I had a brainstorming, but I forgot my USB-stick at home, and cannot post what I came up with. I'll copy-paste it tomorrow ( probably ).
I'll just post the basic things I came up with :
General thoughts regarding campaignwriting :
1. Background.
When a campaign is written, it should always be kept in mind that a campaign is more than just a set of skirmish missions. Especially when lacking patience, beginners tend to make it a "suddenly a BIG war with thousands of worlds involved ( grand scale !!!! ) has broken out of pure boredom!!" campaign.
Although "out of pure bordedom" is replaced with "out of the somehow motivated intention to cause some interstellar trouble", meaning that there simply IS a bad enemy that has to be shot.
Of course, this is simply boring, and the player is not at all involved in the plot. To compensate for the lack of atmosphere, people try to increase "intensity" of their missions, resulting in what a fred tutorial called the "BATTLE OF ENDOR" effect. Simply a mass of ships that are only there to shoot and to be shot in pieces, with no clear motivation, except some diffuse "mankind's fate depends on it" explanations.
A campaign starts with the background, the overall situation ( social, political, economical.... ) and its inclined interdependencies. That means... the key to a good story is not only WHO, HOW and WHEN, but also WHY.
2. Thoughts on a possible telepath War campaign.
- A conflict develops out of the simple fact that Teeps and Normals both want to control the other side and prevent being controlled themselves.
- Normals outnumber Teeps 1000:1
This means that Normals would like to have clear frontlines and a transparent overall-situation, while teeps will want to stay hidden and unrecognised.
That means that, when the conflict intensifies, Normals will try to identify teeps around, perhaps using the drug DUST, hiring alien mercenaries, for example centauri telepaths, trying to set up a list of registered telepaths that is kept as updated and as widespread as possible.... and so on.
Teeps would travel away from the placed they have livbed before and where they are known for what they are. Nearly every telepath is known as telepath to some Normals, so they would have to try to form communities on their own to cover each other.
- If fighting and violent action breaks out, this would happen ob behalf of the Normals. Teeps don't need an open conflict to achieve their goals, but for the normals it might be their only chance to deal with the telepath problem. At the beginning of such a conflict, lots of teeps would surly be arrested and taken somewhere in detention ( murdering them would influence public opinion too severly ), since most teeps simply aren't as clever and elusive as BESTER. A small amount of teeps would be able to escape and to stay hidden, preparing to "strike bacK" somehow, by influencing and infiltrating high ranking officials, politicians and businessmen.
With the time being, the Teeps won't have the means to score decisive victories against the odds, and the Normals won't have the means to track down the elite core of the PSICORPS remnants.
As the society will grow weary of the conflict, the Normals will try to arrange themselves with the teeps in detention, and to "settle the conflict". Perhaps a number of goodwill acts, like freeing them, granting them new ways to be integarted into the society, forming up a new telepath organization at ease with the normals.
The remnants of the PsiCorps wouldn't dare to stand up against this new organization, for this would finally take away the last of their justification. They become rogues, the legacy of the telepath war, and will carry on somehow. Perhaps settling somewhere with a new identity, become mercs amoung other races as well or doing something else.
3. Thoughts about possible campaigns regarding teep war :
PSI CORPS :
High ranking teeps could want to find a nice and comfortable hideout somewhere in space, where they would be safe and sound. A colony, a small space station... whatever. From there they could organize their retaliation, or simply enjoy luxury while in exile, and hiding from EA authorities.
A campaign could feature the carreer of a blackomega pilot who helps scouting a good place for a hideout, oversees raw material shipments for construction, intercepts craft that jeopardize secrecy of the hideout, watch over PSICORPS personell transfer there and battles third parties interfering.
EA :
An EA campaign could be a logic conclusion, dealing with FINDING and DESTROYING the PSICORPS hideout.
4. Capital ships
At first, we have to explain HOW Psicorps could have obtained capital ships. I noticed the best explanation I came up with was already mentioned in another topic : An illegal arms deal with Clark.
In the EACW campaign, there is a secret shipyard at URANUS, where the Omega-X destroyers were built in a hurry as byproducts of the WARLOCK development. Since telepaths can interfere with SHADOW technology, it would be logical they have helped in applying shadow-armor to Omega frames, in exchange for one or two of these new destroyers. Like that, the PSICORPS could have one or a few fully functioning OMEGA-X destroyers at service, still unknown to any other EA officials.
WHY ?
The why question is always important. What would they need those ship(s) for, since they generally try to avoid open combat and prefer other ways of conflict where they have ALL advantages on their sides. It's a good thing to be able to read another persons mind !
For security reasons. Those ships are meant to ensure the deep space PSICORPS hideout can remain a secret. A ship that accidentally steps by and finds them would blow their cover, and a big EA taskforce would step by in a matter of hours. So, they need something to ensure that NOTHING survives that could blow their cover. And to keep a space installation a secret, you need a warship that can shoot down any trespassers.
5. possible additional plot stuff and crossovers.
- Lyta Alexander may be flown in by EA and Edgars industries to help interrogating captured PSICORPS personell to track down their base.
- Another teep merc of centauri origin may recognize Lyta as the person who broke into HIS mind when he did a job on Babylon 5 ( "Passing through Gethsemane") and changes allegiance to get his revenge.
- You hear of the dead blackomegas killed by Lt.Cmdr Dan Hale at end of civil war. ( EACW campaign )
- A Raider leader is involved in DUST dealings, Eugene Dillenger. ( EACW campaign )
- End of PsiCorps campaign and beginning of EA teep war campaign can cross over in time, you may somehow meet your alter ego.
- The campaigns should not only tell the story of the fighting against the corps, but also of the telepaths and their struggle to find a place in the human society as well...
