Just after Star Trek The Motion Picture came out, way back in 1979, Marvel secured the rights to continue the adventures of Kirk and crew in pages of the Star Trek comic series. The book ran for 18 issues, and IDW has collected issues 4-18 (issues 1-3 are the comics version of the movie) in an omnibus.
I've already read through the omnibus when I first got it, and I flat out loved it. The rating at Amazon is diminished, it seems, because people don't like the reproduction. I thought it OK. The art, though, is typical 70's/80's Marvel, so it's not going to blow you away. I'd love to see someone come in an re-master the book, with the same stories and new art.
But the stories....
The stories are fantastic and very, very "Trek".
They're not action romps like the last couple of movies. They're real science fiction. They're the Star Trek type of stories that we saw during the three seasons of the original show.
And, if you're a roleplaying--a Star Trek roleplayer, these stories will keep your starship and crew busying for a long, long time. There are several excellent ideas here to base a game around. Many of the stories are multi-issue tales, including the first. I'm sure that you could run this scenario during any Trek time period.
It picks up just as the Motion Picture ends. The Enterprise (or whatever ship you use in your game) is tasked by Admiral Fitzpatrick to pick up Ambassador R'Kgg and an escaped prisoner Raytag M'Gora (a large, very "alien" alien that kinda resembles the alien from the Alien movies), of the Orlian Quadrant.
M'Gora has escaped from Thallus, a world near the Klingon border that has recently reversed its political course and opened up diplomatic relations with the Federation. If you'll remember, at the end of The Motion Picture, the Enterprise is to be taken on a shake down cruise. In this story, the cake run to ferry the good ambassador and the "gift" of the escaped convict to the Thallus system is just the type of mission that is perfect for a shake down cruise.
Picture this...
You could start your game with the meeting with Admiral Fitzpatrick. Your players are a new crew on a brand new starship. Or, they're a new crew taking over an older vessel as Kirk did as new commander of the Enterprise after Captain Pike. Lots of ideas here. Your players could even take over the Enterprise during that period called the "Lost Years", after Kirk returns to Starfleet Command but before the Enterprise is given to Captain Spock to train new cadets (between The Motion Picture and The Wrath of Khan). Hell, we know little about the Enterprise B or C. Maybe your crew made the historic voyages in one of those vessels. Depending on where you look, it's either Captain Robert April or Captain Christopher Pike who was the first commander of the Enterprise. Maybe in your Star Trek universe, your crew is the very first to command the old girl, turning the ship over to Pike once your journeys come to an end.
In the comic, there's an early scene beaming the prisoner M'Gora aboard, and the thing (I'd be kicked out of Starfleet for calling an sentient being a "thing") goes on a rampage after breaking out of its restraints. This might be a great place to open your game, too, with a little action, and a giant, red colored alien with an exoskeleton. M'Gora is frantic. He's scared, and determined, not to return to Thallus.
Red Herring or plot point?
Hmm....
I dunno. You'll have to read the story. I'm just giving you an idea of how this game could start.
So, you've got action to start out your game. A rampaging alien prisoner running around the ship. This is a great time to break out those ship blue prints....
With M'Gora captured and in the brig, the "teaser" to your Star Trek episode is over. The credits roll, and after station identification, the GM reads the log to the players....
"Captain's Log. Stardate 7416.4. We are cruising just outside Klingon space....."
On the Bridge.
On the bridge, your Communications Officer begins to get reports from several decks. These are reports of monsters, ghosts, and other scary things. Nothing out of the ordinary shows on the internal sensor log. If you like, run one of these incident with some of your players. In the story, Crewman Williams is in a romantic position with another engineering ensign dark apparition comes at them out of the dark. Williams hurls a bottle of saurian brandy at it, and the thing disappears just as the bottle strikes, leaving the bottle to crash into the wall, spreading brandy and glass.
Checkov and Sulu are in the ship's gym. Checkov relaxes on a weight bench while the ship's Chief Helmsman practices his fencing, when they are attacked by a puff of white smoke with a face...a ghost! Sulu's sword does no damage to the smoke, but the smoke disappears when it is attacked.
Back on the bridge, your Science Officer is scanning for Thallus but finding no planet at the coordinates!
And, the reports of strange, creepy incidents continue to come in.
Right then...
There is an explosion of black smoke in front of the turbolift. The air smells of brimstone. A man appears. He's in a tuxedo. A very old tuxedo. He wears a cape that is blood red on the inside. His hair is combed slick straight back. You can see that he has a couple of....pointed teeth!
"So," he says, "I have been resurrected aboard a starship, have I? Very good! I see all the sustenance I shall need has been provided me!"
Security or some of the bridge PCs can launch at the man. If they do, he proves to be quite the combatant. Very strong. Inhumanly strong. And, he changes into a bat! And, then, back into a mist! And, then, he is gone.
Fascinating, as Spock would say.
No matter what the PCs do (go after him...send security...use the ship's sensors to locate him), two things will happen. The ship's science officer will announce that "Dracula" is indeed solid, organic being, unlike the other reports where the "monster" did not show up on sensors. And, second, Dracula will be located on C Deck.
But, when the Captain and PCs arrive, they find Ambassador R'Kgg dead in the corridor. Two red puncture marks show on his neck. And a scared crewman nearby who says she saw a man in a cape walk out of an explosion of smoke, bite the Ambassador on the neck, then turn into a bat and fly off down the corridor.
Folks! How's that for a great beginning to a Star Trek scenario!
Read the comic to get the rest of the story. Haunted Houses floating out in space on the main viewer. Klingons! And, the mystery of the prisoner alien, Raytag M'Gora! Not to mention the intrigue of Dracula!
Doesn't that sound like Old Trek? Great, old Star Trek?
Think your players would dig it? Do they love Star Trek?
Makes me want to break out my old FASA ruleset.
Admiral Fitzpatrick
He looks like Lorne Greene, to me!
Ambassador R'Kgg
At least he's not another humanoid with forehead ridges!
The escaped convict, Raytag M'Gora
The Star Trek version of Ripley's Alien!
I've already read through the omnibus when I first got it, and I flat out loved it. The rating at Amazon is diminished, it seems, because people don't like the reproduction. I thought it OK. The art, though, is typical 70's/80's Marvel, so it's not going to blow you away. I'd love to see someone come in an re-master the book, with the same stories and new art.
But the stories....
The stories are fantastic and very, very "Trek".
They're not action romps like the last couple of movies. They're real science fiction. They're the Star Trek type of stories that we saw during the three seasons of the original show.
And, if you're a roleplaying--a Star Trek roleplayer, these stories will keep your starship and crew busying for a long, long time. There are several excellent ideas here to base a game around. Many of the stories are multi-issue tales, including the first. I'm sure that you could run this scenario during any Trek time period.
It picks up just as the Motion Picture ends. The Enterprise (or whatever ship you use in your game) is tasked by Admiral Fitzpatrick to pick up Ambassador R'Kgg and an escaped prisoner Raytag M'Gora (a large, very "alien" alien that kinda resembles the alien from the Alien movies), of the Orlian Quadrant.
M'Gora has escaped from Thallus, a world near the Klingon border that has recently reversed its political course and opened up diplomatic relations with the Federation. If you'll remember, at the end of The Motion Picture, the Enterprise is to be taken on a shake down cruise. In this story, the cake run to ferry the good ambassador and the "gift" of the escaped convict to the Thallus system is just the type of mission that is perfect for a shake down cruise.
Picture this...
You could start your game with the meeting with Admiral Fitzpatrick. Your players are a new crew on a brand new starship. Or, they're a new crew taking over an older vessel as Kirk did as new commander of the Enterprise after Captain Pike. Lots of ideas here. Your players could even take over the Enterprise during that period called the "Lost Years", after Kirk returns to Starfleet Command but before the Enterprise is given to Captain Spock to train new cadets (between The Motion Picture and The Wrath of Khan). Hell, we know little about the Enterprise B or C. Maybe your crew made the historic voyages in one of those vessels. Depending on where you look, it's either Captain Robert April or Captain Christopher Pike who was the first commander of the Enterprise. Maybe in your Star Trek universe, your crew is the very first to command the old girl, turning the ship over to Pike once your journeys come to an end.
In the comic, there's an early scene beaming the prisoner M'Gora aboard, and the thing (I'd be kicked out of Starfleet for calling an sentient being a "thing") goes on a rampage after breaking out of its restraints. This might be a great place to open your game, too, with a little action, and a giant, red colored alien with an exoskeleton. M'Gora is frantic. He's scared, and determined, not to return to Thallus.
Red Herring or plot point?
Hmm....
I dunno. You'll have to read the story. I'm just giving you an idea of how this game could start.
So, you've got action to start out your game. A rampaging alien prisoner running around the ship. This is a great time to break out those ship blue prints....
With M'Gora captured and in the brig, the "teaser" to your Star Trek episode is over. The credits roll, and after station identification, the GM reads the log to the players....
"Captain's Log. Stardate 7416.4. We are cruising just outside Klingon space....."
On the Bridge.
On the bridge, your Communications Officer begins to get reports from several decks. These are reports of monsters, ghosts, and other scary things. Nothing out of the ordinary shows on the internal sensor log. If you like, run one of these incident with some of your players. In the story, Crewman Williams is in a romantic position with another engineering ensign dark apparition comes at them out of the dark. Williams hurls a bottle of saurian brandy at it, and the thing disappears just as the bottle strikes, leaving the bottle to crash into the wall, spreading brandy and glass.
Checkov and Sulu are in the ship's gym. Checkov relaxes on a weight bench while the ship's Chief Helmsman practices his fencing, when they are attacked by a puff of white smoke with a face...a ghost! Sulu's sword does no damage to the smoke, but the smoke disappears when it is attacked.
Back on the bridge, your Science Officer is scanning for Thallus but finding no planet at the coordinates!
And, the reports of strange, creepy incidents continue to come in.
Right then...
There is an explosion of black smoke in front of the turbolift. The air smells of brimstone. A man appears. He's in a tuxedo. A very old tuxedo. He wears a cape that is blood red on the inside. His hair is combed slick straight back. You can see that he has a couple of....pointed teeth!
"So," he says, "I have been resurrected aboard a starship, have I? Very good! I see all the sustenance I shall need has been provided me!"
Security or some of the bridge PCs can launch at the man. If they do, he proves to be quite the combatant. Very strong. Inhumanly strong. And, he changes into a bat! And, then, back into a mist! And, then, he is gone.
Fascinating, as Spock would say.
No matter what the PCs do (go after him...send security...use the ship's sensors to locate him), two things will happen. The ship's science officer will announce that "Dracula" is indeed solid, organic being, unlike the other reports where the "monster" did not show up on sensors. And, second, Dracula will be located on C Deck.
But, when the Captain and PCs arrive, they find Ambassador R'Kgg dead in the corridor. Two red puncture marks show on his neck. And a scared crewman nearby who says she saw a man in a cape walk out of an explosion of smoke, bite the Ambassador on the neck, then turn into a bat and fly off down the corridor.
Folks! How's that for a great beginning to a Star Trek scenario!
Read the comic to get the rest of the story. Haunted Houses floating out in space on the main viewer. Klingons! And, the mystery of the prisoner alien, Raytag M'Gora! Not to mention the intrigue of Dracula!
Doesn't that sound like Old Trek? Great, old Star Trek?
Think your players would dig it? Do they love Star Trek?
Makes me want to break out my old FASA ruleset.
Admiral Fitzpatrick
He looks like Lorne Greene, to me!
Ambassador R'Kgg
At least he's not another humanoid with forehead ridges!
The escaped convict, Raytag M'Gora
The Star Trek version of Ripley's Alien!
