Post by Jack Photon on Mar 19, 2022 17:32:11 GMT -5
Early into the plague as I was finishing the 3rd edition framework, I created the following Player Brief to entice my Trekker/non-RPG friends into some sessions.
I suppose this would seem heavy to someone like that, but I bet the crowd here would dig this document.
NOTE: This is not a call for players. I present this for your casual amusements.
Era and Tech, Home port and ship, mission outline and docket. I rolled the Officers for my friends to choose from or they could roll their own and replace the roster as appropriate.
Note that this draft was created in 2020. Since then some minor rule tweaks have changed such as skill ratings. Those numbers equate differently today, making the characters sound more skilled than they are.
A sub-rule in character creation is for Awards and Honors. That still needs play testing out or some basis to real-life military award ratios of any kind, how many per capita per age bracket etc. I don't know how many is too many or too few and then throwing Attribute dice mods, assign mods, etc, that skews the norm as well. The riskier the assign, the greater the award, the smarter, the luckier, the more likely as well. So, just tough to say.
In this crew of 18 you will see the young tend to have no honors whereas the oldest of characters tend to have several medals and honors. There are also two reprimands in there. One was earned as a cadet 1, ~30yrs previous. The other recipient could not have been more highly decorated from the first and regularly since, only now just earning a reprimand in the previous term for causing bodily harm to another. Ouch.
I haven't determined the circumstances as yet, but as an NPC, it's nothing that would ever be spoken about to anyone, but most everyone would know something about even vaguely. As a PC, the player and I might come up with a story or maybe it'll occur to me before then. It can't be so bad as to cause instant dismissal, but must be severe enough to squash this otherwise Medal of Honor-wearing now-Ensign and former-Commander of just a ~year ago.
The lifepath charts and medals here in this 3rd Edition Framework, not to mention the Purple Heart, can create some highly compelling stories for the GM to plunder through and create rich tapestries for every character. One Officer was attacked by a vengeful relative for abandoning their family and lost DEX points for it! Ouch. Another had a suicide lover just recently and some real conflicts to boot. There are a couple officers considering whether Starfleet is right for them. There is a pending marriage aboard. The two's careers and lifepaths intersected in several places, so why not. They could have been enemies meeting again, but the dice came up with happy love initially with troubles here and there.
Regret that I can't share these NPCs as case studies, were anyone to play alongside them. But know that all these stories are self-emergent from the Framework's tables, all I did was dice. As a GM, I know every NPC's story in a dozen rolls or so and can weave it into the background tapestry.
This pdf demonstrates the use of the Universal Personnel Profile (wait, did I lift that from Traveller and forgot til just now?!?). For those who haven't seen it yet, the UPP equates skill points to letters. So Spock said he is an A-7 computer expert, he said he has a 97 for game system purposes. A B-3 would be 83. Or just 'B' is 80-89, a Doctorate Equivalent. A is 'Galactic Authority'. C - H, from Master's 70-79 to '3-day seminar' for skill 1-10. What it means in-world, who knows. Doesn't matter. Sounds reasonable and directly equates game terms to show terms. A+!
So with the UPP, I can show all prospective players every NPC sheet with no fear of power players looking for the edge. Instead, they see A - H for skills and Atts with a simple service record and various public notes. The character selection becomes character driven and plays down, but does not defeat, stat-driven choices.
Out of ~118 crew I would allow any player to choose any position on the ship and I would make it work for them and the others. As I get back into things, there are 3 characters I'm reserving to myself, Cpt, XO and Security Chief. XO and Security have a complex history together (self-emergent dice tables!) that I want to explore in the background and Captain is mine whilst I get my GM feet going again. My other campaigns when players were Captain could cause some disgruntlements about who gets to be captain this time as everyone wants to be and no one gets to be and its Janice Lester all over again. As Captain of a small Scout, I can give general enough orders that allow for players to take the lead and report back.
At the very least, this document should make a good case study for something, maybe. 
