Star Trek RPG - Setup thread

Aw c'mon, EH Mr. Game-master sir, lemme have the continuity win! :D I should be rewarded for paying attention! At least let Nia be right about the Skorr chick--Nia seems to hang out a lot in Engineering and I can't imagine she wouldn't have heard about/seen the new Asst. Chief., especially someone so, er, different-looking. Pretty please with sugar on top? :kitteh:

(The Vulcan Science Assistant Chief makes more sense if he'd actually been around for a couple of months... one more Vulcan is easy to miss, and we haven't established Nia as having that much interaction with the Science hierarchy.)

Meanwhile, to the important stuff: it's irking me that my Google-fu has been very weak on researching TOS-era dress uniforms for women. Seriously, I cannot find a single example of a woman (presumably but not necessarily Uhura) in formal dress. Weird, right? I know none of the shows did "dress uniforms" that often--TNG had more opportunities, being on for twice as long--but you'd think the few times they did in the TOS era, they'd take advantage of the opportunity to show Uhura all dolled-up once in a while.

Which is why I'm kinda skirting (pun!) around specifics re: Kylah's outfit, other than assuming as a nod to Elasian culture it's been modified to be form-fitting vs. loose-ish, and (again, given what we know of the oh-so-tasteful style of Elasian gal outfits) likely lower-cut/shorter. Possibly it appears even more lower-cut than usual as it's now somewhat big on her.

Probably best left to the imagination--it's kinda fun to show reactions to this thing without describing it. :devil:

Onn's reaction to Kylah's outfit was well done indeed!

Thanks--so was Graham's! :) There's little I enjoy more than having Nia snark on Kylah--lets me point out all the ridiculous things about the character. (Although Nia does end up feeling some sympathy that softens her opinions.)

I haven't yet found a good reason for Kylah to return the favor--truth is, Kylah doesn't notice Nia other than as a superior officer, while Nia is (constantly) reminded of Kylah due to the angst and perils that surround her. And, of course, Graham's protectiveness.

I suppose if Kylah ever senses that Nia's causing Graham stress or discomfort for some reason, her loyalty toward him might flare up.

We had some discussion of Starfleet women's dress uniforms here awhile back - the only one ever shown in TOS was, IIRC, Areel Shaw's, in "Court Martial":

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/80/70/ac/8...cb48899e4c.jpg
http://www.sherylfranklin.com/images...areel_shaw.jpg
http://www.sherylfranklin.com/images...reel_shaw5.jpg

No reason, especially as we have a female captain who usually wears appropriately-tailored versions of male uniforms, that the same couldn't be true for dress uniforms, too.

Thanks! And... ohmygosh, that is a dress uniform?! Then I've lied, because I've seen that everywhere, and dismissed it as a regular uniform but for a higher-ranking woman.

Boy, you'd think they'd have the women's clothing more blingy and fancy than the men's, but while Kirk, Spock et al. have differently shaped jackets with a sweet gold stripe down the front, this chick only warrants a little stripe around her sleeve. Unfair!

With that in mind, now it amuses me to think that Kylah started out with the man's dress jacket style, tailored so that it's form-fitting (like a dress) instead of boxy, and, um, nothing else (i.e., no trousers, just the regulation black stockings). And likely low cut, because duh.

Exactly what the end result looks like is up to our imaginations.

EDITED TO ADD:

Re: Kylah's most recent post and her idea about cameras... As far as my research into TOS & the notion of CCTV has uncovered, the ship does seem to have cameras on the Bridge at least, since specific footage of Bridge activity (from different angles, yet!) is depicted in episodes like "Court Martial" and in "The Cage." However, it doesn't seem to be universal throughout the Enterprise. Almost always, the crew need sensor data to find people/aliens/whatever throughout the ship. (This is true even in TNG, DS9 and VOY.) So I've made the logical leap that cameras are only used in the most vital spots, such as Kylah describes. Hopefully that's okay? Starfleet clearly leans on the side of dramatic necessity versus convenience! :)

Yes, that makes sense. There are times (especially in "Journey to Babel," for instance) when cameras throughout the ship would be useful, but they don't have them. I always imagined it was a social holdover from the Eugenics Wars or World War III, when there were probably high-tech, total-surveillance police states which appalled later generations of humanity.

Mmm, good point. That follows what seems to be Starfleet's pretty high standards of personal freedom (notwithstanding Section 31, which likely doesn't abide by anything but its own secret code--e.g., "do anything to anything for anything we want").

While researching, I came across this interesting exchange between Worf and Picard (two very different cultures) from one of my favorite episodes--and I would imagine one of yours, too, EH!)--The Drumhead. Picard mentions a "Seventh Guarantee," which seems to refer to some type of Bill of Rights analogue among the Federation; I'm guessing the Seventh Guarantee is equivalent to our Fifth Amendment?

PICARD: This is not unlike a drumhead trial.

WORF: I do not understand.

PICARD: Five hundred years ago, military officers would upend a drum on the battlefield sit at it and dispense summary justice. Decisions were quick, punishments severe, appeals denied. Those who came to a drumhead were doomed.

WORF: But we know there is a traitor here. J'Dan has admitted his guilt.

PICARD: That's true, and he will stand for his crimes.

WORF: Tarses has all but done the same.

PICARD: How?

WORF: He refused to answer the question about his Romulan grandfather.

PICARD: That is not a crime, Worf. Nor can we infer his guilt because he didn't respond.

WORF: Sir, if a man were not afraid of the truth, he would answer.

PICARD: Oh, no. We cannot allow ourselves think that. The Seventh Guarantee is one of the most important rights granted by the Federation. We cannot take a fundamental principle of the Constitution and turn it against a citizen.

WORF: Sir, the Federation does have enemies. We must seek them out.

PICARD: Oh, yes. That's how it starts. But the road from legitimate suspicion to rampant paranoia is very much shorter than we think. Something is wrong here, Mister Worf. I don't like what we have become.

Dang I love that show!

Yup, it's a good one. TOS "Court Martial," TNG "The Measure of a Man" and "The Drumhead" are the best courtroom dramas in the various incarnations of ST, I think.

Definitely analogous to the Fifth Amendment: http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Seventh_Guarantee

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Originally posted by Elendil's Heir

Sonak says equably, "I am a lieutenant commander and not a lieutenant, Mr. Onn.

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DAMMIT! Naturally I went outta my way to find out what to call Roble, because I was pretty sure in most everyday situations it was "Commander" rather than "Lieutenant Commander" (and certainly not "Lieutenant"). And then I go and slip by not noticing that this dude's a Lt. Cmdr. too!

Maybe I should've spent less time looking up WTF a "heterocyclic compound" was (I don't even wanna admit all the research I did on that to make Nia sound somewhat conversant on the topic!) and just, y'know, looked more carefully at people's frickin' ranks. :D

No worries - I'm sure he won't hold it against Onn. And you can't go wrong with "Sir" or "Ma'am" or "Mr. ________."

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Originally posted by Elendil's Heir

No worries - I'm sure he won't hold it against Onn. And you can't go wrong with "Sir" or "Ma'am" or "Mr. ________."

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Very true. I figured that given the babble of the crowd, it's possible she might not've heard the 2nd part of his rank, so she has an excuse. Lucky Vulcans don't seem the grudge-holding type!

I love love love Onn's reaction to Cecilia Bennett's encounter with Graham at the senior officers' dinner. LOL.

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Originally posted by Elendil's Heir

I love love love Onn's reaction to Cecilia Bennett's encounter with Graham at the senior officers' dinner. LOL.

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Aw, my (or should I say SidonianGal's) thanks, chief. Somehow I didn't even spot on my initial reading that Cecilia kissed Graham. Which meant Nia didn't notice it either. Probably lucky for both Graham and Bennett, because Nia might have revealed heretofore unknown hidden reptilian sacs and sprayed a stream of venom across the table at the navigator. You'd see a whole 'nother side of Nia...

https://img00.deviantart.net/3bfa/i/...sy-d6xj4x4.jpg

:devil:

A supervillain comics crossover! Well... let's not.

I should've learned my lesson from the last dinner party to do a seating chart for everyone! Thanks for asking, choie.

How does this look? T is the table itself; player characters are bolded:

Capt. S.P. Singh

Mr. Alexei Kostoyev T Cmdr. Pablo Vargas

Dr. Miriam Villa T Mrs. Nina Kostoyev

Mr. Gregory Dowd T Lt. Cmdr. Sonak

Ens. Tian Enlai T Ens. Mary Three Crows

Lt. Cmdr. Abdi Roble T Dr. Nathaniel Bennett

Lt. JG Ade Soerjosoemarno T Lt. Onn

Lt. Thalen T Ens. Kylah

Lt. Vielar T Dr. Giancarlo Bucci

Lt. JG Melissa J. Ryan T Lt. Cecilia Bennett

Ens. Carlos Alvarez T Lt. JG Booker Graham

Lt. Joseph Bancroft T Lt. JG Faith Ngaka

Lt. Cmdr. Edgardo Cheverez

The Kostoyevs and Dowd are the civilian miners. Ens. Tian is the Command-branch ensign mentioned but not named earlier, when Kylah was looking around. Lt. Bancroft is Chief Engineer Cheverez's husband. Lt. Vielar and Lt. Cmdr. Sonak are the new assistant department chiefs, of Engineering and Science, respectively.

Ah thank you, EH, that's very helpful! Interesting mix. Nineteenth-century hostesses would be aghast at the lack of boy/girl/boy/girl seating, but it is three centuries later, after all! :)

Yeah. Alternating boy/girl around the table doesn't appear to be a concern in Kirk's time: http://www.geekgirlauthority.com/wp-...default-14.jpg

"Boy-Girl-Kirk-Khan..."

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Originally posted by Elendil's Heir

Yeah. Alternating boy/girl around the table doesn't appear to be a concern in Kirk's time: http://www.geekgirlauthority.com/wp-...default-14.jpg

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OMG with that photo. Apparently there weren't enough women to fill out the table because they were all busy serving. Nice, Roddenberry.

Yeah, I know. It was a different time.

"He seems to have made his choice, and it's the cool, milky-white hothouse lily, not the dark, dry, earthy jade plant."

:bravo:

"Uh, I ah, hadn't actually thought about it that way," Graham says.

Heh. Yes, that was good.

:) Thanks, gentlemen! Had to do some quick after-the-fact Googling to confirm that jades are, indeed, desert plants! Then the transplanting thing hit me and I was like, oh yeah, more metaphor, woohoo!

Nia's bitchiness is pretty enjoyable to write. :devil:

Since I'm sure you're never bitchy in real life, I'm glad you're able to find that release here.

Clearly, Onn and Bennett need to settle things with a pillow fight

I can't believe I just wrote that - OK, I admit it, my mental age is ~13

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Originally posted by Elendil's Heir

Since I'm sure you're never bitchy in real life, I'm glad you're able to find that release here.

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For shame! Sarcasm ill becomes one whose veins run with Númenórean blood. :)

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Originally posted by general_urko

Clearly, Onn and Bennett need to settle things with a pillow fight

I can't believe I just wrote that - OK, I admit it, my mental age is ~13

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Heh. :devil: If Nia gets any more jealous, she'll probably stuff her pillowcase with a brick.

Sarcasm? Moi?

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Originally posted by general_urko

Clearly, Onn and Bennett need to settle things with a pillow fight

I can't believe I just wrote that - OK, I admit it, my mental age is ~13

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Me, too. But more importantly, should they be in PJs or teddies?

Going out of town for a long weekend - Internet access may be spotty.

Ooh have fun, EH! Going to the wilderness?

P.S. Neither PJs or teddies... To use a term from Neil Simon's The Goodbye Girl, Nia sleeps el buffo. Does that ruin your little fantasies, gents? :angel:

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Originally posted by choie;269235
P.S. Neither PJs or teddies... To use a term from Neil Simon's [I

The Goodbye Girl[/I], Nia sleeps el buffo. Does that ruin your little fantasies, gents? :angel:

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"Modifies," one might say..:LOL::popcorn:

I'm back. I was in Chicago, seeing Hamilton with some friends, and also touristy stuff around town. My hotel had no business center, unfortunately, and I didn't have a laptop.

The show was great, and includes this song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQt1RRW_xv0
https://genius.com/Lin-manuel-mirand...de-down-lyrics

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Originally posted by Elendil's Heir

I'm back. I was in Chicago, seeing Hamilton with some friends, and also touristy stuff around town. My hotel had no business center, unfortunately, and I didn't have a laptop.

The show was great, and includes this song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQt1RRW_xv0
https://genius.com/Lin-manuel-mirand...de-down-lyrics

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SPOILER WARNING! Geeze, I'm seeing it in August, but now I already know how that battle ends! Have some consideration, man.

:D Lucky you. Glad you loved it!

Heh. I encourage you to listen to the songs on YouTube, and even look up the lyrics, before you go. The actors and actresses often reel off the words very quickly.

Oh I plan to listen! That's the thing I worry about, not catching the lyrics, especially because I have tinnitus and it can be difficult to distinguish voices at times. Also they're so densely packed I don't want to miss much.

Gamewise.... I suspect we PCs might be falling short of ideas for conversation / drama, given the seating arrangements we have. Any chance we could get a few prompts or hints, o benevolent and generous GM? :hug: I dunno, maybe one of the NPCs can start choking to death or at least start a provocative conversation topic or something?

Fickle Alvarez isn't even returning any of Kylah's looks. :(

Also dang it for my misbelief that it was the newest person on board who did the first toast! Kylah happened to fit both that and was the most junior member of the crew as well, so I made the wrong assumption. Sorry for passing that impression from Nia's brain to Nathaniel's, Anthony!

No worries. The dinner's winding down anyway.

Cool beans!

Hey this is funny: In one of the many self/indie publishing writing communities I participate in, someone posted a link to his new sci-fi novel on Amazon wondering why he wasn't getting any sales. (That's a very common thread topic, and the rest of us usually take a look at the page to check the cover, intro blurb, and the first few pages visible in the "Look Inside!" feature.)

One look and it was obvious--terrible, bland blurb--no personal stakes for the hero at all, just "bad lizard people invading the Earth" copy; murky cover; and the "Look Inside" text was embarrassing, not just in a technical sense but just plain wrong.

In the latter, a few of the things that were caught was that he...

a) had his fictional group of planets called "The Federation" (too Star Treky)

b) called the leader of the "starship" (also dinged for being to Trek-like a "General"

c) named his ship "the Yorktown," which someone said was yet another Trek reference.

Of these the only one most of us decided wasn't too problematic was the Yorktown reference, given the import and history of the name. Well, even the "starship" was eventually given the go-ahead... it's a pretty generic term by now.

But seriously... as ignorant as I am, I know there's no frickin' General in the usually navy-based space fleets. And when the author decided to change it to Admiral, he also had to be informed that Admirals generally (pun!) don't fly ships.

As usual the author was defensive and didn't think it was necessary to get his book edited, or even do research in his genre. Sigh.

Yeah, there's a lot of crap out there just not worth reading. And good editors are worth their weight in gold!

As to general/admiral: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.p...SpaceIsAnOcean

Going out of town for a long weekend, and not sure of my Internet access - let's resume on Sunday night or maybe Monday morning. Thanks!

Hi guys. Sorry I've been nonparticipating. Dealt with a big health scare, but got the all-clear sign after a biopsy result and my mind and heart are free again. Hope you're all doing well!

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Originally posted by choie

Hi guys. Sorry I've been nonparticipating. Dealt with a big health scare, but got the all-clear sign after a biopsy result and my mind and heart are free again. Hope you're all doing well!

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Whoa...very glad to hear that! Welcome back.

Welcome back, indeed! Hope you feel better and better, choie.

Well that was unexpected...nice plot twist, Stegodon! :popcorn:

I'd like to wrap up this shipboard evening and fast-forward to shortly before the Yorktown's arrival at Novy Rostov. How about, say, three more posts apiece before I do that?

Sounds good. I'll poke Rangin with a stick.

Thanks. Just back from a week on the beach with only intermittent Internet access!

OK if I do the fast-forward now?

Oh dear, no! Can we have the weekend, pleeease? Sorry for the delay, we're just trying to clean things up before the mission starts properly. Is that okay, kind leader?

Well, I first asked ten days ago, but OK, let's say by Monday 8am EST.

Sorry, it took us longer to poke than expected. g_u, Rangin and I had three separate two-person interactions (and I can't count how many different subplot threads involving Nia, Graham, Kylah and Rangin), and it took a lot o' coordination! Considering the vast amount of content you will now have found suddenly appearing in the game thread, you'll see why it took so long. :) Thank you very much for your patience!

Glad to! OK to jump forward, then?