Star Trek [Purely An Interest Check]

[White Wolf]

Howdy!

For ages, I've toyed with the concept of a Star Trek group roleplay, with the players taking on the role of various command level officers on the bridge of a starship. I know there's probably an official tabletop RPG out there that does exactly this, but before even getting into a question of systems and whatnot, I thought I'd scribble down an interest check to see what level of interest there might be for a game in that format.

This is, be advised, an interest check; I have at this present moment no ideas as to how to get a game like this rolling. But nonetheless, I thought I'd speak up to share what ideas I do have so far, and see what people's reactions are.

My vision for what this would be is exactly as it says on the tin - Players would be the command staff of a Federation starship. I'm not sure how to handle the issue of a ship's Captain at this juncture - unless players don't mind ceding authority to one of their own, my first thought was that the storyteller would take the role of Captain, as well as detailing what's going on beyond the scope of the PCs, but as Star Trek captains are traditionally so hands-on this doesn't seem like it'd fit. Anyway, ignoring that for now, player characters would assume roles like First Officer, Security Officer, Tactical Officer, Science Officer, Helm, Conn, etc. etc., probably with a department under them filled with PC-NPCs they can control and give orders to and flesh out their scenes with.

There'd have to be a Storyteller or DM figure, as mentioned, to provide a forward moving plot and events the players can react to, at which point the players would work together to solve "Crises of the Week" or engage in long-running plots or whatever the case may be. At this point, it's obvious some kind of system would have to be used, to determine success and failure as well as combat and so on, but that's the general idea - a group of players taking a Federation starship through its ongoing voyages to seek out new life and new civilisations, and boldly going where no-one has gone before.

As this is only an interest check, I don't really have much by way of a setting or a plot, so I figured it'd be fun to consider what each distinct Star Trek setting might offer by way of flavour.

USS Lexington & Concorde
Constitution-class starship, 23rd Century

The "Wild West" era of Starfleet, as described by Captain Katherine Janeway. A time of cold war between the United Federation of Planets and the Klingon Empire (and a secretive and isolated Romulan Star Empire), the Federation was only growing into its own and a lot less confident in itself than it would be in decades to come. Conflicts were usually over quickly, fought over the course of a single battle or skirmish with hitherto unencountered interstellar powers, such as the Gorm Hegemony or the First Federation. Pushing out into the fringes of deep space, Starship captains had a far greater degree of autonomy than their 24th century counterparts, and had broad scope to meet and overcome challenges as they saw fit. The end of this period saw a technology trade outfit the Romulan Navy with Klingon D-7-class destroyers, in exchange for Romulan cloaking technology that would become standard issue on Imperial Klingon Birds of Prey - arguably this put the Federation on the backfoot until the Camp Khitomer Accords ended over a decade of antagonism between the Federation and the Empire.

USS Pacific
Galaxy-class starship, 24th Century

The Golden Age not only of Starfleet, but of the Federation. The Federation-Klingon Alliance that resulted following the Battle of Narendra III changed the Alpha Quadrant forever. A stronger, larger and more assertive Federation, unshackled from the cold war with the Klingons, was able to pursue an undiminished policy of peaceful exploration and diplomatic primacy with its neighbours. Peace became Starfleet's watchword, with the famous Five Year Missions of the previous century - and the interstellar patrols they entailed over long stretches of time - replaced with longer range ships that could continue into deep space indefinitely, bearing families and children of crewmates on board to further engender the long term aspect of their exploration missions. Even so, the Federation was not without its challenges, as wars and skirmishes flared up with the ever-present Romulans, the Tzenkethi and the Ferengi, alongside a series of protracted and destructive quagmires during the Border Wars with the Cardassian Union. Finally, First Contact with the Borg pushed Federation resources to breaking point, but this challenge too was overcome at the Battle of Wolf 359, allowing the Federation to continue its mission of peaceful exploration and diplomatic expansion.

NX-03 Serendipity
NX-class starship, 22nd Century

United Earth's first foray into deep space, over a century after First Contact with the Vulcans. Following the maiden voyage of the NX-01 Enterprise, the founding planets of what would become the Federation existed in an uneasy alliance - Vulcan, Andorria, Tellar Prime, and of course, United Earth, the hub of Starfleet and pioneer of the allies' deep space vessels. Life in space for those early starfarers was a world removed from the utopian starlanes of future generations. Earth colonies, cut off from the mother planet by the limitations of >Warp 5 engines, developed distinct cultural identities at odds with their United Earth forebears, often losing contact or fading away entirely. Long-haul freighters were ever at the mercy of Nausicaan piracy and brigands in deep space, as the expanding and ferocious Klingon Empire recognised no laws beyond its own borders and saw all targets as fare game for its raiders and mercenaries. The 22nd century offered limitless horizons of discovery and exploration, but each one fraught with more danger than the last, with the NX class barely capable of keeping pace with its neighbouring powers, both friendly and otherwise. If the era of James T. Kirk was the Wild West for Starfleet, the era of Jonathan Archer was life for the first settlers on the Prairie - only they were far from the first to arrive.

USS Valley Forge
Defiant-class starship, 24th Century - The Dominion War

The peace accords between the United Federation of Planets and the Cardassian Union, which saw Cardassia formally withdraw its forces from the Bajoran Sector, should have represented the final triumph of Federation ideals over aggressive expansionism and insular nationalism. It proved anything but. Not six years after the signing of the accords, and the Federation was at war again, this time with the Dominion, after having had its nose bloodied in an ugly power struggle with its erstwhile allies in the Klingon Empire. The Dominion War would change galactic politics forever, pitting a never before conceived Federation Alliance of the Federation, Klingons and Romulans against the Dominion, comprising annexed Cardassia as well as countless legions of genetically engineered Jem'Hadar stormtroopers. It was a war fought not just for the survival of liberty in the galaxy but for the very survival of the species who made up the Allied powers, lest they fall prey to Dominion bioengineering as defeated races. Every asset in Starfleet's arsenal was brought to bear in the conflict, and the Defiant-class starship - a theoretical design conceived of as a counter to the Borg threat - was brought out of mothballs on Mars to serve as a deterrent that, ultimately, proved not enough to forestall the outbreak of war.

USS Wanderer
Intrepid-class starship, 24th Century - Post-War

"Today, the guns are silent," Admiral William Ross announced at the signing of the Treaty of Bajor that formally ceased hostilities between the Federation Alliance and the Dominion. He was quoting General Douglas MacArthur following the surrender of the Empire of Japan to the United States in 1945, an act which concluded the Second World War in Earth's history. For the Federation, like the United States of that era, the post-war world was going to be anything but simplistic. A weakened Klingon Empire turned inwards, as newly-anointed Chancellor Martok sought to root out the internal corruption that had plagued the Empire for centuries. The Romulan Star Empire returned to its pre-war cold war footing against the Federation, only to be rocked by cataclysmic events, both political and astronomical, that destroyed the Romulan home world and shattered the Empire. The Federation finds itself unopposed at a Quadrant level, as a new, democratic Cardassia rises from the ashes of the Dominion and the constituent races of the Romulan Empire-in-Exile find their feet once again as independent peoples. The Federation has grown large, and thus complacent and subject to corruption. The Vulcans have formally seceded, chafing under what they perceive as a human-centric bias in Starfleet, adding to the woes of an ever-thinning presence on the galactic stage by a Federation whose fleet is no longer large enough to police every corner of its yard. The founding ideals of the Federation are slipping away, mired in controversy and bitterness over what it once was, and what it, maybe, could still strive to be. There's no country for old men left in the Federation, perhaps - but the future belongs to young men, and to young women, bold enough, maybe, to go once more where no-one has gone before.

And while I'm dreaming of perfect group games, why not a little something different...

IKS Fek'Ihr
K'Vort-class Bird of Prey

Unblemished and unbowed by the centuries, the Klingon Empire has ever stood as a monument to war. Whether pitted in combat against the Federation, the Romulan Star Empire, the Borg, the Cardassian Union or the Dominion, the Klingons have left their mark on countless worlds across the width and breadth of the galaxy. Led once more by a living God-Emperor, Kahless the Unforgettable, the Klingons penchant for warfare is as frenetic in the 24th century as it was in the 22nd, and every century before that, and every century yet to come. The Klingon Defence Forces - the post-Khitomer redesignation of the Imperial Klingon Navy, but no less proud for that - have no use for science vessels and long-range exploration missions. Their ships are built for a single purpose: to hunt and destroy the enemy. Boasting cloaking technology derived from that of the feared Romulan Warbirds, and firing disruptors considered illegal on Federation vessels, the Bird of Prey remains - even at the tail end of the Dominion War - the supreme fighting machine in the galaxy, it alone having been able to stare down the Breen Confederacy during the darkest hours of the Dominion conflict. Brought together by the legendary tales of the Emperor Kahless and crew-wide war shanties, strengthened by bonds of blood and house and with ambitions tempered by a rigid system of fealty and promotion-via-assassination, the Klingon crew cuts a terrifying sight to alien races, allied or opposed. The ebb and flow of Alpha Quadrant politics has seen many an interstellar power rise and fall, but the Klingon Empire has remained eternal under its immortal Emperor, come again to usher in a glorious age of renewed conquest and honour. Qapla'!



As I said, I have no notion of how any of these games might work - I just know in my heart and soul that the Star Trek setting offers the PERFECT sandbox for a group game. It so deserves to be explored further.

[Mac84]

This may sound a bit presumptuous of me, but have you also looked into the Prime-Timeline established by Star Trek Online? Which is considered Canon by the show's producers.

One idea which can work with both Federation, and Klingon would be perhaps do something with Federation MACO, or Klingon Honor Guard.

From what I understand, the two groups were reformed after the Dominion War cause Star Fleet recognized that they can't simply be an purely Peaceful entity in the face of galactic threats such as the Borg, Undine, Voth, Terran Empire (Which is working their way through the Badlands of the Alpha Quadrant), and many others.

Plus the ships are very cool too!

Yamato Class Dreadnought Cruiser:

[White Wolf]

This may sound a bit presumptuous of me, but have you also looked into the Prime-Timeline established by Star Trek Online? Which is considered Canon by the show's producers.

One idea which can work with both Federation, and Klingon would be perhaps do something with Federation MACO, or Klingon Honor Guard.

From what I understand, the two groups were reformed after the Dominion War cause Star Fleet recognized that they can't simply be an purely Peaceful entity in the face of galactic threats such as the Borg, Undine, Voth, Terran Empire (Which is working their way through the Badlands of the Alpha Quadrant), and many others.

Plus the ships are very cool too!

Not presumptuous at all

I only played ST Online briefly, and really hated the combat system, so didn't stick around to learn much about its lore. My fluff for the Post-War era was sort of half-invented by me, half-based loosely on the treatment for Star Trek: Federation, a show that was pitched to Paramount that was going to follow on 70 years after Star Trek: Nemesis. Basically the idea was that the Federation had gone to Hell and become bloated and corrupt, such that the Vulcans had seceded for the reasons I outlined above, and everything was generally a far cry from what it had once been. The show was gonna' star Alexander Kirk, First Officer on a ship, the great grandson of James T. Kirk. I REALLY loved the idea, so wanted to reference it here

[Mac84]

yeah, the combat system for STO can be a bit trying, and the missions can be a bit tedious. But there is a lot to do, and explore. Including Kit-bashing ships which can turn out some very cool looking designs. And the Lore expands greatly once you get passed the Romulan campaign. Plus they added Temporal Federation Character arc that adds a whole new slew of missions for that arc.

Being a member of a fleet (Albeit a good fleet) certainly helps, and it makes the game much more fun as you can go into Fights/Missions with people willing to come and assist you.

I have a two Yamato Class Dreadnought cruisers (the T6, and Fleet T6) that I called the Shinano, and Musashi Respectively.

[Dream Lover]

I'm certainly interested in hearing more. 

I don't really mind what ship the crew ends up on, all have their charms.  Having tried to run a few Trek games, online and off, I suggest the Storyteller start with an NPC Captain.  In a formal, regulated, near-military setting like Trek, rank can really be misused by an ill-fitting Commander.

Once a PC leader or two proves themselves, the NPC Captain can retire or die heroically.

As it happens, for a previous game here, I was going to play a wonky EMH.   Would that be viable in this game (assuming the newer ships capable of running an EMH, of course)?

[Triggvi]

it certainly would be a fun having the MACOs back in the star trek universe. I would be down for playing a Maco.

[Mac84]

it certainly would be a fun having the MACOs back in the star trek universe. I would be down for playing a Maco.

According to STO (Star Trek Online which is considered Prime Line Canon) MACO has been reformed after the Dominion War.

[Triggvi]

Personally I don't pay much attention to cannon. Some things that are cannon came out of bad writing and then someone has to go to great lengths of more bad writing to justify to initial bad writing. Lol

Such as the millinium falcon doing the Kessel run in parsecs.

All that being the Maco's were fun and needed to be put back in.

[tuckers02]

I'd be interested as well.  I prefer to play unlikely roles such as a Klingon doctor or a Betazed tactical officer.  I once had a half Betazed/Klingon counselor once.  That was fun to play.

[Triggvi]

I like odd characters too. I had an efrosian female that had been raised on Qo'nos. Her parents worked for the federation embassy. She had gone klingion schools but ended up joining starfleet after killing a love sick class mate in a duel.

[White Wolf]

Hey guys!

I love that there's a bit of a buzz about this

Now, okay, correct me if I'm wrong - my understanding about the MACOs was that they were a United Earth agency, and after the Earth-Romulan War and the founding of the Federation they were folded into Starfleet.

Major Spoiler for Star Trek: Beyond

This was borne out by dialogue in Star Trek Beyond, where Idris Elba's character was a former MACO who was given command of a Starfleet ship once the Federation came into being.

Is there beta canon or something that goes against that? Do MACOs appear in stuff set during the Federation?

[Mac84]

Hey guys!

I love that there's a bit of a buzz about this

Now, okay, correct me if I'm wrong - my understanding about the MACOs was that they were a United Earth agency, and after the Earth-Romulan War and the founding of the Federation they were folded into Starfleet.

Major Spoiler for Star Trek: Beyond

This was borne out by dialogue in Star Trek Beyond, where Idris Elba's character was a former MACO who was given command of a Starfleet ship once the Federation came into being.

Is there beta canon or something that goes against that? Do MACOs appear in stuff set during the Federation?

In the Kelvin Verse this is true. But in the Prime Time Line (Via Star Trek Online which has been accepted as prime continuity, and taking place about 40 years after the events of Voyager, DS9, Etc.), MACO was reestablished under Task Force Omega with the Klingon Honor Guard. That these two entities report directly to the President of the Federation, as well as the High Chancellor of the Klingon Empire. But they don't answer to either. They're tasked to take on threats that go beyond the, at the time, War between the Federation and Klingon Empire. Threats such as the Borg, the Undine, the Iconians, Dominition, etc.

MACOs do appear in Enterprise, though I'm not familiar with the series enough to say in what capacity. cept that archer was asked how he felt about having MACOs onboard his ship.

[RobHumph]

Colour me interested in this. Granted I'm not the biggest Trekkie around but I think I'd really enjoy being a part of this.

[HairyHeretic]

I've been kicking around a Klingon game idea myself, but haven't fully fleshed it out yet. I'd go for that in preference to a 'regular' Federation focused game.



Space: the final frontier.

These are the voyages of the cruiser IKV Sompek. Its continuing mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, and conquer them for the glory of the Empire.

The Four Years War is over, the Treaty of Axanar signed some 6 months ago. The Empire has taken it's measure of the Federation.

Destroying an Empire to win a war is no victory. And ending a battle to save an Empire is no defeat.

With the Empire rebuilding, exploration missions are dispatched, to seek worlds and races to bring into the Empire and strengthen it for the future. The IKS Sompek is an experiment, a crew that is far more mixed than KDF vessels tend to be. The ship itself is a prototype, an upgraded and upscaled D7, about on par with the later K'tinga class.


There are shades of Star Trek Online within it, allowing for a larger variety of races than are generally seen on KDF vessels, and non Klingons in positions of authority rather than simply jeghpu'wI' menials.

[FortunatePilgrim]

Just thought I'd pop in to say that a new Star Trek RPG was just published less than a year ago. Star Trek Adventures. It's not bad. The chargen process is very cool.

If you wanted a system that was just enough to keep a hold on things without getting anyone bogged down in numbers (or costing anyone any money) there's Laers and Feelings!. It's a very (VERY) rules lite system based on the idea that everything in Star Trek comes down to either tech or people (Lasers or Feelings). It's presented in a very campy, humorous way, but it could be used in a serious game.

[Haybuck]

So, if this happens, as long as I can play a Caitian, I'd be interested.