Plot Suggestions for Star Trek RPG

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Baffalo
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Plot Suggestions for Star Trek RPG

Post by Baffalo »

Hey guys,

I'm trying to run a Star Trek RPG for some friends, using either this microlite d20 system or the old FASA Star Trek RPG (Jury's still out on which). I'd love to craft an interesting, thought provoking set of scenarios while still keeping it fun and light-hearted. Any suggestions?
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The Romulan Republic
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Re: Plot Suggestions for Star Trek RPG

Post by The Romulan Republic »

What time period are you setting it in?
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Re: Plot Suggestions for Star Trek RPG

Post by Elheru Aran »

Yeah, time period is important. You have some situational dynamics in TNG that aren't present in TOS, to toss out just one example.
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Re: Plot Suggestions for Star Trek RPG

Post by Mr Bean »

Random suggestions since you did not include time period
1. It's 2387, the Romulan Empire has collapsed, Spock has failed, Romulus was destroyed and the nearby powers are dealing with the fact one of the key Alpha Quadrant players has just collapsed. The Romulan military is fragmenting, pirates and outlaws are moving into the now fractured former Romulan empire. It's up to the players to re-unite the Empire or assist in breaking it up to claim the best bits for whoever they back.

You can have the players doing everything from trying to find statesmen to put in power to assembling a puppet government to keep things going to any one of a thousand things when a dozen worlds find themselves leaderless and the main portion of the government vanishes.

2. It's 2375 the Treaty of Bajor has just been signed and things start to return to normal. However the UFP is dealing with the problem of having tens of thousands of active duty personnel who have been harden in war. The normal peace time operation tempo is being strained as many who enlisted return home and others are assigned duty stations and orders they are ill equipped to handle. Imagine the players having to deal with a captain handling trade disputes who six months ago was having his second ship shot out from under him fighting the Dominion. The players can be fresh face recruits trained for a war they never fought of veterans trying to deal with peace time issues not war time threats.


3.It's 2370 the ink is still drying on the Federation-Cardassian Treaties when the Maquis came to be. However in this verson some Starfleet ships has defected or worse an entire sector fleet has gone rogue trying to push back the Cardassians and the players are tossed into it, as either crew on the rogue ships or as part of the response. It's very clear the Maquis have a point but their methods border on warcrimes and there are whispers of a bioweapon that has been used twice already to sterilize Cardassian colony worlds.

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Re: Plot Suggestions for Star Trek RPG

Post by Tribble »

Here's a couple of ideas to kick things off.

1) Remember the alien parasites from TNG's "Conspiracy"? While the initial invasion had been stopped, a signal had been sent out into the depths of space revealing the Federation and Earth's location. Perhaps you could do a scenario where they return, via infiltration and potentially with a fleet of ships. You'd could end up having both big starship battles and infiltration/conspiracy plots going on at the same time.

2) The PCs starship has been sent to retrieve one of the technologies of the week as it is now ready to enter mass-production. However they arrive only to find it/the blueprints stolen, and now have to go on a mission to retrieve it. Preferably said technology would have been one of the game-changers which should have been adopted by Starfleet, but was ignored after the episode aired. It's a simple way to start things off, but there are plenty of ways it could branch out. Hell, it could even end up branching into option 1, with the parasites having stolen it in preparations for their invasion.

As for things being light-hearted, you could always throw in a Tribble infestation or two :P

What do you think?
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The Romulan Republic
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Re: Plot Suggestions for Star Trek RPG

Post by The Romulan Republic »

If you're going for something lighter, Q is always good for some laughs.

Maybe start out with something ordinary, like a routine exploration mission or colonization mission, and have it snowball into something bigger.

Probably best to avoid the DS9 area or a major Borg incursion if you want lighter.
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Re: Plot Suggestions for Star Trek RPG

Post by Elheru Aran »

Q would be inevitably a GM NPC character... because if you think about it from the Darths and Droids perspective, that's basically what he is-- an omnipotent NPC that directs the action as he wants while the not-omnipotent characters have to try and figure their way out of the situations he gets them into.

I can see DS9 being a feature as a 'town' one can visit on the way. Perhaps you have to go look for clues in Quark's, or something. Or maybe the Cardassians have occupied it, so your players have to lay low and steal the plans from the commander's desk.

Or you could set it in the transitional period between the end of Voyager and the start of STO, and have the ship being part of the Federation's tentative initial explorations into the Delta Quadrant...
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Re: Plot Suggestions for Star Trek RPG

Post by Baffalo »

Terribly sorry for not posting the era. I was thinking late TOS era early Movies era, preferably playing true to the original depictions of Klingons and Romulans.
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Re: Plot Suggestions for Star Trek RPG

Post by Tribble »

Baffalo wrote:Terribly sorry for not posting the era. I was thinking late TOS era early Movies era, preferably playing true to the original depictions of Klingons and Romulans.
Well if its the TOS movies era, you could always have the PCs go on a whale hunt. :P

EDIT: Oh, how about this? That whale-probe thingy from Star Trek IV is headed to the Klingon homeworld, and alas, they don't have any whales either. Your PC's first mission is to retrieve the humpback whales and make it to the Klingon homeworld to beam them down. Only problem is, the Romulans are aware of the plan and have sent a ship out to intecept and destroy the PCs ship before it could make it.

You could have action, drama and sillyness all at the same time!

And don't forget the Tribble infestation.
Last edited by Tribble on 2015-03-10 05:30pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Plot Suggestions for Star Trek RPG

Post by The Romulan Republic »

How about a first contact mission? If it goes fairly well, that gives you a lighter story (the Federation making friends with a new civilization) but it also has such vast ramifications that it allows for a deeper and more complex story. You could also get some large-scale politics in their with the Klingons and Romulans meddling in local affairs.
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Re: Plot Suggestions for Star Trek RPG

Post by Napoleon the Clown »

First contact mission on one of the goofy worlds that have a theme planet-wide. Like the planet of gangsters.


Plenty of opportunities for legitimate drama, but also plenty of absurdity to keep it fun and light-hearted on the whole.
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Re: Plot Suggestions for Star Trek RPG

Post by Jaepheth »

The party's ship breaks down near a disputed border.

Immediate concern is to get life support back up.

After that though, do you risk sending a general distress signal? What if the "bad guys" get there first and try to take you prisoner?

Also... how the hell did the primary and redundant systems all fail simultaneously? Bad luck? or is there a saboteur(s) on board?

May need to figure that out before they possibly strike again.
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Re: Plot Suggestions for Star Trek RPG

Post by biostem »

It'd be very cool, if doing it in TOS era, to address the apparent demilitarization that took place between TOS and TNG. Maybe there was a small but significant segment of Starfleet that was plotting an overthrow, or just deal with the political machinations in general.

Another potentially interesting story to take part in would be one where Starfleet tried to implement a non-human-dominated crew - I'm not just talking about a "Vulcan ship" or something - but a ship were many different species were operating a vessel together - with humans being a very small percentage of the crew.

One final idea I always wanted to see realized - imagine if Starfleet decided to test a new concept - no longer would 1 lone ship be sent out - now, a group of 3 smaller, (though still fully capable), vessels would travel and undertake missions together. One ship would be designated as the lead vessel, with a captain in charge, while the other 2 would be commanded by commanders instead. This could open up a whole new approach to issues, and each craft could support the others - maybe even each having their own focus - like one carrying a better suite of sensors and science facilities, another having better combat ability, and the 3rd providing extra cargo and repair facilities.
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Re: Plot Suggestions for Star Trek RPG

Post by White Haven »

And since that didn't become standard procedure going forwards, it's safe to say that it, ah, didn't go well, which provides ample grist for fucking with your players. :twisted:
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Re: Plot Suggestions for Star Trek RPG

Post by The Romulan Republic »

Or it didn't become standard procedure because the Federation didn't have enough ships to send three everywhere they needed a ship.
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Re: Plot Suggestions for Star Trek RPG

Post by Tribble »

Or how about using the rank of Commodore? I'm pretty sure I heard about commodores being mentioned, just never seen.
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Re: Plot Suggestions for Star Trek RPG

Post by The Romulan Republic »

According to Memory Alpha, Matt Decker from The Doomsday Machine was a commodore.
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Re: Plot Suggestions for Star Trek RPG

Post by Baffalo »

Here's what I have so far...

The players are all fresh from Starfleet Academy, serving as ensigns aboard a pre-refit Constitution Class starship assigned to Starbase 10, which serves as headquarters for Starfleet operations in the Triangle. The Triangle is so named because it brushes the three major powers: The Federation, Klingons, and Romulans. Each have their own interests and there are minor powers at play, such as the Imperial Klingon Empire (a government in exile from the Klingon Empire), the Orion Syndicate, and others.

I'm thinking this is either pre-TMP or somewhere in that region (though throwing those god awful uniforms out). They're starting off with low ranks to get them used to the game without too much responsibility, while also letting them get elbow deep in shit. They can deal with all sorts of fun stuff, like mad Commodores, intelligence operations deep into enemy territory, green animal women, and god knows what else. So yeah, I can definitely work some of this in.

Plus, the one player who really knows his Trek lore kinda has it in his head the Iconians might get involved somewhere, and he promptly shit himself.
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Re: Plot Suggestions for Star Trek RPG

Post by Highlord Laan »

thought provoking set of scenarios while still keeping it fun and light-hearted. Any suggestions?
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Re: Plot Suggestions for Star Trek RPG

Post by Baffalo »

Hmm... yes. I like this plan. Especially if there's no obvious source, just have them pop out of nowhere and as fast as the crew gets rid of them, they're back for more.
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Re: Plot Suggestions for Star Trek RPG

Post by Napoleon the Clown »

I suddenly think of that scene from Forest Gump, where Bubba is listing all the shrimp recipes... But with tribbles.


The party packs a lunch made from tribbles while on shore leave, but it turns out that the planet they're on reveres tribbles as sacred. Bam, instant plot!
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Re: Plot Suggestions for Star Trek RPG

Post by Baffalo »

Hmm... that's not a bad idea, actually. Not for consumption but rather keeping tribbles as a stable food source for certain creatures. Keep them in stasis until they need to take something on board for study, like a predator or something. They breed fast enough that you can easily feed them, and they'd make an excellent mouse for study.
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