STA A More Perfect Union

This is the main wiki page for the Star Trek Adventures play-by-post game A More Perfect Union.

The game will use Modiphius' Star Trek Adventures 2d20 system and takes place in 2450 (Stardate 127515.1). Neither experience with the STA 2d20 rules, nor knowledge of Star Trek's extensive timeline / history are required to play.

Game Expectations

I'd like to aim for each player to post, in character, on average 4 to 6 times per week
I aim to reply to relevant posts within 24 hours
Players and I commit to inform the group if we need time away from the game for any reason (either in the OOC Thread, or in the Grand Central Absences Station, or via PM
Text medium is difficult to read nuance into, and meaning can be lost. I will do my best to read anything the players post related to this game in the best possible light. I ask that players do the same for me. And if there's confusion or concern, we commit to ask for clarification
No rules expertise or Trek Cannon expertise is necessary. I'm happy to teach the former, and the latter will be treated a bit loosely (and there won't be a lot of reference to cannon in the game itself)
I'm committing to run through one scenario (it'd be a two to three session in person gaming experience translated to PbP)
We aim to portray action and dialogue that would fit into Star Trek The Original Series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, or Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
- There will be discussion of mature themes
- Violence is a last resort, and remains a possibility, and we'll strive to portray it with maturity and without gore
- The X-card will be in play, as will lines and veils
  - Current lines: no active descriptions of harm to children, no allusion to harm to childing that happened "off screen"
  - Current veils: romantic content is fine. Public displays of affection between characters should "fade to black" for any physical contact beyond say a single kiss or holding hands or hugging
We will use either Orokos or RPG.net built in dice roller, will set up a google sheet to track Momentum/Threat/Determination and to outline difficulties and enemy stats to facilitate play
All dice rolls and action statements should go in the IC Thread, in [ooc] blocks
Play by Post action scenes can be chaotic. Initiative will be on a first to post, first to act basis, and I will try to summarize each character's action and that actions results in a single post recapping the round.

Mission Brief

The Khitomer Tripartite Alliance launched Operation Outreach Delta officially in 2445. Growing concern over lack of contact, lack of any sign, of Borg activity led the Alliance Commission to conclude that individuals acting under color of the United Federation of Planets' authority in 2401 may have committed genocide against the Borg. The actions taken in 2401 may well have left trillions of sentient Borg and any non-assimilated individuals, communities, and societies supported by the Borg in dire straits. While recognizing that almost fifty years past the event, there may not be many left to save, the Alliance Commission committed the Alliance to do all within its power to help

In 2445, a massive construction mission was launched to build, staff and operationalize Starbase 888 some nine-thousand light years beyond the outer boundary of Alliance space toward Borg space in the Delta Quadrant. So called "Midway Station" was christened in late 2447, and initially a dozen of the most advanced Alliance starships were assigned to the operation.

The starships officially launched their search, reconnect, aid, and rescue mission at the beginning of 2449. Each ship was given and area of Borg space to search, with the following objectives:

Establishing contact with any species or polities, including still surviving Borg
Ensuring aid and assistance is given to any in Borg space who need it
Exploring Borg technology, culture, science, history

Each Captain was granted broad latitude to act to achieve their mission objectives, and to ensure their actions and those of their crews follow the Alliance's core pillars:

All sentients shall have their material needs fulfilled
No walls shall stand between worlds
No sentient shall be held in bondage through force, labor, or debt

Player Character

Player	Character	Pronouns	Species	Rank	Role

kittlefish	Lexshue	she/her	Vulcan/Romulan	Captain	Commanding Officer

jmucchiello	Verda Lut	she/her	Joined Trill	Commander	Executive Officer

JoanieSappho	Linnea	she/her	Ocampa/Liberated Borg		Diplomatic Attaché

Nobby	Mirak	she/her	Romulan	Commander	Chief Medical Officer

Naphthalim	Ornthok	he/him	Karemma	Lt. Commander	Chief Engineer

t@nya	Olivia Reed	she/her	Changeling	Lieutenant	Science Officer

graeyWolf	Nythan Kessh	he/him/his	Haliian	Lt. Junior Grade	Acting Chief of Security

Players' Ships

The players are assigned to the USS Ho'okele. You can find links for that ship, and the secondary craft she supports below.

()Note, I'm not yet including stats for the standard shuttles, cargo shuttles and worker pods the Ho'okele carries yet. Those will be added soon.)

Ship	Registry	Class	Scale

USS Ho'okele	NCC-873939	Ho'okele (refit Odyssey)	7

USS Popao	NCC-771896	Aquarius Escort	3

Kestrel Class Runabout	NCC-873939-R1 and NCC-873939-R2	Kestrel Class Runabout	3

Stalker Class Strike Fighter	NCC-873939-F1 to NCC-873939-F12	Stalker Strike Fighter	1

The USS Ho'okele and her sister ships involved in operation Outreach Delta are well equipped, namely:

Advanced Quantum Slipstream Drives
Twin warp cores and twin anti-matter reactors
A Class 6 and two Class 5 replicators, and advanced machine shops, allowing for the construction of e.g. shuttlecraft and runabouts, as well as easing major repairs on the Ho'okele and Popao
The capability, given enough raw materials in stores, to build the components of and then assemble Class 1 to Class 3 replicators. Takes about 1 to 2 days per Class level. Primarily for providing discovered polities a better capacity to meet their sentient members' material needs. Training in the use, upkeep of such replicators can be accomplished by the crew over the span of time it takes to build one.
A fully staffed and equipped mining operation to extract raw materials from a variety of enviroments
A quantum component manufacturing lab (including the ability to expertly refine dilithium crystals
A fully functional anti-matter refining operation sufficient to support the Ho'okele's and Popao's needs
A multitronic series 9 computer core, disconnected ("airgapped") from the rest of the ship's systems, dedicated to studying and working with Borg technology

Trek Cannon & Game Timeline

Cannon

Cannon will be loosely interpreted in this game

The following primary sources are considered (mostly) cannon:

Star Trek Discovery
Star Trek Strange New Worlds
Star Trek The Original Series
Star Trek TOS Movies: Star Trek The Motion Picture through Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
Star Trek The Next Generation
Star Trek Deep Space Nine
Star Trek Voyager
Star Trek TNG Movies: Star Trek Generations through Star Trek Nemesis
Star Trek Picard

The big exception to the cannon outlined above is time travel. Specifically, from my perspective, there's been no Temporal Cold war, and no Temporal Hot War. Any content involving a temporal war flat out didn't happen.

Any futures depicted in the media above that are later than 2450 should be assumed to be "potential future", "possible futures", or "alternate timeline futures" at best.

Time Travel happens, often by accident. It's almost impossible to do it in a regular/routinized fashion. The scenario set up doesn't involve time travel. Time travel won't be available as a means to solve any challenges or threats that arise in the course of play.

Timeline

NOTE: This is not meant to be a comprehensive timeline. It shows only the major beats of history from ~2400 to the game's start in 2450. As players, you should feel free to invent specific details in play to suit the needs of your characters and/or their backgrounds.

2378 - Federation personnel aboard the USS Voyager destroy a Borg Unimatrix and transwarp conduit hub, along with trillions of Borg drones and severely injuring a Borg queen using a neurolytic virus.

2401 - Federation personnel and retired Federation personnel destroy the last remnants of the Borg queen and the queen's attempt to restart a Borg Collective.

2401 - 2410

A hardline, militaristic Chancellor is elected to lead the Klingon Empire. They wage war against the Gorn Hegemony, and come right up to the brink of a full scale war with the Federation.
The Federation enters the Klingon-Gorn war on the side of the Gorn. A few decisive battles prove the Federation's technology has outstripped the Klingons, primarily due to technology derived from the Borg.
A fledgling, democratic Romulan Republic forms. The remnants of the Romulan Empire immediately declares war on the New Romulan Republic.
By the end of the decade, the Klingon Great Houses depose their Chancellor, and radically reconsider their form of government. The sue for peace with the Gorn Hegemony and the Federation. The Khitomer Accords are reaffirmed. (editor's note: imagine a Klingon version of the Magna Carta, an imperfect analogy at best)

2410 - 2420

The Romulan Civil war spills into both Klingon and Federation space.
The Klingon's undergo a radical governmental restructuring. They introduce a broad deliberative body made up of hundreds of houses, they strip the Chancellor of the power to elevate and relegate houses, the centralize their military under the command of the deliberative body.
The New Romulan Republic signs the Khitomer Accords, creating the beginnings of the Khitomer Tripartite Alliance as its known in the 2450s. The Klingon Stratocracy and the Federation enter the Romulan Civil War.
The Romulan Empire falls when the Prraetor is seized by her own guards and turned over to the Khitomer Alliance.

2420-2430

The Khitomer Tripartite Alliance expands its democratic norms, develops its three guiding principles, and enshrines them into law in each of the signatories governments.
The Alliance begins to enact those pillars within Alliance territory, first by opening the borders of all three signatories territory to any citizen of the Alliance, and then by working to see whatever technological and cultural wealth existed was spread as fairly as possible.
The Alliance looks outward, and begins to repair, rebuild, and improve diplomatic relationships with other major and minor powers known to them in the galaxy.

2430-2440

The Alliance members being to reckon with past misdeeds by their signatory states. Truth & Reconciliation efforts are launched with gusto. The aim is to see restorative justice done for past misdeeds.
In 2440, in a surprise move, Operation Uproot reveals it has had the various secret police organizations under investigaton (called "terrorist organizations" by the Alliance political bodies). Section 31, the Tal Shiar and Zhat Vash, and splinter Klingon Military Intelligence units were rounded up, their operations disbanded, and their files and records made public. These organizations were pulled root and branch, and the earth in which they grew salted (metaphorically speaking), and their actions and methods roundly and unanimously denounced.

2440-2450

Investigations, Truth & Reconciliation, Restorative Justice, and grappling with the most egregious misdeeds of each polity's most militant elements reaches a kind of fever pitch. Viewed as especially egregious is the Federation's use of a neuro toxin to attack the Borg, and a similar attempt to use viral weapons against the Dominion. Those still alive who participated in these events are charged with war crimes and genocide.
The Alliance begins discussion of making reparations to the Dominion.
The Alliance begins searching for a Borg Collective or Cooperative with which to do the same - and have trouble identifying any activity in Borg Space.
Operation Outreach Delta begins as outlined above in the Mission Brief.

Technology (Treknology)

This section covers my baseline take on four "magic" technologies from Star Trek: replicators, transporters, warp drives, and the Borg. What's outlined below is my take, for this game, on how these technologies work in universe at a baseline level. This being Star Trek, I expect the player characters can and will modify/extend/find novel uses for these technologies as part of overcoming the challenges the story will present.

If other technologies need to be discussed in this fashion over the course of play, I will add sections here to cover them.

If I don't touch on it specifically below, I'll likely be relying on Memory Alpha to do research on technology, FYI.

(NOTE: I am not a scientist of any stripe. The best Trek show runners I think at least consult with scientists. My spin on Treknology might veer into the "magical elves did it" territory more than the best Trek shows have done, fair warning.)

A Note on Quantum Technology

Replicators, Transporters, Warp Drive, and quite a lot of Borg tech involves quantum physics principles that the best scientists of 2450 have barely scratched the surface of understanding. The best engineers have been able to make these technologies work reliably well - and that's not the same as understanding them.

These technologies often violate what would seem to be fundamental laws of a Newtonian universe. 2450's brightest minds are still in pursuit of the evidence necessary to prove that the entire universe is a single quantum object that obeys quantum physics "rules" at all scales of interaction. That proof have been elusive.

In many ways, these technologies could be deemed para-causal technologies*, that is, they violate both common sense and rigorous Newtonian and even quantum mechanical definitions of causality.

Replicators

Given enough of the right kinds of raw materials, replicators can produce just about any non-living material, or manufactured good. Replicators are not alchemy - they cannot turn one fundamental element of matter into another (no proverbial lead into gold). The largest industrial replicators can easily make most large construction projects (up to and including building a Starship or Starbase) go very quickly.

Replicator's require a set of quantum computing circuits and quantum meta-materials to work properly. These required components represent less than 10% of the overall mass of a replicator. This is important, because of the things a replicator can NOT replicate under any circumstances:

Any quantum circuitry, quantum materials, or catomic (matter comprised of claytronic atoms) material.
Living matter, without first scanning and copying an original's quantum biosignature, the process of doing so destroys the original (c.f. transporters)

The implication here is that a Replicator can print most, but not all, of the components required to build a Replicator, a Transporter, or a Warp Drive (and much technology used by the Borg). A bit of "by hand" manufacturing with the right exotic materials and specialized tools and methods is required, as is the final assembly.

One other note, the food and drinks produced by a replicator, contrary to popular portrayals, can only ever be "ok" - reaching the level of middling college cafeteria food at best. Replicator produced food and drink is edible and potable, and provides nourishment. Few would claim to "enjoy" replicator food (though tastes do vary). For any high quality dining and drinking, cooking the old fashioned way is still best.

Replicators come in classes, that roughly equate to the types of things they are capable of producing, again, given enough raw materials.

Class 1 Replicators are for personal, civilian use (producing things a person might use/consume)
Class 2 Replicators are for communal civilian use (producing things that, when assembled, could be of use to a small community)
Class 3 Replicators are for large scale, civilian, terrestrial construction projects
Class 4 Replicators are for personal, Alliance Starfleet use (all of what class 1 can do plus, components for a phaser, for instance)
Class 5 Replicators are for Alliance Starfleet Starship scale uses (components and replacement parts for ships scale 5 and smaller)
Class 6 Replicators are for Alliance Starfleet Capital Starship scale uses (components and replacement parts for ships scale 6 & 7)
Class 7 Replicators are for Alliance Starfleet Starbase scale uses
Class 8 Replicators are for Alliance Starfleet major construction projects (think replicating the components required to build a Starship construction shipyard)

Transporters

Transporters are a dangerous technology. There are a ton of built in safeguards, at the software and hardware levels, to prevent their misuse. This technology is so dangerous, that any society that develops it almost immediately signs up to all the myriad "non weaponization of transporter technology" treaties that exist.

Transporting a living being requires a comprehensive scan of a living being's quantum biosignature - that's the information that allows a Transporter to reassemble a living being after beaming it to the destination. The quantum biosignature is the most critical data stored in a transporters pattern buffer.

Storing a quantum biosignature over time spans longer than a few moments requires a lot of engineering know-how, and a substantial dedicated power source.

Creating a duplicate living being whole-cloth from a stored transporter pattern, despite the records of it happening a couple of times, is not possible on purpose. Some of the best scientific minds have tried. 99.99999999999999999% of the time, such attempts have ended up in grisly, body-horror inducing style disasters. It. Just. Is. NOT. Done.

The reason finicky transporter work is often done by more seasoned personnel is two fold - they have the experience, and they have the command authority to disable some of the built in safe guards to do things the transporter systems says are unsafe. Without these overrides, the transporter system's default is: "There's no interfering radiation, the target and destination aren't moving, we're at very close range, everyone involved has had their morning coffee, so sure, you can energize."

Warp Drive

Analogies only go so far - keep that in mind.

By analogy, traveling at warp speeds is the equivalent of traveling underwater, relative to the "on the surface of the water" that traveling at impulse speeds represents.

"Regular" warp speeds represent a fairly "shallow" depth into subspace.

"Slipstream" or "Transwarp" speeds represent the next broad depth into subspace. Traveling at this depth renders a ships sensors incapable of "seeing" anything in normal space. The sensors can sense things happening in the "regular" warp speed depth.

"Underspace", "conduits", et.al. speeds represent the deepest currently understood depth into subspace. How these exist, whey they exist, are all unanswered questions. They produce routes through subspace. While traveling in one of these "structures", ships sensors can user sensors on what's happening in the corridor their in, and can use sensors on corresponding normal space.

There's been and handful of other anomalous FTL travel noted (e.g. The Guardian of Forever, Q Continuum) that aren't well understood, or easy to replicate.

The Borg

All Borg technology, even nano technology, has the following "rules" baked in at a core level (think of it as firmware rules, really hard to change):

Connect to the collective for survival
Survive via diversity
Diversify via assimilation

Up until the events of 2401, every bit of Borg technology would constantly, consistently, attempt to reach out and join any other nearby Borg technology / part of the collective. It took the Alliance a couple of years to notice, but by 2410, it was clear that the drive to connect has simply stopped, in all gathered Borg technology. No assessment of gathered Borg artifacts has proven why or how this happened.

Borg technology is built up from, and based on, deeply nested and interconnected quantum, self-editing, self-replicating, neural networks. The barely understood "programing language" underpinning this is a quantum language. It requires powerful, dedicated, purpose built computers to translate and work with. As it turns out, multitronic computers are up to this task.

The Borg: Unanswered Questions

An incomplete list of unanswered questions about the Borg:

What happened to the collective diaspora when Janeway introduce the neurolytic pathogen into their systems?
What further happened to the collective diaspora when Picard and crew destroyed the Queen?
Why did the collective even have a queen in the first place?
What are the origins of the Borg?
Why did the collective's drive to interconnect with the collective stop?
How did the Borg communicate so effectively, nearly instantaneously, at interplanetary and interstellar distances?

STA A More Perfect Union

Game Expectations

Mission Brief

Player Character

Players' Ships

Trek Cannon & Game Timeline

Cannon

Timeline

Technology (Treknology)

A Note on Quantum Technology

Replicators

Transporters

Warp Drive

The Borg

The Borg: Unanswered Questions

Navigation menu

Personal tools

Namespaces

Variants

Views

More

Search

Navigation

Tools