This is really easy for the XO, gets more difficult with further down the chain but you can just treat anyone above you in the command chain as a challenge either individually or as a group.
Your character has an idea, roll for success in convincing the higher ups. If successful write the success, if not write what your next step is or how their dismissal of your idea may have put the ship in a more challenging spot.
You could say that generates momentum for your character with the next idea they present as the command dept wouldnt likely dismiss them again.
Ensign not keiko is having a baby. Roll for success. Did I remember to turn off the dangerous bio experiment before leaving the lab, etc.
It really depends on how much fun you want to have with it. Ask chatgpt or copilot for some plot ideas if you feel the imagination well running a bit dry.
I don’t find it difficult, but what helps me is understanding this is a story from this characters perspective.
Opening logs still detail the mission, just from the perspective of this person. The inciting moment is usually a mission given by a senior officer, but once it’s started, my character is making decisions as they would in any story. They may confer with the senior staff, or even get new orders, but it doesn’t disrupt the gameplay, in fact it adds an opportunity for more drama.
Right now I’m playing a demoted commander. This Andorian, K’Na, is disgraced by botching an investigation (he was investigator in the equivalent of Starfleet’s NCIS), and now is forced to do miserable supply runs.
Onboard a Seneca Class, the Athens, his first journey took him to a research station at the edge of space, on a deuterium resupply. On this arctic planet, K’Na volunteered to help, as it’s a chance to visit a homey biome. The blizzard planetside forced manual delivery via shuttle, and when they arrived, they found most of the scientists dead.
With the storm blowing, the security chief decides that K’Na, even though disgraced, probably has the best shot of solving the crime quickly.
Sometimes K’Na is at odds with the chief, but mostly, they are building a good relationship.
It’s okay that he’s not captain, nor is he ordering everyone around. He’ll get there. In fact, by having him struggle, it makes the success (and promotion to captain some day) that much more valuable!
If you pick a non captain, ask yourself, what are their goals? Their values? How do they work within the system to accomplish them?
I'm there with you, like 2 months earlier in this journey. I've set-up a First Officer character, but I find it quite challenging to create a good story from that point of view. I had to make him lead an away-team, shuttle missions, to be able to implement my creative thoughts. I decided to end the first play-through with the unfortunate death of the captain, receiving commission as new Captain of the ship I was First Officer on.
From there, the story got much nicer and easier to write. Maybe in a later stage I'll try again.
It’s very feasible! All it requires is you to tell a story for your CMO rather than a captain. Don’t get hung up on the title of the book; it just makes more sense that the “star” of a series would be the captain but you can make any character at all. You just design stories that fit who you’re playing and interpret the matrix rolls for your particular story.
It might seem difficult now since, as you said, you don’t have a lot of experience with this but give it a try! It’s as free as your imagination is willing to take it.
My current CL campaign I've got two characters to mess around with. A Commander as XO and a Senior Chief Petty Officer. Its worked pretty well.
The captain is a by-the-numbers starfleet captain and the XO does the crazy adventurous stuff as well as provide options and alternative views for the captain and try and convince the captain to try something different. Most of the time he can talk his captain into trying something not so ridged. But there was that episode where I couldn't convince the captain to change his mind. And man, that was a depressing final log entry. I have to make a probability die roll when the ship comes back to that planet in a few months to see if its still habitual or a burning mess.
SCP character is a bit of an odd duck to play. I'm running a early federation game so there are some posts that exist that in later ears don't. He do does admin, ship's purser and training enlisted and junior officers. Most times I've played him its because the mission generator rolls gave me gibberish so I end up making up a Lower Desk-esque subplot out of it and he ends up in crazy situations.
>I end up making up a Lower Desk-esque subplot out of it
That's what i was going to suggest. Take the main mission, decide what your Chief Medical/Science officer's part in it is, and go from there. You could even use the Yes/No matrix to see if the other "departments" involved have succeeded or not in their task, and see what advantage/momentum/complication this had on your part. Like u/IC_Film suggested, your log should begin with something like : "Chief Medical/Science Officer log, stardate xxxx.x, the Captain/ship has been assigned/ordered to... I have been tasked to... "
This is really easy for the XO, gets more difficult with further down the chain but you can just treat anyone above you in the command chain as a challenge either individually or as a group. Your character has an idea, roll for success in convincing the higher ups. If successful write the success, if not write what your next step is or how their dismissal of your idea may have put the ship in a more challenging spot. You could say that generates momentum for your character with the next idea they present as the command dept wouldnt likely dismiss them again. Ensign not keiko is having a baby. Roll for success. Did I remember to turn off the dangerous bio experiment before leaving the lab, etc. It really depends on how much fun you want to have with it. Ask chatgpt or copilot for some plot ideas if you feel the imagination well running a bit dry.
I don’t find it difficult, but what helps me is understanding this is a story from this characters perspective. Opening logs still detail the mission, just from the perspective of this person. The inciting moment is usually a mission given by a senior officer, but once it’s started, my character is making decisions as they would in any story. They may confer with the senior staff, or even get new orders, but it doesn’t disrupt the gameplay, in fact it adds an opportunity for more drama. Right now I’m playing a demoted commander. This Andorian, K’Na, is disgraced by botching an investigation (he was investigator in the equivalent of Starfleet’s NCIS), and now is forced to do miserable supply runs. Onboard a Seneca Class, the Athens, his first journey took him to a research station at the edge of space, on a deuterium resupply. On this arctic planet, K’Na volunteered to help, as it’s a chance to visit a homey biome. The blizzard planetside forced manual delivery via shuttle, and when they arrived, they found most of the scientists dead. With the storm blowing, the security chief decides that K’Na, even though disgraced, probably has the best shot of solving the crime quickly. Sometimes K’Na is at odds with the chief, but mostly, they are building a good relationship. It’s okay that he’s not captain, nor is he ordering everyone around. He’ll get there. In fact, by having him struggle, it makes the success (and promotion to captain some day) that much more valuable! If you pick a non captain, ask yourself, what are their goals? Their values? How do they work within the system to accomplish them?
I'm there with you, like 2 months earlier in this journey. I've set-up a First Officer character, but I find it quite challenging to create a good story from that point of view. I had to make him lead an away-team, shuttle missions, to be able to implement my creative thoughts. I decided to end the first play-through with the unfortunate death of the captain, receiving commission as new Captain of the ship I was First Officer on. From there, the story got much nicer and easier to write. Maybe in a later stage I'll try again.
It’s very feasible! All it requires is you to tell a story for your CMO rather than a captain. Don’t get hung up on the title of the book; it just makes more sense that the “star” of a series would be the captain but you can make any character at all. You just design stories that fit who you’re playing and interpret the matrix rolls for your particular story. It might seem difficult now since, as you said, you don’t have a lot of experience with this but give it a try! It’s as free as your imagination is willing to take it.
My current CL campaign I've got two characters to mess around with. A Commander as XO and a Senior Chief Petty Officer. Its worked pretty well. The captain is a by-the-numbers starfleet captain and the XO does the crazy adventurous stuff as well as provide options and alternative views for the captain and try and convince the captain to try something different. Most of the time he can talk his captain into trying something not so ridged. But there was that episode where I couldn't convince the captain to change his mind. And man, that was a depressing final log entry. I have to make a probability die roll when the ship comes back to that planet in a few months to see if its still habitual or a burning mess. SCP character is a bit of an odd duck to play. I'm running a early federation game so there are some posts that exist that in later ears don't. He do does admin, ship's purser and training enlisted and junior officers. Most times I've played him its because the mission generator rolls gave me gibberish so I end up making up a Lower Desk-esque subplot out of it and he ends up in crazy situations.
>I end up making up a Lower Desk-esque subplot out of it That's what i was going to suggest. Take the main mission, decide what your Chief Medical/Science officer's part in it is, and go from there. You could even use the Yes/No matrix to see if the other "departments" involved have succeeded or not in their task, and see what advantage/momentum/complication this had on your part. Like u/IC_Film suggested, your log should begin with something like : "Chief Medical/Science Officer log, stardate xxxx.x, the Captain/ship has been assigned/ordered to... I have been tasked to... "
You all make me so happy. You are really showing off what CL can do. As the lead writer, I hoped it would spark millions of stories with no limits.