Trek Kids

[Kosst Amojan]

Good morning! I am starting a new series and need a few ideas from you creative folks out there. I am using the setting of Starbase 315 from the ICON ST:TNG Player's Guide. The time will take place just after the Dominion War has started.

One of the main characters will be playing the young (12-15 years old) daughter of the NPC commander of the base. What sort of adventure ideas would you have involving plots and sub-plots revolving around just such a character?

Just some background info, all still sketchy right now, so I am flexible.

The daughter is human. Her parents were seperated at an early age because of career conflicts. Dad was one of those adventurous Starfleet types and mom was a more down to earth something-or-other (help here...writer? artist? scientist?). Daughter grew up knowing very little about Dad other than some negative things mom said, and an occaisional message from his (he was always so busy).

Now, mom has died in a freak accident (help here again) and daughter has been sent off to Starbase 315 in the midst of the chaos of the beginning of the Dominion War to live with a Dad that doesn't really know her and is ill prepared to be a dad anyway.

All your input is greatly appreciated!

[Capt. K. Vaughn]

I would suggest for kicks either making the mother a magazine editor or a public relations specialist. She was offered the opportunity of her career that would allow her to finally put down roots and so she took it.

It allows the daughter to have something of an artistic background with perhaps a bit of a rebelious streak due to having a plain Jane mom, who always erred rather far on the side of caution.

How freakish do you want to get for the accident?

As you could go for the extreme: Transporter accident

to the more mundane: Fell down a flight of stairs.

Throw in the suspicion of foul play and the accident being written off lightly and you could well have some fun with it later on.

As for adventures you could look to the early years of DS9 with the misadventures of Jake and Nog.

On a bit of a tangent, have you watched any of Hidden Frontier?

Regards,
CKV.

[redwood973]

I like the captain's idea about having the mother have something to do with publishing. Perhaps she could have held a senior position in the Federation Press and Information Bureau, it would have allowed her to settle down and provide a stable environment for her daughter but still allow for situations which put her in harms way (and thus being killed).

The child could harbor some resentment for both her father for not being around to protect her mother, and whom she hold responsible for her death (Dominion, Cardies, ect.). I also like the captains idea of making her a free spirit artist type. A Dharma (i.e., Greg & Dharma once seen on ABC networks) in training if you will, but not so "out there."

[Evan van Eyk]

Why does she need to be dead? She could be a Maquis sympasizer and therfore either in prison or a fugitive of Starfleet jurisdiction. In fact seh can be part of the campaign then - something like: "Your father never told you what really happened to your mother" - "he told me enough! He told me she was killed!" - "No I am your mother!"

Maybe everybody thinks she is dead, but this needs not to bethe case. She could also have been a Cardassian Obsidian Order infiltrator or a similiar Romulan agent, either genetically altered or maybe brainwashed. I think there are a hundred possible more interesting story arcs, then just have her killed.

However if she needs to be dead, why not have her gotten killed in a Dominion attack or the Breen attack on Earth? Or Wolf 359 or the Borg attack on Earth in 2373 ( First Contact ). Maybe she wasl also part of an investigation team of the Ba'ku incident ( Insurrection ) and got killed by the rogue So'na.

Or some tech-experiment went wrong and that killed her ( or thrw her into some time travel stream, which allows her return at a later point of the series ).

[black campbellq]

Because in Trek it seems like every major character has to have lost someone tragically...especially if young.

We've had kids as NPCs in the campaign running. It can be fun to throw in, on top of the adventure's difficulties, the simple hardships of parenthood. Where's the away team? Honey, I know you're having trouble with your friends but it'll have to wait... What do you mean I don't care about you?

For young children, there's the need for attention and the miscellaneous anxiety attacks...just when you're trying to get to that staff briefing. Or oh, hell -- there's an inspection in ten minutes and my kid just drew all over the cabin walls!

There's the school problems: whaddya mean you got an 'emerging' grade in history? Emerging from what? Into what...unemployment?

Dating problems: you wnet WHERE with my daughter?

DS9 did a decent job with the kid issue; far better than TNG.

[jkp1187]

DS9 did a decent job with the kid issue; far better than TNG.

...because Jake and Nog actually were flawed individuals trying to rise above that. Wesley Crusher sprung, whole and perfect, as it were, from Roddenberry's forehead.

[Phoenix]

Wesley Crusher sprung, whole and perfect, as it were, from Roddenberry's forehead.

That had to hurt