Captain on the bridge!
Interesting weekend if not necessarily the best for gaming.
Saturday ended up not being much of an anniversary celebration much to my dismay, though the three of us who showed up did have some laughs and in the end that's all the matters.
The adventure with the kids today was rough, as many of them just couldn't focus, think creatively or even sit still. End of summer blues played a big part I think.
With my current gaming status in transition, my mind drifted back to the good old days of gaming and, since I am talking Star Trek this month, that meant reminiscing about old Star Trek campaigns. This post by Blacksteel helped as well. I helped him, he helped me and maybe this story will inspire him or someone else. That's some damn Circle of Life stuff that is.
Interesting weekend if not necessarily the best for gaming.
Saturday ended up not being much of an anniversary celebration much to my dismay, though the three of us who showed up did have some laughs and in the end that's all the matters.
The adventure with the kids today was rough, as many of them just couldn't focus, think creatively or even sit still. End of summer blues played a big part I think.
With my current gaming status in transition, my mind drifted back to the good old days of gaming and, since I am talking Star Trek this month, that meant reminiscing about old Star Trek campaigns. This post by Blacksteel helped as well. I helped him, he helped me and maybe this story will inspire him or someone else. That's some damn Circle of Life stuff that is.
So, using the Guardian of Forever, I take you back to 1985 (I think) and the adventures of...
Star Trek: Fedifensor
Star Trek, The Role Playing Game by FASA
Names have been changed to protect the innocent.
The Crew
Mark - Human, Captain, CO - Just recently promoted at the start of the campaign.
Dave - Half-Human, Half-Vulcan, Cmdr, XO/Helmsman. Eventually become a Captain.
Richard - Human, Lt. Cmdr, Chief Engineer - Really hates Klingons. Cybernetic arm and leg.
Dan - Andorian, Lt., Doctor - Twisted sense of humor. Often scared his patients.
Brian - Human, Enlisted-Chief, Security Chief - Skilled with archaic weapons (sword, bow & arrow, etc.).
Occasionally...
Wanda - Human, Lt., Chief Science Officer - Played a few times. Otherwise used as NPC.
Eric - Andorian, Enlisted, Tactical Officer, Asst. Chief of Security - Played a few times. Otherwise used as NPC.
Adam* - Arkenite, Ensign, Chief Navigator - *Me! Played when someone else GMed. Only a couple of times. Otherwise used as NPC.
The Ship
The USS Fedifensor, a Remora Class Escort assigned to a routine patrol of the Romulan Neutral Zone.
Initially identical to the Remora Class in the FASA Federation Starship Recognition Manual, our ship had several updates over the course of the initial 6 months of play. Few of the alterations and customizations were major until right before the part of the campaign I am going to tell you about in a moment. The most significant change was improved Photon Torpedoes and Shields and a more developed backstory and greater usage of the fin/wing like modular mission pods seen on either side of the ship.
Although slightly more combat and espionage oriented than most of my Star Trek campaigns (actually my very first one was as well...hmmm), Fedifensor still saw it's share of discovery, god-like aliens and the menace of time travel. However, it is a particular point in the history of this campaign that I want to address.
After months of running this campaign (set during the TOS motion pictures), the player of the first officer PC got a job working (or maybe taking some classes or something) on our game day. In a big farewell blowout adventure, the PC becomes captain of his own ship, the more exploration minded USS Nirvana, and takes off at the end on his own missions.
About 2 weeks later I get to talk to Dave, the player of the first officer turned captain, at length. Turns out he had begun running a Star Trek campaign of his own. Dave's younger brother played his former character and the campaign followed the adventures of his new ship in roughly the same area of space as the campaign I was running. We stayed in touch, traded notes and soon it was clear to any player of either campaign that the continuity of the two games was a shared one.
A few months go by and Dave and I are at the local Pizza place when a good friend of ours walked in. We hadn't seen Mike in forever. He was older than us, a former counselor at our camp and had joined the navy but was back for a while it seemed. Asking us if we still gamed we told him about our Trek games. He flipped out. A huge fan of Star Trek and a big gamer he wanted in but neither game met with his schedule. Using our campaigns as a basis, we helped Mike develop his own to run with a few friends and navy buddies. Then it hit me...all three campaigns were in the same sector of space.
It all culminated a few months after that. Rumours and side adventures in all three campaigns led to the discovery of an alien species of energy beings that were possessing people throughout the Federation and the Klingon Empire. Everything led up to a potential take over of our sector headquarters, Starbase Templar.
What happened next became legend in our gaming circles for years afterward (dramatic, no?). Three GMs, 17 players, three Starships...a 24 hour gaming session that featured a battle between the forces of the alien invasion and the PC crews and their vessels. In the end, 4 PCs were killed, including the former first officer turned captain, Dave's old character, who sacrificed himself and destroyed his own vessel to eliminate the dimensional portal the aliens were using to enter our reality.
We boldly gamed where no one had gamed before!
Hope you enjoyed my little trip down memory (Alpha) lane.
Still more to come.
AD
Barking Alien
Star Trek: Fedifensor
Star Trek, The Role Playing Game by FASA
Names have been changed to protect the innocent.
The Crew
Mark - Human, Captain, CO - Just recently promoted at the start of the campaign.
Dave - Half-Human, Half-Vulcan, Cmdr, XO/Helmsman. Eventually become a Captain.
Richard - Human, Lt. Cmdr, Chief Engineer - Really hates Klingons. Cybernetic arm and leg.
Dan - Andorian, Lt., Doctor - Twisted sense of humor. Often scared his patients.
Brian - Human, Enlisted-Chief, Security Chief - Skilled with archaic weapons (sword, bow & arrow, etc.).
Occasionally...
Wanda - Human, Lt., Chief Science Officer - Played a few times. Otherwise used as NPC.
Eric - Andorian, Enlisted, Tactical Officer, Asst. Chief of Security - Played a few times. Otherwise used as NPC.
Adam* - Arkenite, Ensign, Chief Navigator - *Me! Played when someone else GMed. Only a couple of times. Otherwise used as NPC.
The Ship
The USS Fedifensor, a Remora Class Escort assigned to a routine patrol of the Romulan Neutral Zone.
Initially identical to the Remora Class in the FASA Federation Starship Recognition Manual, our ship had several updates over the course of the initial 6 months of play. Few of the alterations and customizations were major until right before the part of the campaign I am going to tell you about in a moment. The most significant change was improved Photon Torpedoes and Shields and a more developed backstory and greater usage of the fin/wing like modular mission pods seen on either side of the ship.
Although slightly more combat and espionage oriented than most of my Star Trek campaigns (actually my very first one was as well...hmmm), Fedifensor still saw it's share of discovery, god-like aliens and the menace of time travel. However, it is a particular point in the history of this campaign that I want to address.
After months of running this campaign (set during the TOS motion pictures), the player of the first officer PC got a job working (or maybe taking some classes or something) on our game day. In a big farewell blowout adventure, the PC becomes captain of his own ship, the more exploration minded USS Nirvana, and takes off at the end on his own missions.
About 2 weeks later I get to talk to Dave, the player of the first officer turned captain, at length. Turns out he had begun running a Star Trek campaign of his own. Dave's younger brother played his former character and the campaign followed the adventures of his new ship in roughly the same area of space as the campaign I was running. We stayed in touch, traded notes and soon it was clear to any player of either campaign that the continuity of the two games was a shared one.
A few months go by and Dave and I are at the local Pizza place when a good friend of ours walked in. We hadn't seen Mike in forever. He was older than us, a former counselor at our camp and had joined the navy but was back for a while it seemed. Asking us if we still gamed we told him about our Trek games. He flipped out. A huge fan of Star Trek and a big gamer he wanted in but neither game met with his schedule. Using our campaigns as a basis, we helped Mike develop his own to run with a few friends and navy buddies. Then it hit me...all three campaigns were in the same sector of space.
It all culminated a few months after that. Rumours and side adventures in all three campaigns led to the discovery of an alien species of energy beings that were possessing people throughout the Federation and the Klingon Empire. Everything led up to a potential take over of our sector headquarters, Starbase Templar.
What happened next became legend in our gaming circles for years afterward (dramatic, no?). Three GMs, 17 players, three Starships...a 24 hour gaming session that featured a battle between the forces of the alien invasion and the PC crews and their vessels. In the end, 4 PCs were killed, including the former first officer turned captain, Dave's old character, who sacrificed himself and destroyed his own vessel to eliminate the dimensional portal the aliens were using to enter our reality.
We boldly gamed where no one had gamed before!
Hope you enjoyed my little trip down memory (Alpha) lane.
Still more to come.
AD
Barking Alien
This is a dream of mine - multiple GM's, multiple parties, all coming together for an epic confrontation that becomes a legend - and you have lived it sir.
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