House Rules?

[Paul]

I'm going to be starting a new game shortly (although I've Narrated Trek before, this willl be my first run at a serious, long-term game).

I was wondering if we'd all be happy to share our respective house rules with the community-at-large?

I know we've all got them, and we've shared them around from time to time...this seems to be a good way to get them in an easy-to-find spot...

To start the ball rolling:

A rule I'm going to be implementing in my game will be that during character generation, players will get their native language for free; this frees up 6DP from the template. However, characters must spend at least 3DP on purchasing a second language. (This is important in my game, as the characters will be starting off as cadets in the Academy on Day 1 of their careers).

A second rule I'll be using while the characters are in the Academy is that the characters will receive XP for scenarios completed during their Academy days, but the XP will be very limited (no more than 2XP per character per episode), and may not be spent until after the characters graduate from the Cadet Cruise.

Next?

------------------
In spite of the cost of living, have you noticed how popular it remains?

[Owen E Oulton]

I've split Psychology out from Medical Sciences. Psychology deals with the workings of the mind, while Medical Sciences deals with the physical body. Here's the writeup:
<dl>
<dt>Psychology Skill
<dd>Rather than using Psychology as a Specialisation under Medical Sciences per the ST:TNG Core Rules, Psychology is treated as a separate skill with its own Specialisations.
<dd><dl><dt>Psychology (Intellect)
<dd>Abnormal Psychology, Forensic Psychology, Psychoanalysis, Psychology (Specific Race or Culture), Xenopsychology
<dt>The Psychology skill deals with the workings of the sapient mind. Abnormal Psychology deals with the study of mental illnesses; Forensic Psychology with reconstructing the motivations behind a particular act (usually as part of a criminal investigation), Psychoanalysis with the treatment of psychological disorders; Psychology (Specific Race or Culture) with the psychological processes of a specific species; and Xenopsychology with the study of the psychological processes of unfamiliar races.</dl></dl>

Also, I have added a sixth area of Renown. Luck Renown reflects an individual's reputation for having (as the Vulcans say) random factors operate in your favour. Conversely, a negative Luck Renown reflects a reputation for being unlucky. Luck Renown is only awarded during play, never during character generation.

Lastly, I don't ablate Specialisations - when a Skill rises, so do all Specialisations in that skill.

[Old Soldier]

I do not allow players to use the command crew template for character generation. The reason for this is that all of the command officers I can recall have moved into the command branch from some other branch along the way. E.g., Janeway was a science officer, Picard was a helmsman, etc. This serves to diversify the skills that my command characters end up having.

------------------
"Any society which is willing to surrender essential liberties in order to gain security, shall in the end have neither."

[SIR SIG]

I tend to have a stricter renown/promotion system for all officer ranks with respect to skills and renown (much more linear and expected years at each rank).

As well i've developed a strong shield breach rule (perhaps to strong with a good character and good roles) that reflect the shows ships always getting damage while shields are still up.

------------------
SIR SIG a Aussie TREK Narrator

[Protius]

For my old Dominion game, the instant that certain DS9 episode aired, I said: "Ok, no shapeshifting into gas or fire." And this was only partly because one of my players immediately used it to escape from his perdicament. Makes GMing a little harder when all they have to do is float around the tension-building obstacles like it was taught in Founder-preschool.

[Dan Gurden]

House Rules:

OK, well I loved Owens Luck renown and will be incorporating that into my game...

1 - I only charge for Promotion and Department Head as advantages prior to game play. Once a character has started I decide based on player actions and renown when the character is promoted and advanced.

When this happens they get the promotion as a free advantage bonus.

Conversely, they can pick up disadvantages through gameplay, these are decided by myself and usually discussed with the player before applying new disadvantages...

2 - Bad Luck Dice. I adopted the mechanic from WEG Star Wars. If a 1 is rolled even if all the other dice are good and enough to pass the test. The 1 shows that something bad happened, maybe not drastic, but possibly unlucky and maybe effecting later plot.

------------------
Dan.

"A couple of thoughts froma random mind!"

[Protius]

I keep the Bad Luck Dice limited to the drama die roll. I've got one player who still manages to hit it half the time.

[Paul]

I also liked Owen's Luck Renown aspect, and will be using it in my own game.

Another rule I will be adding is that of skill progression:

When characters want to improve their base skill, they will need to have a number of specialisations in that skill equal to the value of the skill they are going to. EG if they want to take a skill from 1 to 2, they will need to have two specialisations; from 2 to 3 they will need three specialisations, etc... Specialisations will automatically increase, where necessary, to satisfy the spec-is-one-point-higher-than-the-skill rule.

------------------
In spite of the cost of living, have you noticed how popular it remains?

[Dave Biggins]

Originally posted by Owen E Oulton:
I've split Psychology out from Medical Sciences. Psychology deals with the workings of the mind, while Medical Sciences deals with the physical body.

For the most part, I agreee with you, but what I do is make Psychology a specialization of Social Science. In what can be laughingly refered to as my train of thought, dealing with psychological make up of an individual and the sociological actions of a community, although different, is heavily interrelated.

[darkwing duck1]

Originally posted by Old Soldier:
I do not allow players to use the command crew template for character generation. The reason for this is that all of the command officers I can recall have moved into the command branch from some other branch along the way. E.g., Janeway was a science officer, Picard was a helmsman, etc.

The idea of a seperate Command Crew template is one of the few areas where LUG Trek got it wrong. The "Command Branch" INCLUDES Helmsmen. The idea that a character from, say, sciences, could just get a promo and become a Captain just doesn't fly. (Before someone cites Spock to me: 1. He's Vulcan, and easily could've "double majored" 2. He'd been in Starfleet for a LONG time even before he met Kirk.



------------------
Deo Vindice!

[Red]

Originally posted by Paul:
and may not be spent until after the characters graduate from the Cadet Cruise.

Is that a good idea? I mean that the character is supposed to be able to grow during his/her academy tenure. Say a character enters the academy with no knowledge of warp theory but wants to become a warp engineer. When the character gets to his cadet cruise, despite the fact that he is a warp engineer and he has been through the academy he still dosen't know anything about warp mechanics.

Does this make sense? Sorry, but I am half asleep, but I think I've made my point.

Red

[Killgrave]

I agree with the Duck. Command characters are the helmsman and bridge command specialists. In order for someone from another department to go into command, then they would have to take command courses. I think that the game works better with a PC in command.
Killgrave

[Old Soldier]

Originally posted by darkwing duck1:
The idea that a character from, say, sciences, could just get a promo and become a Captain just doesn't fly.

Agreed. Being a proponent of character development, I typically require a command character to select an original branch, and then develop into a command officer using all those nifty rules in the players guide.

Currently, I draw my flight control characters from the ops branch. It hadn't occured to me to use the command template strictly for flight controler characters. I will have to go review the template to see if it fits for my purposes.

------------------
"Any society which is willing to surrender essential liberties in order to gain security, shall in the end have neither."

[Paul]

Red - there's probably two camps of thought on this.

The Academy boxed set states that XP is not awarded during and Academy series, but DP should be awarded instead (I think). However, DP is given as part of the cadet's learning anyway, and will make a munchkin out of the cadet if the Narrator gets happy with DP awarding.

I'll award small amounts of XP during the academy phase of my game, and I'll probably allow the characters to spend it at the end of each year instead, to simulate additional learning out-of-class. I haven't thought of a final decision on this one.

------------------
In spite of the cost of living, have you noticed how popular it remains?

[Keny Suda]

As suggested in the Academy book, cadets receive Development points instead of XPs.
I planned a four episode Academy Campaign. The players will receive one fourth of the Overlay DPs (48 / 4 = 12) as mere learning experience to "build" their overlay, plus some extra DPs for adventure experience.
But I limited attribute and edge advancement during creation and development, to prevent what we call "Attribute Monsters"...

Drama Die Rule:
A drama one creates minor difficulties, if roll is six under test it creates some trouble, all dice roll one means disaster.