Star Trek: Amity (Inactive)

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We haven't talked to much about playstyle or PbP techniques. While in my Pathfinder games I tend to roll Saving throws and passive skill checks for the PCs in order to speed things along, For Star Trek Adventures (STA) I will not roll for you guys. There are always decisions to be made about spending Momentum or adding Threat that come into play and are decisions that players need to make.

I try to always capitalize words when I am using game terms, so you will see me capitalize Task, Threat, Momentum, Discipline when that is appropriate.

If there are tricks to PbP that you have used in the past, feel free to share. The most important thing, I think, is to post something every day that you can, even if you just post "I'm here, nothing to add at the moment."

Also, a word about how Scenes and Supporting Characters work in the game. Supporting Characters are there to help you stay in the game. Adventures/Scenarios are divided into Scenes. In each scene, you can play one character. So it could be that an away team beams down to a strange planet and your primary character remains on the ship. You can play a supporting character who is a scientist or a security officer. The next scene could be back on the ship, and now you are back to playing your main character, the Chief Medical Officer or the Captain who remained on the ship. This has caused problems in previous campaigns that I have run, so I want to get out in front of it for this campaign.

Are there any good tricks for dice rolling, so they show up separately?

And maybe to get my spoiler tags to work right?

Watching Wrath of Khan and Search for Spock for research purposes (on Hulu, if you are wondering). When they first see the Excelsior, Sulu remarks on her having Transwarp drive. Scotty says, "And if my grandmother had wheels she'd be a wagon."

Here

Yay! I got my tags to play nice.

Is it okay for us to dot gameplay so we can find the campaign easier, or should we hold off?

Dot away. I’ll be adding useful Info and links to the tabs and getting things organized.

Dotting in on this area. Still building profile (at time of this post.) Should have it done soon, at least if Paizo lets me.

Do you have a particular method that you want us to use for calculating Stardates, or is it just guesswork?

Stardates are really a mess. I'm not going to worry too much about them. We will be starting our campaign in 2285. The Excelsior is commissioned in 2285, Stardate 8205.5, according to Memory Alpha.

8210.5 is when Kirk and company steal the Enterprise.

8390 is The Voyage Home.

8454 is The Final Frontier.

We will try to stay in that range, but otherwise not worry too much about it. For anyone who doesn't know, the decimal points are supposed to be tenths of a day, which doesn't make too much sense to us.

My plan is to start the campaign in 2285, with our ship being launched alongside the Excelsior but with a standard Warp drive system.

Sounds good to me...

Ready!

sounds great

Sounds good.

Okies. Was just wondering if you had a specific method or not (I know of at least four different methods for determining stardates, and each gives a different result).Other than that, I'm ready!

Hopefully we launch today. :)

Could happen. I'm working with our Tactical officer to finish up his character. Also, I lost some work last night setting up the campaign tab when the boards decided to trash everything.

In the meantime, I've been looking over your Values and Talents as guidance to what kind of characters and campaign you want to be in. I found this post on Continuing Mission about Values that I like a lot.

Values were the part of my character I felt weakest on, so if you think I need to change any, let me know!

I mean what makes your character tick... That should be your values.

Lt. Sobek, reporting for duty.

Lt. Sobek
Vulcan Male

I'm going to go ahead and get started, but I would ask for two things:

1. In your character sheet or on your profile page, please include the full rules text for each of your Talents. This just makes things reference easier in play for me, and for you, I hope.

2. Here in Discussion, post your Values and lets talk a little about how they reflect your past and how an adventure might challenge them. This doesn't need to be an essay, just some notes. I hate to ask you to tweak them if they are clear in your head and I just need some more info.

Coop has two values that reflect his tendency to fly by the seat of his pants or take too many chances:
Fortune Favors the Bold
Safety, it's in the top three.

As someone that has made a lot of mistakes, his third value reflects that and more importantly, how he regards others.
Everyone deserves a second chance

And finally, Both his father, The Commodore (retired), and older brother, Captain Richard Barstow of the constitution class USS Ark Royal have rather heroic reputations. Though Coop hopes to one day earn the same level of respect, he has a long way to go. Or at least, hasn't really seen his own merit or why he was selected for this important posting.
Living in the long shadows of The Commodore, and my brother Richard

For K'Rist, the values are:

Family, even extended family, comes first
Simply put, she will always put her friends and family, including her shipmates, before herself and her loyalty to Starfleet.

Violence is the last resort of a civilized mind
Exactly what it says on the tin. She tries to forsake violence, but sometimes her emotions get the better of her.

Hippocratic Oath
This is the driving force behind K'Rist. She takes the Oath very seriously and would never consider betraying it. The text of the Oath is found here.

Every life has value
An extension of the above, she will not see someone suffer if there is something that she can do. Even an enemy may be turned to a friend if given aid and comfort. Also, she will not, under any circumstances, intentionally kill another sentient lifeform.

Marcus, on the other hand, is more pragmatic:

You can do anything you put your mind to
Simply put, where there is a will, there is a way. Marcus very much believes that he can do almost anything. This is a tenet of his upbringing.

Youth and vigor tops age and experience
Rashness is a characteristic of youth, and Marcus is youthful. He sometimes forgets that he isn't invulnerable and that others more experienced than he may know better than him.

Each species has its own strengths
Marcus has seen first-hand that some species are inherently better at certain things than others. He respects these differences but tends to forget his own limitations.

Safety protocols exist for a reason
During his cadet cruise, his lieutenant violated safety protocols and almost killed two crewmen under him. The incident impressed upon Marcus that there is a reason for certain rules.

Her values are these:

Talk and the Ushaan are both equal ways to achieve one's goals
She believes in diplomacy and fighting. This comes from her time leading a street gang as a youth and also shown through her first assignment under Captain Garth of Izar, who used to own the record for discovery of new cultures and his grand victory at Axanar.

Does not Believe in a No-Win Scenario
She never gives up. There is always a chance for victory and survival.

Threw out the Handbook and wrote my own!
At the academy she excelled at out of the box thinking and was always way more successful that way.

"Assume that space will always be more unknown than known, and nothing you encounter in its reaches will surprise you."
This is a quote that Capt. Garth often used before Axanar. Basically expect the unexpected.

One more thing I forgot to mention: Even though it is anachronistic, I'd prefer to use the TNG era warp scale, with Warp 10 being the max. This makes it easier to use various online calculators and references.

Anyone hate that?

It is fine by me.

Sounds perfect.

So what I'm getting from this is that the design team in the Excelsior project was in 2 parts. They used a frame based on the aging constitution design to come up with a state of the art cruiser. But made 2. One to be a testbed for untried warp theory, the other to be a testbed for mixed crews and potentially creating the need for Ship's Counselors.

I love this.

One more thing I forgot to mention: Even though it is anachronistic, I'd prefer to use the TNG era warp scale, with Warp 10 being the max. This makes it easier to use various online calculators and references.

Anyone hate that?

Not me. It makes it a lot easier to understand then arbitrary TOG scale.

No problems with the warp speed.

Breaking the law is always wrong. Lawful actions are always the best course of action. Lawbreakers should be removed from society.

My ideas are generally best. I have learned that, generally speaking, my ideas are superior to everyone else's ideas.

The Federation accepts too many species.. The strength of the Federation is not in numbers.

Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations is overrated. My father is a higher ranking officer and helped me get this assignment. He believes that infinite diversity creates strength. I would do almost anything to gain the approval of my father, on the point of diversity, we do not agree.

Stories of the past still have value in the present.
The Efrosian species has a great oral history, and while many of them are antidocal, the Efrosian frequently draw on those stories the way many species use proverbs.

Every problem has a solution.
Xin-Yalix does not believe in problems that cannot be solved. Maybe they cannot be solved the way you want them to be, but every problem has a solution.

Some rules can be bent.
Whle some rules shouldn't be broken, some are rules have some flexibility in them. Examine the speed of light, for instance. Technically warp vessels aren't breaking that speed limit, but they are certainly bending it.

Many problems are solved over a good meal.
Sometimes the best solution to an issue is to put it on hold for just a moment. Take a breath, talk it out, and return with a reset mindset.

I am glad you liked my "artistic license".
What good is a Start Trek episode without an old friend, rival or flame showing up?
I'll get to fill up Gullerg details ASAP.

Agreed. Always good to pepper personal connections into the story.

I've added the rules text for the Ship's Talents on the Campaign Info tab to make them easier for all of us to reference.

I've thought more about Values. All you really need is for your Values to be both potentially positive and negative. For example, Khebloss is a all about his team. That is great, and he can call upon that Value like he did in the last scene and spend a point of Determination. But I can offer to Challenge that Value. Maybe he has to work against his Team, or work with a team on an alien ship. He accepts that challenge and gets another point of Determination, but that creates a Complication that makes something more difficult for the rest of the adventure. Maybe his team feels betrayed by something he did and doesn't work as hard.

Another good example might be Hippocratic Oath. That is pretty easy to challenge. Sometimes the cure is worse than the disease.

Sorry I was quiet yesterday. I was stuck in training all day and then had to do my normal call monitors (I manage a call center in my day job) in the hours after... so I never got to even look at where we were.

Internet out at home, cell connection bad, will rejoin when fixed, hopefully tomorrow.

After three days my internet was just recovered.

Not that there is a good time, but this is a terrible time to lose internet. At least you didn't miss much here.

I hope this is enjoyable enough. Lots of rules to learn here, which is sort of the point of the scenario.

Note that the Humble Bundle just started a Star Trek Adventures bundle.

The minimum is $20 for the Core Book, the three Division books, and premade character sets.

Hit the 'treashld' price ($41 at time of this post) and you get Beta Quadrant, DM Screen, and several premade adventures.

All PDF only. https://bundleofholding.com/presents/StarTrek?utm_source=sendy&utm_medi um=email&utm_campaign=441StarTrek

Nice! There are some things there I could use!

Sorry to be delayed. My laptop went down and I had to replace it and I've been setting up the new one.

New laptop! :D

I'm hoping that "episode 2" will allow for some better introductions to the characters. Episode 1 gave us a decent introduction to the ship, and glanced at the characters. I am definitely going to lean into Gullerg's past romance connection once we get to the colony planet, but if there is anything else I can throw in to highlight character traits or back story, let me know. Obviously, not every episode can be about every character, but the pilot should help us understand every character.

Also, since we have finished an introductory scenario, some debriefing would probably be a good idea. What's going well? What's problematic?

I need to learn the system better. That is my only take.
The game is going fine, thanks.

Game is going good for me. I knew going in that K'Rist would have a limited role and I accept that, though I can find ways to integrate her a little more.

Sorry, I almost Captained our way to a spacey death. I am having fun. I am trying to make communicator calls to everyone to get people involved. You can always throw an assist. The last game we played my character was the Helmswoman and she just helped out. Think of it this way, most rolls we have over a 50/50 chance of adding a momentum or help with success or something.

I'm loving it as a whole. I was really curious to see how STA would transfer to the boards as it's much more collaborative than a lot of other games.

I feel like I should probably stat out Olix and I could have used my backup during the chase scene, but that's on me not the game.

I think it might help to have a sheet on the G Drive to show where people are or that we should preface our posts with them (ie. Commander Cooper Barstow: Bridge). That will get rid of some confusion that I can see happening.

Other than that, carry on!