Character Creation

[Cmdr Powers]

I spent a good part of the past two days digging into the Character Creation elements of the PG, attempting to recreate my ICON Trek character. I was successful, but I warn all of you ICON fans out there- read the book! Its not the same and you can get rapidly confused if you try to skip ahead and jump around.

After a couple of false starts, I finally went back and reviewed that two page spread on the character sheet. Just about every reference you need is shown there, so put a bookmark in place.

Its very easy to confuse the Profession and Package sections. Follow the steps in order and you won't have that problem. Choose your Profession, choose your Elite Profession, and then you can worry about the packages.

One place where I feel the PG falls down a bit is in Advancements. The game would like you to start as an Ensign- it really would. Because of this, very little guidance is given on how to make more advanced characters. I would have been much more comfortable if the PG had specifically stated how many advancements you needed to reach such and such a rank or position. I ended up assuming that each ICON "Tour of Duty" was one advancement.

Another element is the bold type stating that maximum skill level for a beginning character is 6. Not really a problem. By the time I was through, my Flight Control Officer had INT modifier of +2, Skill Level of 6, and a Misc Mod of +2 for 3d Thinking, for a grand total modifier of 10 for System Ops, Flight Control. Not bad.

Read the book! Don't get lost. Bookmark relevant sections as you go. Make sure you know the difference between Group Skills and Specialties. Have fun.

[Cmdr Powers]

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Learn to write really, really tiny. There's not much space on that extremely colorful character sheet.

"You need teeny tiny eyes to read teeny tiny print- just like you need teeny tiny licence plates for bees!" Larry Niven

[Don Mappin]

Originally posted by Cmdr Powers
One place where I feel the PG falls down a bit is in Advancements. The game would like you to start as an Ensign- it really would. Because of this, very little guidance is given on how to make more advanced characters. I would have been much more comfortable if the PG had specifically stated how many advancements you needed to reach such and such a rank or position. I ended up assuming that each ICON "Tour of Duty" was one advancement.

This has been covered in another thread to some length. Suffice it to say there is no mysterious chart that says you need, for example, 15 advancements to be a Captain. A Captain's qualifications are measured by thier abilites and skills--not an arbitrary number of advancements.

An Icon ToD is not equal to an advancement. An Icon ToD is 1d6+1 years long. A character with five Icon ToDs could have easily 20+ Coda advancements.

Another element is the bold type stating that maximum skill level for a beginning character is 6. Not really a problem. By the time I was through, my Flight Control Officer had INT modifier of +2, Skill Level of 6, and a Misc Mod of +2 for 3d Thinking, for a grand total modifier of 10 for System Ops, Flight Control. Not bad.

Keep in mind you're shorting other skills to get that really high Flight Control. A bonus of +10 is quite the accomplishment out the gate! You're going to be a one-trick wonder pony.

Glad you're enjoying yourself!

[Cmdr Powers]

Originally posted by Don Mappin

An Icon ToD is not equal to an advancement. An Icon ToD is 1d6+1 years long. A character with five Icon ToDs could have easily 20+ Coda advancements.

Sure, I understand that the PG indicates 6 month periods as an example of what you might choose to do as Narrator, but I did find that the rule was loose enough that a little extra guidance would have helped.

Keep in mind you're shorting other skills to get that really high Flight Control. A bonus of +10 is quite the accomplishment out the gate! You're going to be a one-trick wonder pony.

Not really. That was only possible after doing enough Advancements to create a LCmdr Department Head. Other skills did not get shorted- much.

Glad you're enjoying yourself!

You Bet!

[Don Mappin]

Originally posted by Cmdr Powers
Not really. That was only possible after doing enough Advancements to create a LCmdr Department Head. Other skills did not get shorted- much.

Ah, I presumed you were making a starting character by virtue of you taking the time to point out the maximum starting level of 6. My mistake.

[Cmdr Powers]

Well, the PG made such a big deal about the level 6 (what with bolding and all) I just assumed that I wasn't allowed to exceed level 6 period- at least until I actually played a scenario and earned some points.

Anyhoo, a Starship Officer, Flight Control Officer with a couple of Tiers under her belt can pretty easily achieve +10 mod in Flight Control, which means all routine helm tasks are a snap.

BTW, I did see the sections where it points out that you don't have to be a high-rank to be a department head. Apparently there are just about as many Lieutenants in Starfleet as there were in the Napoleonic Royal Navy!

[Balok]

Originally posted by Cmdr Powers
BTW, I did see the sections where it points out that you don't have to be a high-rank to be a department head. Apparently there are just about as many Lieutenants in Starfleet as there were in the Napoleonic Royal Navy!

I would assume this would depend on the size of the ship. Smaller ships would probably have lower ranked department heads.

In the USN, the most populous rank is lieutenant, at 16,670 (as of 2/2002). Followed by lieutenant commander (10,429). These two ranks outnumber all the others, put together. The US military has an "up or out" policy, which basically states that if you get passed over for promotion a certain number of times, you must leave. This is designed to keep new blood flowing in. It also serves to keep the middle ranks populated, since the promotion boards can pick and choose who they want for the higher ranks, without the demoralizing effect of "trapping" individuals in the lowest ranks because of slow promotion rates (a problem at many businesses).

Star Fleet probably has similar rules. An organization that trusts a machine capable of laying waste to a planet (almost any serious starship) is going to want to make sure only the best and brightest ever command.

Of course, a list of all the lunatics who have reached flag rank or held a captaincy in the Trek universe would fill a small book.

[RIsaacs]

The admonishment that you can't start the game with a character with skill rank higher than six refers to the basic skill level. You can have an attribute modifier and misc modifiers that effectively net you a +10. If we were to allow your characters to start with higher skill levels, you'd easily max out your skills in one or two skills. This, like ALL rules, can be modified or ignored at your leisure.

We did not assume that you must start the game as "ensigns" since this is meaningless for those Ferengi merchants and Vulcan mystics in the game. =)

There are no set number of advancements that first officers or department heads must have. If you want to start the game by giving all characters two advancements worth of picks, and someone wants to create the captain, you can do that. We wanted maximum flexibility. We could have gone the route of saying "all department heads must have 5 advancements" but what good would that do? It certainly doesn't fit the setting (though I understand that it does suit people's understanding of the way the world works).

[Cmdr Powers]

Thanks, Ross! I am taking the attitude that the PG is a toolkit (as has been mentioned elsewhere). You work with the book and with your fellow gamers to come up with reasonable characters. You do what you need to do in order to get the character that fits. My note about starting as "ensigns" refers to the lack of elaboration on how to exactly go about getting a high level. Obviously, you add advancements at the rate of 5 picks each until you get there. You justify what an advancement is as you go.

A good example might be: Your character gets an advancement after having completed an intense command training course of 2 months. Then your character gets another advancement after serving at Jupiter Station for 2 years. Then your character might get an advancement after serving at the Bolian front during the DW for 6 months. And so on...

Work with your Narrator and your fellow players! Make interesting characters! Go see the Galaxy!

[Imagus]

Originally posted by Fesarius
In the USN, the most populous rank is lieutenant, at 16,670 (as of 2/2002). Followed by lieutenant commander (10,429). These two ranks outnumber all the others, put together. The US military has an "up or out" policy, which basically states that if you get passed over for promotion a certain number of times, you must leave. This is designed to keep new blood flowing in. It also serves to keep the middle ranks populated, since the promotion boards can pick and choose who they want for the higher ranks, without the demoralizing effect of "trapping" individuals in the lowest ranks because of slow promotion rates (a problem at many businesses).

Star Fleet probably has similar rules. An organization that trusts a machine capable of laying waste to a planet (almost any serious starship) is going to want to make sure only the best and brightest ever command.

So Lieutenant (junior grade) Picard is actually rather unlikely?

Out of interest, how frequently can you be considered for promotion under the USN system (under normal conditions)? I mean if that pass over limit is four, and you only get considered once every five years, then it's not much of a limit. If you get considered once every six months, you could have a pretty short career!

[Balok]

Originally posted by Imagus
Out of interest, how frequently can you be considered for promotion under the USN system (under normal conditions)? I mean if that pass over limit is four, and you only get considered once every five years, then it's not much of a limit. If you get considered once every six months, you could have a pretty short career!

I'm not actually in the Navy -- I've just done some reading about it. Anyone who is active military, please correct any errors!

Here's a page I've used that describes Naval officer promotions somewhat. The flow points chart answers part of your question; it describes how many years of service one can expect to have at each of the promotion points. There's also some text two paragraphs below which enumerates the mininum time in grade to be eligible, generally. However, there is such a thing as reaching "below zone"; this process enables extremely talented individuals to be selected early.

"Above zone" refers to the process of selecting those passed over for promotion. Essentially, if you are once passed over, your chances of being selected for promotion drop sharply, and continue to decline. This page doesn't specifically enumerate the policy by which such officers retire, other than to refer obliquely to it. When I have more time, I'll see if I can chase down some information on that; unfortunately, I'm a bit busy at the moment.

[AndorMan]

More interested in simulating Star Trek then real life, I've been trying to think of a way to convert LUG ToD to a number of Advancement picks. Another idea is to say that for every three picks, roll 1D6 for the number of service years it took you to obtain those advancements. This could explain Harry Kim (rolled 1 for three Advancements), as well as Lt. Picard (maybe rolled a 6 for each of his three advancements creating an older guy whose not as skilled as say, a Captain Picard who got 3 advancements every year, two years or three years).

Any opinions?

AndorMan
Where no Andorian has gone before...

[RIsaacs]

I have an opinion.

In LUGTrek, the period of time for a tour of duty was a fudge. We all know Captain Kirk's was a five year mission, and so the tour of duty was five years. In TNG, with the Enterprise having an operational mission time of 20 years, we figured the standard tour of duty was around seven years. Does this mean that TNG characters had fewer experiences than their TOS counterparts? Did Sulu learn in five years what it took La Forge to do in seven? I don't think so.

Tour of duty had a time ascribed to it so you could track your age, primarily. A tour of duty could last one year or 12 years. That's one of the reasons why we didn't assign a time period to advancements.

But your system sounds fine. Whatever works for you. =)

[Sea Tyger]

Out of interest, how frequently can you be considered for promotion under the USN system (under normal conditions)? I mean if that pass over limit is four, and you only get considered once every five years, then it's not much of a limit. If you get considered once every six months, you could have a pretty short career!

That's why I'm the friendly, neighborhood Navy vet.

Here's how it works: After a promotion, you are required to serve for x number of years before you can be considered for the next rank up.

Right now, I think it's 1 year for Lt. j.g., another 2 years to get "frocked" (meaning, you get to wear the pin and have the authority, but you don't get paid for a year) to Lt., and then another 6 years after frocking to be considered for Lt. Cmdr. I'm not sure the minimum time in service for promotion to Cmdr. and Capt.

Once you start getting into the flag officer ranks, it's more of a political process and the rules are a lot different.

Each promotion cycle is one year. For Lt. Cmdr., if you are passed over twice for promotion to Commander, you will be allowed to finish your current service obligation and then asked to leave. I think that Lieutenants are allowed three.

So, if a Lt. fails to be promoted in three attempts to Lt. Cmdr., he'd have spent at least 12 years in the service.

Of course, it's nearly impossible to get passed over for Lt. j.g or Lt.

[AllenS]

Originally posted by RIsaacs
I have an opinion.

In LUGTrek, the period of time for a tour of duty was a fudge. We all know Captain Kirk's was a five year mission, and so the tour of duty was five years. In TNG, with the Enterprise having an operational mission time of 20 years, we figured the standard tour of duty was around seven years. Does this mean that TNG characters had fewer experiences than their TOS counterparts? Did Sulu learn in five years what it took La Forge to do in seven? I don't think so.

Tour of duty had a time ascribed to it so you could track your age, primarily. A tour of duty could last one year or 12 years. That's one of the reasons why we didn't assign a time period to advancements.

But your system sounds fine. Whatever works for you. =)

This game does a few things differently than it's two predecessors (which is not a bad thing at all, mind you), and one of those is not requiring you to roll up a lengthy service career for your character..you create the character, and then come up with a history as grandiose and filled with unlikely acts of heroism as your GM will let you get away with . That said, it does require a bit of a shift in thinking, as I am finding out. But given the game's desire to encompass not just Starfleet characters but civilians as well, it makes sense.

I am assuming one advancement per year in times of relative peace, with faster advancements during the Dominion War for characters who likely saw combat, and roughly one advancement per two years for civilians. But this is flexible depending on character concept.

Allen