So after a bit of a hiatus, I am going to try to get my Star Trek Adventures group back together. Last year we did character creation and a four or so game arc that mixed some original and pre-made adventures. A background arc ran through them with section 31, but were episode of the week style.
One thing I’ve thought about since then is an adventure, perhaps on a space station, where characters have to search for someone or something through multiple holodecks/holosuites. One I’d like to do is something Alexandre Dumas swashbuckling. Another might be King Arthur. Another would be hardboiled noir. Maybe a universal horror movie. Basically some of our players common interests in genre fiction outside of Sci Fi. This is the part I am most confident in – this stuff can be a really fun curveball and I know what my friends like.
What is a good McGuffin for them to be chasing? I am drawing a blank here.
What are some clever ways to move between the holodecks as opposed to just looking around and exiting?
Should the safety protocol need to be kicked down to raise the stakes or is that cliche not even fun anymore? Is there a way to raise the stakes without he safety protocol trick? Maybe a ticking time bomb sort of scenario?
There was a horror movie called the Cube where characters had to puzzle their way through trap rooms or the Resident Evil movies were sometimes scripted like the games with set piece obstacles to overcome.
You could have a malfunction or terrorist hostage situation on a holoworld (maybe a space station designed as a massive multi layered holo suite). Or perhaps an eccentric reclusive scientist has squirrelled themselves or some crucial research within a holoworld program. Or perhaps an agent who was being pursued hid his/her vital Intel somewhere in a holo- program somewhere inside enemy territory.
If you want to mix science fiction with western, you could use Westernworld (the old movie with Yul Brynner), Futureworld (a sequel to it) or maybe the new serie Westworld as reference?!
I once has two Officers kidnappt by the Romulans, put on the Holodeck and their run a simulation how would the Federation reackt, when the Romulans would enter the Shackelton Expanse in Force.
Tha players had first to find out, why they are on their ship instead on shore leave and what happened: Paralel Universe, Time paradoxum etc.
So last night I finished reading “The Black Count” about Thomas-Alex Dumas, the noted general of the revolutionary French period, and father of Alexandre Dumas. First of all, this is a wonderful book if you have any remote interest in the history of revolutionary France, the Napoleonic period, anti-slavery efforts, and adventure tales. Highly recommend.
But anyway, I learned about Dumas’ traveling through Malta on their way to Napoleon’s attempt to conquer Egypt. The Order of St John of Jerusalem (aka Knights Hospitaller) paid a tribute to the monarchs of Castile and Sicily every year of a Maltese falcon. What a wonderful twist of fate! So now my idea is the original cinematic MacGuffin of note, the Maltese falcon, will be traveling from the swashbuckling adventures of Dumas up to the film noir film, players chasing it through holodeck-created history.
Why exactly I am not sure, but I like Pauln6’s idea of an eccentric scientist. Maybe a mad hacker leaving one last bizarre gift to the world like Ready Player One but much less elaborate.
I do a lot of freeform (theatre-style) LARP and the Falcon is recurrent macguffin in multiple historic settings.
A suggestion: having completed your arc: give it a few sessions, then have your players run into an archaeologist or treasure-hunter, who’s convinced the statue still exists. Of course it does, and it contains (the clue to?) something that threatens the balance of power in the quadrant…
Ideally, the only way to the falcon is to have picked up the clues in the hologames!