Star Trek Adventures "One Shot" Mission Thread

Role-playing games
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That’s sort of correct. You still need to roll (the only rolls you are allowed to skip are Difficulty 0 Tasks: you can still choose to roll those, in order to gain Momentum, but they are optional… the ST:A rules suggest that trivial tasks in line with Starfleet expectations shouldn’t be rolled at all, and the only time you roll Difficulty 0 Tasks are unusual but not-risky situations), but you don’t need to get any successes to pass.

So spending the Momentum in this situation isn’t really needed (unless you want to use your Untapped Potential… for that you need to spend at least 1 Momentum), but you do still need to roll. Although your success is assured, you might roll a 20 (adding Complications to your life) or gain more Momentum.

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@RossM asked for a die roll:
Ok. Let’s just roll the 2d20

2d20: 15 + 3 = 18

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(We add one more Momentum to the tally, bringing us to Five Momentum. Just an aside, the maximum Momentum the group is allowed at any time is 6, so feel free to use some in coming tests)

After another hour of hard hiking, the science outpost finally appears. The structure is circular, with four smaller rooms attaching to a larger central dome. The main entrance, which you can see from your approach, is facing west (you’re approaching from the west… y’all had to head East to get here, so I think that makes sense), and it appears to be slightly ajar. At a quick estimate, the building is about 100m in diameter, approximately.

The structure is an assembly of large prefab buildings, white metal with bright, colourful lines across the walls, but it has been extensively scarred and battered. The majority of the damage seems to be from thrown rocks and sticks, but a few phaser burns mar the surface as well. The structure itself is located on a small hill, providing excellent views in all directions over the colourful plant life that stretches in all directions. You can appreciate this, even as you grunt and sweat your way up the last incline towards the base.

You can tell there is still power, as light is visible from within the ajar door. Other than that, you can’t tell if anyone is home or not.

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184

Keli’i “Nothing here to suggest an outside attack. No great big Reversion Pollen Plant sitting outside the main entrance. I’m on parts scavenging duty, but maybe we shouldn’t split up too much?”

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185

Tray Cee scans for life signs.

(I’m assuming this is an auto success?)

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186

Zin takes up position outside the door and peeks in to look for the nearest computer terminal. “I say we get their logs and get right back to the shuttle.”

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187

Rad paces around so he’s constantly scanning the perimeter and keeping all the party members in sight and periodically checking the skies.

“Whatever we do, let’s be quick about it and get out of here.”

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Keli’i grabs whoever’s closes and doesn’t object, and goes looking for Shuttle Bits.

Insight + Engineering?

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189

DR Simpson is very happy to help Keli’i - his value of friendship means he will take the opportunity to get to know his colleague a little better.

“So - you like to scavenge for things then?”

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190

“It’s more… here’s a part. You go by the manual, it does one thing, and when it breaks you throw it away. and replicate up a new one But you crack the case and poke about and it’s working again and nobody knows you have it, and now you know what’s inside, and maybe you can come up with new things for it to do.”

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191

“Aye. I see it. It’s a wee bit like I handle people, what’s wrong with them. With all the scientific advances we have it’s easy enough to repair people. But some things you can’t fix that way. That’s when you need to crack them open, like you said, and have a rumble around to feel what needs to be done.

Maybe we have more things in common than ye might think.”

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192

“There’s a lot to be said for getting your hands dirty…”

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193

The tricorder, although fritz-y and inconsistent due to the continuing ion interference, does confirm that there are two human…oid?.. no, human… almost definitely two human life signs inside the facility. They seem to be together in the eastern-most side of the building.

The nearest computer terminals to the entrance have seen better days. There may be functional ones further in, but the ones near the doors have been smashed and are leaking… something… while they sputter sadly. It might actually beyond your ability to repair without considerable time and a replicator.

(I’ll have to check the book for this: I’ll get back to you tomorrow about the difficulties, if any, in finding replacement parts. There are definitely replacements in the facility somewhere… almost certainly)

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194

Tray scouts to the others.

“Got them, East side of the building. I’ll locate. Who is coming with me?”

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195

The best way to describe the inside of the outpost is “vandalized.” The first rooms you come across are living quarters, and they look like a pack of starving Mandalavian wolverines was released. The kitchen common areas are smeared with a mix of rotting food, soil, and unknown fluids in a splatter pattern that would make both Jackon Pollock and Gil Grissom impressed and confused. The laboratories are in even worse condition, smashed screens and delicate equipment heaped in erratic piles.

It’s obvious that whatever destroyed this place had no regard for… well, much of anything, really. Every piece of communication gear you see, whether in consoles or embedded in walls has been systematically smashed.

The central space of the outpost holds a meeting area and hallways leading outwards like spokes on a wheel: there are at least a dozen small storage areas and two larges ones. While everything within arm’s reach has been destroyed, the components you need would probably be located with replacement components, and a few of the more delicate ones might be found within the ruins of larger instruments with dedicated effort.

(Okay, so this is our first “Timed Challenge.” There are 15 intervals of time between right now and when something happens… it might be something mildly bad, it might be something very significant awful, it might be the ship returning from its rescue mission and therefore able to rescue you… who knows. But something is going to happen in 15 time units from now. Also “time units” isn’t a specific period of time… you can kind of think of it as "the group has time for everyone to do 15 things, more or less, before stuff accelerates)

(So, with that stated, finding replacement components for the shuttle is a Difficulty 3 Task, and the group needs a minimum of Three successful tests to find all the appropriate equipment. Each attempt will take 2 units of time to search, and the default combination is Reason + Engineering or Reason + Conn due to the fact you are finding parts for a shuttle… but as always, I’m happy to entertain alternative, creative use of Attributes + Disciplines.)

(You also have the option to attempt tasks that will make your lives easier… not directly finding equipment, for example, but making the difficulty lower by stabilizing the power to the outpost, or building a temporary ion-shield for the facility, or hot-wiring the outpost’s internal sensors… I’ll leave you to be creative if that’s what you’d like to do)

(For clarity: you don’t have 15 units of time as a group. Each of you has 15 units of time in total, but if two of you work together on finding shuttle parts, you both spend 2 units of your time. I usually record this on paper, just keeping track of who has spent how long doing whatever they are, and then trying to keep it such that whoever has spent the least time doing stuff gets to go again until somebody else has spent less time… think of a “Parks” or “Tokaido”-style mechanic where whoever is furthest behind gets to continue going until they are no longer furthest behind)

(Lastly: if you pass a test, you may choose to then spend a Momentum in order to reduce the time spent by one. In person, that’s a decision that you’d make after the roll, but here if you want to say that you’re doing it in advance, that’s fine too!)

Nobody has yet searched the east side of the building where the life signs are/were. The base in that direction seems slightly less visigothed (why do the vandals get all the good rep?).

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196

15 rels. Understood.

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I’m afraid I don’t get the reference… is that a programming thing?

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A unit of time (or sometimes speed or occasionally power) used by the Daleks and never defined. But the number remaining goes down so that you know there’s a tense situation going on.

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I think Dr Simpson is down for helping Keli’i find parts. What do I need to do to support that roll?

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(Your call! You tell me how you think Simpson is helping Keli’i and what skills you think are appropriate. You might say something like Insight + Medicine because you’re going to focus on ripping apart medical equipment. Or you might use Daring + Command as you order Keli’i to search better and more effectively. You might use Fitness + Engineering because you’re going to pick up the heavy stuff and move it around… there are very rarely “fixed” combinations. It’s part of the draw of the game… you are almost never in a “Well, my Dexterity is low so I can’t do that thing” situation. That stated, sometimes picking sub-optimal combinations is also part of the fun… we are roleplaying after all, and in real life you can’t always bring your A-Game to every situation)