Best starting characters?

[Spinward Scout]

I think I've asked something similar in the past...

Say the group has a small ship and some funding or a way to generate funding.

What do you think the four best starting characters are?

I come up with:

Pilot
Doctor/(Psion?)
Merc/Gunner
Engineer

I think those 4 would cover quite a bit on a small ship and as a landing party. The Doctor and Engineer can cover the Sciences. The Merc/Gunner and Pilot can cover combat.

What else would you need? Maybe someone with Broker? Ancients specialist? Comms are pretty simple so no need for a specialization there.

What other characters would be good for a simple starter game, but one that could expand?

 

[madmike]

Depends on how big the ship is and how many crewslots and/or staterooms it has.

I referee a good sized group, but the breakdown on IMV Razorback (300dT far trader) is;

Captain/owner (pilot)
1st Officer (navigator/reserve pilot)
Engineer
Ship's Security/Gunner 1
Ship's Doctor
Gunner 2
Ship's admin officer
Crewman (NPC, sporatic player character)

I would start with the four you list and build up as needed, using NPC's if necessary. But it might be useful to ensure the party grows into the ship rather than needing to upgrade.

 

[GypsyComet]

Comms are pretty simple so no need for a specialization there.

As long as the skill for it is somewhere, sure.

What other characters would be good for a simple starter game, but one that could expand?

You can shorten the list of necessary skills at start by not going the ship route. Make sure someone has a TAS membership (for the contacts) and use the Patron/Reward system. Patrons are providing passage or other transportation requirements, many may not require world hopping, and you also get to spend more time familiarizing new players with the setting and its assumptions before eventually handing them a ship. If they persistently lack ship handling skills then "and passage to Hooba 4" becomes a part of many Patron contracts. Admin/Legal and Broker (for a little side money occasionally) are quite useful, and the one guy who has a couple ship skills can get a discount on travelling, but you don't need to dedicate skill space on multiple PCs to ship handling.

 

[Shonner]

I think I've asked something similar in the past...

Say the group has a small ship and some funding or a way to generate funding.

What do you think the four best starting characters are?

I come up with:

Pilot
Doctor/(Psion?)
Merc/Gunner
Engineer

I think those 4 would cover quite a bit on a small ship and as a landing party. The Doctor and Engineer can cover the Sciences. The Merc/Gunner and Pilot can cover combat.

What else would you need? Maybe someone with Broker? Ancients specialist? Comms are pretty simple so no need for a specialization there.

What other characters would be good for a simple starter game, but one that could expand?

For four players, that's usually what happens. Extra players end up being passengers that need to get somewhere. They have their own skills.

 

[Fritz_Brown]

I've usually seen:
Pilot
Nav
Engineer
Gunner
Some other gun bunny

For the Anastasia, here is the crew for the adventure (so far, PCs fill the pilot and engineer roles), with the most important skills:
Pilot/Captain - Pilot, some tactics, maybe leadership, maybe some Trader
Navigator - Navigation/Astrogation, Computer
Engineer - Engineering (obviously), maybe Computer, Ship's Boat
Gunner/Mate/Stevedore- Gunner, physical and martial skills, "interpersonal" skills
Steward/Medic/Stevedore - Steward, Medical, martial skills
Owner - Trader, Administration, Finance, Bureaucracy, etc.
Cat - Melee (mousing), Animal Handling (training humans), Carousing, Leaping

 

[McPerth]

I think I've asked something similar in the past...

Say the group has a small ship and some funding or a way to generate funding.

What do you think the four best starting characters are?

I come up with:

Pilot
Doctor/(Psion?)
Merc/Gunner
Engineer

I think those 4 would cover quite a bit on a small ship and as a landing party. The Doctor and Engineer can cover the Sciences. The Merc/Gunner and Pilot can cover combat.

What else would you need? Maybe someone with Broker? Ancients specialist? Comms are pretty simple so no need for a specialization there.

What other characters would be good for a simple starter game, but one that could expand?

I guess that will depend mainly on the kind of ship and adventures involved. A navigator would be nice. It could also operate sensors (if appropiate skills are held, in MT navigation-1 can be used) and act as copilot.

Also a steward wil lbe good if the ship is trader and has any intent to carry passengers (the gunner could double, if he has the skills, as they are not usually used at once).

And don't forget to make it sure some of them have Mechanic and Electonic skills (or to have a second engineer to tound them) if they are to fix malfunctions that can happen...

And, of course, some of the positions (engineer, gunner, steward) may need more tan one crewman if the ship is large enough...

 

[CosmicGamer]

What do you think the four best starting characters are?

I come up with:

Pilot
Doctor/(Psion?)
Merc/Gunner
Engineer

4 noble psionic Zhodani.

My point is that your asking about starting characters and not what is the best ships crew.

To me, characters should be whatever the players want and fits the GMs adventures.

A group of Aslan mercs. A group of scientists on a science station around a strange world. A group of Zhodani running secret ops within the Imperium using sleeper psionic double agents. Whatever works for the group.

 

[PFVA63]

Hi,

When we played where one of us had a Scout, Yacht or Free Trader we'd usually start by trying to fill the basic ship positions of Pilot, Navigator, Engineer and Gunner. If we had someone extra like an ex-soldier, ex-Marine, or ex-Bureaucrat (who was sometimes very valuable for his Admin skills and cargo buying/selling) we would often have them double up as a Steward or Medic (if they had any Medic skills).

 

[Spinward Scout]

Awesome responses! Thank you!

 

[Higgipedia]

Cat - Melee (mousing), Animal Handling (training humans), Carousing, Leaping

I am sorry, when I read that, all I could think of was...

 

[aramis]

Hey, I had someone playing a semi-uplifted bobcat in one of my games... Less anthropomorphic, but a lot of fun.

 

[SanDragon]

Does the cat walk through walls?

 

[aramis]

Does the cat walk through walls?

Using the airducts, yes...

 

[Fritz_Brown]

I am sorry, when I read that, all I could think of was...

LOL! I *knew* someone would think of that as soon as I posted it! But, no, Sprockets is a lowly Felis silvestris catus. (I could have sworn I was inspired by a mention of cats or mascots somewhere on the boards, but I can't find it now.)

 

[Spinward Scout]

I could have sworn I was inspired by a mention of cats or mascots somewhere on the boards, but I can't find it now.

Start a new thread? I wouldn't mind seeing what everybody's ship's mascot would be...

 

[Vladika]

Deleted due to double posting...sorry folks

 

[Vladika]

Start a new thread? I wouldn't mind seeing what everybody's ship's mascot would be...

Steward to my way of thinking is pretty important. (Unless it's TV dinners or MREs...) I love westerns and think of a trail drive cook.

In most small ships I run it's a combination steward/medic.

If you look into the history of the "Chinese cook" on old sailing vessels I think you could get a lot of gaming ideas. Discussing it in any detail could probably get me a warning though (or worse)!

 

[SpaceBadger]

Since I had it handy for reference in another thread, here is the crew list for an 800-ton exploration ship in a campaign I ran in college. Some were multiples, denoted by number in parentheses; I figured it would be a bad idea to have only one pilot on an exploration ship:

Pilot (x3)
Astrogator
Chief Engineer
Asst Engineer (x2)
Surgeon
Exploration Director
Trade Representative
Gunner/Guard (x4)
Computer/Comms/Sensors Operator (x4)
Scientists (Xeno, Geo, Chem, Bio, Ecol)
Captain's Clerk

Then there were also command assignments, which were extra authority and responsibility (and pay bonus) on top of filling one of the crew slots above. These were Captain and First, Second, Third, Fourth Officers.

Then there were part-time jobs which could get a qualified crewperson a small pay bonus on top of their regular crew slot:

Medic (to assist the Surgeon)
Weapons Officer
Vehicle Officer
Mechanic
Electronics Tech


Before the campaign started I generated NPCs for every necessary crew slot. After the players generated their PCs (two for each player, to avoid the syndrome of having the ship's key officers go down on every landing party) we plugged them into the slots they wanted and were qualified for, bumping the NPCs from those slots.


Edit: Almost forgot, the first part of the campaign was an orientation/training camp to let them all try to roll for a few more skills (at zero or 1 skill level) that would be helpful on this voyage but might not have come up in chargen. For example, military characters who wanted to be a guard but did not have any Gunner skill could learn at least the basics so as to qualify. Academic types could pick up some basic Gun skill, in case something nasty attacked and a guard wasn't nearby.

 

[Fritz_Brown]

Before the campaign started I generated NPCs for every necessary crew slot. After the players generated their PCs (two for each player, to avoid the syndrome of having the ship's key officers go down on every landing party) we plugged them into the slots they wanted and were qualified for, bumping the NPCs from those slots.

That's what I've done with the ship's crew for my game: except for the captain/pilot, I generated an entire NPC crew, and will dump them off the ship as PCs take their place. (The funny part was seeing one player generate an engineer that was an awful lot like the NPC he was going to replace.)