Assembling the Crew

This thread is for discussing the characters.

The rulesheet for L&F lists Style, Role, Lasers/Feelings, Name and Character Goal as the important bits for your character. I would add appearance, maybe a short background and, once everyone has come up with their characters, some ties between them, to that list.

Like I said in the description for this game, I would prefer all characters to be senior officers but if someone wants to do something else, that should be possible to arrange. For species, aliens are obviously fine but they should feel Star Trekky (basically, the whole humans with rubber foreheads thing). If you want to be a Definitely-Not-Vulcan or a Definitely-Not-Klingon, that’s also great. Of course you can be a human, too. Androids or other exceptional species should also be fine.

Once the characters are complete, I’m going to roll on the "Create a Space Adventure" chart and create a scenario based on those rolls, made to fit your team.

If there are any questions, just ask. For reference, you can find the rules here:http://onesevendesign.com/lasers_and_feelings_rpg.pdf

I'm thinking of playing an Android Soldier by the name of M1-K3(Mike if he can't hear you) whose goal is to Shoot Bad Guys.

I'm thinking a human Intrepid Scientist
Name: Zephyr Willoughby Borealis Jr
Number: I'm thinking his number will be 4, since he relies on intuition and passion more frequently than a typical science officer.
Character Goal: Find New Worlds/Species. His fearless approach to science sometimes puts the crew at risk if he's not kept in check.
Appearance: He looks quite a bit like Many Patinkin as Inigo Montoya. A bit of a mediterranean heritage appearance with longish curlier black hair that has streaks of grey in it.
Background: Zephyr's father was doctor, but a bit of a mad one. He was infamous for tinkering with the human genome and attempting to splice it with alien DNA. Zephyr inherited a bit of his father's recklessness, but his mother instilled a sense of discipline in him that usually keeps him in check.

Both sound pretty good! Let's wait for the others to post their ideas. I don't think we'll need character sheets for this game but if you find a good character picture, just make one so you can post with that picture, I guess.

You can also already think about your ship. It can be called Raptor or whatever else you want. Y'all also need to decide on its strengths and problem

I think I'd like to play a Hot-Shot Pilot named Shawna Cassano (Cass to her friends) whose goal is to Become Captain.

M1 was created as a standard mechanic robot, and he still mostly looks like one, very utilitarian design with few bells and whistles. He was later stolen and repurposed as a bodyguard for a smuggler ship, then picked up by pirates. Along the way he acquired a few modifications, mostly welding armor plating onto his frame or upgrading his sensors. Eventually he found his way back into Consortium custody, where he was "arrested" and reprogrammed to act as ship security. Despite multiple memory wipes he retains his uncharacteristic love of combat and at least two itchy trigger fingers.

Cass started out as a bold, arrogant junior officer (think young Jean-Luc Picard before he was stabbed in the heart by the Nausicaan), but recently Captain Darcy has been mentoring her toward a more mature approach to her duties after learning that Cass has command ambitions. So Cass is trying very hard to live down her flashy Tom Paris-like past and become more Will Riker-esque. But she'll probably find that her true command style lies somewhere between those extremes, and that sometimes bold decisions are called for to solve the biggest challenges.

The USS Raptor sounds a little heavy handed for a Star Trek ship, but I'm ok with that. I'll also throw out a few others in case it sparks some discussion...
USS Executor
USS Albatross
USS Damascus
USS Andromeda
USS Innuendo

As far as strengths and weaknesses go, might be fun to have the ship reflect our personalities? I've bolded the one's I'd pick, but I'm down for whatever.
Strength options: fast (Cass), nimble (Cass), Well-Armed (M1-K3), powerful shields, superior sensors (Zephyr), cloaking device, or fightercraft (M1-K3)
Weaknesses: Fuel Hog (Cass), Only one medical pod (Zephyr), Horrible Circuit Breakers, Grim Reputation (M1-K3)

If we want to go with most narrative potential though, I'd say Horrible Circuit Breakers or Grim Reputation would be better weaknesses.

I agree about the ship name. I'm not a fan of that name, either. Grim reputation also doesnt quite seem to fit a Star Trek ship in my opinion but if y'all give me a good reason, I'm fine with it.

I agree about renaming the ship. How about USS Potential?

I also like the idea of the ship's characteristics reflecting flaws of the PCs.

USS Potential works for me! So the USS Potential is well-armed and has superior sensors, but is a fuel hog? Unless of course CosmicKeyring has other thoughts.

Sounds good to me.

We're still waiting for one more character concept. In the meantime, what positions do your characters hold? From the descriptions, I would assume M1K3 is the head of security, Zephyr is the science officer and Cass would be a pilot and possibly engineer?
Who should be first officer? Or does the command structure work differently on the Potential?

I'd be up for Cass to have just been promoted to First Officer, and not being very good at it yet. Like, she was getting mentored by the captain, but now he's out of commission and she's trying to figure out how to run things without his help.

But that's just a possibility. If anyone else wants their character to be First Officer, feel free to speak up.

Yeah I was thinking science officer for Zephyr. I would nominate Cass to be first officer due to her ambition...if she wants.

Okay, it looks like the crew is pretty much ready. Our last player, anok still hasn't said anything but that's fine. If they don't reply anymore, we still have three players, which will be enough. I'm going to write the opening post for the game as soon as I can.

Moonbeam and Keyring, if you can find suitable character pictures, that would be great but if not that's no big deal

For some reason, the site isn't allowing me to add Cass as a character.

Edit: Never mind. For some reason, it was trying to force me to use a character I'd created for another game that I withdrew from.

Okay, so I'm confused about something. The other games I've played here, I could post as my character, which put the avatar on the post with my small player pic up in the corner. Does that not work when you're playing a custom system?

It works, but you need to submit the character to the game first and have them accepted.