Revamping the Vulcans

This is inspired by the "Hides Emotions" thread on the "?'s" board but system-less so I put it here.

How do other folks run Vulcans? I've not got the LUG book - and had set "game canon" prior to LUG-Trek's begining so couldn't really change to it anyhow...

TK's Vulcan's tend to be a bit more (at least hopefully) emotionally complex than Tuvok and dwell less on their "Vulcanness" than Spock (being free of "half-breed angst"). In fact I've tried to reduce the impact of "Vulcanness" on their actions and increase the impact of their job, history, and situation.

Many Vulcans, while they hold the teachings of Surak as important and relevant, do not dedicate their existance to exploring those teachings. They control and hide their emotions because that is the way they are taught from a small child Vulcans are - and don't really have a reason to question it. In essence the Vulcan culture is a theocracy - though they have elaborate logical constructs to convince anyone who asks that it is not. Vulcans are raised within the theocracy and not encouraged to "think outside the box."

Star Fleet challenges this system - by its very nature SF requires its members to be creative thinkers. As a result SF Vulcans often develop world views quite a bit different from their "dirtside" cousins. They tend to recognize and value the fact that their shipmates have emotions. They recognize in fact that the exploration of the interaction between a Vulcan's world view and a Human's within the confines of the ship is every bit as important to the Federation as exploring the next star system.

As a result of this I've had a long running Vulcan NPC (the XO) that is not your typical "that action is not logical" Vulcan. He is smart enough to adapt his behavior to optimally perform his job. As a TNG era officer he has the benifit of having learned that "acting Vulcan" can be a detriment to leadership of Humans for example. Like any good officer he will take the needs of his crew (even their illogical ones) into account when giving orders. He's still going to make the "logical"/right choice even if it means upsetting someone or getting them killed - but so will a good Human officer. It has greatly enhanced the usefullness of this character. The PC's came into it expecting Spock/Tuvok/Data he's going to play it straight and always make the "right" choice. Instead he's had some "Kirk" elements - he takes chances, makes creative choices, in affect *uses* this fantastic intellect that Vulcan's are supposed to have. (Although I've had a couple of "slow" Vulcan's too - they can't all be smart - or right). He doesn't tell jokes, laugh, smile, or act "Human" but he has been funny on purpose because it makes the crew like him (which Spock also did as he grew), and doesn't miss an opportunity to reward postive behaviour in public at social events onboard (more affective than XP IMHO). He's never suggested that someone's choice is "wrong" because it is "emotional". If that is the only reason it would be wrong - perhaps it isn't, at least for them.

IDIC,

TK

Whoa... well, the NPC first officer of my campaign falls under this same category. She's a Vulcan female who, while acting seemingly cold, does not resort to the same behavior patterns shown by Tuvok or Spock. She's more relaxed, and far more natural. She's even capable of throwing an ironic smile here and there, much like when Spock freed himself of his Vulcan pose.

I justified this by telling to myself she's not following the teachings of Surak but those of one of his disciples. But the spirit, and the intention, is exactly the same you evoked. http://216.40.212.6/Board/ubb/smile.gif

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Chakotay: You didn't poison my coffee, did you?
Janeway: Not any more than I usually do.
"The Voyager Conspiracy", Voyager

I think you have developed the character of Vulcan well. I have always felt that the Vulcans were not done justice in TNG or Voyager. I think back to when I was a child, and saw Amok time. Vulcan's were scary. They were primal and yet cold. They were like a blade, an archaic weapon that is straight lined, icy to the touch but made for one purpose. to kill. In Mirror Mirror its touched again, that scary vulcan feeling. In TNG the vulcans, nor the Romulans are very scary. Its like we forgot what they really are, why they have all that control. To me Vulcans are a slip away from killing. It is implied by their history, and portrayed by their cousins in the beta quadrant.
Vulcans are preoccupoed by two emotions in my world, rage and fear and each is for the other. They are a great and powerful society held back by issues. They are, in human standards, Severly emotionally disturbed. They are the maniac that you suspect will break, though you cant prove it. Humans tolerate them for they have given us much, but we also fear them for that unknown quality, the idea of what they might become. They demand respect with their presence and they know that they are superior physically and mentally. But there is the balance, that inablity to be alive, to be like us. That is what Vulcans are in my game.

I have to both agree and disagree with Jonas and thundergod here.

In TNG and later, Vulcans were hard done by. There was no Vulcan character that captured what we saw of Vulcans in TOS. Vulcans are distant, highly intelligent and rational, logical and cold, not given to expressing their emotions. At the same time, they are a passionate people, deep-rooted in history and traditions, with a penchant for huge outbursts of emotions.

It's important to note that Vulcans DO have emotions; they have just learned to repress them. Think of the Vulcans as a bottle of champagne - sits quietly, and is best when chilled; shake it up and pop the cork, and - BANG! Emotions everywhere, and almost out-of-control.

This is probably why some of the players in my game will not play a Vulcan - I have high standards for the race.

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"...and more controversial than Oolon Colluphid's trilogy of philosophical blockbusters Where God went Wrong, Some More of God's Greatest Mistakes, and Who is this God Person Anyway?"
- The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams (dec.)

Sounds about the same as what we've been doing with Vulcans: they have emotions, but it's not of your damn business. They're control freaks.

I agree, the Vulcans *should* be scary.
Distant, introspectively secretive, and
laconic (in more than one sense of that
particular word). After all...the only
thing stopping the Vulcans from turning
into *Romulans* is a little quasi-religious
philosophy, and every student of history
knows that schools of philosophy come and
go... There's no reason to think that Surak
*has* to be Vulcan's *last* "Great Reformer".
Imagine *that,* exploding right in the
Federation's heart...

One last note. In my campaign I didn't allow any PC's to play Vulcans. I felt a with a low birthing Qutient (compared to other spices) there were few of them in the fleet. They were treated like the monks high on the mountain of WuTang in china. They had a scent about them that made men angry and women pationate...well humans at least. for Klingons it just made them all angry.

Time we heard some Player Character Vulcans, instead of just NPCs.

In our regular game (post-Dominion War era), I play one Vulcan (relax, the 'Pakled' identity is stowed far away), specifically the campaign vessel's chief engineer, and one other player, who portrays the chief security/tactical officer, is also a Vulcan!
A bit heavy on the Vulcan theme, perhaps, but having 2 PC Vulcans aboard HAS led us to a unique perspective. Well, maybe not unique- are there others on this forum who "have gone there, done that"?

Anyway, what's so interesting about our 2 Vulcans is a number of things:
1- They are almost polar opposites in their "Vulcan-ness". The tac officer is firmly 'old school', rigid; but then he has a right to be, he is older than Tuvok is in 'Voyager'. My engineer is almost a "modern" Vulcan despite the fact that she is also over 100 years old. As you can guess, these two often have clashes of opinion, and a certain tension exists between these 2 characters that other players and the narrators also have found interesting.
2- They are opposite genders (male Tactical, female Engineer), adding subtly to the tension between them. This despite the fact (or perhaps because of this) that my character IS married -to a NPC spouse, residing safely on Vulcan- while my colleague is a widower, and not at all given to...the Vulcan equivalent of skirt-chasing.
3- One outranks the other: although both have advanced to lt. cmdr. rank, the tactical guy outranks my Vulcan because of seniority (he was promoted years earlier). This only adds to the personality-clashes, as one Vulcan will often find something to be at odds over with the other.
4- Despite all the above, the two Vulcies do respect each other as colleagues, and there has even risen a "sort of" friendship between the two...sort of. Hey, they're Vulcans! Vulcans always find ways to make things just a little more difficult than they need to be (just kidding)