 September 15, 2012 - 7:19pm | Gurps Space has a page on this; breaking it into the military team, Star ship crews, Exploration team, The professionals Military team is basically all "combat monsters" with lots of skill overlap, though it suggests a special forces or commando squad which might include some highly trained specialist Star ship crews if the ship is small are ideal for PC group with diverse characters. If the ship is large one suggestion is to give each player a couple of PC- high ranking officers who might not leave the ship at all and low ranking enlisted who might. Advantage with a group of explorers is less rigid discipline. and easily a diverse group contianing scientists, experts in outdoor survival, journalists, or video camera operators, linguists, traders, missionaries, and body guards. Potential for personality clashes and this can be a feature of the campaign before the adventure if the group is into that kind of role play. Professionals are a criminal team taking jobs- good for a variety of backgrounds and niche protection for characters I like the idea of players having 2 characters in a large ship crew and I like the idea of an exploration crew as it was presented as it totally reminded me of the Traveller Leviathan adventure. i know that I'd really revel with that game- playing a yazirian monk (missionary but perhaps not so JW knock on your door with literature) or as a journalist, or a linguist- all different characters that no one is likely to double up on and would be different to play then your typical PC if you just take the rule book and create a PC without knowing what the campaign might be. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 September 15, 2012 - 8:02pm | Cool ideas. Maybe have some NPC henchman that are trusted to fulfill vital roles on the ship, and then some kick butt fighter types to do the ground based stuff. Kind of like Kirk and the red-shirts on planet, sometimes spock goes, but most of the time scotty minds the store. Or if there was an 'ensemble' of characters where the players could take on different characters as need arises - that could be really cool. |
September 15, 2012 - 8:21pm | Because its an RPG, I would say give the players 2 or perhaps 3 characters they get to run and develop- you'd have to tailor the adventure for this split in screen time for the PCs. If its PBP game then a player might write in conflict between his two characters if he so chose. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 September 16, 2012 - 5:42am | Took this from Wiki about American Special Forces A Teams: An ODA consists of 12 men, each of whom has a specific function (MOS or Military Occupational Specialty) on the team, however all members of an ODA conduct cross-training. The ODA is led by an 18A (Detachment Commander), usually a captain, and a 180A (Assistant Detachment Commander) who is his second in command, usually a Warrant Officer One or Chief Warrant Officer Two. The team also includes the following enlisted men: one 18Z team sergeant (Operations Sergeant), usually a master sergeant, one 18F (Assistant Operations and Intelligence Sergeant), usually a sergeant first class, and two each, 18Bs (Weapons Sergeant), 18Cs (Engineer Sergeant), 18Ds (Medical Sergeant), and 18Es (Communications Sergeant), usually sergeants first class, staff sergeants or sergeants. This organization facilitates 6-man "split team" operations, redundancy, and mentoring between a senior specialist NCO and his junior assistant. The original Predator movie (with Arhnold) had composition similiar to this with demo, heavy weapon, sniper, como and leader positions plus a couple of general fighters. Firefly had one of the best small starship crew groups even if you include Jayne as general muscle. Although Kaylee and Wash didn't leave the ship to often. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
September 16, 2012 - 6:46am | @ rattraveller: actually Malcolm stated what roll Jayne served on the ship when he was rude to Kaylee and ordered from the table and the doctor asked him what was Jayne's job on the ship and Mal said, "Public relations." Its a good line, sort of reminds me od the quote about war being diplomacy by other means. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 October 1, 2012 - 9:24pm | We have a group of explorers in our current campaign. |
October 2, 2012 - 3:31pm | What makes the Dralasite a scout? Is it a contractor or a hirling from one of the Mega-Corp? Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
October 2, 2012 - 5:52pm | What makes the Dralasite a scout? Earning his space scouts merit badge. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 October 2, 2012 - 6:25pm | OK, you mentioned it. I'd love to do a frontier version of boy scouts and think about how each race would adapt it to their culture. I am all things scout! Topic for another thread.  -iggy |
October 2, 2012 - 6:46pm | OK, you mentioned it. I'd love to do a frontier version of boy scouts and think about how each race would adapt it to their culture. I am all things scout! Topic for another thread. I seem to remember one Star Trek; Enterprise episode where Archer and another character are braggingabout how many merit badges they earned to get their eagles scout badge. I think that space scouts or Frontier Scouts would originate on a mixed race colony world and spread to the other (1) mix race colony world. Vrusk would embrace it for their company young as a way of building connections and gaining a better understanding of the other races they will be dealing with in the work place latter in life; they would excel at earning the highest badge/award Dralasites would embrace it as a Stoa geared for the youth; not as motivated to get their ticket punched by earning all the right badges or awards as the vrusk but they love running snipe hunts for the tenderfeet on their first camping trip. Humans - a mixed bag Yazirians- interesting question- on a mixed world separated from clan or the offspring of clanless or what have you - yes and possibly hard core about the survival and camping stuff. On a traditional yaz world- this program wont make any penetration- clans train their youth to be warriors education is within the clan. a scouting program on a yaz world might be something that is a precursor to a civil service program. (I was twice told, but never able to confirm for sure, that Boy Scouts in Brazil are used to write parking tickets- i was also told that the program was for the rich and that I believe without getting a good confirmation as most of the Brazillians I dealt with as a Scout leader seemed to have a hard time reconciling why I would run a troop for poor inner city kids- it just did not compute for them) I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
October 3, 2012 - 2:45am | LOL - Yes I have several different kinds of scouts in my game! There are the Cadets, mentioned in the Star Frontiers book "Villains on Volturnus". They are a quasi-military/religious organization very much like the real-world boy scouts. They focus on independence and wilderness survival skills. Founded by the humans, they have been an organization now for over a century. They have very few alien members, and have relatively conservative values. In the last few years, they have started to come under the control of the Free Frontiersmen. Then there are the Star Rangers, a junior branch of Star Law, featured in the Star Frontiers book "Star Rangers and the Spy". They operate a lot like Space Camp, and focus more on high-tech computer & spaceship related skills. Has members of every species. The other group is the Youth Guides. This one is primarily a multispecies organization. It is non-military and non-religious, with a somewhat environmental inclination. They focus on preventing pollution, preserving nature, etc. Sort of like the Junior Park Rangers of the Frontier. These three scout organizations often cooperate with each other, and work together. Oh, and that Dralasite scout - let's just call him an explorer - is employed by the government on Flaginnor. |
October 3, 2012 - 2:23pm | Going to the Dark side would this mean we could do the Sathar Youth? Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
