Steve Jackson Games - Site Navigation
Home General Info Follow Us Search Illuminator Store Forums What's New Other Games Ogre GURPS Munchkin Our Games: Home

Go Back   Steve Jackson Games Forums > Roleplaying > Roleplaying in General

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 02-13-2014, 03:42 PM   #31
Astromancer
 
Astromancer's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: West Virginia
Default Re: A character type for a Star Trek game

Quote:
Originally Posted by martin_rook View Post
Personally, I think that looks good. High attribute scores is probably the main advantage of this sort of character concept. Don't forget, he's probably good-looking, too. If he's not from the time period and is just out of the academy, you can justify spending just a minimum of points on job skills to save them for elsewhere.

But what about the skills from his old life? Some may carry over, like hand-to-hand combat skills, but while the others aren't likely to matter, you never know in Star Trek when you might need to drive an automobile, use a firearm, or reprogram an ancient 20th Century computer. Maybe just something like Wild Talent limited to skills he would have already known?
Well, as to pre Botany Bay skills, I been offered some free points, plus told to take languages. All the other PCs will have both higher rank and more flexible PSI, so my character is meant to be the high stats and odd info guy.

I assume that Aiden (full name Aiden Adair MacConnamara) was sent to a boarding school near the home of some distant relatives on the death of his mother (his father died earlier, Aiden never knew him). These relatives were very kind and loving people and not in the Eugenic breeding program. This is why Aiden lacks most of the nastier traits of the other Eugenic "Supermen," he was a loved, but not spoiled, child.

I figure the school was good for Aiden and he excelled at languages becoming fluent in French, German, Gealic, Latin, and Greek, before leaving school (as these languages rarely come up in Star Trek they are full freebies, background chrome). He also while working with his sisters after age 13 (when Aiden was taken out of school) and before going on the Botany Bay, Aiden picked up Arabic, Chinese, Swahili, Urdu, Farsi, and Indonesian. These are paid for out of the background points. (2 points in each).

Aiden got a solid background at school, Mathematics to IQ, Literature to IQ, History to IQ, Writing to IQ+1, Physics to IQ-2 (improved at Starfleet Academy) Chemisty, Geology, Botany, and Geography (the science not just Earth's map) to similar levels. Aiden also plays the Gealic Harp and the Guitar, and he can sing. I also bought Handsome and Voice.
__________________
Per Ardua Per Astra!


Ancora Imparo

Last edited by Astromancer; 07-17-2014 at 01:52 PM.
Astromancer is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-13-2014, 06:06 PM   #32
Peter Knutsen
Banned
 
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Europe
Default Re: A character type for a Star Trek game

Generally, raised attributes is a good and simple way to indicate the result of genetic engineering.

It's not flavourful at all, but raising DX and IQ by 1 or even by 2, and also raising HT (and perhaps ST) does work.
Peter Knutsen is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-13-2014, 08:31 PM   #33
Johnny1A.2
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Default Re: A character type for a Star Trek game

Quote:
Originally Posted by Astromancer View Post


I'll rewatch the episode. But yes, this is a divergent history. Heck, Khan would probably been alive when the episode was broadcast. Assuming Star Trek was on TV in the Star-Trek-Universe.
Probably not quite, or if he is, he'd be tiny.

The original Space Seed ep, IIRC, put the Eugenics Wars in the 1990s. It wasn't explained just when the actual project to create the superman happened, but it has to have been at least 20 years or so before the wars, more likely ~30. So...probably Khan and the other superman were being bred in the 1960s, in secret somewhere.

Which might make an interest plot hook, just where were the superman bred, and who bred them? Why were they created? Was it a rogue American project? A Russian attempt to create New Soviet Man? Something Mao dreamed up in a fever? India? A hidden cadre of surviving Nazis? Something non-state related like THRUSH?

I have this sudden vision of a TOS/Man From U.N.C.L.E. crossover, with time travelling TOS people meeting up with Solo and Kuryakin while investigating the creation of the superman by THRUSH. That might actually fit THRUSH's self-concept, actually.

Or you could use that concept in a 60's era game without the time travel, if you just wanted the TOS setting to be the distant future, any set of characters in such a setting could come across the superman project, and the GM could drop hints about what they're encountering to see how long it took the players to realize what they'd met up with.

That's an interesting question: did Gary Seven try to stop the Eugenics project? If so, how did he fail? Or did he fail? Maybe he kept the disaster from turning into a world-killing nuclear catastrophe, managing to limit it to just a war?

Last edited by Johnny1A.2; 02-13-2014 at 08:49 PM.
Johnny1A.2 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-14-2014, 05:30 AM   #34
Astromancer
 
Astromancer's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: West Virginia
Default Re: A character type for a Star Trek game

Quote:
Originally Posted by Johnny1A.2 View Post
Probably not quite, or if he is, he'd be tiny.

The original Space Seed ep, IIRC, put the Eugenics Wars in the 1990s. It wasn't explained just when the actual project to create the superman happened, but it has to have been at least 20 years or so before the wars, more likely ~30. So...probably Khan and the other superman were being bred in the 1960s, in secret somewhere.

Which might make an interest plot hook, just where were the superman bred, and who bred them? Why were they created? Was it a rogue American project? A Russian attempt to create New Soviet Man? Something Mao dreamed up in a fever? India? A hidden cadre of surviving Nazis? Something non-state related like THRUSH?

I have this sudden vision of a TOS/Man From U.N.C.L.E. crossover, with time travelling TOS people meeting up with Solo and Kuryakin while investigating the creation of the superman by THRUSH. That might actually fit THRUSH's self-concept, actually.

Or you could use that concept in a 60's era game without the time travel, if you just wanted the TOS setting to be the distant future, any set of characters in such a setting could come across the superman project, and the GM could drop hints about what they're encountering to see how long it took the players to realize what they'd met up with.

That's an interesting question: did Gary Seven try to stop the Eugenics project? If so, how did he fail? Or did he fail? Maybe he kept the disaster from turning into a world-killing nuclear catastrophe, managing to limit it to just a war?
Yes I like this idea. Involving Solo, Kuryakin, Dancer, Steed, King, and Peal, with Seven and Lincoln, to stop a neferious plot, would be cool. However, remember this is a Eugenics project we're talking about. It would take generations to do eugenic breeding. A realistic Eugenic breeding program would take centuries. Even with TV Sci Fi we'd need to assume the project started sometime in the Victorian period. Given the wide range of ethnic types shown in Khan's gang in the 60's show, one assumes the project would need to have been started either by a British or French organisation. The founders could be from a wide variety of political and cultural backgrounds, but clearly rich and well conected.
__________________
Per Ardua Per Astra!


Ancora Imparo
Astromancer is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-14-2014, 09:18 PM   #35
Johnny1A.2
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Default Re: A character type for a Star Trek game

Quote:
Originally Posted by Astromancer View Post
Yes I like this idea. Involving Solo, Kuryakin, Dancer, Steed, King, and Peal, with Seven and Lincoln, to stop a neferious plot, would be cool. However, remember this is a Eugenics project we're talking about. It would take generations to do eugenic breeding. A realistic Eugenic breeding program would take centuries. Even with TV Sci Fi we'd need to assume the project started sometime in the Victorian period. Given the wide range of ethnic types shown in Khan's gang in the 60's show, one assumes the project would need to have been started either by a British or French organisation. The founders could be from a wide variety of political and cultural backgrounds, but clearly rich and well conected.
Good point. I always took 'eugenic' in this sense to be a loose word, for a genetic engineering project, but of course serious genetic engineering in the time frame is just as hard. The multi-generational project you describe is probably a better source of plot, anyway.

You could still use the 60s characters, THRUSH could turn out to be a cover for the project, or its outer layer, for ex. At least one fan theory always held that THRUSH was founded by Professor Moriarty, and I once saw a very good Man from U.N.C.L.E. fanfic in which a surviving German officer informs Allied intelligence people after WW II that THRUSH had been causing trouble for both sides during World War II.

Were Mengele's experiments related to the project in some way? Or the whole 'eugenic fad' that swept the West in the 1920s and 1930s?

For that matter, if the project goes back to the 19C, you could use Victorian or Old West settings as well. Maybe Brisco County Jr. once caused trouble for the breeding project?

Here's another thought: suppose the organization that bred the supermen survived the 1990s, in the shadows, and is still around in Kirk's time. If so, what is their view of Aiden? Is he a resource to be used? A loose end to be controlled or eliminated? Do they even realize what he is (at first)?

Last edited by Johnny1A.2; 02-14-2014 at 09:27 PM.
Johnny1A.2 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-14-2014, 10:52 PM   #36
Hans Rancke-Madsen
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
Default Re: A character type for a Star Trek game

Quote:
Originally Posted by Astromancer View Post
However, remember this is a Eugenics project we're talking about. It would take generations to do eugenic breeding. A realistic Eugenic breeding program would take centuries. Even with TV Sci Fi we'd need to assume the project started sometime in the Victorian period.
Perhaps the program involved both genetic tinkering and using eugenics to weed out undesirable new genes and get desirable new genes to breed true.


Hans
Hans Rancke-Madsen is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-15-2014, 03:30 AM   #37
Peter Knutsen
Banned
 
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Europe
Default Re: A character type for a Star Trek game

Quote:
Originally Posted by Astromancer View Post
Yes I like this idea. Involving Solo, Kuryakin, Dancer, Steed, King, and Peal, with Seven and Lincoln, to stop a neferious plot, would be cool. However, remember this is a Eugenics project we're talking about. It would take generations to do eugenic breeding. A realistic Eugenic breeding program would take centuries. Even with TV Sci Fi we'd need to assume the project started sometime in the Victorian period. Given the wide range of ethnic types shown in Khan's gang in the 60's show, one assumes the project would need to have been started either by a British or French organisation. The founders could be from a wide variety of political and cultural backgrounds, but clearly rich and well conected.
Like Johnny, I was under the impresion that the project was short-term genetics engineering, rather than a long-term breeding program, but if you do want a long-term breeding program, you can look up Francis Galton as a fairly likely starting point.

Although you're gonna need what GURPS classifies as "super-science" to achieve anything much in a handful of generations. Or slightly more than a handful if Galton gets his subjects to start breeding real early.

Also, Galton being Galton, you ought to go heavy on the IQ, and on intelligence-flavoured Talents. But really, flat IQ suits his attitude the best. He was very big on general intelligence.
Peter Knutsen is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-15-2014, 05:19 AM   #38
martin_rook
 
Join Date: Mar 2006
Default Re: A character type for a Star Trek game

Quote:
Originally Posted by Johnny1A.2 View Post

That's an interesting question: did Gary Seven try to stop the Eugenics project? If so, how did he fail? Or did he fail? Maybe he kept the disaster from turning into a world-killing nuclear catastrophe, managing to limit it to just a war?
Wait... I've actually read this book. There actually is a novel about Gary Seven waging a campaign over the years to prevent Khan and the project that created him and his ilk from bringing about an apocalypse. It's all done secret-history style; the Eugenics Wars happened in the 90s, but most people didn't notice.
martin_rook is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-16-2014, 02:06 PM   #39
Astromancer
 
Astromancer's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: West Virginia
Default Re: A character type for a Star Trek game

There are some changes in the character. He's now going to be 19 when the Botany Bay blasts off in 1996, thus he's born in 1977. His stats have been slightly changed also.

Backstory: Aidan (full name Aiden Adair MacConnamara) is born in the San Francisco bay area shortly after his father's death. He's pretty much raised until age four by people hired by his mother and mainly experiences life around the University of Califoria Berkeley. Or rather it's daycare centers and nursery schools. At four he's sent to a boarding school in Boston near the home of distant relatives of his father. The school normally didn't except even profoundly brilliant four year olds but Aiden's family pulled strings.

Aiden lucked out. His cousins loved him. She was a history prof at Boston U. and he was a Concert Musician, and they were both talented and skilled at raising children having had several of their own. At the school the teachers were understanding and Aiden got the addition bonus of a older classmate, who having lost his much loved younger brother, gloms onto Aiden as a replacement. Aiden thus gets welcomed into the life of the school. Aiden, because he was a loved but not spoiled child, has few of the nastier traits of the other "Eugenic Supermen."

Aiden's mother died soon after he started school. Any plans she had for making sure that Aiden thought like his "peers" were ignored and her estate paid his school bills and other expenses. When Aiden was 13 (by this time he had about the same level of education as a normal Harvard Freshman has at the end of his first year of college), Aiden was pulled form school by his sisters, none of whom had seen him since he was two. He spent the next six years at Khan's court as his sisters' confidential secretary, and sometimes handled Khan's household accounts (historians love the details he later gave them, romatics yawned).

Aiden was on the Botany Bay both because he was part of a family that bred particularly true, but also because Khan was aware that Aiden seemed to have measurable ESP. Otherwise Khan had little use for Aiden.

Aiden's last surviving sister was also on the Botany Bay. She was in one of the lifesupport Units that failed.

After the events of Space Seed Aiden asked to face trial and prison rather than to be exiled with Khan. Kirk and Spock, after hearing the young man out, agreed. Khan, though glad to be shed of Aiden, denounced him as a traitor. Aiden called Khan a "Drama Queen."

More tomorrow, my time is up.
__________________
Per Ardua Per Astra!


Ancora Imparo

Last edited by Astromancer; 05-28-2019 at 01:06 PM.
Astromancer is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-16-2014, 05:30 PM   #40
Irish Wolf
 
Irish Wolf's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Earth, mostly
Default Re: A character type for a Star Trek game

As the governments against which Aiden might have committed crimes have been presumably extinct since the Third World War, it would be an interesting question as to whether Aiden could in fact be charged with anything. He might well simply be released into civilian life, where he could then become a citizen of the Federation and apply to Starfleet Academy...

(Khan was exiled not for crimes against Terran governments, but for attempting to seize control of a Starfleet vessel and kill its captain. His people went along voluntarily, although only a few of them shared in his crime.)
__________________
If you break the laws of Man, you go to prison.

If you break the laws of God, you go to Hell.

If you break the laws of Physics, you go to Sweden and receive a Nobel Prize.
Irish Wolf is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Fnords are Off
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 05:14 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.