For some crazed reason I volunteered to run the GURPS session this week. It was either that or no GURPS game since no one else was speaking up. Also for some reason Shannon and Dave had the mistaken impression that I was thinking of running a game, so that kind of subconciously forced me to agree to do this.

What to run, what to run? My original concept (when I sent out the fake "what's up this week" message last week -- even with stuff I make up I usually have a more fully realized idea than what I indicate) was borrowed from a series of movies I saw on television when I was a kid. I think each movie was composed of two episodes of some defunct science fiction show.

The concept of the show was like Metamorphosis Alpha (the RPG): a world ship flying through the stars, more of a zoo really. Each section is a separate environment with peoples and animals that don't know they're in a space ship. Although they do know they're in an enclosed space, they all just assumed that was the way the world was. But one group of people finds a way out of their world and explores the rest of the ship, visiting the different environments and interacting with a strange new civilization each week.

So my idea was to have the characters appear in one of the worlds. Since there is no real sky they'll think they're underground or in a some sort of building. I was thinking of an empty part of the ship, where the characters can wander around trying to figure out what's going on. But at that point I didn't have any idea of what the ending was supposed to turn out like (this is an adventure after all, not a campaign).

Underground complex, I need a map. Amazing how few good complex maps are provided in the games I have. I didn't want a building, but more of a futuristic base. First I actually looked through the materials in this old RPG I have, The Valley of the Pharaohs. It's a small RPG made in 1983 by Palladium, at about the same time they came out with The Palladium RPG and before they standardized on a house system. TVofP has a short booklet of rules and a bunch of looseleaf drawings: maps, schematics of pyramids and other buildings, people, etc. I was hoping for a nice pyramid map but all the drawings don't have much detail and pyramids are in general rather simple internally.

Next I turned to the Star Trek games that I have. Last Unicorn doesn't provide many schematics. What is it about modern RPGs that assume you don't need detailed maps with encounter keys? The FASA Star Trek game also was lacking in detailed maps. But I did find one FASA module that had Regula-1 deck plans and short descriptions of the different areas. That's more like it. But once I started reading it I realized that Regula-1 is huge, the maps are not that big for the amount of detail, and where the hell are the turbo lifts? You can't get from level to level!

Still, this led me to another idea. The characters start out in Regula-1, just before Khan arrives to retrieve the Genesis device. Obviously the characters have to stop him, dealing with his minions in a game of hide and seek throughout the mostly inactive levels of the space station. But I thought this would require a few days to prep. I would need to familiarize myself with Regula-1 and with the kinds of materials that they can use to defeat Khan. I don't run a scenario without having an idea of how it will run, the different plot points and action scenes and how the characters can defeat the villains. I'm not really the kind of GM who sets up an open-ended scenario and lets the players have at it.

Continued in the next entry...