I’ve actually stolen a lot of ideas from some old Pocket Book novels after acquiring a big stack of them at a used book store last year. Obviously a lot of them need to be modified to become more open-ended so players aren’t railroaded to the author’s intended conclusion, but they are good for starting points and sparking the imagination.
Actually, I plan to use official scenarios for my upcoming campaign. I have never seen any “official” adventures that are so ready to be used by me and my group as those with STA!
(This might be because STA, mechanically, supports our preferred playstyle very nicely. I have seen great, great official scenarios/campaigns for all TTRPG I played, it’s just that I experience STA to fit best in what we as a specific gaming group expect.)
With the Klingon Core Rulebook, STA introduced one-page-inspirations called Mission Briefs. I like those, too.
I will probably create follow-ups in case there are any loose ends (in the official adventures, there’s always a few lines of advice on what could possibly follow). And if I want to create something completely new, I will follow the X Department Storylines sections presented throughout the Division Supplements. I decide randomly on what department to focus and then roll on the respective table to ged a storyline, randomly. Almost always gets me going somewhere.
I’ve sometimes borrowed things from other sci-fi series and games. The amount of adaptation sometimes means that I’m just using the kernel of an idea, though.
I’m not sure where the initial idea comes from, random musings in my brain somewhere, but I then flesh it out from half forgotten TV episodes and random books (not all Star Trek).
Once I have a vague framework I raid pre-written adventures for more details, characters and hooks.
Once my players hit the plot (often repeatedly and with prejudice) the plans go squewing off in random directions and minor details I thought were a throwaway suddenly become the major line.
