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.

Oh, okay. I did submit the character, but the acceptance has probably not yet happened.

I've approved all characters, so you should be able to post as them now.

By the way I notoced something I totally didn't plan
zephyr
noun
1. a soft gentle breeze.

Borealis
Etymology
From Ancient Greek Βορέᾱς (Boréās)
Noun
1. north wind

I just spitballed that name. Like almost no thought, just wanted it to sound spacey with a small amount of pretensiousness. Weird.

Zephyr "Windy Wind" Borealis

I've added two more people into the game. RobbOgden93, lavtodd, welcome to the game. We already started with the adventure but there's no reason you couldn't still jump in. Just make your characters, read through what has already happened and I'll introduce you to the story!

Awesome! Welcome to the game, folks!

Ive built an Alien Scientist named Malbo Zlam who wants to Discover everything he can with a target number of 5. Hes calculating, efficient, and terrible and emotions. I even sketched a quick portrait of him if anybody cares to see it. https://imgur.com/a/h6Y4MyM


Ive just noticed that we already have a scientist. I can make Malbo Zlam something different. perhaps an engineer or a doctor.

Sounds great and I love the drawing. I don't mind having two scientists if you and kona figure out your job differences and your relationship. A doctor could also not hurt, of course

Hi! Thanks for adding me! I was thinking of doing an engineer, Robb, if you wanted to stick with your scientist!

Moira "Reactor Core" Bruce, the Intrepid Engineer

RC is a slightly-more-unpredictable Scotty-type, who is recently promoted to Lead Engineer and hoping to Keep Being Awesome. She appears to have a cybernetic implant on the side of her head, but it really just plays epic music while she works.

I'm giving her a 3 for her intuition about her "baby" the ship, and ability to get the other engineers to trust her ridiculous plans. However, she did take all the necessary classes, so the technical information is stored in there. Somewhere.

Does that work? I'd also be up for playing a doctor if needed.

EDIT: When I went to submit a character for approval, I saw we have a doctor now. Delightful!

Sounds great. If you could find a portrait for RC to post under, that would be good.

Robb, did you decide to go for a doctor or a scientist in the end (not that doctors aren't scientists, just, what your main job?)

I'll introduce your characters to the story asap

I'll be able to post a photo after work today. Thanks!

Welcome to the game everyone! I have no qualms about switching Zephyr to doctor if someone has strong feelings about scientist. I almost did that anyway when i wrote his backstory. But still, having two scientists could be ok too.

I switched Malbo to a doctor, It sort of suits him still as i wanted him to be sort of a xeno-biologist type. im working on short backstory now.

Awesome! In that case, I'll quickly edit the post I wrote as your introduction. I was still assuming, you'd go for a science officer.

Nah doctor works better. I can still play him as imagined as a doctor, and still fill a role that we probably need on the crew. Provided Doctor also covers xeno-biology and android medical procedures lol

I don't see why it wouldn't cover those - and you should still be able to find time for research as the ship's doctor.

Im still working out some background details, but i think Marbo Zlam is complete.

I just want to tell everyone what a great time it is playing this game with you all! Everyone is so inventive and has a really distinct character voice. It's so much fun!

Eep! I’m enjoying this too!

Hi. New to this game.
Machiabelly is the Ferengi chief medical officer. He is the black sheep of his family as he has decided healing people is more important than profit!
Not sure what laser feelings is...but I see people picking a number so I will say 6. He is still Ferengi so more is better.
His goal is to change the perception of his race. His weaknesses are twofold. He really wants to help people even if they may not think they need it. Also...every now and then his heritage takes over and he pockets something shiny.

I somehow missed page 2. We have a doctor...are we missing anything

I dont think we are really missing anything. You could be the Doctor from the Antarctica, and then join one of the "hull teams". Or you could be the Doctor from the USS Sigma or Verdun which would mean that you were captured by the spacepirates and could join the game on that side. I don't know if you've read through the gameplay threads yet. If you haven't, maybe read through those for inspiration!

We're playing in a "Star Trek with he numbers filled off" system, so Spacefleet instead of Starfleet, Consortium instead of Federation, etc. You can definitely play a Ferengi, just give the race a slightly different name.

http://onesevendesign.com/lasers_and_feelings_rpg.pdf
Here's the rule sheet for L&F again. The number has to be between 2 and 5 and it depends on whether you are more of a technical, professional, sciency character or more emotional, social and hotheaded. Whenever you roll for anything you have to either roll under or over that number, depending on the nature of the task.

I just finished chapter 1.
I will go read the rules now.
It is 1:25 an here. Am I going to be asleep while you guys play? I don't want to hold things up.

OK the race will be meringue pronounced to rhym with Ferengi...which I have to explain all the time.
Between wanting to help and his racial background I figure he would be all feelings so...2 is my number.

We're all in different time zones so don't worry about that. It's early morning here and I'm getting ready for work.

If you have any questions, let me know

Throw me in with the pirates. I will do my best to keep up.

So here's what I'm thinking:

Alexandra (Alex) Lloyd is a Savvy Envoy, a long-serving Spacefleet diplomat most recently stationed aboard the USS Sigma, currently being held prisoner by the space pirates. She had a prominent role in a negotiation with this universe's equivalent of the Klingons (do they have a name yet?) that went poorly, which got her a relatively backwater assignment to the Sigma. Her character goal is to Prove Herself and return to some sort of prominence in Spacefleet again. Her number would be a 2: she relies heavily on intuition and her gut instincts -- it has gotten her into trouble before, but it's worked far more often than it hasn't.

Would that work? That should put me in the away team thread, I think?

Medical rolls would require a Lasers roll (under your number), so if you want to be competent in that, you should probably bump up your number to a 3. It's up to you, though.
Sounds great! And yes, that would put you in the away team thread.

I'll wait a bit until all the new characters are ready and then I'll introduce you

Also, the Klingons haven't been named yet, so feel free to come up with a name

I vote for Falloffs. (Think about it.)

ouch.

Machiabelly, what's your character's name?

Lol...I forgot that my login name here was Machiabelly...I was just going to use that as character. . Let's go with Lorq. I will change sheet.

Hi Everyone, I am very excited to play this game!

Here's my character stats:

Name: Kendall F'brei, human Sexy Explorer

Number: (4) intuition and empathy are important to her, but when she is needing to survive, she needs to stuff that side down in order to live.

Character Goal: Find and destroy my clone/encounter and destroy the cause of my split

Appearance: Beautiful petite woman, black hair, steely blue eyes, light skin, a beautiful smile, but uses patchwork armor and clothing from what she has scrounged. (Casting is Zoe Deschanel in New Girl).

Background: I, Karen Granden, was was an accomplished starship officer. I was beautiful, intelligent, ambitious, moving up the Space fleet ranks. While on a distress mission, I led a team planetside to save a Space fleet crew who encountered mysterious turbulence (explained as encountering dark matter), which caused the ship to crash onto a moon of a gas giant (the moon being a class-M moon, but still somewhat harsh living conditions).

We beamed down and found the source of the signal, but there was no shipwreck in sight. Instead, some changelings attacked my team, killing one of them. We fought them off, attempting to beam back to the ship, but the changelings had some sort of transporter disruptor machine. After hours of stratagem, we found the source of the disruptor and thought that we found a means to disable it. As we beamed me and my remaining team up, we realized that we didn?t disable it appropriately, as the beaming caused excruciating pain, and when it was done, we were all stuck on this planet still.

We called back to the ship, but they left us on the planetoid. My remaining team members died in the onslaught we engineered, but I took one of the enemy pod ships, destroyed the others, and left the location.

It was in using that technology that I discovered what had occurred: the disruptor caused the signal of the transporter to duplicate the message, effectively causing a "fax" of myself to land on the ship. I also discovered that the changelings intended this to occur, but I am unsure why. An experiment, maybe?

It has been 10 years since the incident. I took on another personae, as I discovered that "Karen-2" was promoted, moving up the ranks, and she is now a Space fleet captain. I watched her from a distance, and discovered in my investigation that she is not me, really. Her in-depth motivations are evil in nature. I must stop her.

I knew that I had to cast off my identity, and I took on the name Kendall F'brei. I am a mercenary, exploring strange worlds to find trinkets for wealthy people. But I hunt those that caused this mess, and I hunt my doppelganger to end whatever plan she is living out.

This is intense. Looking forward to working with you!

Wow, that's a very interesting character, HeroAmongMen! Where is Kendall now, as she enters our story?

Holy minestrone I'm gonna need a org chart to keep up with all of this!

Hero, do you have an idea for how to integrate her into the story? If you don't, I have an idea. I'm going to introduce the other characters first, but you won't have to wait long either, I promise

I spoke with another guy coming in, but we haven’t come together on a shared entrance.

I am game for whatever. Go ahead and insert me as needed, spinach!

Just replied to your PM, Hero. :)

Ah, thanks! I’ll check it out!

Hero, there's going to be an urgent distress signal being sent out by one of the Consortium's largest and best equipped ships. If that's something you would check out you can come in there on your private one person vessel, slightly messing up the Potential's plan. If that's not something your character would be interested in, I'll think of something else

Sure, Kendall will def Check it out.

Great, I'll wait for everyone else's confirmation to start the plan and then I'll write you in. You'll be in the Rescue Mission thread

Sounds good to me.

Sounds good to me too.

I meant IC confirmation to start the plan with the distress signal, not confirmation for this. Don't know if that was clear, sorry

... Oh. *clears throat sheepishly *

Well, I approve anyway! :)

New character: Alira
Race: Belayan
Gender: Female
Goal: Prove herself capable of keeping her crewmates safe at any cost.

Belaya is a high gravity world so natives of the planet are very strong on Earth normal gravity worlds and vessels.

Alira feels she is under estimated due to her small stature, so she will go to great lengths to keep people safe.

Laser - 5