Campaign Ideas: Why are they on this ship?

[zippercomics]

Hey all,

 

I'm just toying around with some Star Hero ideas right now, and I'm trying to think of a good backdrop for a campaign. I really like the Terran Empire books, and I'll likely go with a lot of those, but I'm thinking of "flavouring" the text in one direction to give the campaign a specific feel. the thing is, I need help just bouncing ideas and coming up with the 'why's.

 

The biggest, of course, being "why is this crew on this ship"?

 

Now, here's what I have so far:

 

a) I don't want a tech driven game, but I do want a lot of action. Therefore, the galaxy is seen as a more dangerous place where basic knowledge of which end of a blaster pistol to hold is required.

 

I'm a Trekkie (or was, I guess), and I've always liked the "positional" crew, where everyone serves a purpose. The ship (tentatively called the Starline) is a smaller ship that crews only the PCs. But why? What's a neat and interesting reason for a crew to man a ship?

 

I don't want them to be rogues or mercenaries if I can avoid it. I was thinking of making it a colony ship that gets lost when the "big bad event" happens, but honestly, why would the crew of a colony ship stick with it when their mission fails and they march back home with their tails between their legs?

 

I also thought of making it a science ship that's out there doing nerdy stuff, but then I think the tech aspect would factor back in.

 

Any thoughts? I know it's not much to go on, but I'm just looking to bounce ideas (and I'll post the Starline's stats when I can. All I have right now is a pic, and I'm proud of it's very basic, "pontoon" style... even though the discerning eye could tell I hacked it to pieces from a trek ship).

[csyphrett]

Re: Campaign Ideas: Why are they on this ship?

 

A lot depends on the crew's employment status. If they are military/government, they are ordered to be on the ship. If it is commercial, the crew has to decide on their line of employment, and what they bring to the table when they make a character.

 

I guess what I am trying to say is a career choice will help hammer out that much of the campaign.

CES

[austenandrews]

Re: Campaign Ideas: Why are they on this ship?

 

A few more standard ideas would include bounty hunters, holy warriors, "the lost patrol," etc. But it shouldn't be too hard to come up with something reasonably fresh. Let's brainstorm:

 

Probe Crew: A giant probe/computer/sensor device must be manually flown around the galaxy as it collects data. The computer does the nerdy work. The PCs keep it running and zap aliens who get too close.

 

Rescue 2911: Large ship has a disaster. Small escape ships scatter in all directions across an uncharted sector. The PCs were lucky enough to be picked up. Now they're flying a ship around the sector, looking for their lost friends and loved ones.

 

Big Game Hunters: Giant space-travelling animals are worth a fortune. The PCs chase them down in various exotic locales and fend off scurvy competitors.

 

Wormhole Hunters: Small wormholes spontaneously pop up in random places. They're quite profitable for those who find and exploit them before they vanish. Oh, and they don't stay in one place. The PCs try to stake and defend claims for themselves/The Company/whatever. Or instead of a profit motive, maybe the PC military has to occupy and control the wormholes before The Enemy gets to them.

 

Hal Clement's Half Life has an interesting idea - if a round-trip mission is too costly or impractical, send a crew that's terminally ill. They volunteer to spend the rest of their lives on an outbound ship, essentially a suicide mission that lasts many years. The life's goal of each crewmember is to fulfill their function (which would have to be very important) at any cost. I don't know of many players who'd go for it, but I think it would make a compelling setting.

[Spence]

Re: Campaign Ideas: Why are they on this ship?

 

The ship operates of the fringe of "explored space". Independent exploration and colonies have created a stretch of "human" space in front of the official colonies. About 60-70 years before "now" explorers ran into a alien race and ignited the bloodiest conflict in history. This led to the formation of the "Frontier Fleet". Small heavily armed high endurance ships crewed by small highly skilled crews. Their mission is to map/explore space beyond the "frontier". Locate and chart "Indi" colonies. Uphold the "law" (space marshals;) ). Render assistance to ships/colonies/settlements in peril. And if needed blow the cr*p out of any hostile "aliens".

[Wombat]

Re: Campaign Ideas: Why are they on this ship?

 

The ship belongs to company x who use it for everything from cargo runs, to emergency rescue op's. The PC's are the hired crew. You could throw a bit everything at them from pirates one week to 'why are the police chasing the passenger we just picked up' stuff the next.

[zippercomics]

Re: Campaign Ideas: Why are they on this ship?

 

Rescue 2911: Large ship has a disaster. Small escape ships scatter in all directions across an uncharted sector. The PCs were lucky enough to be picked up. Now they're flying a ship around the sector, looking for their lost friends and loved ones.

 

< SNIP >

 

Hal Clement's Half Life has an interesting idea - if a round-trip mission is too costly or impractical, send a crew that's terminally ill. They volunteer to spend the rest of their lives on an outbound ship, essentially a suicide mission that lasts many years. The life's goal of each crewmember is to fulfill their function (which would have to be very important) at any cost. I don't know of many players who'd go for it, but I think it would make a compelling setting.

 

 

These are both really interesting ideas. I like the first one a lot, especially because it evokes more of a feeling about the characters being the core of the story, rather than just plugging them into a universe and asking them to really blend in.

 

The second one's unique as well.

 

I guess my main question, in regards to the first question, is how do I get them on their own ship? I'm toying with the idea of having the Captain be an NPC at first, as it'll be easier to move the PCs into plots. Is this a no-no? Keeping in mind, again, that the majority of my star-based rp'ing is Trek oriented.

[zippercomics]

Re: Campaign Ideas: Why are they on this ship?

 

The ship operates of the fringe of "explored space". Independent exploration and colonies have created a stretch of "human" space in front of the official colonies. About 60-70 years before "now" explorers ran into a alien race and ignited the bloodiest conflict in history. This led to the formation of the "Frontier Fleet". Small heavily armed high endurance ships crewed by small highly skilled crews. Their mission is to map/explore space beyond the "frontier". Locate and chart "Indi" colonies. Uphold the "law" (space marshals;) ). Render assistance to ships/colonies/settlements in peril. And if needed blow the cr*p out of any hostile "aliens".

 

 

Nice. I'm planning on having major, galaxy wide implications to this game, and one of those plots is the coming of a physically brutal opponent who's scouring the galaxy for war. They just launch their ships in a direction and hope to run into opposition. I'd have to be careful not to make it a war game, but it could work well.

[zippercomics]

Re: Campaign Ideas: Why are they on this ship?

 

A lot depends on the crew's employment status. If they are military/government, they are ordered to be on the ship. If it is commercial, the crew has to decide on their line of employment, and what they bring to the table when they make a character.

 

I guess what I am trying to say is a career choice will help hammer out that much of the campaign.

CES

 

 

Too true.

 

So what good positions are there on a ship, for PC's? The Firefly formula seems to work well. Captain, First Mate, Mechanic, Soldier, Pilot, Doctor, Civilian. In keeping that I don't want the tech to be important, I see teh ship as being greasy and grubby. So the mechanic is more akin to a car mechanic of our age then an engineer of the Trek age.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Campaign Ideas: Why are they on this ship?

 

One campaign I've always wanted to run is "rebuild interstellar civilization." In the past Man colonized the stars, but the "big event" caused that civilization to collapse. Individual worlds lost contact with each other, much technology was lost, and on many worlds even the truth of our history fades into legend.

 

The PCs discover a functional starship left over from the ancient past. Perhaps the PCs are hunted by a repressive regime on their homeworld, and seek to escape it or find help against it. Or perhaps they're motivated by desire to find their people's lost brethren. Regardless of their motive, they set out to rediscover the lost worlds of Man.

[Fox1]

Re: Campaign Ideas: Why are they on this ship?

 

I liked the concepts in a really short lived TV show:

 

http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Contrib/SciFi/SpaceRangers/

 

Basically a group of wild west style texas rangers trying to maintain order on the fringe worlds.

[gamerz123]

Re: Campaign Ideas: Why are they on this ship?

 

One campaign I've always wanted to run is "rebuild interstellar civilization." In the past Man colonized the stars, but the "big event" caused that civilization to collapse. Individual worlds lost contact with each other, much technology was lost, and on many worlds even the truth of our history fades into legend.

 

The PCs discover a functional starship left over from the ancient past. Perhaps the PCs are hunted by a repressive regime on their homeworld, and seek to escape it or find help against it. Or perhaps they're motivated by desire to find their people's lost brethren. Regardless of their motive, they set out to rediscover the lost worlds of Man.

 

A good inspiration source for a campaign like that would be the first two seasons of (Gene Roddenberry's) Andromeda, http://www.andromedatv.com/

[BobGreenwade]

Re: Campaign Ideas: Why are they on this ship?

 

Hey all,

 

I'm just toying around with some Star Hero ideas right now, and I'm trying to think of a good backdrop for a campaign. I really like the Terran Empire books, and I'll likely go with a lot of those, but I'm thinking of "flavouring" the text in one direction to give the campaign a specific feel. the thing is, I need help just bouncing ideas and coming up with the 'why's.

Just offhand and without going through all of others' replies (which probably have scads of cool ideas), I think your best bet would be to have the PCs work afor some sort of policing organization. They could work for one of the Imperial agencies; or maybe they're bounty hunters, private investigators, or some other type of civilian "rent-a-cops." If you plunk them down in some high-tension area like the Vorsan Expanse (with lots of pirates, smugglers, and such) then you'll have a good excuse for putting the PCs on a ship where people live by their wits and justice is dispensed at the business end of an energy blaster.

[Cancer]

Re: Campaign Ideas: Why are they on this ship?

 

If you want a really dark campaign, assert that the PCs are all "designated spare parts": clones of a type-O (that is, universal donor) tissue type, and have been given some training to keep them useful until their primary purpose -- source for vital organ donation for other personnel (all rich a******s who are the political bosses/ship owners) -- becomes active.

[austenandrews]

Re: Campaign Ideas: Why are they on this ship?

 

These are both really interesting ideas. I like the first one a lot' date=' especially because it evokes more of a feeling about the characters being the core of the story, rather than just plugging them into a universe and asking them to really blend in. [/quote']

Yeah, that was my favorite one of the bunch, too. Good personal motivation for the characters. The drawback is that you'd have to draw up a large portion of the passenger list at the start of the game, which might be slightly limiting. But also a nice challenge.

 

I guess my main question, in regards to the first question, is how do I get them on their own ship? I'm toying with the idea of having the Captain be an NPC at first, as it'll be easier to move the PCs into plots. Is this a no-no? Keeping in mind, again, that the majority of my star-based rp'ing is Trek oriented.

I'd go with an NPC captain, unless you've got a group that works well with PCs giving orders to PCs. (I've not had much luck with that myself.)

 

The ship could be donated by whoever owned the ship that got destroyed. Or maybe the wealthy relative of a missing person sponsors the mission (and perhaps comes along). Or maybe one of the PCs owns or has access to a suitable ship (as a plot device, obviously, not buying is as a Vehicle). Oo, or maybe the PCs capture one of the attacking ships, nurse it back to a drydock, make repairs and then set out to rescue the others. I like that one.

 

So what good positions are there on a ship' date=' for PC's? The Firefly formula seems to work well. Captain, First Mate, Mechanic, Soldier, Pilot, Doctor, Civilian. In keeping that I don't want the tech to be important, I see teh ship as being greasy and grubby. So the mechanic is more akin to a car mechanic of our age then an engineer of the Trek age.[/quote']

I don't know how nuts'n'bolts you want to get, but I've always thought the Star Trek formula puts too little emphasis on mechanics. Especially for a mid-size ship, you're likely to be pretty topheavy with crewmembers who can make repairs. In keeping with the greasy-grubby theme, maybe you can divide up the ship's systems; each PC gets dirty working on his own piece of the puzzle. So you could have one character responsible for maintaining the thrusters, another for the weapons and shields, another for the power generator, another for biosystems (maybe double as ship's doctor), etc. Rank could be independent of role, or based on the difficulty of roles (i.e., the weapons mechanic is much more skilled than the robot wrangler, so the position carries a higher rank/pay grade).

 

I've used that approach and had great fun in space combat because of it.

[Spence]

Re: Campaign Ideas: Why are they on this ship?

 

Nice. I'm planning on having major' date=' galaxy wide implications to this game, and one of those plots is the coming of a physically brutal opponent who's scouring the galaxy for war. They just launch their ships in a direction and hope to run into opposition. I'd have to be careful not to make it a war game, but it could work well.[/quote']

 

It could indeed. You actually have a few different options there.

 

Does the "invader" enter a sector all at once or gradually.

a) A very large nomadic race might actually be years behind a the leading edge. A scattering of scouts who are looking for promising targets, followed by larger and larger groups, and finally the main fleet.

A large Empire based on conquest that sends fleets to conquer with a timetable like "a".

c) like "a", but the time between the first scout and the main body is measured in days/weeks not months/years.

d) like "b" but with "c"s timetable.

 

How does the "Frontier Fleet" figure into things? Are they considered to be civil or military or a hybrid? Do their ships represent the leading edge of military power, light scouts or are they somewhere in between? If there is one, does the "regular" navy consider them and elite asset or a bothersome nuisance?

 

1) Are they "Marshalls" trying to maintain order and avert panic amoung the civilain frontier population as the rumor and reality of war arrives.

2) Are they "scouts" for the "Fleet"?

3) Are they folded into a Fleet unit. The "Tin-cans" of the fleet, screening the battle line and dashing in for the "torpedo" attack.

 

All three premises fit but set entirely different tones to the game.

[Outsider]

Re: Campaign Ideas: Why are they on this ship?

 

You could have it be a 'failed colony ship stilll, and here's how :

 

It is from an interstellar empire or homeworld that is -vastly- distant, even using normal stardrive. Either the colony ship got to Terran Space by using a "one shot" super-star drive or a 'slingshot' drive from its origin, or perhaps it just took a really long trip to escape some disaster back home, and there is no home to run home to anymore. Maybe they are fleeing with what they can from Spence's War Race. The crew is expected to find a suitable colony world on 'normal stardrive' once it drops out of 'superdrive'. So... the PCs are the (or part of the) exploration team, looking for a suitable home for the millions (?) of frozen colonists on the main ship.

 

 

1) Have the PCs be human. Dont explain why or how a vastly distant world is populated by humans. Let it be a campaign mystery.

 

2) The PCs should not want to settle the colonists on a Terran world where they would become a possibly discriminated against minority, or be subsumed, over time, into the local culture. This would be especially important if the colony ship is a cultural lifeboat fleeing from a disaster that destroyed the original homeworld/empire. Or perhaps the explorers just dont trust Terran society enough to gamble their colonists on them.

 

3) The colony ship should be left very well hidden, with only parasite exploration ships exposed to the chances of exporation. The exploration ships should operate independently, and not even have a record of where the mother ship is. Perhaps they report back via wideband coded hyperwave, which is then picked up and relayed via tightband through a number of automated transponders to the mother ship. They may not receive any sort of communication from the mothership at all, as such communications could be traced, even through many cutouts. Depends on how paranoid the colony ship is.

[sinanju]

Re: Campaign Ideas: Why are they on this ship?

 

I say screw the whole idea of an kind of military system or ranking structure. Use the PIRATE approach. The crew gets to vote on who the Captain will be; IN BATTLE (or other emergency situation) the captain's orders are to be obeyed without question. But at any other time, his decisions are open to debate...and he might find himself voted out of the Captain's chair if he really pushes it when he's in the minority.

 

Since most gaming groups (in my experience, anyhow) tend to decide things communally anyhow, this should work well. It also avoids the tendency to fall into Trek-oid behaviors by sheer inertia. Plus, you can start with an NPC captain (a good one or a twit, your call) and let the PCs figure out that they can vote him off the island....

[Barwickian]

Re: Campaign Ideas: Why are they on this ship?

 

I'm toying with the idea of having the Captain be an NPC at first' date=' as it'll be easier to move the PCs into plots. Is this a no-no? Keeping in mind, again, that the majority of my star-based rp'ing is Trek oriented.[/quote']

 

An interesting idea a friend of mine proposed while we were discussing ways of running a Napoleonic sea-going campaign is to make the captain a group PC.

 

The problem with having the captain as an NPC is that the GM can order PCs around. Even if he uses this power discretely, it's still there. And any time you want to force the PCs into making their own decision, you have to come up with a reason why the captain can't make it for them.

 

If you have the captain as a PC, this PC wields far too much power over the others.

 

With the group PC idea, the players discuss and debate what the captain should do. When they've decided, the role could be played out by the GM or an otherwise unengaged player.

 

I haven't tested this idea in play, but the concept really floats my boat.

[TheImperialKhan]

Re: Campaign Ideas: Why are they on this ship?

 

This might be useful to you. It's the paradigm for a campaign that I ran a while back:

 

http://www.geocities.com/blademaster01757/starhero.html

[Flames]

Re: Campaign Ideas: Why are they on this ship?

 

Maybe the PCs end up on a well-equipped alien ship that has its own AI with its own agenda. The ship is moving inexorably toward its unknown destination via a series of hyperspace jumps, but has numerous attached limited-range (albeit speedy) shuttles that the PCs can run off in to stock up on supplies and get into planetary adventures, always trying to get back to their enormous mother ship before it gets out of range or makes its next jump.

 

Kind of a cross between Battlestar Galactica and Sliders, if I'm not mistaken.

 

There'd have to be a hook, of course, that keeps them going back to the ship; maybe the ship is the only really safe place for them to be, or there's a critically ill loved one who's in suspended animation on the main ship, or the PCs just really, really want to see where the giant ship ends up.

[TheQuestionMan]

Re: Campaign Ideas: Why are they on this ship?

 

The PCs are Space Gypsies who have just come back from a gathering of the clans and now possess the ship .. oh never mind.

[Outsider]

Re: Campaign Ideas: Why are they on this ship?

 

Maybe the PCs end up on a well-equipped alien ship that has its own AI with its own agenda. The ship is moving inexorably toward its unknown destination via a series of hyperspace jumps, but has numerous attached limited-range (albeit speedy) shuttles that the PCs can run off in to stock up on supplies and get into planetary adventures, always trying to get back to their enormous mother ship before it gets out of range or makes its next jump.

 

Kind of a cross between Battlestar Galactica and Sliders, if I'm not mistaken.

 

There'd have to be a hook, of course, that keeps them going back to the ship; maybe the ship is the only really safe place for them to be, or there's a critically ill loved one who's in suspended animation on the main ship, or the PCs just really, really want to see where the giant ship ends up.

 

 

Or the ship is just mind boggling valuable, as soon as they can figure out how to reprogram it to take their orders..