[ICON] How many DP would YOU give 'em...?

[Age of Toast]

A player of mine and I are creating a little side campaign to my regular PBEM to combat the slow pace of it.

It is set in the Movie-Era (2293), and ties in to my regular campaign, (set in 2374).

Anyway, my player is to Captain his own ship, being brought out of retirement by Starfleet.

How many DP's would you guys give to create a character who is experienced enough to be a retired captain, and (obvious) star of the series?

I have been tossing this back and forth for a while now... wondered what you fine folks would have to say.

buttered or dry?

[redwood973]

Let me see. . .

Species Template--50 pts
Overlay--54 pts
Early Life--5 pts
Academy Life History--8 pts
Cadet Cruise--1 pt
First Tour--10 pts
Subsequent Tours of Duty--5 pts
Experience Points--1 pt per year

. . .so it depends on how old your character is and how many tours s/he took.

I figure someone could make captain by age 37 to 40, so figure 38 years old when promoted to captain. . .if they serve say 10 years as captain then retire they would be 48.

So if s/he graduated from Starfleet Academy at 22 years old and served until age 48 your looking at 26 years of service. . .about six tours for 35 DP's (remember first is 10 pts, 5 pts each for the remaining 5 tours). They would also get 26 experience points, one for each year of service.

If you figure 8 years in retirement they get an additional 8 experience points (one for each year), and return to service at age 56.

So. . .about 187 DP's, give or take.

[Age of Toast]

Thanks, Redwood...!

You weigh in VERY close to my original assessment of things. The problem I have, that casues me to second-guess myself, is when you look at the DP values for Picard or Sisko.

I mean, it's not normally in my nature to be so permissive, but I am in the unique position of not having to worry about balanced play with one player.

This is meant to be a romp in the movie era, where a good friend of mine gets to be the next Kirk...

how far would you go? an other opinions? Is this just an excuse for both of us to Munchkin?

mmm.... fresh from the toaster...

[redwood973]

Don't judge your characters by the characters you see on the shows. The on-screen characters, and their abilities/skills, were created for plot of the show, not play in an RPG.

[Age of Toast]

I was referring to the characters as presented in the RPG Books. Not the show.

Make no mistake, despite my indulgence with this new campaign, I've been gaming for 18 years now, and despite my low number of posts on this screenname, I've belonged to this board since 1999.

Furthermore, I am a writer by trade. I understand plot and plot devices.

Not looking for admonitions, just some advice and commentary on playing a 'high level campaign' for a good romp.

If I want to go back to careful bordering on cautious, balanced play, I'll stick with my main campaign.

[redwood973]

I was referring to the characters as presented in the RPG Books. Not the show.

--Age of Toast

As was I.

Make no mistake, despite my indulgence with this new campaign, I've been gaming for 18 years now, and despite my low number of posts on this screenname, I've belonged to this board since 1998.

Furthermore, I am a writer by trade. I understand plot and plot devices.

Not looking for admonitions, just some advice and commentary on playing a 'high level campaign' for a good romp.

If I want to go back to careful bordering on cautious, balanced play, I'll stick with my main campaign.

[/rant]

--Age of Toast

I sincerely apologize for me, a lowly mortal, trying to assist a great and powerful gamemaster. How dare I take my time to respond and attempt to assist when no one else seemed to care enough to respond to this topic.

I am truly ashamed of my self.

Edited to ask: Why did your remove "[/rant]" from your post after this responce?

[calguard66]

All sacrcasm aside, it seems to me that you're looking to create a character more in line with what you would create for a novel or a TV series... essentially you're creating a Kirk or Picard. You even said so yourself.

So, I suggest doing what the series did. Put down a baseline of skills and experiences without worrying about point value. Maybe don't even quantify them in game terms, just generalizations like "Hot pilot, so-so sushi chef", etc. Have the needs of th eplot decide if he succeds of fails... we all do this anyway sometimes when a player blows a critical roll.

Work out history, hobbies, loves, hates... and then run with it. If suddenly the character needs an obscure skill, hey! waddayaknow... Captain Snuffy just happens to have been the Federation Tiddlywinks champion of 2290. If he needs a contact in Section 31, his old Academy flame shows up to recruit him.

You don't have to use this all the time, even Kirk got stumped sometimes, but it can be a great plot tool if used correctly. The character would be like an NPC handled by an assitant GM, rather than a PC. That really seems to be more what you're trying to do.

[Age of Toast]

Thanks for replying, Calguard.

It's an interesting solution, but I don't think my player would go for it, and I'm not sure I'd be all that comfortable with it, either.

For my campaign, every NPC has a character sheet, and follows the same rules as the PCs. The only exception would be meeting a Q.

My player, I don't believe, would feel comfortable with it either. He likes his rules... and likes to use them to his best advantage. I think it's part of the thrill.

I guess I'm just going to have to look at Picard and Sisko and emulate what the writers have given them. The DS9 book, at least, looks reasonably balanced inasmuch as you can tell the characters were put through the same creation process, at their beginnings at least.

~@@~Cinnamon Raisin swirls~@@~

[Age of Toast]

To Redwood:

I removed the [/rant] from the end of my post because I thought it to be over the top, and too incendiary.

If you'll note, I also changed t he date that I cited for belonging to the boards. I did that for accuracy's sake.

What I did not expect was you to answer so quickly that retraction of anything would be impossible.

[Owen E Oulton]

I don't worry about how many DP characters have aside from making sure that everyone has the minimum 125.

To create command-level officers, I use the Schools in the Players' Guide. I allow one School to be taken between each Tour of Duty. As per the rules, Schools do not take a full Tour. Ross Isaacs stated on these boards that they did, but the rules and the example given are explicit that they do not.

I make certain that characters have the minimum skill requirements given in the TNG CRB, but I do not enforce the Renown requirements during character generation.

[Age of Toast]

Thanks, Owen!

That sounds like exactly the answer I was looking for.

~You want jelly with that?