Federation Commander

[Jeffr0]

Would anyone like to play Prime Directive via this forum?

I would like to gamemaster an adventure if there is interest.

Player Requirements: For rules, all you need is a copy of GURPS Lite which is available as a free download from e23. You don't need to understand GURPS to play. Just describe what sort of character you want to play and I can stat it out for you. This is GURPS, so anything you can imagine is fine-- the only hitch is that you need to fit in with the setting and with the other characters.

How it works: The story so far will be posted in a public thread. Some referee-player interaction will be carried out through private emails.

Combat: I'm pretty open to a narrativistic approach for many things, but I like to run combat "by the book".

Setting: If you have a lot of ideas for setting and background, feel free to jump in with that. As the GM, I'd appreciate the help in fleshing things out the Prime Directive way-- all I ask if to have the final say on things.

Tone: I don't mind erring on the the side of "The Original Series," so let me know if you have a problem with greek gods, weird aliens, bizarre artifacts, tantalizing Orion slave girls, and cinematic action that always results in the main dude getting his shirt ripped off.

Adventure: The adventure depends on the characters. We can go with anything from a straight ahead bridge crew of a Federation ship to some scuzzy rogues on the frontiers of civilization. Whatever people can agree to is fine with me! If people need me to just make something up, that's fine, too.

[burchenal]

I'm pretty interested, but as any given french, i have a poor english.
Let's see if other dudes come in.

[mojo_billbo]

Yes, that sounds like fun to me.
Count me in, please.

[Jean]

Jeffr0, we must be careful on this Forum to not violate Paramount's intellectual property. That means that you cannot use elements of TOS unless ADB, Inc. has already used them. That may mean that the Greek gods are out unless you make them radically different.

No characters named for TOS characters.

No species from TOS unless they are already in our books.

That's the short list.
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Business Manager/RPG Line Editor
Amarillo Design Bureau, Inc.

[Jeffr0]

I'm of a mind to explore the seedy underbelly of the Star Fleet Universe. Feel free to sketch out a character concept for a rogue type character. [You don't have to worry about stats-- just describe the character you want to play.] Non-human characters are welcome. Players do not start the game with a ship. [If you want to play something else, speak up-- I'm just trying to get the ball rolling.]

I propose that we set things in Donjebruche. In the spirit of TOS, I'm going to have a cold war situation between the Klingons and the Feds. The time period is before the General War... many ships do not yet have refits.

I don't know how it would sit with the purists and the canon police, but in my prime directive universe, I'm predisposed to allow Klingon subject races to occasionally roam around outside of the Klingon empire. Player Characters that choose such races may need an "unusual background" to justify it.

Campaign premise: life is common as dirt. Random worlds tend to have some sort of animal life... and humanoid life forms tend to show up all over the place.

This stuff was posted by Steve on discus:

[Jeffr0]

[JEGoodrich]

How many points?
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[Jeffr0]

[Jeffr0]

The first stage of the adventure is set up to allow folks to join in as they get their character ready. My philosophy is play first, work out the details later.

Your character should either be struggling (-10 points), poor (-15 points), or dead broke (-25 points). Traditional adventurer roles you might want to have in the group are the tough guy, the leader/mastermind, the person with connections and/or social skills, and the techie gadget guy who can fly a wide variety of vehicles. You may want to consider having some outdoor survival type skills, some sort of medical/healing abilities, and everyone will want at least a few rogue-type skills. Alien characters with unusual abilities are welcome-- a racial type that fits with your role would be a good idea.

...

The story so far:

You are down on your luck in Donjebruche. If you don't make some cred soon, you could get on the wrong side of some bad people. This leaves you not being particularly picky about what sorts of jobs you take on. You might have come out onto the frontier to try to strike it rich in some crazy scheme only to lose your shirt. You might be on the run from the bad people of some other star system.

At any rate... you've taken a job with an elderly Andorian named Tarsh. Nothing fancy-- he's picking up a package from a Cromarg named X'al Fen. Tarsh is supposed to meet him at 8:30 at the Grey Banshee. Tarsh is expecting trouble, so he wants a couple of PC's to go in early and make sure the place is safe. After they give the signal that all is well, they are to remain positioned for backup if things get ugly. The rest of the PC's are to go in with Tarsh for the pickup-- providing (hopefully) a sufficiently intimidating show of force so that things don't get ugly in the first place!

Good luck!


[Note: my lack of knowledge of the finer points of Trek and the SFU could mean that the names/places/situations I come up with are not consistent with canon, etc. If you want to make suggestions for fixing things, feel free to do so. As long as the narrative thrust is preserved, I expect I'll be happy.]

Edit: for spelling and grammer

[Jean]

Just a couple of suggestions for your location.

Tafelland is in hex 2007 which is firmly on the Federation side of the Neutral Zone. Klingons may be trading here, but they aren't going to be a huge military presence.

Remember that your "Subject Races" beings may be honest merchants or perhaps there is a reason they are "free".

In the SFU "Orion Slave Girls" are male and female (males prefer the term "escort") and can be rather expensive to hire. If you read their skill list in PD20M, you could probably think of several interesting career paths.

If you need a sticky topic, please let Mike West know so he can set something up for you. If you want it on FB, please let me know.

Have fun!
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Business Manager/RPG Line Editor
Amarillo Design Bureau, Inc.

[mojo_billbo]

what tech level are we going for? TL10? TL11?

[Jeffr0]

[mjwest]

I updated the thread title to reflect the campaign setting. I also made this a sticky.
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Federation Commander Answer Guy

[Steve Cole]

PLANETARY SURVEY: Tafelland

I. GENERAL INFORMATION
Status: Minor colony world.
Location: Coordinates 2007, Federation.
Mass: 5.7x1021 metric tons.
Density: 5.5.
Diameter: 8,101 miles.
Class: K.
Surface Area: 206 million square miles.
Land Area: 205.99 million square miles.
Land Area as Percentage of the Surface: 99.5%.
Surface Gravity: 1.01G.
Mean Surface Temperature: 88°F.
Surface Pressure at Sea Level: 1.04.
Atmosphere Composition: Nitrogen 77%.
Oxygen 21%.
Argon: 1%.
Trace Gasses: 1%.
Pollution: Very minor in the two small industrial areas.
Orbital Distance: 95 million miles (1.02 AU).
Day: 26 hours.
Year: 376 local days (407 Earth days, 1.11 Earth years).
Axial Tilt: 17°.
Population: 300,000.

II. BIOSPHERE
Most of Tafelland is simply a barren desert, but the valley basin of Groenveldt is virtually Class M in most respects. There are significant mountain ranges and vast continent-sized slabs of granite. Tectonic basalt plates under the sand move at the normal rates for such things (similar to Earth).
At one point, a Star Fleet survey ship calculated that a few thousand comets could be crashed into the planet over a period of a century or two, elevating it to Class-L, but this plan was never put into motion.
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The Guy Who Designed Fed Commander

[Steve Cole]

SYSTEM SURVEY: Afrikanius

Star Class: F9V yellow-white dwarf (1.05 stellar masses).

Planets
I. Gesmolten: This is a Class-I hot rock, 4,632 miles in diameter, similar to Mercury.
II. Rokerig: This is a Class-C hothouse, 6,897 miles in diameter, with temperatures too high for even brief visits and a corrosive atmosphere.
III. Tafelland: This is a Class-K desert planet, similar to Vulcan, with no oceans to speak of. It is 8,101 miles in diameter. See the planetary survey.
IV. Bevroren: This is a Class-O frozen planet with a thin atmosphere. It is 6,277 miles in diameter. There is a mining colony here operated by Mars Mining & Manufacturing. It has a population of over 10,000 people, mostly Humans and Cygnans.
V. Blauw: A large Class-A hot gas giant, similar to Jupiter. There are over 60 moons, some of them fairly large. Two dozen have small mining operations, and three of them have significant colonies (with populations of over 5,000). One is operated by Cygnus Trans-Star Mining, one by Mars Mining & Manufacturing, and one of them (a former Klingon mining colony) is operated by expatriate Dunkars.
VI. Groen: This is a Class-B cold gas giant with six moons, none of which are mined on any regular basis.
VII. Buitenst: This is a Class-Q iceball.
VIII. Afgelegen: A small Class-Q Ort cloud object.
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The Guy Who Designed Fed Commander