Lonely and Lost

[SoloRio]

Hi all...

I bought the Trek CODA books recently (all 6,) and am anxious to start a campaign. Problem is, as used as my group is to D-20, we are really struggling with character creation. Is there a good source for this anywhere these days?

We plan to start at lvl. 5, with a full bridge crew. Two commanders, for when the ship separates (We're running a Prometheus class ship!)

So... Any advice?

-M

[Mazza]

Despite what everyone tells me about the book layout being optimal for character creation, I always found it confusing as hell. I think I've got it just about worked out now and while I can't point you at a guide, if you ask questions as you've got them, the good people here can answer them I'm sure.

[SoloRio]

Okay, well. It seems, from what I have read, that the ability scores are easy enough. Then, should we pick our "class", which except one Romulan ambassador (So that he can oversee our use of our cloaking device, natch!), is going to be Starfleet Officer? When should we worry about personal/professional backgrounds?

There's a section in the Starfleet Ops Manual that has some pre-gen leveled characters so I may just use those. Any one ever try that?


-M

[The Tatterdemalion King]

Despite what everyone tells me about the book layout being optimal for character creation, I always found it confusing as hell. I think I've got it just about worked out now and while I can't point you at a guide, if you ask questions as you've got them, the good people here can answer them I'm sure.

I think you totally misheard everyone. I've never heard anyone ever say that the chargen layout was anything other than annoying and confusing : P

Here is the chargen rewritten to make sense and be all logical and crap. I don't even read the book, I just use this.

[The Tatterdemalion King]

Okay, well. It seems, from what I have read, that the ability scores are easy enough. Then, should we pick our "class", which except one Romulan ambassador (So that he can oversee our use of our cloaking device, natch!),

You guys are totally d20 players.

...is going to be Starfleet Officer?

Yes, of which you choose an elite profession from one of the departments. Think of it as a class in which are nested prestige classes you can choose from. The actual books have a misprint implying that you need to take the starship officer profession before transferring into one of the officer division professions, but it's wrong. Either you choose Starship Officer (basic) and immediately take a Officer elite profession, or you can gain the prerequisites listed (except for Starship Duty) in a civilian profession and then advance as one of the Officer division elite professions.

[/quote]When should we worry about personal/professional backgrounds?[/QUOTE]

After you choose Species and Profession, generate attributes and reactions, you begin character development, which is constructing the history of each character and generating their skills.

I'm just going to cut and paste from the link:

Step 5 - Select Skills
Your characters skills are chosen as three separate stages, representing the growth of the character across their life.

Step 5.1 - Knowledge and Language skills
The first stage is your characters background Knowledge and Language skills. Two determine their Knowledge and Language skills, you multiply your Intellect skill times three to determine how many points you can spend. (Note: Again, this is different from the Player's Guide method, but instead inline with the upcoming Errata). Then you can allocate these points across the skills specific to your characters species, culture, language, and background.

For the purposes of this campaign we've changed the division of skills within the Knowledge skill group to make the skills more specific to the character's personal background. The possible skill options are listed here, along with a number of specialties for each skill. Where a criteria is listed in [], you must specify one area upon choosing that skill. For example, if you take "[Species] History ([Specific Skill])", you would write down something like "Human History (Science)" on your character sheet, giving you a knowledge of general human history, with a specialty in significant events relating to scientific advancements. This replaces the old system of choosing "History (Human)" which would imply that you somehow know everything that ever happened in history anywhere in the galaxy, though specializing somewhat in Human events.
Skills
[Species] Culture
Sample Specialties: Customs; Food; Traditions; Etiquette
[Species] History
Sample Specialties: [Specific Region]; [Specific Era]; [Specific Skill]
[Organization] Law
Sample Specialties: Criminal; Business; Family; Interplanetary; Constitutional
[Organization] Politics
Sample Specialties: Recent; History; Political; Leaders
[Specific] Religion
Sample Specialties: Prophets; Sacred Texts; Historical; Leaders
[Specific World]
Sample Specialties: [Specific Region];
Trivia
Sample Specialties: [Specific Hobby];

These skills are used to remember a particular mission log you read, remember some of the religious lore you were taught growing up, or remember specific facts about your home world.

Step 5.2 - Personal Development skills
Personal Development packages represent your childhood, and the environment that you grew up in. Select a package from page 87 of the Players Guide, and select your skills as defined by that package.

Step 5.3 - Professional Development skills
Professional Development packages represent your schooling, study, and areas of specialty. Select a package from page 90 of the Players Guide, and select your skills as defined by that package. Each package also includes 5 extra points that you can distribute among your professional skills, and you also have the option to spend these points on a specialty (as per PG page 85). Keep in mind that no single skill can have more than 6 total ranks at character creation time. This should take into account all Knowledge and Language skills, Personal and Professional skills, which cannot add up to more than 6 ranks in a single skill.

The goal of this is to get a generalized sense of who people were and what they did before they started the series.

Step 6 - Select Traits
During character creation, you may select one free Edge, in addition to any Edges already gained for free from your Species. You may choose this Edge from options listed under either your Personal or Professional Development packages. If you would like to select a second Edge, you may select a single Flaw at this point, which offsets that. The list of all traits, and details of them are in the Players Guide, starting on page 128. Note however that the edges of Promotion, Command, and Mind Control are out of bounds during character creation. Promotion and Command have special rules regarding their use, and Mind Control is banned from the campaign because it could be too easily abused and doesn't really fit in with the Star Trek feel (at least, not as an ability that the heroes can use).

After this, you should go back and make sure that the reactions and skills are all calculated right with all the modifiers and whatnot.

For advancements, you can just choose what you want or use some of the packages in the Starfleet Ops Manual.

What's the series about?

[SoloRio]

Thanks so much for the help, everybody! The gang meets Tuesday and I want to have characters done by the end of the session.

We really REALLY are D20 players, running DnD 3.5 games, a massive D20 Modern campaign and the Star Wars system, which we just bumped up to Saga. I don't mean to offend but I really wish there were nice books for Trek in D20 that were licensed by Paramount. I doubt that'll happen, as the production of Trek seems dead in the water save the new film which is questionable at best.

Anyway, I'm being unbelievably over-indulgent in my series, setting it up as a sort of less complex section 51 or whatever they were called (Never watched much later season DS9). The characters are all Dominion War decorated officers who are recruited to be the Federation's quick response defense team, sort of an intergalactic SWAT. They're going to operate in mostly secret from the decommissioned Spacedock of old, with a small fleet of advanced starships to use as missions require. I'm using a Prometheus Class, Akira class, Sovergin class and Defiant class. Their first mission is going to be issued by Admiral Janeway, who's going to send them to test the new transwarp conduit tech they stole from the borg in an attempt to find other fleet ships that were flung beyond the alpha quadrant, not unlike Voyager. I figure I can make up alot of old fun stuff.

I eventually want to have them asked to test and shakedown the new, re-comisssioned Enterprise D, which was recovered from the world it crashed on. the drive section will be all-new, allowing for a third warp nacelle. I figure I'll involve the USS Relativity, have them trying to make sure All Good Things comes to pass or something.

I'm pretty excited about it!


-M

[Cut]

Although I hate three nacelled starships most of the time I wish you all the best and lots of fun with your series

[The Tatterdemalion King]

Anyway, I'm being unbelievably over-indulgent in my series, setting it up as a sort of less complex section 51 or whatever they were called (Never watched much later season DS9).

You really should. It's good, and sets up a really interesting sociopolitical situation for the quadrant.

I eventually want to have them asked to test and shakedown the new, re-comisssioned Enterprise D, which was recovered from the world it crashed on. the drive section will be all-new, allowing for a third warp nacelle. I figure I'll involve the USS Relativity, have them trying to make sure All Good Things comes to pass or something.

You could have the Riker from borg-universe come out of the anti-time anomaly and try to steal it.

[SoloRio]

Yeah, I watched the final DS9 Ep and read enough books to get a feel for the whole Cardassia overthrow and basic interactions with Klingons and stuff, so I'm up on the post dominion universe. The novels, especially the "A Time To" series have helped alot.

The Borg terrified Riker that refuses to go back from Tapestry is possibly the creepiest scene in any Trek ever. I'll have to work him in somewhere, thanks for the plot thread!


Anyway, I will post more questions this Wednesday, assuming we have any after creation.

You guys have been awesomely helpful, and I'm gonna hang around. This site is a really valuable resource! Thanks again, everybody.

-M

[spshu]

<snip>

We really REALLY are D20 players, running DnD 3.5 games, a massive D20 Modern campaign and the Star Wars system, which we just bumped up to Saga. I don't mean to offend but I really wish there were nice books for Trek in D20 that were licensed by Paramount. I doubt that'll happen, as the production of Trek seems dead in the water save the new film which is questionable at best.

<snip>-M

The Prime Directive d20 is a Star Trek licensed product just ADB can using anything base the original series nor the main characters.

Welcome

Coda should not be too hard once you understand character creation as it seem like a lot of it was done off their notes of Star Trek d20 (when WOTC temporarily had the licenses by acquiring Last Unicorn Games).

[The Tatterdemalion King]

Yeah, I watched the final DS9 Ep and read enough books to get a feel for the whole Cardassia overthrow and basic interactions with Klingons and stuff

Post-DW plots could include stuff like rebuilding the infrastructure of the Cardassian Union (and the continuing problems with Cardassia's wounded ego, as well as Tzenkethi, Miradorn and Breen trying to pick the bones off Cardassia's carcass), the possible weaknesses inside the Klingon Empire (Martok's reign essentially began with a coup perpetrated by an oft-dishonoured wild card in Klingon politics), and (post-Nemesis) possible Romulan civil war. If things like finding the lost Cardassian vessel in the Delta Quadrant (Evek's? The one from 'The Voyager Conspiracy'?) means that, say, a famous Cardassian hero comes home to a devastated Union he decides to restore, someone might try to take him out for the good of the Federation. And there's the Borg and everything too.

[SoloRio]

Hey, guys, so I have some stuff to ask about after our second game session.

We all created characters that are roughly level 5, in other words I gave them 25 advancement picks. I mandated promotions be bought with the picks, forcing the cap to spend enough picks to be a captain and so on.

The thing I'm having a hard time with is skill checks. Often, I'll ask for a simple check like sensors or transporter control and the roll will result in under a ten, which the book describes as routine. How high should, for example, a 5th level character's system ops bonus be?

We were rolling a D20 with them for a bit last session just to experiment and that resulted in too many successes, should I just have them roll 3 D 6? Or is it possible we're creating characters wrong?


-M

[Doug Burke]

The thing I'm having a hard time with is skill checks. Often, I'll ask for a simple check like sensors or transporter control and the roll will result in under a ten, which the book describes as routine. How high should, for example, a 5th level character's system ops bonus be?

6 levels is considered expert (or fluency if dealing with a language). There is no set "how high it should be" for a specific number of advancements (CODA really doesn't use "levels" per se).

We were rolling a D20 with them for a bit last session just to experiment and that resulted in too many successes, should I just have them roll 3 D 6? Or is it possible we're creating characters wrong?

All tests in CODA should be done using 2d6, regardless of level of advancement.

[SoloRio]

All tests in CODA should be done using 2d6, regardless of level of advancement.

And if my officers are failing routine checks using 2 d 6?

Which was often the case?



-M

[Tomcat]

Well the next question is, are you guys computing all modifiers?

My Tactical officer (Ensign) I just created with no advancements, has the following Sys Ops skill rank:

Intelligence +2, Skill rank +4 = +6 (+2 if my Tactical specialty is included for a total of +8)... there could be physical test modifiers (i.e. proper equipment, or bonuses from the ship's systems or tricorders); there could be modifiers from Traits; or modifiers from higher ranked personnel, etc.

A 2d6 roll generally falls on a 7 (if you look at the bell curve) and so my 0-advancement Tac officer is going to be able to clear a TN 10 routine test most of the time.

Anyway, just make sure you are getting all of the bonuses.

Tomcat