Question about Trill Flaws

[Karg]

Ok, Just had a new player create a Character for herself and decided to make her a Trill. She rolled for the Transporter Flaw and got a 1.

My question, is it possible to buy off this flaw with advancements? I was thinking a combonation of Advancement picks and Reserch between herself (she's going to be a Science Officer) and the Chief Medical Officer. Any Suggestions?

[Dan Gurden]

Its your game, your universe.

So if you want to allow these characters to do the research and come up with a cure, then this is perfectly acceptable to do.

Thing is, the flaw does not actually exist. Odan simply refused the transporter on medical grounds. But this was simply to protect the secret of his symbiote.

So if its a game during the early TNG era and your Trill is joined then she would have a vested interest in not completing the 'research'. If however its after the exposure of the secret or she's an unjoined you can simply ignore the Transporter 'allergy', and instead change it for extreme sensitivity to insect bites (which does cause the trill problems apparently).

Of course if you want to keep the transporter intolerance for flavour, and still allow the crew to find a cure, then work out how long it will take to complete the research, and presto, the week before you have a player-led plot with a transporter accident episode, when they test the research (I am sure that as the lead scietist and a trill, your player will be up for being the first test subject)...

[black campbellq]

Keep the flaw. It's great for the GM -- the character can't simply beam out anytime things look hairy. They take shuttlecraft more often; more chances to get them stuck on a planet, or some such. worked great when we had a Trill with the problem.

[Karg]

Good Point, I have to think this thru

[Tobian]

Hmm there is always a problem with Flaws in that - can you realy just buy them off with some experince points.. Do your eyes just grow back, does your leg reappear like a Lizard can It should take more than just XP.

In the ICON system there was a merit called 'Medical remedy', which to be honest could esasilly be ported.. Basically you bought a 'medical remedy' of equal strength to your flaw (though very few flaws are a variable cost in CODA). The example given was of Geordi la Forge - he had a VISOR to compensate for his flaw of Blindness. Much like the VISOR this 'medical remedy' might give your character more bonuses than if he had simply not had Blindness, but as we saw in several episodes, the point of the 'medical remedy' was it could be removed / lost and in some really bad situations be used against thim, like when it was removed and the optical interfaces used to drill images right into his brain!

So in this instance yes the TRILL maybe could create a medicinal compound which needs to be injected prior to transport that cancels out the cause of that flaw - but only temporarily. Now imagine then if she is on an away mission, and they are captured and it's taken away! She's stuck.. again same oportunity for story lines where a simple thing could be life threatening!

[Karg]

Hmm there is always a problem with Flaws in that - can you realy just buy them off with some experince points.. Do your eyes just grow back, does your leg reappear like a Lizard can It should take more than just XP.

In the ICON system there was a merit called 'Medical remedy', which to be honest could esasilly be ported.. Basically you bought a 'medical remedy' of equal strength to your flaw (though very few flaws are a variable cost in CODA). The example given was of Geordi la Forge - he had a VISOR to compensate for his flaw of Blindness. Much like the VISOR this 'medical remedy' might give your character more bonuses than if he had simply not had Blindness, but as we saw in several episodes, the point of the 'medical remedy' was it could be removed / lost and in some really bad situations be used against thim, like when it was removed and the optical interfaces used to drill images right into his brain!

So in this instance yes the TRILL maybe could create a medicinal compound which needs to be injected prior to transport that cancels out the cause of that flaw - but only temporarily. Now imagine then if she is on an away mission, and they are captured and it's taken away! She's stuck.. again same oportunity for story lines where a simple thing could be life threatening!

Yes, this is what i was considering

[Tobian]

Cool! Let us know how it works out and what you decide on !

[Owen E Oulton]

As a story point, quite aside from any game mechanics, I'd consider this to be a flaw specific to the character, and unrelated to her being a joined Trill. Remember, Odan was in disguise, concealing the fact that he was a trill and pretending to be his own previous Host's sone. He was surgically altered to appear to be a different species (as were the Symbiosis Commission techies who came with the new Host - cosmetic surgery is dirt-simple with Federation medical tech), and refused to use the transporter to avoid revealing this fact - transporter maladies, both physical and psychological, are common enough that this wouldn't raise too much suspicion. Of course, after his injuries, it really was dangerous to the Odan Symbiont and he was hoist with his own petard...