Current Concept Characters

OK, this is partially brainstorming, and partially an ideas thread.

I recently saw 'The Mummy Returns' which I enjoyed for its pure entertainment value.

However I was struck by the ancient egyptian Halberds and their similaritys to the Lirpa (and its Romulan descendant), a staff weapon with a half circle scythe at each end instead of weight at one... Now in the real world we know this is due to design influences, however in the Star Trek wold this is a coincidence...

Further consideration led me to begin envisaging an Egyptian character, versed in the myth and history of his homeland, possibly skilled in several ancient arts, and also serving in Starfleet. And then on his interaction with Vulcan after noticing these design similarities...

And the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to play the character. The only drawbacks are real-life gaps in my knowledge, such as this weapons name.

But this is the sort of character that gets me to do extra research, fill in the gaps and devlop further. Besides, I always enjoy character creation.

I was wondering if anyone would care to share some of their 'high-concept' Trek characters that have either been a blast to create, or simply never materialised as the character became too complex to build correctly...

Ideas and Stats are fine. And once complete, I will be adding the stats of this egyptian character as they become completed (if anyone cares to see them).



------------------
Dan.

"A couple of thoughts from a random mind!"

I have two such character concepts, one of which I ran in a GURPSTrek game while still in college.

The first is Lt. Cmdr. Michael Swift Elk, a Native American serving as Chief Engineer aboard the U.S.S. Liberty, a Nebula-class vessel serving near the Romulan Neutral Zone. Swift Elk was a scion of the Cheyenne, an American Indian tribe that had re-settled on another planet centuries before.

This character is one that I researched for weeks before getting into the game. I spent many long hours studying local Native American culture (the Hurons) and other, related material at the library. In the end, I'd say Swift Elk was one of the best characters I've played in any game. He is slated to become an admiral in my upcoming Series.

The other character concept that I've toyed with is that of an ancestor of an African warlord. The character (whom I've been calling Mykelti) is a security officer or tactical officer hailing from Nairobi. He is very much a religious man, following the traditions and rituals of his ancestors closely. In this way he is similar to Chakotay.

On the other hand, his tribe was one of the most brutal, opposing all interlopers and devastating several other tribes in the region. For this reason, I also decided that he would be a brutal warrior, learned in the fighting arts of his people as well as the martial ways of the Klingons and the Andorians.

Dressed in the standard Starfleet uniform, he enchances his look with a traditional African stole and a necklace passed down from his tribe.

There are couple of other that I've been making notes about, but they're not quite ready for the light of day just yet. When I've put together some stats for them (as well as those presented above) I'll slap 'em up here for your perusal.

mactavish out.

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Dan Gurden:
Further consideration led me to begin envisaging an Egyptian character, versed in the myth and history of his homeland, possibly skilled in several ancient arts, and also serving in Starfleet. And then on his interaction with Vulcan after noticing these design similarities...

And the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to play the character. The only drawbacks are real-life gaps in my knowledge, such as this weapons name.

But this is the sort of character that gets me to do extra research, fill in the gaps and devlop further. Besides, I always enjoy character creation.

Ideas and Stats are fine. And once complete, I will be adding the stats of this egyptian character as they become completed (if anyone cares to see them).

---

I would be interested. I ran a two parter with a kind of 'Who Mourns for Adonis' and 'Stargate' the movie inspiration. A race of beings similar to Apollo, who I called the Retids (or Children of Ra) assumed the place of gods to the people or Khem (not the Khem on Earth).
The Excalibur was attracted to this system when two starships were detected in the system. Matet (becoming strong), was a size 10 vessel and the primary ship of the Retids. Although a capable warship, Ra could not afford to risk it in battle. Its loss would result in his people being restricted to the planet. The Semktet (becoming weak), was a size 4 ship used as a scout/escort. Sekhmet, commander of the Semktet, was beginning to become conflicted with her role as 'inforcer' in space and on the planet and allowed the Excalibur to get close enough to learn how the native population was being exploited. She did defect at the end but plans to have her join the crew were shattered when the player who was going to run her moved.

Sekhmet
Retid female
Although professing to be much older looks to be equivalent to 25 - 30 Earth years.

Fitness 3 Vitality +1
Coordination 5 Dextarity +1
Intellect 3
Presence 5
Psi 2

Skills
Administration (Starship) 4(5)
Athletics (Jumping) 2(3) (Running) (3)
Charm (Influence) 2(3)
Command (Starship) 4(5)
Computer (Research) 2(3)
Culture (Retids) 2(3)
Dodge 3
Energy Weapon (Staff of Ra) 4(5)
History (Retids) 2(3)
Languange Khemet 4
Planetary Tactics (Small Unit) 2(5)
Primitive Weapon (Staff of Ra) 4(5)
Projective Telepathy 2
Shipboard Systems (Flight Control) 3(5) (Tactical) (4)
Starship Tactics (Retid) 3(5)
Unarmed Combat (Brawling) 3(4)
Vehicle Operations (Shuttle) 2(3)
World Knowledge (Khem) 1(2)

Traits
Eidetic Memory (+3) Strong Will (+2) Rapid Healing (+1) Rival (-2) Sexy (+2) Obsessive Tendencies (-3) Athletic Ability (+2)

Did not do a check to see how many points were used to create Sekhmet but would have reduced some skills if she would have become a PC. Loss of connection with her 'source of power' thing.
The potential player liked the idea of a 'war goddess' who was starting to feel trapped in her job. We talked about how Nimoy said he had trouble controlling his emotions when off the set because of the strain of his role.

Did not really go into any depth on the Staff of Ra. Everyone had watched Stargate and just let them use that image. I did use the Lirpa for melee stats and phaser stats for its energy potential. I did decide that it could only be fired 'to kill' about 20 times before it required recharge but only if too far from the mother ship.

As a side note, the Excalibur did not destroy the Retid ships. The Federation Council is debating what response should be taken towards the Retid. http://www.trekrpg.net/Board/ubb/smile.gif

I seem to recall a T.O.S. episode featuring
an "immortal" going by the name of "Flint,"
who was born in ancient Mesopotamia. It's
very easy to envision other such immortals,
and one (or more) of them might have been
born in ancient Egypt, or at least spent a
few centuries living as an Egyptian...

Quote:

---

Originally posted by John Raynor:
I seem to recall a T.O.S. episode featuring
an "immortal" going by the name of "Flint,"
who was born in ancient Mesopotamia. It's
very easy to envision other such immortals,
and one (or more) of them might have been
born in ancient Egypt, or at least spent a
few centuries living as an Egyptian...

---

Its an idea, but not one I was going for with this thread. I was looking for other such 'High-concept' characters developed by others due to similar experiences...



------------------
Dan.

"A couple of thoughts from a random mind!"

Awesome thread, Dan!

For sometime now I’ve wanted to do a character with multiple personalities in Star Trek (probably only two for simplicities sake). My problem has been first representing this properly in Icon (I imagine two sets of characters, each with the same physical stats, and the DP somewhat evenly spread out) and doing so in such a way that the character isn’t viewed immediately as a “twink.” (Hey, even the most supportive players at a table get a little jealous when someone steps in with a “cooler” character that breaks the norms and has “perks.”)

My other problem has been rationalizing how the character made it through Starfleet training and past the various psychological tests and counselors. In the 24th century I imagine it is pretty difficult for any serious psychological ailments to get past medical screening. Oh sure, Captain Maxwell going renegade is one thing, but a person with multiple distinct personalities?

If anyone has some thoughts on how any of the above problems could be handled, I’d appreciate it.

Qualifier: It’s a concept that I’ve been toying with but have had little (read: no) time to research or try to develop. As such, this idea really hasn’t been developed by me at all. This thread just happened to make me type it up quickly. http://www.trekrpg.net/Board/ubb/smile.gif


------------------
Don
trekrpg@trekrpg.net
http://www.trekrpg.net/Board/ubb/sig_don.gif

mmm.

Multiple personalities...

It happened in a World of Darkness game late intoi a campaign. At that time it was simply a matter of recording the character sheet and providing experience points in direct relation to the achievments of each personality in direct relation to each's actions during the game...

The late developing mental problem is possibly the eaiest way of introducing the character type.

Theres also the Binar possibility, but thats more two of the same...

But in a similar note, how about a new Federation species, one with two dominant brains, while one sleeps, one personality is dominant, and when that sleeps, the other is active...

Mild mannered Scientists by day, and Hard hitting Security chief by night... http://www.trekrpg.net/Board/ubb/wink.gif



------------------
Dan.

"A couple of thoughts from a random mind!"

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Dan Gurden:
But in a similar note, how about a new Federation species, one with two dominant brains, while one sleeps, one personality is dominant, and when that sleeps, the other is active...

Mild mannered Scientists by day, and Hard hitting Security chief by night... http://www.trekrpg.net/Board/ubb/wink.gif

---

Nah. That screams “twink” to me. http://www.trekrpg.net/Board/ubb/biggrin.gif

I’m thinking more along the lines of a potentially “normal” person who developed multiple personalities either naturally or through a traumatic event.

The problem is generating the character with some degree of equitable distribution – you can’t have a 200 DP character at the table, just like creating playable Trill characters was difficult for play balance reasons. Dividing XP through play is easy – that’s not my concern. http://www.trekrpg.net/Board/ubb/smile.gif


------------------
Don
trekrpg@trekrpg.net
http://www.trekrpg.net/Board/ubb/sig_don.gif

We've got an Orion girl who was raised as a slave and sex servant, then rescued by Starfleet officers and raised on Earth through her teen years. She eventually became a Starfleet officer doing intel work against the Orion Syndicate.

We've also got a new, very life-like gynoid (female android) made by the Daystrom Institute, who is currently undergoing her cadet training.

A Klingon exchange officer who is finding he likes working with the Federation and is fascinated by Efrosian culture.

A human engineering officer who got married to two Andorian sisters (and another Andorian male, of course) and has gone completely native, getting into the culture, the fighting arts, and the like.

I can work within those parameters, Don. If one of my characters wanted to play a mutliple personality character in a game I was GMing, here's how I would run the ICON game mechanics part:

The character has the same number of DP as any other character in the campaign. Next to each skill, the player writes which personalities have access to that particular skill.

Now, if the player controlled which personality was dominant, nothing more need be done: the mechanics of the character are done, the rest is roleplaying with those statistics. But if the GM or other outside events had an influence on which personality was dominant, I'd give the character a few DP worth of a disadvantage: multiple personalities. The number would be dependant on how often I expected it to come up in the game, and be similar in scope to the DP cost for codes of honor.

I created a number of Vulcanoid Rigellian characters -- NPCs really, for my K-Reach campaign. They were pretty high-concept. Had to give them a culture and everything.

I also came up with a Swedish captain descended from a long line of Baltic Sea sailors. This was in case I needed to use an NPC captain, if none of the players wanted to be captain. He was pretty standard except for his lack of visible emotions, and love of boating, including "Storms at Sea" holodeck adventures.

Another NPC was a Centaurian doctor descended from a long line of Healer-priestesses. This didn't give her any special abilities except maybe a knowledge of some Centaurian herbs, but it did make her a bit more colorful.

------------------
Slan agat!

Don said: I’m thinking more along the lines of a potentially “normal” person who developed multiple personalities either naturally or through a traumatic event.

How about a character that was psychically (or technologically) imprinted with one (or more) additional personalities? Perhaps an entire civilization's populace psychically recorded into the mind of a child who, growing into adulthood, must deal with these thousands or millions of personae.
Maybe with the assistance of Betazoid or Vulcan counsellors, or maybe simply misdiagnosed and confined to a sanitarium.
How about creating one character, but with multiple players, each with a different set of mental Attributes, Skills, and Advantages/Disadvantages?

Oh, and by the way, it's now called Dissociative Personality Disorder rather than multiple personality disorder. Just FYI.

mactavish out.

I'm not really sure this qualifies as "high concept" but I created a character that I modeled after myself! http://www.trekrpg.net/Board/ubb/smile.gif

A rather hard-headed, strong-willed computer science officer of Elaysian persuasion, who might in the future tend to lean toward being anti-social, just for the "anti-social geek" stereotype factor http://www.trekrpg.net/Board/ubb/smile.gif

You see, I myself am disabled with spina bifida and have my CIS degree. To me, it just naturally came to pass that I'd have to play myself online sometime http://www.trekrpg.net/Board/ubb/smile.gif


------------------
Impossibilities are merely things which we have not yet learned. — Charles W. Chesnutt

Official Member of The Friday Night No-life club.

http://www.magicstar.net
"No life channel" Channel: #NO_LIFE_CLUB

"Maps channel"
Channel:#SIRSIGMAPS

Official Admiral of the RPG-Trek Yahoo group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rpg-trek

LUGTrek yahoo group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LUGTrek

Oujr ship has a chracter that is a Ferangie who is the Quartermaster of a Galaxy-class Starship. He is over Supply and Requissions, Transporters, Cargo Operations, Shuttlebay 2 and 3, Room Assignments, ect... He is like Radar on M*A*S*H. he can get ahold of anything. He is a Lt. Cmdr. in the Command Division and owes alot of favors, and Favors owed to him. He is also very tight with the Chief Administrative Officer, and Captains Yoeman. LOL

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Don:

My other problem has been rationalizing how the character made it through Starfleet training and past the various psychological tests and counselors. In the 24th century I imagine it is pretty difficult for any serious psychological ailments to get past medical screening. Oh sure, Captain Maxwell going renegade is one thing, but a person with multiple distinct personalities?

---

Maybe this character is not a member of Starfleet at all. A civilian scientist or technician comes to mind, who has valuable knowledge and get's assigned to the ship for a few specific missions/experiments.

------------------
"To seek, to strive, to find and not to yield" - Alfred Tennyson

Here's an idea I've toyed with which falls under the "high concept" description: A female Ferengi, ostrecized (sp?) by her own culture, who winds up being a Security crewman. I figure she enlisted during the Dominion War.

What about a Fontaine-like hologram?

------------------
'Who would have thought... A brave Ferengi!'
Gowron, to Quark, son of Keldar.

What exactly do you call a 'High-concept' characters ?

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Dan Gurden:

And the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to play the character. The only drawbacks are real-life gaps in my knowledge, such as this weapons name.

But this is the sort of character that gets me to do extra research, fill in the gaps and devlop further. Besides, I always enjoy character creation.

I was wondering if anyone would care to share some of their 'high-concept' Trek characters that have either been a blast to create, or simply never materialised as the character became too complex to build correctly...

Ideas and Stats are fine. And once complete, I will be adding the stats of this egyptian character as they become completed (if anyone cares to see them).

---

This was what I meant by high-concept although those truely individual and one-off characters also count...

The sort of thing that the idea strikes you and you know that playing this character will be fun, educational, and everyone is jealous because they wished they had thought of it first...

That sort of thing.


------------------
Dan.

"A couple of thoughts from a random mind!"
http://www.theventure.freeserve.co.uk

Well, I and a solo player have been developing a Starfleet "Profiler" Character, essentially s SI officer with specialization in Forensics.

As a Half-Deltan, her empathic abilities, though sporadic, give her insight 'flashes' the same way Sam got them on TV, from objects and the 'fingerprint' that events leave behind.

We gave her a background as a Diplomatic 'brat,' a connection to the Vulcan ambassador as his former aide, and an intense fascination for 'universal myths' (such as the idea that versions of "Beauty and the Beast" exist in every known culture.)

My player is working on her 'history of life' biography, which I expect will go in to some great detail, thus hopefully giving me some seeds for adventure ideas that will appeal to her.

But I have to say, writing a Trek murder mystery isn't going to be easy. Finding people with SF tech is just too easy.

Quote:

---

Originally posted by calguard66:
You're talking as if having "multiple personalities" is an advantage. It's not... at least for humans. The personalities usually aren't compatable... one outgoing, the other reclusive, one good, the other evil, etc.

---

No, I don’t consider it an Advantage, nor a Disadvantage. I consider it difficult to properly represent through mechanics and to maintain play balance considerations. Hence my asking for any assistance.

Your point is well taken on the division of skills and abilities, but my dilemma has been how to construct said skills in a logical fashion.

Quote:

---

Read up on multiple personality disorder a bit, it isn't anything like you've described.

---

Hey, back off – I never made any claims of being an expert nor to have researched the issue. In fact, if you bother to read above, I specifically said that I hadn’t.


------------------
Don
trekrpg@trekrpg.net
http://www.trekrpg.net/Board/ubb/sig_don.gif

I'm a little confused as to this character that has MPS. Would SF allow such an "unstable" element into its ranks?

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Don:
Hey, back off – I never made any claims of being an expert nor to have researched the issue. In fact, if you bother to read above, I specifically said that I hadn’t.

---

Easy, easy... I wasn't criticizing, really. One of the first things I do when I try to do something like this is read up on it. It gives you a better "image" of the "picture" you're trying to imitate.

And I think that my point about "two 100pt Chars" rather than "one 200pt Char" is helpful. As long as the two personalities don't share memories, that's really what you are doing.

Another way of looking at it might be similar to a robot body, with different programming modules.

An adventure idea for this character might be if there was a transporter accident, and the person was split into their component personalities... they would all get to finally "meet" each other.

------------------
"I'd rather die standing than live on my knees..."
Shania Twain

Yea, I was wondering the same thing:

"My other problem has been rationalizing how the character made it through Starfleet training and past the various psychological tests and counselors. In the 24th century I imagine it is pretty difficult for any serious psychological ailments to get past medical screening. Oh sure, Captain Maxwell going renegade is one thing, but a person with multiple distinct personalities?"

I envision the character as a Starfleet officer that possibly recently developed the disorder, or was adept at hiding it.

I saw a thread on RPG.net a few months back where a character in another RPG had DPD. Two people played the character -- one for each personality.

Another track that I actually developed for a Spacemaster game years ago, was along the same lines as what mac desribed, was a deep undercover operative for the DK that another personality forcibly imprinted on top to aid in the undercover operation. As a reaction to certain stimuli the original personality surfaced. Of course the experiement went horribly wrong and the operative came out early and kept reverting back to the other personality at random intervals. Both personalities were pretty ticked off at being used in such a manner, hence the adventurers lifestyle "they" undertook. The clincher is that neither one, after awhile, really knew which one was the 'original' personality. (Game ended before much of this could be resolved.)

I'd like to see the same thing in Trek. Perhaps Section 31? http://www.trekrpg.net/Board/ubb/smile.gif

I’d like to underscore that these discussions should not be construed as making like of what is a serious disorder. It is the complexity and breadth of some such issues that makes them challenging and enjoyable to roleplay.


------------------
Don
trekrpg@trekrpg.net
http://www.trekrpg.net/Board/ubb/sig_don.gif

When I got to play in my own campaign for a special adventure created by one of the players, I created a character that may fit into this discussion.

She was a U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. who had trained as an astronaut but never got her ride. She met up with the PC when they ventured to 1999 to stop a renegade captain from crippling the space program. (which in this alternate universe had just recovered from the Eugenics Wars and had begun manned exploration of the solar system)

I chased the PCs back to transport site and ended up beaming onboard their ship. The PCs determined they couldn't risk a return trip so I was kept around and after roleplaying some culture shock ("We're really in space? Can I see Earth from here? What is warp travel? Who would could you possibily be at war with in the future?") I helped stop the bad guys from escaping with a well placed 9mm bullet to their warp core.

She was given a provisional commission and has undergone extensive training to bring her up to speed with the rest of the PCs. Lt. Monica Rodriguez is now a junior operations officer with specialization in diagnostic systems at Deep Space 11.

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Don:
Nah. That screams “twink” to me. http://www.trekrpg.net/Board/ubb/biggrin.gif

I’m thinking more along the lines of a potentially “normal” person who developed multiple personalities either naturally or through a traumatic event.

The problem is generating the character with some degree of equitable distribution – you can’t have a 200 DP character at the table, just like creating playable Trill characters was difficult for play balance reasons. Dividing XP through play is easy – that’s not my concern. http://www.trekrpg.net/Board/ubb/smile.gif

---

You're talking as if having "multiple personalities" is an advantage. It's not... at least for humans. The personalities usually aren't compatable... one outgoing, the other reclusive, one good, the other evil, etc.

Having somebody else running around in your body while you're not aware of it is a definite disadvantage. Each personality would be a seperate individual, so you wouldn't have a 200 DP character, you would have two 100 DP characters, each of which is only active part of the time, and each of which has a signifigant disadvantage: "serious mental illness".

Switching between the two usually isn't voluntary, so you couldn't pick the "best" personality for the situation... and stress often triggers the change, so you could go from being the "karatemaster" to "the computermaster" in the middle of a fight.

Read up on multiple personality disorder a bit, it isn't anything like you've described.

An alien species with two conciouses in one head, or some other division would be possible... say a "hunter" lobe of the brain that takes over during danger, a "thinker" lobe for intellectual problems. The problem with this is that most problems require a multifaceted approach. If the hunter personality is smart enough to overcome tactical problems, it probably is smart enough that it doesn't need the intellectual... and if it CAN'T solve them, you would have to switch back and forth, and each lobe would need to know what the other was doing (having to re-orient itself each time would be deadly in a fight)... might as well be one personality.

------------------
"I'd rather die standing than live on my knees..."
Shania Twain

[This message has been edited by calguard66 (edited 05-22-2001).]

here's how i'd do mpd, or did:
1) build a normal 125/8 pt character with no advantages/disadvantages
2) come up with a reason why this character exists (i. e. why did s/he pick the overlay)
3) come up with how the disorder came into being (we are not born with it, it is environmentally triggered)
4) now, using the character's psychology from numbers two and three, create the other personality by subtracting development points from the principal character. In other words, you will have two copies of character #1; take the copy and essentially move the points around until you like the game reflection of what you consider #2's psychology to be.
5) advantages and disadvantages must now be considered in different lights. first, something that relies on appearance will always be in effect. thus, if one has promotion, they both have to. same applies for medical problems with them, unless they are psychosomatic (which is common w/did).
finally, remember that Starfleet is all-inclusive. if your character is undergoing therapy or is on medication, they really have no problem as long as job performance is not affected. Hope this helps.

In regards to high concept, I don't know if this qualifies, but back in the day when I first started playing Captain Zymmer, my buddy Seb played a vulcan named Sebok (don't laugh) who was a scientist and was fond of quoting Shakespeare based on our current situation. Now being an actor myself I was put to shame by the amount of research thuis guy did with the character and how he always had the right quote available for the right time. Never used the same one twice either.

He died in a fire fight with some Romulans on an away mission, but I will never forget him. Great character.

------------------
Aslan Collas
=-=-=-=-=-=-=
RPG_Trek; http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rpg-trek
=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Ferengi Rule Of Acquisition #76: Every once in a while, declare peace. It confuses the hell out of your enemies.