Main Characters as PCs (poll & discussion)

I have a question, primarily for players as opposed to GM/narrators, regardless of system. Those who pretty much exclusively GM should feel free to comment, but I'd like to see the results of the poll based primarily on those who act as PCs during Trek sessions. It's a pretty simple question:

Do you prefer to play as an established main character from the Trek series? That is, actually playing in a group composed of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy; or Data, Riker, Crusher and Worf; and so on, regardless of which game system, regardless of which Trek show.

I ask because of the "Main Characters" thread over in CODA, and what seems to be a somewhat common philosophy that roleplaying Trek means roleplaying self-created characters, not the ones we've seen on TV. And I've seen references in more than one system that say something to the extent of "You're not playing the Main Characters, their story has already been told". And I get the impression that they simply don't want to run an adventure with (example) Kira, Bashir and O'Brien as main characters, or a game which features the Enterprise (any version) as the setting.

I could be totally wrong, I've been out of the scene for some time (pre ICON) and am playing catchup on the internets. When my friends and I played ages ago (seriously, ages, like pre-FASA!), we definitely wanted to play Kirk and Scotty & Co. Sure, we had self-created characters too, but we wanted to play that Star Trek. Even wehn FASA came out, we were still playing as The Crew. Of course, this was before TNG...

So what say you? Do you like to play those characters, or you don't see the point, or something else? And for the GMs, what do you prefer in the games you run? Do you prefer to create the setting from scratch and have the Players design characters around that, or do you long to be the Narrator in some lost episode of TOS?

I mostly GM campaigns these days.

Back in the day when I was more a player than a narrator I liked settings where one would interact with "The Crew" (whatever series that might have been...) but we never acutally portrayed series characters. They played an important part of most storylines though. We mostly played during early TNG and we were all part of the Enterprise crew, at least for a while, working and adventuring alongside Picard, Data, Tasha etc.

That was very much fun and it was nice to have stats available for the main characters if you wanted to compare you skills in a certain area with them or maybe even wanted to meet them head-on on something. That's one of the reasons why I like to have officially statted Main Characters (as I have posted in the thread you mentioned).

But we also have played a very rewarding 'free-form' Trek RPG campaign that lasted years back when TNG first aired here in germany, actually without the benefit (or in our case the restrain) of a dedicated RPG ruleset and dice rolling. It worked remarkably well I remember. To this day it probably was my most rewarding and enjoyable roleplaying experience. It never came up, to 'be' one of the established stars. We just placed our PC alongside that crew on an equal footing.

Today as a narrator, I probably wouldn't want my players to take over main characters of the various shows. I obviously wouldn't stand in the way of meeting them, teaming up with them or even clashing with stars of the shows. These people are for me the 'salt in the soup' that is Star Trek, they have made the setting what it is and are points of the setting that players can easily relay to.

I wouldn't even mind if one or more players would be inspired or influenced in the choices for his character due to his favorite show persona. That's another reason why I would like to see how you could use the rules to emmulate characters from the shows and their (special) abilities.

So I hold the main cast in high esteem, like to have them statted out (for a number of reasons, some mentioned above) and regularly incorporate them in my storylines. In my oppinion (and experience) it is much more fun (for the group), meeting e.g. with the Enterprise on a mission and lending them a hand or working together, than only be doing their own thing all the time.

But I have never actually gamed in a group (neither as player nor as narrator) were the main cast was used as PCs.

Might be an interesting experience, though!

And as I recall Decipher made some introductory adventure games for the CODA Lord Of The Rings RPG where you did exactly that: Walking in the shoes of the members of the Fellowship of the Ring. Never played that, therefore can't comment on it.

Hope that rambling wasn't too off-topic :)

I like Trek, a lot, which is why I post on a Trek Roleplaying forum.....

Which is why I would NEVER let my friends ruin much loved characters, by doing horrible things too and with them :) Plus if you or one of your players also loves said show (a huge chance, again, if they are playing an RPG) then they will likelly go 'but Spock wouldn't act like that', or go 'but Sul is really against this type of thing in episode 27' etc...

Plus aside from that, there are continuity issues, like what happens if you're playing TOS Kirk, and you get him killed....

It's an excellent piece of flavour to have them as backdrop NPC's - something to get players in a Trek mood and go "awesome Scotty just came and said well done for fixing the engines, how cool is that!", but that's when they are under storyteller control, and you can think about how they are to be used in your story.

Plus, yes, most players prefer not to be too hemmed in by such a rigid character background as 5 series and 10 films :D The 'responsibility' is theirs if they invent their own character.

I've played and GMed RPGs for years and years, and I can say that I've never run, or played, a game where anyone ever played a character from an established setting. We've always created our own characters, whether it was for Star Trek, Star Wars, etc.

I guess the only exception is the GM playing known characters as cameos or NPCs, but I don't think that really counts.

As a GM I prefer that players come up with their own concepts, even if they are heavily influenced by an existing character for reasons of characterization accuracy.

Way back in the day, when I got to PLAY something other than D&D, the guy who introduced our group to both Star Wars and Star Trek RPGs had a thing for adventures with we players as the main characters. A major problem became that multiple players wanted to be the same character and disgruntled players were in abundance (a problem avoided when playing player creations, even if half the bridge crew is a Riker knock-off :D).

To lessen the pain, I convinced the GM to just let us take over an uncharted piece of history and take command of the Enterprise-B, since our PC captain had a mad-on for the Excelsior-class. (This was pre-Generations, and we just explained it away as Harriman resigned in disgrace after getting a legend killed on a shakedown cruise).

Star Wars worked out a little better, if only because the various players had different favorite characters. But I think on the whole you are much better having players make a character that suits them rather than sub in Saavik-style.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ineti

I've played and GMed RPGs for years and years, and I can say that I've never run, or played, a game where anyone ever played a character from an established setting. We've always created our own characters, whether it was for Star Trek, Star Wars, etc.

---

I get the impression that those who play the Serentiy RPG never play anything but Mal & Co on the Firefly. I wonder what the difference is? 15 episodes and a movie?

I find this really fascinating. Glad I asked, although it does make me wonder if I'm wasting my time on a project I'm working on.

The only times I've noticed people play the crew of Serenity have been at conventions. All the face-to-face and play-by-post games I've seen have revolved around original characters.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by mechascorpio

I get the impression that those who play the Serentiy RPG never play anything but Mal & Co on the Firefly. I wonder what the difference is? 15 episodes and a movie?

---

As a Serenity RPG gamer we always came up with our own concepts there too..

So your experiences are not neccesarily the norm.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dan Gurden

So your experiences are not neccesarily the norm.

---

Definitely not experiences, just impressions. Or, rather, mis-impressions it seems!

Maybe. It depends on the GM, session or campaign.
As a player, if it's a one-time session, I think it's fun to play a commonly known character. You can play out William Shatner's unique style of acting or play out Bones': "He's Dead Jim!" or Spock's: "That's illogical, Captain".
Pro: You know your role, and so do all the other players.
Con: Everybody will have an opinion on the way you act your character.

For a campaign I'd prefer to build and upgrade my own character and find out their role within the group for myself.

As a Narrator, the players' fun is my reward, so it's their choice. But I do like to guest-star an established Trek character as an NPC in the occasional scene, like admiral Picard inspecting the bridge and complimenting the PC's on a job well done before returning to the Enterprise.

With the new Star Trek movie coming out in May 2009, I wanted to share my take on the CODA stats for the 4 Original Series Bridge Crew characters which were left out of the Narrator's Guide by Decipher: Sulu, Scotty, Chekov and Uhura.

I posted their stats in the topic "TOS stats in CODA" in the Narrator's Ready Room Forum last thursday, and by now I'm longing for some input. Cheers! :)