Star Trek is a vibrant part of modern pop culture and has continued creating stories, characters, and adventures for over five decades. Roleplaying in the rich playground that is the Star Trek universe can be a fun and rewarding experience, but it can also be daunting when you first sit down to GM the game. In this article I am going to give you some advice about how to organize your players and get them prepared to remove moorings and clear space dock!
Welcome to Starfleet
There is nothing written in stone that dictates that each and every group of PCs for Star Trek roleplaying must be members of the United Federation of Planets and its Starfleet, but it is the simplest way to start. First, Starfleet and its workings are familiar to most people with even a casual knowledge about Star Trek and its many television shows and movies. Ships fly at warp speeds exploring the cosmos. Transporters beam personnel to and from planets. Humans of Earth are prominent members of the Federation. It is easy for players to understand their positions and get into the feel of the game.
Second, most of the various versions of RPGs available for Star Trek tend to focus on a Starfleet-oriented basis for adventures, species, ships, and equipment. While there have been supplements for playing as Klingons, Romulans, and free traders in early iterations of the game, they tend to greatly limit the freedom of being explorers of the final frontier. Finally, players will likely try to model their PCs off of the iconic characters of Star Trek and most of those are members of Starfleet. So, all around, it just makes sense to have your players be members of Starfleet in your first go as a GM with Star Trek.
Roles of Players
As Starfleet officers, each PC will have skills and training suited for a bridge position on a starship. The Star Trek Adventures system by Modiphius has players create a Main Character for such a role and then create Supporting Characters as needed to be played when the Main Character is elsewhere. When I ran a Star Trek campaign using the FASA rules, each of my players had only one PC, but I had to be very aware of places where the party would possibly split when coming up with adventures. This required a little more work on my part to keep all of the PCs engaged and involved in the happenings of the adventure while split up. My suggestion would be to have all players create a Main Character and prepare a Supporting Character or two from diverse disciplines to have ready to use at a moment’s notice.
For example, if one player wants to create a Main Character that is going to be a doctor and the ship’s Chief Medical Officer he will want a secondary character that is not from the medical field. Perhaps he might create a security officer or engineer that may accompany an away team when it is not practical for the Chief Medical Officer to participate. Actually, with Star Trek’s proclivity for killing security officers or “red shirts”, it may be practical for each player to make at least one security officer as a Supporting Character so that they always have someone ready to go and face the unknown no matter the situation. Red shirts, or yellow shirts in the Next Generation, are always handy for filling in the ranks as security is of paramount importance.
When it comes to assigning ranks or roles, I am hesitant to start a PC of a new group as the commanding officer, or captain, of the group. While one PC may outrank the rest, I find it works best to have the captain be an NPC that can advise and direct the PCs as they first get started. As they complete missions the captain may be reassigned and a PC can be promoted into the position. The PCs would then be taking direction straight from Starfleet Command. I found this worked very well when I had a group of players that were all very strong-willed and competitive. Starting them all as similar rank department heads allowed a few to rise to the top and gain rewards for successful mission performance which included promotions and, eventually, the command chair for one.
Duty Assignment
Ultimately, the first ship which the PCs find themselves adventuring in can be affected by several factors. These include the desires of the GM and players for the type of campaign you want to enjoy, the relative experience and ranks of the PCs, and the era of play. These and other factors will determine whether or not they find themselves as crew on a small patrol frigate or assigned to an Excelsior-class or Galaxy-class starship.
The goals of the campaign should match the roles suitable for the ship to some degree. If the concept for the campaign sees the group responding quickly to trouble spots inside Federation space, fighting pirates, or protecting the borders from Cardassian incursions, then you may want them to be on a small, fast vessel dedicated to combat skirmishing. If instead you envision long-range exploration as the goal of your campaign, then assignment to a Galaxy-class or Intrepid-class may be the best choice. Putting the characters in an Oberth-class science vessel and having them frequently get into combat would not be an ideal choice.
If the players are all developing characters that are relatively new to Starfleet and holding ranks below Lieutenant, then they might find themselves filling roles as junior officers on a larger starship or department head roles on a smaller ship. If, on the other hand, they have backgrounds with more experience and higher ranks between Lieutenant and Commander, then they would best be suited to senior roles on a large ship. Just remember that the higher the rank the more personnel an officer likely oversees, even indirectly. Chief Engineer on a patrol ship might be a Lieutenant with a handful of ensigns and enlisted people beneath him while the Chief Engineer on a Galaxy-class will likely be a Lt. Commander with dozens under his command. A higher rank should see a scaling-up of responsibilities either in role and function or oversight.
Finally, the era of play will be the final deciding factor on starship assignment. Constitution-class ships are not going to be available pre-Federation or far into the Next Generation eras. Similarly, Excelsior-class ships will not be available until after the events of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Of course, a crew in the Next Generation era could find a derelict Constitution-class ship and make it functional to complete a mission, but it would not be their regular duty assignment.
Final Thoughts
The ideas I have presented here are not the final word by any means. It is, after all, your campaign and you can do whatever you like. You might even have your PCs assigned to a deep space station and only flying Danube-class Runabouts if you so desire. Space is infinite and so are the possibilities. With Star Trek you must “boldly go” and that is where the fun is!
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