Trek:Your First, Best Destiny
Your First, Best Destiny
[edit]A character in To Boldly Go is a capable Starfleet officer defined by broad professional competence, personal interests, distinctive strengths, and the experiences that brought them aboard ship.
Character creation begins with the person rather than the numbers. Decide who the character is, what they do aboard ship, and what makes them interesting. The rules then give that idea a short, practical game profile.
Every character should have a reason to participate in the continuing mission. Rank establishes authority, but it does not determine importance. A captain, junior officer, physician, engineer, pilot, security specialist, or experienced enlisted crew member can all stand at the center of an episode.
Character Creation Process
[edit]1. Describe the Character
[edit]Begin with a short concept. Identify the character’s species, background, department, current assignment, and general personality.
A good concept says what the character contributes to the crew and suggests the kinds of decisions or difficulties that might place them under pressure.
Choose the character’s species and apply its established traits. Species may provide characteristic abilities, required Talents, or Hindrances reflecting genuine physical or psychological differences.
Species traits describe broad tendencies and capabilities. They do not dictate the character’s culture, personality, beliefs, or profession.
3. Assign Attributes
[edit]Attributes describe the character’s fundamental physical, mental, and social capabilities. Assign the character’s starting ratings and apply any appropriate species adjustments or Talent-based increases.
Attributes are used when no professional Discipline clearly governs the task.
4. Assign Disciplines
[edit]Disciplines represent broad areas of Starfleet training and professional competence. They establish what the character can reliably accomplish as an officer, specialist, or experienced member of the crew.
A character’s strongest Discipline will usually reflect their department or principal assignment, but officers frequently possess considerable ability outside their formal specialties.
A Discipline is not a narrow skill. A trained engineer does not need separate abilities for every type of console, power system, or repair procedure. Use the Discipline whenever the character’s professional training reasonably applies.
Focuses identify subjects, techniques, experiences, and interests that distinguish the character from everyone else with similar training. A relevant Focus provides a bonus to the roll.
Focuses may be professional, such as Subspace Physics, Shuttle Piloting, Transporters, or Photon Torpedoes. They may also reflect personal interests, such as Chess, Cooking, or Fixing Old Hotrods.
Talents give the character a small number of distinctive capabilities. Some represent species abilities, exceptional natural gifts, specialized training, or characteristic ways of responding to danger.
Talents should have short, clear effects. They are the exceptions that distinguish a character without replacing the broad competence provided by Attributes and Disciplines.
7. Choose Hindrances
[edit]Hindrances describe convictions, obligations, temperamental flaws, cultural pressures, or personal difficulties that complicate the character’s life.
A Hindrance is not merely a penalty. It gives the player permission and encouragement to place the character’s beliefs and shortcomings at the center of the story. Examples include a demanding Code of Honor, a powerful Sense of Duty, Vulcan emotional discipline, or Klingon aggression.
8. Establish Assignment and Rank
[edit]Determine the character’s department, duty station, rank, and responsibilities aboard ship. These details provide narrative permission rather than numerical bonuses.
An officer qualified to command a watch may occupy the center seat when circumstances require it. An engineer has access to engineering spaces and authority within that department. A physician can order a crew member relieved from duty on medical grounds. The character sheet need not assign a separate ability for every privilege of the job.
9. Complete the Character
[edit]Record the character’s name, appearance, homeworld, service history, relationships, and other details needed for play. Note any important equipment or personal possessions and determine the character’s starting Fortune.
Finish by answering three questions:
- Why did this character join Starfleet?
- What do they contribute to this particular crew?
- What might cause them to place duty, friendship, or conscience above regulations?
Character Rules
[edit]Broad professional training in the principal fields of Starfleet service.
Special knowledge, personal interests, practical experience, and subjects the character knows especially well.
Species abilities, exceptional gifts, specialized training, and distinctive rules exceptions.
Duties, convictions, flaws, and pressures that create complications and reward characterization.
Characters Can Change
[edit]A character is not locked permanently into the first version placed on the page. Players may revise a character when play reveals that the original design does not match the person emerging at the table.
Long-term development is covered in The Continuing Mission. Characters usually grow by acquiring new Focuses through experience rather than by accumulating steadily increasing numerical power.