ST Andromeda (Post Apocalyptic Star Trek)

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by cptbutton

Except for the Bandersnatches.

Who had been engineered to e immune to Slaver Telepathy. They also had no manipulatory organs and mutation-proof genes. The combination of these last two traits meant they were still around to explain things a billion years later but didn't run the galaxy.

You probably don't need bansersnatch equivalents for this 300-400 year-old psionic collapse.

[isf]

Originally Posted by Johnny1A.2

IIRC, S31 is the Federation's uber-secret wet work and dirty tricks division. What sort of ship is an 'S31 ship'? Is it a big general-purpose Swiss Army Knife ship like the various Enterprises, or is it a little ship full of comms and spy gear? How fast is it and how much support does it need to run? How big is the crew, and what are their specialties?

I am considering something like the Defiant with a crew of around 40-50; enough so that each player can have a bridge officer and a away team crew. I do want some of the unrealized problems of Voyager and Andromeda regarding repairs and resupply. I think that it should be more focused on stealth and espionage rather than front line battle though it may have some unusual technology (either cutting edge or stolen). I'm open to a pretty broad range of possible crew since S31 attracts unique characters.

[isf]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

A time travel experiment could go sideways creating a massive reality quake destroying/unmaking everyone.
I'm thinking in a similar fashion to the Krenim ship in Voyager's two part, Year Of Hell. But by being an incomplete screw up, there are more "chronoclastic ruins" than pristine uninhabited worlds.

I am leaning towards some kind of general war that saw the deployment of weapons that destabilized interactions with subspace and made warp travel hard or impossible for some time. Throw in a little backlash for psionically active people for added crazy.

[isf]

Originally Posted by Johnny1A.2

I highly endorse this. Pure-software SAI tends to either eat the setting, or force elaborate kludges to keep the setting from being eaten, see the recurring issues with Transhuman Space.

I also recommend that sapient AI brains be complex, expensive, and hard to make. That way, you can have Mr. Data or the like robots, but keep the setting bio-centered. (Whole races of Mr. Data also tend to eat settings.)

Yes, I like TS, but that isn't what I'm going for with this campaign. I think that non-volitional AI can be relatively common with fully volitional AI rare.

[isf]

Originally Posted by ericthered

For non-humanoid Aliens, the Vote up a space opera Thread has a number of them. They are of varying quality, but there are some solid ideas. I'm especially fond of "engineer ants", whose "brain" is formed by the nest of the colony, rather than any individual.

For humanoid races I like
‘Cyber-psychos’. They embrace the pleasures of the flesh . . . and metal.
Aristoi. Psionically gifted eccentrics.
Al-Jami’a. A progressive federation loosely ruled by scholar-priests
‘Machine Lords’. Gentlemanly tinkerers who made robots their commoners
Jikwethi. Space nomad-traders, artifact-hunters, xeno-anthropologists and more
Green Spotter the voices in their head are actually helpful


For the Aliens I like:
Starfish Aliens (Literal)
brain slug Mind controlling parasites with soft hearts.
Tenders Bizarre-looking creatures who farm and require their tree like female's sap.
Dralasites blob creatures
Engineer Ants colonial life form thats good with nano-techstats
Rikri Small herbivores with 6 legs that are strong beyond their size.
Qtosk semi-upright knuckle walkers with 4 genders and very aggressive females.
Xahi something like a deer with a prehensile nose, but smarter.
Ashur Aliens that evolved on a space station, giving them technologically based religious and dietary quirks.

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by isf

I'm taking the position that the movies and tv series were a Hollywood accurate representation of the setting (ignoring voyager for the most part).

Voyager actually had some good info WRT Starfleet procedures and equipment and some of the major Alpha/Beta quadrant cultures - especially Vulcans and Klingons. It's also the best series for getting a handle on how the Borg operate if you wan to include them. So, weak-ass Delta Quadrant species and poor writing notwithstanding, it's worth a look.

As for Voyager's influence on your campaign, just say it's one of those timelines where Voyager never went into the Delta Quadrant or never came out.

Originally Posted by isf

1) character suggestions for npcs (crew members and encounters)

Entirely dependent on your players. How much are they into the Star Trek franchise? How much grimdarkawful are they willing to put up with? How willing are they to be railroaded or do hard roleplaying rather than your usual gamer break things, **** people off, & grab power shtick?

Originally Posted by isf

2) Non-humanoid Aliens

Tholians. A) They're not well described in canon. You can do what you want with them. B) What is known about them is that they're weird, not particularly friendly, and prefer very different environments from humans. C) If you want to include Enterprise in your canon materials, the Tholians were major players in the "Temporal Cold War" arc, making them natural enemies for Section 31 in a timeline where the Tholians win and start remaking the galaxy to suit their purposes. ("That super-cold oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere planet would be a lot more like Tholia if we just pushed its orbit closer to the sun, got rid of the liquid water, and upped the CO2 and sulfur dioxide levels . . .")

Alternately, create an alternate timeline where The Borg Win. That turns the campaign into Reign of Steel in Space, with everything the characters and players knew and loved trashed, and the surface of every planet turned into radioactive, acid-corroded wasteland.

That's about as post apocalyptic as you can get without blowing up the entire universe and it sets up meaningful conflicts between the forces of good and evil against the heaviest of Star Trek heavies. (It also explains why there's no Voyager canon. Janeway, et al got assimilated by the Borg rather than kicking robotic ass.)

Originally Posted by isf

3) Plot suggestion for ethical/moral problems for the players.

Again, know your players.
Since you're creating a crapsack universe, the moral and ethical problems never stop coming.

"Oops, 3 days of air for 4 people, rescue is 4 days away. But if someone goes out the airlock the rest of use might have a chance."

"We need that part for our ship or we die. Never mind that you need the same part to keep the Bug-Eyed Monsters from eating your orphanage. . ."

See Season 3 of Enterprise for far too many ideas . . .

That said, playing Post-Apocalyptic Star Trek is a bit like making no-fat, vegan bacon - you can theoretically do it but the end result is extremely disappointing and not much like the real thing.

Originally Posted by isf

I do plan on using Sparrials in some form.

Wherever you hear the word "Talaxian" substitute, "Sparrial." You can't go far wrong. Alternately, turn Cyrano Jones from TOS into a Sparrial.

As for history and psionics.

Don't fall in love with your backstory. Let the players and campaign events help to fill in the details of a broader history as the campaign progresses.

Have a Serious Talk with any player who wants a character with anything other than trivial psi abilities. Negotiation will be required to keep everyone happy if you have a player who wants a Betazoid or Vulcan with really heavy-duty psionics.

In particular, get ranges for precog, mind reading, and commo abilities worked out. Trek psionics work across intergalactic distances, while GURPS psi gets too expensive to be worth it at those distances unless you futz with the Extended Range enhancement.

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by isf

I am considering something like the Defiant with a crew of around 40-50; enough so that each player can have a bridge officer and a away team crew.

Per canon, Defiant isn't a particularly good ship for a long-term campaign because it gives up a whole lot in favor of guns, shields, and power.

Voyager aside, an Intrepid-class ship would be a nice compromise between speed, firepower, sensors, and scientific equipment. Although it's a bit on the large size, a seriously understaffed larger ship might offer some interesting advantages and challenges.

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Intrepid_class

If you want a smaller ship more focused on sensors and bopping around in a single sector, with decent endurance, but not really designed for a stand-up fight, an Oberth-class or Nova-class ship might be a good choice.

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Oberth_class

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Nova_class

Since the type of ship will help define the type of campaign, it's another decision where the players should have some say.

Originally Posted by isf

I think that it should be more focused on stealth and espionage rather than front line battle though it may have some unusual technology (either cutting edge or stolen).

If you want to be true to canon, cloaking means stolen Romulan, licensed Klingon, or "not really a cloak but provides the same effect" experimental Federation tech.

And, if it's "nice to have but not vital," make the players work for it. Have the first couple of adventures involve finding an abandoned ship with a cloaking device, dealing with all the hassles of getting and keeping it, getting it installed and making it work, and then keeping the damned thing happy, healthy, and fed. Make it the bane of the engineering crew's existence!

[isf]

Originally Posted by Pursuivant

Voyager actually had some good info WRT Starfleet procedures and equipment and some of the major Alpha/Beta quadrant cultures - especially Vulcans and Klingons. It's also the best series for getting a handle on how the Borg operate if you wan to include them. So, weak-ass Delta Quadrant species and poor writing notwithstanding, it's worth a look.

As for Voyager's influence on your campaign, just say it's one of those timelines where Voyager never went into the Delta Quadrant or never came out.

I liked the idea of voyager but the execution was mostly lacking. I plan on having a couple of different borg-like entities (communication lag limits how far they can spread).

Originally Posted by Pursuivant

Entirely dependent on your players. How much are they into the Star Trek franchise? How much grimdarkawful are they willing to put up with? How willing are they to be railroaded or do hard roleplaying rather than your usual gamer break things, **** people off, & grab power shtick?

The group has a range of all of those. It makes it hard to run a more focused game other than dnd dungeon crawling. A couple of the players are a little proactive, but others need rails (and obvious ones).

Originally Posted by Pursuivant

Tholians.

I do plan on doing something with them: I've seen a workup there they do not expand much in regular space but are active across multiple alternate universes. I don't expect them to be a playable race in this campaign.


I would like a small range of life not as we know it in the game (jovian and neptunian life and maybe some space adapted).

Originally Posted by Pursuivant

Alternately, create an alternate timeline where The Borg Win. That turns the campaign into Reign of Steel in Space, with everything the characters and players knew and loved trashed, and the surface of every planet turned into radioactive, acid-corroded wasteland.

That's about as post apocalyptic as you can get without blowing up the entire universe and it sets up meaningful conflicts between the forces of good and evil against the heaviest of Star Trek heavies. (It also explains why there's no Voyager canon. Janeway, et al got assimilated by the Borg rather than kicking robotic ass.)

I have considered that as a possible apocalypse. I would like to keep the Borg as an enigmatic force of nature rather than what they became in Voyager, I would allow a player to be a former drone (whether they looked back on the collective with longing or horror or both).

Originally Posted by Pursuivant

Since you're creating a crapsack universe, the moral and ethical problems never stop coming.

<snip>


That said, playing Post-Apocalyptic Star Trek is a bit like making no-fat, vegan bacon - you can theoretically do it but the end result is extremely disappointing and not much like the real thing.

I don't see it as necessarily a crapsack grimdark setting, but one where the ideals of the Federation are a lost golden age that the players can try and resurrect or not.

Originally Posted by Pursuivant

Wherever you hear the word "Talaxian" substitute, "Sparrial." You can't go far wrong. Alternately, turn Cyrano Jones from TOS into a Sparrial.

I like both of those.

Originally Posted by Pursuivant

As for history and psionics.

Don't fall in love with your backstory. Let the players and campaign events help to fill in the details of a broader history as the campaign progresses.

I'm not planning on having enough backstory to fall in love with. I do want to have a page or two of setting info.

Originally Posted by Pursuivant

Have a Serious Talk with any player who wants a character with anything other than trivial psi abilities. Negotiation will be required to keep everyone happy if you have a player who wants a Betazoid or Vulcan with really heavy-duty psionics.

In particular, get ranges for precog, mind reading, and commo abilities worked out. Trek psionics work across intergalactic distances, while GURPS psi gets too expensive to be worth it at those distances unless you futz with the Extended Range enhancement.

No one has settled on a character yet: I've barely got preferences for which bridge position people most of them would like to play.

[isf]

Originally Posted by Pursuivant

Per canon, Defiant isn't a particularly good ship for a long-term campaign because it gives up a whole lot in favor of guns, shields, and power.

I'm not concerned with any more than a loose relationship with canon. Yeah, I don't plan on having it be as pure of a warship as the Defiant class.

Originally Posted by Pursuivant

Voyager aside, an Intrepid-class ship would be a nice compromise between speed, firepower, sensors, and scientific equipment. Although it's a bit on the large size, a seriously understaffed larger ship might offer some interesting advantages and challenges.

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Intrepid_class

If you want a smaller ship more focused on sensors and bopping around in a single sector, with decent endurance, but not really designed for a stand-up fight, an Oberth-class or Nova-class ship might be a good choice.

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Oberth_class

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Nova_class[

I don't want something as big as an Intrepid mostly due to crew size.

Originally Posted by Pursuivant

Since the type of ship will help define the type of campaign, it's another decision where the players should have some say.

Sure and we haven't met to discuss anything specific yet: the game won't start until after christmas.

Originally Posted by Pursuivant

If you want to be true to canon, cloaking means stolen Romulan, licensed Klingon, or "not really a cloak but provides the same effect" experimental Federation tech.

And, if it's "nice to have but not vital," make the players work for it. Have the first couple of adventures involve finding an abandoned ship with a cloaking device, dealing with all the hassles of getting and keeping it, getting it installed and making it work, and then keeping the damned thing happy, healthy, and fed. Make it the bane of the engineering crew's existence!

In canon, S31 had a cloaked ship before Kirk (as seen on Discovery). I don't think that S31 would pass up cloaking technology in any case. Maintaining the cloaking system is certainly goinbg to be a problem and source of possible adventure.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by isf

I


a cloaked ship before Kirk (as seen on Discovery).

Ah, Discovery. I only saw the first episode but if you're taking stuff from dsicovery you're in a highly alternate timeline from TOS. I suppose it could turn into the AbramsTrek movies eventually.

Speaking of TOS it did have the most prominant non-human aliens of the franchise, the Hortas. You might have to reduce their tunnelling ability. Maybe eating pure hull metal gives them the tummy-ache.