Character A Day, Day Twenty Nine(ish)

Star Trek (Modiphius)

So I Still Need To Squeeze In LUG and FASA

Or Not. It’s Not Like I Plan This Stuff.

Alright! Star Trek Adventures, by Modiphius, also known as “That company that churned out so many cool game supplements I seriously hurt myself standing in line at their GenCon booth in 2019”, is the latest Star Trek RPG, and is, as far as I know, still actively supported. So let’s on with it get!

Reporting For Duty…

To be clear, I’m creating this character (a rebuild of Ranx Grillon) in the Classic Era, because if your controls don’t look like a box of Christmas lights, what’s the point? I don’t think this will have much impact on the rules, but on the off chance it does, I’ll mention it.

There’s Attributes, and Disciplines. There’s also Traits (like ‘Tellarite’) and Values (like ‘Must go faster! Must go faster!’). And Foci. This might take a while.

Rank Grillon
Control: 8
Daring: 7
Fitness: 8
Insight: 7
Presence: 8
Reason: 7

Disciplines (sadly, no Bondages…)
Command: 1
Conn: 1
Engineering :1
Security: 1
Science: 1
Medicine:1

Traits: Tellarite
Talents: Incisive Scrutiny.

That’s the baseline, from picking my race. I do not have to pick the racial talent; it’s an option.

I pick an environment for my upbringing. I’m going with starbase. While my family technically lived on the major Tellarite colony world below, I spent most of childhood and adolescence in the Jeffries Tubes and repair bays, helping my parents with their work. Returning planetside was a rare event, which was enjoyable for me as long as it didn’t last too long. From this, I get a bonus to control and engineering, and my first value.

Rank Grillon
Control: 9
Daring: 7
Fitness: 8
Insight: 7
Presence: 8
Reason: 7

Disciplines
Command: 1
Conn: 1
Engineering :2
Security: 1
Science: 1
Medicine:1

Traits: Tellarite
Talents: Incisive Scrutiny
Values: “Nothing is useless.”

Upbringing is interesting; you can choose to accept your upbringing, or reject it, each providing different benefits, and, of course, defining your character’s backstory. I like it. Mine is Science and Technical, of course, and I accept it, giving me +2 Control, +1 Reason, and my first Focus.

Rank Grillon
Control: 11
Daring: 7
Fitness: 8
Insight: 7
Presence: 8
Reason: 8

Disciplines
Command: 1
Conn: 1
Engineering :3
Security: 1
Science: 1
Medicine:1

Focus: Warp Fields

Traits: Tellarite
Talents: Incisive Scrutiny, Jury Rig
Values: “Nothing is useless.”

Academy Days

We now move on to good ol’ Starfleet Academy. Hm. Anyone else think it’s odd that there’s one Academy, on Earth, when there’s dozens of races in the Federation, many of whom live on worlds not environmentally similar to San Francisco? I’m going for Operations Track. I won’t list all the choices, but I’ll note my increase in Security, my focus in Hand to Hand Combat, and my Mean Right Hook talent were the result of constantly getting into arguments, getting pummeled, and deciding to learn to defend myself. I’m also going to combine this step with my benefits for being an Experienced Officer (the default)

Rank Grillon
Control: 11
Daring: 8
Fitness: 8
Insight: 7
Presence: 8
Reason: 10

Disciplines
Command: 1
Conn: 1
Engineering :5
Security: 2
Science: 2
Medicine:1

Focus: Warp Field Dynamics, Computers, Hand-to-Hand Combat, Power Systems

Traits: Tellarite
Talents: Incisive Scrutiny, Jury Rig, Mean Right Hook, Technical Expertise
Values:
“Nothing is useless.” (Any spare part or discarded component could be used for something else)
“I’ll Do It Myself” (Group projects suck, man.)
“I Feel The Need For Speed!”

An Eventful Life

Lastly, I have two career-defining events. I can roll or choose, and I choose to roll!

“Lauded by Another Culture” and “Negotiate A Treaty”. I will (as permitted) combine these into one single event. Now, these aren’t really the sort of things an engineer would normally be involved in… but Starfleet expects officers to be flexible, adaptive, and to represent the highest ideals of the Federation under all circumstances. Hmm. Hmmmmm….. ponder ponder think think…. OK, I think I got something…

Parralax Three is a class-M planet at the edge of Federation space. A few scout missions passed by and had detected pre-industrial (early iron age) civilization, so it was quarantined under the Prime Directive. Stationed on the survey vessel USS Fram, young Ensign Grillon expected routine work placing hidden monitor stations near the major cities. The last thing anyone on the under-armed science vessel expected was to be blown out of orbit by a planetside phaser cannon! Despite the best efforts of the crew, the Fram crashed, and Grillon was the only one to get away relatively uninjured. The other survivors, about 1/4 the crew, took shelter in some caves that totally didn’t look like spray-painted styrofoam, and Grillon, well out of his depth, went exploring to look for food and water. When he spotted a gang of Orions directing enslaved natives in a topaline mining operation, he knew the Prime Directive was no longer a problem.

He helped one prisoner escape, and then, after some consultation with his crew, had worked out a deal; The prisoner’s village would provide shelter and what healing they could, but Grillon, as another “sky person”, would help destroy the enslaving Orions. Grillon turned his engineering skills to sabotage, finding ways to break and destroy the Orion mining gear (fortunately, security protocols on the systems had been disabled by the Orions themselves, as it was mostly stolen). The phaser cannon defending the mines was the final target; when it blew, the few surviving Orions were left to the tender mercies of their former prisoners.

But it was not over. The locals, now freed, turned their attention — and the stolen Orion weapons, cheap disruptors and decades old laser pistols, which Grillon had helped them repair and taught them to use — on rival clans. The Federation would be responsible for altering the balance of power on Parralax, albeit unintentionally. Grillon was no diplomat, but he’d saved many lives, and he managed to parlay that into a position to negotiate a treaty with the nearby clans, including returning all the stolen weapons. (A century later, another survey found the planet had reached technology close to that of Earth’s Renaissance era, as the knowledge of what science and engineering could do, as well as the alliance that ended centuries of internecine war and raiding, had triggered an era of study and enlightenment).

Applying all this, including specific bonuses and choices:

Rank Grillon
Control: 12
Daring: 9
Fitness: 8
Insight: 8
Presence: 9
Reason: 10

Disciplines
Command: 3
Conn: 1
Engineering :5
Security: 3
Science: 3
Medicine:1

Focus: Warp Field Dynamics, Computers, Hand-to-Hand Combat, Power Systems, Parallax Society, Negotiation

Traits: Tellarite
Talents: Incisive Scrutiny, Jury Rig, Mean Right Hook, Technical Expertise
Values:
“Nothing is useless.” (Any spare part or discarded component could be used for something else)
“I’ll Do It Myself” (Group projects suck, man.)
“I Feel The Need For Speed!” (He is notably adept at tuning any engine for maximum efficiency.)
“Be Ready To Step Up When Called” (This is a job for a diplomat or a tactician… but we don’t have one. We just have me.)

Stress: 11
Damage Bonus: 3

And we’re done!

I like how the system really helps define your character’s past and how it shaped them; the choice of random rolls or picks, with no penalty, is excellent — you don’t get stuck if you can’t think of something, and you don’t end up with a character you don’t like because the dice hate you.

Again, someone I’d really like to play someday. Not that I ever will.