Hello All
Our group is currently doing the TOS part of the Shackleton expanse and I, as GM, am finding it a difficult to understand why things are happening and why the NPC’s are doing what they are doing.
Example: on Bacchus, the PCs end up on the planet due to an event ( not specifying the event, GMs who have run it should know). And I don’t know why this event occurs. It just seems to happen to get the PCs to the planet with no explanation as to why. Same goes for the NPCs on the planet. They are doing things but there is no explanation as to why they are doing them. Same goes for the final event of the TOS part of the campaign. It just happens and I’m sure my players will be confused and upset if I run the adventure as it is written.
As GM, in order to know what the NPCs will do, it is important to know what they are trying to achieve.
So, any thoughts and suggestions for the TOS part of the campaign would be appreciated.
Thanks.
This is technically left open for GM’s discretion. Have a look on p. 91, right column, paragraph directly preceeding headline for Scene 2 for a sentence on how the event is triggered. Some explanations as to why include a measure of defense against intruders or even offense to get more potential victims of possession.
Read the paragraph mentioned above. Also read the side-bars on p. 93. The NPC do not necessarily know themselves, why exactly they’re doing what they’re doing and, in this case, would most likely rationalise their actions in hindsight.
Do you refer to the destruction of the Lexington/the players’ ship? In this case, have a look at p. 106 under the headline of Identify Yourself. It looks like there are forces in Starfleet that fear a spreading of the possession Adm. Stoker fell victim to.
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All spoilers for obvious reasons!
There’s obviously at least one conspiracy going on within Command, although what that conspiracy seems intentionally vague. I do think this is one of the places where the campaign book lets us down a bit: a chapter on who might be trying to encourage or prevent the discoveries would be of great interest.
My personal feeling is that it’s Section 31 (or at least Starfleet Intelligence) trying to stop Stoker from unleashing something Starfleet is incapable of dealing with (S31 may be utterly ruthless, but there’s nothing that says they can’t be on the side of the angels). In my own game, the vessel that showed up to destroy Lexington was one of SI’s stealth cruisers.
The conspiracy itself can easily continue into the 24th century, which means you can set up opposition to Hebert’s plans from within Starfleet itself.
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Ok. Have worked out a solution to the problem of different effects of the beams.
apologies for thread necro here, buuuuut:
@Astronut - you’re 100% on the money, there was indeed a Section 31 subplot being developed. Honestly I took a lot of chances during the development of the adventure and both Modiphius and CBS were very gracious in their feedback (ultimately, they kept like 98% of the things I pitched at them). I worked very closely with Shawn Merwin (Modiphius, Wizards of the Coast, and others; now at Ghostfire Games) to develop this.
The adventure was intended to be a cliffhanger ending for the first season of organized play.
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Ha! That’s nice to know 
For me, it created a mystery that the 24th century crew are still unravelling now we’re well into the Shackleton Expanse end of things. They found much of the original Lexington’s logs were redacted, but had the chance to get hold of the originals after a time-travel mission, and even witnessed the ship’s destruction. They still don’t know how at least 2 of the crew apparently survived the next century though.
I probably ought to see about closing that particular storyline off as we approach the finale…
How much confusion could potentially be resolved by adding in some of the Live Campaign’s content that was dropped? I recall that there was something about an admiral’s kid or something last time I compared the book and the original campaign files.