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Thread: Secure Redshirts

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jun 2015
    Location
    Scotland
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    Secure Redshirts

    Okay, so we all know the jokes and memes about red shirts in TOS.
    But, how do we get past all that to make Security a valid and interesting PC choice in our TOS Starfleet campaigns?
    I, for one, have never (in over 10 years of running Starfleet campaigns) had a Player who wanted such an option.
    So how do we improve that?
    I think it starts with turning around Security's perception. Rather than "the first and the most frequently to get killed", maybe it should be "the brave and dedicated force standing between the scientists & engineers, and the dangers of exploring the wonders and mysteries of "strange new worlds"?
    With no apparent army in TOS, perhaps Security is the "boots on the ground" for Starfleet.
    So what would this look like in play?
    Skills would be around both HtH and phaser combat, with a healthy dose of tactics.
    Plus survival in a wide range of different planetry environments and basic first aid
    And then what the FASA STTRPG calls Security Operations. I would see this as a combined surveilance, electronic locks oversight for secure areas (something Kirk could have frequently done with!), questioning methods and (combined with tactics) use of appropriate defensive/protection formations for ViP's etc
    I always run my campaigns so that every PC gets to be the focus of a scenario, with the others in supporting roles. And this fairly rotates throughout the PC group. Protection of a visiting, very arrogant and difficult diplomat against conflicting factions, investigation of a apparently motiveless murder of a seemingly ordinary crewman etc. These strike me as some starting points for such a Security chief PC focused scenario.
    All to give a more interesting focus to a maybe underused PC specialisation.h

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Nov 2018
    Location
    Lethbridge, Canada
    Posts
    17
    Quote Originally Posted by C57D View Post
    Okay, so we all know the jokes and memes about red shirts in TOS.
    But, how do we get past all that to make Security a valid and interesting PC choice in our TOS Starfleet campaigns?
    I, for one, have never (in over 10 years of running Starfleet campaigns) had a Player who wanted such an option.
    So how do we improve that?
    I think it starts with turning around Security's perception. Rather than "the first and the most frequently to get killed", maybe it should be "the brave and dedicated force standing between the scientists & engineers, and the dangers of exploring the wonders and mysteries of "strange new worlds"?
    With no apparent army in TOS, perhaps Security is the "boots on the ground" for Starfleet.
    So what would this look like in play?
    Skills would be around both HtH and phaser combat, with a healthy dose of tactics.
    Plus survival in a wide range of different planetry environments and basic first aid
    And then what the FASA STTRPG calls Security Operations. I would see this as a combined surveilance, electronic locks oversight for secure areas (something Kirk could have frequently done with!), questioning methods and (combined with tactics) use of appropriate defensive/protection formations for ViP's etc
    I always run my campaigns so that every PC gets to be the focus of a scenario, with the others in supporting roles. And this fairly rotates throughout the PC group. Protection of a visiting, very arrogant and difficult diplomat against conflicting factions, investigation of a apparently motiveless murder of a seemingly ordinary crewman etc. These strike me as some starting points for such a Security chief PC focused scenario.
    All to give a more interesting focus to a maybe underused PC specialisation.h
    Interesting thoughts!

    I try to keep my storylines relatively conflict-free, with the ability to talk/negotiate your way out of challenges available to the characters, so everything doesn't devolve into phaser fights, so that limits the appeal of a PC security character. But making use of some of their secondary skills, as you describe, might make them into something a little more useful.

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