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Thread: The Composition of a Stargate Team

  1. #1
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    The Composition of a Stargate Team

    Hey guys.

    I might have the opportunity to play in a Stargate campaign.
    Although my knowledge of the series is very limited (at least I have seen the movie) I am interested. I would like to play a non military character. I'm uncertain what kind of character should I portray. I would like to come up with some ideas of my own to hand in to the gamemaster, so here we go.

    My questions are: what personel did you use to make up your teams in your Stargate games?
    And what sort of civilian specialist could be written into a campaign fittingly without being only a second Daniel Jackson type of guy?

    My lack of in-depth knowledge of the setting is fitting for the role as my character would join the SG team without knowing everything about the history of the program and the accomplishments of SG-1 :-)

    Could you please help me out?

    My thoughts have been so far:

    - Anthropologist (interesting)
    - Linguistic specialist (might be interesting)
    - Archeologist (already there in persona Dr. Jackson)
    - Testpilot of some sort (scoundrel type like Han Solo / Indy Jones, hard to realise but fun)
    - Medical specialist (don't want to do that)
    - Engineer (don't want to to that as well)
    - your thoughts...? :-)
    Last edited by Cut; 09-04-2006 at 02:07 PM.

  2. #2
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    Funny you should ask: I've been going over my SG-1 rpg stuff lately.

    The 'typical' SG team is usually 4-6 members, with A team leader, heavy weapons specialist, language/cultural expert, and a mission specialist/science expert.

    Since the SGC is a military organization, there isn't really alot of civilian team leaders or heavy weapons specialists, so the missions specialist,cultural or science areas would be the most likely place to have a civilian. But then you're going to have to figure out why the gov't is sending a civilian when they could just send some Air Force hot shot.

    That's where the Daniel Jackson's and Rodney McCay's (on Atlantis) come in; they are specialists of such depth that no other substitute will do. But once you have a good concept (the test pilot is interesting, but hard to justify for more than a couple missions. But the SGC does find some really cool toys! )
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    The usual TV teams seem to be 4 people led by a major to lt. colonel; real-life Army SF units have a twelve man team, led by a captain. Our campaign compromised: six for a full team, based on a ODA half team.

    Team Leader -- usually a O-3+
    Team XO -- usually a O-2 or warrant
    Team Sergeant -- where the hell are all the non-coms? E6 or higher
    Linguist/Commo guy -- usually E-5+
    Team Medic -- usually E-5+
    Team Engineer -- usually E-5+
    or
    Civilian Expert (archeologist, doctor, vet, whatever...)

    Our SGC is not solely USAF. This is the kind of gig every service would be trying to get the funding on. The missions usually shown are more the speed of SFG's from the army, or SEAL teams. The USAF special forces are predominantly the Pararescue (these guys are combat medics [stress COMBAT] and train out here at Kirtland -- very pro) and Ravens (high speed SF's.) SGC would most likely be under US Space Command, so it's a joint service assignment. Figure there's the occasional mixed team of different services.

    Depending on when you set the campaign, you may even have Russian and British teams (and whoever else is on the IOA.) By S10 there are at least 24 teams, judging from the SG24 comment...

    Suggestion for the civies (and even the SF guys) would be to move from the Beretta M9 to the FN FiveseveN 5.7mm; ammo interchangeability! Also the handgun kicks not at all (same with the P90) and is accurate. Perfect for civilians with little firearms training.

    (Our reason for Cheyenne's closure...SGC needed more room.)

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by black campbellq
    or
    Civilian Expert (archeologist, doctor, vet, whatever...)
    That's were my question comes in: What sort of expertise could come in handy apart from the obvious choices (Doctor and so on). I want to play something fun but that has to be fitting

  5. #5
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    Theres a number of possible science team members SG teams might find useful. While often we see civilian teams simply sent through with SG teams, the right person could become an actual SG team member. Then there is also the Carter Factor: Someone who is a briliant scientist but who joined with one of the military organisations or applicable civilian organisations, so they have the neccessary rank and or training.

    Examples i can think of -

    Geologist; during the moon landing era there were geologists on the team (one of them landed on the moon!) - Especially with Earths' search for Naquadah, Trinnium or other mimeral deposits of extreme worth, a full time geologist could be essential.

    Astronomer; even as a bonus speciality to a military officer, astronomy could be important.. knowning where you are is damn useful!

    Technologist; Part of the mandate of the SG1 is to aquire alien technology, so having a technologist on the team is useful: Sam Carter falls under this, but others might be extremelly specialist, such as specialising in Goa'uld, Ancient or Asguard technology.

    Linguist; Being able to speak any of the alien (or even ancient earth) tongues is a useful skill for anyone, which both Dr. Jackson and Teal'c can do: being able to operate a Goa'uld mothership can be damn handy in a fight!

    Medical: More than just a Dr. medical specialities, such as anthrapology, virology, or Xenology would be useful on many missions. At the very least SG team members with first aid or better is handy! SG teams also can do humanitarian missions, aiding their allies, so medical training can be useful for this.

    Archaeology: Well DUH, Daniel Jackson Knowledge of ancient Earth history, or even that of galactic history, which some people at the SGC may now be, can be really useful on missions.

    There's tonnes of others, that's just what's on the top of my head hehe
    Ta Muchly

  6. #6
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    I've made a (rough) character :-)

    I have gone with the test pilot idea (being part of a european company that runs for production of a new space shuttle thingy). He has studied aeronautics and stuff as a major and some anthropology stuff (cultural and archeological) as a hobby, so there is a little bit of science and a little bit of action possibility (pilot). If the GM can incorporate it into the storyline (which he says he can) than I'm a happy camper...ah..spacer -)

    I Like my idea, but Astronomer or Indiana Jones on SG-1 sounds fun as well

    Thanks for yours answers!

  7. #7
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    Well, the Stargate Command was temporarily under a civilian, Dr. Weir and so is the Stargate Atlantis Mission (What is its official designation?). So some attempt at recruiting nonmililitary personnel may have taken place. While possibily the idea was scraped; testing for the Ancient gene may have been possible as the possible recruits had already given DNA sample for security and ID purposes. Thus a character could have been recruited to the Ancient gene.

    I guess another option is that the character finds out about the Goa'uld by unwittingly being involved in the Trust, NSD, etc. Cut, with your character, he could have observe the attack on the Atlantan outpost at the South Pole (or some other Goa'uld attack on Earth) while test flying the prototype. SGC learns about him; tries to keep him quiet but he insist on joining up as the price.

    Quote Originally Posted by black campbellq
    <snip>where the hell are all the non-coms?
    It seems like the non-coms are use for security or on the higher number teams.

    Quote Originally Posted by black campbellq
    <snip>SGC would most likely be under US Space Command, so it's a joint service assignment. Figure there's the occasional mixed team of different services.<snip>
    I think some of the teams are set aside for particular branches or allies like SG-4 is the Russian SG Team, but give some are orientated towards a particular mission then yes the likehood of mixed services teams is likely.
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  8. #8
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    Stargate Atlantis Mission (What is its official designation?)
    I believe it is simlply the Atlantis Expedition.
    - Daniel "A revolution without dancing is a revolution not worth having."

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by spshu
    Cut, with your character, he could have observe the attack on the Atlantan outpost at the South Pole (or some other Goa'uld attack on Earth) while test flying the prototype. SGC learns about him; tries to keep him quiet but he insist on joining up as the price.
    I'm not sure what happens, but right now my character is sitting in an experimental european shuttle craft in earth orbit on it's first flight in space. Might be something happening along those lines in the near future of the story. :-)

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    I can't remember the name of the episode, but the Stargate programme was revealed to most G7 countries - China, Britain, France Germany etc.. While it's non canon (or rather not seen on screen) it could be that those countries also ask for their own SG teams: Indeed the Atlantis mission was composed of quite a few different countries scientists.

    So it could be your new specialist has come through diplomatic channels as part of a new 'french' 'german' or 'british' team, or maybe in light of the events of Atlantis civilian scientists and such, they could simply be joining new multi-country teams? The one good thing which comes of the end of SG1 as a series, means you can open it up, and chose what path you want to go down!
    Ta Muchly

  11. #11
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    There is this problem, that I have little to no knowledge of the series SG-1. I have seen the occasional episode on TV but not many, maybe a dozen or so...
    We don't play AEG Stargate but a selfmade adaption of the new RuneQuest system done by Mongoose and I lack the money and the time to get via DVD up to speed with the series :-)

    I'll just have to see, what our GM has planned :-)

  12. #12
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    Stargate is quite good in that you really don't need too many homebrew rules to make a 'modern' era game work within it. You only have to cover Alien technology (which really is mostly alien weapons ) and barelly space combat rules!

    The hard part is - having the requisite knowledge of the series. Obviously owning the AEG books are damn useful, with the one problem that they only go to series 2 (or is it 3, well certainly not 10!) http://www.gateworld.net/ has quite a lot of Stargate series information, including extensive spoilers for as yet unaired episodes! many episodes have detailed plot summaries, so if you want to possibly spoil episodes for yourself, I suggest you get reading!
    Ta Muchly

  13. #13
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    but no, thank you.

    I tried to get my hands on a AEG rulebook at a reasonble price for some time (it's supposed to have plot summaries for the first 6 seasons in it) and look through it.

    The group started around our GM who is right now writting an adaption of RQ for modern settings called NovaQuest. We are sort off test running it while having a fun game :-)

  14. #14
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    I can't remember the name of the episode, but the Stargate programme was revealed to most G7 countries - China, Britain, France Germany etc..
    Episode was "Disclosure." BTW, with Russia, it's now the G8
    - Daniel "A revolution without dancing is a revolution not worth having."

  15. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by Cut
    There is this problem, that I have little to no knowledge of the series SG-1. I have seen the occasional episode on TV but not many, maybe a dozen or so...
    We don't play AEG Stargate but a selfmade adaption of the new RuneQuest system done by Mongoose and I lack the money and the time to get via DVD up to speed with the series :-)

    I'll just have to see, what our GM has planned :-)
    In my view, this is actually a good thing. Not only do you get to discover things as you go, your character wouldn't know most of the stuff either. He'll find out what he needs to find out, and you can pick your friends' brains as the need, or curiosity arises.
    - Daniel "A revolution without dancing is a revolution not worth having."

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