Lifepath Generator

[slortar]

www.abillionmonkeys.com/trek/Lifepath.pdf

This is the kind of thing I do when I'm procrastinating on other projects.

Also, I just love making random idea generators. Easily my favorite part of writing WNM. So, instead of prettying things up or working on the Player's Guide, you get more random stuff.

I'm told that FASA had a lifepath generator as part of character creation--I wouldn't mind cribbing notes from it, but I don't have a copy. In any case, this is strictly optional, because I don't really want to slow down character creation at all.

Any thoughts? Weirdness that comes up from how the tables work out? Anything that really needs to be accounted for that's really, really TOS? Additions to tables that would be fun?

One of the things I want to keep an eye on is if certain things come up more than they should, like too many orphans or people getting assigned to paper-shuffling.

[slortar]

Sample Character Background, the only parts where I fudged on the rolls, I noted below:

Born and raised on Earth, Beijing

Father was a musician
Mother was a pilot, left mysteriously

Childhood was spent moving from place to place

Spent a lot of time in detention at school

Had a famous person in his class at Starfleet

3rd level: Bad Assignment. Assigned to a lesser ship due to disciplinary problems. Ship engaged in a diplomatic mission to a new civilization. Saved the day, but made an enemy from a fellow crew member. Ship was probably even more minor than a tugboat, so call it a courier ship of some sort, a glorified interstellar bus.

4th level: Federation outpost/colony attacked by Romulans. Showed great promise and gained a mentor and ally in Starfleet. Served aboard a Hermes class ship, the Taurus.

5th level, first tour: Uncovered an enemy spy, Romulan (kept rerolling on enemy table until I got a non-silly result), during course of investigation showed great sacrifice. This can happen anywhere, so I kept the character aboard the Taurus for now.

5th level, second tour: Ship captured by Romulans. Damn, the Romulans seem to be stalking this guy. Saved the day at the last minute while under heavy fire.

Exit questionnaire:

Most proud of his time aboard the Taurus, in particular his relationship with his mentor. If the GM is allowing a mechanical bonus for this, I'd have to flesh out what made the relationship most special. Most likely some sort of career advice related to his class, but not necessarily.

Least proud of the incident that made an enemy out of a crewmember during his first tour of duty.

Plot threads: His mother's mysterious disappearance, his repeated encounters with Romulans, the enemy he made on his first mission, his troubled background with authority

[slortar]

Character #2

Born on Earth, the Moon to be specific, but raised on a frontier world not yet a part of the Federation.

Father, scientist
Mother, non-Starfleet Pilot

Depressing, but typical childhood (perhaps the colony world he grew up on was harsh?)

Had a pet

Graduated head of class from Starfleet

Tour of duties

3rd level: While on a diplomatic mission, discovered a space/time anomaly which transported the ship across the galaxy. Saved the day, but made an enemy out of a crew member (Man, my electronic dice roller sucks This happened to my last guy on his first tour, as well). Served aboard the Aristarchus, a Ptolemy class tug.

4th level: Party to an important scientific discovery. Saved the day, made another enemy out of a crewmember. Again?! Okay, this guy must be pretty abrasive. Different ship, a Miranda class ship, the Lantree. It's unlikely he'd make any interesting scientific discoveries on a tug boat.

5th level, first tour: Federation outpost/colony attacked by a Cloud Monster of some sort. Saved the life of his captain.

5th level, second tour: Another Federation outpost/colony attacked by Romulans. Saved the day but made another enemy out of a crewmember (!!!). I think my dice roller just likes rolling 9's.

Exit Questionairre:

1. Most proud of the fact that his father was a scientist. To be specific, his father's body of work. If I turned this into a real fleshed out thing, I'd probably go on about how his father's discoveries saved lives.

2. Least proud of his awe-inspiring ability to make enemies out of fellow crew members. It's probably personality related; perhaps he has Aspergers.

Plot Threads: the colony world he grew up on and how harsh his childhood was, his time spent on the other side of the galaxy aboard the Aristarchus, all of the enemies he's made during his Starfleet career, the Cloud Monster.

Bonus Cloud Monster: Naive alien creature, man-sized, feeds on emotion, has the ability to control emotions, somewhat slow-witted.

[Ronin84]

Yoinked faster than a donut at a cop shop!!

And an Exalt as well!!

[okumarts]

This is very cool. I'd love to see a character book separate from the main rule book.. Rules for playing Klingons or Romulans as well. I've always liked lifepaths even back when I played Traveller. Have you seen the Central Casting books by Paul Jacquays? I have used those in the past. Mekton also had a great genre-specific generator. Always loads of fun.

[finarvyn]

Very nice. Sometimes my players have a pre-determined concept in mind, but if not I can see that a quick random background would be a great alternative! Well done!

[slortar]

Jan 30, 2010 10:55:18 GMT -5 okumarts said:

This is very cool. I'd love to see a character book separate from the main rule book..

The masses have spoken! Next project commencing...now.

As soon as I have my notes together, I'll start up another thread so we can brainstorm ideas.

Rules for playing Klingons or Romulans as well.

Are you bugging my computer or something? I've had some basic notes for a Klingon add-on for a few months now. Sort of hit a dead end when I realized that where I was going may or may not be what people are interested in.

As it stands now, it's less John Ford-style Klingons and more Wagnerian Space Opera. Sort of like what I envision TOS would've looked like had it been Klingon propaganda, instead of Federation propaganda.

Romulans, though. Phew. NO idea where I'd go with that.

If you want a jump start, though, it's not too hard to hack together alien classes.

Most of the alien race stats in the back of WNM are balanced for player use--particularly Romulans, Gorns and Klingons. Make a new class, call it something like "Klingon Warrior". Then make a Talent list for it with somewhere between 12-16 entries, copying as many over as needed from the base WNM classes.

The only tricky parts are trying to envision "Talent Trees" so that players can build at least two or three separate character concepts from each Talent list...and coming up with a few new Talents that make the class stand out.

My favorite new Talent I came up with from my Klingon notes was a beast tamer talent that let you keep a pet and teach it tricks. Gotta have a tame "wolf" or something similarly fierce on the bridge of your Klingon vessel.

I've always liked lifepaths even back when I played Traveller. Have you seen the Central Casting books by Paul Jacquays? I have used those in the past. Mekton also had a great genre-specific generator. Always loads of fun.

Hm, no. Sounds interesting. How did Central Casting handle things?

I think the only lifepath systems I had a lot of exposure with when I was younger was the Cyberpunk one and...the one in Daredevils, a fairly obscure game, but it was pretty awesome.

You built a time-line of your life and then went through it year by year, determining careers as you went. If you were still young enough when WWI broke out, you could get drafted.

[michaeltaylor]

I was looking for something exactly like this (for Far Trek). Is this file still available somewhere? Thank you!

[aramis]

Jan 30, 2010 9:49:14 GMT -5 slortar said:

www.abillionmonkeys.com/trek/Lifepath.pdf

This is the kind of thing I do when I'm procrastinating on other projects.

Also, I just love making random idea generators. Easily my favorite part of writing WNM. So, instead of prettying things up or working on the Player's Guide, you get more random stuff.

I'm told that FASA had a lifepath generator as part of character creation--I wouldn't mind cribbing notes from it, but I don't have a copy. In any case, this is strictly optional, because I don't really want to slow down character creation at all.

Any thoughts? Weirdness that comes up from how the tables work out? Anything that really needs to be accounted for that's really, really TOS? Additions to tables that would be fun?

One of the things I want to keep an eye on is if certain things come up more than they should, like too many orphans or people getting assigned to paper-shuffling.

Your concept of "lifepath generation" is different from FASA-Trek's...

FASA-Trek's was directly tied into the character generation process - it was how you got your skills raised.

You're doing somthing more akin to how R. Talsorian Games did it with Cyberpunk and Mekton...

[gallandro]

you can still grab it here aramis:

microlite20.org/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=mdlh3a5h6nuhhjs1fdjhq5hnl3;action=downloads;sa=view;down=122

[michaeltaylor]

Thank you VERY much! This is exactly what I was looking for!

[Falconer]

I’ve been using the Lifepath Generator, and I thought I would post my personal modifications to the ship lists, just FWIW. Basically, my game exists in the “Franz Joseph” universe at a certain point in his timeline, and these are the classes that exist. No Mirandas and no Dreadnoughts. Also, I tended to include the first ten ships constructed of each class, but didn’t include the five Heavy Cruisers which were destroyed per TOS.

* * *

For tours of duty that require posting aboard a starship, roll…

d6	1st	2nd roll	3rd roll and above
1	Ptolemy	Ptolemy	Hermes
2	Hermes	Hermes	Saladin
3	Hermes	Saladin	Siva
4	Saladin	Saladin	Constitution
5	Siva	Siva	Constitution
6	Constitution	Constitution	Bonhomme Richard

Names:

d10	PTOLEMY Class Transport/Tug	HERMES Class Scout	SALADIN Class Destroyer	SIVA Class Destroyer
1	Al Rashid	Aeolus	Alaric	Ares
2	Anaxagoras	Anubis	Darius	Hathor
3	Anaximander	Batidor	Etzel	Iblis
4	Aristarchus	Bridger	Jenghiz	Jugurtha
5	Eratosthenes	Carson	Kublai	Loki
6	Galilei	Cody	Pompey	Lucifer
7	Hipparchus	Diana	Saladin	Mars
8	Ibn Daud	Hermes	Sargon	Moloch
9	Ptolemy	Quintillus	Suleiman	Siva
10	Ulugh Beg	Revere	Xerxes	Tyr

d10	CONSTITUTION Class Heavy Cruiser	BONHOMME RICHARD Class Heavy Cruiser
1	Constitution	Bonhomme Richard
2	Enterprise	Eagle
3	Excalibur	El Dorado
4	Exeter	Endeavor
5	Hood	Excelsior
6	Kongo	Hornet
7	Lexington	Lafayette
8	Potemkin	Merrimac
9	Republic	Monitor
10	Yorktown	Wasp

[finarvyn]

I approve of the use of the "Franz Joseph" universe and timeline.

[Falconer]

Yeah, man, Franz Joseph’s work is my favorite work outside of TOS proper. I like FJ more than TAS, and more than TMP, or the SFU, or TWOK or TNG or ENT or Kelvin or any single other thing. I like a all those things to a greater or lesser extent, but, FJ really gives me the warm fuzzies.