Pon Farr scenarios. . .

[Cdre Bob Wesley]

We have one planned, but it's really underdeveloped. Here's what we got so far.

Lt Cdr. T'Val is a female Vulcan, with no pre-arranged marriage at childhood (raised on a remote colony and missed the boat). She is, of course, the antagonist for the duration of the episode. To make things interesting, I will establish that meditation isn't working; possibly due to some outside stress (this episode will need some kind of a supportive sub-plot).

Hopefully, the players will elect to do the ritual combat. Doing this on Vulcan would be nice, but I see no reason why it would be necessary to go to the actual planet if T'Val has no prearranged marriage.

Having never seen Enterprise (and trying to avoid doing so) we interpret female Pon Farr as like PMDD. The symptoms widely vary among each individual Vulcan woman as well.

Edit: Per my player during development:

I would imagine that for females, an analogue for the ritual combat would be being fought over. Ancient Vulcans took mates through combat if the male role is to partake in the combat, it would seem obvious the female version is to be some sort of damsel of distress/object worthy of killing for. She would get blood lust of her own, not wanting to fight but to watch fighting.

Which I agree with.

[Nuclear Fridge]

I'm assuming that there are two 'suitable candidates' for T'Val to fixate on here? Each has some quality or advantage making him worthy as a potential mate... She just wants them to beat the living daylights out of each other to 'decide' which one's the better choice.

As I recall -- it's been a while since I've seen any TOS -- T'Pring's manipulation of the marriage ceremony forced Spock into a 'no win' dilemma that would benefit her no matter what happened. There's a broad streak of self-interest mixed with logic there. Just how far is T'Val going to go to get what she wants?

[redwood973]

Do females go through pon farr? I thought that was more of a male thing.

[somaticon]

Its a vague area in Trek both in tv and novels. T'Prynn in Vanguard experiences it as did T'Pol [in her case caused by a virus] There were other Vulcan females as well who were not in relationships/ bound to someone who do not appear to go through Ponn Farr. Peter David's Excaliber series portrayed Ponn Farr as well. I believe it should really be GM discretion. I.E. if its part of a plot development.

[The Tatterdemalion King]

Maybe it's exposure to pheremones from the male that triggers it in the female–the reverse of the ovulating-stripper effect.

[Aldaron]

the reverse of the ovulating-stripper effect

Now there's a sentence you just don't see very often!

[Nuclear Fridge]

I certainly stopped and stared...
"The *&%$* what effect??!"

[Aldaron]

I certainly stopped and stared...
"The *&%$* what effect??!"

It's actually been shown that strippers who aren't on the oral contraceptive pill get a statistically-significant increase in tips (around 17%, if memory serves). The theory is that women who are ovulating (which women who are on the OCP are not) secrete pheremones that men sense on a subconscious level. In other words, the men see them - again, subconsciously - as more fertile and therefore more attractive.

I just loved the way TTK phrased it, is all...