Every GM handles it differently, but part of the fun of roleplaying in a beloved fictional universe is exploring events, deepening the impact of victories, tragedies and formative moments.
Everyone has a different ‘line’ for what’s acceptable when they play with famous events. It’s a delicate balance, and it can make or break your game. You have to decide how much you can adapt some existing events, and which ones to stay the heck away from, and you really have to know when your players are going to lay down the line and say “this far and no further!”
I blew away my players when I pulled one ‘little’ tweak to a favorite universe-changing event. Nothing actually changed in the day to day reality of the destruction of the Klingon moon ‘Praxis’… but it had an impact!
This atrocity was uncovered during a game set in 2377, when another event played out. This time it was ‘successful’ war crime that helped end the Dominion War.
As some of you may recall, Section 31 tilted the war in the Federation’s favor with yet another abominable act: creating a genocidal virus that threatened to kill every last Founder-the rulers of the Dominion (Deep Space 9’s ‘Odo’ was one of the shapeshifting Founders).
I always found it chilling that the Federation didn’t act on Section 31’s atrocity until after they won the war.
In my spin on canon, the few key Section 31 actors who revealed themselves as genocide-makers were expelled from their very unofficial decision-making or consulting positions. All records of complicity with Section 31 was redacted or deleted.
Here’s where my unofficial retcon (or should I say head-canon? 🙂 builds on existing canon:
Out of either fear of losing their own access to decision-making power, or fear of federation’s ability to make the next hard choice, Section 31 reacted to their expulsion by the Federation by planning their first large public move in decades.
And it’s a big one.
The Section gathered weapons, supplies, ships and R&D tech from sites they had been cached for decades (foreshadowed throughout the adventure with my players) and meticulously planned the infiltration of a Starfleet wargame near Earth. Their plan: to take control of the sector and replace key Federation leaders and senior Starfleet personnel.
If all went to plan, this would be ‘quiet coup’ that few would know about, leaving Section 31 functioning as the rotten heart of the Federation.
One admiral, a Vulcan named K’Vol, had been fooled by the Section decades ago, and on the lookout for future treachery ever since. K’Vol became aware of the broad outlines of the plot and stocked a starship, the USS Plenty, with crew unwittingly designed to foil a plot he didn’t fully understand…including a Section 31 double agent who had turned himself in to K’Vol after a previous successful and horrible mission.
Wwracked by guilt and secretly working for this Admiral KVol, this double agent sent clues to the Admiral..who was killed before the wargame/coup attempt for thwarting several parts of the building plan.
The double agent agreed to go back to s31 when Admiral K’Vol asked because they both felt guilt over their role in an earlier plot: planting a ‘stuxnet’-like virus in an energy processing plant, in an attempt to slow Klingon production and avert another Klingon-Federation war.
The plan worked too well, and it didn’t just slow down the processing plant deep inside the Klingon moon Praxis… it shattered it, and destroyed the power, independence and very ecosystems of the Klingons.
Section 31 almost wiped out the Klingons.
It was a big reveal, shared by the ‘double agent’ player who sat at our gaming table for months before their true identity was uncovered, and it led to shouts and genuine shock, and dropped jaws around the virtual gaming table.
And it was delicious 🙂
So now, it’s up to you to decide, dear reader: did I stay on the right side of the Great Bird of the Galaxy with my choice? How would YOU have played it?
Balancing canon and ‘retconning’ your own headcanon is a powerful tool for a GM to use to shock and thrill their players. Don’t be afraid to take big swings in your roleplaying.
But maybe get a second opinion from someone you trust before you do?
Happy gaming, folks!