Some of my players are complaining that Starfleet regulations/protocols are too stifling for their characters. Any suggestions on how to allow characters more freedom of choice and action without compromising the Starfleet way.
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Some of my players are complaining that Starfleet regulations/protocols are too stifling for their characters. Any suggestions on how to allow characters more freedom of choice and action without compromising the Starfleet way.
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Respect the chain of command, respond to distress calls, don't kill aliens on sight and try not to mess up their culture. That's about it.
If they really want to play Starfleet characters, those regulations wouldn't feel stifling at all.
Have you considered letting them play an alien crew, like Klingons?
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Would your players be of the "he's annoying me, so I shoot him in the back" variety?
Or do they want to blast the living &*%&@ out of the Cardassian ship as soon as it comes into weapons range, on the general theory that Cardassians are bad guys & are automatically up to Something Nasty?
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You could always run a civilian crew. We have the USS Legacy for Starfleet adventures and the SS Gold Coast for civilian adventures. So if someone wants to do some gratuitous shooting Alita Duran can pull out her heavy disruptor rifle and start picking off Breen !Originally Posted by spazboy1979
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Good point, FASAGrrl. During the Merchant Marine series I ran, the crew often wound up at the bar on Rashok's Outpost, a Ferengi-run station.
A Starfleet crew would have been morally obliged to stop the Nausicaan bouncer making an example of the dabo-table cheats, but the Kingfisher crew took the view that it was an 'occupational hazard' and went back to their synthehol...
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Actually, there's a question of jurisdiction there as well.... so long as the Nausicaan was obeying the local laws, the Starfleeters wouldn't be obliged to interfere- "respect for diversity and local customs" and all that.
Starfleet protocol (and the Prime Directive) pretty much dictate that "when in Rome, do as the Romans do". Non-member worlds are not subject to Federation rules and even member worlds have broad latitude in determining what Federation laws apply to their citizenry.
As Wesley Crusher so aptly demonstrated, Starfleet personnel are subject to LOCAL law, as well as Starfleet regulations and Federation law. Picard was morally correct (but legally wrong) to intercede.
Had the Edo been prepared to execute one of thier own, on the other hand, Picard wouldn't have had anything to say about the matter.
Essentially, your average Starfleeter is screwed coming and going.
If the local laws permit duels in the street, then a visiting Starfleeter (such as the ubiquitous Ensign Red S. Expendable) has no business stopping such a duel.
If, on the other hand, he's challenged and fights such duel, Starfleet and the Federation can hold Expendable to their "higher" law- and prosecute him for manslaughter at the very least.
A Board of Inquiry (or even a Captain's Review) may decide it was self-defense and let the matter slide- but the possibility of a court-martial for "obeying" local laws is very real.
If Expendable violates local law, he's subject to local justice- and Starfleet will (generally) look the other way.
If Expendable violates Starfleet regulations, he's subject to Starfleet justice.
If he violates Federation law, he's subject to both Starfleet AND Federation justice.
So....lawyers would be a subsidized and much-needed species in Star Trek.
To swing this back towards the matters raised in the OP, though:
One of the adventures I'm working on (which may or may not be posted to the semi-dead revenant-in-waiting that is Beyond the Final Frontier), is phenomenally bleak- easily the "darkest" thing I've ever written.
Unless they are very, VERY sharp, the crew is forced to confront defeat and lingering death face-to-face.
The heroes are offered a choice between letting others die with dignity or to "go out swinging".
Every one of my former players (all of whom took their turn in the center seat) stated unequivocally that they would rather risk their own ships and crews to aid another in "going out swinging" than to see them "go quietly into the night."
They would rather sacrifice themselves to see a Starfleet crew go out fighting than to fail to offer their assistance to brother officers.
That is, in my opinion, the true spirit of Starfleet- loyalty to one's own, and integrity in the face of defeat.
Murphy's Laws of Combat state that: "The right way is always hard and the easy way is always mined".
Service in Starfleet is a privilege as much as it is a duty.
If you're not willing to do it the right way- regardless of the personal cost- then you've no business wearing the uniform.
That's why Eddington was such a compelling figure (and Sloane such a loathsome one). Eddington had the courage of his convictions- and he was fighting for the right thing. Unfortunately, he went about it in the wrong way.
His vision was pure, but his methods were tainted- and he died a tragic figure, sacrificing himself to save others from a trap of his own making.
Sloane on the other hand, was tainted body, mind, and soul. His vision was corrupt, and his methods followed suit- and he died utterly unredeemed.
Starfleet is about service to others, about nobility in the human spirit, and courage in the face of adversity.
We play Star Trek in order to play heroes- even if they are fatally flawed.
To quote Patrick O'Brien:
'Every man is a hero of his own tale....every man must look on himself as wiser and more intelligent and more virtuous than the rest, so how could he see himself as the villain, or even as a minor character?
And you must have noticed that heroes are never beaten. They may be undone for a while, but they always do themselves up again, and marry the virtuous young gentlewoman.'
Even our Klingon and Romulan characters fall under this dictum. They are the heroes of their own tales, not the villains, and not the sadist or the monster. Their actions are just and reasonable (within their own moral frame).
We play Star Trek in order to explore these virtues of nobility, courage, and adventure.
If your players (or more readily, their characters) have forgotten that- then it might be time to either remind them or to play a different sort of cast.
Last edited by selek; 05-07-2010 at 04:20 PM.
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Thank you everyone for your suggestions. I wish I could give examples, but when I ask I get nothing.
I think you are all right, the issue is definitely whether or not they want to be Starfleet characters or some other organization, I will have to think that over.
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If they still want to play a Starfleet crew, you could wormhole their ship into the Delta Quadrant 70,000 light years away from Federation space.
That way they wouldn't have to deal with Starfleet rules and regulations, but get no support either. Then they'd either hold on to Federation principles like the USS Voyager crew, or throw them overboard like the crew from the USS Equinox.
That could create a lot of tension, especially if you also have half the NPC's crew resist your players either way.
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Ouch, Calastir! A Decision at Midnight situation out in the Delta Quadrant would be just brutal... especially once the phaser fights in the corridors blast some vital piece of equipment!
(It wouldn't even need to be vital... just they don't have enough spare parts to fix it...)
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In that case a narrator would have to either temporarily disable the replicators or erase the key schematics from the computer memory, otherwise the players would simply replicate the parts they needed.
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If your players can't point out when and where they had the problem, can you be sure it's actually a problem? They might just be reacting to some interior straight-jacket instead of the environment that comes out while you're playing.
I think the idea that every part of the entire ship is 100% replicable is something that isn't really dramatically appropriate.
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It also contradicts both the tech manuals and ample on-screen evidence.
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Unless of course the 'essential system' happens to be the replicator's core memory...
"Well, we still have some files left."
"Such as?"
"Ah... coffee mugs, dress-uniform collar studs, and blue paint. That's it."
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Unless of course the 'essential system' happens to be the replicator's core memory...
"Well, we still have some files left."
"Such as?"
"Ah... coffee mugs, dress-uniform collar studs, and blue paint. That's it."
I LIKE the way you think!
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