[OOC] The Starship 'Fritjof Nansen'

[martinl]

Originally Posted by Agemegos

the captains in particular were hard to choose among.

I just want to say that I realized, after the fact, that I had essentially proposed someone with the appearance and mannerisms (but not morals) of Khan Noonian Sigh to captain "Star Trek done right." I'm not sure if I am more amused or horrified.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Agemegos

That leaves the MILINT bubba. What does he bring to the big table?

Primarily professionally concerned with immediate risks to the mission and secondarily with long-term military/political consequences to contact. Personally she's an ethnographic explorer with a conservationist attitude towards preserving native cultures.

Originally Posted by martinl

Shouldn't there be someone focused on the potential impact of bringing the explored colonies into the Empire?

Sure, and in this case it's from the personal perspective of an enthographer with a tendency to "go native" as soon as her boots hit the ground.

I recommend the the MILINT guy be the 'Imperial-Colonial negative synergy guy.' It fits the twisty MI mindset. It gives the GM a vehicle to throw monkey wrenches at the PCs, and the player an opportunity to engage in vigorous debate from an intellectual high ground with the more narrowly focused types.

Seems to dovetail nicely with what we are beginning to learn about Lt. Strickland, I think.

Originally Posted by martinl

Does Lt-Cmdr. Tomiko Eichberger predate the Imperial Creche, Praetorians, and all the other "Benevolent Nazi Bioroid"[1] stuff that happens to later imperial descendents?

She pretty much has to right? None of that stuff has even happened yet. I imagine her early childhood was pretty chaotic because of the war and her educational arrangements were pretty ad-hoc. I think either one or both of her parents died in the war, and her grandparents were very busy with establishing an Empire. She's certainly too old to have been in the Imperial Program.

[martinl]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

She pretty much has to right? None of that stuff has even happened yet. I imagine her early childhood was pretty chaotic because of the war and her educational arrangements were pretty ad-hoc. I think either one or both of her parents died in the war, and her grandparents were very busy with establishing an Empire. She's certainly too old to have been in the Imperial Program.

I'm not sure about the current state of that particular timeline. If nothing else, the Praetorian thing might predate the rest for obvious reasons.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by martinl

I'm not sure about the current state of that particular timeline. If nothing else, the Praetorian thing might predate the rest for obvious reasons.

It looks like there aren't Praetorians until 565. It's a result of the suggestion that the Regulus School alumni will eventually completely control the Council.

She was already in her thirties when the Regulus Academy was founded. She may very well have taught there, though.

[martinl]

Originally Posted by Agemegos

What did you all think of the process? Challenging? Disappointing? Sadly devoid of inspiring input from colleagues? Tedious? Laborious?

It was a relatively quick exercise. Quick generation of interesting personality scaffolds is an important GM skill and I'm ... ok at it. More than 8 might be pushing it though - I felt I was repeating themes.

How satisfactory is the outcome? If the assignment is unsatisfactory do please speak up and we'll fix it. If the mash-ups and reassigned characters don't suit you in the posts where they ended up say so and we'll work out what can be done.

I didn't propose anyone I'd be unwilling to play. I didn't see anyone else's characters as inappropriate.

I may move the crazy-eye pacifism from the dean to another PC though - that one might be lotsa fun. (If my PC dies via good roleplaying I can assimilate an NPC, right?)

[martinl]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

It looks like there aren't Praetorians until 565. It's a result of the suggestion that the Regulus School alumni will eventually completely control the Council.

She was already in her thirties when the Regulus Academy was founded. She may very well have taught there, though.

However, as an Eichberger she is high grade uncut assassinationip and kidnapperoin. A rule/tradition that she needs a bodyguard whenever anywhere near colonials is almost a given, innit?

Perhaps one of the benefits of this mission is that she can skip the bodyguards.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by martinl

However, as an Eichberger she is high grade uncut assassinationip and kidnapperoin.

Maybe. Would the Foundation/Empire even actually care? Attachment to somebody because of their ancestry seems to be not the kind of ruthless rationalism I'd expect from them. Protecting the Guardians expensively trained by the Regulus school makes sense. Protecting a pretty good starship engineer and navy officer any differently from any other?

I'm thinking that Laura's seemingly bloodless reaction to the death of Tomiko's parents was the start of the strained relationship between them.

[martinl]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Maybe. Would the Foundation/Empire even actually care? Attachment to somebody because of their ancestry seems to be not the kind of ruthless rationalism I'd expect from them. Protecting the Guardians expensively trained by the Regulus school makes sense. Protecting a pretty good starship engineer and navy officer any differently from any other?

Yet at the same time the students in question are all descended from the original council members. I can imagine the justification being "If we are going to use children as tools it might as well be our children," and with Mink I'll even believe they are setting their own children up to rule humanity for purely selfless reasons. Nonetheless Tomiko's possible offspring are incredibly valuable to the Empire.

However, I don't think the Mink are so cold as to be indifferent to the survival of their own descendents. There is probably something protecting Tomiko, even if it is not bodyguards. Maybe just careful vetting of where she is assigned?

Or maybe Lara specifically is Just That Cold. Brr.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by martinl

Nonetheless Tomiko's possible offspring are incredibly valuable to the Empire.

She's an astronaut. I imagine her ova are on ice somewhere safe as cyrogenic houses.

However, I don't think the Mink are so cold as to be indifferent to the survival of their own descendents. There is probably something protecting Tomiko, even if it is not bodyguards. Maybe just careful vetting of where she is assigned?

Yeah that makes sense, and is yet another thing for her to just very slightly resent (and to be a bit guilty that she resents it; slightly neurotic is our Tomiko, I think). Brett?

Also, what should she look like?

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by martinl

there are some hard-nosed boffins in a back office somewhere calculating the expected macropolitical effects of increasing the LOAs' vs. Jackals' influence,

The Jackals and Levellers haven't developed yet, and the LRA has the wood on the Feds to such an extent that the colonies think of the Empire as having already been strangled in its cradle.

What we have here now is plans coming to fruit that were set into motion more than thirty years ago. The infant Herakles has just dropped the corpses of two pythons, and onlookers' jaws haven't dropped yet.

There was what in Tomiko Eichberger's trust account?