Celestial Voyager crew - Co-creation thread

The Celestial Voyager's NPC crew currently is

Captain Valeria Zaytsev

First officer Gabriel Reyes

Erin Brand (by Daryen)


Ryan Carter (by Daryen)


The "crew" also includes 4 synths. (by Spaceseeker19 and Esidrix)

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You are free to help (if you want) us to create other NPCS. This is optional. The Celestial Voyager is full (for now) but other NPCs can be created in the locations that we are visiting.

If you create one of them in this thread, you can also play with him/her/they/it during the game - but with the caveat that, unlike with your PC, I can also fully control them (it will be a "shared" / "secondary" character). We also won't follow regular character generation rules with them, all stats will be based in their background and there are no career rolls.

How many gunners does this ship need? Also, do they need to be formally generated, or can we just handwave them?

What I am thinking of is a general "crewperson". They are able to operate the gunner position, they are able to general maintenance, but their main skill is combat. I am thinking they were an enlisted marine that stuck around just long enough to get skills, then moved on (to this ship). So, they are younger-ish (around 24-26) and don't have high skills. But, at the least, they have gunner-1, mechanical-1, ranged weapons-2, melee-1. Maybe something cool like demolitions (or the equivalent)-1. They never did university, nor did they do any kind of academy, but rather enlisted straight up at 18. I'd like them to have good physical stats, but that isn't completely necessary. A good strength and agility. The rest can be plus/minus average. SS, Charisma, and Education can all be dump stats if needed. They are from a backwater, and thus have Drive-0 instead of Pilot-0.

Basically any character ever played by Michelle Rodriguez. 😊

None. :) There are no guns in the Celestial Voyager. The Sentinel is also there because of that.
No need for stats now. If you create one NPC, focus on name, appearance, background, personality, mannerisms, etc.

If you want to, create individuals, not a bunch of task solvers. We don't need a detailed NPC for that, we can just leave tasks to be done in the background, by the "nameless" ones or even the Synths. :)

It's basically the opposite of how you're approaching this.

PS: Soldiers/marines NPCs are also within the purview of the Sentinel, not the Voyager. ;)

Oh, the ship is unarmed? OK. A little unexpected, but that works. Cool.

Then I am gonna double-down on the main premise:

Erin Brand. 25 years old female human. Her real first name is Fern. (Erin is her self-chosen replacement name.) She hates that name. If anyone finds out her real first name, and uses it, she will punch them in the face hard enough to break a nose.

She is tough-looking, though still attractive. She has a direct personal manner that doesn't brook fluff or obfuscation. She isn't rude, but neither does she suffer fools. She is very focused, but also very much enjoys downtime and knows how to have a good time. She is stand-offish to new people, but once you have earned her trust, she is very loyal. She is very competent in what she does. She always has a blade on her, pretty much at all times. (No one knows if she sleeps with it next to her, but most assume she does.) She prefers fatigues, coveralls, and relevant work clothes at all times. Can "clean up" if needed. Can dress formal when ordered to do so by the captain (and only the captain) and provided with the clothes (she will not keep any formal clothes herself).

She is from a backwater, lower tech world. Seeing she would be consigned to a life as a farmer's wife if she stayed, she rejected that and enlisted into the Marines as her ticket off-world. She saw a few combats and acquitted herself well. However, at the end of her first term she decided she was tired of fighting others' wars and wanted to see what else was out there. For two years she just Drifted, going from world to world. She already knew how to handle herself, and now learned how to talk her way out of situations instead of just fighting out of them. She also learned to deal with the seamy underside of society. She is an accomplished combatant, an expert with long arms, pistols, and a blade. She can also acquit herself well even when unarmed.

About a year ago, she found her way to the Celestial Voyager where she has found a home in maintenance and as a stevedore. She also provides assistance when less-than-legal contacts need to be made or a fight breaks out. If the fight is between crewmen, she tries to talk everyone down. If it is with someone outside the group, she makes them regret their choices.

Still every role ever played by Michelle Rodriguez. The avatar must be of a character played by Michelle Rodriguez.

That's perfect!

That's ok, we can merge :)
[***npc="Erin Brand"]https://i.imgur.com/h5EJvVg.jpg[/npc]

(Without the asterisk, and you should post as you, not as your PC. You can test in this thread. :))

As Douklan is a pilot, he's naturally pretty interested in the synths. I'd like to build out some details on them, but I'm a little hazy on the details. How human-seeming are the synths, and how are they treated, in general? Are they indistinguishable from people, or is there something of an uncanny valley there? Do they choose names for themselves, or are they given designations? How long do they operate, and how often do they need maintenance? The reason I'm asking those last questions is that the synths are awake and aware during every hyperspace journey, meaning that they effectively live much longer, duller lives than space-faring humans do.

It's very interesting that the Celestial Voyager has them asleep most of the time that the human crew is awake, so the synths are living on an inverted version of the humans' cycle.

Nice. As long as we don't contradict what is written in the setting information thread (there is a specific post for the synths there) you can choose the answer to all those questions. Or even leave some to be answered in game.

It is indeed an "inverted crew" :D

Synths are always identified by letters/numbers (like storm troopers), not names. The intent is to de-personalize them. They are intended to be treated as property, not people. That, of course, doesn't stop people from giving them names anyway, or stop a few from naming themselves. When given/taking a name, it is always a single name.

They are sentient, but it is not known if they are truly sapient. But, despite their quirks, they sure seem to be really close!

How does that sound?

(These are just suggestions. Feel free to invalidate these if it conflicts with what you want to do. I already made one NPC, but I still love to toss in ideas.)

I just wrote a post from Gabe's and Stone's point of view. You can write the same scenes (and more) from Beta's, if you want to, @spaceseeker19 =)

What's Beta's (his?/her?) "real" name by the way?

That's an interesting question. I think it depends on whether they were with the ship before the Captain bought it, or whether she brought them online afterward. Basically, did she name them, did the previous captain, or did they name themselves? I could see that the Captain who brought them online might name them all, or might just name the Alpha and let that one name the others, depending on their inclination.

Let's say that they named themselves, as most of the crew doesn't address them by their names anyway. If the crew needs to, they can call them by the order of revival (Alpha, Beta, etc) not by the real names that you will use.

They came with the ship when Valeria bought it, just like the jump drive and the other equipment. I'm going with Daryen suggestions above, as it looks like you approved. =)

As a side note, while Hank is not terribly interested in how Synths work, *I* am. Hank just thinks of them with the majoritarian view, though if those views are challenged or outright debunked, he can and will deal with it. (I.e., if they are "people", he can adjust and treat them as such. However, the default has not been challenged for him.)

I am curious on several things about them:
- How long do they "live"?
- Are they actually "people"? (Whatever that means.)
- Do they have assigned sex, or are they sex-less?
- What are their maintenance needs?
- Do they have "extras"? (Honestly, the human form isn't the best shape for maintenance robots. Do they have extra, hidden, limbs, appendages, probes, links, cables, whatever that can assist them in their job?)
- Can they fight? Do they have integral weapons? Do they know how to use human weapons?
- Do they have a culture?
- What do they *do* during jump? Sure, they keep things running and make repairs. But they have to have some down time. What do they do in the down time?

Just *so* many questions!

Maybe I'll transfer that curiosity to Erin ...

With adequate maintenance, spare parts and barring some unfortunate accident, forever.
There are plenty of philosophical debate about that in this universe. No conclusions so far.
They don't have sexual organs and are "sex-less". They may or may not have an apparent and chosen gender, on a case-by-case basis. Synth-Alpha (James) is a "he".
We will answer that in game, if/when it gets relevant. Whoever writes about it first, as long as it doesn't contradicts anything written before, it becomes Canon and part of the universe.
Usually, they study, read, conduct scientific experiments, play games, practice their skills, perform maintenance, listen to music, paint, compose, write reports, etc. Pretty much whatever they want to, in an isolated bubble of space-time.

Moreover, they are the only ones really able to investigate the physics and laws of the hyperspace from within.

They were named by the previous captain of the Celestial Voyager, who was a bit of a romantic but also a lazy man with both gambling and drinking problems. This led him to name each of the Synths, with the first - Synth-Alpha - being named after his estranged son, James. After that, he named them in alphabetical order to help him remember. Synth-Beta was called Kelly, a "she," Synth-Gamma was named Lewis, a "he," and Synth-Delta he called Mary, a "she." The drunk captain encouraged them to cultivate and pursue their own interests. They collectively composed a table of possible pastimes, and then randomly assigned which of them would start with what hobby. They pursue these hobbies diligently and with interest, but dispassionately. In their personal directories, they have collections of:
- theoretical math postulates
- bizarre, abstract digital paintings
- nonsensical word-association poetry
- sewing patterns of clothes designed for unknown anatomies
- detailed engineering schematics for devices, buildings, and objects of unknown purpose
- recipes of random ingredients for mostly inedible food

Their first captain was mercurial, and he hired and fired crew often. As a result, the Synths were his most constant companions, and from time to time, he would have conversations with them not related to ship operations. To assist in this, he augmented the synths with enhanced personality modules that allow them to turn up or turn down the level of "realistic human personality" and emotion emulation. These can be tuned to alter how much they behave like people, from "base drone for the ship" (level 1) to "very nearly human" (level 8). At the higher end - more human - each Synth has developed an unique personality, with syntax, dialect, and accent of a particular human world or settlement. Some people in human space see this as an abomination and/or cruel, but since the Celestial Voyager's synths have these augments, Captain Zaytsev has set them to default to level 3 - slightly personable - but with permissions set so that passengers and crew can instruct them to assume a different level when the Synths interact with them.

Agreed. That's canon now. :)

OK, a couple extra questions on synths in the universe at large:
1) Are there any "synths rights" groups running around. If so, how common are they?
2) Have there ever been, or ever been reported, or ever been rumored, any synth uprisings?

Sorry. Seeing "servant races" running around always get my player-paranoia sense tingling.

@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.

You just called the medic Ryan, but I didn't see that name before. I intentionally left him unnamed (and virtually ungendered) so you could decide. So, it looks like you are keeping "male", which is cool. What is his full name?

Also, even if was the same school, he's a full class older, so overlap was highly unlikely.

On the other had, Hank could have been an overlap (though with a different subject) had he not initially failed to enter university and had to take his second choice. Worked out for him anyway, though!

I'm going with Ryan Carter as his name.

Perfect! I like that.

Thanks!