A New Dawn - Narrative Play Mission 1

As our OP events have ended for the time being, I've written a few solo missions for some of the usual suspects to run through with myself acting as a GM of sorts.  I'd have to desccribe it as an RPG-Lite version of Attack Wing, with each mission and the choices you make having an effect on both your ship and further missions.

One of my comrades-in-arms agreed to be the guinea pig for my Federation campaign, so last weekend we met up and played the full seven missions straight through.  The idea of this is to be a challenge for the player and enjoy playing the game, it's not all about winning but how you win/lose will also have an effect in the game - if you stay true to the spirit of your chosen faction, good things will happen, if you don't, then you'll end up in trouble!

One thing to mention, as the GM, until the last 2 missions I will not be using any actions such as target locks/battlestations etc.  This is intended to give the player as positive experience as possible.

To start with, I asked the Fed player to select a generic ship type with a cost of no greater than 20 points.  Upgrade slots would not be used as usual so this was to play no part in the selection of the ship.  In addition, for the first mission, one Federation crew upgrade of no more than 3 points and either a weapon or tech upgrade of no more than 5 points.

A Constellation class ship with Dorian Collins and Photon Torpedos was chosen.  The USS Horizon was good to go!

Mission 1: A New Dawn

Outline: A training mission, the objective is to approach a planet and perform a deep scan in preperation for first contact.  In order to complete the mission, the player must move to within range 2 of the planet, the perform 3 scan actions on consecutive turns, then leave the play area via the starting side.

Without further ado:

The Horizon approaches the planet and performs its first scan action - two anomalies are detected close to the planet:

 The next turn a second scan action pinpoints the location of the distortion, the other was an echo...

 The third scan action reveals a Romulan Warbird!  At this point the Federation player is given a choice - to attack, scan or hail the Warbird.

 The Federation player chooses to hail the Warbird, the hail is ignored and the Warbird powers its weapons and raises its shields - the race is on to escape the system! The Warbird moves to intercept the Horizon:

 A few shots are exchanged, with the Horizon losing its shields and the Warbird taking a hit in return:

 Its primary mission complete, the Horizon departs the system having discovered the Romulan interloper:

So, mission 1 complete, and an increase in Captain Skill for the Federation player - now at CS2!

Mission 2 writeup coming very soon!