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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Water Bob" data-source="post: 6314780" data-attributes="member: 92305">THE NEUTRAL ZONE:  The actions of the Captain and PCs will probably be heavily influenced by how much information they have.  And, how much information the players have depends greatly on how the GM has chosen to start the adventure (see the previous posts).What will happen is that the Klingons will detect the arrival of the PC ship, but the PCs will detect nothing but empty space.  The PC ship may or may not have its shields raised, again, depending on how the beginning of this adventure is played (and a cautious PC captain may raise shields anyway).Sensor checks are appropriate to start off this scene--checks that do not reveal any information unless the PCs know about the quickly appearing, vague, energy wave that preceded the attack on the Gallant.  If the players know about that piece of the puzzle, then quickly tell the sensor operator (if his roll isn't a failure) that he's picking up a quick, there-it-is-whoops-it's-gone energy signal and give the player a moment to piece it together with what he saw on the ship's buoy.  If the player playing the sensor operator acts quickly, he can tell the Captain and get the ship's shields up (if they are not up already).  Don't telegraph the meaning of the signal.  Let the players put it together.  This is an opportunity to raise the ship's shields, barring all else.Regardless of what happens with the shields, the Klingons appear out of nowhere, surrounding the ship.  The enemy begins pounding the players' ship with weapons, quickly taking the players' ship to the same place the Klingons sent the Gallant.If you're using the FASA Star Trek rules, this is a spectacular time time pull out the awesome bridge command rules for the battle.  The Captain will be in his chair, barking orders.  The Helmsman will be firing back at the enemy.  The Navigator will be adjusting shields per the Captain's commands.  The Science Officer will be making Sensor checks, acting as the ship's 'eyes', informing the Captain of as much information as possible.  The Communications Officer will be managing damage control.  And the Chief Engineer will be making Engineering checks in order to repair downed systems.Whatever game rules you use, this should be a dangerous fight.  You've got four Klingon battle cruisers against one Federation starship.  It needs to put the fear of the cosmos into the players.  The PC ship is outgunned.  Period.  If the ship had its shields up, then they'll certainly be down soon.This is a golden opportunity for the PC Captain to shine. He's got to come up with a command that will save all of their hides.  Let any reasonable idea work and allow the player to have his moment in the sun. But, be harsh on ideas that would not obviously work.  You may even have to blow up the PC's ship!  If you do this, then have some logical way of continuing the game.  The penalty will be that the PCs are greatly hampered (not dead, having failed the mission completely).  Run a desperate scenario where the PCs are rushing to the escape pods as the ship begins to disintegrate.  The shuttle bay--the aft end of the ship (depending on which ship class you use)--blows off in one chunk.  The players, in the life boats, have to don thruster suits, travel from the pods to the hangar section.  Do some makeshift repairs to get it air-worthy ("Captain, the hangar bay is not only double shielded but is equipped with its own, separate emergency power system.  If we could get that working...".)  And then run the rest of the adventure from that floating piece of debris that used to be the ship's hangar.Hopefully, that will never happen in your game.  But, if it does, roll with it and keep the game not only moving, but interesting.  Always have contingency plans for something like this.In the comic, the Klingons use a systematic attack.  First, the aft cruisers attack in a one-two punch, then the fore cruisers mirror that attack on the bow.  One-two, aft.  Then three-four, bow.  One-two, aft.  Three-four, bow.You can describe this and see if alert players catch on, or you can make this the result of a good Sensor check.  Then, see if the players can quickly come up with something to counter that type of attack.The Klingons, all four vessels, will first attack the ship's warp nacelles so that fleeing is not an option.  Still, don't make this automatic.  Maybe a quick thinking Federation Captain will be able to get his ship out of the center of the gauntlet quickly, before his ship is too far gone.  If the PC ship does flee, then the four Klingons will pursue.  The starship battle will continue.In the comic, Kirk reacts to the Klingon pattern attacks with his own patterned answer.  He throws double power into his shields when they are facing attack so that the aft of the Enterprise is not shielded when the bow is being attacked, then the aft shields are reinforced to double strength to take the damage from the aft one-two hits.Scotty increases power to the weapons, and just after the Klingons fire, Kirk lets them have it with everything the Enterprise has.  Thus, as the bow  Klingons fire, their attack is met with double shields while, simultaneously, the Enterprise fires double strength phaser and photon torpedoes at the aft enemy ships.  Give the ship's Chief Engineer a roll to be able to mirror this tactic of gaining more power in your game.  If he succeeds on the throw, then the Chief Engineer is a hero.  If he fails, then the players will have to find another way to get out of this mess (or continue the game from an escape pod, as I mention above).Two Klingon vessels are destroyed this way.  The Klingons, given their ambush attack, are taken by surprise if anything like this happens in your game.  If any of their ships are destroyed or seriously damaged, then they will retreat, re-think, then attack again if the PC ship is still around.Destroying the players' ship is not an optimal decision, but the players should never feel safe in thinking that the GM will keep this from happening in order to keep the game going.  If it comes down to it, then do it.  Blow the hell out of the players' ship.  It can be quite interesting seeing how creative the players will have to be from that point on.  Give them something to work with--the destroyed hangar section, still relatively intact, spinning away from the area.  The PCs will have to steer the escape pods, while hiding from the Klingons (which will not be that hard as the Klingons will simply disappear again, thinking that the escape pods might draw in some more prey or allow the surviving crew to die slowly with no Class M planets in range), to rendezvous with the hangar section.Maybe, most of the crew is killed, leaving only the PCs and a handful of NPCs.  In the hangar section, once it is jury-rigged for a few days worth of life support, the players can board a large shuttle with an attached warp sled.  That'll be their way out.Or...if you think the damaged hangar section too unbelievable, then just allow the PCs to get to the shuttle and warp sled to begin with--and continue the game from there.  (But, I think the Klingons would notice an escaping shuttle and destroy it--you'll have to account for this by maybe hiding the shuttle in the debris of the PC's ship.)Regardless, in this bad situation, there may be encounters where the ship's Chief Medical Officer will shine, especially if the CMO is a player character and another PC is hurt during this engagement.In the comic, the Enterprise takes serious damage with the warp energizer knocked off-line. Scotty needs time to fix it, and the ship has no power for warp.  She's dead in space, and at any moment, the Klingons can re-appear to finish the job.If the players never had the information on the Klingon vessels just appearing out of nowhere, then re-appearing, they certainly do now.  They've just lived through the experience, whether that be from their own damaged ship or from the escape pod or hangar section debris.At the end of this fight, regardless of its outcome, the players should feel the full weight of the danger presented with the Klingon's new technology.And, this should raise a lot of questions.</blockquote>

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