Pilot: The Space Between

This is an introductory oneshot that is written primarily to convince my parents to play a larger campaign with me. They love Star Trek and are well versed, but not so much for tabletop games. As such, the goals for this oneshot is to be easy for them to pick it up and immerse themselves without being too complicated since they are new to this and I am new to GMing. So try this oneshot if you want...

• Simple to play
• Lighthearted adventure
• Star Trek (set roughly around the same time as TNG, DS9, and Voyager) (I specifically set it at 2375, after the Dominion War, because it's been a while since I watched DS9 and I didn't want to deal with the details)
• Star Trek Adventures system (2d20)
• Set on a space ship, so a limited setting
• Combat light
• A story that can serve as either a pilot episode for a longer campaign or a single adventure
• Paced so that it can be a single session or split in half for a group that needs to take a bit of time to learn the mechanics

In short, I intend to play this with a group of people who are new to this system, and also some people who are new to RPGs in general but who love Star Trek.
I have a summary of the story below. Also note that while I have read and watched a lot of stuff about this, I've never played it before so balancing things like Threat usage and Scene changes might be a little janky. But this is meant to be flexible anyway, right?

Basic Background Summary

The crew of the USS Gogarg wants to leave a troublesome alien artifact in the middle of space before Starfleet finds out they took it accidentally and caused a lot of problems. But they can't just put it anywhere, it has to be in the middle of nowhere or else more problems, so having a couple strangers on board is an issue if they want to keep their commissions.
The artifact destroyed a few other ships, and it was the Gogarg's fault. These are not Starfleet's most competent or bravest officers. They're also trying so hard not to get caught, and acting suspicious. They don't want the PCs to die, but they also don't want to lose their positions so they're heavily motivated to keep the PCs ignorant or otherwise discredit them.
Also, depending on the type of Complications needed, the ship's captain might be affected by the artifact and acting a little crazy.

Oneshot or Pilot?

This can be a oneshot standalone mission where PCs gather from other places and then at the end decide what their character goes off to do, or it can be set up as a pilot episode for a longer campaign. The alien culture involved with the central artifact can be emphasized a bit to give an ongoing plot, if the latter is the case. Otherwise, it's just a fun little adventure.

Background Notes

These are specific details meant more for my own use with my specific game, but feel free to use them if you want.

• Set in the year 2376, which according to the wiki is after the Dominion War ends. Since one of my players wants to play a Cardassian character, that seems like the easiest way to make it happen.
• See Crew of the USS Gogarg for a list of 5 named characters with stats (2 major npcs, 3 notable npcs)
• See The Artifact and the Gatrelix for an artifact and a species that comes with basic ship stats.

Structure

Exposition

After ranks and relationships are established, the players are on Starbase 308, waiting for the ship they've been assigned to arrive in a couple hours. The GM will want to have at least a rough idea of where the players are in relation to the space docks, and note to them that they have their stuff with them. After a chance for them to start roleplaying their characters a bit, each of them will be sent a message.

"You've been reassigned to the [other ship] because the USS Beaumont had an incident with their warp core. The Gogarg is going to transport you there, and they're scheduled to leave in about ten minutes. You'd better run."

This is a chance for everyone to make a quick roll to get things started. Some players might get lucky and be right there, but at least a few will probably have to try other solutions. Suggest that they try something other than just a Security/Fitness roll, if that's not their specialty, but make sure they have a reason it would work that way.
Starbase 308 has suggestions for approximate distances from spacedock, and difficulty of rolls to go with them. Suggested complications for bad rolls include: lose some personal items, minor injury, appearance is rumpled in some fashion. Nothing huge, just enough to cause annoyance and affect the NPC opinion further.
The ship shouldn't leave without them. If they fail the roll and can't arrive in time, the NPC who greets them will be less helpful to that person in the future because they were late. (Conversely, you could have the ship leave and force them to take a shuttle out, but either way the players need to get on the ship because they're good Starfleet officers who want to arrive to their postings sooner rather than later.) I suggest Kaxor as a greeter, as the First Officer of the Gogarg and a more gregarious, go with the flow kind of guy.
Make note of Kaxor's opinion of each PC based on cleanliness, tardiness, and possibly what they chose to say when the arrive. It might be possible to persuade him over to their side later, or he might dislike them enough that he willingly decides to be terrible.
Kaxor warns them to stick to quarters. Ensign Emony Idiron can pop up, vaguely allude to some kind of incident in the Gogarg's recent history, and if questioned should seem extremely nervous.

Conflict

Give the PCs a chance to settle around the ship, get to know each other, possibly try to interact with the crew to figure out why they seem so suspicious. Overall this should form one scene, in terms of using the Momentum pool. If PCs ask a lot of questions, most of it should come down to "we had a rough time on our recent mission." If a PC really digs down and passes what should be a roll of at least Difficulty 3 if not 4, they get a reference to "the artifact." But then Kaxor should come by and shut it down. This amounts to 1 scene.
A fair amount of crew was injured during the Gatrelix incident and were offloaded on Starbase 308, including the pilot and the doctor. (I had it so the doctor was a Vulcan, thus hinting at the idea that something specifically affected those with telepathic tendencies.)
Meet the captain, T'Syr, and make it clear that she's a little weird for a Vulcan, and her recent behavior has been a little weird even for her. (The Artifact is basically making her drunk, and she's acting irrationally and is desperately trying to get rid of her big mistake, so she's more than a little loopy and a lot twitchy.)
Track an internal meter, determining suspicion raised versus time passed. Higher suspicion will make it harder to gain allies later but can give a time bonus later. More time passed means they had longer to get to know the crew so easier for allies but also more time used up so there might be more of a crunch later.
When they reach a certain point, either timewise or suspicion-wise, the ship's security chief (Giuseppe Guarino) comes and arrests them for clearly ridiculous charges. Should be related to what they chose to do in the interim but also something that could clearly be proved they didn't do. Also probably shouldn't be too serious because the NPCs don't want serious consequences if this goes somewhere, they just need these guys out of the way. Probably 1 security personnel for each PC, with Giuseppe included in that number.
The PCs reactions to this is their first encounter. They could fight, run and hide, or get captured and let themselves out later. They should be encouraged to stick together as a group with this, using Threat to nudge if really needed. When assigning stats to these people, remember they aren't the best at their jobs and it shouldn't be too hard yet. (If you're like me and deliberately running a noob group, otherwise scale difficulty accordingly.)
There's a point, either before or after they evade security (depending on choices) where they should have the chance to talk and roleplay, try to figure out what's happening. This will count as 1-2 scenes, depending on how quickly things happen.
The ship they're on should not be in particularly good order, so it should not be difficult to break out. A loose panel, a distracted guard, a PC uses what they have in their pocket, something simple. The escape can be an extended task, depending on the method chosen.
If breaking out is taking too long, or the rolls are bad, I suggest having the NPC who likes them the best come and help, but at the cost of the ship being extra alerted.

Notes After Having Played Once

Be prepared with answers and levels of answers for the questions that might be asked, as well as a handful of red herrings. I was not prepared with possible misdirects, so it went a bit faster.
Also, split party meant that half got capture and half did not so that was entertaining.
Don't forget to mention the alien species! In this case the Gatrelix. I seeded a lot of info about the artifact, but not as much about the alien culture it came from which could have resulted in not a lot of necessary story info. Have any telepathic PCs make a Daring-Control check when they come in contact with the artifact, and if they fail they are now basically drunk for the rest of the mission and have Difficulty +1 on checks that don't involve stupid, impulsive decisions or any kind of precision.

Rising Action

The players investigate what is going on with this ship. If they decide to escape the ship entirely or report to Starfleet, the information should still be found on the way, overheard or laid out obviously. Ideally, they try to look into what's up with these strange people.
Use most favored NPC who popped up after they get out of jail (or to help get out of jail) and use as an info dump for any crucial information that might have been missed, or as a summary of what they learned, being careful to keep to information this character would know. (Emony is fun because she's a bit too airheaded to give focused details.)
Namely, what the artifact is (try The Artifact), where it's from (Gatrelix), and what happened (the crew picked it up by accident and once in space someone pushed something and it caused havoc and destroyed the ship the PCs were originally supposed to join). The crew decided their best option was to get rid of it so no one would know what they did, so they are in the middle of nowhere to dump it. Also their captain is behaving increasingly irrationally and they know the device has something to do with it so they want it out of there.
Getting information might be made easier if the PCs got along with Kaxor and didn't annoy him by arriving late. Giuseppe is probably not going to cooperate or be friendly ever, but Hroki and Emony Idiron could become allies depending on the characters. (Not that they have to be allies at this point, but it is a possibility as we move forward.) Most minor NPCs will probably be locked in their quarters at this point so as to not interfere with what's up.
The players should, in the space of 1-2 scenes, get to a minor confrontation with someone holding a vital piece of information (or possibly a computer that's heavily password protected with the information on it). Wherever the players decide to go or whatever they decide to do, they should not find the artifact itself just yet but the information about it. If they decide to chase it around the ship, maybe the captain is going to be really tired out from sprinting all over and that's a disadvantage for her. (Or maybe skip this stage of the encounter, drop the information and move right to the next story section, if you need to keep things moving.)
If they decide to go after a person, that would be a matter of catching them, and then a Opposed Task against them wanting to keep a secret. The friendlier the easier. Emony wouldn't fight first but she would have others around her who would. If they look for a computer with information, breaking in should be an extended task.
When they break through, they discover how the Gogarg got the artifact, that they're not supposed to have it, and that it made another ship explode by accident. They will probably want to know where the artifact is, and that it seems to be getting more and more active, and clues about how to shut it down.
If finding the artifact is taking too long or getting frustrating, this is another point where an NPC could come along and confess all. Or the party simply doesn't find out some crucial fact, and the artifact is simply about to be dumped.
If the session is stretching long, I believe this would be a good place for a cliffhanger, right as the captain is about to try to dump the artifact. If it's long but not really long enough to split yet, this is the section where gathering information could be a bit trickier. Or else you can plow right through and get it done and move on. Whatever works best! This is the most flexible section because it's mostly about discovering the big reveal and should be the midpoint.

Climax

The artifact should be designed so it would prevent the PCs from leaving if they were so inclined, but hopefully they try to take it into custody on their own. Either heisting or fighting, they should need to claim the artifact, and thus they will need to somehow get it away from this slightly demented crew of semi-competent Starfleet officers.
I'm using The Artifact for this oneshot. Whatever plan or setup they do should be 1, maybe 2 scenes. What that plan might be will depend largely on the major NPCs (T'Syr and Kaxor) and what they're doing to potentially counter the PCs. This can take a bit of time, but introduce a ticking clock if needed by having the ship drop out of warp when the ship reaches the point where they were going to drop the artifact. The players should go after the artifact or this story kinda falls apart but also these are Starfleet officers and this is the right thing to do, dang it!
When they go after the artifact, this is a pretty big scene. Might be a good place for some Extended Tasks, but it'll depend on what kind of ideas the players have.
Security officers may be attacking. Just a couple, to make it clear people know where they are, and to give people something more to do. Not T'Syr, but Giuseppe will probably lead the charge to stop the PCs from claiming the artifact. Unless of course the players pre-planned and managed to keep the others out of the way using the existing lockdown. If things are taking a long time, maneuver security to put them closer to the necessary location.
The GM should save Threat for this moment if needed, but the artifact does activate at the end of this. And if the players really manage to thwart that, throw a bunch of Klingons at the ship that's just hanging around in the middle of nowhere. To be topical, could also have the Gatrelix, the civilization that the artifact came from, show up and demand it back. Either way, that conflict needs to shift gears abruptly.
(This is the part that can cut way down if needed. My players ended up taking down the officers easily because they acted quickly enough I couldn't get them into cover, which was fun, but threw off the pacing at the end.)
(Here's a kind of map of where the NPCs might be through the story)

Loading Places, people Whiteboard...

Falling Action

The players now have to deal with extra crazy captain and also artifact is about to activate. Use a bunch of Threat, throw all the rest of the stuff at the players, including any remaining hostile forces, and a specific Extended Task to stop the artifact.
Having the Gatrelix show up wanting their artifact can be fun. Since the ship is short a pilot
The one primary Extended Task that will always happen is deactivating the artifact. First must open up the artifact which is a Key Task, then then I suggest that figuring out the device will be a Work Track of 12, Magnitude of 4, and possibly a Resistance of 1 because alien tech is being a jerk. Difficulty 3, but adjust lower if Emony is helping (she studied this thing), and/or if the PCs asked a lot of questions so they know what's going on.
T'Syr will likely be attacking and needs to be subdued, Giuseppe will attack if he's not already taken down, Hroki and Kaxor might be involved if they're not on the PC's side. Talking your way out of this is an option, but the PCs will need to deactivate the artifact.
If they really can't manage it, the artifact is destroyed by judicial application of crazy Captain T'Syr will be crazy (or possibly Commander Kaxor will handle it). Non-lethal fighting, for the most part, because they are still all Starfleet. If they're starting out by arresting the PCs, most of them aren't going to be willing to cross the line into lethal. The Gatrelix can also somehow beam in and take back their artifact.
Ideally, they save the artifact and also turn it off, and save the crew. The PCs have saved the day, and someone sends off a message to Starfleet.

Resolution

The final scene gives a bit of a denouement, and a fun decision. Let the PCs decide what to do about the artifact.
The planet it came from is on the verge of joining the Federation, and if they lose this artifact forever they might just not trust the Federation anymore. If it vanishes, they'll probably keep searching forever, and might not like the PCs all that much if they eventually learn the truth. Starfleet might not also want to lose this artifact that can destroy a ship, so keeping it quiet is an option.
Or they can send it straight back to the planet and then these guys love the PCs forever. If it's a one-shot, they join the Federation and finish that up. If leading to a campaign, I would suggest potentially making them lean more toward joining but not sure yet, leaving room for plenty of problems that they'll have that only the PCs can solve to finally get these guys in the Federation.
Or they can go really shady and keep everything quiet and go along with the original "dump it in space and keep this quiet forever" plan. That works too.
For rewards, if ongoing the usual Star Trek Adventures system should work. For a one-time thing, perhaps a promotion or an additional boost of some kind. (Honestly I don't know, this system is not set up for advancements and also I still am only a GM in theory so I don't know what would work, please suggestions would be great.)

Plot type

Oneshot/twoshot

Related Organizations

• Crew of the USS Gogarg

Related Locations

• Starbase 308