Where to take the campaign next?

I've run a lot of StarFrontiers campaigns in the past and I've noticed a pattern. There's a big mood-change once players get into space. Sometimes the players love it, sometimes they get bored. The problem is that "getting into space" is kind-of the end game as written in the rules. Once you hit that goal, what do you do next?  What is your measure of success? I can take the campaign a lot of directions, but it's confusing for me as the GM. This is especially true since the game is remote. I can't see your faces or pick up on body language.  My suggestion is that each of you ignore the other players for a second and think about what your character would be doing in the "perfect campaign" if it was just you. What would be fun?  I'm guessing that you individually have different ideas, so knowing each person's goals will help me to spin them together somehow. Ideas to get you thinking: 1) Build a (local / interplanetary / interstellar) company and rake in the dough a) Cargo? b) Research? c) Military Services? d) Exploration?  (this is actually what StarFrontiers is primarily built for) e) All of the above? 2) Choose somebody you don't like (Malthar / Streel / Justin White / Alex Styrigi) and destroy them 3) Join the UPF spacefleet for a while... or as special contractors for dirty missions 4) Get involved in politics 5) Take over the galaxy... somehow... ? 6) Figure out the Sathar and eliminate that threat 7) Hook up with significant others (NPCs?) such as Artemis 8) Solve backstory problems... such as Rodworth's leadership dilemma 9) Solve various closet-drama a) Who is "The Rabbit"? b) Why the teeth? c) Why did Mr. Beadle try to set you up? d) What are the Winds up to? e) What happened to that bounty on Mr. Jones?  f) Other unrevealed "secrets" such as *redacted* ? 10) Other ideas?

Oh... before I forget... a cool idea that Carlos (Yaz) mentioned to me... Regardless of which direction the party wants to go, I can easily imagine your group gaining followers or cohorts.  As such, I would let each of you design some support characters that would follow your orders.  You already have an unnamed (and undescribed) shipping master. If we took that idea far enough, you could build a spy network, a small army, or enough support staff that each of you could captain your own ship and move around together as a fleet.

Since most know what direction I would like to take it, I'll add some details and flavor: As the Neon Tygers influence grows, the number of allies and enemies grows. Having learned in the streets that anyone can be threat given the right motivation, Yaz has relied on having well placed "friends" and foreknowledge which has been the difference between life and death on Styrigi. Playing in bigger and bigger circles this truth extends to all aspects of life and social/political circles. Now that he has found a "family" in the Neon Tygers, he will do all he can to protect himself and those around him who matter. To that end, Yaz is building an information network with the intent of staying ahead of his/our enemies and supporting our allies. The plan is simple, use the "Unseen", and thus the network is named - The Unseen, to infiltrate and overhear conversations, tidbits and rumors that can be collaborated and lead to actionable objectives. While informants can provide great wealth of information, Yaz wants to have more than just hearsay and potentially harmful gossip. To that end he will continue building the network of cameras and will continue to work on Dr. I in convincing him to see if there is a way of developing a hybrid Communications/Security program that identifies visual queues within certain parameters that fall under specific categories: Danger; Evidence; Person of Interest; and Persuasion (D.E.P.P.)  [Dont know how close I came to calling the program Johnny <G>] As it stands, the Neon Tygers have the following "assests" in play - PLEASE CORRECT AND ADD AS NEEDED 8 Comms distributed among The Unseen The 8 Unseen are paid 10STG per week for their services and 50STG bonus for information that can become actionable.  COST: Expected costs 820STG per month GROWTH: 150 Unseen; expected costs 20,000STG per month within 2 years Cameras have been added or set:  Lower level by Pink Monkey (?) Around NT Headquarters The Bounty Office The University Growth: Tap into existing communication and monitoring networks and use their equipment Add cameras to the ports Add cameras to the affluent domes Yaz expects to be able to rely on some old friends and some new ones to help build this network, in most cases independent of Neon Tygers creating a middlemen layer to insulate and protect the company. With associates running the day to day operations of The Unseen, Yaz would continue to support the core Neon Tyger operations as it's pilot and driver in it's transportation business. Not that we would smuggle anything, just saying that sometimes it would be good to have a solid pilot and friends who dont ask too many questions at the ports.

What to do next?  1) Build a (local / interplanetary / interstellar) company and rake in the dough? Seem to me that one at least Rodworth's Goal, but it more a means to ends. E) all of above, sounds good. 2) Rod's a lover not a hater, while he not going to go out of his way to destroy anyone, he will open a big can of whip ass if any of those characters get in his way. 3) Rod is no soldier, if the fleet need his help they have to hire him as a contractor 4) Rod has his fill of politics.  5) Not the Galaxy, just the frontier.. 6) Same as 2 7 & 8) Yeah...  9) ongoing, we will eventually get to it 10) seem to me we still have a lot on our plates..

To Edwin's point re: #3 - I do like the idea of becoming a contractor for UPF - UPF doesnt get their hands dirty with planet-side issues and at the same time gives us some security clearance to their information. As an example, they may know who would be gunning for Malthar to supplant him as king of the pirates. The best way to save Alice may be to just help someone else get into power in exchange Alice's freedom. 

Great discussion with a lot of food for thought. I think the biggest lesson is that the sandbox is near infinite in this scenario. Eusyl (as a character) remembers a time when she wasn't on Outer Reach, both living on the forest world like Athor and spending time in space. Her ultimate goal would be getting off planet and working on some big atomic engines (requiring a tremendous amount of additional experience). But life tends to be more about walking through open doors, taking opportunities that present themselves rather than plodding along a predicted path. In the few short months since graduation, she's done things she never expected and ended up where she never thought she'd be.  And, in our Star Wars scenario, she's both Princess Leia and Chewbacca. Suck it. ;-) Scott's point about getting into space being a potential game-breaker is interesting. I'll cover our stay-or-go discussion in a minute but here's my thought on that supposition. I've felt that getting a ship was not going to actually alter our overall flow that much. Unless we turn into explorers, it allows us more options of places to land and get into trouble. In my mind, we're exchanging traveling to other cities (domes) to other systems. I would expect we'd still spend a lot of time dirt-side, doing various missions that we scrape together. The money would be bigger but so would the expenses (maintaining a ship and advanced equipment) and stakes. I would have thought it would balance out. In terms of immediate futures, I don't think we're going anywhere soon. So the local stuff still applies and is worth pursuing. If we're seeing this in show terms, we've kinda entered Season 2 and the Alice Styrigi plotline would be the through line of the season with a lot of the other stuff being the 'episodic' stories we get involved in.  Eusyl has a very positive view of the UPF due to her father's involvement in the 1st Sathar War. She'd definitely be on board to sub-contracting with them depending on the job.   She has't been involved in enough politics yet to either learn to hate it or become addicted. Taking over the galaxy is somebody else's job. She's got stuff to fix.  Sathar-stomping could easily become a habit. She had a lot of fun uncovering that plot and now we know more about how they and their agents operate. The other items listed are good to start/continue in the upcoming sessions. Scott's agile enough to move something along if we tug the right threads.  Carlos'/Yaz's breakdown of our intelligence resources is well-done and we should explore how it might help us with all those plot threads...

Alexander is always well spoken and his comparison to a TV show is on the money... I like that we are in Season 2 now and saving Alice definitely seems like a season thread and the miscellaneous items the episodic themes. We even had our big Season 1 end, Sathar get their big hit in, and various cliff hangers: Will Styrigi rebuild? Who will become President and will the Styrigi allow it to stand? Why did Mr. Beadle set up Neon Tygers? Will Rodworth marry Artemis? Have the Sathar agents and their plans been addressed? Tune in to Season 2 for the continuation of Styrigian Knights in 2016! I think we definitely are finding some team goals here. I'm glad that it doesnt seem like I need to roll up a new character yet :) CR

I adore the idea of being covert contractors. There are places that the UPF can't go. Things they can't do. We could do them, for a healthy fee...or access to a size 3-4 ship. They keep us in fuel, we do what they need. We're currently clearing cash now, so we could cover our own expenses if they cover fuel. We keep the spoils of anything we do while on the mission. We could become quite the force in the Reach.

Firstly, the check is in the mail, Carlos. I think we'll need to clear some more successful missions for the UPF dirtside before they finance a 500k + investment like a ship. But I bet we could do it. Can't wait for tonight.

Tbh i want some military service least for Sax maybe split itnto two small groups in same game and merge again later

Looking forward to playing tomorrow (Thur 1/14) and I just want to check in and see if we have a cohesive plan going forward - I think that overall we have a team direction: Vision: To be a recognized and integral part of the multi-system transportation and shipping industry that provides safe and discreet services through innovative approaches. Mission: To establish Neon Tygers as the premier shipping and transport company on Styrigia within the next 2  years, expanding into other systems over the next 5 years. Discreetly Neon Tygers would also act as a PDF mercenaries where the two interests align.  Neon Tygers also work to smooth obstacles by various methods including espionage and direct confrontation.  Operation/Principals: (Change/update as needed - we all work each of these areas, figured it would be good to identify key players with interests/skills in each category. I also see Medical/fitness taking on more importance as we start looking at inter-stellar travel.) Military Operations: Sax & Rodworth Espionage Operations: Yaz & Rodworth Transportation Operations: Kyle, Eusyl, Yaz Medical/Fitness Operations: Joseph & Sax Primary Objective: Return to power Alice Styrigi Secondary Objectives: Build revenue resources to support a secondary transport ship Build revenue resources to support a larger spy network Leverage leadership and skill set to expand man power and outreach Continue to address issues that negatively impact our base of operations, Styrigia (?) My goal with all this is to provide a framework and still enough flexibility to get a little crazy in each session. If this is way of the mark for folks and we want to do something completely different, just let us know. Scott if the party agrees, does this help you plan and shape the campaign?  CR

How many Buck Rogers fans? We could always go off on a tangent, hunting a Vorvon?

I want to be Hawk then...

That scared the %$#*@ out of me. I'm in... And I'm still Chewbacca and Princess Leia at the same time. Now, seriously... The setup is fine, and useful for an overall approach. Most of us can be part of Military/Security tasks as we mostly have decent combat skills. Though Shimout and Sax (also a good Jazz duo) would be lead in those.  I want to focus on immediate goals. 1) Continue to protect the girl (she's with the Valkyries, but that's not permanent) 2) Use our network and skills to find Beadle and get info on a) why he attacked us and b) his connection to the Malthar.  -> This can lead to beginning to plan on an operation to rescue Alice Styrigi if we get good data from Beadle. We've at least been offered a 100K credit payday to do it.  I'll check the last couple of logs to see if there are other threads to pursue.

Good news guys, my am shifts end in three weeks, Joseph will be returning shortly