Adventure idea 7-28-2017 Happy Sunday

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jayphailey
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Adventure idea 7-28-2017 Happy Sunday

Post by jayphailey » Mon Nov 12, 2018 11:20 pm

Adventure idea 7-28-2017 Happy Sunday

As the PCs ship is travelling along, they see, in the distance a tetryon mine go off

This was a powerful blast. A tetryon weapon has an effect where, if you don't know to be aware of it, it'll shut down most of your high technology devices until you reset them.

After this trick was discovered and popularized about 10 years ago all Starfleet ships and systems are either shielded against this effect or have rapid restart mechanims to reduce the effect. After Starfleet and the Klingons made these changes the trick fell out of favor and isn't used much any more.

It's still used by pirates because the shielding and rapid automatic restarts are expensive and people running on a budget don't upgrade as much as they maybe should.

So the blast spotted in the distance would tend to indicate irate activity.

If the PCs need a push, have them recieve a garbled partial distress call from the area.

When they arrive they find three freghters and two Talarian patrol ships disabled and struggling to restart.

Everyone denies being responsible for the tetryon blast.

The Talarians say they are after the Freighter "Happy Sunday" which themselves are pirates and thieves.

The Happy Sunday is a Federation ship. The crew are mostly Federation Citizens, although with colorful records. The Happy Sunday Crew tends to find themselves on the scene of chaos adventure and disorder. They are mercenaries and several previous reports have Starfleet C/Os suspecting they are worse but no evidence can be dfound.

The Talarians claim that the Happy Sunday Crew stole Ancient Talarian Artifacts.

The Artifacts would be cermics and metal and so won't show up distinctly on scans. But if the PCs search the Happy Sunday, they do, in fact have Ancient talarian Artifacts.

One of the other ships disabled and trying to restart is a Ferengi freighter the "FCS High-Premium Convertible Debenture" This is run By Darzoz, a Ferengi known for excessive sexism and trafficking in antquities to the collectors market.

If caught with the Artifacts the Happy Sunday crew will explain that they got them at Gollusk Minor, a neutral world.

This is true. Gollusk minor is the site of a territory dispute between the Federation and the Talarian Empire, so is currently considered to be neutral until things can b worked out.

There is a Federation colony and a Talarian Colony on Gollusk Minor Most Colonists do not care where someone comes from so long as they pull their weight and do what they say they're going to do. But there's a small minority of people who put on team jerseys and cause problems for "the Other Side"

Mercenaries can frequently find work there as peace keepers upholing law and order on Gollusk Minor. There is a maket for foodstuffs in the Talarian Empire as they don't have widespread replicators, yet.

All three freighters claim to have no reason to be meeting each other and claim to be en-route to other places - this is in a location where that is a reasonable explanation.

The Talarians demand that the crews of the Happy Sunday and the "FCS High-Premium Convertible Debenture" be turned over to them immediately as pirates. Piracy in the Talarian Emire carries a high pentalty. Accused people are tortured to death in public and THEN tried.

The goal here is to ask the PCs and their players what the proper curse of action is and how they should pursue a set of interlocking and not always compatible goals.

What really happened:
The crew of the Happy Sunday was working as security on Gollusk Minor and heard about a recent discovery of treasure. So in a sort of daring swashbuckling way, they raided an ancient labrynth, recovered artifacts and were trying to sell these off to Darzoz.

The existence of the ancient labrynth with ancient Talarian artifacts in it harms the Federations claim to the planet.

The site was being held and secured by Talarian troop which violates the agreement on how they're going to settle the claim to the world.

If the PCs go to Gollusk Minor and explore - there are a number of alternatives.

1 - As presented. For some reason Ancient Talarians lived on Gollusk minor, built a labrynth and then left.

2 - The Labrynth is authentic but the Talarians planted ancient artifacts to artificially bolster their claims
2A - who built the labrynth and why?

3 - The Labrynth and all artifacts are plants from the modern talarian Government to try and bolster their claim.

The GM should pick the one that amuses him most.

Personally I'd configure it thusly

The Labrynth was placed by an ancient empire as an entertainment complex. It was ther version of "American Ninja Warrior" or "Wipeout"

Competitors would enter the Labrynth with a limited supply of gear and then over come obtacles, fight holographic monsters and solve difficult problems to get to the bottom of the Labrynth and acquire a great treasure relative to the day. A year supply of worms-aroni, the Gollusk Minor Treat, an encyclopedia Galactica and a gift Certificate to Madam Crimsons Brothel of alien delights.

And of course, I'd have it be functional enough to give the PCs a hard time. The Encyclopedia galactica would be a teasure trove of information about the Pre-Federation Galaxy.

I might also have the Holo monsters not respond to phasers. That would be cheating in the "Original Game" but only be damagable by "approved" low tech weapons.

But of course the game would arn them, inform them and offer a supply of low tech pointy killers. People who get "Killed" would be teleported to "Disqualification Room" to await the successful completion of the Labrynth.

If you wanted to make it creepy or scarier, have the machinery of the Labrynth be damaged and not trustworthy.


But the core of this idea is - What is the right way to cope with Adventurers and totalitarian cops coming after them? If the players spend a chunk of time discusing such things I consider that a winning Star Trek Game.

I do not consider there to be one right answer to all of this. If the PCs blow up all disabled ships because they're sick of this crap, then maybe Star Trek isn't the right game to be playing right now?

Otherwise, it's open ended for the PCs to create a solution.

I also made the Happy Sunday vague. The GM should make up his own amusing crew of misfit adventurers or re-use one they've made up previously.

The Talarians are a brutal totalitarian culture. Not especially nice guys. But they can do math and so take careful pains never to start static with the Federation.

In Jay-Trek they are member of The League of Non-Aligned Worlds. If attacked or bullied can expect some back up by other members as well as a huge public relations disaster in response.

League of Non-Aligned Worlds

https://trekcreative.wikia.com/wiki/The ... ned_Worlds

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