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lincolninspace
Member Posts: 1,843 Arc User
Hi Foundry authors. I am well along creating my second foundry mission. It is for Romulan players and as I play more of the Romulan content I am feeling like the mission needs work to stay in line with the behavior of the player character in the official missions.
The plot (Spoiler alert!) is that your player responds to a distress call on the edge of Republic/ Klingon space. The distress was sent by a Klingon colony that is being raided by a wicked Klingon General. Your character defends the colony and tries to bring the General to justice, despite the fact that this is meddling in the affairs of the klingon empire. There is also a subplot that the satellite the colony is using is being used by section 31 to spy on Klingon activity in the area. It is no a simple matter of reporting his deeds to the High council. You are Romulan and not to be trusted, and he is an honored general.
I thought that since Romulans are a passionate people that their indignation might motivate them to fight for this colony. It is abit like Virinat after all. After playing more of the Romulan content I feel that the player character would not want to risk offending their Klingon allies in this way.
My problem in a nutshell is that Romulans are described as being emotional passionate people, yet they are portrayed in away that seems very different. The general's treatment of his own men is very shocking at one point but I am unsure this is good enough motivation for the player.
Your thoughts?
The plot (Spoiler alert!) is that your player responds to a distress call on the edge of Republic/ Klingon space. The distress was sent by a Klingon colony that is being raided by a wicked Klingon General. Your character defends the colony and tries to bring the General to justice, despite the fact that this is meddling in the affairs of the klingon empire. There is also a subplot that the satellite the colony is using is being used by section 31 to spy on Klingon activity in the area. It is no a simple matter of reporting his deeds to the High council. You are Romulan and not to be trusted, and he is an honored general.
I thought that since Romulans are a passionate people that their indignation might motivate them to fight for this colony. It is abit like Virinat after all. After playing more of the Romulan content I feel that the player character would not want to risk offending their Klingon allies in this way.
My problem in a nutshell is that Romulans are described as being emotional passionate people, yet they are portrayed in away that seems very different. The general's treatment of his own men is very shocking at one point but I am unsure this is good enough motivation for the player.
Your thoughts?
A TIME TO SEARCH: ENTER MY FOUNDRY MISSION at the RISA SYSTEM
Parallels: my second mission for Fed aligned Romulans.
Parallels: my second mission for Fed aligned Romulans.
Post edited by lincolninspace on
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I want to release it for both.
Parallels: my second mission for Fed aligned Romulans.
I like that. As an author I am trying to tell the small stories not the save the galaxy type of stuff that some author do.
I have been building it for Fed aligned first and that puts the player in a real hard place since both the empire and Section 31 are against what the player is doing.
Parallels: my second mission for Fed aligned Romulans.
If its Fed aligned i can total see the new republic guys crashing in to save the day, For KDF aligned i would be less expectant for it, Not that i feel that they would ignore it, BUT i think it would probably more clandestine
Yeah, my current projects are all save-the-galaxy/stop-a-war stuff, but most of my future mission concepts deal with smaller-scale fare.
My Foundry missions | My STO Wiki page | My Twitter home page
Adwaita Incursion: Investigate a ship from a strange alternate universe. 25% complete
Back to Brigadoom: archaeological reconstruction of a castle in the game Dragon Quest 9. 15%
B'Vat's Legacy: a Klingon has attempted to conquer the galaxy in the past, now you must go to the past in order to defeat him, part 1 is done, part 2 is around 10%
Aside from B'Vat's Legacy they're all small scale stuff.
My completed projects aren't really save the galaxy sort of stuff either.
Treasure Hunt with Tetin is strictly for fun, and has no real story. or combat... and no loot of any kind.
Treasure Hunt.... is long, combat intensive, and story-lite, but it's an archaeological expedition to investigate why the Borg would colonize a planet.
Diplomacy in the Gamma Quadrant is a KDF mission about trade negotiations with the Founders.
The Beta Rana incident is possibly the closest to a save the galaxy plot, but.... you don't really save the galaxy..... You stumble into a conflict between the Tholians(and their Boslic allies) and the Terran empire. You help stop a Terran incursion, but it's really more a matter of investigating strange happenings along the Federation border(Beta Rana isn't officially Federation territory).
My character Tsin'xing
Like, focus on the small story aspect of perhaps a single individual and their family, someone who sent the distress call perhaps, and use the sheer distance of how the conflict feels to the Romulans (not wanting to cause fuss with allies) and the Klingons (Only caring about the player questioning the honor of the Evil General) to drive the point home.
The real problem is accomplishing this while keeping the gameplay elements strong.
As for doing it with both, I think if prepped properly you could do that easily with only minor changes in re-skinned mobs and dialog.
In the end, the bad guy is dead, and the Romulan are nowhere to be seen.
I don't know exactly what kind of mission you want to do, but I would suggest you to find sneaky ways to deal with the bad guy. Remember the Romulan using the Duras, or the various plot they did against Picard.
Section 31 is (now, apparently, sanctioned) but still operates outside the chain, this gives them all manner of ways to break StarFleet protocol, doing things not everyone in the Federation would condone. Your story's Fed character might not.
If this General is behaving without honor it is a KDF character's duty to stop him. If a Rom has allied with the Klingons they must find some part of their culture The High Council has its treacherous members, but in most examples given they've been willing to hear the evidence and allow all challenges. Especially, in the category of Honor.
You will be using your Romulan wiles and the villains cowardice and villainy will enrage.
I do need to work on how to make it more personal. I was going to have the colony Governors daughter get kidnapped but that seems too much like my other mission.
Spoiler: The colony is a group of Klingons who shun modern technology, save for an old satellite that they use to broadcast to the outside. They are an agricultural colony that find honor in good old hard work. Khaless harvested his father's field with the first Bat'leth so they see honor in this way of life. Of course the villain does not respect them. They are like Klingon Amish lol. Spoiler
I suppose since my mission is kind of about knocking down some stereotypes having the player character behave a bit differently might not hurt.
I want to think of a more clever way to catch the villain in the end. It turns out he has been helping Section 31 and may or not be double crossing them. I want the player to set up some kind of trap.
Parallels: my second mission for Fed aligned Romulans.
I don't know much more, since I didn't read the books, only read a few articles on the internet. However, it seems it's about social interaction and courtesy, in a large sense, while Klingon's honor is more about war. According to wiki, "Mnhei'sahe is satisfied if all the parties to an agreement or situation feel that their "face" or honor is intact after a social (or other) transaction". And what T'Nae say ingame, is more or less a quote from one of the book's character: "It can be a form of hatred that requires you to give your last drop of water to a thirsty enemy-- or an act of love that requires you to kill a friend.".
It is my understanding that if the Romulan honor is not satisfied, and yours is, he will try to betray you. On the other hand, if his honor is satisfied, but not yours, he will help you. It is more important than anything else, like life, love...
Having the Klingon on one side, and the Romulan on the other, with this talk about honor, I guess it could be interesting to see the differences between those culture, and their own vision of what honor is. For example, having these Klingon working the land is not seen as dishonorable for a Romulan, while it is for the Klingon general.
You don't have to make a philosophical story about honor, but you can definitely use it. As I said, for a Romulan, it is very important. If his honor is not satisfied, he'll do anything to restore it, including fighting the other one. That could be your way to make the player interested in the fight.
Parallels: my second mission for Fed aligned Romulans.
But i like the idea of klingons who find honor in decent hard work
Beating bat'leths into plowshares, eh? Actually TNG's "Up The Long Ladder" also dealt with a colony of technological throwbacks (albeit human ones showing pretty much every Irish stereotype in the book, though Worf did say one of them reminded him of a Klingon), so you may want to use that as a point of reference.
Another reference point is "Heart of Glory", TNG's first Klingon-themed episode. At one point Worf tells the rescued Klingons the name of the planet where he was raised, and one of them reacts with barely concealed disgust when he realizes that it's a farming colony.
My Foundry missions | My STO Wiki page | My Twitter home page
But you can still use it easily. For example, have the player investigate what happen in the colony (distress call, curiosity..). They are greeted by the general, who insult the player and send him away. Really rude, including green skin backstabber and the likes. A Romulan would feel insulted and dishonored by such discourtesy, and would want to avenge his honor.
Anyway, it was just something you might want to consider, especially if dealing with honor questions.
I remember both of those episodes. Tng's first Klingon appearance made them seem like Al Queda terrorists. I figured having the colony low tech makes the Klingons more likely to ask for your help instead of just fighting alone. Voyager had the klingons who were of a religious sect or something so there are different creeds of Klingon.
Parallels: my second mission for Fed aligned Romulans.
Well this does in fact happens in a big way
Parallels: my second mission for Fed aligned Romulans.