To Dependant

[calguard66]

Look at it from the character's point of view. They have to examine a dangerous space aboard an abandoned ship.

Do they ask the Captian to send over the remote drone sitting in the cargo bay, or do they try to gin something up on site?

Unless you give them a reason why they CAN'T rely on the resources of their vessel... why shouldn't they? That's what it's there for.

Can you see the opposite of this situation: "Commander Smith, you lost two people on this mission... why didn't you ask for the remote drone that's just taking up space in our cargo bay?" "Sir, I didn't want to seem too reliant on the resources of the ship..." "Idiot! People are more valuable than equipment! Starfleet gives us a ship with all this nifty gear for us to use! Otherwise we'd be hitchiking between stars. If you don't want to rely on the ship, you can rely on the resources of remote monitoring station 23432... you are transfered effective immediately."

Or the Board of Inquiry for the Captain:
"Captain Smith, the record clearly shows that two of your crew were lost when they were unable to properly anylize a compartment aboard an abandoned vessel, whereupon they entered the compartment, became exposed to technobabble, and were turned into ferrets. Can you explain to the Board why you refused their request for a proper scanning device, one of which had been sitting in your cargo bay for six months without use?" "Sir, I didn't want them to be overly reliant on the resources of the ship" "Well, Captain, now they are reliant on the resources of the San Diego Zoo."

Give them a plasible reason, or let them use it. I always used to wonder why Kirk & Co. ever bothered to take phasers and communicators on away missions, since they never worked anyway.


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"I'd rather die standing than live on my knees..."
Shania Twain

[This message has been edited by calguard66 (edited 07-10-2001).]

[ether]

Well power was draining from ship so that was an issue. They were in space suits so protected from the enviroment. Their tricorders showed that there wasn't any radiation or the like.
The main reason that they didn't want to enter the room was fear. There was nothing in there that four able bodied starfleet officers couldn't have coped with.
The characters didn't give a good enough reason for not going in and just checking what was in suspended animation.
In my mind I recalled only one incident in which a remote camera was used and that was due to extreme circumstances.
At no point has any away team said " Captain, we don't like it here, can you send a remote camera instead?"

[Robert Lai]

Some additional thoughts ...

As the narrator, you have the ultimate say over what resources the starship does or does not possess. The remote camera is not an issue if there isn't one available.

Items shown in other episodes are not necessarily onboard or even within a character's personal experience. While the player may know the intricacies of a Soong-class android, the character would not without the appropriate skill and specialization.

And while the LCARS is a seemingly endless collection of data, in game terms, it only knows what the Narrator allows. Log entries from other ships are likely to be inaccessible; other data may be restricted by rank and security concerns. (And woe betide the character who deigns to suggest the Captain 'look something up' for them. Pertinent information would have been disseminated in the Away Mission Briefing.)

As far as character resentment goes, there's a time and place for disputing orders and situations. If you crack down on equipment and information as above, you might conduct an after-action report at the end of the session ... go over key areas of concern and see what worked, and what didn't, from a character point-of-view. Did the character actually need the multiphasic pulse modulator? What indications were there to suggest alternate courses of action? And so on.

Bob

[This message has been edited by Robert Lai (edited 07-10-2001).]

[Paul]

I guess it all comes down to how well the players are roleplaying their characters.

If the players are having their characters act over-cautious due to player fear of What's Behind Door Number 2, then they need to be placed in situations where the player caution will work against them.

If the players are having the characters act overly cautious due to the character's bad experiences in similar situations, naturally over-cautious personality, and so on, then have the Captain order the PC to spend time with the ship's Counsellor to work through the personality quirks (as an officer who will not venture into the unknown - one of the primary charters of Starfleet - is ultimately a liability to the organisation, and would be given a nice cushy desk-job or a position commanding a courier run). Of course, if the Counsellor is a PC also, then that makes it a little harder...but the NPC Captain can make these things clear to the PC in a private conversation...

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"...and more controversial than Oolon Colluphid's trilogy of philosophical blockbusters Where God went Wrong, Some More of God's Greatest Mistakes, and Who is this God Person Anyway?"
- The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams (dec.)

[ether]

I've GMed another game concerning this issue and I think the players might have learnt their lesson.
They were giving the prestiges job of flying the Defiant to DS9, with one of the characters as the Acting Captain and the others as the senior staff members.
Their orders were not to decloak, to maintain communication silence and to proceed straight to DS9.
Of course after two days of travelling at Warp 6 they picked up a distress call from a colony under attack by Breen pirates.
As expected they diverted to help and came upon the Breen ship orbiting the Colonists ocean world.
Using the element of surprise they decloaked and fired all weapons destroying the vessel. Luckily the Vulcan engineer beamed the Breen off the ship and on to an island on the planet.
Scanning the Colony base they found that the Breen had beamed most of their crew down and had occupied the area. In total there were 320 armed Breen.
The colony leader contacted the Defiant and explained the Breen said they would start killing hostages unless they were provided with safe passage off the planet.
The Captain refused to discuss terms and shut down communications. Immediatly sensors picked up energy fire and the deaths of colonists.
The crew mulled the situation over and decided to beam the Breen away. However the transporters could only beam 30 people at a time so it was going to take some time.
As the Breen swept through the base, killing anyone they saw and were slowly transportered away the Captain sent communication transmission apologising and saying they were going as fast as they could.
When the last Breen was beamed on to the uninhabited island the Captain explained to the colony leader that they shouldn't have broken communication silence and that the colonists were going to have to contact the Federation themselves.
Arriving at DS9 they handed in their reports and were called to Sisko's office. He dressed them down for not beaming an away party down to contain the Breen rather than just sitting in orbit and watching people die. In total 210 colonists were killed before the Breen were beamed away.
He also pointed out they had the element of surprise and could have beamed in undetected if not for their devastating attack on the Breen ship.
Sisko said it was a difficult situation and considering their ranks they did well but there was they still needed to do better. Hopefully they will learn from this mistake.
At the end the players realised they could have handed things better and that they had relied to much on the ship rather than their crew.