Friday, June 28, 2019

Far Trek for Free RPG Day: These are the Voyages!

I ran Far Trek for Free RPG Day this year at my FLGS. It turned out a bit slow but I did run 1 session of Far Trek. A good time was had by all and I gave away a copy off the rules to a young man that had never played anything besides D&D5e.

Let us begin:

Meet the Crew of the USS GORMAGON

From L to R:
Lt. Junior Grade Mich - Helmsman,    Player: Bruce
Lt. Saprishka  - Medical Officer,   Player: Josh
Ensign Nisun - Security,   Player: Robert
Captain T'Mandlin,    Player: Brian
Lt. Lincoln - Navigator,      Player: Ivan
Lt. Commander Jerry Riggs - Chief Engineer,  Player: Brad

The crew are responding to a strange high frequency signal that is emanating from a newly formed nebula.

The USS Gormagon starts at the edge of the nebula and attempts to see what info they can gather with scanners.

They find the signal is emanating from deep within the nebula itself, it is on a very high frequency band that would normally have gone unnoticed if not for it's similarity to morse code and the mixture of gases and particles making up the nebula itself are of unkown make.

The Captain put the ship on Yellow Alert, asks the Navigator to plot best course to the coordinates of the signal itself.

The crew make some Skill checks, adjusting power levels, modulating shields, navigation, etc.

Soon they get a fuzzy visual on the main viewer, a craft of about half their size of alien make seemingly adrift at the core of the nebula.
The Alien craft
A quick scan of the alien vessel reveals a pair of life-signs, but the Doctor cannot be sure if they are just oddly alien or in a state of distress. Power levels on the craft seem to be in a severe state of flucuation.

The Captain orders the Gormagon to maneuver closer to the alien vessel so if transporters are not an option they can use a shuttle to attempt a boarding.

Suddenly power levels surge and momentarily blackout, when visual is regained the Alien ship has VANISHED! There is no trace of the ship on scanners at all! Even the signal has stopped.

As the crew discuss theories and options, the scanners reveal the return of the vessel and the signal, but everything points to location of the Gormagon itself!? Most of the crew also experience a sort of ghostly mirage and a slight fuzzy headache. They swear they can see the interior of an alien ship occupying the same space as themselves.
The Federation & Alien vessel inter-phased!

The crew quickly determine that the Alien vessel and their own ship have somehow become interlocked in dimensional space, occupying the same location but just slightly out of phase with each other. They also discover that if they concentrate on the alien vessel they can shift themselves from their own reality to that of the Alien craft.

A boarding party led by the Captain with Nisun, Dr. Saprishka, Lincoln, & Jerry shift themselves over while Mich stays in command on the Bridge.

The boarding party are amazed at the use of Crystal technology present on the Alien craft and Lt. Commander Riggs is very interested in figuring out what is wrong with the craft. Soon a pair of humanoids reveal themselves to the party and communications are established. The Humanoids state they are from a parallel dimension and were testing what they refer to as a "Phasic-Drive" when something went wrong and they ended up here and have been trying to make repairs and get back home.

The crew of the Gormagon offer to aid them in repairing their "Drive" and the assistance is accepted. The Humanoids also warn that something they refer to as "The Nuisance" has been roaming about hindering their efforts.

As if on que, a bizarre creature appears out of nowhere, then shifts itself into reality on the bridge of the Gormagon where it proceeds to cause severe damage to the Comms station! Lt. JG Mich and some NPC crew attempt to neutralize the creature to no avail!
The "Nuisance" appears!
They crew find that using phasers set to Heavy Stun drives the "Nuisance" away. And soon they are patrolling both ships with weapons ready. Jerry and the Humanoid engineer begin working on repairs and the Doctor reveals that the dimensional shift seems to be getting weaker, and there is a very real possibility that if the Federation crew are not back on their own ship/reality when the breakdown is complete they could be trapped in the Alien reality forever. Jerry and the alien supplement that there is also a possibility that if the ships are not separated as well they could implode in a matter-antimatter singularity!

Eventually they crew was able to help the Humanoids fix their ship by basically doing a Star Trek version of a "Jump Start" and realigning the Harmonic frequency of the Phasic-drive! There was also a showdown in the Engine room of the Gormagon with the "Nuisance"!!

As the ships began to untangle themselves and shift back to their home-dimensional frequencies it became apparent the "Nebula" was actually a pocket of Null-space between the two dimensions that was inhabited by the Squid-creatures! A giant space-sized Squid appeared ant tried to drag both craft into the Null-space! Lt. JG Mich was a master with the Ship's Phaser banks and a full spread photon torpedo blast that stopped the beast before it could permanently harm either the Federation or the Humanoid craft.

The Crew of the Gormagon head back to Starbase 13 with a great story to tell.

 

Sunday, June 2, 2019

Free RPG Day 2019 & Far Trek!

We are just a few weeks away from Free RPG Day 2019, and this year I decided to run Far Trek for the lucky crew members that show up!

I have a few other local GM's that will be running various games of DCC RPG, Kids on Bikes etc. from the items.

In preparation I recently finished construction of the paper craft Transporter room for my game.


I will post pictures and some write-ups of the episodes the crew go for Free RPG day. Check out your local game store and see if they are participating and get your game on!