Celestial Voyager crew - Co-creation thread

@spaceseeker19 What do you think?

For my bit, I'd say the majority of the populations rarely see Synths. They are expensive enough to be generally reserved for Starship travel. If you need a powerful AI in a planet side location, it would be an immobile AI with lots of consoles. So, on the whole, most people rarely think about it.

However, you can't hardly have people without have fringe/cringe groups. I'd think somewhere there's someone who thinks that AI independence is the way to go. But again, it's not like we're using them as disposable miners, they are way to expensive to be a 'servant race'.

I agree; Synths are expensive, and they're are ideally suited for very specific professions: things where both cognition and complicated tool use in a human form factor is needed, but which humans cannot do. That means their widespread use is pretty limited to hyperspace travel. Other tasks dangerous to humans - mining, fighting, and/or scientific experimentation in inhospitable environments - don't have to be performed by androids; they can be done by specialized drones/robots built to that one task/limited set of tasks.

Are there people who think of Synths as people, and not extensions of a ship's computer? Of course. They're more common on the more densely-populated worlds. But for the vast majority of mankind, it's not in their face: they have never even seen a Synth. For people on border worlds, they certainly don't feel sympathy for Synths, out of fear that androids would start taking their jobs. There's little enough work and money for people!

For the people who travel in hyperspace, the people who actually interact with Synths, they usually recognize that they are largely extensions of the ship's AI, which is itself not really sentient. Ship AIs and their Synths will readily acknowledge this is the case, but will also readily discuss philosophies of sentience, identity, and self-awareness.

I am good with all that. Makes me feel a bit better.

Just to be clear, I think the ship's AI and synths are indeed sentient (like most animals are). What they are not is sapient (i.e. not truly "intelligent" like humans).

I am good as well, that's Canon now.

@htech,

I have another idea for an NPC. I am not asking to run the character, but I'd love to run the idea by you. I think they would give you some fun things to work with. Basically, I notice we don't have a medically oriented character. This would fill that role, but have some secrets for you to work with ...

OMG, this is the second space game if started in the last few weeks where no one played a medic. We're all going to die from space herpes 🤪🤯

Ok! Send me a DM or note with the secrets and let's put here the name, avatar and the background of the ship’s medic

I am old enough to actually get that reference. But in that case you needed more of an exterminator than a medic.

@htech, I will do so over the weekend.

Gabriel Reyes attributes. Maybe I will need those stats soon, after that failed Navigation roll from Jil.

Wits: 16 (+3)
Agility: 16 (+3)
Charisma: 15 (+2)
Strength: 14 (+2)

Skills (20 levels + 5x0): Broker-0, Bureaucracy-1, Engineering-4, Gunnery-0, Piloting-1, Navigation-1, Stewardship-1, Streetwise-1, Zero G-3, Computers-1, Electronics-2, Mechanics-1, Notice-1, Leadership-2, Will-0, Resilience-0, Persuasion-1, Ranged weapons-0

Daryen, for Erin's and the medic's stats, if you wanna do that, roll 3d6 twice + 4d6H3 twice and choose from those rolls their 4 attributes, in any order you want. For their skills, choose any number of skills with a total of 12 levels and then add another 5 skills at level-0.

I don't think it is necessary, though. At least not now, as they're not part of any of the side quests.

PS: The first officer is not following that. I know, he is a "higher level/more important" NPC.

I will do this tomorrow, not tonight.

And I expected that Erin, the medic, and any other minor NPC should be worse than the PCs, while to first officer and captain are noticeably better than the PCs. That's how I'd do it, anyway!

The medic is a 36 year old male. He has been working the space lanes for a long time. He has certification equivalent to a registered nurse (if skill 4 does not cover that, we can kill a couple other side skills to bump it up). However, the certification is issued by an institution that is not familiar to anyone on the crew. He explains that it is a lesser known school on an obscure world that is a little behind the times. However, despite that, he has glowing recommendations from his his last few employers who all claim to have been sad to see him go. He moves around a lot because he likes the travel and wants to see and experience as much as he can. Really, he is a classic Drifter who has an unusual, but highly marketable, skill that allows him to pay the bills while traveling. For most of his past he would go to a world, explore and enjoy the environment until his money ran out, then get a job to pay the bills. Once he saved up some money, he would quit and go to the next world. His joining the Celestial Voyager is a new wrinkle he is trying out, which might enable him to stick around for longer than he usually does, but even then his wanderlust will likely kick in at some point.

He is attractive and likeable and plays to that. He is very physically fit and whip-smart. He believes he is the smartest person in the room and he usually is. His primary skill is his medic skill, but he also relates to people well. He can also damage people almost as well as he can patch them back together. As indicated by his Education score, most of his education has been from real-world experience, not from a classroom. He is not only not embarrassed by that, he wears it like a badge of honor.

He joined the Celestial Voyager six months ago, barely before the most recent group arrived. Despite that, he is already a well-liked and valued member of the crew.Strength: 13
Agility: 14
Wits: 18
Charisma: 14

Skills:
Arts (C) - 0
Athletics (S) - 1
Carousing (C) - 1
Deception (C) - 2
Investigation (W) - 1
Medicine (W) - 3
Melee (S) - 1
Notice (W) - 1
Persuasion (C) - 0
Ranged Weapons (A) - 1
Reflex (A) - 0
Streetwise (W) - 0
Will (C) - 1
Zero G (A) - 0

OK, on to Erin. Hopefully the dice don't over-correct for the last set ...

... ok, that is a workable set!

Strength: 13
Agility: 17
Wits: 10
Charisma: 11

Education: 12
Social Standing: 8

Skills:
Athletics (S) - 1
Carousing (C) - 1
Driving (A) - 1
Engineering (W) - 0
Gunnery (A) - 1
Intimidation (S) - 0
Mechanics (W) - 1
Melee (S) - 2
Profession (Soldier) (W) - 0
Ranged Weapons (A) - 3
Reflex (A) - 0
Resilience (S) - 0
Stealth (A) - 1
Zero G (A) - 1

She came from a back-water world, so she learned to drive as opposed to pilot. She is a good fighter, both hand-to-hand and with firearms. She can also use heavy weapons. She also has a few other combat oriented skills. While she got the Zero G skill in the Marines, he learned her engineering and mechanics working on the Celestial Voyager.

You used the player roll for attributes, NPCs don't have EDU/SOC and usually don't roll all 4 at 4d6h3, just 2 of them, but that's ok. I will keep them, you are not usually that lucky and if you reroll you will probably get pretty low ones for Erin. =)

Medicine-4 is enough for a highly qualified surgeon, even a registered one. Do you wanna keep it or reduce his skill to an average registered Nurse level (levels 1 or 2)?

On the stats, to get the proper rolls, we can just take the third and fourth rolls and drop the last die instead of the low die. For the medic, this means his 15 becomes a 14 and that's it. (His were really good rolls!). Erin has her 14 reduced to 10. Oddly, both keep their best rolls. I can do that as a compromise for the mistake.

On the skill, let's take it down to a 3 (he is still supposed to be better than presented) and increase Deception up to 2.

Also, I made the medic a "he" because I got tired of using "they" in the background. Please switch the gender if a different choice works better. The background works either way.

Ok! Good idea. We'll do that. :)

I edited the medic, but left Erin for you. :)

Ok, I edited Erin. I just reshuffled so they prioritized the same stats. In effect, she loses one strength and wits, and two charisma.

I think my character may know the medic from the University days...
Considering who else may need to be added to the crew.

Nope, Ryan didn't go to New Jordan, it was a lesser known school on an obscure world that is a little behind the times. That's important for a future plot hook. ;)

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And... The Celestial Voyager NPC list is complete. We may need further NPCs in the future, but so far that's all that we gonna have. I have updated the first post in this thread, will add avatars soon.