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The 26th Century Anthology - Discussion Thread
drogyn1701
Member Posts: 3,606 Media Corps
Greetings Programs! The Foundry Roundtable is starting another community mission series, this time based in the 26th Century. We have lots of 26th Century ships to play with and we're going to take them to another galaxy.
We're still firming up the details, but the basic setup will be this:
In the 26th Century, a natural disaster involving the sun threatens the entire solar system. Starfleet scientists come up with a plan to protect Earth from the effects of the disaster, but something goes wrong, and the whole planet is flung across the universe to somewhere in the Centaurus A galaxy. It's exact location in that galaxy is unknown. The Enterprise J, equipped with a special hyperwarp engine, will lead a task force of Federation ships, plus the Klingon and Romulan 26th Century flagships, in search of Earth.
The Roundtable will be developing a short into mission, and once our task force arrives in Sagittarius, we will turn the story over to the community! Who knows what adventures await us in a new galaxy? Right after the next season downtime, we will hold a mission building challenge for this anthology. We also hope to create an ending mission once we have a library of great adventures in Centaurus.
In the mean time, we need community input on:
We hope to have good participation in this like we had for the Iconian and AEI series. We think there's a lot of fun to be had with the 26th Century. How are relations between the Feds, Klingons and Romulans? How are these races different from 2410? What kinds of strange things will they find in a foreign galaxy?
We're still firming up the details, but the basic setup will be this:
In the 26th Century, a natural disaster involving the sun threatens the entire solar system. Starfleet scientists come up with a plan to protect Earth from the effects of the disaster, but something goes wrong, and the whole planet is flung across the universe to somewhere in the Centaurus A galaxy. It's exact location in that galaxy is unknown. The Enterprise J, equipped with a special hyperwarp engine, will lead a task force of Federation ships, plus the Klingon and Romulan 26th Century flagships, in search of Earth.
The Roundtable will be developing a short into mission, and once our task force arrives in Sagittarius, we will turn the story over to the community! Who knows what adventures await us in a new galaxy? Right after the next season downtime, we will hold a mission building challenge for this anthology. We also hope to create an ending mission once we have a library of great adventures in Centaurus.
In the mean time, we need community input on:
- What year should the series take place in?
- Characters! We need some. We'll need four or five officers from each of the Starfleet, Romulan and Klingon Flagships. Please suggest some characters in this thread. Either characters who will reasonably still be serving more than a century from the STO timeframe, or make up some brand new characters. We are developing 26th Century uniforms (with an eye towards outfits players can wear) so all we need are head designs. If we get a lot of suggestions, we may hold some polls to determine who gets to go on the task force.
- The Enterprise J has a captain in STO lore, a new female Dax host which we plan to use. However, we need a first name for her. Please suggest some names!
We hope to have good participation in this like we had for the Iconian and AEI series. We think there's a lot of fun to be had with the 26th Century. How are relations between the Feds, Klingons and Romulans? How are these races different from 2410? What kinds of strange things will they find in a foreign galaxy?
The Foundry Roundtable live Saturdays at 7:30PM EST/4:30PM PST on twitch.tv/thefoundryroundtable
Post edited by drogyn1701 on
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Means "hopeful," at least on Earth.
Source: http://www.meaning-of-names.com/spanish-names/esperanza.asp
Fun fact, Jadzia is a polish name for "princess."
http://www.meaning-of-names.com/polish-names/jadzia.asp
Question about 2587: would this be before or after Procyon V? If that doesn't have a set date, I think it'd be interesting to set our anthology to be 5 to 25 years after (for faction intrigue and a general "what next?" mood to develop). After would also free us from narrative inevitability in having the Ent-J involved (we can do what we want with it, no need to worry about the return trip to the Milky Way in time for the battle.)
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
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Character: Irla (the Changeling from "The Hundredth"), now the Dominion's representative in the Sagittarius expedition. Perhaps accompanied by another Eraun and/or Loriss clone and a few Jem'Hadar as bodyguards. Officially just an observer, but could occasionally use her shapeshifting abilities to help the mission along or get our heroes out of scrapes. Will provide screenshots if needed.
Capt. Dax's first name: Mejara
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Thanks!
Another good name.
Accolade unlocked: Bipedal Repository of Dramatis Personæ
I actually chose it as a reference to TNG's air date, 1987. The 26th century would technically be "the next generation" to STO's chosen date of happenings.
To answer the question, I'd say after Procyon V (unless more credible sources say otherwise).
~2568 is when the ship TOS sent to the Andromeda Galaxy was supposed to reach the Kelvans.
The intersection of those dates seems ripe for adding story to the challenge.
Hmmm Year: 2550-2570?
Esperanza Dax, does sound pretty good.
When Daniels brings Archer forward in time during the scene they're both on the J during the episode 'Azati Prime' (which is set in ... 2154?) he claims to have brought Archer forward in time 400 years ... so ... 2554?
Wouldn't the galaxy already be in a state of crises as the Sphere Builder cloud stuff covered most, if not all of the Milky Way?
Commander Sarau Macx: The Federation's top theoretical physicist, she's as logical as her Vulcan mother and as stubborn as her Tellarite father. She's been tasked by the Starfleet Science Division with finding a way to return Earth to its proper place in the Solar system.
Lt. Commander Makai: A brilliant and high-spirited Klingon engineer, he's charged with implementing Commander Macx's plan without getting everyone involved killed. He's looking forward to it - he loves a challenge.
Subcommander Jhiannin Viau: A skilled and ambitious diplomat in the Romulan Republic Diplomatic Corps, she takes point on first-contact missions with any local civilizations the task force may encounter.
Full stats, sliders and headshots available soon.
Trouble in Trimble: An illicit Reman colony is under attack by Orion pirates. Will you defend the colony or arrest its only defender?
Paying the Price: You must protect an uncontacted pre-warp civilization from Orion slavers, without violating the Prime Directive.
The Mirror of Infinity: To save your ship, you must convince the descendants of the crew of the long-lost USS Infinity to work with their mortal enemies - their Mirror Universe counterparts. Part of the USS Infinity Foundry Roundtable Challenge.
The Tholian Tempest: A rescue mission on a Y-class world leaves the away team stranded inside a Shakespeare play while under attack by Tholians and Gorn.
The Trafalgar Paradox: A mission to locate a missing Starfleet vessel leads the away team into a mind-bending temporal paradox.
That's the idea of setting it after, we wouldn't have to worry about incorporating our story with the lead-up to the sphere builders. The Milky Way is fine, the big crisis is Earth, so sending out a fleet to find it is a strategically/politically viable option.
That and Mass Effect beat us to it.
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!
How will the Federation/Alliance of that era even know where to start looking for earth? Centarus A is 13 million light years away from the Milky Way Galaxy.
Well, Earth isn't completely helpless in all of this. It's one of the most technologically advanced planets in the Federation, and has the resources of Starfleet Command and the Academy to draw on. Maybe they're able to get a signal back to the Federation - not enough to give precise coordinates but sufficient to give them an idea of where to look.
And a thought I had - what happens to the Moon and ESD during all of this? Do they stay behind or go along for the ride? Because it would open up some more story possibilities if they also went to Centaurus A, but didn't wind up in exactly the same place as Earth. (And because I have an idea for a story involving the recovery of Luna.)
Trouble in Trimble: An illicit Reman colony is under attack by Orion pirates. Will you defend the colony or arrest its only defender?
Paying the Price: You must protect an uncontacted pre-warp civilization from Orion slavers, without violating the Prime Directive.
The Mirror of Infinity: To save your ship, you must convince the descendants of the crew of the long-lost USS Infinity to work with their mortal enemies - their Mirror Universe counterparts. Part of the USS Infinity Foundry Roundtable Challenge.
The Tholian Tempest: A rescue mission on a Y-class world leaves the away team stranded inside a Shakespeare play while under attack by Tholians and Gorn.
The Trafalgar Paradox: A mission to locate a missing Starfleet vessel leads the away team into a mind-bending temporal paradox.
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
Well, the moon pretty much has to be maintained through this, or there's no going back. If the Earth vanished, the moon would be flung wildly off into space at 3700kph. Catching it and putting it back would be quite the task, even if we managed to get Earth back home. I guess a similar question applies to the Earth. Is it somehow flung into a gravitational system similar enough to Sol that it manages a stable position or orbit without a sudden acceleration that would destroy everything on it?
This is a huge conundrum, and the implications are wild to consider. Should be a lot of fun!
Could be an alien factions method of conquest? Bring the planet to you, keep the planet alive, study the inhabitants, then invade?
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
I think I agree with the folks saying it should be set after Procyon V. That way all that temporal stuff is already wrapped up and we can have a new crisis for a new era. So some time after 2554.
Good names so far for Dax. I also tweeted Kael, hoping he can ask the devs for us if maybe they had a first name in mind.
Some of the plot stuff we do want to leave intentionally vague so that authors be as free as possible to make stuff up. We can have our intro mission deliberately not mention stuff like what happened to ESD or the moon, so that an author can play with that concept. Same thing for the condition of Earth itself. I'd say for the moment we want to leave that open-ended.
Couple other notes:
In our discussions on the show, we've been thinking the inciting incident is a natural disaster involving the sun, but maybe the reason the protection scheme for Earth went awry is because of sabotage, and maybe someone on the Centaurus expedition is the saboteur.
The idea is that we know Earth is in the Centaurus galaxy, but we don't know where. Once the task force gets there, they'll need to start looking. I've been thinking of ways to narrow down the initial mission building challenge, and maybe the prompt could be "Make a mission about the initial set up of special sensors around the Centaurus galaxy to begin the search for Earth." Setting up those sensors could be challenging. We could run afoul of indigenous races or strange astrophysical phenomenon.
That's another issue we've talked about. The consensus is to include some dialogue in the intro mission to allow players to choose whether they are time travelers or 26th Century officers. Once we're out in Centaurus on the mission, it won't matter too much where everyone came from.
A Horta counselor: Speaks like the Breen do. We only hear the response, allowing us assume his/her counseling advice is flawless. Typically is just called “Counselor,“ with no name added. Also, doesn’t mention their gender, because, they claim, it isn’t relevant.
Dr. Mourth, Son of Duras—Science Officer: The third son of the 26th century’s Duras, Mourth is typical Klingon in many ways, devoted to honor and loving the thrill of combat. But he also feels that wresting a truth from the universe is as real a victory as winning a battle. He chose to join Starfleet because the Klingon Empire still hasn’t quite gotten to the point of honoring scientific achievement and engineering, at least among Klingons. (Orions and Gorn still typically hold such functions in the modern Empire.) As is common for his family, he has close ties with the Romulans (is even dating one), though this is no longer a problem in this era.
Lothair [UPDATE: Name changed to Kejal]—Engineer. A Changeling created a few decades ago having been sent to explore the universe, deciding to do it with Starfleet. Has a childlike interest in the new and discovery mixed with an adult demeanor. Is in no hurry to join the link and be treated as a god. Uses changeling nature to get into narrow places and to model components. (Change the name if you want. I chose it because it appears to originate in a similar time an place as the name “Odo.”)
Lt. Varel Dulkachin—Tactical Officer: A Zakdorn (http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Zakdorn) only a few years out of the academy. He has a particularly strategic mind even for his own people. Uses it both to protect the Enterprise and to play jokes on crew members, but only when off duty. (Zakdorn can be approximated, if I remember right, using Tellarite features on a normally human-looking face.) [UPDATE: Joined Starfleet in his 30s, after 15 years at Qualor II starship surplus depot.]
EVHs—Emergency Versatile Holograms—Able to be summoned and “speced” for any task needed.
If these are used, I encourage at least on member of the crew to be concerned that all of Starfleet could be replaced by them. Memories are preserved across activations, but personality varies depending on the purpose for which they were activated. They are designed to simulate but not achieve sentience. In accordance with the Zimmerman-Barclay Protocols, the VHM code includes many failsafes to prevent them from achieving sentience. However, should any iteration of the VHM somehow achieve sentence despite those precautions, they will immediately be given full rights of personhood and be offered the choice of remaining in Starfleet for a full term of service or going free. But some limits will be placed on their ability to copy themselves to prevent their filling up all computer memory and devoting all power on the ship to themselves. If both EVH's and Lothair are included, Lothair feels an affinity for them, as both can alter themselves to become something else to fit their need. This might work with other potential Changeling crew members, depending on their personalities.
Dr. Ulani Preloc: A Cardassian doctor, friendly and with an absolute dedication to medical ethics. She is married to a Bajoran man, who also lives and works on the Enterprise (Starfleet or civilian) with several children. She wears a noticeable Bajoran earring, given by her mother-in-law. However, not all of either family accept the match. She wants to be seen as an example of the new Cardassian. She does, however, keep the traditional Cardassian outlook that people's stated motives aren't often their real ones, and has a love for solving mysteries and puzzles. Her presence can serve as an example that improvement, though not necessarily perfection, can occur over the generations.
Also, you should probably have a few Xindi somewhere. Daniels did tell Archer there were Xindi aboard the Enterprise-J. Now, they could've been transferred off after the Battle of Procyon V, but it would be neat to have a few or at least one, even if only in background roles.
Also, I encourage a Paris to be on the crew. Because I like the idea of Parises being all over Starfleet.
*Romulan Character Suggestions*
Admiral Tiaru Jarok—Although old for a Romulan (over 200), a lucky accident during an away mission in the 2430s slowed her aging process enough for her to be fit to remain in active duty (in a Picard sort of way). She returns (in a Kirk sort of way) from more than century at the Romulan High Command to take charge of the latest Romulan Republic flagship. She does this because she doesn’t want another Romulan commander to have to risk death so far from New Romulus, and also because she sympathizes with the Alliance’s human population. She knows what it’s like to loose a home. Due to her age, she tends to remain on the bridge of her ship, sending her First Officer on most away missions. (This is a risk. Cryptic could want to kill her in a later mission. But, honestly, I’d be surprised. And I do think it would be good have one of the 25th century commanders still present in this era.)
Giran: A Suliban descended from members of Silik’s Suliban Cabal, he is a loyal citizen of the Romulan Repulblic. (At this point, there are Siliban living as citizens of all three of the alliances’ governments.) He uses his genetic alterations given to his ancestors (including invisibility and the ability to fatten himself to go through cracks) to serve as the Romulan Flagship’s security officer.
Zoyanthok:1/2 Romulan and 1/2 Reman, Zoyanthok serves as science officer on the Romulan Flagship. Whereas the Romulans tried to forget their Vulcan ancestors’ psychic powers (due to their being abused by the most talented telepaths before Surak’s time), Remans preserved them. Zoyanthok learned some abilities our his Reman relatives. However, as their techniques were adapted to serve the altered Reman physiology, he can’t use all the abilities they tried to teach him. An imposing, aloof figure, he combines hidden mysticism with hard science.
*Klingon Character Suggestions... Suggestion, Really*
Mara, Daughter of Eugene, of House Paris (Because of course the Kuvah'magh would be declared the founder of a new noble house, no mater what her opinion on the matter would be). Miral Paris’ great-granddaughter, she serves as the hotshot pilot of the Klingon Flagship. Although loyal to the Empire first and foremost, this 31/32 Klingon / 1/32 Human hybrid keeps in close touch with her human cousins. Personality: Early Voyager Tom Paris as a female Klingon.
+
Perhaps either Nelen (El-Aurian Club 47 Bartender) or Rulian Mazan (El-Aurian Doff Bartender) could go as bartender on the Enterprise-J.
However, I have to disagree with the idea of having Captain Dax' first name be Esperanza. That name sounds too human for my tastes. Mejara seems more "alien".
I use a "naming convention" for Trill NPCs, here are some I can offer:
Arlaia
Yona
Avia
Forta
Who's the prettiest of them all?
Heh, If by some miracle my suggestion gets voted in I was going to petition to have it shortened to "Ranza."
I like your suggestions btw.
Mara
Dr. Ulani Preloc
Giran
Varel Dulkachin—Maybe saying he's only few years out of the academy wouldn't work, unless he joined late or Zakdorn start looking old.
Mourth, Son of Duras
Zoyanthok
Looking over my notes for a mission, I don't know how to write this from the players perspective ... if the player is from 2411 (?) why would Starfleet of the 26th century send out a captain from 100 years ago to a different galaxy? Why wouldn't the future Federation (Galactic Union) simply tell them ... "Earth's at X, go get it back!" ?
Ranza is good, I've got nothing against that.
Thank you for the praise
Who's the prettiest of them all?
Let me know if I need to change anything.
Well it could be as simple as the person in charge saying "Captain, I know you're not from our time, but we could really use the help of an experienced commander and crew on this expedition." I think players will go along with it.