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Star Trek:  Tales of the Bismark

Overview

This web page is to chronicle the Star Trek games I ran using Fasa's game system. I began running games in this campaign back in 1991, and I have (temporarily?) stopped in favor of running a Babylon 5 campaign. The new Star Trek game put out by Last Unicorn games has made it tempting to return, however.

For those who played my games at WPI, most of them fit in the continuity. I began running the Potemkin campaign there, and I also ran several modules during gaming weekends. The Potemkin campaign is part of the continuity, and dealt with the Vegan Buildup campaign. Of the gaming weekends, only one is in the continuity, the "Doomsday Like Any Other" module I ran should be considered only a one-shot. "The Dixie Gambit" module is part of the continuity.

The UNH gaming group continued the tradition with the Bismark campaigns. For the first two years they dealt with the Starfleet Conspiracy. When I worked at a summer camp, I ran a game that was also in the continuity: the Pizzaro, which helped wrap up the Starfleet Conspiracy. Then the UNH group and the Bismark had to take care of the Groat Menace. There were a few more adventures ending with the introduction of Shadowtechia to galactic civilization.

The next year it was time to take my campaign out of the Old Series and into the Next Generation era. It began at Wolf 359 as the Federation Fleet was crushed trying to stop the Borg. The survivors of one starfleet ship worked so well together in the crisis that they were assigned as the command team to one of the ships comissioned to replace the ships lost in that battle, the Bismark B. The new Bismark's crew began innocently investegating scientific evidence of the Preservers, but were stopped by the shocking discovery of the Bismark A in civilian hands! The Bismark A had been scrapped and broken up for spare parts, but someone had bought up all those parts and rebuilt the ship at enormous expense for an insidious purpose. Investegating this mystery led the crew to face Nacilis's criminal empire. They dealt with the empire, but the Bismark B was destroyed, and the crew lost beyond the Federation's borders. The crew who had captured the Bismark A were able to rescue the other crew, but in doing so were caught up in the politics of the Groat Alliance.

The surviving crew were assigned to the Polaris for a time, but because of the daring actions, certain members of the Bismark crew were assigned to and trained by Starfleet intelligence. The Bismark A was refit and the crew were assigned to hunt for Changeling conspiracies. They discovered and thwarted several Shapeshifter plots, but they became suspicious of certain others...

Meanwhile, I had begun another game run in my apartment. In this game, the crew of the Aggamemnon had a number of adventures (during which they learned a distrust for authority) before they were tapped for an epic quest. Following up on one of the Bismark B's missions investegating Preserver remains, the Agamemnon crew met the Last Precursor in the galaxy, who told them of an overiding need to see to it that the Forerunners, the extinct race that built the groat, be destroyed. This required great resources, knowledge and manpower. The Aggamenon crew began gathering their resources, and the Changelings took notice.

The final campaign began. The Bismark crew were rewarded for their efforts by being assigned a brand new ship, the Bismark C. Unfortunately, the Agamemnon crew stole Bismark C with the help of the Changeling. They were pursued by all the Starfleet ships available, but they were able to rendezvous with their Groat Alliance co-conspirators and began the timewarp back to the Forerunner's era. Starfleet pursued, and timewarped as well. Once back in time, the Aggamemnon crew and the Bismark crew temporarily set aside their differences and fought the Forerunners together. The Starfleet ships separated into two fleets: The Bismark crew went outside Forerunner space and organized resistance there. The Aggamemnon crew fought the Forerunners from within. They were able to bring about the end of the Forerunners, but at great cost. They returned to the present time, and the campaign ended with the Bismark racing to meet the Borg cube that attacked in First Contact, it's final fate undetermined.