Star Trek RPG - Setup thread

[choie]

Hardy har har! Nia just knows how to do her job and report to people, and has sense/objectivity enough to see the bigger picture, which is likely because she's on the Command track and has been in active duty for 10 years.

Meanwhile, Collins is rewriting history if she thinks she's the only one to apologize. I also think dismissing others' feelings as "high school" is rather unfair; it's not like they're the ones who re-enacted a typical afterschool special storyline: Accidentally Pregnant, or The Jeremi Collins Story: Oops We Forgot Our Birth Control.

[anyrose]

Short, selective memory. Remember? I'm just keeping her in character. Yeah, that's the ticket.

[choie]

Hmm, the elephant smilie wouldn't work for her... Is there a better one for someone with a 5-second memory? A goldfish smilie, maybe?

Collins smiles when Rangin thanks her. Okay. I did something right. She notices the shift in his body language when she talks about Kylah. Subject closed. For now. No, it's not. "If she wants to talk to you, tell you how she feels about you, would you listen?"

Oh how I would love for Velir to snap back: "Well, last night she got naked in her bed, told me she loved me and begged me to screw her, is that the sort of thing you mean?"

[general_urko]

Sorry, Collins is a little busy right now, playing Cupid; and Graham's torn between two fantasies, so we can count him out for the next several hours.

Perhaps Nia (aka Deus Ex Machina) could take care of that.

While Bennett is exercising, Onn might pop in for a swim. They might start to fight over Graham, and then Graham would have to separate them, and then....

#comfortablewithmymentalgeof13

[anyrose]

Hmm, the elephant smilie wouldn't work for her... Is there a better one for someone with a 5-second memory? A goldfish smilie, maybe?

Collins smiles when Rangin thanks her. Okay. I did something right. She notices the shift in his body language when she talks about Kylah. Subject closed. For now. No, it's not. "If she wants to talk to you, tell you how she feels about you, would you listen?"

Oh how I would love for Velir to snap back: "Well, last night she got naked in her bed, told me she loved me and begged me to screw her, is that the sort of thing you mean?"

Nonplussed, Collins replies with her own question. "Did you?"

[choie]

"Besides, it would not surprise me if Ens. Kylah is feeling a little regret over what occurred today, through no fault of her own. So anything said now would, no, should be held in the heat of those moments. Perhaps wait awhile until she has recovered and is of a calmer mind. What do you think?"

Yowsa. XP for roleplaying Velir as patronizing and self-righteous. How gracious to say that Kylah might be feeling a little regret! Ditto with "Perhaps wait awhile until she has recovered and is of a calmer mind." He's the one who blew up at her, twice, with some nasty insults. And Velir doesn't even have the excuse of being beaten to a pulp! (Well, the night's still young and Graham's walking around on the prowl. )

Dang we have some messed up PCs, don't we? Props for our willing to show their less pleasant sides.

[Elendil's Heir]

Watches are typically eight-hour periods in Starfleet. The crew is divided into thirds, so that one-third is always on duty throughout the standard shipboard "day." When you're off-duty, you're free to do what you want for 16 hours. Watches may change day by day, depending on the needs of the senior officers, other assignments, special tasks, [whim of the GM], etc. Yellow Alert means the next watch scheduled to go on duty immediately reports; Red Alert means everybody goes on duty. Obviously you won't have people standing three-deep at every duty station - everyone's cross-trained, and many go to damage-control or Security assembly points throughout the ship, ready for reassignment as necessary. However, your characters are all assigned to the Bridge for a typical watch, and during both Yellow and Red Alerts.

I'll post a time update in the game thread.

[Elendil's Heir]

I'd like to end this shipboard day and jump ahead to the next morning. Please make any more posts you want by noon EST Weds., and I'll take it from there.

[CatInASuit]

but you can't rub her head like Lizzy's and singe her out-of-tune lullabies...[/I]

Just how bad is Graham's singing?

[anyrose]

*whew* Finally. Now, is Rangin too proud to apologize?

[general_urko]

*whew* Finally. Now, is Rangin too proud to apologize?

You mean to Graham???

[anyrose]

*whew* Finally. Now, is Rangin too proud to apologize?

You mean to Graham???

Well, Kylah first. We'll see how long that takes, then we'll worry about patching the Rangin/Graham bromance back up.

[WES]

Offline for a few days because of severe weather and its impact. Internet is up and running again. I will do my best to catch up with everything.

[Elendil's Heir]

Thanks, WES. Hope you came through the storms safe and sound.

[anyrose]

I wonder if Rangin will ever acknowledge how insightful Collins was the day before?

[CatInASuit]

I wonder if Rangin will ever acknowledge how insightful Collins was the day before?

Probably around the same time Graham stops giving Rangin grief.

[general_urko]

I wonder if Rangin will ever acknowledge how insightful Collins was the day before?

Probably around the same time Graham stops giving Rangin grief.

Oh how sad Graham's patrol route hasn't taken him to get a look over Rangin's shoulder while he does creepy e-stalking of Kylah...!

[CatInASuit]

Oh how sad Graham's patrol route hasn't taken him to get a look over Rangin's shoulder while he does creepy e-stalking of Kylah...!

And this coming from the man who had no problems using security cameras to spy on Kylah. Tut, tut, tut.

[Elendil's Heir]

Have you seen Rick and Morty? I just started watching. Kind of like The Simpsons crossed with Futurama. R-rated and very funny:


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_and_Morty

[Elendil's Heir]

If you liked Christopher Nolan's Interstellar, you might also like EMIC: An Interstellar Time Capsule Film. Nolan curated this short film from public submissions about what humanity would want to remember about Earth when we someday venture forth, out among the stars.

Deeply touching and evocative, I thought:

[CatInASuit]

Part 4/4 of Tapas for Two is now up.

Feel free to enjoy.

[Elendil's Heir]

Va-va-voom! Things are heating up for our medico and her favorite chef. Thanks!

[anyrose]

Good. Now if we can just get Kylah and Rangin talking again.


Meanwhle

"Helm, set course for the offices of YKYWI." Collins declares from the big chair. "Tactical, I want a full spread of photon torpedoes once we're in range."

[general_urko]

Va-va-voom! Things are heating up for our medico and her favorite chef. Thanks!

Indeed! - so, just a question though: because this is in Apocrypha does it mean this all happened in the past? Or is it just "off camera?"

[Elendil's Heir]

Just off-camera, I'd say. Perhaps CIAS and WES have a different timeline in mind, though.

[choie]

That should be a fun pair! Nice work, guys. I'm guessing it must be a bit earlier or later in the timeline--we know Johnson was cooking for the Captain, Brold & guests last night, unless the T'Var/Johnson date was much later in the evening.

Meanwhile, speaking of T'Var, I was wondering who'd win that game of "hot potato" that she and Noel were playing regarding "who gets the crummy job of following up on Fujishiro?" Very amusing to see each of them come up with excuses as to why someone else should deal with it. (Kinda scary that the ship's psychologist was asking a Vulcan for the best way to talk to the crew about grief. )

Am I the only one who cannot grok a single word of that science chick said to Graham? Yipe! That was one impressive display of technobabble, EH!

[Elendil's Heir]

Really? Hmm. Didn't seem that technobabblish to me. But thanks!

[anyrose]

Suddenly, Collins' spidey sense tingles. "Red alert! Shields! Fire phasers!" she declares as her inner Kirk takes over.

[general_urko]

Suddenly, Collins' spidey sense tingles. "Red alert! Shields! Fire phasers!" she declares as her inner Kirk takes over.

If she fires at some other ship than Chorell it would be truly awesome...

[general_urko]

Suddenly, Collins' spidey sense tingles. "Red alert! Shields! Fire phasers!" she declares as her inner Kirk takes over.

If she fires at some other ship than Chorell it would be truly awesome...

[Elendil's Heir]

It's my 25th wedding anniversary!

On this day in 1990, on a very hot summer day in Vermont, my true love and I were married in her hometown's little Episcopal church, surrounded by family and friends. We'd met five years earlier on a college semester abroad in London, and almost immediately felt the attraction. And now a quarter century has passed - hard to believe! My wife and I have had our ups and downs, of course, but we are and have been so very blessed - we have our good health, three fine sons, a dopey dog, an ornery cat, a nice house and so many other good things in our lives - including my friends here.

[anyrose]

Happy Anniversary!

[choie]

Happy anniversary, Mr. and Mrs. EH!

[CatInASuit]

Congrats to you both.

[WES]

Congrats on 25 yrs! May the next 25 be filled with many more blessings.

[Elendil's Heir]

Many thanks! It was a good day.

[choie]

I'm confused by how the roles are divided on this ship. Acc. to Memory Alpha, TOS-era security officers didn't deal with tactical stuff: weapons/shields systems were handled by Helm and Navigation. (Sulu and Chekov shared the "tactical" role, as Helmsman and Navigator, respectively.) Not true on the Yorktown?

[general_urko]

I'm confused by how the roles are divided on this ship. Acc. to Memory Alpha, TOS-era security officers didn't deal with tactical stuff: weapons/shields systems were handled by Helm and Navigation. (Sulu and Chekov shared the "tactical" role, as Helmsman and Navigator, respectively.) Not true on the Yorktown?

Hmm that's a really interesting point. Meta, TNG created meaningful bridge times for Yar/Worf, in TOS no such high profile Security characters. Also meta but IMO think about naval vessels dedicated weapons officers make more sense. I suspect Gene R wanted to de-emph military side of Fed....

[anyrose]

The stations are there on the bridge. We've already established there is a security console for Collins to sit at. de la Paz is there now. Maybe what g_u said about Papa Gene is right and maybe Singh is a more efficient captain, having trained people handle specific functions, rather than having a skeleton crew of jacks-of-all-trades

[choie]

Hey, we all know the Yorktown's motto is Security Uber Alles--I mean, damn, there's gotta be a reason why Collins has gotten first dibs at leading every mission/adventure four times in a row, and when it's not her it's Graham--but I figured the Enterprise and canon job roles mattered at least a little now and then!

[Elendil's Heir]

After Onn (who had a stint as BCDO not long ago), Collins is the ranking PC. Graham is the second-ranked Security PC, and the situations when he assumed command or was named CO of a party were when Security issues were predominant. As it happens, I have been thinking for awhile of giving another PC a turn in command - once we leave Anubis it is likely to happen.

As to who does what on the Bridge, those roles have some flexibility (and Singh obviously encourages cross-training), but I want everyone to have a chance to shine, if possible.

[choie]

After Onn (who had a stint as BCDO not long ago),

....Sitting in a chair far away from the action. She was really just doing Kylah's job--all she did was relay communications back and forth from various people who were actually being proactive, including Collins, who had the lead role in the hunt for unconscious Kylah. That's okay, I certainly didn't expect Nia to jump into the lead position right when she was being introduced. Now that she's been around for two months (or one day, in-game!), that might be different.

Collins is the ranking PC. Graham is the second-ranked Security PC, and the situations when he assumed command or was named CO of a party were when Security issues were predominant.

Oh absolutely re: Graham and OCIII! That's a natural, the mission had turned into a murder investigation by the time Collins had her miscarriage necessitating someone else taking over. (I would've thought Vargas would get involved, but apparently he's really worried about getting killed due to the "two weeks from retirement" curse.)

But the mission didn't start as a murder--it was a diplomatic/legal/contract sort of thing. Putting a security officer who's... erm, not the most diplomatic or legalistic-minded person, shall we say?... was an odd choice on Singh's part. It'd be like Picard putting Worf in charge of a similar mission.

Similarly, before that, Collins led on Sakath even though it was primarily a medical/scientific mission, where T'Var or even Rangin--maybe especially Rangin, considering the whole experiment focused on xenobiology--were more appropriate leaders.

(Sure, Rangin was only an Ensign, but he's a specialist and it was odd that he played so little a role there. But maybe that was due to the changeover in players from Appleciders (sp?) to CIAS?)

The next two adventures have been the Kylah hunt (understandably led by security) and now this, which was by default handed to Collins only because Singh behaved strangely--i.e., after Kylah happened to ask for a private talk and they were done, Singh decided to stay in her office and left Collins in charge, even though the watch had only just started and they're expecting word from the Thoth cops any moment. Thus ensuring Collins would be in the chair during the... whatever the heck is going on with the Chorell.

As it happens, I have been thinking for awhile of giving another PC a turn in command - once we leave Anubis it is likely to happen.

That would be awesome! It's just getting a bit samey and--with due respect to Collins--not really logical on Singh's part considering the character's record, her just having recovered from her miscarriage (and still suffering the effects of it), and her withdrawal/addiction. (Does Singh even know about that? Geeze, T'Var threatened to have Kylah reported as unfit for duty when she just complained about having some nightmares before the OCIII mission!)

It's really cool to want to give the mission/adventure lead role to a PC. But I wonder... why must one of our PCs be the official mission leader at all? With OCIII, for example, I might be wrong but I don't think any of us would've objected if you'd had an NPC like Thalen in charge (maybe with Rangin as a backup) during the hours that led up to Wilson's death. After the murder, security would've taken the lead, of course. Would've been a good fake-out, in fact!

Since we're playing junior officers (except for Nia), it makes sense for us to wait before we get to lead a mission, realistically speaking. Although, obviously splitting up teams or disabling the NPC-in-charge is a good idea so the PCs have their own choices to make instead of always being ordered around. (Then again, even when a PC is mission leader, it means the rest of us are ordered around, so it doesn't make that much of a difference except for the one anointed leader.)

Maybe the problem is that promotions are in order, since Collins is the top-ranking PC. That's a fluke due to player changes, isn't it? IIRC, the original group of PCs were all promoted at the same time--and there were some weird circumstances surrounding that, I believe--so originally everyone in the game was pretty much equal, IIRC (at least I'm pretty sure Pourtash, Delaney, Fujishiro & Collins were). So maybe someone can pull some strings and start handing out some sleeve-bars?

Don't worry, I know it makes no sense whatsoever to promote Kylah (unless Aldaan finds someone as crooked as Hardin to bribe!). She's been on board for little over a month and hasn't done anything to merit a promotion (well, she basically solved the Wilson murder, but no one's given her credit for that officially and one solved case isn't promotion-material anyway). She's made so many mistakes she'll probably end up as a cadet again.

FWIW, I'm bucking for Rangin for promotion. He should've gotten a purple heart--if they still give those out--for his multiple injuries back on Sakath; then on OCIII he did a great job counseling Collins, investigating in general (he found the infamous files that proved Hardin's guilt), and taking down Palver. Now he's also responsible for a) finding Kylah and b) identifying Lez via doing the DNA scanning and figured out how to ID the criminal via the zither's crystal particles on the guy's shoes.

And he's doing a whole heckuva lot of work with this HUBRIS* device as well... not that I understand a single thing out of his mouth, but that technobabble sure sounds impressive!

As to who does what on the Bridge, those roles have some flexibility (and Singh obviously encourages cross-training), but I want everyone to have a chance to shine, if possible.

T'Var and Rangin are definitely overdue for shineage. As for Kylah... well, heh, aside from the freak occurrence of Graham temporarily giving Kylah lead over in OCIII, I can't see any circumstance where she will ever shine, or should be trusted to, for that matter, unless everyone else on board has been overwhelmed by some neurotoxin. I imagine she'll hail the hell out of ships, though!

Anyway I'm glad to hear that the wealth will be mixed around a bit, and maybe some of the above ideas will spark something useful. Thanks for listening.

* One of these experimental devices that only exist to screw up despite the fact that the creator always insists nothing could ever go wrong! Hence: HUBRIS. In this case, it stands for "Hathor University Brold Reconnaissance and Identification Sensor."

[choie]

There are no blaring alarms for Yellow Alert; see post 1108. Of the two levels of alert, only Red Alert has a distinctive klaxon.

Hey this is Kylah--it's purely psychosomatic/psychic blaring.

[CatInASuit]

So...what happens next?

[anyrose]

We chase the Chorell to the other side of the planet and stop them from receiving weapons from an enemy of the Federation? Can we blow them up in the process, please?

[choie]

Dang, does Collins have a bug up her ass or what? I can't think of a PC who's less bitter than Nia, unless it's T'Var or A.J. How can she possibly argue with the recommendation to talk and get a better gauge of their intent, if possible? Does Collins really think we should blow them up?

[anyrose]

Collins subconsciously sees herself as the alpha and bristles when confronted by an actual alpha

[choie]

Ha! A fair assessment, although Nia's clearly not an alpha if she's spent ten years at the Helm instead of getting her own command. Maybe it's just the self-confidence Collins senses? I'm looking forward to their relationship developing over time, if it's able.

[anyrose]

Whatever it is, Collins feels threatened, but doesn't consciously realize it. Ben hasn't mentioned his prior involvements, in fact the two have not really talked since they met.

[CatInASuit]

Whatever it is, Collins feels threatened, but doesn't consciously realize it. Ben hasn't mentioned his prior involvements, in fact the two have not really talked since they met.

Given all that's occurred between Cooper and Collins, you would have hoped they had done some talking.