Creating more experienced PCs

[Ineti]

Is it as simple as handing them a number of advancements at character generation?

I don't recall offhand, but does Coda have a concept similar to the 'tours of duty' packages LUG had, where you got a block of improvements rather than spending the advancement picks on whatever you wanted?

[PGoodman13]

Sort of. The Starfleet Operations Manual had some "fleet" advancements, where you served in a particular fleet or on a particular ship and got a specific set of advancement picks for that duty. I think some of the other books that Decipher ate might have picked up on that concept but I have no real way of knowing.

In any case, I don't think it would be too hard to houserule a few of those together, but there's a problem in that they never laid out any real solid rules on how many advancements you should give someone to make an "advanced character" in the first place, so there's a lot of wiggle room that shouldn't be there, IMO.

[black campbellq]

I usually dole out advencements at creation based off of the length of service and the rank/position they're supposed to be in.

[Tobian]

You could always use the character descriptions of the shows characters (in the back of the NG) as a guide, as they all show how many advancements they have had spent on them, scaled from harry kim to Captain kirk

[black campbellq]

that's a good idea. i usually go with 7-9 for beginning dept. heads, 15-20 for beginning captains.

you want to leave them room for improvement.

[Sea Tyger]

I actually prefer the 1 advancement per year of service (after the academy and cadet cruise) for Starfleet or equivalent, and 1 advancement per 6 months of extended combat (wartime). For civilians, I use a straight 1 per 2 years of work (after graduating from their school or apprenticeship).

I've always liked the variable "tours of duty" that FASA used, and ICON also included to some degree. It makes a character's background feel more like they've been in a semi-military organization.

[PGoodman13]

I just got through looking over my old FASA stuff and realized that it wouldn't be that tough to adapt tours of duty and the schools over to CODA, I'd just need to sit down for an hour or so and write it all up. I know Doug reached the same conclusion once, so we might be reinventing the wheel a number of times over the next few days.

[PGoodman13]

Okay, here's what I've decided to do for my campaign, if and when it ever gets off the ground. It's loosely adapted from the old FASA tours of duty rules, though I've elected not to adapt Department Head and Command schools since CODA handles that a little differently. Besides, though I tend to handle things in a very Star Fleet-centric way (it's just the way I look at things), CODA handles a much wider variety of character types, and this very generic thing I've come up with works with all the different professions pretty equally. Basic terminology changes are all I see being needed.

I make the assumption that the standard character, at the end of basic character generation, is a competent ensign in his branch, fresh out of the Academy. If the player and the narrator are cool with this, then they should run him just like he is. If not, then give this a shot.

Every character serves 1-6 tours of duty (a simple 1D6 roll). Each tour will last 1-3 years (roll 1D3; if you want longer tours for more experience, make it 1D6). For each year in service before the campaign starts, you get 1 advancement.

The number of tours is modified as follows:

Intelligent characters generally learn faster than others, and tend to get promoted faster. Subtract your Intelligence modifier from the number of tours to be served.

If you're going to be of a higher rank than Ensign, it's going to take a little longer. Add your destined Promotion edge number to the number of tours to be served. (If this seems too long to you, make it Promotion edge number / 2, rounded down; this means that ensigns and lieutenants j.g. will add 0, lieutenants and lt. commanders will add 1, and commanders and captains will add 2.)

If you're going to be a department head, then it will take a little longer. Add 1 to the number of tours to be served; one of the advancements taken must be the "Department Head" advancement shown in the Player's Guide.

Likewise, if you're going to be the CO or XO of a ship, it will take a little while to get the experience. Add another 2 tours to the total; one of the advancements taken must be the "Department Head" advancement shown in the Player's Guide. Also note that, to become a CO or XO, it's assumed that you had to be a Department Head, so these 2 tours are cumulative with a Department Head tour.

I was going to post an example, but I'm at work at the moment and my notes are at home, so I'll deal with that later.

How's this work for you folks?

EDIT: Amended additionals tours for rank.

[Sea Tyger]

Nice idea, Patrick! A couple of thoughts:

1. If my memory serves, FASA tours are 1-5 years long. As such, I think you should either weight the 1d3 roll or go with a straight 1d6. By weighting, I'd say a 1d3+1, for a result of 2-4. Otherwise, your tours would be very short.

2. For final rank modification to previous tours, I'd use a more linear progression. I'd use Promotion Level - 2 as the modifier to the tours. So, ensign = -2, lt. j.g. = -1, lt. = 0, lt. cmdr. = +1, cmdr. = +2 and capt. = +3 (and so on).

3. For CO and XO, you should note that they should be sure to take Command II when they first assume their first XO or CO position.

4. I can't recall if a low intellect actually forced the character to serve an additional tour in FASA. If it did, then perhaps you should handle Intelligence modifiers to tours of duty as follows:

Subtract a positive intelligence modifier from your number of tours served. If your character has a negative intelligence modifier, then you would add 1 to the number of tours served.

Just my thoughts.

[Tobian]

I'm not sure if presence should be a factor in that too, because lading is not just about how clever your ideas are, but convincing others they are clever too! Persuasion based skills are hugelly important for commanding officers: I'm thinking 'The Corbamite maneuver' as a prime example of bluffing skills (though of course good ideas too!)

Without checking my books I am not sure that the number of advances you have there is completelly representative: I.e. 1 advance per 1-5 years that would make Kirk about 88-352 by the end of TOS, I know that was a Toupe but he doesn't look that old! Even harry kim has 9 advancements after 7 years (a trifle low after Kirk's silly figures ) Just basing those of the NG stats. Yes Kirk in that example is an exception rather than the rule, but even Janeway has 37 advancements... Or is this assuming that during their first tours they were on the "Uss staring at a blank wall while painting your toenails"

[PGoodman13]

Nice idea, Patrick! A couple of thoughts:

1. If my memory serves, FASA tours are 1-5 years long. As such, I think you should either weight the 1d3 roll or go with a straight 1d6. By weighting, I'd say a 1d3+1, for a result of 2-4. Otherwise, your tours would be very short.

Your memory serves you well. In FASA Trek, you served 1-5 (1d10/2) tours of 1-5 years (again, 1d10/2) each.

I'll likely go the 1d3+1 route myself; I kind of balk at the notion of a character potentially serving 36+ years before play even begins.... YMMV, which is why I included the option of using 1d6 in the original.

2. For final rank modification to previous tours, I'd use a more linear progression. I'd use Promotion Level - 2 as the modifier to the tours. So, ensign = -2, lt. j.g. = -1, lt. = 0, lt. cmdr. = +1, cmdr. = +2 and capt. = +3 (and so on).

Well, I thought just using the Promotion level was pretty linear, but it could lead to a longer career than some GMs might want to give their players starting out.

FASA had ensigns get a -1, lieutenants get a 0, commanders +1, and captains +2, which is why I offered up the Promotion/2 option (which is the one I'll probably use).

If anybody feels like playtesting this thing, by the way, please feel free to do so and drop me a line here and let me know what works for you....

3. For CO and XO, you should note that they should be sure to take Command II when they first assume their first XO or CO position.

This is why I made it cumulative with Department Head, and required the "Department Head" advancement at each level. That advancement gives you Command, Promotion, and a +1 in a professional skill. Thus, CO/XO players wind up with Command 2 and Promotion 2 as minimums.

4. I can't recall if a low intellect actually forced the character to serve an additional tour in FASA. If it did, then perhaps you should handle Intelligence modifiers to tours of duty as follows:

Subtract a positive intelligence modifier from your number of tours served. If your character has a negative intelligence modifier, then you would add 1 to the number of tours served.

FASA didn't assess extra tours for a low Intelligence, and it's awfully difficult to come up with a player character with a low enough Intelligence to get a negative modifier, so I didn't bother with the notion of a negative modifier affecting this system.

I'm not sure if presence should be a factor in that too, because lading is not just about how clever your ideas are, but convincing others they are clever too! Persuasion based skills are hugelly important for commanding officers: I'm thinking 'The Corbamite maneuver' as a prime example of bluffing skills (though of course good ideas too!)

I've considered using Presence as an additional modifier, handled just like Intelligence. FASA used Luck for much the same purpose, so it would follow pretty easily. I'll add that in to my list and see how it works out.

Without checking my books I am not sure that the number of advances you have there is completelly representative: I.e. 1 advance per 1-5 years that would make Kirk about 88-352 by the end of TOS, I know that was a Toupe but he doesn't look that old! Even harry kim has 9 advancements after 7 years (a trifle low after Kirk's silly figures ) Just basing those of the NG stats. Yes Kirk in that example is an exception rather than the rule, but even Janeway has 37 advancements... Or is this assuming that during their first tours they were on the "Uss staring at a blank wall while painting your toenails"

Kirk was an exception to many, many rules. He wasn't even 40 by the end of the famous 5-year mission, and there he is at 66 advancements. He was obviously a busy boy.

I'm not necessarily trying to replicate the TV characters with this system; I'm just trying to come up with something that I can apply uniformly to my player's characters so that things are generally equitable before things get started. After the game starts, they might turn out to be just as busy as James Kirk, and wind up with some silly number of advancements before the end of their first 5-year mission.

[Tobian]

Well Yes Kirk is an exception, but as I said Janeway is still an exception too, perhaps you should up it to 2 or more advancements per tour, is what I am saying, otherwise your characters are not going to have similar advancements to characters on the shows.

[Sea Tyger]

Honestly, Tobian, you shouldn't be able to replicate any of the series stars with PC creation rules. They're considered the best-of-the-best, and really shouldn't be attainable during character creation.

[AslanC]

Neat stuff guys

What would be great would be a set of advancements like in LUG, those packages were the best, sort of the FASA idea to the next level

[PGoodman13]

Well Yes Kirk is an exception, but as I said Janeway is still an exception too, perhaps you should up it to 2 or more advancements per tour, is what I am saying, otherwise your characters are not going to have similar advancements to characters on the shows.

Go back and read it again. It's one advancement per year of each tour, not one advancement per tour; each tour could last 3 years as written, 6 years if you go with 1d6 instead of 1d3. You should be able to replicate some of the key NPCs (you could easily come up with McCoy, LaForge, or Tuvok with this system, for instance), or at least come up with someone who could give them a run for their money.