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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Water Bob" data-source="post: 6314779" data-attributes="member: 92305">-- A Star Trek Adventure --IDEA:  The story in the comic opens after the Enterprise, fresh from her encounter with Khan and the Reliant, returning to Earth.  Kirk is at Starfleet Headquarters, meeting with Starfleet Grand Admiral Stephen Turner, where Kirk convinces the head of Starfleet to return to him the command of the Enterprise.If you are starting a new Trek game--possibly even a campaign--your first scene might be along the same lines.  Crafty GMs can turn this into a roleplaying encounter, maybe including social persuasion rolls, where the PC Captain is trying to convince the Grand Admiral to get his first command.  Or, maybe the Captain is attempting to step up and gain command of a Constitution class for the first time.  Or, maybe, the GM just wants to gloss over all of this and use this scene to introduce the player characters to each other.Maybe you will want to skip all of this and just do a quick scene where your PC vessel, already in deep space, receives orders from Starfleet Command.  You can have the Comms Officer relay the mission orders to the Captain or just do a quick roleplay over the viewer with Grand Admiral Turner in the Captain's ready room or cabin.As you create this mission, add scenes that you think will be fun or necessary.  Do something completely different and tie it in.  Be creative.What about, in order to start the game off with some roleplaying and some dice-rolling action, designing a recreational game and setting this scene in the ship's gym (or holodeck).  For example, using whatever rule set you decided upon, make up some quick rules for the Terran game of basketball.  All the main characters are playing.  This could be quite a fun and engaging scene where the GM can show off some important NPCs and the player characters can all get to know each other.  Then, when timing is right, there's a whistle from the wall comm (or comm badge...customize to your Trek era) where the Communications Officer on Duty alerts the Captain that the ship's return to Earth (after a patrol) will occur within the hour.  Or, in deep space, the message is from Grand Admiral Turner at Starfleet Command....Be creative.  Make it cool.  Make it fun!THE MISSION:  The Klingons are always testing and bending the Organian Peace Treaty.  Recently, though, the incursions into Federation space has become quite frequent.  The USS Gallant has been ordered to show the flag near the Klingon neutral zone, but she's gone down, presumably with all hands.Idea:  The Gallant did jettison its log buoy before its destruction.  In the comic's story, this buoy is not shown being picked up by a Starfleet vessel.  The reader just assumes that it is, and the Enterprise is sent to investigate.  What if, as background to his character, the PC Captain found the log buoy, is ordered to Earth after reporting it, then the game moves into a scene where it is decided that a ship must investigate.  This is where, as described above, the Captain asks to be given command of the ship that is sent to find out what happened.Of course, a GM that didn't want to play around with all this background could simply start the game with the player's ship finding the buoy, alerting Starfleet, then being sent on its mission of discovery--just like in the pre-credit teasers of the TV shows.What's on the buoy?  That depends on how informed the GM wishes his players to be.  A full record will show the Gallant on its patrol at the edge of the neutral zone.  Science Officer Bryce thinks he's detected a strange energy wave that passed by so quickly that---BOOM!  The ship is pounded!  FOUR Klingon Battlewagons appear out of no where--as if the were cloaked.  Torpedoes and disruptors tears the Gallant apart.  Stations blow up with feedback energy on the bridge.  Crewmen go down.  Captain Bearclaw orders the release of the log buoy upon hearing someone yell, above all the noise, that the ship is dead in space.Then, GM, give your players an exciting exterior view as the buoy is launched, through crackling energy, explosions, debris, and venting hull, through the screen of Klingon starships, out into deep space.  Then, stump the PCs as they watch, with the Klingon ships simply disappearing.  The ships wink out of existence as quickly as they appeared, and all that's left are the tiny particles of the Gallant after the Federation ship has exploded.That's one way to set the tone of the adventure and give the players an idea  of what they are up against.Another way is to set the game as more of a mystery.  Make the information obtained from the log buoy damaged.  Without giving too much away, show just tantalizing bits and pieces from what I've described above.  Give the players enough so that they can work it out on their own, but leave it up to the PCs to put the entire story of the Gallant's demise together.Roleplaying games should shy away from passive situations and strive to place the PCs in active roles.  You might get more bang in your gaming session if Starfleet has placed the damaged log buoy in the ship's hold.  On the way to the neutral zone, the players can make throws in trying to repair and gain information from the buoy.  The better the outcome of their throws, the more information they have before getting to the Klingon border.The GM can make a list of information obtained from the buoy.  Maybe something like this--1. Science Officer Bryce detecting the strange energy wave before the Klingon attack.2.  The Klingon vessels appearing out of nowhere, quickly.  This can be obtained from the sensor logs.  The vessels immediately bombard the Gallant.3.  Captain Bearclaw, upon hearing that the Gallant is dead in space, orders the launch of the buoy.4. The exterior shots taken by the buoy as it is launch, showing the destruction of the Gallant, the Klingon vessels attacking her, and the sudden vanishing of the attackers.Depending on well the players did on obtaining information from the damaged buoy, the GM will give them the indicated information by describing the scene associated with that data point.  For example, it could take four repair throws to gain all four points of data.  If any task is failed, then the players will not get that data point.  (Or, you can do one throw and base the results on how high the attempt is made.)It will then be up to the players to piece together any information that is excluded due to a bricked repair throw.See, this type of thing makes the Chief Engineer active and crucial to the success of the scenario.BONUS: An exceptional roll on the log buoy analysis, or maybe a perception or knowledge check by one of the PCs, will recognize one of the Klingon ships to be that of <a href="http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Koloth" target="_blank">Captain Koloth, a Klingon that has shown up in the  tribbles episodes of the original series, the animated series, and in Deep Space Nine</a>.  It is by no means necessary that the players have this information, which is why I suggest that it be a reward for a high throw or a good piece of roleplaying on the ship before arrival at the neutral zone.  Think of how positive it will be for your game if you reward a player's moment of awesome roleplaying with this bit of data, making it extremely clear that the information was by no means automatic--that it has been earned through great play.  That kind of stuff is gold in a roleplaying game.</blockquote>

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