TNE Story Plot Development

[Chuck Anumia]

TNE Story Plot Development
OK, you all know about the history of the Imperium, the Rebellion, Release of Virus and the Collapse. Now it is time to rebuild from the ashes of Humanities great fall.
I NEED YOUR HELP!

You have all heard the story of the Reformation Coalition becoming the first government (outside of the Regency, which has not yet contacted the Coalition) to begin recovering from the collapse. The government is small, their needs for men and equipment are great; and there is a great deal of potential for recovery floating out there in space.
I would like to see if a small band of determined characters can work together against everything out there in a way that will make a significant difference for the redeployment of Naval might and civilization in the name of the Coalition
I have a dream that with your help we can make a reality.
I have a desire to set up a series of tasks and scenarios for our small group of intrepid adventures to undertake that will help them get what they want while they help the Coalition move forwards towards regaining the stars and reestablishing contact with other stellar governments.
Where should we start?

Making lists of problems and possible solutions seems the best first step.
Should we first develop the governments trying to also pull themselves back from the edge of darkness?
Should we first develop those powers and organizations which will be working against the interests of the merry band of Star Vikings as they set out to grab what they desire by force?
Should we develop a direction in which we desire for our group to travel as they seek out new and better equipment to return with (much like hearing of a treasure pile guarded by an enemy force or similar rumors)?

I have set up a list of military and civilian craft which would be most useful for the Coalitions plans to not only project a strong presence in systems already under their control but which will help them conquer and control future systems which are currently under the influence of hostile forces.

Having limited manpower is the greatest challenge for getting and retrieving the military hardware needed in space to make a difference.

The Coalition is training men and woman at the academy as fast as they can get recruits into the seats but they are years away from being where they desire to be.
This is actually a good thing because it will take years to gather all the necessary equipment to defend what they have as well as attack their enemy’s bases of power in order to neutralize them.

“Doing more with Less” will be the motto of this undermanned team of adventures.
To help them achieve success I want to start them out with several advantages:
1. Surprise (secrecy about their true mission will be required at first)
2. Resources (a crew, finances and a ship to get them to their initial target)
3. Intelligence (I want them to have the best possible knowledge of what they are going to face when they reach their target)

The first ship they will be allowed to use for their first mission will be the Therania-Class Luxury Liner (in order to transport the crew that will be needed for when they reach their first target). The liner will have just been restored to full functionality and returned from its first voyage of resupplying a distant outpost. The bridge crew of 5 will be made up of the player characters (having more players will open opportunities to play other roles around the ship).
I propose for their first target to be the Solomani made Leviathan-Class Megafreighter “Valdez”.

First upon arriving they will need to secure the ship and then make sure it is ready for use. They may need to use their repair skills (or those of the crew sent with them) to make the ship space worthy before they can head back to the Coalition.

Then they can look at their “Shopping List” to see what else is around the area that they need and or can fit in the freighter to transport back home (after installing the Liner in the freighter so they can transfer the crew to work the freighter.)

They can then refit the ship, grab another crew and head back out into space in search of the next ships on their list and even take along some war ships with them using the freighter as a giant battle tender to fight enemies and protect their assets.

The ideas and ships I have listed could take years to develop and play out. These may also be the only times characters could ever come across or play in a meaningful way with the military hardware listed.

Reformation Coalition Salvage Team mission agenda
1. Therania-Class Luxury Liner (TL11, J-4, 10,000T, Crew 191(≤30)+ 1,400 Passengers)
2. Leviathan-Class Mega-freighter (TL11, J-3, 100,000T, Crew 125, carry ships up to 75,000T Starships)
3. Tubigamn Fuel Station (TL10, J-0, 10,000T, Crew 86, 50 Middle passengers)
4. Firal-Class Tanker (TL10, J-3, 10,000T, Crew 245, 100 Prenei Scoopships)
5. Hawk-Class Destroyer Escort (TL12, J-4, 1,000T w/fuel scoops, Crew 32)
6. Konglong-Class Super-freighter (TL11, J-3, 1,000,000T, Crew 1,530, carry ships up to 900,000T)
7. Keiran-Class Battle Rider (TL12, 40,000T, Crew 429)
8. Brigthton_Class Battleship (TL12, J-4, 50,000T, Crew 702, 100 Uruq-Class Fighters 20T, 20 Citadel-Class 50T Fighters)
9. Citadel-Class Fighter (TL12, 50T, Crew =Pilot, Engineer)
10. Uruq-Class Medium Fighter (TL12, G-6, 20T, Crew= Pilot, Gunner)
11. Korascant-Class Battle Tender (TL12, J-4, 150,000T, Crew 460)
12. Malagnat-Class Battle Rider (TL12, G-4, 20,000T, Crew 269)
13. Solon-Class Battlecrusier (TL12, J-3, 10,000T, Crew 183 & 125 Marines)
14. Berry-Class Extraction Cutter (TL12, G-5.3, 50T, Crew 3 (Pilot, Engineer, Gunner, 36 Marines/passengers)
15. Tigres-Class Dreadnaught (TL15, J-4, 500,000T, Crew 19,512 W/300= 20T Fighters)
16. Fury-Class Battlerider (TL15, 30,000T, G-6, Crew 837 W/12= 50T Fighters)
17. Augustus Deo-Class Fast Liner (TL10,J-3, 600T, USL, 55 High, 20Low, Crew12)
18. Valkyrie-Class Heavy Fighter (TL15, G-12, 50T, Crew= Pilot/Gunner & Engineer)
19. Nightlord-Class Battle Tender (TL15, J-4, 10,000,000T, Crew =42,174, 288=50T Fighters)

 

[pendragonman]

Not sure what your looking for here. Playtesters? Players for a play by mail?

 

[Chuck Anumia]

Actually I would like anyone/everyone to help me flesh out the scenarios that would lead the characters/players down the path set out for this campaign.

I would like help creating the situations, enemies, challenges, puzzles, levels of damage to the ships involved, NPC's, descriptions of the locations/systems/lifestyles of NPC's where the players will travel too, rumors they will hear before they leave and once they get there.
Basically everything else that would be found in an adventure module for each phase of the planed campaign (each phase would include gaining and getting away with the grand prize ship for that section of the campaign) starting with the acquisition of the Mega-Freighter "Valdez"

 

[RandyB]

Strephon wakes up in his bed in the Imperial palace, rolls over to his similarly-awakened wife, and says "Honey, I just had the strangest dream..."

 

[Starviking]

What design system are you using for the ships? Many seem to have a jump-capability that exceeds their tech level.

 

[Chuck Anumia]

I got them from a couple different sources (101 ships, the grand fleet and some freelance work)

 

[shield]

The 101 ships are GURPS traveller. Their TL10 is approx equal to classic traveller TL12-13. Gurps TL11 = CT TL14, Gurps TL12 = CT TL15.

Cheers
Richard

 

[shield]

Okay

first I would work out how the ship was abandoned. Was it in the final war, hard times, during the collapse and post collapse.

Big warships like those mentioned would be heavily involved in the Final war. For one to be left derelict it whould have to be pretty badly shot up - so much so that the Imperial Navy or equivalent could not usefully salvage it. If it was a complete wreck, the navy or latter hard time salvagers would have stripped it clean of useful stuff (computers, weapons, ammo, personnal equipment, screens, electronics and even parts of the drives and power plant).

Hard Times wrecks were probably black war strike that got so damaged that they mis-jumped or had to be abandoned. Again they will be heavily damaged.

It is possible that a big warship could be a vampire - probably disabled after the collapse due to lack of maint.

For big commercial ships, they might have been caught by a raid or rapid advance during the final war. They would probably have been seized as prizes or destroyed/heavily damaged by a fast passing raider. Some may have had to do emergency jumps to escape a raider, and mis-jumped. They might still be in reasonable condition.

In the hard times, these ships would have retired to the Faction safes and would not be in the area of the RC. They could be vampires infected in a faction safe during the collapse, and moved to these areas before they broke down.

Even with the best of luck most of these ships will have damage and no maintenance for the last 70 years.

Don't forget anything in an obvious location will have been found either by vampire ships and hence infected if the hulk was in any sort of usable state (or possibly blown up by the more insane virus types), or they would have been discovered by the Guild and stripped of useful items.

They might not spot or salvage a hulk for any of the following reasons: 1) just drifted into system after a mis-jump into deep space, 2) out of the way system - especially if it has not gas giants, 3) crashed on a moon or other minor world, 4) way out in the outer system making it difficult to get to, 5) close into a star or deep in a gas giant - again making it difficult to get to, 6) ship is too dangerous - still very radioactive, 7) ship is already a vampire - guild will stop salvage attempts on a known vampire ship if it kills guild crews

 

[Chuck Anumia]

Ok, I see your point and do agree to most of what you said.
All these ships WILL have something wrong with them. (This to me is part of the adventure)
The Adventurers must:
1. Ensure the area is safe to operate in (neutralize threats)
2. Assess the damage to the ship.
3. Attempt to repair the damage/make the ships space worthy and get it back to RC space (since these adventures and ships in this will ALL be somewhere outside RC control.

The whole point of having adventures in TNE is to try to bring back interstellar travel/life.
Everything and everyone outside of RC controlled space is assumed to be hostile. And it is assumed that everything out there is broken but many pieces may be salvageable.
Maybe the ships did not crash but opened themselves to space thereby killing their crew and have been drifting since?
Maybe the wars and vampires since then missed the system where these ships are.
Perhaps no one looked for these ships because they were in the center of enemy territory and everyone thought someone else controlled them?
Maybe they were damaged in the war without everything in them being destroyed thus making them worthless as military targets but valuable targets of opportunity for the space salvage teams of the RC?

Maybe there is a dictator on a nearby planet using the ship (or several ships) to hold the people on the planet as slaves?
Maybe the ships are part of a Pirate Fleet (or Vampire Fleet) which must be neutralized before the ships can be returned to RC space for their use?

These are the possibilities I desire to concentrate on and develop into game sessions.
The “What if’s?” Scenarios. Not the “Damaged beyond Usefulness “ones.

 

[shield]

Chuck

just saying that most of the vessels will not be flyable without significant re-work (some will be complete glowing wrecks - especially large naval vessels). The faction navies would try to salvage the big stuff if they could, but might ignore a lost destroyer etc. especially if behind enemy lines.

There certainly would be some salvage (especially bigger items that the average small guild vessel could not unbolt and cart away - It is a bit difficult to remove a 1000tn jump drive from inside a battlecruiser and stuff it into the hold of your Free Trader. But they will have taken anything small enought to be carted off (so turret weapons, missiles, drive parts, valuable cargo, personnel effects)

I would imagine that they would be found by small RCES vessels or lancers, who would do a few scans to check for obvious damage and signs of life / vampire activity (check for heat, power outputs, radiation, any visible battle damage etc). If I was a 4 man crew of a RCES scout, I wouldn't want to go wandering around in a huge relic ship with possible vampire investation. I assume the scouts report back to the RCES.

The next stage would be the tricky one. Someone would have to investigate the ship, prove it is clear of hazards and do a survey of what needs fixing.

Hazards / Potential adventures

1) Normal zero g hazards, sharp objects, electrical circuits still live (remeber TL15 batteries), pressurised areas (problems when you cut into them)
2) Virus - active with the ships computer or other sub-systems or even robots
3) Virus - dormant waiting for you to turn the power on - or a viral egg.
4) Hostile low berthers - especially if the ship was Lucan Navy or Solsec
5) Freindly low berths - what do you do if you find the cargo ship full of low berths from the doom trade during hard times and there are 10,000 people reling on trickle power from the power plant you want to turn off. Do they have salvage rights
6) Troublesome low berthers - e.g. one rescued individual is a criminal or serial killer
7) Degenerate savages - former crew
8) Radiation -either from engineering, nuke blasts or unstable missile warheads - bomb disposal skill required.
9) Crashed vessel worshipped by TL0 natives
10) Other salvagers present - guild, free traders, TEDs or even vampire ships
11) Hulk is a decoy for guilders, vamps who are hidding nearby and will attack any survey ships.


Cheers
Richard

 

[shield]

Only when the hulk has been surveyed, deemed to be safe, and worthy of salvage (either to be stripped for parts or restarted and flown back to the RC), the RC would despatch a salvage vessel.

Clippers, and smaller cargo vessels could be used to bring back small vessels - less than 1ktn. It is obviously much safer to carry a damaged vessel back using a tender than try and repair it and trust your trained crew to a misjump in a 70+ year old damaged vessel.

I think I remember your initial post had the PCs as command crew of a big 10ktn liner used as the salvage vessel. a ship that big (poor M drive, no armour, few weapons, with a refitted scoops and purification plant) is a high value target and needs protecting against guilders or vampires. The RC would have to assign naval vessels to protect it.

You could use it as a part carrier. It could carry an SDB and some fighters for self-defence and a few scouts and a couple of survey vessels. Whilst it is on-site repairing one vessel, the scouts could check nearby systems, and if they found anything interesting they return to the big ship and a survey vessel is sent out.

This way you can have the bridge PCs on the big ship and alternative PCs on the escorts or the survey ship (its those people I see having more adventures)

How does that sound?

Cheers
Richard

 

[Chuck Anumia]

Only when the hulk has been surveyed, deemed to be safe, and worthy of salvage (either to be stripped for parts or restarted and flown back to the RC), the RC would despatch a salvage vessel.

Clippers, and smaller cargo vessels could be used to bring back small vessels - less than 1ktn. It is obviously much safer to carry a damaged vessel back using a tender than try and repair it and trust your trained crew to a misjump in a 70+ year old damaged vessel.

I think I remember your initial post had the PCs as command crew of a big 10ktn liner used as the salvage vessel. a ship that big (poor M drive, no armour, few weapons, with a refitted scoops and purification plant) is a high value target and needs protecting against guilders or vampires. The RC would have to assign naval vessels to protect it.

You could use it as a part carrier. It could carry an SDB and some fighters for self-defence and a few scouts and a couple of survey vessels. Whilst it is on-site repairing one vessel, the scouts could check nearby systems, and if they found anything interesting they return to the big ship and a survey vessel is sent out.

This way you can have the bridge PCs on the big ship and alternative PCs on the escorts or the survey ship (its those people I see having more adventures)

How does that sound?

Cheers
Richard

That sounds much more like the line of thinking I am looking for.
I want the players to be able to actually reclaim the large 100K Freighter for hauling back the larger ships, parts, stores and any smaller ones with drives/batteries/low berths intact. Perhaps they have information from former scouting trips on what is needed and they have brought it and their defense ships with them. They now need to beat the clock to install the parts, defend themselves and return to RC space.

Then they can command a smaller ship to scout for their next pick-up while the freighter is being refitted then go back with whatever parts they need (or go out and look for the needed parts) for rebuilding the next ship on their list/ latest find.
Chuck Anumia

 

[Chuck Anumia]

Perhaps the Guild and other Space Pirates have been kept away by the ships still active defenses?
Maybe the RC crews have the Imperial codes needed for accessing the defense over rides?
Maybe the local Dictator is using the ship as his fortress so assassin's on the planet cannot reach him. A small team may be able to force an entrance thru an airlock to release the political captives then take out the Dictator, topple the old government and help establish the new government?
The only reward the players ask for or will accept is the Huge Freighter!
OK.
Now we need to define the NPC's involved (Good Guys/Gals and Bad Guys/Gals).
The Dictator could easily be a Dictatorix

 

[shield]

Do you have some stats for that 100ktn freighter/tender. I have an idea forming based on your last post.

Cheers
Richard

 

[shield]

Chuck

how about this for some deep background

1128 Margaret and Solomani factions in Old Expanses (solomani in this area are less racist than most - see challenge mags) agree a truce
1130 Solomani commanders despatch leviation merchant + small escorting squadron (destroyer and several close escorts) to recover a (choose between a high tech orbital factory or a wrecked tL15 warship)
1130 Taskforce in a more remote system on the way to the salvage target when they get hit by virus. Freighter arrives at the system where the RC find it, the escorts do not arrive in the system from their jump (like Dulinor lost some of his fleet after hitting the research lab on omicron). Virus shuts things down and crew die.
1131 Ship drifts close to main world and is boarded by locals using some small craft or even grav vehicles. They start to salvage stuff and transfer virus to their own system

I can think of it going 2 ways at this point

 

[shield]

Option 1: ship over a habitable world. Virus devestates planet and destroys TL infrastructure, locals down to pre-industrial TL. Slavage base established on merchant is unaffected as its computer systems were separate from the planetary data net. Salvagers use their tech to install themselves as dictators. They can build some simple launchers in the cargo bays to fire kinetic energy deadfall rocks at anywhere in the world. They may or may not be aligned with the guild. Ship is in orbit. They extract tribute via small craft or grav vehicles. The low tech natives have no way of reaching their rulers to rebel.

You could allow the TEDs to mount some crude lasers or missile launchers in the cargo bays or on the hull. These weapons have limited traverse.

Option 2: ship over a non-life supporting world. Virus spreads through worlds computer systems before flaring up. Salvagers watch virus kill most of the population. Salvage base survives as it is not patched into the datanet. Salvagers go down afterward and recover food supplies and any survivors. Using preserved food they have time to salvage hydroponics etc from the ruined world below and set up their own little worldlet in the staterooms and cargo bays. They could move their ship/world away from the ruins of their world and place it in orbit over a desolate world closer to the start and use solar power to run life-support. Their new location stops them being spotted by passing guilders and vamps.

The little worldlet can either be a survving highish TL survivor camp, degenerate into a lower tech natives living on a ship they no longer understand, or even worst turn into a TED using the life-support to retain control over the low tech natives.

 

[shield]

Option 1 would could be a straight attack and boarding action whilst stopping the TED dropping rocks on the natives (RC marines could take over a small craft bringing back supplies and tribute)

Option 2 is more grey - the RC would have to look after any low tech natives, make an agreement to re-settle them somewhere safe (possibly back in the RC). They might have to try and board and kill the TED before he exposes the locals to vacuum.

Any thoughts?

Cheers
Richard

 

[Starviking]

Shield,

why don't you make your big ship maintenance heavy - then when the virus hits it you could have the maintenance-oriented ship's computer becoming a hobbyist - a kind of neutral character who will nix any actions that result in the degradation of ship systems, but who will also want to gain access to parts needed to keep the ship running.

 

[shield]

Possibly - depends if this is after the RC contact sandman / peacemaker virus

Cheers
Richard

 

[Chuck Anumia]

Leviathan-Class MegaFreighter: 100,000 DSP
Crew=5 Bridge, 120 Engineers, 1 Medic.
PD=4
Basic Bridge
Engineering
4,000 Jump
2,000 Maneuver
30,000 Fuel
2 workshops
13 Untility
63 Staterooms
5 exercise rooms
2 halls seating 200 people
1 sickbay
63,693 cargo
Accel= 0.5G
Jump=3

I like both options. The second produces more far reaching effects in that the PC's would become responsible for the natives and the natives would spread the fame of the PC's as they are relocated into RC space.

I also like the idea that the freighter carried a load of maintance equipment and other small craft and ships which had their computers offline so were not infected by Virus when the ship was taken.
The Hobbyist Virus strain could become a friendly AI for the PC's.
This would also have benifits and drawbacks.

Benifits= The Ship would communicate its status accurately to the PC's and work with the PC's to achive optimal results.
Drawback= The Virus may want to have input on mission choices or may refuse to put itself in a dangerous situation.
Great Ideas! Thanks for your help!