the new Picard show is pretty great. But it would be even better if people where able to create their own stories in this era to help define it.
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What is holding you back? Literally everything that is currently known about this setting is what you already saw. So go wild!
For my taste, the setting is still too new. My new campaign will be set in 2380 just after Nemesis. This gives me sufficient space to come up with my own stories.
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Thanks for the support! And I hope your new campaign goes wellđź‘Ť
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I’m developing the same idea for both the late 23rd and late 24th centuries. Although I’ll admit it’s easier since it’s an explore the unknown set-up, which means most of the period is set dressing. 2380 is basically my fallback if my players don’t like the 2290s. Some good ships but before the supernova tears everyhing up…
@Lukepiewalker the world of Picard is definitely open territory, but you’re always at risk of the PtB trampling all over your ideas. I suspect I’d want to run/play a non-Starfleet game if I really wanted to take advantage of it (as opposed to the default 2370s for example). Exploring/pacifying/defending the former Star Empire would be an interesting challenge for a more militant group of players.
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STA_-_Andromeda_Mission_Compendium.pdf (1.3 MB)
I got this free and the setting is 2381 so it should work for what you suggest.
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I got these from https://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/14134/ELH?term=Elh
Some can be changed to be in any era
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Nice, very interesting! Thanks for sharing.
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Working with the star empire in 2399 would be an interesting game I think it’s a good idea thanks!
Another idea might be a federation ship stationed in the former neutral zone. chances are it’s a bit of a lawless area
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Hmm, how about Starfleet trying to restore “official” order in areas controlled by the likes of the Fenris Rangers? Could be an interesting diplomatic situation, especially as such groups are likely to be somewhat anarchic…
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and likely have precisely zero reason to trust the federation won’t just #!# off and abandon them… again
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So a roleplaying challenge then 
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First let me say that while I am enjoying the Picard show, the fundemental premise to me is idiotic. I know, that is pretty bold but at the end of Voyager we saw that Holographic Lifeforms were basically about to be or had just been recognized as sentient’s species with rights and etc. If this is the case, with the Hardlight Hologram technology brought back by Voyager, the need for these low index androids is simply not there. Its less resources to put emitters in installations that largely already have them, and program hologram workers who would love their jobs and be great additions to the physical crew. This being the case, that whole situation on Mars should not and would not have happened. That was lazy adherence to canon just to create a situation for the rest of the plot. That is bad writing. Its not creative to make something up and force the setting to adjust to it, its creative to find something new in what was there.
Having asserted my personal issue with the show… let’s tackle our challenge…
It appears in the setting Humans have devolved back towards being the shallow and â– â– â– â– â– â– types we were in the 23rd century as compared the lofty types Picard asserted we were to Q in the 24th. This is a sad thing but it opens up a whole lot of potential gritier and darker plot lines than would normally be accepted as Star Trek by purists. Let us direct our attention first to the area in the above thread where the Fenris Rangers are active.
While the Federation in General and Star Fleet Fleet Operations in particular seems to have abandoned this area, its seems unlikely that Star Fleet Intelligence would be so quick to abandon such an area, particularly since it seems the Tal Shiar are still active and about their business. Let us try to avoid spoilers for those who have not seen the series though. Let us then say that there is a Rapid Response Team or Crisis Response Team or Critical Response Team or a Quick Response Team or however you wish to designate it. You have your intelligence officers, one or two, one focused on SigInt/Tech so probably an Operations officer by way of Engineer with focus in Eng and Conn. You have your HumInt officer who good at the social aspect so Science with a focus on Sci and Sec. Then in addition to the these planning/support officers you add two “Shooters” Security Officers with one having a focus of Sec and Eng and the other having a focus on Sec and Conn. Add one Command officer with a focus of Command and Sec and finally the Medical Support officer with a focus on Medicine and Security.
This gives you a nice 6 pad transporter away team. They can be operating off a disguised civilian merchant vessel, or off a rapid insertion vessel (Sabers are favored for this) or even a modified Star Fleet Runabout or its equivalent. The passive function of this team is to gather intelligence in hot areas, deployed in duckblinds or with covers – the more active function of this team is to collect persons wanted in the Federation hanging out in this area, or rescue Federation Citizens that have gotten themselves into trouble while minimizing the Federation’s foot print.
Hostage Rescue ops in civilian clothes, Hostage negotiations in uniform, counter piracy operations, counter intel, etc. You could easily rips plots out of other TV shows and Star Trek them up to use with the team – a mixture of one off Action plots interspersed in longer episodes involving investigation and mystery/thriller solving would be appropriately Star Trek. Think of shows like Leverage mixed in with some Mission Impossible or the show Navy Seals. Just remember the strongest weapon in the team’s arsenal is their brains and team work, not their phasers. That and they need to have very good justification to kill anyone, they are still answering to Star Fleet after all.
Star Fleet Merchant Marines: According to the setting, Star Fleet is low on ships, so much that they couldn’t even support rescue and refugee support operations. This doesn’t just affect the Romulans, but all of the Federation one would surmise. This opens the door for slavers and pirates – and puts more pressure on the Merchant Marines and civilian merchant vessels plying the space lanes of the Federation, particularly for older vessels that are not retrofitted to be allowed to go above the Warp Speed limit, vessels that would have been drawn out of mothball in general, not just for Picard’s old mission.
( https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Merchant_Marine )
( https://memory-beta.fandom.com/wiki/Merchant_Marine )
So its like Star Trek – but your gear isn’t as good, your ship is likely breaking alot, you have to actually negotiate cargos and fees – The Federation can step in and redirect you someplace or make you take a cargo contract – you still have to obey things like the Prime Directive – Pirates would like to talk to you about your cargo – and you can still have passengers to give you headaches AND you can still run in to Abraham Lincoln or a Giant Space Amoeba. All that plus cargo inspections, bureaucrats and even nosey Star Fleet Captains who want to stop and frisk your ship.
The Romulan Star Empire Collapsed – who is stopping the Federation from going into their former space and mucking about with exploring, liberating / contacting former client species, tangling with Klingon and other opportunists trying to do that same thing from slaving to feudal tyranny. Or, how about pinching your ears and making a crew of Romulans who refuse to submit to the circumstances and are trying to maintain order and the ways of D’era in the shattered remains of their once great nation. But with disrupters with no stun setting this time.
D.T.I. / Agents of Time Fleet – Somewhere in the dark, Servants of the Empire, perhaps Tal Diann, perhaps Tal Shiar, perhaps neither – have planned to renege on the terms of the Temporal Accords and plan to go back to several key moments in recent time to better the circumstances of the Romulan Star Empire.
Key Moment One: Warn the Tal Shiar about the Trap in the Gamma Quadrant and have them sit out the doomed attack with the Obsidian Order, preserving all those ships and personnel for the war. Pass along some other key intel so that traps and assassinations can further smooth them toward victory, including the secret engine tuning to stop the Breen from turning off their ships as they enter the war. All those ships also saved while the Federation and Klingons still get wrecked there doesn’t alter the war being won but leaves them MUCH stronger.
Key Moment Two: Call Shinzon to Romulus for elevation after the war. Kill him and his closest allies. This preserves the Romulan Senate and doesn’t expose their illegal weapons research to the Federation, leaving it available should it be needed later. Warn about Hobus now so there is time to monitor it for the Super Nova, perhaps stopping it if artificial, or giving Spock more time to get that Red Matter in place and aborting the destruction of the Star Empire.
The players are agents of the Federation, DTI, Starfleet Officers etc. Their mission is to stop the Romulans from altering the timeline and saving trillions of lives. A mixture of espionage, trickery, fire fights, all the while knowingly dooming the Romulans, for their own good. Extra points of the crew are the one actually responsible for setting off the Super Nova as part of a Time Loop Paradox… even more points of their arrive in time to see themselves setting it off and having to decide if this means it not happening was the proper timeline…
Hope some of these might be useful. 
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Yes I had that canon issue with Holograms vs Androids too. I’m hoping it gets explained at some point. They also seem to have forgotten that there were at least three other Soong type androids out there, another old scientist who claimed he made better ones than Soong, and most annoyingly of all, that Data already had a Daughter!
Although i think you’re getting confused with Red Dwarf, they are the ones that found Hard Light hologram tech during their travels, Star Trek has had that since TNG era. It was the mobile emitter that Voyager “found” and was a game changer.
I’ve mostly been running the Living Adventures, but when running home campaigns I had also been setting my games post Nemesis, so the timeline might get a bit screwy for my players at some point.
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@Fortunae Some superb campaign ideas there, although I’m not 100% on board with your analysis of the premise. Neither androids nor holograms make sense when you have powerful computer systems capable of manipulating small objects with tractor beams (which is all a holodeck does) - an issue I had with the whole EMH concept in the first place. A hologram just adds a lot of visual complexity to make the whole thing prettier.
Ooh, I can’t help stirring the pot here - this wanders into some dangerous philosophical territory that the Federation should be avoiding anyway. Both the androids and the holograms are sentient and are not working through choice - this makes them slaves (one of the issues being carefully avoided in this show so far). If you create sentient workers, then make them “love” their jobs, how is this even ethical? Is it ok to enslave humans and alter their biochemistry to make them docile? (I would note this is a recurring debate in both AI and bio-engineering circles.)
So Juliana is around, but few know she exists (I’m sure certain people will be looking otherwise), B4 and Lore have been disassembled and Lal “died”. Who are the other two?
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If it makes u feel better Picard is produced under the alternate Star Trek license so it’s technically not cannon. But it is prime.
The player characters experiencing some sort of anomaly in the past that brings them to the Picard era would make running the game easier. The same thing would work for TOS crossing into the Kelvin timeline.
The generally accepted definition for canon is “encompassing all released [Star Trek] TV series and films” according to memory alpha. So Picard is canon.
The alternate Star Trek license is at least 25% different. That’s why they had to redesign the Enterprise in Discovery they legally had to. It does take place in the Prime timeline but it’s the alternate license so it walks a fine line between Cannon and Alternate-non Cannon this is also the same for Discovery. Prime does not legally mean Cannon.
It was actually a creative decision to change the ship.