RPG Campaign Tour Challenge 2026 - DAY 2

Day 2-About your Tour Guide

"Hello and welcome! I am Ensign Shae, Chief Navigator of the United Federation of Planets starship USS Prosperity. On behalf of Starfleet Command and the UFP Council, I am honored to take you on this guided tour of Sectors X and Y in the Milky Way Galaxy's Beta Quadrant.

My commanding officer, Captain Ann Fletcher, has charged me with this task and I consider it a privilege to be able to assist visitors in better understanding this area of space.
Let's see what's out there!"

Ensign Shae of Cheron
Chief Navigator, USS Prosperity, NCC-1587
Starfleet, United Federation of Planets
Stardate 7690.2

Shae is an NPC first introduced into our campaign in an advenure in Season 4, around 2018 I believe, entitled 'The Battlefield That Time Forgot'. She is, as you can see, a Cheronian, the visually distinctive aliens from the original Star Trek Season 3 episode, 'Let This Be Our Last Battlefield'. 

Well before the events depicted in 'Let This Be Our Last Battlefield', Shae's parents were murdered by the Cheron Commission on Political Traitors as criminal dissidents. Shae was able to steal a small spacecraft and escape the planet, living on the run from that point until meeting the crew of the Prosperity. 

The Prosperity was investigating a Time/Space Anomaly when they found a single lifeform living on the moon of a planet in the star system. It turned out to be Shae, having survived on her own for a number of years, traveling from planet to planet, hiding out when Commission Officers from Cheron came looking.

Unfortunately, her latest makeshift abode came under attack from large, very strange aliens of previously unknown origin who were searching for a relic Shae had discovered. She was trying to figure out what it was when the PCs discovered her. Moments later, the aliens attacked and the PCs teamed up with Shae to fend them off. (Season 4, Episode 7, 'The Battlefield That Time Forgot'). 

This was the first part of a three part 'arc' which reveals much about the hostile aliens, their connections to a time lost Romulan ship, and the PCs being able to close the paradox loop thanks to help from Shae's knowledge of the region, as well as her expert Stellar Cartography and Navigation skills. 

Shae remains with the Prosperity as it travels back into Federation space in hopes of learning more about Starfleet and the UFPs culture. She and one of the PCs, the Andorian Chief Engineer Lt. Commander Bhoth, enter the beginning of a romantic relationship (subplot).

A few episodes later, while taking Shae back with them to Starbase 25, other Cheronian survivors show up and demand she be turned over to them. According to their leader, Commissioner Modei (pronounced Mo-Dee), they require her presence as they are a species facing extinction and she's got, um, fully functional plumbing. This doesn't sit well with Shae (surprise, surprise), nor Captain Ann Fletcher. After some conflict between the two parties, both physical and verbal, Capt. Fletcher and Lt. Commander Bhoth give her the option of Political Asylum. She takes it and essentially 'defects' to the UFP. 

Instead of being dropped off at the starbase however, Shae requests she stay on and enlist in Starfleet, taking courses to catch er up on Starfleet protocols, technology, etc. After a season or two she is Crewman Shae and then later still Ensign Shae, having completed the proper  Starfleet Academy graduction requirements. Finally she gets Bridge Certification and becomes the Prosperity's Chief Navigator (like Chekov in the original series). 

Bhoth and Shae eventually break-up, a mutual decision based on wanting and needing different things in life. They remain very close friends however and have a strong connection that continues to the current 'episodes'. She interacts with the other PCs more often now and has friends about the rest of the supporting NPCs. 

Our most recent adventure (as of this post), Season 9 Episode 3, 'A Battlefield Worth Dying On', sees the PCs and their ship invited to the struggling colony of 'New Cheron' to discuss giving them aid in exchange for them sharing their advanced technological knowledge. Shae is asked to come along by the Captain and has moments with each of the PCs who let her know they 'have her back' and stand with her given her previous negative experiences with her own people. New leadership on the colony gives the Prosperity's crew hope, though Shae remained suspicious. 

In the end, after action, adventure, and an exploration of madness and nihilism, she asserted that she got a brand new lease on life aboard the Prosperity; she is looking at the possibilities of future and not her tragic past. The Cheronians should, regardless of past sins, be given the same opportunity. "Make the most out of it. Do better."

Ensign Shae's Character Sheet:

"I look forward to showing you around Sectors T8 and T9. It's a interesting area of space with its own unique character. Ah, our Scout Ship has arrived! All aboard!

Are you ready to 'go boldly'?"

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Barking Alien

RPG Campaign Tour Challenge 2026 - DAY 1

Welcome to the first day of the first annual RPG Campaign Tour Challenge! 

I've decided to give you the grand tour of Star Trek: Prosperity!

Day 1-Campaign Introduction and Overview

Star Trek: Prosperity is a Star Trek Adventures Roleplaying Game campaign that follows the voyages of four core player character serving the command crew of the Starfleet vessel USS Prosperity, NCC-1587, a Ventura Light Cruiser, set during The Original Series era of the Star Trek universe [and franchise].

Star Trek: Prosperity is the longest running and most consistent campaign I have ever Gamemastered, lasting approximately 12 years of real time as of this writing. I consider it a great success and I am incredibly proud of it and the player participants. 

Our player characters are Dan as Captain Ann Fletcher, Alex as First Officer/Chief Engineer Tha'ar Bhoth of Andor, Leo as the young Chief Helmsman Lt. Charlie Wilder, and Arthur as Chief Science Officer Lt. Commander Rhys Carr. 

When the campaign began [approximately 12 years ago], Leo was the First Officer and Chief Science Officer Commander Solok. Solok remained First Officer until late April or early May of 2024 when he takes a short leave of absense from Starfleet to marry Prosperity's NPC Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Margaret 'Maggie' Hanover. Alex's Lt. Commander Bhoth was Chief of Security in the very beginning. Arthur's Lt. Carr was our Communications Officer and later our Security Chief. As the campaign went on the PCs changed positions and raised in rank over the course of its [now] nine 'Seasons'. 

Other players and PCs have came in and out of the campaign periodically and some of their PCs remain NPC supporting characters up to the present. Others moved on to other Starfleet  assignments I suppose. 

Premise: The campaign is about a Starfleet vessel and its crew exploring the 'Final Frontier' of deep space during the Original Series era of Star Trek. While there is a lot of focus on the player characters and their personal reasons and long terms goals regarding being in Starfleet, there is a shared objective of going where no one else has gone before.

It's classic, straightforward original series Star Trek with a little more attention given to internal consistency and continuity. What makes Star Trek: Prosperity distinct are its 'conceits'. 

Conceits: The early Seasons of the campaign, speicfically the 1st through 3rd, had the theme of underdogs trying to prove themselves:

A young female Captain trying to overcome a dicey past and make a name for herself, not for the fame and glory but in order to earn the respect of her fellow Captians and the Admiralty so she could make real change in the Galaxy. A Vulcan Science Officer from an overachieving family trying to find a way to make a name for himself and find out what that name stands for. An Andorian traded to Starfleet from the Andorian Imperial Guard, possibly to not embarass his famous General father, only to seriously butt heads with his first Human Captain. A former Starfleet Intelligence Cryptoanalyst who wanted to apply his codebreaking and language decoding talents to bringing people together instead of taking down enemies.  

The ship itself shared this same atmosphere and feeling. As a Ventura Class Light Cruiser, the Prosperity is seen as dependable but out-of-date. Once top-of-the-line, the Prosperity was launched about 15 years prior to Constitution Class starships such as the USS Enterprise (no bloody A, B, C, D, E, or anything else). Being an older vessel viewed by much of the Starfleet top brass as 'past its prime', the ship was relegated to support operations, testing new equipment, and other vital but less glamorous activities. 

Overview:

Together, this motley but professional crew and has-been vessel proved themselves time and time again, earning not only respect but admiration from Starfleet, the people of the UFP, and even their enemies. 

Over the course of the game's decade plus run, the themes and conceits have changed so much it's impossible to sum it all up in a since post. The characters have evolved and the setting has greatly expanded. The Ventura Class itself went from being in danger of being completely mothballed to redesigned and modernized by the Prosperity's Chief Engineer and now the first new Venturas in 44 years have come out of the shipyards at Mars' Utopia Planitia. 

With all that's happened is it extremely difficult to sum it up in a single post but thankfully, I don't have to! This is just Day 1; merely the beginning of the Campaign Tour Challenge.

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Barking Alien