Coming Of The Federation
After the success of Captain Archer and the Enterprise NX-01, Starfleet sent more ships out into the universe to begin expanding not only knowledge, but territory. Soon Earth, Vulcan and Andor banded to form the original Federation. This series would be set in these times.
Contents
Tone and Mechanics
Like Et tu, Maquis?, this is a very customizable series. Would the players enjoy an action packed journey into the unknown (like Enterprise)? Instead, maybe a cerebral and moral exploration of the universe and the many philosophical themes which encompass it (like TOS)? Or what about a web of intersection arcs of plot (like DS9)? Is there something else the players enjoy?
This series would be much more of a 'sandbox' game than any other game I have ever run. My plan would be to create a 27 cube spatial universe with information inside of them available to the players via discussion with NPCs, sensor scans or any other technique the players can devise. The mission would be one of exploration. Sometimes, missions may come from home, but generally the captain of the ship will have full autonomy to lead the crew where adventure is perceived.
Setting
What do I mean by a 27 cube spatial universe? The game will begin with the Constitution NX-04 at some as yet indeterminate area of space at approximately one year into its tour. That will be the center of the center cube on the rearmost edge in the game universe. Each cube will be 10 cubic light years, creating an area of space encompassing 27,000 cubic light years. All of this will be outside of what is the known universe in the Federation at this time.
The Ship
The ship will be the first Constitution in the fleet, which is an Enterprise class ship. Here are some amazing deck plans: [1]
System
The choice of system will be largely dependent on what the players want. Given the grappling with the unknown, and the likely high amount of action, the choices are weighed toward action.
Hero System 5th Edition
Having discovered the fan made Hero pdfs, the Hero system is a viable selection. I am impressed with the level of detail and information within. The Hero system would do an especially good job with a series based on characters of many races and with an action packed tone.
The power level could be anywhere from 150-175 points.
GURPS Prime Directive, 4th Edition
Like Hero, GURPS Prime Directive would be a good choice for an action packed series. Since it is Prime Directive and not Star Trek, some canon races might not be present. The internet buzz is that GURPS does a better job at human level action, and we have never played a GURPS game, so it could be a nice change.
Power level for this system would be Veteran, 150 points.
Decipher Star Trek
This is what we have used for all of our previous Star Trek games. It works pretty well at the nuts and bolts of Trek, but is lackluster at action. This may be able to be remedied with a little ingenuity.
Files
BOOM! One Shot
It has been 10 years since Archer and the Enterprise set sail for the unknown on the first mission of Starfleet. Now, after encountering the Andorians, the Tellarites and many other spacefaring races, the Federation has been formed. Now, the first integrated crew Federation exploration vessel, Constitution NX-04 is launched.
Potential PC Crew Members
Captain Lars Nieweendyk Corey
Commander Lissan th'Zarath Dieter
Lieutenant Commander Bala blin Gir
Lieutenant Commander Thomas Decker
Lieutenant T'Luminareth Rumi
Lieutenant Zane Steinberg Matt
Ensign Bek Laura
I created this crew thinking of a 'long term' game. This is not to say that if we choose to run this series that I expect the players to keep these characters. Instead, it means that I made these characters with flexibility and playability in many scenarios in mind. They were not tailored to the specific scenario which will be played during this test one shot.
Scenario
This introductory scenario will not be 'sandbox' like the series as proposed. The reason for this is that it will be difficult to develop the roles, universe and style enough to make it viable in a one shot. I propose that even if the sandbox is initiated as the game, in the beginning it might be standard episodes like other games we have played until the universe is well known enough for the players to be comfortable taking charge.
