Divergent Character Backgrounds

[Dan Stack]

I don't know if other people's games have this trait, but most of my games involve characters of some pretty varied backgrounds - Starfleet officers, Klingon warriors, Romulan agents, and smugglers. Getting them all together presents something of a challenge.

Assuming Starfleet as the "default" background, there are three setting types that I have used or considered...

Starbase/Outpost - Set in the model of Deep Space Nine, where the Starfleet characters are in positions of authority but not in total control, like on a starship. Gives the non-Starfleet characters something of an advantage in dealing with certain NPCs (i.e. Kira with the Bajorans, Garak with Cardassians, etc.)

Little/Medium Starship - For some reason a Starfleet vessel has a few "alien" crewmembers. This is the case as seen in Voyager (with Neelix, Seven of Nine) and Enterprise (Phlox, T'Pol). The smaller ship size means a Starfleet crew would have a greater need of such characters (7 of 9 being a backup "chief engineer" it often seemed). This setting allows the "alien" characters backgrounds to be explored from the perspective of the Federation and keeps the Starfleet characters in a familiar setting.

Big Ship - This would be the case aboard a Galaxy-class ship or something similar. Think of cases like if Worf's brother Kurn stayed aboard as first officer. In such a case the setting resembles that of a small or medium ship. But a big ship also offers the possibility of a joint mission. Perhaps a Federation ship needs to travel through Romulan space (or in space adjacent to it) or a band of smugglers has information needed by the Federation but, by itself, worthless to the smugglers. Perhaps a group of Cardassians is assigned to a Galaxy-class vessel to help keep order in the ruins of Cardassian space post-Dominion War. Whatever the reason, you have something of a mobile starbase, with enclaves of the aliens, giving a microcosm of the alien culture.

[Owen E Oulton]

A setting I'm working on for my Star Trek: Challenger campaign is Cretok Nor, a Post-DS9 take-off on Cold War Berlin. The station is divided into Federation, Romulan and Klingon Zones, and observers from each of these stellar powers are routinely posted on other stellar powers' ships in the Cardassian Occupied Zone.

Details on this setting should be posted on my site in the next month (he said confidently...).

[Ramage]

In the game I am running (five players), we have four Federation and one Klingon. The setting is about a year after the signing of the Khitomer Accords and the Klingon is a "military observer" for the Klingon High Council.

It seemed workable and allows for a bit of interesting colour in the game.

Of course one of my players was upset when I told him, "No, you cannot be a Romulan on a UFP vessel". I hate dealing with characters-as-deep-cover-agents-working-against-the-other-players...

[Ineti]

I haven't experienced this problem. My old gaming group was very Terran-centric. In both our Star Wars games and Star Trek games, every one of them played a human almost exclusively. One of them tried a Caitian once, but that didn't work out. I think I was the only one to branch out - I played a Bajoran in the last game we ran.

[Jabara Eris]

During our last campaign, our group was a pretty diverse lot as well. Most of our players were never really satisfied with making characters that would have fit well into a typical orderly Starfleet vessel.

The narrator tied everything together by having us all serve aboard a Starfleet Intelligence ship. Some of the crew specifically chose to join the Intelligence branch. Some were misfits who were offered the chance to join Intelligence because of their unique skills. Others, like my character, would have been happy to be stationed to other areas of Starfleet but were transferred into Intelligence against our will.

(FYI, my character was a Bajoran doctor who had been a member of the Maquis. After the Maquis were wiped out by the Dominion, he was allowed to rejoin Starfleet without imprisonment because of the intense need for doctors during the war. After the war, however, he was told to either join Intelligence or spend the next two decades in the stockade.)

As noted, a space station makes a great place to throw together a bunch of people (Starfleet and civilians alike) who have very little in common.

Another good place for that is a resistance/freedom-fighter team. The Bajoran resistance team we put together included a computer hacker, a vedek, a Cardassian sympathizer and a Klingon "ambassador" who was fighting alongside the group as research before making a recommendation as to whether the Bajorans were honorable enough to officially support.

A Maquis campaign could also do the trick for the same reasons. Too bad there's not a Maquis sourcebook available yet ...

Enjoy!

[Dan Stack]

So what have people had in their groups with regard to divergent groups?

My first truly divergent group was aboard the H. G. Wells. In the aftermath of the Dominion War, a Tal Shiar agent was picked up by some smugglers he had hired - he was leaving Cardassia Prime with a Cardassian prisoner in tow, one who had information regarding the events of "In the Pale Moonlight". The agent was Ayrton, one of the player characters. The chief engineer of the smugglers was a Cardassian, Krel Ardana.

The smugglers were to rendezvous with a Romulan Scout in the Badlands. Meanwhile, the H.G. Wells was investigating a Temporal Anomaly (tm) in the Badlands. Aboard the Wells were First Officer K'mpec (a human-Klingon cross, serving in Starfleet, named after his godfather), science officer Ophella Tar, and medical officer Alexia Waras. All of them were players (the NPC captain of the Wells died in the 1st adventure).

Meanwhile a Klingon Bird of Prey was moving to intercept the Romulan scout.

They all wound up meeting at the anomaly. All the ships suffered heavy damage as they were sent to an alternate universe. One where the Borg defeated the Federation. Only the Wells was spaceworthy so the survivors of all the crews gathered there. Only to discover Wells had picked up a habit of jumping from one dimension to another...

Two of the characters, Ayrton and Krel Ardana made the jump to the Bridgetown campaign, to be joined by a former Icarus character, Jasmine Kharn.