Delta Quadrant Series

[mactavish]

Okay, after my long absence, I've begun planning out a new Delta Quadrant series for my players. It is forming along these lines:

The <i>U.S.S. Purveyor</i>, a <i>Nova</i>-class research vessel, while investigating a stellar phenomenon of some kind of spatial anomaly, is transported to the Delta Quadrant. Using information from their database gathered from the experiences of the <i>Voyager</i> crew, the PCs and the rest of the crew set about finding their way home.

After learning that a group of energy-based lifeforms hold the key to getting them home, a large number of crewmembers set about capturing some of them and using them to power the warp core to get them home, killing them in the process. A mutiny ensues and the crew is split.

After a fierce battle, the PCs' faction wins out and the mutineers flee the <i>Purveyor</i> in the ship's lifeboats, leaving about 45 of the 85-member crew aboard the ship. The traitors flee after sabotaging the ship so that the crew cannot follow, hoping to gather resources to retake <i>Purveyor</i> and convert the energy creatures into fuel.

The PCs and the remaining crew must not only find a way home, but must locate, subdue, and incarcerate their wayward comrades so that they cannot commit genocide or otherwise cause bigger problems.

The mutineers make an alliance with one or more of the various Kazon sects (or perhaps the Trabe!), sharing technology in exchange for enough ships and soldiers to retake the <i>Purveyor</i>, promising to share their technologies with those that assist them.

I know that this sounds like the <i>Voyager</i> episodes "Equinox, Parts 1 & 2", but I've got a whole other angle. The energy creatures are not the nucleogenic lifeforms from said episodes, but are actually sentient spaceborne nebulae (or some such thing).

As a twist, I'm also thinking of making the PCs lose and having to escape, seeking to retake the ship and prevent their former crewmates from carrying out their plan, perhaps even making deals with the Kazon, Trabe, Vidiians, or whomever.

What do you think about this?

mactavish out.

[Phantom]

Sounds workable. Only isn't the Nova-Class a little small for what you have in mind? The Nova only has a crew of about 80, assuming an even split they will be killed/stunned rather quickly. Won't a slightly larger vessel work?

[ghosty]

I agree with Phantom. Both the Voyager and Equinox landed in the Delta Quadrant by accident but a proper mission should be undertaken by a capital ship in the vein of a Galaxy or a Soveriegn. The Andromedas might work but other ships may not have the manpower or equipment for sustained operations far from their supply bases.

[Thierry]

Some one did a netbook on the delta quadrent I can't remember who I had it. It was well written but it was on my old computer one of the files I didn't retrieve if anyone has this I would like to get it.

[Brian K]

I like the way this campaign will work in the players knowledge about what happened on Voyager and works it into the plot.

It will be an interesting game if you introduce the follow up to the Voyager episodes and the like, and the alliance with the Kazon by the renegade Starfleet Officers sounds excellent.

If I was running this type of campaign I may be tempted to run it with another ship, as I feel the Nova would be outgunned by the Kazon and the like. That may not be a bad thing but the players may get tired of having their warp nacelle handed back to them. I would be tempted to use a Saber class, but I just like the looks. A Defiant-class would add an interesting element, as I see that class as a high-maintenance starship requiring a great deal of crew time to keep in working order. Also the Defiant would very much be a fish out of water so far from home as well. Of course, it has a bit of a punch…but I never liked the Kazon much anyway.

Of course there is the option of the players abandoning their vessel in exchange for a new starship if the Purveyor becomes too damage to continue.

Have the crew go after the mutineers is an excellent idea as well! It would be interesting to see the repercussions a Kazon sect could do with a couple of Starfleet Engineers under their control.

Starfleet Mutineer - "It's called a cloaking device, not quite up to Romulan standards but it will work out here in the sticks"
Kazon "Oooohhhh"

Lots of potential role-playing going on around the issue of going home vs. fixing the problems that have been created.

Looks great Mactavish, I look forward to seeing more on this!

[Michael Barratt]

One of the plot-lines that the original writers of VOY wanted to use was those alien symbiote things that took over the host, and had the little breathing tube out the back of the neck.

Seska was going to turn up, announce that something had changed with the Kazon, that they were acting together, worse than the Borg, etc - and then end of signal.

It might be interesting to work this into the plot of your mutineers - what if the leaders of the mutineer half of the crew were under the control of said little critters, so that the whole mutiny movement was founded in error, and they specifically targeted the weaker-willed crew that followed them...

Thereby, when you finally have the big confrontation, it can be revealed that the "bad" starfleet aren't bad on their own, actually need rescuing, and the Kazon seem to be acting awfully unified...

The Doc (who would have loved to see this storyline on screen)

[mactavish]

Thanks for all of the feedback.

I must say that I'd never really considered a large, capital (sp) ship for this series; the idea was to trap a small group on a small ship with limited resources and then have a bunch of 'em mutiny, leaving the rest of the crew in even more dire straits.

I guess a big ship could work, but I wanted to have a vessel that would be manageable with a small crew... I can't see a <i>Galaxy</i>-class vessel operating with a crew of 25-30 officers and crewmen.

The idea of using the alien brain parasites is certainly inriguing. I've toyed with the idea of a psionic viral lifeform doing similar things in another thread a long time ago, so I've got a great deal of material regarding such things.

I think that - assuming I can recruit my old players - the crew will be from either a <i>Nova</i>-class ship studying stellar anomalies or an <i>Oberth</i>-class refit on its way back from an extended research mission far, far away. The problem with the <i>Oberth</i> idea, however, is the likelihood of a mutiny amongst a crew that has spent the better part of a decade together. Well, I'm sure I'll come up with something.

Keep the suggestions coming... they've been helpful so far.

mactavish out.

[Michael Barratt]

Originally posted by mactavish
I think that - assuming I can recruit my old players - the crew will be from either a <i>Nova</i>-class ship studying stellar anomalies or an <i>Oberth</i>-class refit on its way back from an extended research mission far, far away. The problem with the <i>Oberth</i> idea, however, is the likelihood of a mutiny amongst a crew that has spent the better part of a decade together. Well, I'm sure I'll come up with something.

Ooh! Again, I vote those neural parasite thingies. I mean, they could even be the reason the crew gets sucked into the Delta Quadrant to begin with!

The neural parasites, having infected one tribe of the Kazon, rig up a wormhole-y type device to get to the alpha quadrant, but only have the materials to do so once: this is a one-way, invasion-force type idea: They succeed, but as the wormhole is forming, the crew, in the Alpha Quadrant, catch it on sensors, go to take a peek, and then get sucked through the rapidly expanding wormhole, even hitting some small vessel on the way through, damaging it badly, and then falling out in the Delta Quadrant, with some angry Kazon: right into battle, quick escape, but unknown to the player crew, some of those neural parasitey things got on board (beamed over during the wormhole accident when their ship was hit by the crew's ship and badly damaged).

The Possessed-Kazon would be lying in ambush for the "mutiny" (in actuality about 20 or so neural parasites, and those they possessed somewhat at random, and whoever they convince to follow them), making it easy for the crew to lose their ship to the mutineers and the Kazon.

Over time, the neural parasites continue to infect new Kazon tribes, until they have enough supplies to try again with the wormhole to the Alpha Quadrant: by this time, the crew should maybe have figured it out - by capturing one of the mutineers maybe - and have to launch a daring attack on their own ship to get it back and stop the experiment (ie: ruin it again) so the wormhole invasion attempt #2 goes boom.

Then they're one the run, from people who they ideally don't want to hurt (and want to rescue from the neural parasites that infest them), and trying to get back to the Alpha Quadrant before the nasties either kill them or make a successful wormhole invasion attempt...



The Doc

[mactavish]

Okay, how's this for an idea...

Taking a cue from the Federation Peace Corps post, the PCs are actually FPC volunteers headed toward a troubled colony when they are whisked to the Delta Quadrant.

Just consider their likely situation:

* Their ship is probably old, small, or possibly both

* They have no ship-mounted weapons to speak of and minimal deflector shields

* They have either outdated or (more likely) NO handheld weapons

* They have the stuff to build habitats, likely including industrial replicators

* They have skilled engineers, scientists, medical personnel, and so forth

A group like the Kazon could easily overpower them, enslaving their experts and stealing their technologies. They would be an excellent resource for a warlike race... capable of building entire settlements and maintaining them while their subjugators go about their daily lives.

How about a Federation Peace Corps contingent that allies with a Kazon faction, offering technology and skilled professionals in exchange for protection? Hey, they're not required to follow the Prime Directive, are they? I don't think so.

Or perhaps their ship is damaged beyond repair and they have to build a new society on a remote world in the Delta Quadrant. Imagine being able to create a completely new Series ala <i>Star Trek: Robinson Crusoe</i> (or something like that)!

Well, just a thought.

mactavish out.