Need a Trek module

[Falconer]

Friends! I asked this on my Trek boards, but I am casting a wider net because I need maximal feedback. I am looking for a module to run for a Star Trek one-shot. Recommendations??

[captainjapan]

Here is an original convention scenario in the September '79 issue of Different Worlds:

Link removed by Rafe.

Starts on page ten



diffworlds.com/dw_01-12.htm It's issue #4

[Deleted]

Oct 12, 2019 18:31:06 GMT -6 captainjapan said:

Here is an original convention scenario in the September '79 issue of Different Worlds:

Link removed by Rafe.

Starts on page ten

Hey,

I removed the link because of the usual copyright woes: "Different Worlds" is owned by Chaosium, and last I checked, there was no indication that they had declared this to have entered the public domain. - I know you mean well, but please don't publicly post links to sources you are not 100% sure are legit.

The problem here is not in the possible situational copyright violation, but in the wider consequences: The content creators we have here on the board need to feel safe about the rest of us at least not generally condoning content piracy. Sure, there is some sort of grey area to cross here, especially with super-obscure OOP stuff - but in this case, people connected to DW are known members of our community. Unless they give you the permission to share this article, we can't. So, please don't do this.

Take care,

R

[captainjapan]

Raf,

I understand. I thought archive.org was more legit than it actually is. The new link is to the owner's own site.

[Deleted]

Thank you, and no worries! Especially archive.org is exceptionally misleading, in this context. The whole "abandonware" circle is, really. - So, it's often really hard to tell what legally up there, and what's not, especially when it comes to these obscure titles. It's also not like people, whatever, would commit an atrocity by downloading a PDF, or listening to pirated music on Youtube; it's the zeitgeist, really.

The problem is, though, that money is ALWAYS more efficiently spent than on gaming/free time activities in general. So, the general idea to minimize one's own expenses is always there, as well. As in, if you allow it once, you will allow it always. And that's not a good place for a community that relies on its own creativity to move ahead.

...But we certainly are not at such a point, so - back the original topic! ...So Star Trek had an RPG? I did not even know that. ...Nice.

[Deleted]

"An Imbalance of Power" by FASA

[robertsconley]

I ran this in one Session, the players liked it a lot.

The Mission
The player's ship is assigned to go to where the USS Defiant was lost (see "Tholian Web") and drop navigation buoys to mark the area as hazardous due to the region of time-space instability. The ship is modified with a warp injector unit give a temporary (5 min) increase to warp power to allow the ship to quickly leave the region if area expands unexpectedly.

The Incident
The ship makes to the region and begins dropping buoys. A 1/3 of the way through setting up the array of buoys, sense show a klingon D-7 emerging from the region of time-space instability. The regions suddenly expands engulfing the ship. The warp injector is used and it is successful in getting the ship far away from the area.

However Communication notes that Starfleet's subspace network can no longer be reached. The D-7 that they sensed earlier was no where to be found.

The Situation

So what happened was that the klingon D-7 used the interphase area as a means of time travel. They went back to the year 1962, traveled to Earth, and launch Nuclear missiles at the United States and the Soviet Union. The resulting war wrecked Earth as a technological civilization and aborted the creation of the Federation.

The alternate present in which the players find themselves is one where three militant empire are facing one another; a much larger Klingon Empire, the Romulan Empire, and the Andorian Star Empire. The players can detect the subspace network of all three empires and use that to determine where the borders are. Of the three the players are the closest to the Andorians.

In the session I ran, the players went to an Andorian starbase and was successful in negotiating with them for docking, refit, and resupply in exchange for technology. There was a short debate over whether this violated the Prime Directive, with the Captain deciding no it didn't. This was TOS era game so the Prime Directive was understood as applying mostly to pre-warp civilizations.

They found that the Solar System still existed and got permission to journey there. When they got there they were ambushed by the original time line Klingon Ship and fought them. We used the FASA starship combat system. After the battle they detected Klingons on the Earth's surface and beamed down to deal with them. Which also resulted in a firefight amid the radioactive ruins of Washington DC.

When they won, the players further investigated. They found that the Earth has been blasted back to the stone age in a nuclear war. Radioactive dating traced it back to 1962 and the Cuban Missile Crisis. Using command authorization from the Captain, First Officer, and Chief Science Officer, they unlocked the stored trajectory for time warp via a slingshot around the sun.

They arrived in 1962, and hid behind the moon. When the Klingons arrives they ambushed them and won the battle easily. Thus preventing the Klingons from igniting World War 3. Then they slingshotted back to the future and found the timeline has been restored.

Side Notes
I glossed over the obviously long trek from where they emerge from the time-space distortion to meeting the Andorians, to going to Earth. It is possible to turn that whole voyage into a campaign within a campaign. But I opted not too making the whole thing into a "episode" of the campaign I was running with FASA Star Trek RPG.

After the investigating the Earth and putting together all the pieces the players had a hour long debate over the ethics of the restoring the timeline. While I didn't make the voyage journey into a mini-campaign, I was able to effectively convey that the new timeline had a life of its own.

The Captain players was literally sweating and looked around at everyone and say "How do I make a decision like this?" Ultimately he decided to restore the original time-line saying trillons died in the first place to make this timeline happen, my oath is to them, not to these people.

The ground combat on Earth was purely gratuitous. Feel free to omit it. The starship combat however was crucial to the tension as the players didn't know what to expect.

Anyway beyond the above outline I was able to wing nearly all of it based on my mastery of the Star Trek RPG and my knowledge of Star Trek lore. I consider it one of the best roleplaying sessions I ever ran.

[Falconer]

Oct 12, 2019 19:30:53 GMT -6 Piper said:

I'm a big fan of "A Doomsday Like Any Other." Entry on Memory Alpha

I really appreciate the replies, especially those who recommended The Vanished and A Doomsday Like Any Other. These two adventures were named by multiple people on multiple sites (unless it is the same two people!), and I will definitely keep those in mind for the future.

This time around, I ended up running Hard Rock Catastrophe (Mophidius) with “The Slaver Ruins” (from Star Trek: Adventure Gaming in the Final Frontier) added in. Thanks to those who recommended these, as well. Great fun!

[skars]

Anytime you can work in the Kobayashi Maru, I highly recommend it. I participated in a year long campaign (by rev Keith) as the second string crew aboard a ship aptly named. But in particular I used the West end games solo game.parts for a good one shot