players and consols

[locutus]

Hi there.
I'm new to the Star Trek RPG. I read the TNG core rule book and I intend to narrate a trek RPG.
However, I have a question in mind that I can not get rid of.
It is advised that the players be officers but not department heads. In away team missions, that do note pose a problem. But in starship battles, how can I give the tactical console ,for example,to a player who is not the chief tactical officer?

I'd be glad if you have any suggestions. Thanks...

[AslanC]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by locutus:
Hi there.
I'm new to the Star Trek RPG. I read the TNG core rule book and I intend to narrate a trek RPG.
However, I have a question in mind that I can not get rid of.
It is advised that the players be officers but not department heads. In away team missions, that do note pose a problem. But in starship battles, how can I give the tactical console ,for example,to a player who is not the chief tactical officer?

I'd be glad if you have any suggestions. Thanks... </font>

Well I just ignored that rule and went straight to having my players as Department Heads. You can get the lack of xp across by having them be on a much smaller ship

Otherwise I dunno...

------------------
Aslan Collas
=-=-=-=-=-=-=
RPG_Trek; http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rpg-trek
=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Ferengi Rule Of Acquisition #76: Every once in a while, declare peace. It confuses the hell out of your enemies.

[Ergi]

Just use one of two classic options:

1. I suppose your senior officers heve to sleep from time to time, so the enemy strikes during the night-shift.

2. The chief of security is currently on Dolas IV, attending a conference about Romulan tactics. The CEO accompanied him, the science officer is ill and the Captain is on the toilet .

------------------
God, I liked him better before he died.

[This message has been edited by Ergi (edited 07-22-2001).]

[Keeper]

Both the above ideas are great. My players actually started aboard the USS Discovery from the Core Rule book in a "Below Decks" style adventure. You'll notice that no NPC operations manager is provided, so of course the OPs character took over the role. The command officer needed to improve his skills for advancement, and occasionally took over Ops as well. The others were often "relief" officers to the department heads.

Once the PC's became temporary department heads of a sort on the doomed Montgomery (it IS an Oberth afterall....) after creatures living in the Collapsar black hole made short work of the Montgomery's crew.

Basically, be flexible and creative. A large ship is, as you pointed out, no problem for your PC's to get on the away team, but for actually, realistically getting them behind the wheel, give them a runabout, or a quick TDY to another ship in need.




------------------
Man is to man a god when he recognizes his duty.

[locutus]

Thank you for your help.
I think at first I'll discuss this matter with the players. If they want to be department heads, no problem. If not, I'll try the advices you gave by trying not to be repetitive.

[Capt.Hunter]

The small ship option is pretty good. It doesn't even have to be that small. Look at Voyager - you've got Harry Kim as Chief Operations Manager, and he was fresh out of the Academy when he came on board! And Bashir's first posting had him as Chief Medical Officer of DS9. Given that your PCs will generally have had at least one Tour of Duty (2-7 years duration although I sometimes cut this down for packages like Shakedown Cruise and Medical/Rescue Mission which logically never last that long), I can't see any problem with them being Department Heads. They could at least be the deputies for their respective departments.

------------------
"Spatial anomalies, energy beings, telepathic echoes. You know, sometimes I really miss the Dominion War. At least then all we had to worry about was where the next polaron beam was coming from...": Capt.Hunter, USS Tempest

[reimero]

Actually, what type of campaign you as the Narrator choose to run should dictate what kinds of characters the players play. What I mean by that is that if you do a command staff scenario, then your players will be more involved in larger-scale events, flying the ship around and starship combat. Alternately, if you have a lower-rank scenario, you'll probably do more with hands-on investigations and away team missions. Remember, it is very rare that the captain goes on an away mission.

It is fun to mix it up, I grant, but the primary focus of how you play should mesh well with the characters. If you have players who like away missions, have them be ensigns and lieutenants who get the occasional "bridge time." If you have players who like the bigger picture, put them on the bridge and have them get the occasional away mission because of their particular expertise.

The key is to have an idea of what it is you want to do in your campaign and have your players develop their characters accordingly. There's a big jump from "I think I want to run a Trek campaign" to "I think I want to run this kind of Trek campaign," but it's that jump that ultimately determines how smoothly things go. Develop a concept and then go from there. I run a FASA campaign with a command staff, and I'm gearing up to run another on the Icon system with my crew as freshly commissioned Tal Shiar agents. They're very different campaigns with very different types of characters required. Just make sure you get a pretty good idea of what you want to do before you dive in.