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.