, hoping to glean more info from the cousins of their enemies...

Damn. Too many good ideas...

[7 of 11]

Well you did say Movies-era, but you liked The Undiscovered country right? Well use modern events and apply them to Star Trek (Maquis strike Earth, Vulcan, Andor, or Alpha Centurian, etc.) and the Federation seeks to "Bring Jusitce" to the Marquis once and for all. The crew is assign to locate, capture (if possible), or destroy the Maquis's Base of Operation. So the hunt of the leader of the Maquis is a cat and mouse game of capturing clones, destroying empty bases and ships until a final showdown! My personnel favorite (I'm working on it now) is the son of Khan. He may have been left on City Alpha 5 to lead the people until his father returned. Khan was married to a Starfleet Officer and they may have had a son and the son seeks revenge on Starfleet for what they did to his parents. The crew responds to a distress call and it's the son of Khan in waiting to ambush the first Starfleet vessel it encounters. That's me though and it's just a thought we've been thinking about. Good luck!

7 of 11

[Capt. K. Vaughn]

You could remove the starship resources in the first idea by having the station explode during the planetary visit. While the majority of PCs are planet bound, the starship races off to assist survivors of the catastrophe, the next system over.

Unfortunately, this also signals the revolt on the planet but it starts quietly so that the PCs don't get wind of it until it is too late to call their ship back.

Regards,
CKV.

[redwood973]

The Klingon Station is in orbit of the soon to be rebellious planet. Constructed from resouces from the planet (and slave labor of the natives perhaps) the station is one of the most productive construction docks in the Empire.

An already restless population has been manipulated into a riotous mob by a small elite force of Romulan special forces. Trained, equiped and lead by the Romulans a small force of natives is prepared to through off the Klingon yoke.

In an unpresidented show of openness the Klingons invite the Federation to visit the orbital station. Such an unexpected show of friendship can not be turned down, and the crew's ship is assigned the mission.

Onced docked to the station the crew is welcomed, reluctantly, by the stations command personnel, the Planetay Governor and a few of his staff. The crew are invited to take a tour, which goes smoothly enough. Some areas of the station are avoided and a few of the two crews verbally trade shots at one another. One of the Governor's adjutants is a little distracting, encouraging the Governor to speed thing up so he may return to the surface to attend to work left undone. The longer the tour takes the more anxious the adjutant is to get planetside.

The tour now over, rather than having the crew dine with the staitons command staff as planned, the Planetary Governor invites (against the advice of his adjutant) the crew and station's command crew to dine with him at his estate planetside. More anxious to get to the unfinished work waiting the adjutant does not put up much of an argument and everyone goes planetside.

While being entertained at the estate on the planet below a matter/antimatter containment field rigged to fail sets of an explosion in one of the stations docking bays. In an instant half the station is now gone. The rest, burning and laid waste. The crews ship is badly damaged. She has minimal power and the crew must fight to keep her from becoming a total loss. It will be impossible for her to get back to Federation space under her own power.

The destruction of the Station signals the start of the rebellion. Small organized bands of locals strike all over the planet. The native forces, obviously led by a very intelligent strategist, make impressive gains. Soon unorganized native mobs take to the street to aid in the battle agains the Klingons.

The ships crew, stranded by their loss of communication with the ship, are accused of organizing the rebellion. Taken prisoner by the Klingons, throughout the night they find themselves freed (by their own action or that of the natives) only to fall into the hands of the natives. It is up to the crew to discover the Romulan forces which are leading the rebellion. Deprived of this asset the rebellion quickly falls apart.

Once the orbital station no longer command the space above small number of ships take to space from the surface. Intended to take control of the planets spacelanes (and salvage what could be from the orbital station), this small band, once the surface rebellion is crushed, becomes a thorn in the side to both the Klingons and the Federation (who is blamed for the failure of the rebellion). Fearful of Kligon reprisal once they learn of the rebellions failure, they flee. Exiled from their home they survive by raiding commerce and colonies in the area of the Federation/Klingon boarder.

The Federation must find a way to stop the attacks without appearing to aid them, or become involved in a war with the Klingons, or falling into open warfare with the rebellion survivors. With the Klingons base of operations (the Station) destroyed perhaps the whole sector falls into turmoil. Every speices in the sector is trying to take the place of the Klingons in the power vacuum created. Small band of petty thugs become warlords, oppressing populations where they can, leaving only when a bigger bully comes along. Among this mess the Klingon send a fleet to restore order. . .which by Klingon standards means more bloodshed. Should the Federation intervene? Don't forget behind this all are the Romulans.

Looks to me like you have the start of a whole series, not just one session.

[IceGiant]

Redwood,

You sir are amazing. Nicely written. This scenario with minor tweaking works for other time periods as well.

[Owen E Oulton]

Good boy, redwood. Take a biscuit from petty cash.

[redwood973]

Thanks guys.

[Morticutor_UK]

Nice one, with one extra thought - I had planned on the Romulans pushing the Klingons to retaliate as hard as possible, leaving their Federation allies to either condemn or aid the Klingons in their counter-insurgency, either making it look like the Federation really is a "Humans-only club", or pitching them into a morally dubious position. Cue Romulan ambassadors offering aid from the evil Federation-Klingon alliance and hoovering up lots of little nations for their empire...

My guys like the Romulans and really need something that pitches them in at a higher level...Maybe I SHOULD rewrite Nemesis!

I had planned on an informal series, like the movies - referring to previous events, but less regular than a weekly session.

Usually I work low-key - I'm having trouble coming up with kewl stunts...

[Evil Kirk]

Sounds with this route, for much of the series you could simply re-work some news stories about the Chechnya situation. You wanted to be topical, right?

[Morticutor_UK]

Chechnya. After the opening of the USSR, satellite nations break away. Mother Russia doesn't let them, and we end up with a bloody war of freedom or terrorism, depending on who you ask. Is this right?

It doesn't come up in the news very often, but I think that's how it goes. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

Well, then we have the Federation beign asked for aid maybe, because the breakaway state has some kind of mineral necessary for the recovery of Qo'noS's atmosphere, or mayeb a fleet installed to protect against the Romulans, or some other reason to really need to hold on. (Shipyards?). This puts the Federation in the situation of being asked to aid oppression and so sends out an envoy to put off the decision - uh, that is, evaluate their ability to help.

From what I remember, the main thing about the Chechnya war is the brutality of the Russians. Perfect for the Empire, which probably wouldn't even think of their actions as war crimes. Obviously the nation may seek allies in the Romulan Senate, but where does the Federation fit in? This seems like one of those "humans are killers but we choose not to kill today" kind of episodes, but I can't quite fit it in anywhere... Any thoughts?

Good thinking that man, thanks for reminding me about that one. And after this, maybe it should be the "USS StarHawk Down"...

[Tobian]

Since this is themed after the Undiscovered Country, where the Klingon Homeworld is heavily damaged (environmentally) by the explosion of Praxis, the best angle in would be the Federation's teraforming and weather modification technology, which especially given the klingon High command's awareness of the Genesis device (in the movie era), will be first and foremost in their minds.

Perhaps you could have a large research facility overtaken by Starfleet personel in this system, basically working on an environmental filter and weather modification satelite array, which it will use on Qo'nos. The Crew of your ship might simply be there to relieve some of the Starfleet crew and bring them additional supplies.

This idea could give you alot of milieage to continue on the tensions from the film. Once the rebelion kicks off, the research colony will become political prisoners, so you have a Starfleet ship right in the middle of the tensions, with possibly no Klingon ships in orbit to do anything about it. Then obviously the Klingons would arrive (probably in large numbers) and start arguing with the Federation ship over the situation. The Federation ship obviously has to stay to protect it's crew and are probably going to be contacted by the rebels to assist them (The prime directive means they can't interfere and Starfleet isn't supposed to get themselves involved in internal political matters, but the issue becomes cloudy when the rebels ask for help directly and the federation is often a mediator in disputes). You could also throw in a little *undiscovered country* style tension when it is revealed that the satelites actually have weapons systems on board. Perhaps it was the Rebels, hoping to strike a bitter blow to the klingons, Perhaps it was a disgruntled Starfleet admiral who wanted to continue the work of his predecessors and finish off the klingons, or maybe it's the klingons, and they have corrupted the project to be a strategic defense system, which it intends to deploy around all their systems (as in the Cardassians Chintoka defense platforms).. Which leaves your players to try and figure out what the hell is going on