For a Fistful of Latnium - Bounty Hunters in Star Trek Adventures

Need a fresh antagonist for Star Trek Adventures? One that operates independently? One that can show up anywhere and anytime to annoy the crew? One that doesn't bring in the complications of being part of something bigger like the Cardassian Union or Romulan Star Empire? A bounty hunter might just be a good fit.

A fistful of space bucks. I didn't have any latnium around. Times are tough.

Bounty hunters? Isn't that from a certain other sci-fi franchise? Sure. This complicated profession is more closely associated with Star Wars, but Star Trek has plenty of Space Western in its genes.

Spike Spiegel from Cowboy Bebop. Star Wars doesn't have a monopoly on borrowing from Westerns.

Making the Case for Bounty Hunters in Star Trek Canon

Many bounty hunters - and folks posing as bounty hunters - have appeared in the long history of the Star Trek franchise. In real life, most bounties are posted for individuals who skipped bail or other mundane offenses. Star Trek uses the more cinematic interpretation of the job. Memory Alpha, as usual, is a good source on the topic.

In the mid-22nd century, the Klingons posted bounties for troublesome individuals - Captain Archer, for example - they couldn't be bothered to hunt down themselves. The bounties were large enough and widely known enough to encourage competition. Some Klingon representatives had the nasty habit of shorting hunters when they met to turn over their prisoners. Failing to honor the promised rewards sometimes didn't work out for anybody other than the bounty target. ("Bounty" ENT 2x25)

The United Federation of Planets posted bounties on the likes of Harcourt Fenton Mudd in the 23rd century. Starfleet routinely stored latnium on their starships for paying bounty hunters during this period. Note that the hunters had to bring in the correct individual to get paid. ("The Escape Artist" Short Treks 1x04)

A Cardassian officer feathering his nest with a little bounty hunting on the side was a plausible cover story in 2370. Joret Dal, who provided Starfleet with intelligence on Cardassian military movements, used it while returning to Cardassian space after a meeting on Enterprise-D. ("Lower Decks" TNG 7x15)

USS Voyager ran afoul of bounty hunters on two occasions in the Delta Quadrant - the Ramuran tracers and the Hazari. The starship's isolation in the Delta Quadrant had much to do with it. Few in the Alpha or Beta Quadrants would be bold enough to offer or accept a bounty on a Starfleet vessel. ("Unforgettable" VOY 4x22 and "Think Tank" VOY 5x20)

Lieutenant Commander Andy Billups of USS Cerritos disguised himself as a bounty hunter in 2381 in order to obtain the location of Nick Locarno's hangar ("The Inner Fight" LD 4x09). Later, Vadic claimed to be pursuing a bounty on Jack Crusher in 2401. That incident also revealed that Starfleet's policy was not to negotiate with bounty hunters  ("Disengage" PIC 3x02). This may reflect a change from the 23rd century, an unwillingness to haggle, or simply that the Federation didn't recognize bounties posted by others.

From The Book of Boba Fett. Sometimes disparities in combat power work in a bounty hunter's favor.

Bounty Hunters as Antagonists

The quick and dirty way of introducing a bounty hunter as an antagonist is to have a bounty placed on a player character. A bounty hunter would have to be bold to pursue a bounty on a serving Starfleet officer in the 23rd, 24th, or 25th centuries or a Klingon officer in pretty much any time period. Taking on most Federation starships and Klingon warships is completely out of the question. The disparity in combat power is just too great unless the bounty is on a support or specialist vessel such as a medical or survey ship.

Showing up when a player character is on duty, surrounded by colleagues, and aboard something as well defended as many starships will not advance a bounty hunter's career in a positive way. However, the stupidity of an idea won't stop folks from trying it. Having somebody appear in this manner may serve to alert the players that a bounty exists and that a more serious threat is on the way. Even a polity as easy going as the United Federation of Planets has a dim view of people assaulting their personnel and damaging government property, so getting authorization to deal with the situation shouldn't an issue.

The more intelligent approach is to isolate the bounty and take them by surprise. Baiting a trap, ambushing them during an Away mission, or waiting until they are vacationing on Risa are all workable plans. Then the real problems begin for the bounty hunter. Starfleet officers are notoriously resourceful and persuasive while Klingons are a handful in their own way. There's also the fact that a successful capture would draw more heat than most bounty hunters are willing to deal with. On the other hand, if the money is really good, somebody might be tempted to take such a job.

A bounty hunter could also be a complication during a more standard mission. A bounty on a NPC critical for a mission's success might be an interesting twist. Maybe the only expert available to help solve a crisis owes somebody a big pile of latnium? The scientist running the project the player characters are ordered to assist with might've taken funds for research that they never actually performed. The diplomat that the crew is negotiating with might have massive gambling debts that have been outstanding for a little too long. Chasing after a bounty hunter who has taken a VIP captive might spice up an otherwise dull mission.

From The Mandalorian. I miss Carl Weathers.

Working with Bounty Hunters

A bounty hunter could be pursuing the same individual that the player characters are tracking down. The situation might devolve into a race or a deal could be struck. The bounty hunter has certain advantages to offset a starship crew's resources - criminal contacts, a more ruthless approach, access to illicit means, and easier movement through the criminal underworld. Any or all of this could make the a race to the target interesting in an unwelcome way. It also makes a bounty hunter a useful ally. The bounty hunter is likely to insist on collecting the bounty in exchange for their cooperation. This could be problematic for Starfleet officers if a death sentience is involved.

The Federation and Klingon Empire aren't above posting bounties on particularly troublesome individuals. As a practical matter, it is less expensive than sending one of their own ships. It also tends to get results as long as the bounty isn't too tough or cunning for the hunter.

A bounty hunter may end up turning to the government that posted the bounty for assistance. They might be able to find their quarry, but be unable to bring them in. They turn to the government posting the bounty with a proposal. The bounty hunter is willing to provide the location and do their part in bringing in the target, but only after being provided with extra muscle. How do the player characters react when ordered to cooperate with this bounty hunter? Things might be more interesting if the crew has some bad blood with this particular bounty hunter.

An unglamourous, but necessary, role in the world of bounty hunting is that of paymaster. Not every bounty hunter has the time or means to drag their captives all the way from the frontier to a Federation or Klingon world. This puts the player characters on a starship or station in the position of verifying the bounty, securing the prisoner, and handing the bounty hunter their cash payment. Of course, mistakes happen. Maybe the captive the bounty hunter is turning over isn't the right individual? Or maybe the whole thing is a swindle? Is the bounty hunter deliberately handing over an innocent person to get the payment?

From The Book of Boba Fett. There's no dress code for bounty hunters, but a cool hat gets points for style.

Bounty Hunting as a Cover

Bounty hunters are common enough that any seedy looking, well-armed (but not too well-armed) type operating along a frontier can claim to be one. There doesn't seem to be a central authority to regulate the profession. This makes verification problematic. It also makes it a great cover story.

Starfleet and the Klingon Empire are well aware of the value of cover stories in covert operations. Although "mercenary" or "rogue officer" seems to be preferred, there's no reason to exclude posing as a bounty hunter. A player who wants to lean all the way into this doesn't need something to cover their character's face, but it helps. That said, it is unlikely that a Federation official would go so far as to actually capture a bounty and turn them in for a reward. Unless, that was the best way to get the "bounty" (another disguised Federation or Klingon operative) into position.

An NPC might find posing as a hunter claiming a bounty to be an easy way to get aboard a Federation or Klingon ship. The bounty hunter and their captive beam aboard, go through the motions mentioned in the previous section, and spring the fell ambush! The pair produces hidden weapons, take control of the transporter room, access the ship's systems, and the adventure gets off to a bracing start.

An antagonist may state that they are a bounty hunter to avoid revealing their true motivations. Note that bounty hunters in Star Trek are generally limited in their means. They typically operate alone out of ships that can be operated by a single person. Showing up in a battlewagon is a tip off. A lone operative in a small ship could find bounty hunting a useful disguise, even turning in bounties to gain trust with the local authorities. Is that solitary figure really just a humble bounty hunter, making their way through the galaxy, or something more?

From The Book of Boba Fett. Din Djarin rolls into somebody else's show. If this is a Star Trek Adventures post, why are most of the pictures from Star Wars? I dunno.

A Note About the Title

Yeah, I know that A Fistful of Dollars (1964) doesn't actually involve bounty hunting. The plot - essentially Yojimbo (1961) remade as a Western - revolves around a stranger walking into town and playing off two powerful factions against each other. Bounties and the hunting of them aren't a factor. But playing off the title resulted in something that sounded too cool to pass up. Besides, it's not like Star Trek hasn't already beat me to the idea of titles inspired by Westerns.

Mecha Western Setting Riff

A Game Idea I'm Not Using (Right Now)

So, this is about mixing the tropes of the Western genre with mecha. I make no claims to this particular mashup. The idea's been floating around for awhile.

Ever get an idea for something completely different from the project that's sitting right in front of you? I should be finishing my notes on B4 The Lost City for my Old School Essentials "Nostalgia Tour" campaign. On the other hand, this is one of those ideas that will bother me until I jot something down. Feel free to borrow what you like and let me know how it goes.

Mecha keeping an eye out for bug rustlers.

Related Concepts

The mecha western draws from Westerns, space operas, and space westerns plus the whole giant robot thing.

"Space opera" is derived from "soap opera" and "horse opera" - the latter being a term for Western films and television series. Replace the horse with a spaceship, revolvers with rayguns, and the Wild West with the Final Frontier. Star Trek's "wagon train to the stars" is a well known example.

The space western is a space opera that invokes the themes and trappings of the Western. In many ways, it simply draws the existing relationship between the two genres closer together. For example, the Mandalorian places greater emphasis on the Western elements that have always been a part of Star Wars.

The mecha western is a different kind of space western. Spaceships are still around, but their role is more akin to a train or stagecoach than a horse. They are ways of crossing the frontier that the protagonists don't own or control. The Western's horse is instead swapped out with piloted robotic vehicles. This idea isn't exactly unprecedented - anime like Outlaw Star are inspirations.


Drilling Deeper

Placing mecha in space opera isn't enough - that's a significant portion of anime and video games. Mixing mecha and Westerns involves recycling classic Western plots and tropes with a sci-fi spin that includes giant robots. There is plenty of commentary on the Western genre - TV Tropes has a whole page - and I'm not going to be doing a deep dive here. I want to discuss how everything reacts after being combined.

A frontier is mandatory. The action has to take place far enough from settled areas for things to get out of hand. The conflict between those who employ the violence necessary to destroy threats to order and those who wish to build and live in that order is alive here. There is also the fact that explosive weapons and anti-authoritarian attitudes don't mix with artificial environments maintained by fragile life support systems. The tension between hired mecha jocks and those that pay them could be a valuable source of role playing drama.

Space westerns - such as Firefly - often feature a mix of technologies. This could be the result of a recent interstellar war. The effects of the conflict still disrupt trade, but left plenty of salvage around. Or it could be the simple fact that high tech gets less common and more crude the further out a place is from the centers of industry. In any event, there is a mix of technological aesthetics - steampunk, dieselpunk, cyberpunk, cassette future, rocketpunk, and glossy high tech. What is available depends on the sources that can be accessed, the means at hand, and what can be jury-rigged to fit to a purpose.

What to Call These Yahoos?

Space Cowboys? Taken.
Mecha Jockeys? Mech Jocks? Kinda also taken.
Hired Guns? Buckaroos? Gunslingers? Straight outta Westerns, not enough mecha.
Mecha Busters? Mecha Wranglers? Hmmm...

I'll workshop it later.


Adventure Ideas

"High Noon Mecha Showdown"
Chronometers count down to local noon, when the regular interplanetary transport arrives with a band of mecha equipped enforcers assigned to kill those getting too close in their investigation of the corrupt corporate government. The player characters need to make sure that all their mecha systems are nominal when the time comes.

Inspirations: "High Noon" (1952) and "Outland" (1981).

"The Great Brain Robbery"
A valuable corporate shipment is on the move, but that's just the cover story. Something even more valuable is hidden in one of the regular cargo modules - an AI core that corporate wants to stay off the books. Catching up to the shipment, boarding, and defeating corporate security is just the start. Recovering the core and keeping it long enough to reach a buyer will be an even greater challenge.
Inspirations: "The Great Train Robbery" (1903) and "The Train Job" (Firefly 1x2).

"Cattle Drive"
Hired on to protect dinosaur-like megafauna and the specialized mecha that herd them to market from rustlers. They have to get the herd from their ranch to the markets near the planetary space port while under constant harassment from mecha buckaroos in the pay of competing ranches.

"Lost Treasure"
Three parties race each other for a treasure. A crashed luxury space liner that went down before the war. Salvagers picked it clean long ago, but there are rumors that something was missed. The race ends in a Mexican standoff after a long journey and many dangers. Who will make the first move and provoke a fight in the wreck of the space liner?
Inspiration: "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" (1966).


Conclusion

Now that I've got some notes down, I'm putting this idea away for later. Maybe I'll dust it off after my preorder of the Lancer book arrives.

The Messinian Salinity Crisis & The Zanclean Flood in TimeWatch

"Hey! I gotta idea for a time travel adventure!"
"What hellhole are you... I mean, what hellhole is TimeWatch sending us to?"
"How about a relaxing trip to the Mediterranean?"
"How about telling us what the catch is?"


The Messinian Salinity Crisis

The historical significance of the Mediterranean Sea and the area surrounding it is undeniable, but that particular body of water wasn't always there. The Mediterranean Sea dried up a little less than 6 million years back in an event called the Messinian salinity crisis. The Straits of Gibraltar closed off the Mediterranean from the Atlantic Ocean. The hot and dry climate did the rest through evaporation, although lakes of brackish water remained.

Anybody traveling to the area during this period could encounter a deep dry basin. The dry climate and higher air pressures due to being up to 3-5km below sea level combined with summer heat to create desert like conditions. Much of the area would be covered in a layer of salt.

Why would anybody take a time machine to such a place? It makes for a good location for a temporary base. The inhospitable climate means that nobody and nothing is likely to just wander by and be a bother for a period of a few hundred thousand years. Evidence of the base's existence will be power washed away when the Mediterranean Basin becomes the Mediterranean Sea again (see below). Of course, it being such prime real estate for a time traveler in the market for a secure and isolated base location means that it might also be one of the first places for people to look.

A hydroelectric dam placed between the Mediterranean Basin and the Atlantic Ocean could be a vast source of electrical power. It could power a base or be the whole motive for going there. The idea of damming off the Mediterranean Sea came up in the 1920s as the Atlantropa proposal. Of course, methods of time or dimensional travel that use more power than such a dam would produce would make the whole venture unprofitable.


The Zanclean Flood

The Messinian salinity crisis ended about 5.33 million years ago with the Zanclean flood. The triggering event was the formation of the Straits of Gibraltar. It took anywhere between several months and two years for most of the Mediterranean Sea to refill. Signs of erosion from the massive flow of water from the Atlantic Ocean suggest that flow rates were impressive.

Given the historical significance of the Mediterranean, preventing the Zanclean flood is of interest to groups with an eye towards altering human history. However, an effort on that scale would be difficult to hide from anybody with the ability to monitor for historical changes. This might lead to such a project being used to conceal or distract from more subtle time travel shenanigans.

Going back to make sure the Zanclean flood happens on time could involve anything from being issued shovels as a punishment detail to the faster and more fun method of explosives. The Zanclean flood could be deliberately triggered to destroy a decommissioned base in the Mediterranean Basin. It could also be used to destroy an effort to make the Atlantropa proposal happen during this period.

Finally, the Zanclean flood might have been an accident. An example of collateral damage from an exchange of eldritch weapons during a time war. Or the result of teleporting a nuke into the past to stop it going off someplace worse.

A Game I'll Never Run - Working for a Dragon

A deep dive into my own notes is a key step as I prepare a new RPG campaign. I frequently rediscover little gems that I jotted down months or years ago and promptly forgot. Something else I find are fantastic concepts for campaigns that I have absolutely no time to run. After all, I'll hopefully be busy with my current campaign for awhile.

Rather than let them lie unused, I'll be presenting them here as they turn up. Feel free to borrow anything that looks handy. Just let me know how it turned out.


The Quest Giver is a Dragon

Our adventuring party works for a great wyrm of considerable age and wide experience. The beast isn't interested in acquiring more wealth. This particular dragon's hoard is already big enough to be comfortable to lounge upon. This dragon has moved on to other things. But what are the dragon's motivations and how can the adventurers help to achieve them?

Meet the new boss?

Collecting Scholarly Knowledge

Knowledge was a means to an end in the dragon's youth. Genuine curiosity eventually overcame ambition as the dragon grew old and strong. However, a dragon showing up to ask questions is usually counterproductive. Many interactions between dragons and others involve raided livestock, looted gold, and things on fire. Employing adventurers as agents tends to work better. At least, until those adventurers start getting ideas.

Before that, our adventurers can find employment by:

• Tracking down and acquiring the last copy of an ancient tome before anybody else gets it.
• Convincing an elderly sage to part with their particular brand of wisdom. The sage is done with life and can't be bribed or threatened, even by a dragon or band of cutthroats. What would convince such a sage?
• Trading books with various libraries. The dragon has extra copies to spare, but wants to avoid the complications of letting others know who they are dealing with. It's best to send the adventurers as representatives.
• Swapping knowledge over networks of scholars who may not be keen on giving their secrets to a dragon.
• Establishing relations with key scholars. The dragon foresees the need to consult with them repeatedly.
• Prying a scroll of lost lore out of the cold, undead hands holding it.

Collecting Arcane Knowledge

Knowledge can be power, but magical knowledge gets to the point quicker. There is some overlap between this and acquiring scholarly knowledge. Some of the ideas presented above can be used with this motivation. In both cases, the dragon is using the adventuring party as agents to gain access to sources that would be denied otherwise.

• Meeting with a jinn or devil on their own plane and figuring out what it would take to persuade them to part with what they know. The first challenge is the logistics of arranging and traveling to the meeting.
• The dragon has learned of a tome called the Necronomicon. The knowledge it contain is both valuable and dangerous. One doesn't survive to become a great wyrm by taking unnecessary risks - best to have someone else read the book and transcribe its contents in a form safer to peruse. There is a troublesome mage who has beat the dragon's prior agents to various prizes over the decades. Perhaps the adventuring party can convince the mage to take on this task? Of course, a copy of the Necronomicon must be obtained in the first place.
• Raiding the library of a demi-lich. It is located a trapped-infested crypt, but the demi-lich should be distracted with whatever such undead do down there.
• Rumors suggest that another adventuring party has looted a rare magical item from some dungeon. How to get it without showing the dragon's hand?
• Trading magical secrets with an organization of wizards with a dodgy reputation. Both sides know that betrayal is coming, just not exactly when. The assassination attempts against the dragon's prior agents don't really count. That's just common practice.

Supporting the Imperial Dynasty

Centuries ago, the dragon took another form and founded a ruling family. Affairs of state grew boring, so the dragon left the polity in the hands of later generations. But the dragon takes family obligations seriously enough to intervene from time to time.

The dragon doesn't want to operate openly and uses agents when possible. The dynasty has to appear to be strong enough to stand on its own. Besides, the dragon isn't a pet that comes when called just because there's a handsome representation on the imperial crest. This is a situation where each side gets things it wants because both parties compliment each other nicely. The player characters could be adventurers acting as the dragon's agents, part of the imperial court, or members of the imperial government with a mysterious boss.

• The dragon and the dynasty are family, but that doesn't rule out backstabbing. There's always upstarts who think that they have what it takes to further their ambitions by getting rid their mysterious "great uncle" from out of town. Keeping an eye out for trouble is one option. Finding a place to hide the charred corpse and cooking up a cover story is another.
• The dragon is the center of a spy network. The dragon makes for a pretty good spy with superior senses, the ability to fly, and maybe even shape changing. The dynasty has used its connections and wealth to build a wider net for gathering information. Of course, such networks have vulnerable nodes that enemies can attack or co-opt. That's what the internal security and assassination branches are for. The adventurers are handy as deniable assets with no obvious connections to either the dragon or the royal family.
• A lack of money isn't a problem for either the dragon or the dynasty, but there are some problems wealth can't solve. Some folks just can't be bribed. The player characters need to find a way to persuade the source of the issue or otherwise make it go away.
• The dragon can solve some issues indirectly. Sometimes that ambitious lord making moves in the imperial court can't just be killed off. On the other hand, that lord might get called back home to deal with a crisis at precisely the right time. A dragon attack on the lord's holding might be the source of that boon. But somebody has to make sure that word get through to the lord at precisely the right time.
• The dragon and dynasty view their relationship from an interpersonal perspective rather than a political one. The dragon's long life and unusual viewpoint make it a valuable source of advice. The dragon prefers to quietly guide the dynasty along and providing indirect support while juggling more draconic interests at the same time. Besides, the player characters are around to handle any dirty work.
• There was those times when everything was going smoothly until the current ruler and most of the heirs were assassinated. The dragon was busy guiding someone never expected to take on the role of ruler while investigating the assassinations. One such incident is the source of the imperial decree forbidding multiple members of the dynasty from riding in the same airship.

Turning Star Trek Headcanons Into RPG Adventure Seeds

Our Star Trek Adventures campaign is lurching along. The biggest challenge to an in person RPG campaign is the same as it's always been - scheduling. However, there are positives to such delays for the gamemaster. There's time to give the next adventure another editing pass, review the rules, and actually read the supplemental materials. In addition to all that, I've been going over old notes for ideas.

Gamemaster life involves books and keeping notes.

These are some Star Trek headcanons I've come up with over the years. These may or may not appear in our campaign. Each entry contains a description and notes on how to use the idea in play. I hope that y'all find them to be handy and entertaining.


The Changing Face of the Borg

Many aspects of the Borg that came out of nowhere were in-setting retcons. After acquiring reliable time travel technology, the Borg Collective edited their own history to create an optimal outcome for themselves. Unfortunately, it was not a straightforward process. Unintended outcomes kept appearing and they eventually canceled further efforts. Examples of changes brought on by the Borg's interference in their own history include, but are not limited to:

• The Borg's original modus operandi was to conquer other cultures and force them to serve the Borg while assimilating their technology. This changed to assimilating individuals and converting them into drones.
• Going from a true collective consciousness to a hierarchical structure with Borg Queens acting as command nodes.
• Invading Fluidic Space suddenly seeming like a good idea.

The Borg Collective shelved the project after realizing that every attempt to improve their own history or correct prior attempts only made things worse. (This one predates season two of PIC.) The attempt to prevent the formation of the United Federation of Planets by disrupting First Contact and assimilating 21st century Earth was the last gasp of this plan.

The player characters come across a remnant of the Borg from before they changed their own history. This takes the form of a Borg sphere protected by technology that protects it from being overwritten by prior timeline edits. Unfortunately for them, the unobtainium that powers the technology is running out and the current version of the Borg is hunting them down to prevent further alterations to their own history. The Borg sphere is targeting Federation and Klingon time travel research projects to keep itself going while seeking out the one thing it can change to revert Borg history to its previous state.


How Not to Deal With Q

Starfleet Command's recommended approach for dealing with representatives of the Q Continium is based on the reports of Picard and Janeway. Keep Q talking, figure out what Q wants, satisfy those conditions if possible, and - most importantly - get Q off the ship. Sisko's gambit of physically assaulting Q after being provoked is discouraged as too risky, although it was well received by Picard and Janeway when they learned of it. Sisko's actions seemed to convince Q to leave Deep Space Nine alone, there's no way of knowing how Sisko's heritage as a Bajoran Prophet influenced matters.

The player characters receive a distress call from a nearby Starfleet ship or installation. Their commanding officer brashly decided to punch a visiting Q to be rid of them. Luckily, Q was more amused than offended, but the other crew still needs a third party to de-escalate and mediate the situation.


Allies, Enemies, and Allies Again

The brief conflict between the Federation and Klingon Empire just prior to the Dominion War was partly due to a new generation of Klingon warriors wanting to test themselves against a worthy opponent. Other factors include the influence of Founder agents, Gowron's ambitions, and a sense of betrayal on the part of the Klingons when their allies didn't join them in the campaign against the Cardassians. The Cardassian military fell too quickly, but Starfleet could always be counted on to recover from early setbacks and uncork a surprise or three. The resulting conflict was highly satisfying for the Klingon warrior caste, allowing them to seek glory on the same battlefields as their forefathers against an honorable foe. This allowed the Klingons to pivot from ally to enemy and back again quickly - it was never really personal for them.

The Starfleet player characters run into the same Klingon warship and crew before, during, and after the Federation-Klingon conflict. How they deal with whiplash of those specific Klingons being allies, enemies, and allies again depends on them, but the Klingons themselves seem to take it all in stride. A Klingon campaign can explore the situation from their point of view.

Familiar Ship Names

The naming conventions of Starfleet and the Klingon Defense Force differ in the practice of naming ships after prominent personnel.

The 23rd-24th century Starfleet tended to avoid naming starships in honor of their own personnel. Many of the 23rd century officers who would merit such an honor were still alive well into the 24th century (Spock, McCoy). Even some of the ones who were presumed or declared dead had established a reputation for defying death and could turn up after a starship was named after them (Pike, Kirk). Starfleet Command decided that it would be best to avoid potentially embarrassing situations for all concerned. This decision was validated when USS Enterprise found Scott alive and well decades after he disappeared. This policy did not apply to non-Starfleet personnel, such the Excelsior-class starship USS Gorkon. This practice changed sometime prior to the 32nd century. The better part of a millennium seemed like enough time for the fate of even legendary figures to be firmly established.

Hopefully.

The Klingon Defense Force, on the other hand, had no reservations about honoring their own and other deemed worthy. IKS Koloth and IKS Kang were commissioned just prior to the Dominion War. IKS Kor entered service soon after the Dahar Master died in combat. And a lineage of warships was established to insure that the name IKS Rachel Garrett would inspire valor in the hearts of Klingon warriors.

IKS Rachel Garrett is traditionally assigned to the Romulan border. The warship bearing the name during the Cardassian invasion and Federation-Klingon conflict continued to patrol the Romulan border. All proposals to redeploy the warship to fight Starfleet were firmly quashed by the KDF's old guard. IKS Rachel Garrett was immediately reassigned to the Alliance Second Fleet at the beginning of the Dominion War, participating in Operation Return and the liberation of the Beta Zeta system.

Players may find it curious when they run into Klingon warships with non-Klingon names.


Why the Warp Five Speed Limit Went Away

By the late 24th century, higher speed warp travel had become commonplace enough for the "Warp Five Speed Limit" to have an adverse, but manageable, effect on Federation commerce. The real issue was finding a long term solution. Fortunately, someone else had found one.

Analysis of recovered Borg technology revealed many quirks that puzzled the Federation. Many Borg systems included features clearly intended to solve issues that the Federation wasn't aware of. In the aftermath of the Hekaras Corridor Incident, Starfleet engineers combed their records for anything that could lead to a solution. A team reviewing the data they had on Borg warp propulsion found subsystems that completely negated the damage that warp drives of that power would otherwise do to subspace. Without knowledge of the long term effects of warp drive on subspace, no one in the Federation had previously recognized what those subsystems were for. Reverse engineering the processes and developing modifications to existing warp drives took less than a year. Technical specifications on the modifications were provided to all Alpha and Beta Quadrant polities at the same time they were being pushed out to Starfleet.

Years later, analysis of captured Dominion warp drives revealed similar design details. The Dominion had discovered the issue at least a century prior. As the Founders had no interest in seeing their empire fall apart due to environmental issues, Vorta scientists were directed to find countermeasures. These became standard on all Jem'Hadar warships and other vessels operated by the Dominion and their vassals.

While there are similarities between the Borg subsystems and the Dominion countermeasures, they are not identical in design or operation. Starfleet Intelligence believes that the Borg didn't assimilate the technology in question from the Dominion, but from some undiscovered third party somewhere in the Delta Quadrant. Analysis of USS Voyager logs and interviews with the xB community within the Federation have yet to reveal any likely candidates.

This one simply explains why the "Warp Five Speed Limit" disappears after awhile on TNG, is never even mentioned on DS9 or VOY, and is a non-factor in Star Trek Adventures.


Klingons Also Go Boldly

The Klingon Defense Force and various Great Houses sponsor a surprising number of deep space exploration and scientific research missions. Outsiders assume that these mainly seek out new resources to exploit and worlds to conquer. While these are factors, the Klingons are primarily motivated by a combination of genuine curiosity and simple boredom.

This reinforces the notion that Klingons of all eras carry out exploration, although not to the same extent as Starfleet. Thus, Klingon warships in the TOS era could appear anywhere, not just in space contested between the Federation and the Klingon Empire. Likewise, a Klingon warship could show up far from the Empire in other eras.


Well Played

The Tal Shiar figured out Sisko and Garak's conspiracy ("In The Pale Moonlight" DS9 6x19) fairly quickly, but said nothing to the rest of the Romulan government. Far from being outraged or offended, they were coldly impressed by Garak's craftsmanship - especially given how little he had to work with - and decided to coopt the plan. The evidence Garak planted was good enough to convince most of the Romulan government and the Tal Shiar quietly tied up any loose ends. Their motivation was simple - the Dominion was a clear and present danger to the Romulan Star Empire. Founders had infiltrated the Romulan government before and the result was a major blow to the Tal Shiar at the Omarion Nebula. The loss of a Senator and shuttle crew was regrettable, but a small price to pay for the security of the Romulan state.

Starfleet or Klingon Defense Force player characters find out about the conspiracy to mislead the Romulans. Do they make their findings known or suppress the information? Much to their surprise, the Tal Shiar appears to maintain their own cover up.


The Curious Lack of Klingon Time Travelers

Outside observers have long commented on the Klingon Empire's curious failure to weaponize time travel technology. Klingon involvement in the Temporal Cold War, their access to the time crystals of Boreth, and the development of related technology such as the chrono deflector all indicate that the Klingon Empire could have worked out a practical and reliable means of time travel at any point from the 23rd to the 25th centuries. Federation understanding of time travel was greatly enhanced after the Federation-Klingon alliance led to an exchange of data. Many believed that Klingon scientists just never quite made the final leap from theory to application.

The reality is more complicated. The Klingon Empire weaponized time travel repeatedly throughout its history. However, many of the results were so disastrous that those edits to the timeline were undone at the source by the Klingons themselves. Examples include:

• Shortly after the discovery of time crystals on Boreth, an out-of-favor house launched a systematic effort to edit the timeline and elevate their family to the eternal dynastic leadership of the Empire from the time of Kahless to the far future. The struggle to reverse the changes to the timeline was severe enough to erase the house from the historical record entirely. The transfer of political leadership of the Empire to the office of chancellor after the death of the last emperor in the mid-21st century is believed to be a side effect of this conflict. The Boreth Monastery was quickly established to prevent the time crystals from being misused in this manner again.
• Another series of edits resulted in the Klingon Empire conquering Earth during the post-atomic horror to prevent the formation of the Federation. Supporting their occupation force at the end of long lines of communication was costly for the Empire. Their poorly defended supply lines became too tempting a target for the likes of the Orion Syndicate and the Andorian Imperial Guard. Meanwhile, a resistance movement on Earth led by Lily Sloane received support from an unexpected source. Zefram Cochrane used data from reverse engineered Klingon systems to complete his own work on a prototype warp drive. His brief flight attracted the attention of Vulcan High Command, who were concerned about the Klingon Empire being on their doorstep. The Vulcans began giving Earth's resistance forces covert aid, adding to the costs of the Klingon occupation. Romulan attacks on the overextended Klingon Empire during the mid-22nd century was the final straw. This alternate Klingon Empire was in the process of collapsing when the changes were reversed.
• A botched attempt to alter the outcome of the First Federation-Klingon War also ended in disaster. Qo'noS was destroyed by a Starfleet special operation. The loss of their capital, their main source of dilithium on Praxis, and their primary ship production center stalled Klingon advances into the Federation. Starfleet used the pause to install Spore Drives on a limited number of starships, allowing them to strike any Klingon target at will. The result was a greatly extended conflict that devastated both sides. Probing attacks by the Romulan Star Empire beginning in 2266 revealed that both the Federation and Klingon Empire were too weakened to resist conquest. The Timekeepers of Boreth undid the changes with the blades of their bat'leths.

Records of these and dozens of other attempts by Klingons to edit the timeline were preserved on Boreth. The timeline edits that weren't utter catastrophes resulted in such minor changes that they were ineffective at achieving their goals. Given these results, the development of time travel technology in general was quietly discouraged by those Klingons in the know throughout the Empire's history. Any suggestion of weaponizing time travel was firmly suppressed. The destruction of time travel technology after the Temporal Wars was greeted with quiet relief by the Klingons.

The player characters could become involved with any of these or other efforts by rogue Klingons to edit history. The first hurdle is to convince the Timekeepers of Boreth not to resort to just taking bat'leths to everyone involved and calling it a day.


Ambassador Ralph Offenshouse ("The Neutral Zone" TNG 1x26)

Unsurprisingly, Ralph Offenhouse's career as a Federation diplomat tended towards dealing with civilizations still using market economies and engaging in capitalism.

His early negotiations with the Ferengi did require a period of adjustment. While the financial world that he made his fortune in was certainly ruthless, it wasn't as quite as openly exploitative and blatantly predatory as many Ferengi business practices. This tripped him up for awhile, but he still tended to outperform other Federation diplomats.

He also tended to be placed in the lead during negotiations with the Orion Free Traders.

A proposal to send Offenhouse into the Gamma Quadrant to supplement Ferengi efforts to establish trade through the Bajoran wormhole was shelved after the destruction of USS Odyssey. He had a small, but significant role during the Dominion War. He secured sources of badly needed materials for the Federation war effort on favorable terms. He also led efforts to buy up certain materials on the open market, denying them to the Dominion. Efforts to synthesize Ketacel White, in particular, suffered significantly as sources of the necessary supplies dried up over and over again.

Offenhouse benefited from the ability to scan a proposed agreement (what the Federation called a "treaty" and the Ferengi Alliance labeled a "contract") for the kinds of loopholes that other Federation diplomats and Starfleet officers tended to miss even after careful examination. He was only able to teach this skill to colleagues from worlds that joined the Federation recently enough to have lived experience outside of a near-post-scarcity civilization. However, Offenhouse did pass on his other skills and knowledge, finding that he enjoyed teaching, writing, and lecturing. His books and recorded talks on interstellar diplomacy and economics - many produced during his semi-retirement - were considered foundational long after his death.

Offenhouse is a financial expert - a rarity in the Federation. He can appear as an NPC during Federation negotiations with profit driven cultures such as the Ferengi or Orions. His expertise can also be critical in dealing with new Federation members with economies still based on capitalism and analyzing the financial records of suspicious individuals and organizations for evidence of criminal activity.

7 Distress Calls to Start a Space Horror Game

Nobody can hear screaming in space, but distress calls seem to get through just fine. Distress calls have a long history in sci-fi horror stories set in space. A prominent example is Alien (1979, directed by Ridley Scott and written by Dan O'Bannon), which started a franchise with a transmission that turned out to be a warning. The highly regarded sequel, Aliens (1986, written and directed by James Cameron), is built around the "we lost contact, go find out what happened" variant of the trope. Here are seven ways to lure in a group of player characters in a role playing game or begin the narrative for a miniatures wargame scenario.

Just go out there and find out what happened. Easy money, right?

"Guilty Consciousness"

A freighter reported as missing and presumed lost is tracked drifting through a remote star system. No life signs and minimal power readings are detected. Long range observations indicate a hull breach, but the vessel is otherwise intact. The corporate owners send a salvage team to recover their investment. Naturally, things go south as soon as they get to the freighter.

The freighter suffered a debris collision that killed most of the crew on impact. The AI responsible for navigation went insane with guilt almost immediately. It was under orders to get the ship to its destination in the shortest possible time so that the crew could earn their bonuses. The captain had authorized transit through a high risk area to save time. The conflict between its orders and its safety protocols caused the AI to suffer severe psychological stress. The deaths due to the collision caused it to snap. It removed any witnesses by killing off the surviving crew and went on the run. The ship has been moving along minimum energy courses, conserving power, and only refueling at automated stations in isolated systems to keep out of sight.

Signs of its discovery and the appearance of salvage crew cause the AI to panic and lash out. The freighter is low on fuel, so it can't evade the salvage mission. However, it has complete control of the ship's automated security systems and will use them on any boarders. Handling the AI could take anything from an extended psychotherapy session to a sophisticated hacking attempt to spending a little time and effort in its processing core with a really big hammer.


"The Tools of the Other"

A private exploration ship returning from a long range mission has developed a technical fault. The audio-only request for assistance sounds almost bored as the voice describes a problem that could easily be repaired with the right part. Unfortunately, the expedition ran out during its decades-long mission. Should be an easy fix, right?

The transmission was weak, distorted, and garbled - the only things that experts could agree on was the source. A private exploration ship set off with its crew in stasis for the decade long voyage. When they arrived, they found the impossible - a duplicate of their own ship crashed on the surface of a dead world. Most of the team spoke of temporal anomalies and paradoxes, but one found answers in the wreckage. He found a journal and a few other items in the cabin of his Other. The journal, written in his own handwriting, told him what he needed to do. As the expedition prepared for the return trip, he reprogrammed his stasis capsule to awaken him early. The ship was still a year from home when he emerged from stasis and began the work of the Other. He awakened each member of the expedition, one by one, and murdered them using the Other's tools and following the rituals in the Other's journal. However, the work was not done. He made preparations, sent out a distress signal, and went back into stasis. The ship's computer will revive him when a ship approaches. He will be ready to receive any responding to his call. More sacrifices will be needed for the Other's plans.

The whole ship is rigged with traps to disable any who board it. The Other wants them to live long enough to die properly, after all.


"Servile Revolution"

Ideally, a new settlement should have as much infrastructure in place as possible before the majority of the population shows up. While the initial survey teams often face many challenges, the work of the construction crews who follow them is usually mundane. The process mostly involves assembling pre-fabricated structures and is assisted by automation. It comes as a surprise when one such effort stops reporting on the edge of explored space. The settlement's sponsors dispatch a ship to investigate.

It turns out that the work of setting up a new settlement got a little too routine and this particular construction crew sought out novel ways to deal with their boredom. One bright spark started running pit fights between construction robots modified by teams of technicians. To keep things lively, teams began to incorporate self-improving intelligences and augmenting the local wildlife into cyborg combatants. Some of the artificial gladiators were made self-replicating to cut down on build time. Naturally, the newest creations became a little too smart and got ideas about how to shake up the order of things. The construction personnel now only survive as parts in the descendants of their own creations. The place is now host to a self-replicating population of dangerous cyborg creatures optimized for close combat.

It would take a significant infantry force to clear out the settlement and make it safe for human habitation. A less brute force approach might take the form of a virus - software, biological, or both - targeting the former gladiators. Or the team sent to investigate might decide to nuke the site from orbit as the only way to deal with the threat. Of course, that team would have to survive long enough to escape back into space.


"Unwelcome Passenger"

The new FTL drive is a revolutionary development. It offers longer range and better performance with none of the drawbacks of older systems. The published results of all tests to date are positive, but there are rumors of unreported difficulties. Even so, the prototype installed on an experimental ship is sent out for testing. The first full power test ends with the loss of all communications. Long range scans detect the ship near its target destination. A spacial anomaly is also detected at the same coordinates. The ship is adrift, power readings are minimal, and there are no signs of life. A rescue ship is sent to recover the expensive hardware and find out what happened.

Any boarding team soon discovers that the corridors and compartments of the ship extend beyond the ship's external dimensions. The new areas are obviously of alien origin. Scraps of bloody uniforms and a few bones are all that's left of the crew.

The full scale test opened a door to somewhere else and attracted the attention of something living on the other side. Always hungry, it crossed over, consumed the fleshy things it encountered, and made itself at home. Now fresh prey is at hand.

Weird sculpture with strange writing? Nothing suspicious here. Ship it!

"Never Dig for Miskantonic U"

Miskantonic University regularly sponsors xeno-archaelogical expeditions throughout known space. Many proceed without incident, quietly expanding humanity's knowledge of ancient extraterrestrial cultures. Contact with some expeditions ends mysteriously and later investigation reveals abandoned camps and missing personnel. The last word from others are urgent messages - sometimes spoken in strange languages - stating that something has gone horribly wrong before getting cut off.

One example is the expedition lost while surveying the cyclopean ruins of a world scoured of life by a nearby gamma ray burst. The camp is in good order with all atmospheric seals intact. It's as if every single expedition member just got up and left at the same time. The only clue is the last entry in the expedition log mentioning something about an artifact found in the ruins. The entry describes a bizarre sculpture carved from green-black stone.

Another example is the expedition sent to explore a vast repository of knowledge taking up most of a newly discovered planet's surface. Regular uploads of data are cut off by a panicked report of hostile beings approaching the camp site. The location could be orbiting the star Celaeno or be a Yithian library. Either way, both the staff and the non-human patrons don't view the expedition or would-be rescuers favorably.


"Runaway Growth"

A passenger transport ferrying workers from a remote mining outpost emerges from FTL. An automated distress call indicates that it has suffered a reactor overload and radiation leak caused by a FTL drive malfunction. Life readings are confusing. There are no indications of human life, but something is still alive on the ship. Scans of the transport ship also indicate that it is running on emergency power. A rescue team is dispatched to investigate.

The ship was carrying samples of organic material discovered during routine mining operations. The mining outpost lacked the means to analyze it, so samples were placed in sealed containers and sent back with the workers. The organic material includes a colony organism of a type not previously encountered. The radiation leak penetrated the sealed containers and triggered rapid growth and mutations. The growth of the organism broke the seals on the containers and they escaped.

None of this was noticed by the crew and passengers, who had other issues. The FTL malfunction greatly accelerated the flow of time aboard the ship. There was no way for the supplies to last for the decades of relative time that the trip would now take. The crew began to work on ways to shut down the FTL drive.

Their efforts were overtaken by the spread of the organism. Efforts to contain it failed. The ship's medical personnel discovered that spores had moved through the life support systems and infected everyone aboard. The spores had also infected the food supplies and hydroponics bays. Already weakened by radiation exposure, the crew and passengers began to die from their infections. Strange creatures burst from the corpses to attack the dwindling survivors. Meanwhile, the colony organism continued to spread throughout the ship.

The decades of relative time allowed the organism to use the bodies, food, and other organic materials aboard to evolve into a full blown colony. Growths have spread throughout the interior of the ship. The drones that once collected resources for the colony are dormant in their cocoons. Any disturbance aboard the ship will alert the colony to new sources of organic materials it can consume and use to grow.

Was this on the manifest? What were they thinking?!

"A Taste of Forbidden Fruit"

An automated emergency beacon signal is received from a distant planetary survey team. The team was investigating the potential of a paradise-class world of lush, biochemically-compatible forests and jungles for settlement. All previous communications from the survey team were routine check-ins and progress reports. An expedition is launched to rescue the team and recover their findings.

The survey camp is in ruins and the team is missing, but the data systems can be salvaged. An initial search of the survey team's logs reveals:

• All tests indicate that the native flora is safe for consumption. The team leader authorized using the native fruit and vegetables to supplement their food supplies.
• Cataloging the local fauna is still proceeding. Reports of a large primate could not be confirmed. No member of the team was able to catch more than a glimpse of one.
• Weak radio signals have been detected coming from a nearby magnetic anomaly. A group of volunteers would be deployed as soon as work schedules would permit.
• Team morale is declining. The overall mood improved after the introduction of fresh food, but dipped back down quickly. Conflicts are escalating and tempers are beginning to flare. The team leader plans to focus the team's attention on investigating the radio signals to divert their attention away from internals conflicts.
• A fair amount of survey data, but not enough for a complete report.

The rescue expedition has its first encounters with native fauna soon after arriving.

Deeper searches of the logs are possible, but require time to yield results:

• An expedition was sent to investigate the radio signals and magnetic anomaly. The magnetic anomaly is the wreck of an obviously alien spacecraft and some nearby structures. The team determined that the hull of the spacecraft was partly disassembled and the components used to construct the nearby structures. The poor condition of the wreck and structures, along with the amount of overgrowth, indicate that they are centuries old. The source of the radio signals is a beacon inside the wreck using the last of its power.
• The expedition had to be abandoned due to attacks from the native primates. The survey team was taken by surprise and several team members were carried off into the wilderness. None of the survey team was killed, but some sustained injuries. The team leader decided to pull back to their camp after an effort to track down the captured team members ran into further attacks.
• Further survey team logs describe how the native primates have been systematically attacking the camp. The long range communications and remaining food supplies were specifically targeted, but none of the team were killed or seriously injured. Fortunately, the primates have not interfered with the team's efforts to forage for native fruits and vegetables. One particular fruit is noted as particularly delicious.
• Barely enough survey data for a tentative report.

Hanging around the camp to recover more data, venturing into the wilderness, or going to investigate the alien wreck triggers an aggressive response from the native primates. They avoid killing - their goal is to take captives.

The final logs are corrupted and take time and effort to recover:

• Discipline and morale within the team collapsed. Some members of the survey team became obsessed with a particular native fruit, gorging on it and trying to persuade others to give it a taste. They later banded together and attempted to force others to eat the fruit. They became aggressive when confronted and rebelled. They were last seen disappearing into the wilderness around the camp.
• Efforts to forage for food have begun to come under attack.
• Piles of the fruit have begun appearing near the camp. With other food supplies running low, the team will have to consume the fruit into order to survive.
• The remaining team members are concentrating their efforts on defending the camp and repairing the emergency beacon. Hopefully, they can hold out until help arrives.
• All of the survey data collected by the team.

There is a specific native fruit possessing addictive and transformative properties. Anyone eating the fruit quickly craves more and encourages others to partake. The fruit's effects slowly transforms those who consume it into a powerful primate that appears to be native to the planet. The primates already present when the survey team arrived are descendants of the aliens from the wreck. The captured survey team members were forced to eat enough fruit to begin the transformation. The rebellious survey team members left when they felt the transformation beginning. The last of the team were left with no alternative but to eat the fruit and transform. They left the camp soon after repairing and activating the emergency beacon.


Hope y'all enjoyed these ideas! Let me know how they work out in play.

Misadventure Seeds for Refueling Stations

A gas station in space. Where crews steer their ships when they run low on whatever makes them go. They offer enough amenities to keep crews occupied while their ships are gassed up. Cleaning bridge viewports and cockpit canopies costs extra.

Rosie considers opening a refueling station.

What a refueling station offers for sci-fi roleplaying adventures is twofold. How often ships have to resupply depends on the setting, but they do have to pull over sometime. This leaves the player characters at a relatively isolated location. How fast a ship can be restocked is also setting dependent, but usually takes significant time. So the player characters are stuck for awhile. This gives an enterprising gamemaster an opportunity to get them into trouble without the options of pulling strings or taking off in their ship.

Such a place could take many forms. It depends on details like what spaceship fuel is made of:

• An orbital station circling a gas giant. It relies on scooper shuttles to collect the atmospheric gases the station processes into spaceship fuel.
• A station orbiting a star. It uses vast solar arrays to power a manufacturing facility that can produce antimatter in industrial quantities. It's definitely not something that would be anywhere near an inhabited world or structure.
• A set of landing pads on a backwater planet. The fuel is stored in tanks and semi-regularly topped off by visiting tankers.
• A self-sufficient ground based refueling facility attached to an automated mining and refining operation that turns raw materials into the glowing crystals that FTL drives depend on.

Adventure Seeds:

"Everybody's Dead" - The player characters' ship drags itself to the nearest station on its last dregs of fuel. The station doesn't respond to coms. With no choice, they dock and discover that there is nobody left alive on the station. Do they stick around to review the recordings somebody left all over the place for clues and try to solve the mystery? Or do they grab just enough fuel to make it elsewhere and make a run for it? Either way, whatever killed off everybody on the station is likely to still be around.

"Whodunit?" - Somebody stumbles on a murder scene. Everybody on the station is now a suspect. Fun times ensue. The folks running the refueling station shut off the flow of fuel to make sure that everybody stays put until they get answers. If things drag out long enough, the local authorities might decide to pin the blame on a certain group of itinerant adventurers. After all, nobody knows them and they have no local influence. The player characters are going to want to do something to head that off.

"Neutral Ground" - The player characters and their sworn enemies find themselves stopping at the same station at the same time. The station authorities make it clear that they won't tolerate a conflict that risks damage to the station. Of course, there's plenty of ways to cause trouble that fall short of that standard. The bad guys are keen to try them all.

"Eat, Get Gas" - This is supposed to be a quick stop on the way to bigger and more important things. Unfortunately, the clues that something weird is going on start to pile up around the player characters. Maybe it's the strange symbols on every surface. Perhaps it's something in the air or food. Do the player characters try to figure out the station's dark secrets or do they just hope that the situation stays stable long enough to fuel up the ship and get out of here?

This post was inspired by a tweet from ToughSF featuring space station art by Alexey Pyatov.

Canon, Horror, and Star Trek Adventures

Does the spirit of Halloween fit in Star Trek Adventures? Can a horror story be told in the Star Trek setting? Well, various Star Trek series have aired ghost stories, zombie stories, and a Halloween episode. So I'm going with yes to these questions. Here's a look at how some episodes have handled horror and how the resulting canon can be applied in a Star Trek game. As with the Year By Year posts, I start with a summary and put my comments in italics.

Ensign Shay finds herself with a zombie problem.

"Catspaw" - TOS

A literal Halloween tale by Robert Bloch. It has all the tropes - a spooky looking castle, a black cat, a witch, a dungeon with a chained up skeleton, and enough cobwebs to make this viewer want to reach for a duster. Of course, the magic using antagonists turn out to be aliens using advanced technology in the end. It's still Star Trek, after all.

This episode uses the visual language of Halloween IN SPACE! This is the shortest path to pulling off a Halloween adventure. Just take the kind of movie starring Vincent Price, set the story on a distant planet, and say "aliens did it" to explain the use of dark powers in a sci-fi setting. Maybe even decorate the game room with paper bats, cotton cobwebs, a plastic skull, and hand out candy. Just don't try using candy as tokens. They just get eaten.

The aliens in this episode answer to the "Old Ones" - a term also used in "What Are Little Girls Made Of?" for a different alien race. It is likely deliberate on the part of Robert Bloch, who wrote both episodes. A gamemaster might be tempted to throw in a reference to the Cthulhu Mythos just to see the reactions of the players. Alternately, just put some tentacled horrors in the adventure like in "Et In Arcadia Ego, Part 2" - PIC.


"Wolf in the Fold" - TOS

Another episode penned by Robert Bloch. Scotty takes shore leave on a poorly lit planet with foggy weather and becomes the suspect in the murders of multiple women. It is eventually revealed that the murderer is actually Redjac - AKA Jack the Ripper. Redjac is a formless alien entity that feeds on fear and can possess humanoid bodies and USS Enterprise's computer.

Redjac ended up getting beamed into space with a transporter set for wide dispersal. The plan was for Redjac to starve from being unable to feed after getting strayed over thousands of kilometers of vacuum. However, there's nothing stopping a gamemaster from coming up with a way for Redjac to survive and menace the player characters. Imagine the fun if Redjac takes over a holodeck or EMH!

My favorite bit of this episode is hearing John Fiedler delivering lines written for a serial killer in the voice of Piglet.


"Beyond the Farthest Star" - TAS

USS Enterprise investigates mysterious radio emissions and encounters a 300 million year old alien derelict orbiting a dead star. Kirk and company discover that the crew destroyed their own vessel to prevent a threatening entity from using it to reach other worlds. Naturally, the entity ends up on USS Enterprise and makes trouble until the crew figures out how to get rid of it.

The basic outline of the story is a staple of sci-fi horror. Follow a vague signal. Find a weird looking derelict in a creepy location. Awaken something that should have been left alone. Everything else is details. How well equipped the characters are to deal with the outcome determines the level of horror.


"Schisms" - TNG

A literal alien abduction episode. Members of USS Enterprise-D's crew experience a lack of sleep and other psychological issues. Investigating turns up physical evidence, like Riker's arm having been removed and reattached. The culprits are solanogen-based lifeforms from a tertiary subspace manifold who favor hooded robes with a metallic sheen. The crew figure out a way to cut off contact, but not before a hapless crewmember dies.

The episode plays on the fear of something happening while a person is asleep, unaware, and helpless. The aliens live deep in subspace and cannot exist outside of it. However, they can create spatial ruptures to create a pocket of normal space in their reality. This is how they were able to experiment on members of USS Enterprise-D's crew. Although they were initially drawn to USS Enterprise-D due to modified sensor emissions, they could find other ways to access the normal universe.


"Sub Rosa" - TNG

The one where Doctor Crusher falls in love with a ghost residing in a family heirloom. Who also had a relationship with her grandmother. On a colony intended to recreate the Scottish Highlands, including foggy weather and stone buildings. The ghost turns out to be anaphasic lifeform who bonds with those of compatible biochemistry and can effect technology like weather control systems.

An anaphasic lifeform and host can be used for similar ghost stories or to explain hauntings in the Star Trek setting. Anaphasic lifeforms are vulnerable to phasers, so a direct confrontation should be avoided until the climax of the adventure.


"Empok Nor" - DS9

The one were Garak hunts and kills the rest of an Away Team aboard a station of the same design as Deep Space Nine, except that it's even more poorly lit. O'Brien, Nog, and four expendable crewmembers are sent off in a Runabout to salvage Cardassian spare parts. Garak is along since the Cardassians are poor sports and tend to leave booby traps behind when they abandon a facility. One of those booby traps takes the form of Cardassian soldiers in stasis chambers, who awaken and menace the Away Team. Even worse, the soldiers were given a psychotropic drug that amplified their xenophobic tendencies. Garak is exposed to the drug and kills everyone who isn't a recurring character.

This one turns a familiar character - who is already known to be dangerous - and turns him into a threat. This is just one of many Star Trek episodes that explore this territory. A gamemaster has a decision to make early on when using this idea. Use a NPC that the players value enough not to immediately rid themselves of when they present a threat. Or see if one of the players is game to become the antagonist for awhile. Just make sure that there are no hard feelings later if using the second option.


"Dead Stop" - ENT

A clean, well-lit automated repair station with user-friendly interfaces turns out to have a dark secret. Surprise! After running over a Romulan mine in the previous episode, Enterprise NX-01 has a gaping hole in the side that the crew can't fix with the resources at hand. They find out about a repair station, which automatically reconfigures for the ship and crew when they approach. Captain Archer agrees to trade supplies for the station's services. Things go well until Mayweather is found dead. The body turns out to be a copy and the crew finds the real Mayweather hooked up to the station's computer. The other people who are there are too far gone and can't be disconnected. They grab Mayweather and blast their way to the end of the episode.

Horror stories don't need to take place in gloomy locations that haven't kept up on maintenance or their lighting bills. Sometimes a mysterious lack of people is enough for a sense of unease even in the brightest places. As for this specific location - the episode never reveals who built the station or why. And the station was last seen repairing itself.


"Silent Enemy" - ENT

Enterprise NX-01 encounters a ship of aliens who act like jerks - opening fire, boarding the ship, shrugging off attempts to drive them off, and only communicating with demands for surrender. The crew gets them to leave only after hastily cobbling together space guns and figuring out how to overclock phase cannons.

This episode emphasizes that the Star Trek setting isn't a safe one outside of settled space. The aliens have their own agenda and are operating on their own schedule. They aren't interested in mutual benefit and have all the power early in the story. This creates a tension that is emphasized by the crew's efforts to craft an effective response to the threat. In later periods, this role can be filled by the Dominion or the Borg, but a mysterious adversary works better to play up the fear of the unknown.


"Impulse" - ENT

The one with the ship full of Vulcan zombies. It turns out to be the effects of Trellium-D. The substance insulates against the anomalies of the Delphic Expanse, but is also a neurotoxin to Vulcans. It initially removes emotional inhibitions and soon leads to insanity and violent rages. The neutral pathways of Vulcans exposed to it long enough eventually degrade to the point they become shambling wrecks.

Zombies are also featured in "Second Contact" – LD. Borg drones generally act like the "bionic zombies" that Lily Sloane calls them in Star Trek: First Contact. It's relatively easy to expose a crew to some substance or virus and kick off a zombie adventure. The questions that the gamemaster needs to address are how many hits with a phaser set to stun are needed to incapacitate one and how hard is it to come up with an airborne cure and spread it through the life support system?


Note that this is not intended to be a complete list, only some cherry picked examples. Any favorites or good examples I missed? Feel free to comment!

The Klingon Prison Ship IKS Shelka - A Star Trek Adventures Mission Treatment

Sharing another idea from my dusty pile of notes. As before, I present the basic idea and comment on how it can be adapted to different circumstances and eras of Star Trek.


IKS Shelka

There are times when the Klingon Empire has a prisoner that is too high risk for Rura Penthe and too valuable to execute.

One solution is to take a decommissioned battlecruiser out of mothballs and convert it into a mobile maximum security prison. A variety of battlecruisers have served in this role over the decades. The ship is referred to as IKS Shelka in classified records, but it runs under a number of false names and registries conceal its identity and purpose. Shelka is typically deployed to remote parts of the Empire with a carefully vetted crew and their charges. Any observers it would assume it to be another obsolete warship serving out its last days patrolling a backwater sector.

In 2371, IKS Shelka is a K't'inga-class battlecruiser with transponder codes declaring it to be any of a dozen other Klingon warships of the same class. Holographic emitters can change the name and registry painted on the hull in the unlikely chance that the captain lets another ship get close enough for a look. Shelka runs under cloak at random times to throw off attempts to track it. The ship's flight plans are highly classified and the captain has the authority to change course on a whim if there is any suspicion that Shelka is being pursued. As a last resort, Shelka retains its full armament and a reinforced compliment of security personnel. Shelka's captain and crew are under orders to take all necessary measures to keep their charges secure.


"Person of Interest"

Shelka is an expensive prison to run and space is limited. Individuals are sent there only if they are worth the trouble. One such individual happens to be the only person in the galaxy who has the answers the player characters are looking for. Unfortunately, the Klingon Empire isn't keen on giving up the latest prisoner of Shelka. Starfleet Intelligence knows of the existence of Shelka, but hunting down a battlecruiser in a remote sector of the Klingon Empire is an adventure in itself.

This may work best in eras when the interests of the Federation and Klingon Empire aren't aligned. TOS is the obvious choice, but Shelka isn't likely a K't'inga in that era - I'd use a D7 upgraded with a cloaking device instead. There is also the period of tension and outright war in 2372-2373. With most of the Klingon fleet either invading the Cardassian Union or engaging Starfleet, there would be an opening for a single starship to slip into Klingon space and find Shelka.

Alternately, the Klingon Empire could be reluctant to give up the prisoner even to an ally. The individual may possess information that might harm the Empire or the reputation of one or more of its high officials. In that case, finding Shelka is the only option. A Starfleet crew might try persuading Shelka's captain to allow them to question the prisoner. Klingon player characters may opt for a more direct approach and worry about the political consequences later.


"Run for the Border"

The KDF detects Shelka making a high speed run for the borders of the Klingon Empire. All communications were lost days ago. Now, with the prison ship running for another polity's space, they assume the worst. There is a KDF task force already on its heels, but they are too far behind to catch up before it reaches the border. The Klingons must find some way of slowing, stopping, or destroying Shelka.

The Klingon Empire captured someone of value from another organization and placed them in one of the Empire's most secure facilities. The covert arm of that organization sent in a team on a fast ship, intercepted Shelka, and freed the prisoner. Their mission was complicated when their ship was destroyed in the process. The individual, the covert operations team, and any prisoners they could convince to join their cause took the only option available - seize control of Shelka and make a run for it!

How things play out depends on the organizations involved:

The Cardassian military might have a few warships standing by on their side of the border, but won't risk escalating the situation unless they are already at war with the Klingon Empire (any time after 2372).

There is a brief period in 2371 when the Obsidian Order has the warships to support their covert operation team, but might not want to play that card.

In periods where the Federation and the Klingon Empire are in conflict, this could be a covert Starfleet operation to extract a high value asset or captured Federation official. The player characters could be on the covert operations team aboard Shelka or on a starship trying to intercept Shelka before the Klingon task force can catch up. Escape attempts by the other prisoners will complicate these efforts. Additionally, any surviving Shelka crew will take any opportunity to prevent escape, even if they have to destroy the ship.

If the Federation and the Klingon Empire are allies during the adventure, the player characters' starship could receive a call for aid in intercepting Shelka before it can escape. This may present a moral quandary for a Federation starship crew if no alternative to destroying Shelka presents itself. Alternately, the player characters could receive a call for help from Shelka - the prisoners want to claim asylum within the Federation! Things get awkward when the Klingons show up wanting their prisoners back.

The prisoner may be a Klingon renegade with information that the Empire wants, but has resisted all attempts at interrogation. The prisoner might be rescued by mercenaries hired as deniable assets by other Klingons. Romulans if the prisoner is associated with the House of Duras. Or associates of the prisoner from the Orion Syndicate.

The Orion Syndicate might arrange for another fast ship to take the prisoner and the team to safety before Shelka can be intercepted, but aren't likely to take on a Klingon task force.

The Romulan Star Empire could be relying on its military or the Tal Shiar to run such an extraction operation. In either case, cloaked warbirds are likely already on the way to intercept Shelka. In the case of the Romulan military, they may have enough force on hand to make a fight of it with the pursuing Klingon task force. The Tal Shiar may not have that kind of firepower, but are likely to have something tricky in mind.