Weekends TOS
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Weekends TOS
First apologies for switching the original idea, but I got quite infatuated with HeroQuest on MapTool since it works perfectly for online play and also is very story based, which also better fits more narrative way of how we all used to play in different games. So... instead of WH40 I would like to go with the original idea of Star Trek TOS (also I think that HQ rules perfectly fit more aloof TOS era and atmosphere).
Setting-wise. TOS and TAS would be bases, with touches of movies 1 to 6, and very little Enterprise (first two seasons mostly). As far TNG goes... it may never happen. "The future" are the movies.
For Cheetah who expressed concern about his unfamiliarity of TOS... in immortal words from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: "DO NOT PANIC!" Actually all you need to know, you know already. There is something called UFP, composed of friendly and (mostly) benevolent races who travel the stars and explore the universe, and they have prime directive that dictates non-involvment with undeveloped civilizations (the thing that is on many occasions ignored). That is basically all you need to know of TOS. TOS is almost completely devoid of technobabble or even realistic scientific and space principles and works purely on plot convenience (plotvenience). So yeah, your warp 5 to 8 starship can zoom to the center of the galaxy in weeks, or to the edge of it for that matter if plot so dictates.
It's a galaxy of many bright colors (especially when clothes and decorations are concerned), cowboys, greek gods, 1920s mobsters, all kinds of humanoid and non humanoid aliens, evil and benevolent AI probes, pulpy anomalies, and or course nazis in space.
Klingons are not some quasi-warrior race with honor, but are instead quite human looking and are empire of manipulative opportunists. A space version of what in 60s was seen as Soviet Union menace. Romulans are mysterious and deadly race and no one knows how they look or anything much about them.
Also many, if not all solutions in this universe are usually practical and not based on inverting the polarity or modifying tractor beam or deflector dish.
It is also space where Federation and Starfleet is not constantly breathing on captains necks which leads to TOS era captain's reputation of being cowboys in space.
So basically it is an universe of adventure, and less hard science. Ah, and sexism in space...
That said, I will also introduce one rule change to HeroQuest. Hero Pints can be spent for "plotvenient actions", and not only for bumping or advancement.
Let's take two examples (one from TAS, and one from 4th movie).
In one episode of TAS the heroes are imprisoned by a bunch of hot females (there are no other women in TOS). Then Spock out of nowhere pulls out a palm sized device that has no name (just called "this thing") that will demagnetize the door.
In Star Trek 4 movie Bones in hospital sees old lady that must go on dialysis and gives her the pill to magically regenerate her kidneys.
In HQ game terms... what they did was use Hero Point and pulled out from their bags plotvenient item that resolved some situation and TOS/TAS is full of such examples so hence I will introduce this little rule that will enhance all that atmosphere. And remember... scientific explanation (as with kidneys) does not necessarily have to be there.
As for characters, you have this week to make them. I guess fastest would be List Method. As for races, I'll go with TOS basics. Humans, Andorians, Vulcans, Tellerite and from TAS Caitians. Humans are of course, most common and most abundant.
Question for Diurne: have you made "umbrella" racial keywords for any of non human races except andorians?
And finally for this first post, there is posibbilitiy that I'll be quite busy this week so may not be able to finish everything by Saturday, would Sunday evening be good for you if that happens? One extra day would be enough.
If anyone has any questions about setting or anything else just shoot here.
Setting-wise. TOS and TAS would be bases, with touches of movies 1 to 6, and very little Enterprise (first two seasons mostly). As far TNG goes... it may never happen. "The future" are the movies.
For Cheetah who expressed concern about his unfamiliarity of TOS... in immortal words from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: "DO NOT PANIC!" Actually all you need to know, you know already. There is something called UFP, composed of friendly and (mostly) benevolent races who travel the stars and explore the universe, and they have prime directive that dictates non-involvment with undeveloped civilizations (the thing that is on many occasions ignored). That is basically all you need to know of TOS. TOS is almost completely devoid of technobabble or even realistic scientific and space principles and works purely on plot convenience (plotvenience). So yeah, your warp 5 to 8 starship can zoom to the center of the galaxy in weeks, or to the edge of it for that matter if plot so dictates.
It's a galaxy of many bright colors (especially when clothes and decorations are concerned), cowboys, greek gods, 1920s mobsters, all kinds of humanoid and non humanoid aliens, evil and benevolent AI probes, pulpy anomalies, and or course nazis in space.
Klingons are not some quasi-warrior race with honor, but are instead quite human looking and are empire of manipulative opportunists. A space version of what in 60s was seen as Soviet Union menace. Romulans are mysterious and deadly race and no one knows how they look or anything much about them.
Also many, if not all solutions in this universe are usually practical and not based on inverting the polarity or modifying tractor beam or deflector dish.
It is also space where Federation and Starfleet is not constantly breathing on captains necks which leads to TOS era captain's reputation of being cowboys in space.
So basically it is an universe of adventure, and less hard science. Ah, and sexism in space...
That said, I will also introduce one rule change to HeroQuest. Hero Pints can be spent for "plotvenient actions", and not only for bumping or advancement.
Let's take two examples (one from TAS, and one from 4th movie).
In one episode of TAS the heroes are imprisoned by a bunch of hot females (there are no other women in TOS). Then Spock out of nowhere pulls out a palm sized device that has no name (just called "this thing") that will demagnetize the door.
In Star Trek 4 movie Bones in hospital sees old lady that must go on dialysis and gives her the pill to magically regenerate her kidneys.
In HQ game terms... what they did was use Hero Point and pulled out from their bags plotvenient item that resolved some situation and TOS/TAS is full of such examples so hence I will introduce this little rule that will enhance all that atmosphere. And remember... scientific explanation (as with kidneys) does not necessarily have to be there.
As for characters, you have this week to make them. I guess fastest would be List Method. As for races, I'll go with TOS basics. Humans, Andorians, Vulcans, Tellerite and from TAS Caitians. Humans are of course, most common and most abundant.
Question for Diurne: have you made "umbrella" racial keywords for any of non human races except andorians?
And finally for this first post, there is posibbilitiy that I'll be quite busy this week so may not be able to finish everything by Saturday, would Sunday evening be good for you if that happens? One extra day would be enough.
If anyone has any questions about setting or anything else just shoot here.
Rhino- Posts : 247
Champions : Diana and Angelique
Re: Weekends TOS
Is this based or linked on your first steps of TOS in STO? Or do you start anew from scratch?
Seetherius- Admin
- Posts : 265
Champions : Light of Truth
Re: Weekends TOS
The idea is to start from scratch, with special guest star appearances of fan favorite characters like Kuini.
Rhino- Posts : 247
Champions : Diana and Angelique
Re: Weekends TOS
Rhino wrote:Question for Diurne: have you made "umbrella" racial keywords for any of non human races except andorians?
No but I can convert the work I've done for the HERO system.
As for characters, you have this week to make them.
Are we creating the crew of a single ship (I imagine). So I guess we'd have to share wishes about who play the captain and so on ?
I'm ready to sit in the captain chair unless Cheetah wants it (Mesoc already has the Independance chair !).
would Sunday evening be good for you if that happens?
Sure thing.
Diurne- Posts : 255
Champions : Sable Lynx
Re: Weekends TOS
I was thinking of simply just letting you all take a common racial ability at 13 (or 17 if someone wants it) and no "common" specializations. Meaning all vulcans are good at logic, have better intelligence on the average, are good at physical tasks, have mind meld ability and so on. There is no need to actually determine "common" specializations for any of that unless someone wants to be better in something than the average vulcan. So vulcan player can have Logic +3 because that character is even better in logic than the average vulcan, but that would be personal character choice, not mandatory racial specialization.Diurne wrote:No but I can convert the work I've done for the HERO system.Rhino wrote:Question for Diurne: have you made "umbrella" racial keywords for any of non human races except andorians?
Yes, the crew of a single ship, of course. And if you wish (and no one else wants it) the captain's chair, it's yours.
Are we creating the crew of a single ship (I imagine). So I guess we'd have to share wishes about who play the captain and so on ?
I'm ready to sit in the captain chair unless Cheetah wants it (Mesoc already has the Independance chair !).
As for the ship, you can chose from all powerful Constitution heavy cruiser (sounds so mighty!) or smaller stuff if you wish so like Hermes class scout (from TOS tech manual and live seen only in TOS movies on viewscreens (has no secondary hull but one nacelle below main dish).
http://images.wikia.com/startrek/images/2/25/Hermes_class_side.jpg
http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/articles/sftm/hermes-stiii-stii.jpg <- Copy-paste this one since it has hotlink protection
Last edited by Rhino on Wed Jun 29, 2011 11:45 am; edited 2 times in total
Rhino- Posts : 247
Champions : Diana and Angelique
Re: Weekends TOS
BY the way if anyone wants to play more exotic TOS races like Deltans or Saurians (or any other Federation race from TOS/TAS) it's also fine.
Rhino- Posts : 247
Champions : Diana and Angelique
Re: Weekends TOS
Saturday remains still a day in a week where the it is not unlikely that I go out of home in the evening, so I can't promise to participate everytime. Therefore I could only offer a role that is not that important in critical moments. A navigator, yeoman, nurse or a redshirt? Maybe you can give me a nudge to some direction? For character appearance I might go this direction: Caitian
About ships I've digged for some TOS ones and found some more who could fit in your imagination, all recapturing the TOS era design elements. So you have some more options to choose from.
Oberth class
Akula class
Kelvin class
Vanguard class
About ships I've digged for some TOS ones and found some more who could fit in your imagination, all recapturing the TOS era design elements. So you have some more options to choose from.
Oberth class
Akula class
Kelvin class
Vanguard class
Seetherius- Admin
- Posts : 265
Champions : Light of Truth
Re: Weekends TOS
If you don't dare to go apocryphal, there is also the designs from Starfleet Battles.
Diurne- Posts : 255
Champions : Sable Lynx
Re: Weekends TOS
Rhino wrote:I was thinking of simply just letting you all take a common racial ability at 13 (or 17 if someone wants it) and no "common" specializations.
Rhino wrote:Question for Diurne: have you made "umbrella" racial keywords for any of non human races except andorians?
I must admit I'm puzzled.
What do you want then ?
At first, I thought you wanted a racial keyword with implied abilities (the umbrella) and now you don't want "common specializations". So what else ?
Diurne- Posts : 255
Champions : Sable Lynx
Re: Weekends TOS
For ships, as long as they have TOS TV look (before Star Trek the movie redesign), I don't mind any variant (as long as it is not dreadnought or something similarly "powerful").
As for races, I am just writing proposals. We could go with more detailed umbrella way and specializations or more simplistic as I wrote. Whatever you all prefer. And since both ways give you basically same things it's just a thing of preference (for instance, in specializations way, even if under "Andorian" there is no "familiarity with frozen climates" specialization, they will still roll Andorian ability for it if appropriate).
As for races, I am just writing proposals. We could go with more detailed umbrella way and specializations or more simplistic as I wrote. Whatever you all prefer. And since both ways give you basically same things it's just a thing of preference (for instance, in specializations way, even if under "Andorian" there is no "familiarity with frozen climates" specialization, they will still roll Andorian ability for it if appropriate).
Rhino- Posts : 247
Champions : Diana and Angelique
Re: Weekends TOS
I treat racial traits as keywords. So if you don't have a specialization written, you can always roll at the keyword score.
If you have
Vulcan 13
Mind Meld +5
You roll Mind Meld at 18.
If you have
Vulcan 13
Logic +5
You roll Mind Meld at 13 (or not at all depending on how the GM sees the Mind Meld technique).
So my racial keywords, as umbrella, are just a keyword and a list of options. It doesn't mean everyone has to get every single racial options and at the same value.
Some Vulcan can have Logic +1 and his neighbor Logic +8.
But if you don't feel a list of racial options is needed, I don't mind. We just write a racial trait and assume everything implicitly tied to it.
If you have
Vulcan 13
Mind Meld +5
You roll Mind Meld at 18.
If you have
Vulcan 13
Logic +5
You roll Mind Meld at 13 (or not at all depending on how the GM sees the Mind Meld technique).
So my racial keywords, as umbrella, are just a keyword and a list of options. It doesn't mean everyone has to get every single racial options and at the same value.
Some Vulcan can have Logic +1 and his neighbor Logic +8.
But if you don't feel a list of racial options is needed, I don't mind. We just write a racial trait and assume everything implicitly tied to it.
Diurne- Posts : 255
Champions : Sable Lynx
Re: Weekends TOS
That is pretty much what I was thinking about. So let's go with that.
Also, now it's official, I will be mostly away in next few days so it will be Sunday evening game this week.
Also, now it's official, I will be mostly away in next few days so it will be Sunday evening game this week.
Rhino- Posts : 247
Champions : Diana and Angelique
Re: Weekends TOS
- Andorian
- Ultrasonic Perception
- Resistance to Cold
Vulcan - Vulcan Mental Discipline
- Nerve Pinch
- Mind Meld
- Logical Mind
- Resilient Body
Tellarite(ENT inspired) - Argumentative
Those racial keywords are also coming with all common knowledge learned by any member of that race (history, main planets, culture, language and so on).
So for humans, it's simply that implied array of skills since they have no particular racial ability.
Diurne- Posts : 255
Champions : Sable Lynx
Re: Weekends TOS
Daniel Sand
Human Federation Citizen 13
Starfleet Captain 18
Has charted many spacelanes 17
Attentive 13
Always preferred blondes 13
Fisticuffs 16
Man of honor 15
Bolster crew confidence 13
Never bow down to adversity 20
Fair negociator 16
Human Federation Citizen 13
Starfleet Captain 18
Has charted many spacelanes 17
Attentive 13
Always preferred blondes 13
Fisticuffs 16
Man of honor 15
Bolster crew confidence 13
Never bow down to adversity 20
Fair negociator 16
Last edited by Diurne on Mon Jul 04, 2011 8:04 pm; edited 1 time in total
Diurne- Posts : 255
Champions : Sable Lynx
Re: Weekends TOS
Lieutenant M'Shiva
Caitian 13
- Feline instincts +5
- Pounce +2
Starfleet Engineer 17
- Push equipment above specs +4
- Expert technician +2
- Miracle worker +6
Skilled in linguistics 13
Cutie 18
Athletic 13
Loyal 13
Love for art and beauty 13
Caitian 13
- Feline instincts +5
- Pounce +2
Starfleet Engineer 17
- Push equipment above specs +4
- Expert technician +2
- Miracle worker +6
Skilled in linguistics 13
Cutie 18
Athletic 13
Loyal 13
Love for art and beauty 13
Seetherius- Admin
- Posts : 265
Champions : Light of Truth
Re: Weekends TOS
Commander T'lar
Vulcan 13
. Vulcan Mental Discipline +1
. Nerve Pinch
. Mind Meld
. Logical Mind +4
. Resilient Body +2
. Meditation
Starfleet Scientific Officer 17
. Analysis +4
. Physics +2
. Astronomy +1
. Xenobiology +1
. Sensors Operations +1
Alien Cultures 13
Protocol/Diplomacy 13
Starfleet Regulations 13
Bureaucratics 13
Nimble Fingers 15
strategic games 15
Strong Will 13
Pon Farr 13
Vulcan 13
. Vulcan Mental Discipline +1
. Nerve Pinch
. Mind Meld
. Logical Mind +4
. Resilient Body +2
. Meditation
Starfleet Scientific Officer 17
. Analysis +4
. Physics +2
. Astronomy +1
. Xenobiology +1
. Sensors Operations +1
Alien Cultures 13
Protocol/Diplomacy 13
Starfleet Regulations 13
Bureaucratics 13
Nimble Fingers 15
strategic games 15
Strong Will 13
Pon Farr 13
Marvel- Posts : 36
Location : France
Champions : Marvel & Psyche
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