Newbie GM needs an opinion

[Agamemnon_B5]

Good day all.

Not new to RPGs, nor Babylon 5, but I am new to the Babylon 5 RPG somewhat. Visited the web site, saw the forum, decided to register and post.

I will soon be a GM for the first time and I am working on a set of scenarios. Fortunatley for me, the players all have EarthForce characters, and I was thinking about putting the players on a Hyperion as part of a seven ship task force sent to deal with raider activity as heavy handedly as possible. At the end of the first scenario, the players are watching INN and hear that Babylon 5 has just become operational. Is this a good enough ending or should I try to come up with something else? What are your opinions about the whole Task Force thing?

 

[El Cid]

I have kept away from the PCs as crew of a warship since there are many races a player might choose for their PC.

I have seen folks post that they are running such a campaign.

I would expect that it is the norm for Star Trek games.

I also try not to do "one shot" adventures but look at some overarching background events that are going on.

See my PBEM RPG game at b5_rpg in the Yahoo groups.

Examples:

I have a PC who will arrives at B5 and sets up a private security agency. She has an exotic background which has been described in eariler posts in the game. This give me a vechile for many differend types of PCs to work together even if they are different races.

I have some villians who have henchmen working for them and the PCs will interact with the activities of the henchmen.

I drop bits and pieces of old and new events that sometimes link together or may be red herrings.

From time to time, as the PCs live and interact in the campaign, they discover links and solve these mysteries.

I doubt that I've answered your question.

Sidney

 

[redlaco]

Fortunatley for me, the players all have EarthForce characters, and I was thinking about putting the players on a Hyperion as part of a seven ship task force sent to deal with raider activity as heavy handedly as possible.

I'm still at the design stage of my campaign (waiting for a few more sourcebooks) and I'm planning on exactly what you describe. Although I think a good way to manage a B5 game would be to involve your players, at least in the creation of the background.

At the end of the first scenario, the players are watching INN and hear that Babylon 5 has just become operational. Is this a good enough ending or should I try to come up with something else?

It depends. If you plan to keep playing with these PCs (provided they survive), you could relocate them to B5. For my game, I'm planning something nasty: since B5 is about choice and consequences, I'll have them deal with increasingly amoral orders from their superiors. Knowing my somewhat rebellious players, they'll desert sooner or later. They will suffer great pressure by EarthForce who will track them down. Eventually, they'll manage to sneak up during the last days before inauguration to end up in Downbelow, trying to get forgotten by the authority. I might even force them to take a level of Lurker (Mwouahahahaha! :twisted. Then, who knows ?

 

[Agamemnon_B5]

I was looking into the possibility of involving rather questionable orders into the campaign.

The PCs are officers with pilot skills, so I was planning on them being Starfury pilots on a Hyperion. They are friends with the squadron commander and the captain, so they get the low down on the info before others. The orders of the task force is "seek out raider activity, utilizing EarthForce intelligence, foreign government intelligence supplied by diplomats, or intelligence gained independently, and terminate raider activity in assigned sectors."

I think this leaves open the possibilty of covert missions on colonies to gather intel. This wont be a one-shot story but a campaign. For one of the missions, I planned on having the ship the PCs are on (the working name is the Thoroughbred) to be assigned to meet with a diplomat on Babylon 5 to get important info about raider activity, but are intercepted by a warship (havent't decided which race) hellbent on stopping them. Opens up the possibility of a spy among a few of the NPC the players will meet and possible intrigue in a faction of a major race's military. Kind of like how the Narns were supplying the raiders in that episode in Season 1.

I will post more ideas as I write them in my notepad.

 

[psyclonejack]

Not sure if this will help but some things I have done with my B5 camp:

Camp will run from Start of Dilgar War up to Battle of the Line. (that way I will have all the other source books before starting a B5 station Camp, and the players that have not watched B5 [gasp! I know I know] will have the background history. And be familiar with the big name alien races.)

All players are Human EF Starfury pilots making up a squad (Ghost Squad)

They are assigned to the Promethius (a hyperion under command of Captian Jankowski)

Adventures they have gone on thus far:

SOS from frieghter convoy being attacked by raiders. (open ending, introduced frieghter pilot for later contact, also some raiders got away through a jumpgate. But none of the raider ships were big enough for a jump engine . . . . hmmmmm)

Test flight of the starfury, players have been given prototype starfuries to pilot in live field drills. Techs always working on them. I rolled (1d4) critical hits on there ships before launch so they can have glitches. They got use to miniture combat during this adventure doing various drills. (open ending, diplomats watching flights, choose the crew to be an honor guard for them while they went on diplomatic missions at a narn base. Also got to see the captain be a bit hot headed, and learned of Dilgar movements.)

Narn base babysitting. Introduced Narn warlike attitude, and stubborness, the players had to babysit diplomats unarmed in the Narn facility, for a week, while they discussed trade, borders, and the Dilgar. Heck, they even met G'Kar. (open endings, In route to the narn base, the squad noticed a ghost on the scanners following them, but never found it. Strange encoded messages were transmitted from the Narn base. A strange ship of unknown configuration was spotted in a Narn hangar. And a glimpse of a catlike alien race was caught in a lift. . . . hmmmm)

Refugee problems, earth space is being flooded with refugees from the non-aligned worlds. The squad has to play cowboy to keep the ships in order while the refugees are processed, medically scanned, and accepted into earth space. Moral delima, one ship full of aliens feels the medical scans are against there religion and won't accept them. Then they try to make a run for it deeper into earth space. The ship is already heavily damaged from running dilgar blockades. Shoot or let them go? (open endings one of the ships to come through was the pyrotania. Players learn of the dilgars evil actions. Players are forced to sit and do nothing because earth doesn't want to declare war.)

I'll stop there so this doesn't get longer, but as you can see, I set them up as individual adventures (or sessions) and have plenty of open threads to tie the next session into. Also several obvious threads, to help the players determine the correct direction to go when they have doubts.

PsyJack

 

[Agamemnon_B5]

I bow before the mighty psyclonejack :shock:

That does help me. I never even considered having something like drills, yet it would be a way to give players a little experience between missions.

I was also considering introducing something like a prototype fighter. Would it be feasible to have a Hyperion modified to carry a single Thunderbolt for field testing? Thinking about having one assigned then stolen.

An off topic question: Where are the fighters and shuttles kept on a Hyperion? I didn't notice any docking bays. Are they carried externally?

 

[redlaco]

Wow, Psyclonejack, your campaign looks terrific!
Do you keep a campaign log somewhere ?
I'd like to read more of it. 8)

 

[psyclonejack]

Stop it, I am gonna need a bigger hat. Sorry but I don't keep a log, though i am trying to type up my notes and put them into a PDF so I can upload them to Babylon5Gamer.org as adventure modules. Of course life always gets in the way of roleplaying. Pesky life, some day I shall have time to get all my projects done.

If you want an awesome B5 GM, however, you should talk to El Cid. The online PBEM game (which I still need to get caught up with posts on) took a wide range of characters and keeps them busy doing individual as well as group tasks. I Don't know how El Cid does it. Its like someone running 6 games all at once, and tying them all together at times, before letting them zoom apart. I can't imagine what could happen sitting around a table. It would be very cool.

PsyJack

 

[El Cid]

Thanks for the compliment.

Last week at our table game I had to introduce two new PCs one an ex-GROPOS and the the other a female Minbari warrior caste.

In addition, our gambelaholic decided to go for the Technomage Prestige class (had to work that in.

Our beautiful female Centauri dancer had to be involved.

Our human and Minbari ranger PC were active also.

Current situation is that Gem, the owner of the Ever Vigalent Security Service is a major suspect in the greusome murder of a human doctor on B5.

She claims she's innocent but is very glad to hear of the doctor's murder since he tourtured her while she was a prisoner of Lord Vectoni (Centauri - major villan). Gem also said she was sorry to hear that the doctor's death seemed to have been quick and relatively painless.

In e-mails one of the players had his PC try to convince Gem of the eroor of her ways and that she shouldn't have murdered the doctor. He presented biblical arguments like "Vengence is mine." She came back with quotes like "To all things there is a season." She is quite knowledgeable in the various beliefs on human and other races.

Sidney

 

[LoneStranger]

To answer the question about where the starfuries are kept on a Hyperion, they're in the section between the rest of the ship and the engine block in the back.

As for the campaigns I do have to agree they sound pretty good.

 

[Agamemnon_B5]

Thanks for the info on the Hyperion fighter bays LoneStranger.

El Cid (and anyone else who'd care to answer) what are good ways to keep the PCs busy between missions so they could gain a little experience? I'm defienatly going to do fighter drills, but I need other things.

 

[psyclonejack]

Keeping PC's busy between big adventure hooks? Thats a tough one I had to deal with as well. Heres some things I came up with:

Shore leave - The ship has to stop for provisions and R&R for the crew. All kinds of trouble they can get into on an alien world.

Crew Pranks - I set up Alpha Squad on the ship as a nemisis to Ghost squad. The two compete quite a bit and play pranks on one another. For instance when Ghost Squad played 'babysitter' on the narn base, a large pile of adult diapers was left in Ghost squads bunks. With a note, "enjoy wiping diplomatic ass". They have had several back and forth pranks, also makes for intresting shopping trips while on shore leave.

Poker Night - gambling, what booze they can sneak aboard, introduced some other crew mates to develop care for the crew and ship.

Letters from home - Family messages, I found this forces the players to think about more than just the next adventure but also reminds them there is other aspects of character to roleplay.

Fighter Escort - A lone ship will almost always have a fighter escort buzzing around it. One squad or a few fighters acting as scouts. Better to lose a fighter than be caught in the middle of an ambush. Plus you can pull all kinds of things on the players. Sensor issues, strange communications, delict spacecraft, ship malfunction. I have yet to abandon the players in space, but it is coming. Should scare them to death. Alone in space, limited air . . . insert evil laughter here.

Get the players invovled onboard the ship - I have a player that assists in medlab, he is thinking about doing a pilot/medic type character, one is helping out with the prototypes getting some tech (scientist) skills. Another has a romantic intrest with the flight controller nicknamed Big Momma. Also cabin inspections means the players have to keep things tidy and shiny.

By introducing a few of these at a time, after a while the pilots will come aboard ship and have a list of things they want to do. As a GM you are only figuring out the conciquences of actions rather than coming up with things for them to do. Thats when it gets fun as a GM. Set the stage and let them go.

PsyJack

 

[Sundog]

Re: Bays, I don't think you could fit a Thunderbolt into a Hyperion period. The bays would be just too small for the larger fighter. Besides, they'd probably testbed them on an Omega, which is built to carry them.

However, Aurora Gammas (with 8 missile hardpoints) and Badgers would fit nicely. Badgers would be nice, with their extended range, but you'd have to make up a bunch of NPC gunners for your pilots.

 

[El Cid]

As for keeping PCs busy between missions, I don't really worry about it.

1. They are usually creative enought to get into trouble without my help,

2. Most of that time would not be spent in intense adventures. In the PBEM game, I let the time pass and I'm giving out experience points based on time - 1,000 XP per month. For those that actively adventure, they get other goodies: contacts, money, fame and glory,

3. Doing little things to drop hints or clues of things to come or resolve mysteries discovered but not yet resolved.

 

[Brucifer]

I have 3 players who transferred their characters from the old B5 system. One of them had a necklace or amulet of "alien design" - so for lack of a better idea i have made it a lcator beacon that can sense first one technology and calls out to the Vorlon Empire to tell them that it has found something.

The teep on board the Olympus (our party's Omega baby) keeps getting the feeling he's being followed since they caught a glimpse of a shadow vessel......
I also found that if you leave PCs alone they can make an adventure out of picking flowers - during a Deadlands campaign several different characters split in ot 2 factions and had a face off. Classic.

Also dont forget that if you try and make the adventure feel like an episode, then you can gloss over a lot of the finicky details - just dont let your players drag you into the mire of wanting to describe every time they go to the loo or ask questions like "are there any Pak'Mara in the bar? i wanna pull a stunt on them" - at the end of the day the show mainly showed the important events and any character stuff was only ever there in small doses and again only when appropriate.

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