The Secret History of Jay-Trek
Okay - this is going to sound weird. Mainly because it is. This s a description of a Virtual campaign. It has never been played and probably won't be unless I meet a group of people who are open to it.
The main reason for this thing the SHJT - is to allow me to drag in other fictions, other genres and other characters as part of the background history of Jay-Trek.
The iconic example is Indiana Jones. Jones is a pulp era (1930s) two fisted action hero who adventures acorss the world uncovering the secrets of the ancients. The Indianna Jones Movies are "urban fantasy" - they mix elements of high fantasy into the (relatively) modern world. The Ark of the Covenant, the Holy Grail, Cultists with mystical powers.
Indiana Jones represents an approach to life that is very Star Trek. Two fisted, action oriented and rationalist. He travels the world seeking out new civilizations and learning what he can about them.
BUT - there is no magic in Star Trek. There are a few effects that can stand in for magic. Energy Beings seem to be able to do things that functionally are the same as magic. The rules are different.
So if we mix Indiana Jones into Trek, either we must alow for Magic in Trek - or remove the original macguffins and include trek like ones that closely parallel the originals.
I pursued this thought process to bizzare extremes. I am that kind of Trek Geek. "How can I make this work with Star Trek" is one of my great weirdness/weakenesses
and the results are this -
Characters and situations of an adventurous nature happening on Earth throughout history, based on encountering the sorts of things Trek posited - energy beings, non-corporeal entities, psionics and immortals.
It makes for quite a setting. There is definitely a pace for two fisted seekers and defenders of the good in The Secret History of Jay Trek.
I borrowed from TV shows and other sources far and wide and then abused them all - they are rewritten to be consistent with things we have seen in Star Trek.
Some fictional characters are considered to be real in Jay Trek. Indianna Jones. Sherlock Holmes. Allan Quatermain. John Reid and Tonto. Although later fictionalizations of their adventures may have muddied these waters...
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[The Secret History of Jay Trek]
Genre - Star Trek Meets Weird Urban Fantasy
Game Master - Jay. This is a Virtual campaign. Once again, I'd GM it, but it
would be obscure and odd.
Date - Since the Mid 1990s
Notes - This is me using pieces of Star Trek lore to substitute for Urban Fantasy Lore - thereby allowing me to steal urban fantasy pieces for the back ground of Jay-Trek. This is also inspired by the Wold-Newton timeline - except with the Trek philosophy underlying. This whole setting is called "The Secret History of Jay Trek"
Setting - Earth (Mostly) from 1850 to 2050
Players and Characters
Various. Usually borrowed from Vista City and TV Shows.
[Super Soldiers]
Genre - SHJT, borrowed from Eugenics War - James Bond, A View to a Kill, and
the X-Files
Game Master - Jay and lots of other folks
Date - 1967 forward
Notes - TOS posited the Eugenics war, where "improved Humans" attack and try to dominate the rest of the world, unsuccessfully. Although "A View to a Kill" was a crappy movie it lent me a perfectly gameable premise for these advanced humans. During WWII Dr Hans Glaub created a therapy based on hormones and steroids which created children of spectacular strength, endurance and intelligence. They were also largely psychotic and violent. X-Files made up a stoudly over powered variant, but then came up with some interesting politics as various wings of the Consiracy tried to use Super Soldiers as pawns in their great game - while the Super soldiers had ideas of their own.
In Jay-Trek, these steroid and hormone fueled enormously strong whack jobs formed independant antagonists through the 1970s and 1980s, and and Organized force of Antagonists in the 1990s.
Borrowing from David Palmers book "Emergence" I posit four groups AA - Improved humans who were raised as improved humans Example Khan Noonien Singh. AB - Improved humans who were raised as normal people - example Buffy Summers. BA - Normal humans whjo were raised an Improved Humans and BB - normal humans raised as normal humans - eg the control group.
Setting - Earth in Jay Trek from 1944 to 1996 and subsequent time zones
Players and Characters
A Virtual Campaign.
[Body Snatchers]
Genre Horror/SHJT
Game Master - Jay
Date - mid 1990s
Notes - This draws from "Invasion of the Body Snatchers", the old TV show "The Invaders" and even the recent Movie The Arrival (1996). These shows posited Alien invaders who took the form of humans for nefarious ends. In Jay-Trek, these were Vegan Infiltrators, a life form created by the Vegan Tyranny in order to infiltrate possible threat species and undo them.
Setting - Jay-Trek, Earth from 1945 onward. Also these creatures were used on Vulcan and to undo an incipient Orion Empire in about 1000 AD
Players and Characters
Virtual Campaign
"Spender" on the X-Files is a Vegan Infiltrator and a very successful
one.
[Telepaths]
Genre - Urban Fantasy/SHJT
Game Master - Jay
Date - Mid 1990s onward.
Notes - Another end of The Secret History of Jay-Trek. In this section, Magic is replaced by Psionics. Psionics exist in Star Trek, Magic doesn't. I also borrow heavily from Babylon Five's "PSi-Corps" which posits a telepathic nation within the nation of Earth, where telepaths are subjects of Psi-Corps, ruled bvy Psi-Corps rules and interact with non-Psionics according to stiff and specific rules. This hides an evil conspiracy, where the upper excehelons of Psi-Corps consider themselves naturally superior to normal humans (Mundanes) This even leads to a war where Telepaths of the Psi-Corp go to war to take over the earth.
In Jay-Trek, when you see a magic wielder in an Urban Fantasy setting, EG Willow Rosenberg from Buffy, or Sonja Traveller in Vista City - they are Telepaths and Empaths in the Secret History of Jay Trek.
In Jay-Trek there are occasional Cabals of Telepaths (The order of the golden Ring), but none has reached the level of comparative power of the Psi-Corps from Babylon 5. Many Teeps are anti-social, ruthless, cynical and Isolated.
Setting - Star Trek during the
Players and Characters
[Vegan Infiltrators]
Genre SHJT/Horror See Body Snatchers
Game Master - Jay
Date 2000
Notes - Borrowing mainly from the TV show The Invaders, and some from "The Arrival", and allowing for an X-Files like alien encounter. The Vegan infiltrators arrive. When possible they take over existing identities, (Killing their victims). When necessary, they develop new identities and work up into factions on a target world. They use the weakness of their target populations against them, working to bring havok, chaos and destruction to their victims. Their favored weapons are lies, manipulation, fraud and assassination.
The goal of this is to prevent rival Civilizations from arising in the zone controlled byt the Vegan Tyranny. Why not just use astroid strikes or bio weapons to ensure the extinction of potential rivals? Good question. No one knows for sure.
The Vegan Infiltrators disappear in 1986. Their infiltrators carry on, depending on their character, either continuing their mission, going native or becoming hermits.
The Vegan Infiltrators are sterile and cannot breed.
They need special equipment to change shapes, however, periodically a VI goes mad. His or her madness is reflected physically as well.
When a VI dies his body is consumed by an enzyme native to his body, leaving only crunchy black ash.
Setting - Earth from 1945 to 2010. Vegan Infiltrators have also been active on Vulcan.
Players and Characters
A Virtual Campaign, an Antagonist faction for Protagonists in The Secret History
of Jay Trek
[Galactic Technology]
Genre The Secret History of Jay-Trek
Game Master - Jay
Date - 2000 or so
Notes - Mainly used by Miguelito Lovelace, and super top secret spy agencies. Lovelace somewhere aquired a chache of Galactic technology in the 1870s and proceeded to use it in violent attempts to take over the country or the world. Some of the technology fell into the hands of government agencies, but it always remained mysterious and nearly impossible to duplicate until Earth's own understanding of physics and technology matured.
This is mainly to allow mad science into "The Secret History of Jay-Trek"
Setting - Earth 1870 to 2063, The Secret History of Jay-Trek
Players and Characters
Virtual Campaign - a source of antagonists and problems for Protagnists in SHJT
[Drop Ins]
Genre The Secret History of Jay Trek
Game Master Jay
Date 1980s and onward
Notes - Many monsters were encountered by the Enterprise Crew - Who says they were nice enough to wait until man went to Them?
Here, creatures, pets, aliens and monsters from Space arrive on Earth and proceed to cause trouble.
The PCs of this Virtual campaign would be responsible for coralling them, defending the population from them and either securing them or returning them space where they belonged.
Setting - Earth
Players and Characters
A Virtual Campaign, a Source for problems for Protagonists in The SHJT game
[Entities]
Genre The Secret History of Jay Trek
Game Master Jay
Date 1980s to present
Notes - Immaterial creatures often have bizzare psionic or physical powers, and the ability to influence people. They are often related to people, or take their form from their victims. They have varied motives, sometimes quite unpleasant ones
CF "The Lights of Zetar", "Day of the Dove" "Lonely Among Us"
Setting Earth
Players and Characters
A Virtual Campaign, a source of Antagonists for Protagonists of The Secret History
of Jay-Trek
[Bureau-13]
Genre The Secret History of Jay-Trek
Game Master - Jay
Date 1983 onwards
Notes - When The Union discovered a Confederate Spy using telepathy on selected officials, the Bureau was born. Lead by early Agents Gordon and West, the Bureau became the US Government's wing for dealing with unusual and otherworldy threats.
Agents become aware that Earth lives in a crowded, vibrant and perhaps not too good neighborhood of the galaxy. Using the latest in technology (and whatever can be scavenged from Galactic technology) Agents of the Bureau and it's foreign counter parts fight madmen, monsters aliens and general insanity trying to keep the world safe and snug.
Setting - the Secret History of Jay-Trek - 1864 through 2079.
Players and Characters
A Virtual Campign. Borrows from B13 games, Night Stalkers, DII, Vista City and
so on.
[Old Timers]
Genre The Secret History of Jay-Trek
Game Master - Jay
Date - 1983 to present
Notes - This is a case of a particular "entity". Unlike most others, this particular type is not Sentient. It is the non-corporeal, energy based equivalent to a cat. It feeds on the emotional nergy of a specific person. This entity will bond with an unsuspecting human and live as a neural parasite. Until its host dies. Then the Symbiote with "fix" him,, returning the host to life and creating a further bond. Afterwards the host wiull not age. The host will be cured of most serious injuries.
When its host is beheaded or chopped into tiny biosy or blown to smithereens, the unfortunate entity must quickly find a new host. It has minutes to live without one.
If the only option is an already inhabited host body, then the two entities will engage in thier own life-and-death struggle. This usually makes for a huge light show, and makes the surviving host as high as a kite, feeling invulnverable and empowered.
This is actually one entity eating the other.
The reproduction cycle of this entity, as well as its life cycle is not known. Victims of inhabitation by these entity are notoriously reluctant to allow examination.
Many of the Immortals have suffered persecution and outright torture at ther hands of people convinced that they were supernatural evil. Not a few have been burned at the stake and successfully killed. In the 1970s Ben Richards was pursued across the planet by an obsessive billionaire, intent of vivisecting Richards to learn his secret.
Due to this hostile reaction it's not long before most "Old Timers" learn to conceal their identities and natures. Old timers are almost natural undercover agents. Almost uniformly, Old Timers resent being pressed into service by spy agencies and security services. They frequently disappear when contacted. This tradition continues until the current day (2376).
Before the truth of the condition of Immortality was known, A complicated mythology was built up around the condition. A mix of rules of engagement, and a great game, and a guide to ettiquite among the Immortals. Older Immortals handed down this lore to newer ones. Swords and Sword combat remain favored weapons among immortals who conflict.
In Play This condition of immortality directly replaces Vampirism, from Urban Fantasy Magic.
Setting - Earth throughout history. Presumeably other planets have such people as well - In the Secret History of Jay Trek
Players and Characters
Examples - Connor and Duncan McLeod. Methos. Amanda. Richie Ryan. Nick Wolfe.
Christopher "Kit" Walker. Barnabus Collins. Darla Aurelius. Liam "Angel"
Collins. Druscilla Landau. William "Spike" Marsters. Nicholas de Brabant.
Lucien LaCroix. Janette du Charme. Ben Richards. Murdoc. Dana Scully. Jerry
LaSaille, Mark. Janos Scozeny, Catherine Rawlins. Richard Malcom
[Kolchak: The Night Stalker]
Genre - Secret History of Jay-Trek
Game Master - Jay
Date - 1980s onward
Notes - In the late 1960s Reporter Karl Kolchak had several run ins with Old timers. Following this he made the uncovering and reporting of the "Supernatural" his calling. Kolchak plagued B13 agenst for then entire decade of the 1970s until, after an encounter with galactic Technoogy run amok in 1978, he was inducted into the Bureau. Kolchak's writings are still considered excellent source material for that end of Intelligence work.
Setting The Secret History of Jay-Trek
Players and Characters
a Bit of background, or an encounter for a game set in the 1970s.
[Wild, Wild West]
Genre The Secrets The Secret History of Jay-Trek
Game Master - Jay
Date - 2000 onward
Notes - a good framing mechanism for the relationship of the weird and galactice to Terran Agents of the Bureau. Agents Jim West and Artimous Gordon travelk around the west of the 1870s Foiling Master criminals, telepaths, Drop ins and Miguelito Lovelace, a mad scientist with access to Galactic Technology.
Setting - Earth of the 1870s
Players and Characters
James West and Artimous Gordon.
Presumeeably some of the Characters from Vista Point or The Triumph of Hope could easily be ported into this sort of setting.
[View to a Kill]
Genre The Secret History of Jay Trek
Game Master - Jay
Date - 1985 revised as time rolls on
Notes - In 1985, one of the first of Hans Glaub's "Improved Humans". Max Zorin decided to try to corner the world electronics market by destroying Silicon Valley. Zorin and Glaub were killed fighting Agents of B13 and it's British Counterpart MI-13
Although this incident was later popularized with "James Bond" hoistorical records show that the "Legend" of James Bond had been abandoned by MI-6 and was obscure at that time.
Setting - The Secret History of Jay Trek
Players and Characters
Any B13 agents operating in 1985
[X-Files]
Genre - Secret History of Jay-Trek.
Game Master - Jay and Chris Carter
Date - 1990s onward
Notes - Dana Scully and Fox Mulder uncover an infestation of alien insects and
become inducted into Bureau Thirteen. Mulder obsessively tracks a conspiracy
within the highest levels of the government, running afoul of Vegan Infiltrators,
Improved Humans (Super Soldiers) telepaths, all while investigating and resolving
B13 issues.
Setting Earth and beyond 1993 - 2002
Players and Characters
Fox Mulder, FBI Special Agent, psychologist specializing in Abnormal Psychology
Dana Scully, Doctor and Poly math, scientific whiz kid.
[Buffy]
Genre The Secret History of Jay-Trek
Game Master - Jay and Joss Whedon
Date - 1997 on wards
Notes - Buffy and company, free lance adventurers face wierd happenings, evil
overlords and all kinds of insanity.
Setting Earth 1997 to 2003
Players and Characters
Virtual Campaign
[Pulp Heroes]
Genre - Secret History of Jay-Trek
Game Master - Jay and many others.
Date - 1980s onwards
Notes - Brave and daring men and women. They mix quick wits, quick fists and
quicks guns against the forces of evil. Heroes of a bygone age, they stand as
Icons of the Positive side of Human nature.
Inspired in part by the Wold Newton timelines of PJ Farmer, I imagine several favorite Puple heroes as they might have adventured in the world of Jay-Trek. John Reid and Tonto becoe freelance "Bounty Hunters" chasing criminals across the west. Sherlock Holmes Matches wits with Murderers Victorian England and Beyond. Although often lacking the costumes and over-the-top showbiz attributes of their original pulp inspirations - these people pepper the Historical record with unlikely stories of heroism and steadfast defense of the good.
A virtual Campaign, although a Secret History of Jay-Trek Pulp Adventure Campaign is as likely as any of the others.
Setting - Earth from the 1500s onwards
Players and Characters
Allan Quatermain; Sherlock Holmes; John Reid and Tonto; Lamont Cranston; Britt
Reid; Kit Walker; Indianna Jones; Matt Dillon; Buckarro Bonzai.
Disclaimer: Paramount owns all things Trek. I claim original characters and situations in this material for me.