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Classes
Dec 29, 2009 2:11:22 GMT -5
Post by Falconer on Dec 29, 2009 2:11:22 GMT -5
Here are my thoughts on classes. People like classes. It’s fun to sit down at a table and say, “I want to be the Cleric” or whatever, and instantly you and everyone else knows your role in the campaign. I don’t see why it can’t work the same in Star Trek. If you compare “The Cage” vs. “Where No Man Has Gone Before” vs. the rest of the series, you have three different “parties” (to use D&D lingo) that cover more or less the same roles. I’ve been working on enumerating these roles, and here is what I’ve come up with:
Commanding Officer Science Officer (Chief) Medical Officer (Chief) Engineer Helmsman Navigator Communications Officer Yeoman Specialist (Chief of) Security
That’s 10 classes, which is a good selection. It’s kind of a compact list compared to the complete list of positions you might actually find aboard a starship, but the idea is to cover the story roles that you would find in the show and translate it to a RPG.
By “Specialist” I mean characters like Elizabeth Dehner, Helen Noel, and Marlena Moreau. Many episodes have a special guest star that was a scientist specializing in something unique that might be needed for the episode. Often the character is also a romantic interest for one of the leads, or for another guest star. This type of character might be one of the harder to make a regular PC in an ongoing campaign, and could possibly be reserved for NPCs or one-shot PCs.
“Science Officer,” by contrast, refers to an officer who mans a specific station on the bridge that is usually occupied by Mr. Spock.
To me, “Helmsman” and “Navigator” are practically the exact same role. Most episodes seemed to have only Sulu OR Chekov, not both, and whichever one was in that episode seemed to fulfill any function Kirk wanted, from plotting courses to laying them in to shields and phasers. So these might for all I care be a single class. It might even be too redundant to have a PC in each station, even though both are technically needed. Perhaps, if that is the case, one of them should ideally double in another function, the way Sulu is also Chief of Security in the mirror universe.
“Security” is mostly red shirts, NPCs who get killed. Probably not an ideal position for a PC since all it means is you carry a phaser and explore—but so does everyone else, and they also have real jobs. Again, a Chief of Security who doubles as a bridge officer would be a good role.
There are also the positions “First Officer” and “Second Officer”, but these are simply chain-of-command designations that fall to senior officers who have other jobs as their main function. For that reason, they wouldn’t be classes in their own right.
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Classes
Dec 30, 2009 20:52:58 GMT -5
Post by blackbat242 on Dec 30, 2009 20:52:58 GMT -5
In TOS, Scotty often lead Security teams... only occasionally was an actual "Chief of Security" shown.
Those are not bad "classes"... and should make an interesting base for "Old-School Trek".
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Classes
Dec 31, 2009 5:49:31 GMT -5
Post by rredmond on Dec 31, 2009 5:49:31 GMT -5
For game purposes you'd want to play a character that did something. Chief of Engineering might not have a role in every module/episode so crossover, I would think, would be really necessary for the game (as it was for the TV show) and the gritty old-school style of TOS would be perfect for that. Scotty led security teams because they wanted to show him in the episode, but the CoE could be, in game, in charge of security as well - the RL reasoning being it's no fun playing the behind-the-scenes stuff, but in game that'd be just a part of his assigned duties.
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Classes
Dec 31, 2009 14:51:54 GMT -5
Post by thedungeondelver on Dec 31, 2009 14:51:54 GMT -5
I think for purposes of playability, "Multi-classing" should definitely be an option. As pointed out, Scotty led security teams, Sulu was bumped to the Captain's chair at least once that I can think of, and Chekov was (back-up) Science Officer (Episode 34, "The Apple"): "Ehh...Mind your own wusiness! I'll haf you know my readings are wery accurate!"
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Classes
Dec 31, 2009 16:04:11 GMT -5
Post by Falconer on Dec 31, 2009 16:04:11 GMT -5
Those are good points. Especially about Chekov—there is lots of evidence that he is Spock’s intern (“Spock's contaminating this boy, Jim!” — Who Mourns for Adonais?) I guess I just wonder what is and what isn’t a class. Chekov’s ability to serve as either Navigator (gold shirt) and Science Officer is multi-classing for sure. Or else OD&D Elf-like class-switching. But is security really a class? Aren’t most security personnel simply 0-class red-shirts doomed to die; and if not, don’t they always have another profession? Doesn’t every character including the medical personnel perform security functions as a matter of course? Just some thoughts.
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coffee
Lieutenant
"My chicken sandwich...and coffee." - James T. Kirk
Posts: 84
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Classes
Dec 31, 2009 16:16:41 GMT -5
Post by coffee on Dec 31, 2009 16:16:41 GMT -5
I'd suggest a more radical thought here: Only three classes. Base them on the color of shirt the guy wore.
This is (kind of) something I got from the FASA game, but hear me out. If you don't want a skill based system, this could work.
The guys in the gold shirts are the helmsmen, navigators and such -- this is where the commanding officers traditionally come from. How do you decide who's in command? Why, whoever is highest level of course! (Assuming you're using levels.)
The blue shirt guys would all be Science/Medical types, and you could let them choose a specialty if you like (like a subclass but not as formal).
(The reason Spock would often take command, despite not being 'command' personnel, was because in addition to Science Officer he was also the First Officer.)
So your red shirts could be engineers, security types, transporter operators, etc.
Anyway, that's my two cents.
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Classes
Dec 31, 2009 18:11:33 GMT -5
Post by Falconer on Dec 31, 2009 18:11:33 GMT -5
I do like it, it appeals to me because it’s simple and clean. However, it’s perhaps a little too simple and clean. I would definitely divide blue shirts into two classes: scientific and medical. Although both divisions wear blue, they seem to be very distinct in function and as departments. Thus the four classes would be:
Gold Shirt — Kirk Blue Shirt (Science) — Spock Blue Shirt (Medical) — McCoy Red Shirt — Scott
In the show, since the chain of command goes Kirk (Gold Shirt) -- Spock (Blue Shirt/Science) -- Scott (Red Shirt), I submit that the “Bridge Officer” position is not tied to the gold shirt but rather would fall on the senior officer regardless of the color of their shirt, with Blue Shirt/Medical being exempted (McCoy) due to the level of specialization.
The problem is that the distinction between gold and red is pretty blurred. Often people assume that gold simply outranks red, but that is clearly not the case (Scotty outranks Sulu and Chekov). In the show, often a character will simply wear a color that looks good on them (especially women). But in a game, if we are to treat them as classes, there has to be a little more logic to it. But since we’re just dealing with a handful of PCs, it could be simple as saying that captain, helmsman, and navigator wear gold; science and medical wear blue; engineering, communications, yeoman, and security wear red. But then we’re back to function determining class rather than shirt color determining function.
Hmm.
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Classes
Jan 5, 2010 11:53:03 GMT -5
Post by chgowiz on Jan 5, 2010 11:53:03 GMT -5
I see Red Shirts as being subdivided as well: Ship Systems - engineering, communications Ship Support - specialists (ship technology), security
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Classes
Jan 5, 2010 15:54:28 GMT -5
Post by Falconer on Jan 5, 2010 15:54:28 GMT -5
Maybe, but I repeat my suggestion that security personnel are simply 0-level characters. They lack training in any valuable areas of expertise, AND they are worse even at SECURITY than trained personnel!
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Jan 5, 2010 16:20:29 GMT -5
Post by chgowiz on Jan 5, 2010 16:20:29 GMT -5
Maybe, but I repeat my suggestion that security personnel are simply 0-level characters. They lack training in any valuable areas of expertise, AND they are worse even at SECURITY than trained personnel! Not all red shirts were bad at security. There were some that survived and clearly they had to have some sort of training to be able to get on the flagship of Star Fleet. I would put the bulk of the security personnel as not being as skilled at security as the higher ranking officers, but they aren't incompetent. (I'm trying very hard to stay away from D&D'isms here... )
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Classes
Jan 5, 2010 22:20:55 GMT -5
Post by Falconer on Jan 5, 2010 22:20:55 GMT -5
I don’t think we have a disagreement, there. I think what you’re getting at is that officers who have been through the Academy would be better trained in combat techniques, as well as possess superior mental training to use it wisely and effectively, than an enlisted man. And I think the show demonstrates this time and time again. For what it’s worth, the security personnel that make repeated appearances are also shown to have competency in Engineering, relief Helm, etc. (see “Minor Recurring Characters” on my list here). I guess what I’m really saying is I don’t see a place in Star Trek for a PC who is purely a fighter. (Of course, that’s not what you are suggesting, either.) NPCs, of course, are a whole different story. Regards.
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coffee
Lieutenant
"My chicken sandwich...and coffee." - James T. Kirk
Posts: 84
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Post by coffee on Jan 6, 2010 3:20:37 GMT -5
I should think it would depend on what the player wants for his character. Some guys just want to be the fighter.
(Of course, if they KNOW Star Trek, they wouldn't want to be the security guy in the red shirt...)
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Classes
Jan 6, 2010 14:06:28 GMT -5
Post by finarvyn on Jan 6, 2010 14:06:28 GMT -5
I'd suggest a more radical thought here: Only three classes. Base them on the color of shirt the guy wore. This was my initial thought as well. The three designators were command (gold), engineering (red), and science (blue). When I've run an "OD&D Star Trek" game I did something that teends to agree with some of the other posts here and break red and blue up to make five classes. 1. Command (gold) 2. Engineering (red) 3. Security (red) 4. Science (blue) 5. Medical (blue) My reasoning is this: * Engineers are more technical and able to build or repair things, but security folk are more able to inflict damage. As per Falconer's suggestion.) * Science is more analysis and data interpretative, but medical is more about diagnosis and healing. (As per Chgowiz' suggestion.) * Command could be broken up, but I don't see as much of an advantage to this. I hate to specialize too much, becasue I like to keep my game simple. On the other hand, I like to have enough options so that everyone doesn't have to play the same character class. As far as the whole "redshirt" issue goes, I think that PC security characters can be decent combat specialists. It's just the NPC security guys who get toasted at the drop of a hat. :-)
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Classes
Jan 6, 2010 14:31:44 GMT -5
Post by Falconer on Jan 6, 2010 14:31:44 GMT -5
I’d say that looks like it’s more-or-less the consensus!
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Classes
Jan 7, 2010 19:42:43 GMT -5
Post by Falconer on Jan 7, 2010 19:42:43 GMT -5
A friend has passed along a RPG published in 1978 by a company called Fantasy Games Unlimited, Inc. The author is Capt. Leonard H. Kanterman, M.D., U.S. Army Medical Corps, and the title is Starships and Spacemen with the subtitles “Carry Out Missions in the Final Frontier” and “Science Fiction Role Play”. It’s a very thinly disguised Star Trek RPG that I find really impressive. Anyway, I wanted to share its take on classes. It’s really interesting, and different from what we’ve been discussing: This is interesting because, unlike a lot of what we have been talking about, while it is a rather extensive list of classes it breaks it down into divisions that are not based on shirt color (and is therefore less “tidy”) but that nevertheless is a perfectly valid breakdown which makes a lot of logical sense: Military (red) Command (gold) Security Guard (red) Fire Control (gold) Scientific (blue) Alien Life (blue) Medical (blue) Technical Branch (red or gold) Communications (red) Navigation (gold) Engineering (red)
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