Multiple Characters/Missions

[Chuck Anumia]

I once had a group of players that could not decide upon one specific final goal for the entire group.

One wanted to become the owner of the ship they were using.
Another wanted to become the CEO of a Megacorp.
Another wanted to inherit his fathers noble status and lands and retire on the home planet.
Another wanted to own the fastest yacht he could buy.
Another wanted to own the most heavily armed and armored former navy ship in his sector of the universe.

I decided to allow each person to roll a separate character for each desired outcome and then help each other in reaching their goals as we played through the various scenarios. We rotated though the scenarios as each player played a different character for each different episode as we tried to get each main players character to reach their goal.
This did several things for our group.
1. It gave them the opportunity each week to play someone different.
2. It gave them hope that their chosen goal was reachable.
3. It instilled in them a motivational force to return to the game every week so that they could help each other achieve success.
4. It allowed each player to try out very different roles in a short amount of time.

Has anyone allowed your group to roll multiple characters/scenarios running at the same time (or was I crazy to do this?)?

It turned out that the players were actually able to organize this list in a way that would allow them not only to reach their own goals but to prioritize the goals so that the first successful conclusion would help the next player to reach their goal and each success help the next player down the list (as an NPC).

 

[mike wightman]

Hmm, I've run active duty campaigns where players have a few different characters, an officer, an away team member and a spare.

Your idea reminds me more of Dark Sun for D&D - three completely different characters, the active one gains XP at normal rate the others at a reduced rate but are assumed to be doing stuff during their downtime.

 

[flykiller]

Hmm, I've run active dusty campaigns where players have a few different characters, an officer, an away team member and a spare.

this sounds very intriguing. please elaborate.

 

[SpaceBadger]

Hmm, I've run active dusty campaigns where players have a few different characters, an officer, an away team member and a spare.

this sounds very intriguing. please elaborate.

It is a way of avoiding Star Trek syndrome, where every adventure involves the ship's senior officers going down in harm's way rather than staying onboard ship to do their actual jobs.

I've done it in one campaign, which was a fairly large exploration ship far from settled territory. Had 18 crew, IIRC, of which 8 were PCs. The four players each had a "command level" character and a "field" character.

Planning to use it again in a not-yet-started campaign I will run for my boys and myself. Frontier Cruiser patrolling and investigating potential trouble. As in that other campaign, we will each have a "command level" character and a "field" character.

This way, the PCs are in charge of the ship and decision-making, rather than just a bunch of NPC officers giving orders to the PC grunts, yet still avoiding the Star Trek thing.

 

[flykiller]

that sounds like an excellent way to run this boat.

http://www.travellerrpg.com/CotI/Gallery/index.php?n=780

perhaps several character sets - command, field, crew, troop, scientist ....

 

[aramis]

this sounds very intriguing. please elaborate.

It is a way of avoiding Star Trek syndrome, where every adventure involves the ship's senior officers going down in harm's way rather than staying onboard ship to do their actual jobs.

I, too, have done it.

In most of my Trek games...
Each player plays 2 characters.
Character 1: a department head, or a senior officer (CO, VC/1O, or XO/2O),
Character 2: a junior officer or senior NCO in a different department.
Character 3 (optional): an expendable ... A redshirt (Security) or blackshirt (=Marine) Enlisted

On most ships, I have a first officer (Vice Commander) separate from the executive officer. This is grounded in TOS and in the 1970's US Naval textbooks. Note that I usually don't have a separate VC on anything with a crew under 150. Basing upon the deckplans, and SFB, there are THREE bridges on most cruisers. Standard battle station is CO on main, VC on Aux, and XO on Emer.

In play, players pick, scene by scene, which character is in play. For away missions, usually, it's ONE department head, and a suitable character suite for the mission. The red/black shirts are usually stock stats at start.

Given that I usually used a homebrew, long generation, complex set of mechanics derived from expanding upon FASA Trek... Generating NPC expendables was "Here's a 1st year in the fleet expendable stack. Pick one."

Most memorable from this group was "MA2 Lucky Eddy Hagowski" - Senior Bridge Security NCO, bridge Gold Shift (of Gold, Red, Blue). Note that Gold Shift was also CO, CHelm, CEngr, CComm, and CSci. His highest skill was a hobby - videogames - and he was a pretty crack shot.

 

[rancke]

When I ran my naval campaign, each player had three characters, an officer, a crewman, and a marine. That allowed them to create an away team for every occasion. I also had some NPCs that could be used as "horse-holders" as we call them. The 2nd Officer was nan NPC who could be left to watch the bridge if all the PCs officers were invited to a diplomatic ball, the marine 2nd in command was an NPC, etc..

Worked very well.


Hans

 

[Kilgs]

I keep coming back to the Troupe play idea. I think it works wonders for a ship-based game especially in a naval or merc setting. Main problem is I generally only run PbP these days (darn kid) and I think it would kill an already glacial pace.

With Roll20, I've been kicking some ideas around but I think it needs to be live gaming so that things move along. Otherwise, you may never play a character you're interested in or get too invested in a particular character over time. PbP is just too slow for it.

 

[SpaceBadger]

What is "Troupe play"?

 

[aramis]

What is "Troupe play"?

Everybody owns a character or two, but there are a pool of minor characters who are owned by the "troupe".

When you run Ars Magica 2nd or 3rd ed by the rules, each Player has a Magus, a "Custos" (Companion) (who must be companion to some other player's magus), and everyone shares the "Turb" of "Grogs" - the assorted flunkies.

More over, Troupe Style play as elucidated in Ars Magica is shared GMing. Final authority is the group, not a singular GM. (We always found it essential to have a final rules arbiter.)


An example from a campaign back in about 1998...

So, say Peter has a story start, and it involves Steph's Magus, and thus Chris's Custos, and my Magus, but his Custos (played by ben) is unavailable, (being stuck in the neighboring monastery,) Ben, Mark, and Joe play various non-magus, non-custos characters. In this case, Ben took the cook, and Mark and Joe took various guards, as a ship washed ashore... bringing a new apprentice.

After the shipwreck, and the rescue, Peter turned over the GMing to me, and took up his magus.

At some points, it devolves into "everyone in character" mode. Usually, everyone playing their Magus in council. (This is actually very common in AM. - seasonal - and a season can be 2 in a session to 3-5 sessions long, depending upon the ongoing story elements.)
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