A character type for a Star Trek game

[DAT]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

The characters in this game aren't going to be points balanced, they're Function/Role balanced. This is why Aiden hasn't taken any engineering or medical skills (others cover those) and why Aiden's Psionics and Martial arts are much less than the other PC's. However the group is making suggestions and I've been asked to get some opions from you guys.

Glad to help. Based on

Originally Posted by Astromancer

A) One of Aiden's roles is simply, he's the strongest one. Some of the others suggest Aiden should be signifigantly stronger. A St of 20 would make Aiden four times stronger than a normal human. A St of 23 would make him more than five times stronger than normal. Should Aiden, if the group wants him to be the Forklift that walks like a man, be stronger? If so, how much?

I'd say go with ST20, then add 2 to 6 levels of lifting ST. That will make him a living forklift.

Originally Posted by Astromancer

B) Although the group thinks the points in skills are okay, some of the group think Aiden's DX should go up one or two. What's the reaction from these boards?

I think DX should reflect natural ability plus practive. He has the natural ability, but is he challenging himself physically? If so, sure bump him up to as much as DX 16. If not, DX 14 should be appropriate.

It may be reasonable to bump speed up to 8 as natural ability.

Originally Posted by Astromancer

C) Should Aiden have more (!) skills. I think that Encyclopedist! (which is all Area Knowledge and Current Events skills) would be good. Six points would get me a skill of 15.

Encyclopedist! maybe okay. I think Science! would be appropriate too.
Consider other talents too that complement your core skills.

Originally Posted by Astromancer

D) Some of the group think Aiden's perception could go up a bit. Reactions?

Above 20? I'd think 20 is already pretty cinamatic.

Originally Posted by Astromancer

E) Might it be good to add professional skill Busker and have Aiden be able to pass as a sametime entertainer as a means to go undercover?

If going undercover regularly, I would also add Acting and maybe Disguise.

Originally Posted by Astromancer

All of the players in this group has been asked to see the characters of the other PCs as support for their PC. This is supposed to be the basis of their judgement.

Your GM's call.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by DAT

Glad to help. Based on


I'd say go with ST20, then add 2 to 6 levels of lifting ST. That will make him a living forklift.


I think DX should reflect natural ability plus practive. He has the natural ability, but is he challenging himself physically? If so, sure bump him up to as much as DX 16. If not, DX 14 should be appropriate.

It may be reasonable to bump speed up to 8 as natural ability.


Encyclopedist! maybe okay. I think Science! would be appropriate too.
Consider other talents too that complement your core skills.


Above 20? I'd think 20 is already pretty cinamatic.


If going undercover regularly, I would also add Acting and maybe Disguise.



Your GM's call.

Thanks for the feedback. I will work this into Aiden's stats by Wednesday.

[Johnny1A.2]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Science Fiction and the Occult seem to attract similar (but not identical) groups. Both Sci Fi and the Occult seem to atract and delight certain types of imagination. That any major work of Sci Fi would have Occult influences on it, and cultural influences on the Occult beliefs of the societies that enjoy/embrace the Sci Fi work, seems, as Spock might say, logical.

It depends on which kind of SF and which kind of occultism. The overlap is more visible in stuff like Star Trek than with things like, say, Hal Clemet's work. Then there was Doc Smith's Skylark series, which culminated in the heros using computerized witchcraft (literally witchcraft) to destroy a galaxy.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Johnny1A.2

It depends on which kind of SF and which kind of occultism. The overlap is more visible in stuff like Star Trek than with things like, say, Hal Clemet's work. Then there was Doc Smith's Skylark series, which culminated in the heros using computerized witchcraft (literally witchcraft) to destroy a galaxy.

It's deeper in the structure than that. The kind of things that ignite the imaginations of both sci fi writers and fans as well as occult/new agey types are similar. The Apocaolyptic transformation, the world seen from a radically different viewpoint, paradigmatic breakthroughs, are some examples of the kinds of themes that excite both groups, both in crude and refined forms.

[Astromancer]

I got to play this character only a few times before the gaming group broke up. Still it was fun. Thanks for all the help.

[Johnny1A.2]

Looking back over the thread, I can't help but notice and still think that my comment about the eugenic project in the 1960s holds all kinds of plot hooks, either for a Trek game or any game set in the 1960s period. Just about anything could touch on it.

But somehow the U.N.C.L.E./THRUSH connection keeps looking to me like the most natural one.

Which makes me wonder: what would THRUSH look like, if it was still operational in Kirk's time? What would a THRUSH-like secret society within the Federation do?

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Johnny1A.2

Looking back over the thread, I can't help but notice and still think that my comment about the eugenic project in the 1960s holds all kinds of plot hooks, either for a Trek game or any game set in the 1960s period. Just about anything could touch on it.

But somehow the U.N.C.L.E./THRUSH connection keeps looking to me like the most natural one.

Which makes me wonder: what would THRUSH look like, if it was still operational in Kirk's time? What would a THRUSH-like secret society within the Federation do?

I agree. I had another idea, it came from reading a very strange book of literary criticism. Try this, Star Trek, for all of Roddenberry's distaste for the occult, actually has a strong mystical bent, sadly tending to New Ageyness. So, what if James Kirk and Roberta Lincoln are different incarnations of the same soul. I don't now how I'd make it part of a game but I think it has possibilities.

But THRUSH as a secret foe of the Federation is golden.

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by combatmedic

Right, I hope I didn't come across as poo-poohing IW's read on Star Trek.


Roddenberry does seem to have had a real animosity towards traditional religions. Whether that feeling extended to cover occult and magical matters I don't know. How much it affected TOS or TNG, I don't know.

I do see some 'New Age', mystical influences in TNG. I don't know if that stuffhttp://forums.sjgames.com/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=1730211 came from Roddenberry or other writers.

Star Trek contains a number of vaguely mystical, semi-religious ideas about directed/teological evolution, godlike aliens with Sufficiently Advanced technology, mind powers, and Progress with a capital P. I'm not sure I'd call any of that "occult" but some of it could from the basis of occult traditions in the milieu.

I actually found it useful cosmologically for making philosophical musings in a perfectly orthodox or at least not unorthodox manner. The mind twisting does give sort of a mental exercise for someone who wants to be a philosopher, theologian, or even a physicist(some of the notions in physics are so odd that the line between it and philosophy is blurry). To risk a controversial example that might cause a huff, some Protestants believe praying to the dead implies acknowlegeing Purgatory. My reply would be "That's as may be; God lives outside of time so praying for the dead makes no statement on the existence of Purgatory." Which brings to the point that you can learn to really refine the sophistication of your own worldview by studying another and not just be converted to his. Gene Roddenberry may have held traditional religion in contempt but he also helped me study it more easily.

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Science Fiction and the Occult seem to attract similar (but not identical) groups. Both Sci Fi and the Occult seem to atract and delight certain types of imagination. That any major work of Sci Fi would have Occult influences on it, and cultural influences on the Occult beliefs of the societies that enjoy/embrace the Sci Fi work, seems, as Spock might say, logical.

It is less so at first glance because sci fi depends on tech porn while fantasy depends on animism. However Sci Fi does like to appeal to people's sense of wonder.

The similarity exists in history too. Laslo Almasy the explorer lived had an aristocratic family that was so wrapped up in the occult that you wonder if one of them was a vampire.

Probably the best word to describe the commonality is "romance" in the old sense of the word.

[ak_aramis]

Originally Posted by jason taylor

It is less so at first glance because sci fi depends on tech porn while fantasy depends on animism. However Sci Fi does like to appeal to people's sense of wonder.

Fantasy does NOT depend upon animism - many forms of fantasy are non-animistic.

Animism
1 the attribution of a soul to plants, inanimate objects, and natural phenomena.
2 the belief in a supernatural power that organizes and animates the material universe.

Some forms of fantasy are naturalistic - no magic, just alien worlds. Several recent RPGs are of this nature. Non-technological, non-magical, but with exotic creatures.

Some forms are technological in basis but contain violations of fundamental physics, or even just high improbability. EG: Pern, John Carter of Mars.