What are you doing with Babylon 5?

[Lux71]

Blimey, first post.

So, what are you doing with B5?

I've got a game of B5 starting next week. It'll be the first time that I've run a d20 game, so I've spent the last few weeks learning the basics. On that front, I think I'm done - Hell, my players (who are experienced d20 players) are cool enough to cut me some slack.

They've generated characters, throwing out four humans (agent, soldier, officer and scientist) and a Centauri diplomat. I'm currently sat here, thinking what kind of game to try and run for them. I'm coming up with a few half-decent ideas, but none that really seem to fit my group.

So, rather than write them down and stuff them into a folder for later, I thought I'd share them here. Insert your own names, destinations wherever appropriate. Call this inspiration fodder, if you will.

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Last Son of the Black Star

A single Minbari warrior (out on patrol perhaps, at the time of the attack) survived the destruction of the famous warship during the Earth-Minbari war, and after years of waiting, he's finally ready to get his revenge on the human who brutally murdered his clan-mates - John Sheridan - the newly appointed Captain at B5.

The Minbari character is a survivor, very patient, probably working through third parties (the PCs and others?) to bring his plans to fruition. It might be smuggling supplies onto the station, or reporting Sheridan's movements. When the assasination attempt finally occurs, will the players have time (and the inclination) to stop it?

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Walking the Dark Road

A simple shipping job. Three ships are transporting gear and personnel to a remote planet, where surveying is taking place. Why IPX isn’t using its own ships, well, no-one’s talking, but the money IS good. The PC's contact has OK’d this mission, based on his previous good business relationship with IPX as a subcontractor. It all looks good.

It’s a few jumps to the target, an inhabited system on the edge of Vorlon space. The planet in question is located on the very edge of the system, a rogue planetary body with a highly eccentric orbit, and it’s very old. The inhabitants of the nearby worlds call it the Old Wanderer. They’ve sent probes to it, but nothing particularly interesting has ever been discovered. When IPX probes found something that the local inhabitants missed, they decided to send in a ‘covert’ survey team, which the PC’s are part of.

Will the PCs and their associated be detected? If so, what actions will the local inhabitants take? Will IPX hang the PCs out to dry if their actions are discovered? Finally, exactly what is waiting on the Old Wanderer?

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These are just a few ideas I had. Share yours here!

 

[Abraxus]

Good stuff on your game so far...Here's mine...

My game started on Episode 1, season 1. The players gathered on B5. Their classes are unimportant, but needless to say it was a disparet mix of character types and races.

Anyway, things moves along slowly to begin, to get the players used to the world. Then Kosh came along and began to visit them in dreams and for real. He told them of the upcoming shadow war, and that they were to be instrumental in helping to defeat the shadows.

And so he had all of the PC's and some important NPC's gather together to discuss the Shadows, and this upcoming war. They all decided to see what else Kosh had to say, to hear him out. At this point, Kosh was making them into a unit of Vorlon Agents, much akin to Mr. Mordon, but for the Vorlons.

So he had this radicaly different group of characters take a ship to a relatively unremarkable bit of space a few days away from B5. There, they discovered a Hyperion Cruiser called the Aegeus. The borded her and found her dormant but fully charged and loaded with 4 Auroras and 2 Badgers. After manageing to bypass the security measures, they were able to begin the powering up of the ship. Then they checked the records of the Aegeus and discovered that it had been one of a few Earth Force ships sent into Vorlon space that had "met with an accident" and was never seen again. Kosh had provided it to them as a means to perform their duties.

Also, each pc was then given a special task to perform. One player (the Telepath) was to head up the Intelligence/Counter-Intelligence section, recruiting other Telepaths to act as "Rangers" basicly, searching out info on the Shadows. Another was to analyze what they could of the Shadow threat and battle tactics. Another was to ensure security on the Aegeus and any other ships that might join the fleet.

Now, the characters have begun to prepare for the upcoming Shadow War by stealing ships or gathering them in order to fight them. The Intelligence group has also grown and is likely to be ready for deployment into the field by January 1st, 2259.

Eventualy, I suspect, they will meet up with Sheridan to offer their assistance. But we shall see. It's hard to say what may happen.

 

[Sundog]

I'm running a group set on an Omega Destroyer. Currently, I'm running them through Year One, but the real meat of the campaign will be the EA civil war, whichever side they wind up on.

Currently we have a Russian Captain who'll probably go with Sheridan and a German exec who'll probably go into nightwatch when that becomes available...

I have NO idea where they'll be going once the decision goes down!!!

 

[Anonymous]

I don't have a group yet, but I do have an introductory adventure for them once I do.

Beginning just before season 1, the adventure will take place on a Centuri liner enroute from Earth to B5. Aboard the liner is a Centauri diplomat (possibly the ambassidor to Earth) and his guard. Also aboard are two Narn and a raider, intent on the Centauri's death. The PCs are travelling to B5 for their own purposes and may or may not know eachother at this point.

The Narn will attempt to hijack the liner far from aid and murder the Centauri because of attrocities committed against their family during the Centauri occupation of Narn. They hired the raider to get them off the ship after the deed. He will signal his friends to intercept the liner once the Narns have control.

Exactly what happens will depend on the PC actions. They will be given clues about the impending plot. They may miss them, try to warn the crew, or maybe end up fighting the hijackers (or helping if any PCs are Narns). They may have to try to elude the raiders, or just stay alive until help can arrive from B5 in the form of a squadron of Starfuries. The ongoing adventure will depend largely on the characters created and the relationships developed during this introductory adventure.

 

[Anonymous]

I am running two games.

They both started on 1 Jan 2258.

The Thursday evening game has progressed into the third season.

PCs include: A Centauri noble, Centauri female dancer, 2 Minbari Warrior caste (one male, one female), humans include two who have joined the Rangers (as did the two Minbari) and the thrid human is using the Techno-Mage prestige class from one of the season's books.

I try to keep them together and weave plots that they can all participate in. Sometimes, it doesn't work.

The PBEM game startes this Jan and has only moved to the middle of Jan 2258. A cast of many, some join and are never heard from again, others post regurally.

Both games have a few things in common. A private security service run by a young human female who was adopted by a high ranking Narn after her parents were killed.

I'm toying with the idea of having a second Yahoo group for those players who want to be on the Shadow's side.

I'm letting the players have a lot of freedom in deciding what their PCs are doing but have some basic plots running in the background which they run into from different perspectives.

The PBEM group is b5_rpg.

Sidney

 

[Ranger66]

At the moment I am running one game online. Its a mix of races which while cool has been a bit of a task to get them to work together. I have just been running a modified adventure from redsector.com [I think] to get more familiar with the rules and game.