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cristobalrios · 4 years

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[[ I just spent a long time transcribing Rios’s three scenes from “The End is the Beginning” so here they are under the cut: ]]

Star Trek: Picard, season 1, episode 3 “The End is the Beginning” (00:18:50-00:22:12)

[ Outside shot of LA SIRENA. INSIDE we see ADMIRAL PICARD beam aboard. Clip of TNG-Theme plays. PICARD looks around. There is no one in sight. ]

Picard: “Captain Rios?”

[ The EMH enters. He looks exactly like RIOS. We do not yet know that this is not Rios. He comes in enthusiastically. He has a British accent. He is wearing a suit and has straight hair. He seems almost timid ]

EMH: “Oh, hi, hello.”

[ PICARD looks at him. He looks and sounds slightly flustered. He is not what Picard expected. ]

Picard: “Picard.”

[ The EMH shakes his hand enthusiastically. ]

EMH: “Yes, sorry, of course you are. I’m afraid you might be too late,”

[ The EMH turns around and starts walking. PICARD is confused and he looks around. The EMH continues walking and does not look back. ]

EMH: “Right, then. Come on.”

[ CLOSE ON the real CAPTAIN RIOS. He is sitting down, shirtless, lighting a cigar. He has a large piece of tritanium sticking out of a bleeding wound on his right shoulder. His hair is not done neatly like the EMH’s is. It’s disheveled. The EMH walks in behind him with his hands in his pockets. He walks up to RIOS and stands beside him ]

EMH: “Sir, what seems to be the problem?”

[ Zoom out to see RIOS looking up at the EMH. RIOS has a tattoo of a mermaid on his left arm. PICARD is seen walking into the room behind them. The real RIOS has a Spanish accent, not a British one. ]

Rios: “Are you kidding me?”

[ He sounds annoyed. He sees PICARD coming ]

Rios: “Hey.”

[ He takes the cigar out of his mouth. ]

Picard: “Are you–?”

Rios: “Cris Rios. He’s just an EMH.”

[ He gestures to the EMH. ]

EMH: “'Just.'”

[ He sounds bitter. ]

Picard: “I’m, uh–”

Rios: “I know who you are. I read one of your books one time.”

Picard: “What happened to you?”

[ Referring to the big piece of metal still sticking out of his shoulder. RIOS looks at it then takes another inhalation of his cigar. He speaks with it still in his mouth. ]

Rios: “I didn’t die.”

[ PICARD looks incredulous and a bit amused. The EMH talks to the ship’s computer. ]

EMH: “Medkit.”

[ A Medkit is beamed (or replicated?) to the console in front of RIOS. The EMH takes it and moves it down. He opens it as RIOS also speaks to the computer. ]

Rios: “Aguardiente.”

[ A bottle of alcohol appears in the same spot the Medkit did, along with an empty glass. RIOS takes it and pours himself a glass. He picks up the glass and offers it to PICARD. ]

Picard: “No, thanks.”

[ RIOS pours it onto his wound instead. The EMH is scanning him with a medical tricorder. ]

RIOS: “What you want to do is take the giant hunk of tritanium shrapnel out of the hole in my shoulder. That’s just a guess.”

[ He sounds annoyed again. He looks at Picard. ]

RIOS: “Please, sit.”

[ PICARD moves. The TNG theme plays again as PICARD hesitates by the Captain’s chair, which is empty, since RIOS is sitting up by the navigational controls. He moves past it to sit in the chair next to RIOS. He moves a white book off the chair. The book is THE TRAGIC SENSE OF LIFE, by Miguel de Unamuno, Spanish philosophy published in 1912. PICARD looks at it. ]

RIOS: “Toss it anywhere.”

[ PICARD looks at him then places it on an empty space by the console in front of them as he sits down. ]

RIOS: “So, where are we going, Admiral? Raffi says you have no idea.”

[ The EMH is working on RIOS’s shoulder. PICARD is sitting casually on the chair as he moves to look more directly at RIOS. ]

Picard: “I’m working on it.”

Rios: “When are we leaving?”

Picard: “Soon as possible.”

Rios: “You breaking any laws or intending to?”

Picard: “I don’t know. I’m not in the habit of consulting lawyers before I do what needs to be done. You?”

Rios: “I’m not in the habit of consulting anybody about anything. Especially a lawyer.”

[ The EMH takes the tritanium shrapnel out of RIOS’s shoulder. ]

EMH: “There we are.”

[ He puts the bloody piece of metal in a container and moves to pick up other tools. ]

EMH: “Now for the dermal regenerator.”

Rios: “Leave it. Give me that. Get lost.”

[ RIOS takes it. The EMH looks at PICARD. ]

EMH: “He never gets any nicer.”

PICARD: “Duly noted.”

RIOS: “Deactivate EMH.”

[ The EMH is deactivated. Every time they have addressed the computer, they did not need to say “computer” beforehand like on the previous shows. RIOS stands up and turns to look at PICARD. ]

Picard: “I need a pilot. Raffi says you’re the best around.”

Rios: “I never argue with Raffi.”

[ PICARD is amused. ]

Picard: “Wise man. You were the XO of a heavy cruiser…”

Rios: “The Ibn Mājid. You never heard of it because it doesn’t exist. Starfleet erased it from the records.”

[ RIOS puts on a dark blue long-sleeved shirt. He did not use the dermal regenerator on his wound. ]

Picard: “Do I detect a certain bitterness toward Starfleet?”

[ He does. RIOS says nothing, but is looking away from him. He glances toward him but avoids eye contact ]

Picard: “You must know that Starfleet and I long since have parted ways.”

[ RIOS shrugs. ]

Rios: “If you say so.”

[ He sounds lightly skeptical. ]

Rios: “I really don’t give a damn.”

Picard: “Oh, really?”

[ PICARD is also skeptical. He looks around the ship. RIOS walked over toward a console and is doing something, off-screen, possibly with the Medkit? He looks over at PICARD. ]

Picard: “I see this ship is impeccably maintained.”

[ RIOS goes back to whatever he is working on. It doesn’t matter what he is doing. He is just using it as a distraction. ]

Picard: “Every bolt and clasp and fitting in place. Everything stowed in regulation Starfleet order.”

[ RIOS looks at him again. ]

Picard: “I don’t know what happened to you, Rios,”

[ RIOS sits back down again. ]

Picard: “Or to the Ibn Mājid. But five minutes on this ship,”

[ RIOS has picked up the cigar again and put it in his mouth, picking up the book from earlier and leaning back into the chair. ]

Picard: “And I know precisely what I am looking at.”

[ RIOS puts one of his legs up on the console and opens the book. He is trying to seem disinterested. PICARD leans forward. ]

Picard: “You. Are. Starfleet. To the core.”

[ RIOS looks at him. PICARD leans back with a smile on his face. ]

Picard: “I can smell it on you.”

[ The TNG-Theme plays again. ]

Rios: “That’s just my tragic sense of life.”

[ He puts the cigar down and looks at Picard. ]

Rios: “Raffi warned me you were a speechmaker.”

[ He blinks and licks his lips. ]

Rios: “Look, Admiral, hire me or find another pilot. Do not try to get inside my head."

------------------

Star Trek: Picard, season 1, episode 3 "The End is the Beginning” (00:22:51-00:24:44)

[ RIOS is sitting in a chair, in his quarters, drinking alcohol. Blues music is playing over the speakers. RIOS is reading the same book from before. A hologram appears. This is a different one than the one from earlier. It still looks just like RIOS, but is wearing different clothes and its hair is styled differently. It has an Irish accent. ]

ENH: “The navigation sensors are back at maximum range. Whatever it was, it scraped off pretty easily.”

[ RIOS looks at the hologram as he speaks. This hologram, like the other, sounds more cheerful than we have ever seen the real RIOS be. RIOS grunts in acknowledgement and turns his attention back to the book. ]

ENH: “So, are we excited? Intimidated? Maybe a teensy bit starstruck?”

[ He is leaning forward and walking closer to RIOS, teasing. RIOS looks somewhere between annoyed and amused. ]

ENH: “Jean-Luc Picard. Chief contact with the Q Continuum. Arbitor of Succession for the Klingon Empire. Savior of Earth from Borg invasion.”

[ He is walking back and forth as he talks enthusiastically about PICARD’S accomplishments ]

ENH: “Captain of Enterprises D and E. The man even worked alongside the great Spock.”

[ RIOS looks back up from his book. His hand is on his wounded shoulder. He sounds annoyed but still has a hint of resigned amusement in his voice. ]

Rios: “You are an emergency hologram. We no longer have a navigational emergency.”

[ The ENH looks at him like “So?” ]

Rios: “Why are you still here?”

ENH: “Well, someone is experiencing an acute moodiness overload.”

[ Still both annoyed and amused. He puts his book up closer to his face to block the ENH from view and ignore the hologram more easily. The ENH comes closer, leaning over his book with a smile on his face. RIOS grumbles. ]

ENH: “Picard is a good man, Captain Rios. He’s on the side of the angels.”

[ RIOS puts his book down and looks away. ]

ENH: “It’s been a long time since you helped out somebody like him. Hmm? A very long time.”

[ RIOS stands up and starts walking away ]

Rios: “Please, spare me the juvenile Sunday school morality.”

[ The ENH’S gaze follows RIOS. ]

ENH: “And spare me the angsty teenage moral relativism.”

Rios: “I already had one grand, heroic captain in my life. The last thing I need is another one.”

[ He sounds angrier now thinking about his former captain. ]

Rios: “Ten years on, I still can’t close my eyes at night without seeing the last one’s blood and brains splattered all over a bulkhead. Deactivated ENH.”

[ He is done humoring the hologram. The ENH looks disappointed. ]

ENH: “Ah, no, no, you–”

[ He gets deactivated. RIOS walks right through where the hologram was standing as he disappears, and he sits down in the same chair, now smoking his cigar again. He slides down in the chair and stares up at the ceiling, looking troubled as he stares up at the stars through a sunroof in the ceiling. A meteor briefly flashes ]

------------------

Star Trek: Picard, season 1, episode 3 "The End is the Beginning” (00:38:56-00:41:46)

[ At CHATEAU PICARD, PICARD'S comm badge beeps. He answers it. ]

Picard: "You're early."

[ On LA SIRENA, RIOS is walking up the stairs in engineering. ]

Rios: "Nope. My sources tell me--"

[ PICARD'S voice is heard over the speakers on LA SIRENA. Rios is walking back onto the bridge. ]

Picard: "What sources?"

Rios: "--It's about to get very hot chez vous." (Translation: "Chez vous" is French for "at yours," but specifically meaning "at your house")

[ Back at CHATEAU PICARD. ]

Picard: "It's already hot."

[ RIOS'S voice is heard from PICARD'S comm badge in his hand. ]

Rios: "Hotter."

Jurati: "Is that your pilot?"

[ PICARD nods. ]

Jurati: "Okay. You have to take me with you, and here's why: A,"

[ on LA SIRENA, RIOS is preparing some containers. JURATI'S voice can be heard over his speakers. He is kneeling down on the ground with the boxes. He places one on top of another. ]

Jurati: "I just killed a man to save your life."

[ RIOS stops to listen when she says that. He seems interested. JURATI sounds determined ]

Jurati: "B."

[ Back at CHATEAU PICARD, LARIS looks over at ZHABAN. ]

Jurati: "You are a good, decent man, capable of empathy and pity,"

[ ZHABAN looks at LARIS, then over at PICARD and JURATI ]

Jurati: "And I am a scientist who has spent her entire life imagining a miracle,"

[ JURATI'S voice is shaky and she is near tears but she is determined to convince him to let her join him. ]

Jurati: "Knowing that it could never come to pass, and now it has,"

[ PICARD smiles sympathetically. He's listening. ]

Jurati: "And it's real, and I have to see her; And C. I don't know how much it costs to go where you're going or--"

[ Back on LA SIRENA, RIOS is working at some holographic controls. JURATI'S voice is heard over the speakers again. ]

Jurati: "--How much this guy charges--"

Rios: "I'm expensive."

[ back at CHATEAU PICARD ]

Jurati: "--But I'm Agnes P. Jurati. I'm the Earth's leading expert on synthetic life, and I promise you, if you take me with you, I will more than earn my keep."

[ PICARD looks impressed. He turns to LARIS. She and ZHABAN are both looking expectantly at PICARD. RIOS'S voice is heard over the comm badge, sounding impatient. ]

Rios: "Time to go."

[ An outside view of LA SIRENA orbiting the EARTH. Inside the ship, both PICARD and JURATI are beamed aboard. PICARD is surprised. ]

Picard: "Raffi? What is this?"

[ RAFFI stands. Picard gestures at RIOS. ]

Picard: "Ah, 'sources.'"

Raffi: "I found Maddox."

Picard: "Where is he?"

Raffi: "I tell you, you promise you'll take me with you?"

Picard: "I would be honored to have you join me."

Raffi: "Oh, no, no I'm--I'm not joining you. Never again. I'm just hitching a ride."

Picard: "To where?"

Raffi: "Bruce Maddox is on Freecloud."

Picard: "Freecloud. Yes, of course."

Jurati: "Why do you want to go to Freecloud?"

Raffi: "Have we met?"

Jurati: "Agnes Jurati,"

[ She offers her hand. RAFFI looks at PICARD incredulously ]

Raffi: "That's it? You're just going to let Agnes here hitch a ride--"

[ JURATI lowers her hand awkwardly. PICARD puts is hand on JURATI'S shoulder. ]

Raffi: "On your top-secret mission?"

Picard: "Dr. Jurati is the Earth's leading expert on synthetic life."

[ RIOS sits down in the captain's chair and touches some holographic controls. ]

Raffi: "You didn't even ask me to run any kind of security check, not even the most basic."

Picard: "Why do you want to go to Freecloud?"

Raffi: "I'm under no obligation to tell that to any of you."

[ RIOS looks impatient ]

Raffi: "And once we get there, you're on your own."

Jurati: "Who are you, lady?"

[ RAFFI looks at her. RIOS talks impatiently ]

Rios: "Can we go already?"

Picard: "Yes, fine."

[ RAFFI takes her seat and PICARD gestures to JURATI to do the same, and she does so eagerly. PICARD looks around and pauses dramatically. The TNG theme starts ]

Picard: "Engage."

[ JURATI laughs, RAFFI looks lightly irritated. RIOS uses the holographic controls to start the ship as we move out of LA SIRENA'S main window, turning to see the EARTH, and LA SIRENA going into warp as the clip of the TNG Theme concludes and we fade to black. ]

#cristobal rios #star trek: picard #star trek spoilers #about #that's just my tragic sense of life (Rios)

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myassbrokethefall · 7 years

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Do you have any belief that David and Gillian are a couple right now or do you think that she is dating PM?

I don’t personally believe that David and Gillian are a couple, no.

It is my belief that, yes, she is probably dating Peter.

(You don’t need to send me evidence to prove one thing or the other to me. I am aware of all the evidence, and this is how I interpret it. And I don’t have any insider knowledge or sources that go beyond what’s common knowledge in the fandom.)

This hasn’t changed my enjoyment of how adorable David and Gillian are together, my appreciation of their long and weird and beautiful relationship, my never-ending flabbergastery at how far they’ve come, or my love of watching them interact and feeling warm and happy when they act affectionate with each other and wondering what the hell their deal is. It also doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t be delighted if they ever WERE a couple. (After all, as you know, the things that we wish were true and the things that we believe are *actually* true are not the same things.)

It HAS changed how I sometimes interact with posts that feel as if they were created to promote the idea that David and Gillian are a couple and that anyone who doesn’t believe that is wrong and/or mean. It’s one thing to say “Look at them, they are so cute together!” It’s another to say “Look at them, they’re so in love!” or “Look at them, anyone who can’t see that they’re in love is an idiot!” or, you get the picture. When I see posts like that, I feel that there is an edge behind them, an agenda, and that makes me enjoy them less and, if I do reblog them, sometimes makes me feel dishonest.

I have no problem with the existence of such posts, just to be clear, and I know that many of them are just meant in fun. But, to be honest with you, it has become less fun for me to pretend and joke about David and Gillian secretly doing it, because a lot of you have gotten very very deadly serious about it. I say all the time that Mulder and Scully are married, but if there arose a faction of intense fangirls who made it their life’s mission to PROVE that Mulder and Scully actually did get married in the series and that anyone who didn’t interpret various signs and portents that way was a liar and a cliquey bitch and an unsafe person to be around, I probably would stop hashtagging everything “wifegate” as well.

I also don’t have any problem with people who “want to believe” that David and Gillian are together, and enjoy thinking and daydreaming about that possibility. (*I* enjoy thinking and daydreaming about that possibility!) It starts to become more of a problem for me when, in order to build up that idea, people turn on other members of the fandom who don’t believe as they do and create elaborate conspiracy theories in order to justify shunning them. Of course, people are free to interact or not interact with anyone they wish, but the dividing up of the fandom into The Faithful versus a viper’s nest of Suppressive Persons is starting to get very tiresome. I don’t particularly enjoy feeling that for everything I post or reblog about David and Gillian, or every time I reblog something from someone known to be loyal to one side or the other, there are a bunch of people in lab coats marking it down in one column or another and adjusting my Gillovny trustworthiness rating accordingly. (Witness: this ask.)

For the record -- while I’m here; might as well get all this wank done in one post -- since I don’t have any great interest in Gillian’s or David’s dating lives in and of themselves, I also am not especially interested in Peter or in their relationship if there is one. This is, I would say, appropriate, since it is her personal life and is obviously something she chooses not to have be overly public. Let me analogize it this way: I was an obsessive fan of Star Trek: The Next Generation for many years. If I found out that Gillian’s favorite TV show was ST:TNG and she had ALSO written fanfic about it and had posters of Jean-Luc and Beverly on her bedroom wall and used to make paperdolls of the characters and carried the novels around with her in a backpack and made up extensive backstories for the characters that she later got annoyed when they were contradicted in canon and named her cat Data and watched I, Claudius when it was rerun on PBS just to see Patrick Stewart even though she had no clue what was going on in it, I would be super excited. I would want to know everything about how she had gotten into it, what her favorite episodes were, her opinions on various developments, etc. I would dream of hanging out with her and discussing TNG and I would think of all the questions I would ask her about it.

If I found out that Gillian’s favorite TV show was Ugly Betty, I wouldn’t be excited. I’ve seen a couple of episodes of Ugly Betty, and it was OK, but it wasn’t anything that was my particular cup of tea (which doesn’t mean I hated it), and I wasn’t interested enough to keep watching. If Gillian said that Ugly Betty was her favorite TV show of all time -- or if we saw the complete set of DVDs on her bookshelf with heart stickers all over them or she was seen cosplaying at an Ugly Betty convention or whatever the equivalent is -- I might be a little bit interested in finding out more about it to gain insight into why she liked it so much, but that would be about where it ended. And so, that is why I don’t care about Peter Morgan, although I don’t extend that to feeling that OTHER people are not allowed to care about Peter Morgan, if they...care about...him, for whatever reasons they have.

Well, there you have way too many words about this extremely stupid situation that we are all going to look back on one day (or: now) and feel ridiculous for having invested so much emotional energy into. Perhaps this ask is NOT for the purpose of determining what faction I belong to and whether I’m a Suppressive Person in re: Gillovny, and if so, I apologize for that assumption. Do feel free to pick this apart and find reasons to tell each other that I’m a [fill in the blank with whatever supports the agenda that lets you sleep at night].

#ddga wank #the new guy #ga #sorry to the ugly betty fandom that i probably just offended #also sorry that this is so long to anyone who doesn't give a shit about any of this bullshit #Anonymous

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gamethyme · 7 years

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<i>Star Trek Adventures</i>

It hasn't come up much, here, but I am a huge fan of Star Trek. When I was younger, I was very much the stereotypical Trekkie. I was rarely found without at least one Star Trek novel in my backpack, I could ID a dozen or so classes of starship (both Federation and hostile), and I could rattle off numbers and statistics and trivia like nobody's business. I was obsessed. So it's appropriate that the first RPG book I ever owned was for FASA's old Star Trek: The Roleplaying Game. The book was the Star Trek: The Next Generation Officer's Manual, and I owned it long before I owned a copy of the game. I didn't even know it was a game book (and neither did my parents, or I would never have acquired it ...). One of my first gaming experiences was with FASA's game. I won't say it was a good game, but it wasn't bad. We were handed pregens by the GM, and we went from there into a more-or-less typical D&D-style hack-and-slash adventure with phasers instead of crossbows and Klingons instead of orcs and so on. It was oddly dissatisfying even at the time, because this isn't what Star Trek was about. A few years later, I acquired a copy of the game, and I even ran a few brief campaigns. I tended to base the campaign premises off of some of the novels (which still, I think, was not a bad idea - depending on the novel). One of my favorite games was set on the USS Excalibur (before the M-5 insident as seen in "The Ultimate Computer"), and I based it on the novel The Abode of Life (which I need to re-read to see if it's held up as well as I remember). I loved character generation in the game. The guided lifepath was a great way to handle it, and it allowed for a great deal of diversity in characters (and skill levels). I read somewhere that Gene Roddenberry also really liked the lifepath process, and made it a condition of the license for future Star Trek roleplaying games. Fast forward a decade or so, and Last Unicorn released Star Trek: The Next Generation Roleplaying Game. Mechanically, it was very different from the old FASA game. Its production values were very different. Instead of three little blue books, it was one glossy hardcover book that was quite a bit thicker than the three blue books combined. And it still had a lifepath for character generation. They also published a Deep Space Nine game, and a classic 'Trek version. I never actually got to play LUG's version of the game. The friend who was going to run a campaign dropped off the face of the earth before the campaign started. And then the license expired and someone else picked up the ball and ran with it. Decipher, who I knew from the TNG collectible card game, had snagged the license after LUG was bought by WotC and lost it. Decipher's Trek was similar to LUG's in presentation, but it was two hardcovers (at first), one for players and one for the GM. It still had a lifepath, but the system was almost d20, only with multiple d6s instead of a single d20. I bought it. I read it. I ... wasn't interested in playing it. It just ... didn't feel right. Last year, Modiphius announced that they had acquired the license. They did a huge open playtest (that I did not participate in), and early reviews were ... pretty good. So I did a bit of research, and I discovered that they'd be using their house system - the 2d20 system. I grabbed Mutant Chronicles (another universe that I have a deep fondness for), and started to learn the system. And I was ... nervous. The 2d20 system has a lot of moving pieces, with multiple player currencies in play. I didn't understand how this system was getting such rave reviews for Star Trek. I backed Conan on Kickstarter, and it's that same system. And Conan was ... okay. Not amazing, not game-breaking. Still a bit clunky with all those currencies to keep track of. My fear for Star Trek grew. But I resolved to pre-order anyhow. When the pre-order went lived, we bought in that first day. GM Screen + limited-edition core book. A short time later, we had the PDF (because Modiphius is really good at getting the PDF out there). And I read the PDF. Devoured the PDF. It's still recognizably the 2d20 system, but it's both streamlined and altered. Where Mutant Chronicles has a sizable skill list, Star Trek Adventures has six skills, and they related to the various departments found on a starship - Command, Conn, Medical, Science, Security, and Engineering. Want your character's stats to be more detailed than that? Use a Focus to narrow it down. This change streamlines the system quite a bit, and, at the same time, results in the sort of hypercompetent characters you tend to see in Star Trek. Star Trek Adventures also added character values. They're almost like Aspects in Fate - they define your character, and you can pull a couple of mechanical tricks with them, too. This increases the feel of Star Trek. It means that the game is about your characters' beliefs and goals and - yes - values, just like the TV series and movies have been. The more I drilled into the PDF, the more excited I got. Your ship is treated like another character, with its own separate character generation process. You're not limited to the eight PC species included in the core book, and they give a few guidelines for creating your own species. It's simple enough to homebrew ship classes that you find elsewhere. There are still a few currencies for players to keep track of - they can spend Momentum or add Threat to the GM's pool or spend Determination on a roll, and some of these things go to party pools and some go to the GM's pool and some are just ... spent. It's not a completely intuitive system (like I'd prefer), but it's solid and seems functional without a huge number of "Gotcha" bits. My good friend Wade went to GenCon this year, and he texted me on Thursday morning. Modiphius' first sale of the day was a copy of the core book. For me. "But Eric," I can hear you saying, "Didn't you already buy the limited edition book?" Yes. I did. But I am a player who likes having multiple copies of the core rules at the table. That way, the GM has one to reference, and so do the players. If there's a rules question in the game, there are two sets looking for it. With PDFs, I can hand both physical copies to my players and search the PDF, resulting in three sets of eyes looking to answer questions. The only real bad thing about Star Trek Adventures is that it's sucked me back into Star Trek fandom. And not a little bit, either. I am all the way back in. I went out to the garage and I dug out Mr. Scott's Guide to the Enterprise, and my Star Trek Technical Manual and my Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual and half a dozen other "in universe" books with varying levels of canon compliance. I filled my Kindle with novels and novellas. And I started playing Star Trek Online (which - for the record - could do with a decent help guide for the PS4 version). And I've decided to run a campaign again. But, looking at advancement in Star Trek Adventures, I think it'll work really well for a new-to-me structure of game. What I'm doing right now is assembling a player pool. A large one. More players than any GM ever wants around their table. When I have an episode idea, I'll figure out when I have time to run it, and I'll send a message to my players. That message will read something like this:

Season 1, Episode 1: "Pilot, Pilot, Who's Got The Pilot?"

The Tethys' new helmsman has disappeared in transit to the ship. It's up to an away team in a runabout to follow his path and figure out what happened to him.

This episode is for four to six players, and will be played on Date at Time.

Then I wait. The first six players who let me know they're available at that date and time will be the featured characters for that episode. If I don't get at least four players for that time, I go back to my calendar, figure out a different date and time, and try again. Most of the advancement in this game is small. "Lower one number to raise another." That means that if Player A makes it to 15 sessions and Player B only makes it to two or three sessions, there won't be an overwhelming experience advantage for Player A. And it feels "in universe" accurate to have different characters featured periodically. It also means that grown-up players with busy lives who can't make a regularly-scheduled game very often should have no problem still fitting around my table occasionally. So thanks, Modiphius. I look forward to exploring the galaxy with you. from Blogger http://ift.tt/2goSa52 via IFTTT

#IFTTT #Blogger

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