Lifepaths - A Star Trek Adventure Character Generation Overview

For my upcoming Star Trek Adventures game, I thought it would be a good idea to get as many of the players together for a session zero chat and some character generation. Unfortunately a player had to step back due to increasing commitments elsewhere, but as fate would have it another became available. On top of that, I got word back about two auxiliary players who would love to drop in and out where they could.

Just needs some crew...

Star Trek games have the benefit of bringing convenient excuses for players that can't always make games sessions. You can be on leave, working on a different project, or maybe your character just didn't feature in the script for that episode. Whatever the reason, there's less chance of having to worry about missing a session as you're unlikely to be half way through a dungeon delve or what have you.

We gathered virtually around the briefing room table (my Discord gaming server) and had a bit of a chat about the high level details of the setting and what people wanted. At this stage the key things for the group were to know when and where we'd be playing. I don't mean online every Tuesday, but at what point in Trek's canon. The group has a mix of players with some dyed in the wool, ardent Trekkies, and some who enjoy the show well enough but might struggle to tell the difference between their Bolians and Benzites. On one end of the spectrum you have those that like the added detail of knowing its 2365 and they'll be serving on a Miranda class outfitted for research. On the other? These players know it's Next Gen and they've seen a picture of the ship. It might be a tricky balancing act to keep everyone happy but we're a fairly mature bunch who've played together on and off for almost twenty years.

So how does one create a character?

There's a lot of chat in the online social media bubbles about how easy/hard/quick/long it should take to create a character. If we are all honest, there isn't a straightforward answer as it'll be heavily influenced by the type of game you're playing, as well as the system. For something like Star Trek, where the perceived intent of a Next Gen style game, I think it's reasonable to expect character gen to take a bit of time. In a setting where discourse and team work is the order of the day, you want a character you have developed an attachment to and can feel 'lived in', rather than a bunch of numbers you've checked out on some Reddit build optimisation thread...

For me, Star Trek Adventures strikes a great balance. The majority of character creation, for four players, including chat and time to discuss individual details took less than two hours. The life-path system can be rushed through to generate stats and abilities quickly but can also be used as a tool to help players shape some characterful details.

Species and Environment

It's a big galaxy out there and one of the two key decisions about your character comes first. What species do you want to play? I'm aware of the recent social media commentary on the use of species modifiers etc., but I think STA deals with it well. There's no downside or negative penalty to any species, other than the obvious social implications, and the overall effects from your choices are far outweighed by the factors which follow. Your environment, either chosen or randomly assigned, gives an indication of where you grew up and helps shape your values and adds to your attribute and discipline progression. core book only contains a handful of playable species, by the time you add in all the supplements there's plenty to chose from; with all the major players from the franchise represented. If you wanted something different and super niche, it wouldn't be that hard to beg borrow and steal from the existing framework. I'm fairly easy going but to prevent too much extra work on my part, I simply asked the players to stick to something from the bundle.

Its a big galaxy out there

Upbringing and the Academy

In the lifepath system, the upbringing adds a really nice touch which I think manages to be both brilliant and simple. Again, you can pick or roll randomly to determine the overall type of upbringing you had. Were you a Starfleet brat moving from position to position, or perhaps you might have been raised by a collective focusing on artistic endeavour. The clever part is that for each of these you can either embrace or rebel. This led to a scenario where one of my players chose to rebel against his Starfleet upbringing. But wait, if he rebelled against that, then how did he end up as a pretty straight-laced chief of security on a renowned Starfleet vessel? These little prompts can really help players focus on aspects of their characters and trigger ideas to round out what could otherwise be a flat bundle of numbers.

Your time at the Academy is where you'll gain the majority of your focuses and effectively shape your character into the specific branch of Starfleet that you'll play in game. You can continue to generate randomly but by this point I would expect a lot of players will have at least an inkling into the career they'd like.

The Career so far...

Putting me in mind of the Traveller random events (although *spoiler* no one can die in character creation), the lifepath creation element comes to a close with each character experiencing two career defining moments. In a larger group of players this might mean that, from the table available, there will be some duplication but that's not a bad thing. Shared experiences, whether by virtue of them being present together, or simply coincidental occurrences might actually lead to interesting in character discussions and relations.

If you were to approach this cold, you could easily generate a character in less than 15 minutes. What our group really latched onto, was the idea of going through the process together but then taking time to think about specific values and talents. How did each of these events and circumstances shape them into the officers they are today? Everyone went away with lots of thinking to do but energised and excited by fleshing out the details. The setting has a big part to play in this but I'm glad that the character creation segment didn't stifle or bore anyone. Everything made sense and for me running the game, provided plenty of potential plot hooks and challenges to throw them down the line...