Yesterday I watched the fabulous double-episode of Enterprise entitled, "Through A Mirror, Darkly".
This was the inspiration. I needed it. It needed me. We met and it was geek heaven.
My Dark Trek game needs to begin in the Mirror Universe. An alternate Mirror Universe, however. And then we're going to clash with an alternate Federation-Trek Universe.
Confused? Fabulous!
Mirrors
The original appeal, at least to me, of the Mirror Universe is that characters can act on their passions and selfish ambition. Just like in a regular D&D game.
But in Trek, you get to put passion and selfish ambition behind a phaser. On a starship. And fight Klingons!
Can you imagine how cool it would be?
Player's could form alliances based around faction loyalty. Are you the Captain's man, or are you backing the First Officer's bid to assassinate her? Are you loyal to the Empire, or are you secretly a rebel looking for a chance to strike back at the Empress?
Let's set it some time after the Empress has taken power using the USS Defiant... yes, let's incorporate the imagery from the latest Trek movies but place it all in the hands of the Terran Empire! Is it time for the war between the Empire and the Klingons? I think so!
All in our own alternate... where anything can happen.
Our Mirror May Differ.
Federation-Trek?
Why not plan to incorporate antagonists from the pesky do-gooder Federation Mirror? But a Mirror to our alternate Mirror, methinks. That allows the latest Trek stuff to be rendered faithfully... and then twisted too. What if the war can span two dimensions too? Wouldn't that be cool?
The aim here is to introduce a really fun setting and then, through the interference of the Federation lot, show the players who the bad guys are... hold up a mirror, so to speak.
We all enjoy the game where we get to fire phasers, beat up on weaker opponents, and take what we want... or at least, given the popularity of fantasy RPGs, that's how it seems to my eyes. This Dark Trek idea allows us to then throw stark light on that scenario... and reveal just how far we might have fallen.
Regular Trek games have too many limits to be fun - Prime Directive, for example. Mirror Trek throws all that out of the window and offers us unfettered play time with the cool shticks of the universe... without all the tedious moralising. Until the "good guys" show up from the Federation. And we waste 'em!
Game on!
Labels: Cortex, roleplaying, settings, Trek
