What kinds of adventures?

[Finarvyn]

So ... I have watched most of the first season of B5 on DVD and decided to order a copy of the RPG, but it will be a couple of days at least before I get it in the mail and I wondered if some of the veterans can give me some ideas in advance.

I've looked at the previews, but they don't seem to give me any hints as to what kind of adventures would take place in a B5 campaign.

I know I could run an occasional game where fighter squadrons go after the raider ships, but several of my game group are not into space battle kinds of things and would be bored with miniatures battles every week.

I assume that some intrique sorts of adventures would be common, or diplomacy, but those kinds of missions aren't too familiar to me or my game group and I'm not sure how to put them together. (I'm hoping that the core rulebook will offer some suggestions here.)

Any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated!

 

[Tegman]

Hi, I'm going through the first season in the main book right now and reading through all the episodes and writing down notes of which ones that I can use. I have so far gone through 12 episodes and already found several that I will use in my upcoming campaign.

You can also search for B5 adventures on yahoo, you'll for sure see redsector and there you can find 4 downloadable adventures in .pdf. They where made for the old version of B5 but it's not much work to remake them for the new one.

Hope it helps.

 

[B_Steele]

It varies heavily on the type of group you have, but here are a few quick ideas before I get to working on real stuff.

1> If your group is heavily combat-oriented and mostly from allied factions, you could make them a black-ops group (which could be just a diversion if you wanted extra intrigue) that gets shuttled around the galaxy doing all sorts of questionable things until they realise either what they are doing is wrong or that they are being duped--in which then they have to turn back on their employers for justice (or revenge).

2> If you have a number of commercial-types, have your characters start a business. This will be easier with a future supplement, but you could get started now and build up the power base. The characters could have lots of enemies due to trade treaties or smugglers, or even just a good raider cell nearby that has it in for them.

3> If your group is extremely diverse or doesn't seem to work well initially together (lots of Centauri and Narn, Pro-clark humans, etc.) then blackmail them. Have one uber-villain blackmail them into doing things they would never do together and set them up to group as one against this unseen foe.

Well, I hope that helps...also, check out Signs and Portents....there are a bunch of B5 articles throughout its run and many of them are/have scenario ideas in them!

-Bry

 

[frobisher]

Settings that have worked in games I've played in/run in the past.

Ranger/hangers on team troubleshooting on Babylon 5 during the Shadow War/Earth Civil War period. Much hilarity, running into Shadow minions and traitors in their midst (bloody Sleeper Agents...).

Crew of a EA destroyer on a covert mission for the Clarke regime in the dying days of the Civil War. Lots of crew with secrets Not least the Captain (me) :evil:

 

[mpm5]

With my group we decided to run along side the actual series, without actually interfering with it (after all I didn't want them to kill off Mr. Morden before he saw Londo...that said my group ended up working for him at one point).

So far they have been responsible for G'kar finding out about Londo's communication with Centauri Prime about the invasion of Ragash 3, and killed several of his agents (the group comprises of two Minbari and two Narn), they've allowed the Shadows on board B5 and freed a Shadow vassal from a type of Prison made by the Centauri (this last one was modified but taken from red Sector, as above good adventures wish there were more). As well as running through the Fiery Trail.

You can have a lot of fun creating more problem solving adventures which are based around the actual TV series rather then within the overall story, throw in a few fights and a couple of traps and you can simply narrate Space combat (i.e. unless you intend to be very generous, don't give them a spaceship then they can't actually take part in the combat, instead they have to run around the ship trying to repair systems, help with the medicals teams, or simply (if they really do want to fire the big guns) let them take over from a gunner when he gets injured...with my group the where involved in two space battles, one where they couldn't control the space ship they were in so they needed to be rescued by another ship and in the other the helped out in engineering using lots of skill roles and role-playing with the crew.

 

[Shadow Queen]

just imagin if some people know whats going to happen that will be scarie

 

[lastbesthope]

just imagin if some people know whats going to happen that will be scarie

No, what's better is letting them think they know what's happening and then throwing them a curve ball :twisted:

LBH

 

[Shadow Queen]

How about a one on one rpg sesion showing how one pc got to where he was but with others playing npc's helping or hindering the way things turn out and then a group sesion

 

[Michka]

I end up doing this all the time. Not only does the main character get the spotlight but the other players get to stretch their role playing skills. Just remember to award them with experience points or they will begrudge you this every time.