Final Frontier: OOC and Recruiting

[Skitzophrenik]

Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Molotov. Her three year mission: patrol the Federation/Klingon Neutral Zone, assist those in need of help, and explore any unknown phenomena.

The year is 2262, and Starfleet is in a rebuilding phase. The devastation of the entirety of Starfleet's Earth-based defensive fleet, and the majority of the 2258 class of graduating Starfleet Academy seniors was a terrible blow. And yet that loss was entirely overwhelmed and overshadowed by the destruction of the planet Vulcan. One of the founding and cornerstone planets of the Federation. The Vulcan race has survived the loss of their homeworld, but only just.

Four years after the destruction of the Narada Starfleet is ready to launch the first four of a series of ships built at the shipyards orbiting Mars, and you, playing newly minted Ensigns will be the most junior crewpersons aboard the USS Molotov, a 247 meter long vessel with a crew compliment of 130 officers and crew. As-yet unproven, based on the performance of the USS Miranda the Molotov should make Warp Six max speed. Her Captain is Commander Frederick Stevenson, a human from Mars, and her first officer is an Andorian.

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Game system is going to be SPIRIT, as described here, with a five-point build.

You get two skills from the list here that matches with the area of study your Ensign took in Starfleet Academy: Tactical (helmsman, conn), Engineering or Science (science or medical officers). You are limited to Ensign level skills, and do note that the colors associated with the three super-departments are the ones used from TNG on. In this game, Command and Operations/Tactical crew wear gold, not red. Seeing as Star Trek works on crazy asspulls, the skills just identify the areas where your characters have competence. If you want to do something outside that scope you'll need to find an officer who has the skills to help you out.

"We can fix this by reversing the flow through the Jenson buffers... but we better get Lieutenant Peters, because I don't know how to take a Jensen buffer apart, and we will kill ourselves."

If you make a character of a race that I cannot immediately identify, include a link to Memory Alpha. And if FreakyBoy doesn't think it's TOS-era appropriate, even that won't save you. So check yourself lest you wreck yourself.

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How Bridge Officer Skills, and Skill Checks in general work.

You're in the middle of a space battle, and Ensign Johnson is manning his battle station, which is out in the saucer directly below one of the Phaser Arrays. On the Bridge, the Captain orders his Helmsman "Increase power to the forward weapons!"

At his station, Ensign Johnson gets the relayed order over the comm. He has a few ways to play this, but decides to use some ingenious solution, which he explains in a post. Skill check time.

How it works:

Difficulty of Check vs. D10 + Attribute Bonus + Bridge Officer Skill (if applicable)

If you pass, you succeed in what you posted, if you fail, you don't, and the tide of battle swings against the Molotov. Critical successes, or successes at critical moments will go in your service record, which doesn't effect leveling up, but does effect promotion.

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Why am I doing this, you might ask? Well I do like Star Trek, and FB asked me to. And I like him, too. And I owe him.

[CCC]

Ooooh, star trek!

...hmmm. So no pulling races in from other sources like the Chanur series, then, I see. I presume that 'android' would not be TOS-era appropriate, since Data was still experimental and almost unique in the TNG-era.

Would 'Vulcan' be acceptable? Vulcans are now limited to those who were off-world at the time of the incident, after all...

[Ross_Varn]

I really want in on this, although I only have the basic understanding of the Star Trek universe through multiple novels and whatnot. Ensign Roberts is onboard if you want him, Captain!

Tactical Ensign Mark Roberts, Human
Orgin: Earth, European from England

S: 1
P: 1
I: 0
R: 1
I: 2
T: 0

Skills: Tactical
Battle Strategies
Tactical Team

A result of Earth's new generation of enamored recruits, joining on the pursuit and promise of adventure and exploration, Mark Roberts was commended in his time at the Academy for his quick thinking, unorthodox approaches to combat situations most others were challenged on. Their reports talked of his continued idealism though, warning that it may cause problems in his further career with Tactical operations. Roberts signed onto the Molotov immediately upon his release from the Academy, sure that he was ready for anything, raring to face the universe, and unheeding of the dangers that awaited on his tour of duty...

[Skitzophrenik]

Some clarifications: there are space skills down below the first set of skills on that page I linked to, so feel free to check them out. Star Trek is, in my opinion, mostly about space.

Also, given the time frame, your characters were, by and large, already enrolled in their first year at Starfleet Academy during the events of the reboot movie. So while the destruction of Vulcan might have strengthened your resolve, or whatnot, it wasn't the reason anyone joined Starfleet. I picked the time frame carefully.

[Ross_Varn]

Starfleet had a generation of 'enamored recruits' before the Vulcan incident though, didn't they? Hm. Perhaps not new, but that wasn't what I meant by that sentence.

Ah, right, space. Give me a second. Hm... I assume Tactical Team is a valid choice, although it seems to imply that I'd be the one deploying them. I think that will work.

[FreakyBoy]

There's a fair range of races in or affiliated with* the TOS Federation, but most of Starfleet is made up of Humans, Andorians, and Tellarites (less Vulcans now, due to the destruction of their homeworld. A large number of living Vulcans are likely to be ex-Starfleet, however.)

*Not all aliens known to the Federation are members yet; however, Starfleet accepts members of non-Federation races on a case-for-case basis, so not everyone serving in Starfleet is necessarily part of a Federation member race. TNG had many examples of this with the Bajorans.

[Kajin]

Awesome. I want in on this.

[FreakyBoy]

Ensign Allura, Xelosian
Engineering/Command
Origin: Xelos, Federation Affiliate Space

S: 0
P: 0
I: 0
R: 3
I: 1
T: 1

Skills:
Shield Recharge
Emergency Power to Shields

Allura is the only Xelosian in Starfleet. She is, in fact, the only Xelosian who is a full citizen of the Federation (such award comes automatically with graduation from the Academy). Her people are affiliated with the Federation, enjoy Federation protection, and have many treaties regarding trade and support with the Federation. Xelos orbits a neutron star and has incredibly high concentrations of precious metals (especially gold, silver and copper), making them highly valuable trade partners with the rest of the Federation.

This concentration of precious metals has worked its way into the Xelosian physiology, and they are dependent on daily doses of precious metal in their diet to sustain them. On Xelos, this is not a problem - all Xelosian flora is laced with the required nutrients. Off Xelos, however, this is a severe (and expensive) requirement, and so despite possessing warp technology, Xelosians rarely leave their world. Xelosians are tall and willowy, on average much less muscular than Humans. Allura had to try six times to pass the Academy physical, pushing herself to the absolute limits of Xelosian athleticism to qualify.

Allura had always been enamoured of the romanticism of Starfleet, and being accepted to the Academy was fulfillment of a lifelong goal. She has shown a great talent for shield technology (unsurprising, as many new Starfleet shields are based off Xelosian designs) and a great ambition to excel in her chosen path. Her ambition has driven her to have already taken the Kobayashi Maru test required of all Commanders in Starfleet.

Allura is a tall, thin woman, whose face - according to Xelosian custom - is constantly concealed behind a featureless golden mask (with only an eye-slit for vision). Her hair is silver - not "grey", but actual strands laced with the precious metal - worn loose and slightly curled as is Xelosian custom. Where her skin can be seen - Starfleet regulations do not allow her to wear traditional Xelosian gloves - it seems to be made of flakes of gold.

(Xelosians are a slight rebranding of these guys to avoid any confusion with the nonsense made up by a past Star Trek RPG about them.)

[Skitzophrenik]

A bit on ranks, and the Molotov in particular. In Starfleet, like in the navies it was based on (though it ought to be based on Air Forces) Captain is both a title and a rank. The Master and Commander of a ship is called Captain, even if (as in the case of Commander Stevenson) that person is not a Captain. No one else on the ship is called Captain, any conflict is avoided by bumping the other individual's rank up by one notch (to Commodore or Major) in conversation, or by avoiding the issue if possible.

Naturally one does not need to have the rank of Captain in order to have a command, but Commander Stevenson won't be commanding one of the big cruisers, like Enterprise or Lexington until he makes that grade.

I will be fleshing out the rest of the command staff of the Molotov as I have time to think. I've only had this on the burner since last night.

[Stan Cold]

No.

[FreakyBoy]

No one with two -1s would ever be accepted by Starfleet. Especially not with a -1 in Ingenuity. That's some form of mental retardation. It would be literally impossible for him to graduate.

[Stan Cold]

Ah poop.

[Skitzophrenik]

I think Talent is about the only place you could have a -1 and make it. You could get by on dogged determination, but you won't go far. Generally Starfleet isn't taking people with -1s. Allura only made it through the PT test (on her sixth try!) because with 0's in Speed and Prowess she is the strongest member of her race.

[FreakyBoy]

So, I don't think I ever really explained it well enough in SPIRIT, but given that it's a d10 system, if you're familiar with D&D or other d20 systems, keep this in mind:

A -1 is any score between a 1 and a 6. You are crippled in that capacity.
A 0 is any score between 7 and 12. You're pretty average.
A +1 is any score between a 13 and 16. You're pretty gifted.
A +2 is any score between a 17 and a 20. You're excellent.
A +3 is any score between a 21 and a 24. You're inhuman.
A +4 is any score between a 25 and a 30. You're Spock.

And CCC? Vulcan should be possible. While probably 90-95% of Vulcans in Starfleet resigned their commissions to help rebuild the Vulcan people, that still leaves 5% in Starfleet, and even though Spock is awesome, he's not unique.

[Salamander]

So, wait a sec. The GM is not only tacitly acknowledging charisma as a dump-stat, he's making it the only dump-stat?

Anyway, will have to think about what I'd like to play. Expect to hear from me, though.