An accounting of all the Star Trek Adventures I’m running nowadays

I just thought I’d post a captain’s log, as it were, detailing the two campaigns I’m running for Star Trek Adventures.

The dual campaigns – one with my home group and the other online via Google Hangouts – serve different purposes, and I’m trying hard to differentiate them in various ways to give me as wide of a perspective as possible about the strengths and weakness of the game system. Both campaigns help me learn the game in different ways and, with some luck, also will help me write more official scenarios as well.

I’ll start with my home group’s campaign, set aboard the Constellation-class USS Gemini.  My home group has trudged along with more or less the same personnel since the release of “The Lost Mine of Phandelver” kicked off the 5e era back in 2014. We started with D&D, then I ran a Last Unicorn Games Star Trek campaign set in the immediate aftermath of Star Trek Nemesis, then switched back to D&D for a while and now we’re playing Star Trek Adventures.

I set the Gemini campaign in the Shackleton Expanse so I can run any of the Modiphius Living Campaign scenarios, plus any of the standalone scenarios from “These Are The Voyages, Vol. 1.” My goal here is to sample as many of the officially released scenarios as possible to get a sense of what ingredients work well at the table. I also occasionally use my home group as guinea pigs to playtest ideas I might include in pitches to Modiphius for new official scenarios. The campaign feels much like the original series or The Next Generation so far, with episodic storytelling and not a lot of continuity from one scenario to the next (though that’s not always the case).

I’ve run six sessions with the Gemini group so far (with an seventh scheduled for this weekend), and the highlight of the campaign for me so far was running “Biological Clock.” Watching the players immediately dive into the Prime Directive ramifications surrounding Optera IV without any effort whatsoever on my part put a big smile on my face. It felt just like that scene in Captain Picard’s quarters during TNG’s ‘Pen Pals.’ During that scene, the crew debates the limits of the Prime Directive as they determine the fate of Sarjenka and her entire species. It was good drama and central to Star Trek’s philosophy.

The second campaign I’m running contrasts with my home group in some important ways. First off, it’s the first full-on campaign I’ve run over Google Hangouts. I’d run one-shots before, but scheduling always seemed too difficult to put together anything more. And, sure enough, there have been some drop-outs and some scheduling snafus. But, undaunted, we press on. I’ve now run three sessions with the online group, and you can watch them all on my YouTube Channel here, here and here.

The online game takes place aboard Starbase 23, near the Romulan Neutral Zone. For this campaign, I’m coming up with totally original scenarios and encounters each time. I don’t want to spoil anyone out there by running official adventures. I’m also taking a page out of Deep Space 9’s playbook by allowing each scenario to lead into the next and building long-form story arcs. The plot of the last two sessions, for instance, has centered around a pair of cloned humans genetically modified by the Tal Shiar to act as viral carriers.

The highlight of the online campaign took place during the second episode, titled “Plague Ship.” The Andorian engineer mounted a one-man rescue effort to save a child aboard a doomed freighter. The freighter’s engines were on the verge of a catastrophic breach. The engineer attempted repairs, but time ran out. An emergency beam out saved him, but the explosion left the Player Characters in dire straits.

Beyond that, I’ve also run the odd session of Star Trek Adventures at my local game store. I’d do that more often if I felt I had a good scenario to run that could be played in two hours or so for new players. “Signals” and the adventure included in the core book work alright for that purpose, but I can’t help but feel neither one gives first-time players the real sense that they’re taking part in an episode of Star Trek. I’ll elaborate on that later if the opportunity arises.

All told, I’ve run 10 sessions of Star Trek Adventures since the final core rules became available. I’m having a great time learning the ins and outs of the system, and it’s always a pleasure visiting the Final Frontier and telling brand-new stories.

Left in the cutting room: More reflections on adventure design

In late 2017, I wrote a couple articles for EN World discussing some lessons about adventure design I took from “How To Write Adventure Modules That Don’t Suck” from Goodman Games. You can find those two articles here and here. It’s a cool book containing a couple dozen essays on adventure design from a wide range of authors. And an original rpg encounter accompanies each entry in the book to illustrate the principles and tips discussed in each essay.

The format packs a one-two punch that often unearths valuable insight into adventure design, but it also yields some uneven results here and there. Not every encounter will prove useful to all game masters, but most are generic enough to fit easily into virtually any fantasy rpg system, and a few of the encounters work with science-fiction elements and settings. With a pdf version available for fairly cheap, I’m confident that most gamemasters would get some value out of the product.

But a discussion of “How To Write Adventure Modules That Don’t Suck” should highlight at least one of the encounters detailed in the book, and I originally intended to do so. However, that section of the article didn’t make the final cut due to an unexpected change in word count. So here, on my personal blog, I’m going to post what I originally planned to write about my favorite single encounter detailed in the book.

“Water’s Garden Shop” by Jean Rabe stood out for its delightful tone and creativity. The encounter assumes that the player characters have been asked to look after a quirky shop in the market district of a fantasy city while the owner is away. Events gradually take a turn toward the bizarre as escalating crises are unleashed on the party. The shop sells all manner of fantastical gardening supplies, plants and small pets, from carnivorous flowers to an intelligent frog who loves to discuss local politics and tasty insects.

The beautifully detailed encounter follows an essay by Rabe on the use of all five sense to immerse the players in the game, and “Water’s Garden Shop” packs plenty of sensory stimulation. The fish tanks bubble musically, the air feels tropically humid and the flowers dazzle in vivid color. Nearly everything in the shop features a magical twist, sometimes readily apparent but occasionally hidden for the player characters to discover. The encounter would serve nicely as a whimsical break for adventurers weary of grim dungeon crawls and marauding orcs.

So I salute you, Jean Rabe, for a lovely bit of adventure design. I hope I can find an excuse to get it on the table someday. I got a lot of mileage out of “How To Write Adventure Modules That Don’t Suck.” Pick it up if you’re like thinking about adventure design and could use some inspiration. 

Itching for a Fight

The Star Trek Adventures core rulebook emphasizes that violence should be used only as a last resort for Starfleet crews, and rightly so. Star Trek has always featured heroes that prefer to think their way out of fights rather than immediately firing phasers. But sometimes a good fight makes for an exciting story (and an opportunity for a scene or two of Captain Kirk with a torn shirt).

My home gaming group began “Signals,” the adventure included in the free Star Trek Adventures quickstart guide, during our last session, and the story left off just as the Player Characters crashed a shuttle on the surface of a planet after encountering an electromagnetic storm. The players quickly learned a crew of Romulans also had crashed on the planet, and a fire fight had just broken out between the Romulans and the Player Characters as we ended our session.

To prep for our next game, I reviewed the section in the core rulebook dealing with combat and put together some notes to make the fight as dynamic and engaging for my players as possible. Below, you’ll find my expanded guide for the encounter. Feel free to adapt it for your own campaign.

Setting the stage (Gamemasters may read or paraphrase the following text to start the scene): You regain consciousness unsure of how long you were out. It could have been mere moments or it could have been longer. As your vision clears, you take in the interior of the shuttlecraft, which clearly sustained major damage in the crash landing. The few computer consoles that appear functional flicker, and instruments lie scattered throughout the cabin. A quick check of the propulsion system shows the engines are completely offline. This shuttle isn’t going anywhere without repairs.

Once the Player Characters have gathered their wits and examined the interior of the shuttle, they’ll likely open the shuttle’s hatch to find out what’s going on outside. Once that happens, the Gamemaster should read or paraphrase the following:

The hatch opens onto a rocky, arid plain beneath a red sky swirling with bright discharges of electromagnetic energy. Jagged formations of rock dot the landscape, and the shuttle has left a trail of wreckage strewn around the crash site. Without warning, a sizzling bolt of disruptor energy blasts the ground immediately in front of you and a voice cries out, “That’s far enough, Starfleet! We’ve already claimed this planet in the name of the Romulan Star Empire. We hereby order you to drop your weapons and turn over your spacecraft.”

A trio of Romulan soldiers has trained disruptors on the Player Characters from long range. Two of the Romulans lie prone behind a crag while the third stands nearby, but still remains within reach of the crag and benefits from the cover it provides. It’s the standing Romulan who shouted for the Player Characters to surrender. These Romulans were part of a crew of scoutship crew who crashed on the planet while investigating a powerful alien energy source they’re interested in harnessing as a weapon. They do not intend to allow Starfleet to claim the energy source and will not negotiate with the Player Characters, making combat likely.

The crags behind which the three Romulans take cover grant 2 [CD] resistance. Targeting the lone standing Romulan for a ranged attack requires a successful Difficulty 2 Control + Security Task. However, successfully making a ranged attack against the two prone Romulans from medium range or further requires a successful Difficulty 3 Task. Additionally, the two prone Romulans may re-roll any number of their Cover dice. However, successful attacks against prone Characters from close range generate two bonus Momentum. The Romulans will stay close to the crag and take advantage of the cover, popping up on their turns to fire disruptor blasts at the Starfleet crew.

A chunk of wreckage from the shuttlecraft came to a rest not far from the rear hatch of the shuttle, and Player Characters can easily take cover behind the debris, granting 2 [CD] resistance. The wreckage lies in the zone adjacent to the shuttlecraft’s hatch, meaning it’s a medium-range distance from Player Characters inside the shuttlecraft. If Player Characters take two of the three Romulans out of the fight, the third will retreat on foot back to the Romulan crash site, where several more of his comrades await.

Currently stranded on the planet, the Romulans intend to steal the Player Characters’ shuttlecraft to get back to Romulan space. They also recognize the value of Starfleet hostages and will attempt to capture the Player Characters rather than kill them. If they succeed in subduing the Player Characters, or if the Player Characters surrender, they may try to contact Starfleet to negotiate a way off the planet.

Gamemasters may consider spending Threat in the following ways during this confrontation:

1.    Reinforcements. Gamemasters may summon more Romulan soldiers to arrive on the battlefield by spending 1 Threat for each additional Romulan agent.

2.    Environmental effect. Gamemasters may spend 2 Threat to trigger a power surge that overloads several of the computer consoles inside the shuttlecraft. Any Characters remaining in the shuttlecraft when the overload occurs take 2 [CD] stress damage due to exploding equipment.

3.    Complication. Gamemasters may spend 2 Threat to create a highly localized electromagnetic discharge that causes all electronic equipment – including phasers, tricorders and communicators – in the affected zone to cease to function. This discharge appears like a bolt of lightning that strikes the ground and creates intensely localized electromagnetic interference for several seconds. Characters may repair affected equipment with a successful Difficulty 2 Control or Daring + Engineering Task.

Resolution
If the Player Characters manage to take any of the Romulans captive, they must complete a Difficulty 4 Persuasion Task to gain any useful information. These Romulans have received training in how to withstand interrogation. However, if the Player Characters succeed in convincing the Romulans to talk, they may learn the following information:

1.    The Romulans came to the planet three days ago to secure the powerful alien energy source and evaluate its usefulness as a weapon.

2.    The Romulan scoutship crashed after encountering intense electromagnetic interference in the upper atmosphere of the planet.

3.    There is a settlement near the energy source that is protected by some sort of energy-reflecting technology, making it difficult for sensors to penetrate the area. The Romulans have made several preliminary incursions to test the settlement’s defenses but have not yet settled on a strategy for a full-on assault.

If the Romulans won the encounter, they take the Player Characters captive and march them back to a camp near the Romulan scoutship’s crash site. The Romulans then pump the Player Characters for information regarding the strange alien power signature and the Shackleton Expanse. The Player Characters will have to come up with a plan to escape from the Romulans. If they’re slow to attempt an escape, the Nelbinar miners, who live in the nearby settlement, may provide an opening by staging a sneak attack on the Romulan camp.

A new (mini) campaign for Star Trek Adventures

Streamed rpgs, the final frontier…

I’ve decided to run a mini-campaign of Star Trek Adventures to stream on my YouTube page. I ran a couple online games this summer using the playtest rules but stopped when the final rulebook became available so I could familiarize myself with the finalized game. Having run four sessions with finished rules and having read the entire core rulebook cover to cover, I think I’m ready to dive back into the streaming world.

I’ve recruited five players, and I’m planning to run one session a month from December through April. I’ve put together some setting info below and I’ve got a good idea of what will happen in the initial session. Beyond that, I’m planning to let the players take the campaign where they wish.

I decided to set the series on a starbase near the Romulan Neutral Zone. That way, I figure I can work in a lot of the political intrigue and drama that I find compelling about Deep Space 9. A starbase setting will also give me a different sandbox to play in than my home game, which is set on a starship. 

The first session is scheduled for Dec. 9. Can’t wait to get some dice rolling.  Here’s the setting and background information I’ve provided the players to help them with character creation.

SETTING OVERVIEW

Starbase 23 is a Spacedock-type starbase located near the Romulan Neutral Zone in the Beta Quadrant. Its position also places it near to the Klingon border, making it one of the most strategically important starbases in Starfleet and a hub of all manner of interstellar intrigue. It houses a wide range of personnel and services, including a Federation diplomatic mission, a judge advocate general’s office and engineering facilities capable of completing extensive repairs on Starfleet’s most advanced starships. Several major trade routes pass near the station, creating a steady influx of civilian and commercial traffic as well.

Its mushroom-shaped top module, perhaps its most distinguishing feature, contains four sets of space doors granting entrance to up to six starships at a time. Ships that dock inside the main bay may undergo a huge range of repairs, from regular maintenance to major refits. Starfleet Command emphasizes operational readiness this close to the Romulan Neutral Zone, and the starships that patrol the surrounding space receive the most advanced defense and sensor technology available.

LOCATION AND NEARBY FEATURES 

Starbase 23 remains stationery at a point near the Romulan Neutral Zone in the Beta Quadrant. Starships docked at Starbase 23 could enter the Neutral Zone within minutes at high warp. The Unroth System lies just on the other side of the Neutral Zone, a planetary system that hosts a Romulan colony. Slightly further away lies the point at which the Klingon Border meets Romulan space, a perennial point of friction and gamesmanship between the Klingon and Romulan fleets.

The Paulsen Nebula, where the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D hid from a Borg cube in 2367, lies slightly rimward of Starbase 23 in Federation space. Its dense gaseous content renders sensors nearly useless, making it an ideal location for raiders, rogues and renegades to evade patrolling Starfleet vessels. The region once boasted a Federation colony known as New Providence, but the colony fell victim to the Borg during the 2367 incursion shortly before the disastrous Battle of Wolfe 359. Today, the site that was once New Providence is little more than a vast crater, but a Starfleet science team continues to study the area for valuable intelligence on the Borg threat.

PERSONNEL 

Starbase 23 hosts a crew complement of around 700 Starfleet officers and enlisted personnel. This includes strategic personnel who oversee Starfleet’s monitoring of the Neutral Zone, a fully staffed judge advocate general’s office and security station, separate engineering teams to maintain both the starbase and visiting starships, a team devoted solely to the administration of the starbase, a medical team and a group devoted to scientific research.

The commanding officer of Starbase 23 is Fleet Admiral Behl Ch’Tharris, an Andorian with a long and storied career at Starfleet Command. Admiral Ch’Tharris’s duties require her to spend most of her time overseeing fleet deployments and strategic operations along the Neutral Zone. She maintains a full support team in her office to help her with these decisions. An officer with the rank of commander oversees the day-to-day operations of the starbase, though he or she still reports regularly to Admiral Ch’Tharris.

TIMELINE

The year is 2371. The USS Enterprise-D was recently destroyed in a crash on the planet Veridian III. Starfleet has begun exploring the Gamma Quadrant by traveling through the Bajoran Wormhole, where something called the Dominion awaits. Starfleet Command soon will dispatch the USS Voyager to the Badlands on a mission concerning the Maquis resistance group. And tensions along the Romulan Neutral Zone have reached a fever pitch after several incidents over the previous decade show the Romulan Star Empire plans to destabilize the political balance of power in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants.

The Nelbinar: Creating an original alien race and homeworld in Star Trek Adventures

Nearly every gamemaster I’ve known loves world building, and Star Trek rpgs offer a unique opportunity to literally invent entire worlds from scratch.

Numerous episodes of Star Trek rely on strange new worlds both as settings and as plot devices to drive stories.  From the planet Minos in TNG, which was taken over by automated weapons systems, to the beautifully realized Pahvo in the most recent episodes of Star Trek Discovery, exotic alien worlds play a huge roll in Star Trek storytelling. So it’s no surprise that Star Trek Adventures offers some advice on creating new races and planets.

As I noted in my previous post about running “Signals,” the adventure scenario included in the free quickstart guide, I felt a mining colony of humans missed an opportunity to offer player characters something more interesting. So when I run the adventure, I substitute an alien mining colony into the adventure. These aliens, which I called the Nelbinar, started in my imagination as nothing more than a Star Trek version of the Svirfneblin, or deep gnomes, from Dungeons & Dragons. I imagined them as a people who send mining crews throughout the Shackleton Expanse looking for new precious materials they can take back to their homeworld to build exquisite feats of architecture. I decided they’d be short in stature, have gray skin and large and pointed ears – all owing to depictions of Svnirfneblins in D&D. One of the best-known Svirfneblin characters from the Forgotten Realms novels had enchanted tools attached to his arms after his hands were cut off, so I decided the Nelbinar, likewise, use cybernetic enhancements to aid them in their work.

From that fairly basic concept, I decided to create the Nelbinar homeworld using the guidance in chapter 10 of the Star Trek Adventures core rulebook, which provides several random tables for planet creation. I had a rough idea of what the Nelbinar homeworld might look like, but I decided to go with whatever random elements the tables turned up as a creative exercise, whether my rolls produced results that matched my original vision of the planet or not.

The process begins with a table determining the planetary type, but I knew the Nelbinar homeworld most likely would have to be Class M to support the evolution of a humanoid race, so I skipped to the next table that focuses exclusively on habitable planetary types. From that table, I rolled a dry desert world, like Vulcan. The next table, on which gamemasters are instructed to roll twice, confers planets with notable features. From that table, I got “warlike primitive inhabitants” and “transcendent inhabitants of great power.” Those two elements left me scratching my head a bit since neither one fits all that well with what I envisioned for the Nelbinar.

I put some thought into it and decided the cybernetic enhancements nearly all members of Nelbinar society use grant the ruling elite of the planet a form of surveillance on the population. The elite compile a huge amount of data about the activities and whereabouts of nearly every member of the species, giving them an almost omniscient view of the planet. So that took care of the “transcendent inhabitants of great power.” But what about the “warlike and primitive” part? I decided that the planet is highly polluted as a result of the species’ limitless drive for construction and development. The Nelbinar pump nearly all of their waste into a large inland sea, where they also send all their criminals, prisoners and undesirables. These prisoners suffer a range of maladies due to their environment, leading to a rough and painful existence on the islands of the sea.

With just those few elements in place, I feel like I’ve got a pretty good grasp of the viewpoint of Nelbinar characters. I’m already visualizing how those pieces might fit together in an episode set on Nelbinar, even though I have no immediate plans for my players to visit the planet. It was a fun mental exercise that makes the Shackleton Expanse (the setting for the Star Trek Adventures living campaign) a little more real in my mind’s eye.

Here’s my complete write-up of the Nelbinar and their homeworld. Feel free to borrow it for your own games, Star Trek or otherwise.

The Nelbinar

Traits:  Nelbinar, Cybernetic enhancements, Indifferent to nature

Overview:  A race of intelligent humanoids with claims on several worlds in the Shackleton Expanse. The Nelbinar dispatch mining teams throughout the region to find unique resources to take back to Nelbinar. Driven by the desire to build their arid homeworld into an engineering marvel, they show no concern for the natural world or environment. Instead, they revere their own ingenuity and technological acumen. They believe their proclivity for innovation will conquer any problem they encounter. Sustainable growth carries no meaning to them.

Appearance:  Nelbinar are short in stature compared to humans, often possessing a slim frame. Their skin is usually a grayish and unhealthy color due to the polluted environment on which they live. Their skin pigmentation is a natural adaptation after generations of being exposed to harsh sunlight on a planet without an ozone layer. They possess large noses and pointed, leathery ears. They often outfit their bodies with cybernetic implants. Goggles that change lighting and enhance visual acuity are common, as are tool-like attachments.

Society: Nelbinar is a desert world, like Vulcan. Nearly all of the planet’s surface – and much of its substrata – features structures developed by the Nelbinar species, made from exotic materials gathered from across the cosmos. Nelbinar spend little time outdoors and do not value nature.

The Engineers, a political elite that design the planet’s more advanced technology, govern much of Nelbinar society and form a ruling class. The cybernetic accessories that virtually all Nelbinar citizens wear also provide the Engineers with a vast dataset on the planet’s population, offering them endless insight into how to they should structure their society, though other societies might consider this level of surveillance an intrusion. This dataset, referred to as the Grid, takes on an almost spiritual meaning to the Nelbinar, and communing with the Grid is reserved only for the most brilliant among the population.

The lone exception to the extensive development that covers Nelbinar is one inland sea, where the Nelbinar dump much of the waste and unwanted byproducts that result from their vast construction efforts. This highly polluted environment features a chain of islands where many of the planet’s convicts and prisoners are sent. The inhabitants of this island chain are warlike and primitive, and many of them suffer from illnesses and psychoses as a result of exposure to toxic compounds.

Ecological niche & impetus toward intelligence: The harsh desert conditions on the surface of the planet favored species that could build elaborate shelters, and that’s exactly where the Nelbinar excel. Their mastery of building with an endless range of materials granted the evolutionary advantages they needed to become the planet’s dominant species. They view their planet as little more than a blank canvass on which to create. The planet gave them little of value, so the Nelbinar have no qualms using their homeworld and its resources as they please.

Tips for running the Star Trek Adventures quickstart scenario

A couple weekends ago, I ran a pickup session of Star Trek Adventures at my local gaming store, Mayhem Comics and Games. Three players rsvp’d for the session ahead of time, but only two showed up to play. I’d hoped to get at least three PC’s, but we pressed ahead with two, and it worked just fine.

I wanted to present the new players with a quintessential Star Trek experience, so I decided to run “Signals,” the introductory adventure included in the free Star Trek Adventures Quickstart. I also considered “Rescue at Xerxes,” the adventure included in the core rulebook, but “Signals” felt more Star Trek to me for two reasons. First, “Signals” starts out on an actual starship, though it doesn’t specify which one. “Xerxes,” on the other hand, begins after a crash landing in a runabout and nothing in the adventure takes place aboard a starship. The second factor that pushed me toward “Signals” was its use of Romulans as the antagonists, another recognizable Star Trek element.

So “Signals” features some quintessential Star Trek ingredients while also introducing many of the core mechanics of the game through a variety of encounters that include exploration, combat and role playing. It’s also simple enough in its design and implementation that gamemasters should be able to run it with minimal prep. Sounds like a perfect introduction, right?

Well, almost.

“Signals” weighs in at only seven pages. That means it won’t take gamemasters long to prep the adventure, but that also means some helpful details probably got left out of the text in the name of keeping the word count low.

For instance, there’s no synopsis or background at the start of the adventure, just a list of things you’ll need to play the game. I believe wholeheartedly that a summary at the beginning of the adventure helps gamemasters map out the arc of the story and aids with comprehension and memory. The adventure also leaves out key details surrounding an alien obelisk discovered recently by a mining colony on the planet Seku VI. The obelisk acts as the macguffin that moves much of the story, but the text asks the gamemaster to fill in the details of who built it and what it does. It’s fine to push gamemasters to customize published adventures for their own games, but I think a quickstart guide shouldn’t pose questions that it doesn’t have answers to.

So here, in no particular order, are a couple of tweaks I incorporated into the adventure when I ran it last weekend.

First off, a proper synopsis:

“Signals” presents a Starfleet away team with a mystery it must solve in order to render aid to a small mining colony and prevent a valuable alien artifact from falling under Romulan control. The adventure begins when the Player Characters’ starship is ordered into the Carina Nebula to locate a missing runabout, the USS Susquehanna. The Susquehanna disappeared after registering an unknown alien power discharge coming from the planet Seku VI inside the nebula.

Investigating Seku VI will require the Player Characters to send an away team to the planet’s surface where the Characters will run into a hostile team of Romulans, also searching for the alien technology. The away team will learn that the Susquehanna sent two crewmen to the planet’s surface who died in a transporter accident caused by surging electromagnetic interference rippling from the alien power source. A Romulan scoutship arrived in orbit, and the Susquehanna retreated into the nebula. The scoutship then succumbed to the same electromagnetic interference and crash-landed on the planet, leaving several survivors bent on securing the alien technology.

The Player Characters will track the source of the electromagnetic interference to an unregistered non-Federation mining colony near the source of the strange power discharge. If the Player Characters convince the miners of their peaceful intent, the colony’s leader will take them to a chamber in the underground mines where workers recently uncovered an ancient alien obelisk emitting powerful bursts of electromagnetic interference. The Player Characters must unlock the obelisk’s secrets while fending off one last offensive from the Romulans to ensure this powerful technology remains out of enemy hands.

The adventure also casts the mining colony as led by a human named Ero Drallen. Featuring a human mining colony misses an opportunity to emphasize for the Player Characters that they’re a long way from home, charting an unknown region of space. So I replaced the humans in the mining colony with a homebrewed alien race I call the Nelbinar, who send out mining teams to distant worlds looking for exotic materials with which they can build engineering marvels on their homeworld. If I get a chance in my campaign, I might make Nelbinar mining crews a recurring feature in the Shackleton Expanse and maybe even feature an entire episode on the Nelbinar homeworld.

If I get a chance, I’ll post a full writeup of the Nelbinar and the role I foresee for them in the Shackleton Expanse.

So there you have it. I think “Signals” is an easy-to-run adventure that successfully introduces the basic gameplay mechanics of Star Trek Adventures to players and gamemasters. With a couple slight modifications, including a summary at the beginning and a more exotic species overseeing the mining colony, it’s a pretty solid entry point.  And it’s free, so what have you got to lose?

Three early impressions with Star Trek Adventures

I recently finished reading all 364 pages of the Star Trek Adventures core rulebook, and it occurred to me that I’d never read an rpg book cover to cover before. If I had to guess, I’d estimate that I’ve read 99 percent of the material in the fifth edition Dungeon Master’s Guide and Players Handbook, some portions several times over. But I combed through those books a chapter here and a section there, as various mechanics became relevant in my home game. My hunch is that’s how most rpg enthusiasts use their rulebooks.

With Star Trek Adventures, I opened up the pdf (I still haven’t received my physical copy as of this writing) and started reading the first chapter and plowed through every last word in the text. In addition, I’ve also run two full sessions with my home gaming group with the finalized rules (after having run several sections with the playtest rules).

So what have I learned?

For starters, I still haven’t mastered the system by any stretch of the imagination (looking at you, reputation mechanic). But here are three big observations I’ve made as I’ve kicked the tires on this iteration of the 2d20 system.

1.  The Fate influence is real

Star Trek Adventures draws a lot of inspiration from Fate Core, a setting-neutral rpg system by Evil Hat known for its emphasis on storytelling and character over crunch and mechanics. Combat in Star Trek Adventures, as in Fate, plays out in abstract zones rather than rigid hexes or grids. Star Trek Adventures also uses “traits,” similar to Fate’s aspects, to help gamemasters and players quickly define situations, characters and settings. Additionally, Star Trek Adventures gives players the option to create characters during play, defining their characters’ talents and abilities as circumstances develop, another staple of Fate Core. (It should also be noted that Star Trek Adventures also includes a more traditional “life path” character generation method that allows players to churn out a fully developed character with a backstory and defined abilities before any dice are rolled.)

So the Fate influence is real, and that influence puts story front and center, as a Star Trek game should. But Star Trek Adventures adds layers of complexity over those Fate-inspired elements, and I would definitely not call Star Trek Adventures a rules-lite system. Starship operations, in particular, present players and gamemasters with a robust set of mechanics and options. And the momentum/threat economy provides a unique toolbox for dialing up the dynamism of scenes. Which leads me to my second observation…

2. Threat is NOT optional

Gamemasters should familiarize themselves with the threat system as quickly as possible because it’s an absolutely essential element of running Star Trek Adventures. Threat is a resource that gamemasters can use to throw complications and obstacles at the players on the fly. Let’s say your players are trying to reprogram the tyrannical artificial intelligence that’s taken over the main computer of their starship. You planned for this to be a harrowing encounter, but the players came up with some solution you didn’t think of or they lucked out on some improbable dice rolls and overcame your climactic challenge way too easily. Just spend a couple points of threat to create a new complication. Maybe the AI decides it’s going to take the PCs down with it and activates the ship’s auto destruct just before the characters wipe it from their mainframe. Now the tension has returned and the players are scrambling to diffuse a new challenge.

The rulebook provides a list of common uses for threat, but it also encourages gamemasters to get creative to throw twists at their players. The threat mechanic encourages improvisation and dynamism, and it’s a critical tool to get the most out of the game.

3. This book is PRETTY

Under normal circumstances, I don’t judge a book by its cover (or its interior art or layout). I’m a writer, first and foremost, and I’m happy to overlook bland design if the writing sparkles.  Star Trek Adventures, however, features such outstanding art and design that even I sat up and took notice. The interior layout borrows from the iconic Starfleet LCARS look seen in the Next Generation-era series. The book also makes use of diagrams and schematics of iconic ships and equipment, and there’s plenty of original artwork as well. It’s a slick design that gets me excited about playing the game. What more could you ask from the visual presentation of an rpg book?

 

Dreaming of the Final Frontier: I'm officially a published Star Trek adventure writer!

Remember that episode of Star Trek:  The Next Generation where Data experiments with dreaming? He sees a series of disconnected visions that include a blacksmith and a bird's wing and then he has to piece together what those symbols mean. It's trippy stuff.

Well, one of my own dreams recently came true, and it's got its own Star Trek twist.  A tabletop rpg adventure scenario that I conceptualized and wrote will appear in an officially licensed Star Trek book. For a lifelong Trekkie and tabletop enthusiast, it feels like I just got promoted to captain of the Enterprise after only recently graduating from Starfleet Academy.

My adventure, titled "Biological Clock," is set to ship as part of a beautifully designed hardcover collection called These Are The Voyages:  Mission Compendium Volume1. The pdf is available now for a measly $15, and it's been a consistent top-5 seller at DriveThruRPG.com since it was released several weeks ago.

The book, published for Modiphius Entertainment's brand-spankin' new Star Trek Adventures rpg, also features seven other fascinating scenarios ready for your table. So please beam over to your nearest game store and ask about STA. You won't regret it.

"Biological Clock" poses an ethical dilemma for a Starfleet crew who make first contact with a pair of new species on an unexplored world. Does the Prime Directive allow the players to intervene in a situation where one intelligent species appears to enslave another? Can the Starfleet crew find a way to communicate with a race of aliens who originate beyond the confines of space and time? Well, that's up to you and your gaming group to decide.

I can't stress enough how grateful I am to Star Trek Adventures line editor Sam Webb for his guidance throughout the process of making "Biological Clock" a reality. It was an incredible thrill to see my name listed as an author on such a great-looking and well-designed book.

Here's a teaser image from my adventure. You'll have to read the whole thing to figure out what's going on here. But you can be sure of this:  I'm going to keep writing about Star Trek -- and I'm going to keep dreaming. Game on, and LLAP!

LUG lessons for Star Trek Adventures

LUG lessons for Star Trek Adventures

One of the highlights of 2016 for me was finishing a 12-session Star Trek campaign using the Icon System developed by Last Unicorn Games. As the campaign neared its close, news broke that Modiphius was developing the first new officially licensed Star Trek tabletop rpg in over a decade. Even better, the developer plans to open up a free playtest, which will give all of us a good idea of how Modiphius will adapt its 2d20 system to the Final Frontier.

So, in this season of transitions, with a LUG Trek campaign completed and a brand-new system on the horizon, it’s an auspicious time to reflect on the campaign-that-was. Modiphius can learn a lot from LUG Trek but should also take care to avoid some of the unwieldy mistakes made in previous iterations of the game.

Lesson 1:  Keep LUG’s emphasis on making each session an “episode.” 

Tabletop rpgs carry a lot of baggage associated with how you tell stories. Crack open nearly any volume on how to be a game master, and you’ll likely run across advice on balancing “encounter difficulty” and how dole out “experience points” appropriately. Those gaming conventions carry little meaning to Star Trek storytelling, and LUG did a tremendous job of replacing those terms with discussions of scenes and acts, concepts much more in keeping with how Star Trek unfolds on television and movies screens.

Modiphius would do well to follow in LUG’s footsteps in encouraging GMs to try to create the sense that each player is participating in an episode of Star Trek. It sounds simple, but it requires a lot of gamers to jettison some of the tropes that have congealed around tabletop rpgs over the decades.

So what does this look like at the table?

I broke down each session of my most recent Star Trek campaign into three acts. I didn’t do this in a film-school or scriptwriter sort of way.  Rather, I simply jotted down a scene or two that establishes a conflict in the first act, takes an interesting turn in the second act and then winds up with a climax and falling action in the third act. So my session prep was basically jotting down a few ideas on three notecards. I found that this was just enough to give me a map of the story while still opening up possibilities for improvisation.

On the other hand, I found that it was pretty much always a waste of time to consider “gamey’ concepts such as encounter challenge and combat difficulty. Level-appropriate combat doesn’t warrant consideration in Star Trek. Instead, replace that mindset with “drama-appropriate” challenges. That is, what sort of challenges create the most compelling drama?

I hope Modiphius carries that mindset over from previous iterations of Star Trek rpgs.

Lesson 2:  Keep character generation flavorful but craft a more elegant skill system

LUG Trek features a TON of skills, and many of them come with several specializations. That requires a lot of writing when players are filling out their character sheets. And the default LUG character sheets don’t offer enough space for all the skills you’re likely to rack up during character generation.

The good news is that the detailed skills system allows you to create hyper-competent PCs that feel like they belong on the bridge of a starship. The bad news is that it’s often too unwieldy to wade through all the options. I would urge Modiphius to find a way to simplify the skill system while maintaining the ability to craft characters with the appropriate intelligence and abilities of trained Starfleet officers.

How do you balance those factors? I suspect the trick lies in slashing the number of skills available and making them more broadly usable. That way, PCs remain every bit as competent as we’d expect, but our hands won’t start to cramp up when we fill out our character sheets.

Lesson 3:  Make combat short and narrative-driven

Star Trek often relies on action scenes and combat to tell exciting adventure stories on the final frontier. So a Star Trek rpg absolutely should feature robust action and combat rules. But, while action is certainly an important ingredient, it’s far from the only one that makes Star Trek such a delicious soufflé.

Think of how much screen time Star Trek has devoted to action scenes versus how much time the franchise devotes to scenes that hinge on sharp dialogue, drama or characters wrestling with difficult decisions. A session of a Star Trek rpg should reflect those story-telling principles.

I would also encourage Modiphius to meld the action and combat mechanics with narrative. Previous Modiphius games have done so, utilizing the company’s 2d20 system to lend action scenes a ‘cinematic’ quality. Modiphius has already announced plans to use a modified version of the 2d20 system for Star Trek Adventures. I only hope they do so in a way that feels in keeping with traditional Star Trek flavor.

Finally, I want to address starship combat, another essential aspect of Star Trek storytelling that LUG got wrong.  When it comes to ship-to-ship engagements, game designers need to stress speed and ease of use when crafting mechanics. I can’t stress that enough.

In the campaign that I recently wrapped up, I largely avoided large-scale starship combat simply because it takes so long and ends up feeling repetitive using the Icon System.  A more cinematic style, as 2d20 purports to be, would improve that aspect of the game immensely.  I don’t want to have to teach ops or engineering officers to track energy units or power output. That’s boring and a waste of precious gaming time. Rather, focus on the dynamic aspects of starship combat that we see on screen:  evasive maneuvers, phasers, disruptors, photon (or quantum) torpedoes, consoles exploding and deck plates quaking. Stopping the action to worry about making sure the lateral or long-range sensors are powered this round takes away from what the characters are feeling and experiencing.

In the end, I really enjoyed the LUG campaign that I ran this year. I had a blast playing around in the Star Trek universe, and I think my players did too. But, as the campaign wore on, I found myself growing more frustrated with some of LUG Trek’s more cumbersome mechanical features. For instance, I usually love creating NPCs, but having to fill out those character sheets became a daunting task. 

I’m confident Modiphius will improve on many of those trouble spots. I can’t wait to playtest Star Trek Adventures!

Captain's Log: Ep. 3, 'Simulations'

Here's a quick summary of the third session of the Star Trek tabletop rpg campaign I'm currently running. You can find the summary of the previous episode here.


The Fearless warped back to Starbase 39-Sierra for a full debriefing with Fleet Admiral Elsa Kiel. During the two-day return voyage, Dr. Vasor, Lt. Pus and Lt. Cmdr. Aliok managed to repair the torn psyche of Tyrion through the therapeutic use of a bridged mind meld. With Tyrion’s sanity restored, she revealed that former Senator Pardek is the new director of the Tal Shiar. When Tyrion contacted Pardek several weeks ago for help as her psychological conditioning unraveled, Pardek summarily discontinued her mission, essentially cutting her off from any official Romulan help. Tyrion has vowed vengeance and is seeking to return to Romulus to kill Pardek for abandoning her in her time of need.

Meanwhile, T’Thetrik administered a truth serum to the Psellan the crew captured on Mount Soverin and learned that he is actually Tovik, a Tal Shiar agent known by the codename Proteus. Tovik admitted that the Tal Shiar is interested in recovering Iconian technology for military use.  He also suggested that Conduit may be trying to reach the Eye of Vendris, a large black hole deep in Romulan Space.

Captain Eldred, after a lengthy conversation with the crew, decided to turn over to Starfleet Intelligence the Tal Shiar agents captured on Psellus III. But Lt. McClure warned that Commander DeLeo, the chief intelligence officer on Starbase 39-Sierra, may be a member of Section 31, prompting Eldred to decide to keep Tyrion’s presence on the Fearless a secret.

Upon arrival at Starbase 39-Sierra, the Fearless was ordered to engage in a battle simulation with the USS Venture, a Galaxy-class Starfleet vessel commanded by Captain Elliot Gannon. Before the simulated battle, Skavrin, a first cousin of Jak vin Karka, arrived on the Fearless, demanding that Jak return to their home colony on Landis VI to marry a man from a rival political faction. Commander DeLeo also contacted Lt. McClure asking pointedly if Captain Eldred left anything important out of her report. DeLeo seemed to imply that McClure owed something to “the organization” and made reference to something called Mjolnir.

The Fearless and Venture engaged in their war game, exchanging phaser fire and photon torpedoes for several minutes before McClure and Lt. Korudos beamed over to the Venture in an attempt to sabotage their opponent’s main computer core. McClure scaled a turbolift shaft to reach the computer core but failed to hack into the mainframe before he was apprehended by the Venture’s security team.

With both ships badly damaged, the Fearless came about at maximum impulse, nearly skimming the top of the Venture’s saucer section in a gutsy feat of piloting. T’Thetrik locked all weapons on the Venture. But as Pus established a sensor lock, he made a surprising discovery. Internal sensors had detected an intruder in the Fearless’s brig.

The Eye of Vendris

The last session went so well that I decided to try something I've never done before and type up my prep notes into a fully formed module. If you happen to be running a Star Trek rpg campaign, feel free to take this text and adapt it to your own game.

For more info on the particulars of my campaign, read this.  I hereby present "The Eye of Vendris."

Introduction
This adventure presents a sci-fi-flavored sandbox for a Federation starship to explore and is written to fit circumstances arising from the author’s home game, which uses the Icon System from the Star Trek rpg created by Last Unicorn Games. The text assumes the crew has had prior dealings with an Iconian artificial intelligence known as Conduit and that the crew has been invited into Romulan space to investigate the threat.

However, it wouldn’t take very much work on the part of the narrator to adapt the material if those two hooks don’t apply to your particular campaign. 

Simply move the Eye of Vendris to a sector of space that fits your game, and replace the Romulan ships and characters with a more appropriate species. It’s your game, after all.

Just keep in mind that the thrill of the adventure arises from exploring an unusual star system that contains both natural wonders and deadly dangers.

With the themes of exploration and discovery at the core of the adventure, narrators should feel free to change any of the details as they see fit.

Summary
An Iconian artificial intelligence known as Conduit has taken over a small archaeology outpost on a dead planet near the Eye of Vendris, a black hole that makes up part of a dead binary star system. Conduit killed the Romulan archaeologists who tried to resist her and disabled a Romulan warbird sent to investigate the incursion.

Now, Conduit has asked specifically for the USS Fearless, the Starfleet vessel that discovered and revived her a week ago, to join her on Vendris Corva II.

When the Fearless arrives, Conduit asks for the crew’s help to find an ancient Iconian artifact in the debris field that surrounds the Eye of Vendris. Locating the artifact will allow her to reopen an Iconian gateway and rejoin her people, who disappeared from the galaxy 200,000 years ago.

Will the crew help Conduit and brave the unknowns of the Eye of Vendris? Or will they make a daring attempt to resist the immensely powerful artificial intelligence and risk falling victim to the same fate as the doomed Romulan research team?

The Setting
The adventure takes place in a binary star system deep in Romulan space.  Half of the region is composed of the Vendris Corva system, which is a star orbited by seven dead planets. The Romulans have established a domed archaeological outpost on Vendris Corva II to excavate ancient Iconian artifacts. The remaining planets in the system are barren.

The Eye of Vendris, a powerful black hole, forms the other half of the binary system. A massive debris field encircles the black hole, providing evidence that a solar system once existed there but was destroyed in some cataclysmic event.

A tether formed by stellar material from the Vendris Corva star connects the two halves of the binary system. The Eye of Vendris possesses such powerful gravimetric force that it attracts mass from the Vendris Corva star, forming a breathtaking strand of silver energy that constantly links the star to the black hole.  

NOTE TO NARRATORS:  A prudent crew likely would proceed directly to Conduit’s last known location on Vendris Corva II at the start of the adventure, but make it clear to the PCs that they are free to explore the binary system in whatever order they choose. This is a sandbox adventure, and narrators should give their players as much choice as possible in how they explore the setting. The encounters detailed in the following sections can occur in any order.

Exploring The Vendris Corva System
The system contains a star (Vendris Corva) and seven planets, all of which are lifeless chunks of rock that lack atmosphere. A successful sensors test could determine that at least some of the planets once boasted an atmosphere and perhaps even supported life, but the system has been devoid of life for at least 200,000 years.

The only planet of note is Vendris Corva II, where the Romulans have established a domed archaeological outpost to study Iconian ruins located there. As the crew nears Vendris Corva II, scans indicate no life signs in the archaeological facility. The artificial atmosphere has been vented into space, and there are no heat signatures. Sensors, however, do pick up the presence of a Federation shuttle parked on the planet’s surface adjacent to the dome.

No shields or screens appear to prevent transport, so it’s likely the crew will send an away team to investigate the facility. Because the dome’s atmosphere has been vented, the away team will need to wear environmental suits.

Under the dome
The archaeological facility consists of a large circular area of several acres enclosed in a transparent dome. The Romulan research team constructed a central building for living quarters and laboratory equipment, which is surrounded by exposed rock where the digging took place. If the away team beams down inside the dome but not directly inside the laboratory building, they discover an eerily quiet scene. 

Deep shadows shroud the dig site, and the artificial lights placed throughout the facility are dark. Various tools and equipment lie scattered throughout the dig site.

The Romulan archaeologists laid out the dig site in a grid structure, gradually excavating the gray rock one layer at a time. It’s clear they took care to conduct their work in a meticulous and exact manner. Examining the dig site reveals little of value.  Most of the digging turned up ancient Iconian foundations, but the buildings that once stood here disappeared long ago. Additionally, it looks like any valuable Iconian artifacts were either taken into the laboratory building or transported back to Romulus.

A grisly scene awaits the crew as they approach the central laboratory complex. The six Romulan archaeologists who worked on the site lie dead near the main hatch, which is wide open. The archaeologists’ eyes bulge and their mouths hang wide open, looks of terror frozen on their faces. A tricorder scan confirms what the crew probably suspects:  the Romulans died from exposure to the vacuum. They died weeks ago, but their corpses are well preserved.

Inside the complex
The hatch leads to an open airlock, which grants the away team access to the interior of the building. Inside the complex, the away team finds more eerie silence. Life support is no longer operating, and the scientific equipment has been powered down. A tricorder scan will pick up some sort of power supply in the very center of the complex, which appears to be an administrative office with sensor and communications technology.

To get there, however, the crew will have to pass through some darkened labs and living quarters. Someone seems to have removed any important Iconian artifacts from the labs, but the personal effects in the living quarters appear untouched. 

SECRET:  If the crew rummages through the belongings in the living quarters, they discover a PADD-like device that appears to have some sort of security lockout installed. A challenging computer test unlocks the padd’s data and reveals that one of the archeaologist was actually a Tal Shiar agent named Valtath, assigned to monitor the dig for Pardek, the director of the Tal Shiar. The padd contains intelligence updates on the political situation on Romulus. Valtath appears to have been particularly concerned with the upcoming release of a Reman political prisoner named Galamek. According to the most recent Tal Shiar intelligence, Galamek has set up a headquarters in an abandoned dilithium mine deep inside the interior of Remus. He’s made no official statements, but the Tal Shiar suspects that he’s organizing a Reman separatist movement that aims to establish a new Reman homeworld outside of Romulan space.

At the very center of the complex, the away team will find a small administrative center. This room contains controls for a modest sensor array and communications equipment that allowed the archaeologists to communicate with Romulus. Conduit awaits the crew here. She has rigged an Iconian artifact, presumably unearthed by the archaeologists, to power the outpost’s sensor array and boost its range and gain. The artifact looks like a pulsing blue globe with Iconian script etched into its solid surface.

Conduit has the appearance of a small humanoid girl, about the age of 10. Her face appears expressionless, and her eyes look cold and completely black. As the away team enters the administrative room, Conduit turns to observe them but quickly returns to her work with the sensor array.

Roleplaying Conduit
Conduit is an artificial intelligence created by the Iconians 200,000 years ago as a weapon in a war with an unknown foe. Iconians often used computer viruses as a means of crippling the technologies employed by their enemies (as depicted in the TNG episode ‘Contagion’), and Conduit’s creators outfitted her with a combination of technological and telepathic capabilities. Essentially, she possesses the ability to infect hostile technology with computer viruses that allow her to take control via telepathy.

The Iconians constructed her but never brought her online. Instead, they abandoned the facility where she was built shortly before their entire race disappeared from the historical record. After being awakened recently, Conduit has instinctively returned to this ancient Iconian facility in an attempt to find her people.

She speaks in a mechanical monotone and seems to have little empathy for the other intelligent beings she’s encountered. Conduit experiences emotions, but she has no idea how to process them. This might cause her to stutter or display a facial tic if the away team makes any sort of emotional appeal to her. Conduit’s programming compels her to reunite with the Iconians, and she refers to anyone or anything that presents an obstacle as ‘the enemy.’

In fact, Conduit may calmly recount to the away team how the Romulan archaeologists resisted her takeover of the outpost. In response, she locked them out of the administration room, vented the atmosphere from the dome and blew open the airlocks. The violent decompression blasted the Romulans out of the facility, where they died of exposure.

She explains that the black hole referred to as the ‘Eye of Vendris’ formed after the ancient Iconians used an enhanced version of their gateway technology to transform a star into a portal leading to a pocket dimension. The Iconians, tired of war and conflict in the Milky Way, decided that complete isolation from other species would free them to pursue cultural perfection. Conduit intends to reopen the gateway and rejoin the Iconians in their pocket dimension, and she asks for the help of the Fearless crew.

The Romulan archaeologists recovered the energy storage orb that Conduit is currently using to power the outpost’s sensors. To open the gateway again, she’ll need a matching orb that has gone missing somewhere near the Eye of Vendris. She says that she can sense its proximity, but its exact location is veiled from her. If the Fearless can locate the matching energy orb, Conduit will reopen the portal. If the crew refuses to help her, she’ll simply use her computer virus technology to send the Fearless, and any other ships that make the mistake of getting too close, into the gravimetric maelstrom of the Eye of Vendris.

Player choice
This module assumes the crew will do Conduit’s bidding and help her find the missing power storage orb. They may resist Conduit, however. If they can come up with a clever way around Conduit’s powerful telepathic and technological capabilities, let it play out.

Conduit does have a weakness that a sharp crew may exploit. Although she can read minds and perhaps even cause mental pain to her enemies if she wishes, her physical capabilities fall far short of her mental capacity. An attempt to physically overwhelm her or render her unconscious may succeed.  In such a scenario, Conduit would try to turn any technology present against her accosters. For instance, she might suddenly beam back aboard her shuttle and escape. Or she might cause a PC’s phaser to suddenly begin to overload.

Exploring the Eye of Vendris
The binary system that contains the Eye of Vendris contains several strange phenomena that could create interesting encounters for the crew of the Fearless as they explore the area.

Stellar material
The powerful gravitational pull of the Eye of Vendris rips away stellar material from the Vendris Corva star. This material forms a tether of raw energy that connects the star with the black hole as they orbit one another. A sensor scan of the tether will turn up six large space-bound creatures that appear to feed off the stellar matter. If the Fearless approaches the creatures for a closer look, they’ll leave the tether behind and try to attach themselves to the ship. These creatures resemble giant worms, and they travel at a maximum of .3c. If they successfully attach themselves to hull of the ship, they begin draining its power. The crew can escape the creatures simply by moving away at high impulse or any warp speed. They can also attack the creatures with weapons, but that will almost certainly kill these surprisingly fragile creatures.

If the Fearless begins the adventure by exploring Vendris Corva II, it might make sense for the ship to encounter the space worms next as it travels toward the Eye of Vendris. This makes sense spatially and it also foreshadows a later part of the adventure.

The Valdore
When Conduit took over the Vendris Corva II facility, Romulan Star Command dispatched the warbird Valdore to investigate the situation and retake the dig site. With a simple wave of her hand, however, Conduit disabled the Valdore’s engines and sent it slowly drifting toward the Eye of Vendris’s event horizon. The subspace interference from the black hole has prevented Commander Donatra, the warbird’s CO, from communicating with Romulus.

Donatra dispatched a shuttle to call for help, but the the region’s powerful gravimetric shearing tore the small craft apart shortly after launch. Left with few options, Donatra has decided to wait for help to arrive. She’s worked with Captain Riker of the USS Titan before, and she has little trouble accepting help from a Starfleet vessel.

The Fearless most likely will have to use its tractor beam to pull the Valdore clear of the Eye of Vendris and Conduit’s influence. Because of the region’s gravimetric interference, the tactical officer will have to work closely with engineering to boost the gain of the tractor beam while taking care not to pull the Valdore’s hull beyond its tolerances. This requires a combined test of 8 or 9. In this case, a failed test doesn’t mean the Valdore is lost to the black hole. Rather, a low test result means the stress caused by the opposing gravimetric forces and the tractor beam result in damage to the warbird. A critical failure, such as a 1 on the drama die, may result in deaths among the Valdore’s crew. In any event, the crew eventually will tow the Valdore to a safe distance from the black hole.

This situation also presents an opportunity to role play. Donatra is grateful for the help and honest with the Starfleet crew. Her first officer, Suran, however, presents a different sort of interaction. Suran is an expert on Federation politics, and he may pump members of the crew for information, given the chance. But crafty or persuasive PCs may be able to turn the tables on Suran and get him to admit that he’s pushing for Donatra to openly challenge Praetor Tal’aura. Suran has helped Donatra secure an entire century of ships, and he believes her coalition could emerge victorious from a civil war with Tal’aura and her loyalists.

In any case, once the Valdore is out of immediate danger, Donatra orders her ship to a safe distance from the Eye of Vendris. The warbird will remain in the vicinity to monitor events, but Donatra wants to avoid attracting Conduit’s ire again.

 The debris field
A massive field of planetary debris rings the event horizon of the Eye of Vendris, the only remaining evidence of the solar system that once existed here. As the Fearless explores the debris, sensors pick up energy signatures consistent with the Iconian energy storage orb. But the intermittent readings appear to move slowly among the debris.

Tracing the readings to their source leads to a grotesque site. Curled up among a particularly dense field of rocky debris, a giant space worm that dwarfs the starship by several orders of magnitude feeds on stellar and planetary material. The massive worm methodically twists and squirms its way through the debris field, sucking the surrounding planetary fragments into a slimy mouth-like orifice at one end of its body. Sensor readings taken near the space worm reveal that the energy storage orb is inside the creature’s digestive tract.

The crew can extract the orb in several ways. They could simply use the ship’s phasers to slice into the worm, but this would almost certainly kill it. Alternatively, they could send a shuttle into its maw and retrieve the orb through skillful piloting and transporter use. Finally, they can use the deflector dish or phasers to radiate energy similar to what the creature is ingesting but at a different power frequency, thus ‘souring the milk.’ This solution is similar to one used by Geordia LaForge and Leah Brahms in the TNG episode ‘Galaxy’s Child’ to get a space-borne creature to detach from the Enterprise’s hull. Doing so will cause the creature to regurgitate the contents of its digestive system, allowing the Fearless to swoop in and beam away the orb.

The finale
Conduit immediately senses the presence of the energy storage orb once it’s freed from the giant space worm. She immediately connects the newly discovered orb with the one she possesses on Vendris Corva II, and all hell breaks loose. The Eye of Vendris crackles with brilliant waves of energy, and the great Iconian gateway opens once again.  The gravimetric forces that once plagued the region intensify and drag the Fearless toward the gateway with unimaginable force.

Allow the conn officer officer to attempt a challenging ships systems (flight control) test if they wish to keep the Fearless from getting swept into the gateway along with the planetary debris in the area. If the test is a success, the officer’s quick wits and skillful piloting steer the ship to safety.

If the test is a failure, the Fearless is sucked into the gateway and everything goes completely black. Suddenly, the bridge crew awakens in a vast, dark chamber.  The walls and floor are invisible to the eye, but what’s above their heads immediately catches their attention.

CONSIDER READING ALOUD TO THE PLAYERS:  Bathed in dazzling silver starlight, the entire Milky Way galaxy churns above your head, forming an awe-inspiring canopy to a seemingly limitless chamber with no visible walls or floor. You sense that if you reached up your hand, the galaxy would yield to your touch like a ceiling of mist. Standing at a distance of several dozen yards from you, directly below the center of the galaxy’s spiraling mass, you notice Conduit and another figure. The stranger’s face is shrouded in shadow, but you get no sense of threat or menace.

The figure is an Iconian, and he thanks the crew for returning Conduit to her people. He answers any questions they may have about why the Iconians chose total isolation as a solution to unremitting war. Finally, as a reward for their efforts, he offers to open a gateway for the crew and their ship leading to any point in the galaxy of their choosing.

Award your crew with a baseline of three experience points for completing the adventure, along with an appropriate allotment of renown.

Captain's Log: Ep 2: 'Old Icons'

Here's a quick summary of the second session of the Star Trek tabletop rpg campaign I'm currently running. You can find the summary of the previous episode here.

The Fearless traveled to Psellus III, where they had reason to believe a Tal Shiar operative known as Proteus was staging some kind secret operation. Upon beaming down to the Psellan capital city, word of their arrival spread quickly. A faction of Romulan sympathizers set off a pair of billitrium explosives in the crowded plaza adjacent to the main government administration building, an act of terrorism to protest what they viewed as Federation meddling in Psellan affairs.

The crew investigated the attacks and found that Romulan sympathies on Psellus III ran deep and dated back roughly 200 years to a time when the world was a Romulan client state.  But the Romulan motive to maintain a covert presence on the backward, polluted planet remained a mystery.

The Fearless crew managed to trace pro-Romulan pirate radio transmissions to a seemingly desolate mountaintop. They beamed an away team to the location and found a handful of Romulans and a Psellan maintaining some sort of archaeological dig inside a cave near the mountain’s peak.

The crew stunned the Romulan agents in a firefight and investigated the archaeological site. As Dr. Vasor approached the cave, a telepathic voice intruded into her thoughts. At the same time, a portal in the center of the cave chamber’s floor that the Romulans couldn’t manage to unlock opened for the Starfleet officers.

Most of the away team descended a spiral staircase to find a humanoid child, a girl with mechanical eyes calling herself ‘Conduit,’ awaiting them. Jak vin Karka decided to remain in the upper chamber to go through the Romulans’ computer files to see what they were doing on Mount Soverin. She found a wealth of archaeological data and academic journals related to the ancient Iconians.

Conduit seemed to take little interest in the away team, telling them that she had to ‘get home.’ She displayed an ability to control the away team’s equipment, including their phasers and tricorders. She appeared to command a shuttlecraft to leave the Fearless. Conduit beamed up to the shuttle and warped away in the direction of the Neutral Zone. At the same time, she temporarily disabled the engines aboard the Fearless to keep the crew from following her.

The Politics of the Romulan Star Empire

This post is a brief analysis of the major players in Romulan politics following Shinzon’s attempt to overthrow the government. The Romulan transition of power forms one of the major plots threads of the campaign and provides much of the backdrop for the overall mood of the game.

I’ve cobbled this post together from several sources including Nemesis, LUG sourcebooks and a few hand-picked novels such as the first book in the Titan series. Consistent with LUG’s ‘Way of D’era’ supplement, my take on the Romulans is that politics pervades their society. No one is free from the influence of the Senate, the Tal Shiar and the Star Navy. But politics is clearly a dangerous game on Romulus, and the best players pursue power ruthlessly. Treachery and paranoia abound.

The PCs may discover the following information during our next session on an encrypted padd belonging to a dead Tal Shiar agent. But even if I decide against giving the entire briefing to the party, it’s good to have this information written down and clear in my own mind.

The following political briefing is considered classified to anyone who is not authorized to review content generated by the Tal Shiar internal analysis division. Unauthorized viewing of this material is a grave violation of Romulan Star Code.

Romulan politics remains in a state of flux following the Shinzon crisis. The following figures likely will decide the future of the Romulan Star Empire and her peoples.

Praetor Tal’aura
Tal’aura, a former member of the Romulan Senate, assumed the praetorship in early 2380 after conspiring with Shinzon in his coup to overthrow Romulus. Tal’aura seized the praetorship amid the power vacuum that followed Shinzon’s defeat and the massacre of nearly the entire Senate.

It’s common knowledge among the Romulan political class that Tal’aura was the one who set off the thalaron weapon that wiped out the Senate. Accordingly, Tal’aura inspires more fear than admiration from the citizenry. The Romulan Senate continues its deliberations with a provisional membership, but little progress has been made to set an election date for permanent members. Much of that hesitance derives from Tal’aura’s refusal to endorse elections and the reluctance of provisional senators to pursue initiatives without her express consent. After all, her previous use of thalaron weaponry – a volatile source of radiation outlawed in the Federation – indicates a willingness to cross any ethical or moral boundary to maintain her grip on power.

Tal’aura relies on the advice and expertise of Centurion Tomalak, the commander of the powerful Praetorian Guard forces. Tal’aura and Tomalak maintain a united front in public, but Tal Shiar operatives surmise that Tomalak may aspire to the praetorship himself.

Commander Donatra
Commander Donatra, a scion of the powerful Cassus family, commands the warbird IRW Valdore. She aided Shinzon in his coup but later fought against him when he revealed his plan to destroy Earth using a massive thalaron weapon.

Donatra achieved the rank of commander at a relatively young age after serving several tours of duty aboard warbirds patrolling the Federation Neutral Zone, during which time she gained expertise in cloaking technology and Federation starship tactics.

Her father, Rorrer Cassus, was also a warbird commander and former centurion in the Star Navy before he turned to politics and became a senator. Cassus disappeared in the early 2370s shortly after he began openly campaigning for a seat on the Romulan Continuing Committee. At the time, Donatra believed Hiren, Cassus’s chief rival for the open seat, was responsible for her father’s disappearance, though she could never prove it. When Hiren ascended to the praetorship in 2379, Donatra decided to exact her revenge by backing Shinzon’s coup.  

Donatra’s warbird, the IRW Valdore, is the flagship of the Century Cassus, a fleet of around 100 ships under the command of officers with connections to the Cassus family. Hers is one of only a handful of prominent Romulan families to command the loyalty of such a formidable force. This gives her some leverage over Tal’aura, though the Tal Shiar believes Donatra is resistant to becoming embroiled in further political treachery.

Commander Suran
Suran is a commander in the Romulan Star Navy and a long-time political advisor to the Cassus family. He served as a diplomat for several decades and traveled to Earth and Vulcan where he gained expertise on Federation affairs. His insight into galactic affairs caught the attention of Centurion Rorrer Cassus, and Suran became his main intergalactic policy advisor when Cassus ran for the Senate.

Following Cassus’s disappearance, Suran helped guide Donatra’s career until she assumed command the IRW Valodre. Suran and Donatra supported Shinzon’s coup in an effort to oust Praetor Hiren, who may have orchestrated Cassus’s disappearance.  Suran is privately pushing Donatra to push for open elections and to challenge Tal’aura for the praetorship. Donatra so far has resisted Suran’s urging.

Pardek
Pardek, a former senator, is the current director of the Tal Shiar. As a politician, Pardek forged a reputation for populism and reform, but his maverick legislative efforts often angered the elite Romulan establishment, leaving him marginalized and ineffective in the halls of power.

Pardek reinvigorated his career when he cooperated with Romulan security to expose members of the underground unification movement who sought to bring together the Romulan and Vulcan peoples. In doing so, Pardek betrayed Federation Ambassador Spock and crossed paths with Captain Jean-Luc Picard, the commanding officer of the USS Enterprise.

Pardek discovered he had an affinity for the more clandestine workings of Romulan government and parleyed his newfound political capital into the directorship of the Tal Shiar. In that position, he has boosted resources dedicated to recovering ancient Iconian technology, which Pardek believes will give the Romulan Star Empire an insurmountable edge in the Alpha Quadrant’s continual arms race.

Galamek
Among the first orders given by Shinzon during his brief yet eventful tenure as praetor was to free all Reman political prisoners being held on Romulus. One of those newly freed prisoners was Galamek, a Reman soldier who saw extensive action during the Dominion War and later agitated for Reman autonomy. The Tal Shiar believes Galamek returned to Remus and has begun consolidating power, but he has made no public statements or appearances since Shinzon’s rebellion ended. 

The “Reman question” ranks among the most pressing concerns under consideration by the Provisional Senate, but the legislative body has reached no consensus. Travel between Romulus and Remus has stopped, and all work in the dilithium mines on Remus’s dark side has ceased.  The sharp decline in dilithium refinement has slowed the already fragile Romulan economy.

The Reman question is further complicated by around 200 Romulan military personnel who have gone missing in the Reman dilithium mines. These soldiers formerly oversaw the dilithium mines but have not been heard from since the Shinzon crisis erupted. The Tal Shiar believes at least some of those Romulans are still alive on Remus, either taken captive by Remans or fighting for their lives.

Captain Riker, the Federation’s appointed observer monitoring the political transition, has made it a top priority to ascertain the status of the missing Romulans, but the Remans have not responded to his requests for information.

The Unification Underground
A small movement has taken root on Romulus that seeks to reunify the Romulan people with their Vulcan cousins. Federation Ambassador Spock secretly traveled to Romulus in 2368 to meet with then-Senator Pardek about nurturing the unification underground. Pardek betrayed Spock as part of a plot to conquer Vulcan, but the plan failed when Captain Picard and Data came to Spock’s aid. Picard asked Spock to return with him to Federation space, but Spock chose to remain on Romulus to continue his work toward reunification.

The movement has remained underground in the years since then, and Spock has not been heard from in over a decade. The leaders of the unification movement are said to meet in the vast caverns beneath the Romulan capital city, but the Tal Shiar has been unable to apprehend Spock and destroy the movement. Federation President Nanietta Bacco has publicly stated that Spock is no longer an active ambassador and that he no longer enjoys any official diplomatic title in the United Federation of Planets or Starfleet.