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but as far as an alien civilization is concerned, couldn't i just machine a couple hundred medals, pass them out to the crew, and whenever someone from another culture asks what they mean, just say that they show we are status 10 in our race? sure we might take a penalty for lying, but even that would likely be offset by the fact that they don't know crap about us (when gorkians lie, they make a gurgling sound in their throat and turn blue. when earthlings lie, they shift their eyes oddly and their heartrate increases. gorkians don't have eyes, and their hearing isn't strong enough to detect that small a noise. thus, no lying penalty).

like i said, i think the 10 makes sense. but i don't see how it could reasonably apply to aliens. and within the rules it doesn't do anything for ships crew either, though it would certainly be within the realm of good sense to give a morale and influence bonus when dealing with your own people. though that is really more covered by the Reputation advantage.

edit: and you are also correct that it doesn't have to make sense to me. things can just happen for no reason if they make the game more fun. that's how games work. there is a certain suspension of disbelief that goes on with them to make for a more fun expereince. for example, why does the whole bridge crew go on away missions in star trek? no good reason, other than entertainment. it wouldn't be as cool to see the bridge crew on the bridge doing scans and talking over the comm to the planet side redshirts while they die in fights and get eaten by tar monsters (poor tasha. poor, poor tasha).

don't get me wrong, I see your point. my point is that it *could* affect game play at some point. And let's take your hypothetical to the next level, your whole crew is falsely decorated and based on the amazing status of the emissaries the gorkians agree to join the GF, and send an emissary of their own to meet the GF. Then they find out that your status and prestige was a lie. that *might* still affect things poorly, depends on what they value.

meh, it's all semantics. If you guys would rather separate rank from status then I'll think about it. I think 10 is a little excessive for a ships captain, there are a few levels above it. it might go captain, commodore, the admirals, the bigger admirals, and supreme dictator for life. that would make tier 6 captain, if tier 10 is SDFL. 6 is a good starting point. 6 for CO if the mission is one ship and it's escorts, 7 if it's a mother ship and two cruisers. Granted, that's the same tier as a captain of a destroyer in a big fleet, but from what I recall from the O'Brian novels a captain might have a small ship of his own, and operate it at his discretion, or he might command a much larger ship as part of a fleet.

here's what I'm deciding. 5 is "captain", and 6 is "post-captain". the CO needs to be a 6, the XO and SO should both be 5.

Character is done. Edited instead of reposting all the same info.

changes: added low birthrate as a quirk [-1], modified timesickness to effect only time not dimension hopping, made it more painful, and unresistable [-20]. Now, it evens out, and any extra points i get will be going to skills/st/dx.

now to get to work on a backstory/world.

Captain (Commodore?) Harold Kago

ST 10
DX 13 [60]
IQ 14 [80]
HT 10

HP 10
Will 14
Per 10 [-20]
FP 10
Basic Speed 5.25 [-10]
Basic Move 5
Build: Average
Appearance: Handsome (Impressive) +3 [12]
TL: 10+2=12 [10] (TL 12 items cost 4x normal; TL 11 are 2x normal)
Wealth: Very Wealthy [30] (TL10) = $1Mil
Rank 6 [60]

Advantages [102]
Charisma 2 [10]
Combat Reflexes [15]
G-Experience (all) [10]
Gunslinger [25]
Security Clearance [5]
Talent - Authoritive (6/lvl) 4 [24]
-Detect Lies, Diplomacy,Intimidation, Leadership, Public Speaking, Savoir-Faire
Voice [10]
Perks: Penetrating Voice, Deep Sleeper, Shtick (always impecably groomed) [3]

Disadvantages [-75]
Chummy [-5] (Life in the military has created a very social creature)
Code of Honor (Soldier's) [-10]
Curious [-5] (We need to gather more intelligence. Ensign, let's see what that red button does.)
Duty [-10] (Active military service)
Easy to Read [-10]
Honesty [-10]
Obsession [-5] (Getting into the history books)
Overconfidence [-5]
Sense of Duty [-10] (Galactic Federation)
Quirks: Broad-Minded, Careful, Code of Honor (gentilmanly behavior), Dislikes (underground), Distinctive Feature (pure white hair; natural) [-5]

Skills [51]
Administration IQ/Ave +0 [2]
Beam Weapons TL/12 DX/Easy
-Pistols +2 [4]
-Rifles +2 [4]
Crewman (Spacer) TL/10 IQ/Easy +0 [1]
T-Detect Lies Per/Hard -3+4T [1]
T-Diplomacy IQ/Hard +4T -1 [4]
Environmental Suit (BattleSuit) TL/12 DX/Ave +0 [2]
Fast-Talk IQ/Ave -1 [1]
First Aid IQ/Easy +0 [1]
Free Fall DX/Ave -1 [1]
T-Intimidation Will/Ave +4T
T-Leadership IQ/Ave 0+4T [2]
Navigation (Hyperspace) IQ/Ave +0 [2]
T-Public Speaking IQ/Ave +4T
T-Savoir-Faire (all) IQ/Easy +4T
Shiphandling (Starship) TL/10 IQ/Hard +1 [12]
Soldier TL/10 IQ/Ave +0 [2]
Strategy (Space) IQ/Hard +0 [8]
Tactics IQ/Hard -1 [4]

Gear forthcoming. I've got a lot of cash and I'm still spending it. Here's a preview of what I've got so far (these are all TL/12 w/base prices, they'll cost 4x the listed price):

Gear stuff
2x cost for a stun setting

Gamma-Ray Lasers (Grasers) 70/200 yrd range in atmo
Heavy Graser Pistol
4d(10) burn, sur, Acc 6, Range 50/150mi, weight 3.3/2C, RoF10, Shots 56(3), St6, Bulk-2, Rcl1 $7.2K

Graser Rifle
5d(10) burn, sur, Acc 12, Range 120/360mi, Weight 8/Dp, RoF 10, Shots 83(5), St7/2, Bulk -4, Rcl1, $24K

Pulsars TL 12
Heavy Pulsar Pistol
8d(3) cr ex, Acc 5, Range 400/1200, Weight 3.3/2C, RoF 3, Shots 33(3), ST6, Bulk -3, Rcl1, $5.6

Pulsar Rifle
6dx2(3) cr ex, Acc 10+2, Range 700/2100, Weight 10/2C, RoF3 Shots 10(3), ST7/2, Bulk -4, Rcl1, $27K

Graser Rifle + Heavy Pulsar Pistol: $118.4K
All Weapons: 255.2K

---
Beam-Adaptive Armor +1k/pound? maybe multi-beam

Energy cloth Tacsuit - TL 12
Location all, DR 50 (Flexable), cost $6K, Weight 15, Power C/36hrs

Combat Hardsuit
Locaton all, DR 150/90, $10K Weight 30

Space Armor
Location all, DR 150/90, $20K, Weight 45

Combat Infantry Helmet
Location head, DR 54/36, $2k, Weight 5, Power B/36hr

Space Combat Helmet
Location head, DR 100/60, $3K, Weight 7

Total armor cost: 164K

Avilister wrote:Captain (Commodore?) Harold Kago

words

I like it! Especially how you bought a variety of tech levels. Very cool. You might take a look at the nano suit. It's a great solution to getting spaced.

only things i really saw a problem with are the skills. can you learn new guns, perhaps from different tech levels, by gaining familiarity? if not, you won't be happy if you are stuck with nothing but a pistol because of some fucked up away mission. further, they seem focused for a captain, since most of your scifi captains are big generalists on top of being specialists (picard, kirk, mal, solo to name a few, though there are exeptions, such as sisko from ds9, who didn't seem all that skilled in multiple areas).

Advantages seem pretty good, though there might be a couple more you could add.

god those weapons do damage. i'm glad i'm immortal.

edit: And where is your Brawling/Karate/Whatever?! those are total necessities for captains!

rydi wrote:only things i really saw a problem with are the skills. can you learn new guns, perhaps from different tech levels, by gaining familiarity? if not, you won't be happy if you are stuck with nothing but a pistol because of some fucked up away mission. further, they seem focused for a captain, since most of your scifi captains are big generalists on top of being specialists (picard, kirk, mal, solo to name a few, though there are exeptions, such as sisko from ds9, who didn't seem all that skilled in multiple areas).

Advantages seem pretty good, though there might be a couple more you could add.

god those weapons do damage. i'm glad i'm immortal.

It is too expensive to be a generalist, so I'm not. There's a standard penalty for using a skill at a TL under your own, I think I'd be at a -2 for using a TL/10 beam rifle or pistol. I really can't find anywhere to push any more points around to be able to fit any other advantages or whatnot in. I think I'm fairly satisfied with what I've crammed into 300 points. Anything else will have to come post-creation.

Yeah, they dish out the damage. TL12 hates you.

Edit: First draft had a few levels of brawl so that I could do the two-fisted hammer slam attack from Star Trek, but it got squeezed out for other things at some point.

I've made a wiki page for the character as an example of what we can use the wiki for. Note the categories for the article at the bottom of the page. I tried to upload a picture, but I ran into the memory error again, I'll need to adjust it.

EDIT: Uploaded picture! Check it out!

sweet! and, btw, try not to use those grazers on board a ship. DRPEN (10) means that you effectively do decadamage, which is what ship armor is built to resist. You could easily hull a ship with that.

awesome. now i have to learn to use a wiki. cool/hate. i am ambivalent at you. is there an icon for that?

how's this?

similar...

so basically it is agreed that this is what rank gets you (no status)



and this is what status and rank get you or without status a lot of lying



and I think I am going to have to cheap out and do some skills as modular since I now need to fit in 50 extra points... unless as an AI I can take 0 ST since I will be using puppets for all my physical actions like I took their IQ down I figure HT will be used should anyone attack my central core where I am housed (ie not the ships CPU)

I bought cheap status but regular rank. I am from a noble family on my planet that is part of the GF. With no individual ruling autonomy, my status just means people think of me like a celeb. On the ship, I command a department and have a lot of responsibility.

I want to buy brain upgrades. I was looking in Bio-tech, since I want my race's tech to be a mix of bio and electronic stuff. Things...

modular might work for you chris... also there are some talents you might want depending on how you spend points... Natural Diver, People Reader, Talker, master builder...

also I have figured out the right way to modify templates and wildcards for the builder program... much easier when I use the data sets files versus doing it within the program... only problem is that talents are not recognizing skills grouped into wildcards... and it still does not ignore disad points from racials... oh well