Red Dwarf by Justv23

Captain’s Log: Stardate 1253.01

“We’ve received a message from the civilian exploration starship Ventura that their long-range shuttlecraft called the Susquehanna has gone missing in the Carina Nebula, deep within the Taurus Reach. The Susquehanna was investigating an unusual alien signal that originated from the nebula on the newly discovered Class M planet Seku VI when all contact was lost. We have been ordered to enter the nebula, find the shuttle, and determine the origin and cause of the alien signal. Starfleet has also advised that Romulan and Tholian ships have been sighted in the region, so we should exercise caution since they may well have detected the alien signal as well.”

Characters

• Lieutenant Bennett (the Human Chief Medical Officer, played by Bailey)
• Lieutenant Commander Abossas Zharath  (the Andorian Chief Of Security, played by Mason)
• Commander Cort Ranier  (the Human 1st Officer, played by John)
• Lieutenant Commander Brev Chasch (the Tellerate Chief Engineer, played by Jeff L.)
• Ensign Sevek (the Vulcan Science Officer, played by Jeff M.) (Not Appearing in this session) 
• Captain Gregory Konstans (NPC)
• Lt. Commader Chen (NPC, Transporter Room Engineer)

Episode Summary

Captain Konstans summons an away team aboard the U.S.S. Darius, a single-nacelle, Saladin class starship patrolling the Taurus Reach. He dispatches a team of 3 to beam down to a Class M planet recently discovered nested in the Carina Nebula. The Darius had traced the ion trail of the lost shuttle Susquehanna to this location. Heavy electrical interference in the atmosphere is making reads on the planet difficult, but a clearing in the perpetual storms allows to take the shuttle Defiant and hazards the storms down to the site of interest. The team first investigates the communicator signals and found the two hapless scientists (Scientist Eloy Pedigrew, and Scientist Henry Watson) dead from a transporter malfunction, partially beamed into the ground.

A tricorder scan of the area indicates three notable areas of interest.

1. Two kilometers to the North are trace signs of the lost shuttlecraft.
2. Three kilometers to the Southeast, a trail of smoke (barely visible in the red, dim horizon) snakes up into the sky.
3. Six kilometers to the Southwest the tricorder picks up a chirping signal consistent with the signature of the alien signal the Ventura was seeking when it dispatched the shuttle the Susquehanna to investigate.

Investigating the crashed shuttle Susquehanna, the away team is  immediately attacked by 2 Romulans. Due to their superior training and tactics, the Starfleet officers manage to stun the Romulans. The Romulans are beamed about the Darius, and the away team then takes to skies to investigate the next site of interest.

The episode ends with the away team’s shuttle being struck by a massive energy surge and the shuttle plummeting down planetside just like the crashed Susquehanna had done previously!

Momentum, Threat, & Advancement

• 0 Momentum at end of session
• 1 Threat at end of session

Rules Questions

Here are some answers to last sessions Star Trek Adventures rules questions.

1. Question: Does momentum go away at the end of a scene?
   Answer: “At the end of each scene, one point of Momentum in the pool is lost” (p. 84).
2. Question: How many questions does Momentum grant you?
   Answer: A successful roll achieves some result. For each point of Momentum a player spends, then can receive 1 additional answers.
3. Question: How does “retain the initiative” work?
   Answer: “After a character has completed their Turn — attempted a single Task and any Minor Actions they wish to perform — the Player hands the action to the opposing side (typically, but not always, Gamemaster-controlled NPCs), who will choose a single character to act next. Alternatively, the Player may spend 2 Momentum (Immediate) to keep the initiative, handing the action to another Player Character instead. Once a Player has opted to keep the initiative, nobody on that side may keep the initiative again until the opposition have taken at least one Turn of their own. In any case, no character may take more than one Turn in a Round.Once all characters on one side have taken a Turn, then any remaining characters on the other side take their Turns in any order they choose, one at a time, until all characters on both sides have taken one Turn. Once all characters on both sides have taken a Turn, then the action goes to a character on whichever side did not take the last Turn, and the whole process begins again for the next Round.” p. 163
4. Question: How does Advantage and Complications work and what mechanically it means to create a problem (Quickstart rules are unclear on this).
   Answer: See pp. 76-77. Traits (with Complications and Advantages) are similar to Aspects in Fate RPG. Complication increases Difficulty of related tasks by 1.
5. What type of ‘Ice pick’ does the Andorian have?
   Answered: It’s a climbers ice pick.

Phases Roll-out of Rules

Star Trek Adventures core rules book is over 300 pages, so its amazing, but a lot to digest. Here’s my approach for learning and rolling out the rules.

Phase I (Now through most of Season 1)

Using 32 pages of rules from the main book (pp. 73-88 Core Rules, and pp. 163-180 Conflicts), which covers roughly the same rules introduced in the Quickstart.

Phase II (End of Season 1, or Season 2)

Add 26 additional pages of rules (pp. 89-91 Advanced Rules (Challenges & Extended Tasks), and pp. 210-233 Starship Rules).

Phase III (At Kickoff of Season 2)

Character creation and the rest of the rules.

Red Dwarf by Justv23

Note: We had some audio issues with this first session so we rebooted the adventure and recorded it again over here.

Captain’s Log: Stardate 1266.01

“We’ve received a message from the civilian exploration starship Ventura that their long-range shuttlecraft called the Susquehanna has gone missing in the Carina Nebula, deep within the Taurus Reach. The Susquehanna was investigating an unusual alien signal that originated from the nebula when all contact was lost. We have been ordered to enter the nebula, find the shuttle, and determine the origin and cause of the alien signal. Starfleet has also advised that Romulan and Tholian ships have been sighted in the region, so we should exercise caution since they may well have detected the alien signal as well.”

Characters

• Lieutenant Bennett (the Human Chief Medical Officer, played by Bailey)
• Lieutenant Commander Abossas (the Andorian Chief Of Security, played by Mason)
• Ensign Sevek (the Vulcan Science Officer, played by Jeff M.)
• Captain Gregory Konstans (NPC)

Episode Summary

Captain Konstans summons an away team aboard the U.S.S. Darius, a single-nacelle, Saladin class starship patrolling the Taurus Reach. He dispatches a team of 3 to beam down to a Class M planet recently discovered nested in the Carina Nebula. The Darius had traced the ion trail of the lost shuttle Susquehanna to this location. Heavy electrical interference in the atmosphere is making reads on the planet difficult, but a clearing in the perpetual storms allows the away team to beam down.

Planetside, the away team beamed down and were almost immediately attacked by 3 Romulans. Due to their superior training and tactics, the Starfleet officers manage to stun the Romulans.

A tricorder scan of the area indicates three notable areas of interest.

1. Two kilometers to the North are trace signs of civilian Combadges, a signal consistent with the crew of the lost Susquehanna.
2. Three kilometers to the Southeast, a trail of smoke (barely visible in the red, dim horizon) snakes up into the sky.
3. Six kilometers to the Southwest the tricorder picks up a chirping signal consistent with the signature of the alien signal the Ventura was seeking when it dispatched the shuttle the Susquehanna to investigate.

The episode ends with the away team communicating with Captain Konstans about their findings and discussing next steps before an incoming magnetic storm again disrupts communications.

Rules Questions

1. Does momentum go away at the end of a scene? (We seem to recall it does in Conan)
2. How many questions does Momentum grant you? (With a successful roll and 2 momentum earned and spent, is that 2 questions, or 3?)
3. GM picking who goes first (Need to read the full rules on initiative)
4. Turn order and cost to retain the initiative (Bailey’s character had a special ability but we had questions on how it exactly worked)
5. General questions on how Advantage and Complications work and what mechanically it means to create a problem (Quickstart rules are unclear on this)
6. What type of ‘Ice pick’ does the Andorian have? (Answered: It’s a climbers ice pick).

Starbase 47 by archangel72367 on DeviantArt

A quick blog post to get feedback on our upcoming Star Trek opening credits monologue, and also on the name of our Star Trek campaign.

First, a bit of context on what I’m aiming for in the campaign.

We’re currently doing a Season 1 which is a prequal series of planet-of-the-week adventures using pregens. We’re aboard the U.S.S. Darius.

Later, maybe mid-year, we’ll move on to Season 2. We’ll do joint character creation using the full rules. Anyone who was in love with their pregen can ‘upgrade’ them into a long-term PC. 1st Thursdays will be the Star Trek main campaign with these characters. I’ll call this the ‘Alpha’ campaign. Then, we’ll additionally have opportunistic games which I’ll call ‘Omega’ missions that will feature below decks characters on your ship, or possibly characters on other starships in the sector. We’ll have 2-3 starships in Starfleet attached to Starbase 47 (also known as Vanguard). So focus will be on main crew and campaign but we’ll have other organized-play style games in the same universe. A PC in an Omega game (sidequest game) could be featured in an Alpha game as an NPC. If Omega game characters fail in a mission and are captured, the next Alpha game could be to save them.

The setting is the Taurus Reach, which is also called the Rimward Frontier. We include the names of the starship (the U.S.S. Darius and others to come) in each opening monologue, and if we switch to an Omega game with a different starship, then we have a different opening that references _that_ starship.

Or, we could just reference Starfleet having operations in the area.

Here are some examples. Happy to entertain other takes on what we should say on the opening.

For reference: Star Trek The Next Generation Opening Credits Monologue

“Space… The final frontier…
These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise.
Its continuing mission:
To explore strange new worlds…
To seek out new life and new civilizations…
To boldly go where no one has gone before!”

Here’s some possibilities for us.

Star Trek Adventures Concept 1 (Campaign Name: ‘Star Trek Darius’):

“Space… The final frontier…
These are the voyages of the Starship Darius.
Its continuing mission:
To explore strange new worlds…
To seek out new life and new civilizations…
To boldly go where no one has gone before!”

Star Trek Adventures Candidate 2 (Campaign Name: ‘Star Trek Taurus Reach’):

“Space… The final frontier…
These are the chronicles of Starfleet in the Taurus Reach.
Our continuing mission:
To explore strange new worlds…
To seek out new life and new civilizations…
To boldly go where no one has gone before!”

Star Trek Adventures Candidate 3 (Campaign Name: ‘Star Trek Rimward Frontier’ or ‘Star Trek Frontier’; maybe Season 2’s ship is named the U.S.S. Frontier):

“Space… The final frontier…
These are the tales of Starfleet in the Rimward Frontier.
Our continuing mission:
To explore strange new worlds…
To seek out new life and new civilizations…
To boldly go where no one has gone before!”

Star Trek Adventures Candidate 4 (Campaign Name: ‘Star Trek Vanguard’):

“Space… The final frontier…
These are the tales of Starfleet in the vanguard of Federation space.
Our continuing mission:
To explore strange new worlds…
To seek out new life and new civilizations…
To boldly go where no one has gone before!”

Thoughts? Let’s chat on GroupMe!

Below describes a quickstart adventure I plan to run this Wednesday (quorum permitting) or at some other future point in time.

Away Mission: Signals

CAPTAIN’S LOG
STARDATE 2266.01

“We’ve received a message from the exploration vehicle Ventura that their long-range shuttlecraft called the Susquehanna has gone missing in the Carina Nebula, deep within the Taurus Reach. The Susquehanna was investigating an unusual alien signal that originated from the nebula when all contact was lost. We have been ordered to enter the nebula, find the shuttle, and determine the origin and cause of the alien signal. Starfleet has also advised that Romulan and Tholian ships have been sighted in the region, so we should exercise caution since they may well have detected the alien signal as well.”

What You Need to Know

Basic familiarity with the Star Trek universe (The Prime Directive, Phasers, ‘Beam Me Up’) is desired. Rules will be taught in-game, with all accessories needed supplied by the GM. Read the ‘Quickstart Rules for Players’ PDF below and pick a Pregen character from below if you have time before the game.

Setting

The game takes place in the Star Trek universe in the year 2266, during Kirk’s “Five Year Mission” in The Original Series. Adventures take place in the Taurus Reach which is a region of space in the rimward Alpha Quadrant. A zone of Federation expansion in the mid-23rd century, the Reach was also bordered by the Klingon Empire and the Tholian Assembly. It is largely an unexplored, stellar frontier.

Quickstart Rules for Players

Download and read the quickstart rules on your digital device.

Species Mix

For story reasons, we want about half or more of characters to be human.

Pregens

Download and select a pregen from this folder.

Theme Music

Before we air the podcast, we will compose a nice intro. audio track with a voice-over using this as the background music.

You Starship

You are crew members of the U.S.S. Darius (designation NCC-502, a single-nacelle Saladin class starship).

‘U.S.S. Darius’ by unusualsuspex on DeviantArt