A fitting punishment

[Lt.Khrys Antos]

I recently ran an episode I saw on the excellent thread on plot ideas. It was the psi egg idea which infects the colony world and then lures the ship there, I believe it was by Mactavish.

My PC's managed to trace the crash land of the egg, though I had a twist in the episode. Only one survivor from the colony remained and he was beamed to the ship. All the players went down to investigate the egg, it took them a while to finish their scans, not knowing that when they returned th whole ship was infected.

My PC's found a crewmen acting under direct orders from the captain to ignore orders from higher officers since they were the first to be infected. The CSO was not allowed to follow the crewmen, and was also disarmed.

That was the situation when the following happened, he began to try to restore power to the transporter room where he was located. He realized that only the emergency shelters and another few other areas had power. He diverted power from 5 out of 6 shelters, including Sickbay, then catastophically failed a series of rolls which had him captured by the psionically infected crew.

His actions endangered the lives of several crewmen not affected and the lack of a sickbay also hampered the CMO's efforts to find a cure. He knowingly diverted power from the medical stations, the crewmen informed him he was heading there.

Now, what kind of punishment should there be? He endangered the lives of a few uninfected crewmen, took power away from emergency shelters (not knowing if people were using them, apart from sickbay), he also took a "shoot the crew and ask questions later" stance.

I'm leaning towards a formal reprimand and 15 days in the brig. Though I believe it would be too lenient. Anyone have experience with modern day penalties or maybe they have dealt with such a situation?

[ghosty]

Reckless endangerment is an extremely serious offence especially when he not only endangered fellow Starfleet officers but civilians as well, if anyone had died, he could be looking at murder or manslaughter charges as well.

Personally, I'd recomend six months to one year brig time (maybe more), demotion by one grade or perhaps even a dishonourable discharge. From what you have described there was no call for him to do what he did, there were no mitigating circumstances. When called for you have to throw the book at them otherwise they think they can get off lightly everytime they screw up badly. This time nobody was killed, next time many may die if their cavalier way of dealing with problems continue. Nip it in the bud before they really do something that may end up with thousands of casualties and a lost starship.

[Lt.Khrys Antos]

The problem with placing him in a prolonged stay in a brig or even a dishonourable discharge, is that Starfleet is currently waging a defensive war against the Klingons.

He was attempting to reach engineering to restore main power, however, he first decided to transfer power to the transporter room and the security locker room. He then proceeded to beam himself there, failed a couple of crucial rolls terribly ( a series of all 1's on 3 dices) and then wound up captured and infected by the entity.

I think I will demote him though, he did show a reckless behaviour when dealing with the lives of his crew as you mentioned.

[ghosty]

It still doesn't explain what he did. There are numerous ways to get to engineering without having to screw around with transporters. The risks he took were far too high, I think he deserves confinement. War is no excuse for what he has done. You don't ever cut power to sickbay and life support shelters...never...the JAG would come down very hard on the perpertrator, and a simple demotion is insufficient.

[reimero]

This may sound extreme, but if this were real life, the person involved would most likely get something along the lines of 3-5 years, full loss of rank, loss of commission and a dishonorable discharge. That kind of blatant disregard for the safety of others is the fastest way to end one's career.

Mind you, I come from a group in which character death is an almost common occurence (although there's only been one death in Trek and that was because someone took a disruptor to a superior officer and was promptly executed - Romulan campaign, you know.) While a death sentence would not be handed down, as Narrator, I would probably have a full-blown court-martial and throw the book at him. Then I'd follow the time-honored tradition of taking the core rulebooks and some paper, taking the player aside and saying those famous words, "roll up a new character."

Seriously.

Actions have consequences. While it's easy to blame on lousy die rolls, there are also decisions the player has to make and has to live with. The critical failures aren't the storyline here, the decision to take an ill-advised course of action is. Court-martiallable actions lead to court martials. Court martials lead to jail time. From a practical standpoint, being imprisoned without reasonable hope for escape is equivalent to losing the character.

Alternately, if you're feeling generous, I'd do the following:
-Reduction in rank to Ensign (or even to low enlisted level, as per the Player's Guide.)
-Reduce his courage points by 2 to 3 (or more)
-Serious negative Renown hits to both Skill and Discipline.
-If the player is an ensign, he can never be promoted again
-If the player is enlisted, he can never regain his commission
-Apply an appropriate Disadvantage (such as Untrustworthy or Unlucky)

The bottom line is that this guy's career is over, and rightfully so. Starfleet might be generous enough to allow him to avoid brig time if he resigns, but that's about the extent of it.

I know I'm harsher than most of the responses here, but as I said, if you want a realistic response, then the player is looking at rolling up a new character.

[reimero]

I just spoke with our group's "DM of Death" and asked him for his opinion. (I should mention as an aside that he does not narrate Trek, he runs D&D, Cyberpunk, Dark Conspiracy and Call of Cthulhu, but he's had a lot of experience with dealing with similar situations. He doesn't pussy-foot around character death and he has no problems with penalizing players for bad decision-making. However, if you make a bad decision and don't die, he's good about letting you try to rectify things.)

His take on the situation is that if he were the Narrator, he would have the CO haul the character on the carpet and "make him feel about 2 inches tall," let him know he was being court-martialled, put him in the brig for awhile, strip him of rank and put him in charge of doing all the menial tasks. It may upset the player somewhat, but it also tends to lead to better role-playing.

As he put it to me, I got kind of upset the first time he killed off one of my characters (in D&D) but since then I've been playing a LOT smarter.

[Admiral Wolf]

A few things.....

First, I get the impression from your first post, that the Captain was one of the "infected" crew members and thus not making command decisions ?

The PC in question is the Chief Security Officer ? was he the ranking officer of the uninfected PC's ? if not who was ?

If he was the ranking officer, then due to the infection on the ship he will have a case based on the fact that he was technically in command at the time....and that however "misguided"...his actions , were taken with the best interest of the ship and crew.

If he was not the ranking officer of uninfected crew what then were his orders (if any). ?

Another thing to remember, it sounds like he got some unlucky rolls when he needed some lucky ones....had the rolls gone his way, whould he have become the "hero" of the game and possibly "saved the ship".?

One thing I try to remember....risk and hard decisions are part of the job...however that said blatenly foolish decisions should have some consequences.

I don't know what the rest of the PC's were doing at this time, maybe they were about to pull of the "win" and the CSO should have waited to see what was going to happen before trying his extream attempts to rectify the situation.

Of course you were there, and know weather the PC was acting "stipidly" or not....but I would have some form of a Court-Martial Hearing (maybe on the ship, maybe on the nearest starbase....hell you want to really scare the PC....have him recalled to Starfleet Command to stand before "the man")

Phasering down infected crew is not the biggest issue for me (as long as he was not trying to kill em) Kirk was always karati choping his crew when they were "possesed"

I'd slap him with a court case (stateing why he fooked up) and probably hit him with a temporary reduction in rank, and reassignment to ships laundry service.

[Lt.Khrys Antos]

Hmm... from the posts I've read, I guess many may consider me a softy so I guess its time to harden up.

Alright, Pc are as follows:

Lt. McGuillan, Command (Human)
Lt. Tevek, Medical Chief (Vulcan)
Lt. Tanko, Chief Security (Betelgeusan)
Lt. Rombard, Starfleet Attache (Zaldan)

Only Tevek and Tanko were present at the time, when they beamed aboard, ensign Ramirez immediately told them to give him their weapons and only the Vulcan may follow.

He said he was acting under direct orders from the captain, prior to his infection, to disregard orders from Chief's as they are for the most part infected. He then promptly told Tanko not to follow, the CMO agreed and they went through the jeffries tube to the sickbay. The ensign's reasoning as he told them, that only psionically active crewmen were as of yet uninfected.

Now, the CMO was just about to figure out the cure/vaccine when power went off in the emergency shelters AND sickbay. He had a potential cure, but was not sure if it would work perfectly.

The CSO would have been the hero if he had succeeded in getting to engineering and taking out the "infected hive cocoon", unfortunately, a series of terrible rolls brought a group of infected crewmen upon him and after a brief struggle he became infected as well.

Here is a brief summary of his actions:

-He learns that 6 shelters are still operating, decides to divert power from all but one, I carefully remind him crewmen may be there. He continues with his plan.
-Decides to divert power to the weapons locker and retrieve a phaser rifle. Power to the shelters is now gone. Disobeyed an order from the CMO to stay where he was and await further instructions.
-Gets to the weapons, however, (catastrophic roll to divert power) causes no power to be transfered there, tries to bring some power (dramatic failure), group of infected crewmen arrive, series of rounds (also plagued by dramatic and catastrophic failures), finally captured.

Alright the tally of the punishment are:

-Dishonourable discharge.
-Busted down to ensign.
-Relieved of command of security.
-Brig time.
-Loads of negative renown.
-Court-Martial.
-Disadvantage (Bad reputation Discipline and/or Skill).
-Laundry service for a while.
-Privation of certain privileges (Holodeck, restricted replicator use).

I just taught of an argument that his 'friends' could use to save him, he was not acting under his own will, he was infected. Since only psionically active crewmen where left on the ship it would be plausible.

Keep the ideas coming!

His punishment will be a culmination of all the narrating skills in this forum. Mouhahahaha...........

[ghosty]

Originally posted by Lt.Khrys Antos
Here is a brief summary of his actions:

-He learns that 6 shelters are still operating, decides to divert power from all but one, I carefully remind him crewmen may be there. He continues with his plan.
-Decides to divert power to the weapons locker and retrieve a phaser rifle. Power to the shelters is now gone. Disobeyed an order from the CMO to stay where he was and await further instructions.
-Gets to the weapons, however, (catastrophic roll to divert power) causes no power to be transfered there, tries to bring some power (dramatic failure), group of infected crewmen arrive, series of rounds (also plagued by dramatic and catastrophic failures), finally captured.

None of what you say justifies his actions. Diverting power from life support just to get his hands on a phaser rifle...no logic, surely he had his hand phaser which should have been enough to complete his mission. His acts were totally disproportionate to the threat level and why was he monkeying around in the transporter room. Using the Jefferies tubes seemed to be working.

Alright the tally of the punishment are:

-Dishonourable discharge.
-Busted down to ensign.
-Relieved of command of security.
-Brig time.
-Loads of negative renown.
-Court-Martial.
-Disadvantage (Bad reputation Discipline and/or Skill).
-Laundry service for a while.
-Privation of certain privileges (Holodeck, restricted replicator use).

To put it persepective, loss of his job as security chief would be automatic after a severe dressing down by all persons in the chain of command, pending his court martial.

I think he'd be charged with:

a. reckless endangerment

b. insubordination. The CMO authority overrides any other officer's authority (even the CO) in a medical emergency.

c. conduct prejudicial to good order and discipline

d. conduct unbecoming a Starfleet officer

After the court martial he will spend time in the
brig.

Demotion is almost certain and a dishonourable discharge can be considered.

Disadvantages and negative renown are role-playing punishments which he deserves. I presume he was awarded no experience points.

The rest is nothing more than window dressing and would not even rate as punishment consumate with the offence he committed. One thing I've learned is that in Trek, you can't treat is like any other RPG where screw ups like this don't cost the PC too much. Starfleet is a quasi-military (don't start) organization, it has rules and it has to enforce them.

I just taught of an argument that his 'friends' could use to save him, he was not acting under his own will, he was infected. Since only psionically active crewmen where left on the ship it would be plausible.

Won't wash. He was not psionically controlled at the time of his actions. If his friends lie for him then they can be charged with perjury which would land them in the brig as well. Definite no no. Remember "The first duty of every Starfleet officer is to the truth" (Captain Jean-Luc Picard).

[Phantom]

Well lookie here...We got ourselves another Ro Laren!

Ok, my take on this;

-Reduction of rank-yes
-Demotion (no longer head of Security)
-Brig time?-Maybe 1-2 months worth
-Discharge-They kept Ro around, and she was responsible for the deaths of fellow crewmen...I assume there were no deaths, right? Besides where would your game go?
-Neg. Renown-Give me a "Hell yeah."
-Experience-He should get some I think, just because he's a bit of a screw up he still is learning things.
-Disavantage (discipline problem)- could be a good idea.
-REstriction to quarters-See ya in a couple of months.

We have also seen where characters like these can be handy, and they even might make amends...Suder.

[ghosty]

They busted Ro to diddly and tossed her in the brig maybe for life, it wasn't stated for how long but if fellow crew members died, then it'd have been for a long time. It was only because of a critical mission that they let her out and only because of Picard's intervention with Starfleet that kept her around until she decided to defect to the Maquis.

[darkwing duck1]

I had something similar happen to a hot-headed character of mine in a Trek campaign (won't go into all the details but the generalities are the same). My GM was feeling generous and this was the result: busted back down to Ensign and sent to the bottom of the promotions list (meaning he'd likely never get promoted again), he got booted off the ship with a note in his personnel file that pretty much made sure he'd never get a "good" assignment again. And, of course, EVERYBODY in the fleet knew what had happened, so wherever he went, he found he had ZERO friends (even people he knew "before" stopped talking to him).

It was virtually impossible to play this character again, so I had to start over with a new one (my current one).

So (in character) the best he can hope for is to be broken to Ensign and drawing a permanent post in some h***hole (like the embassy on Breen). The worst could be any combination of what's been discussed above.

In player terms, I would DEFINITELY consider making him make a new character. No necessarily as a punishment, but just because playing a disgraced character properly means virtually NO character development (as the character is a virtaul pariah).

[ghosty]

But then again he has a chance for redepmtion, do something so heroic and selfless that all his trangressions will be forgotten and he's put back on the fast track for promtion...it could be an interesting character to play provided the player can actually handle it.

[Lt.Khrys Antos]

The CSO did not have his hand phaser on him, he had been disarmed by ensign Ramirez upon transporting unto the ship. He did receive some xp for roleplaying, I had him play the cocoon overmind after, he gave a good performance.

Wasn't Ro Laren a Lt. when she defected? Crewmen died because of her actions, while in this case, forctunately, no one did. His service record is good, a few commendations and recognitions for service above reproach.

While I don't want to make him create a new character unless he chooses to, I would prefer to find a way to redeem himself. If he fails this redeeming then the gloves come off. I've decided upon him being pressured to accept a solo near suicidal mission to the Klingon empire. Success means the captain puts in a good word and failure...well lets say that is not an option. OR Section 31 offers covertly to smooth things over for a little favour, then another and another over a series of episodes until I have him and then they use him for something very big.

This character is sort of a gun-ho Ro Laren looks like a pacifist compared to me. He does showw an overreliance on tech at times and has used force on several occassions when not necessary. This is the first time I've had this happen.

I also dropped the 'infected and not acting under his own will' idea, as ghosty mentioned that would be perjury, I should'ave thought of that.

[ghosty]

Originally posted by Lt.Khrys Antos
The CSO did not have his hand phaser on him, he had been disarmed by ensign Ramirez upon transporting unto the ship. He did receive some xp for roleplaying, I had him play the cocoon overmind after, he gave a good performance.

Okay I can accept that.

Wasn't Ro Laren a Lt. when she defected? Crewmen died because of her actions, while in this case, forctunately, no one did. His service record is good, a few commendations and recognitions for service above reproach.

Ro had been promoted to Lietuenant (jg) more than 2 years after being reinstated and remember she had the backing of Picard who has plenty of clout and influence all over Starfleet. His previous service record will count when punishment is being decided but not to any great extent.

While I don't want to make him create a new character unless he chooses to, I would prefer to find a way to redeem himself. If he fails this redeeming then the gloves come off. I've decided upon him being pressured to accept a solo near suicidal mission to the Klingon empire. Success means the captain puts in a good word and failure...well lets say that is not an option.

That's what I suggested in my earlier post but even if he succeeds he'll still feel a certain amount of resentment from persons he had endangered by his actions. Remember the cold shoulder Ro got when she first came aboard the Enterprise?

OR Section 31 offers covertly to smooth things over for a little favour, then another and another over a series of episodes until I have him and then they use him for something very big.

Coming back as a flunky of Section 31 is probably a better option. Great roleplaying opportunities. No one knows why the PC has been reinstated by obviously there is a reason and think about it he'll have to pull off those Section 31 black ops without blowing his cover.

This character is sort of a gun-ho Ro Laren looks like a pacifist compared to me. He does showw an overreliance on tech at times and has used force on several occassions when not necessary. This is the first time I've had this happen.

You mean this is the first time things have gone wrong. Well best time to teach him a lession IMHO.

I also dropped the 'infected and not acting under his own will' idea, as ghosty mentioned that would be perjury, I should'ave thought of that.

Don't let the other PCs get dragged down with the CSO.