The idea for this entry actually came to me on the 1st of May when I saw a post with the title "Campaigns I'd Like to Run" over at Age of Ravens. As it turns out, the subject is Lowell's accepted suggestion for the RPG Blog Carnival.
Generally speaking, I pattern most of my Star Trek RPG campaigns after the time honored approach most of the TV series and films have taken. Basically, the PCs are the Bridge/Command Crew of a Federation Starfleet Starship heading out where no one has headed out before.
I've always found it very interesting and a bit perplexing that the default campaign concept for Last Unicorn Games' Star Trek RPG line (the system of choice for yours truly when running my favorite IP) assumes you'll be playing 'lower decks' Starfleet officers. The game is designed around the idea that the Captain and possibly the entirety of the command staff are NPCs. The idea here being that you can get promoted as a reward in addition to standard experience points or drama points.
I've never tried this to be honest. Not really anyway. My memory may be slipping and I may have pulled it off in a one-shot or for a convention game. The true of the matter is that for the most part I have never liked this idea. It does add something to the development of the characters but it takes away their control and decision making opportunities.
While considering this one day, I came up with a way to possibly pull it off. I crossbred it with an idea for a space station setting I've always wanted to try out. In the end, the campaign focuses on lower ranking officers stationed at a Deep Space Station/Federation Research Outpost in a secluded and mysterious space sector a good distance away from the Federation frontier.
Something like this...(Do you mind if I borrow your format Lowell?)
STAR TREK: MISSION
High Concept: Adventurous young Starfleet officers attempt to unravel the mysteries of a newly opened region of space from a small, lonely research station very far from home.
Think: Star Trek: The Original Series meets Ice Station Zebra meets The Thing (John Carpenter original or the Sci-Fi novella Who Goes There by John W. Campbell Jr.).
Actually this is tough the more I think about it. Those films have the right feel of isolation and mystery I am going for but they aren't exactly right for how I picture this series. The thing is, most Sci-Fi series based on or around a space station make the assumption that the station is busy. Perhaps it is a popular meeting place, trade outpost or whathaveyou. Often it's near a wormhole, an important planet or its in a key military location.
This is none of that. This is a research station in Antarctica that someone put there so they could say they were there before someone else put something there.
Premise: In the mid-to-late 23rd Century (roughly contemporary with the last year of the USS Enterprise's (1701) first 5-year mission under Captain James T. Kirk) Starfleet makes inroads into a star sector where bizarre spatial phenomena have previously prevented entry. First discovered over 30 years ago, the dangerous and unexplained anomalies have suddenly and completely ceased.
A small research outpost, similar to Deep Space Station K-7 or a TOS version of Regula I, is placed in a system in the sector, its nearest Starfleet or Federation neighbor being a Starbase six weeks away at maximum warp. The outpost is temporary, designed to serve long enough to allow Starfleet to establish a more substantial presence in the region. After that a full scale Starbase will be placed in the Sector.
Player characters are junior officers assigned to the station in various positions (Science Officers, Engineers, Security, etc.). However, instead of spending all of their time on the station and having adventures come to them (a staple of space station based campaigns), the PCs are periodically sent out on different investigative, exploration missions aboard one of the station's Mission Class Couriers.
The campaign title, Star Trek: Mission, is therefore a play on the Mission Class ships going on smaller missions while the overall mission of the research station ties everything together.
Scattered Thoughts:
A small research outpost, similar to Deep Space Station K-7 or a TOS version of Regula I, is placed in a system in the sector, its nearest Starfleet or Federation neighbor being a Starbase six weeks away at maximum warp. The outpost is temporary, designed to serve long enough to allow Starfleet to establish a more substantial presence in the region. After that a full scale Starbase will be placed in the Sector.
Player characters are junior officers assigned to the station in various positions (Science Officers, Engineers, Security, etc.). However, instead of spending all of their time on the station and having adventures come to them (a staple of space station based campaigns), the PCs are periodically sent out on different investigative, exploration missions aboard one of the station's Mission Class Couriers.
The campaign title, Star Trek: Mission, is therefore a play on the Mission Class ships going on smaller missions while the overall mission of the research station ties everything together.
Scattered Thoughts:
- Prior to about a year before the start of the campaign, the sector of space that serves as the campaign backdrop saw random bursts of energy, some as large, and powerful as a supernova. The bursts were not exactly localized, occurring periodically at random intervals across a 50 light year radius. The source and exact nature of the energy discharges has never been determined. No one knows why the explosions stopped either.
- Everyone and everything will be upgradeable. Meaning: PCs can raise in position and rank, the Mission Class Couriers and Station can be upgraded, the station may eventually be completely replaced with an altogether better space station, etc.
- The setting would be TOS if I had my way but I could adapt it to the TOS Movie Era (Motion Picture to Voyage Home specifically) very easily.
- Some larger ships (though none as powerful as a Constitution Class) will visit the station from time to time with one, or two becoming reoccurring regulars. The PCs will get to join these ships on missions and maybe (hopefully) get to know the Captains and crews. This could lead to the PCs transferring to one of the ships later in the series/campaign, or even taking it over if they reach high enough rank and/or something happens to the original staff.
Mechanical Considerations:
- I don't have any distinct mechanical considerations at this time, probably because the LUG rules work for me as they are, and I am much less interested in rule mechanics in general than I am the characters and story. The only possible change or modification I can foresee may involve trying to adapt the old FASA RPG space combat system to LUG. I really liked how every position and specialty was integrated into starship battles. Everyone had a job and working together with a good Captain directing things was the key to winning/surviving.
OK, off to work. More to come including answers to your questions and my ideas for my Star Trek game for RECESS.
AD
Barking Alien
