Inclusion Appreciated

Star Trek Adventures
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Posted this on FB but figured the audience here may be different (Though I suspect some overlap)

Long time RPer, but new to ST Adventures. I’ve played ST RPG’s for decades, but just now getting into ST Adventures.

Just got the core book in today. It’s very nicely laid out. Naturally I’ve not read every page yet but I did do a slow flip through, and one thing that I found absolutely wonderful, just at a glance, was the level of inclusion in the book. It’s not 95% Human males with 2% females and 3% aliens to round it out.

The core UFP races are there and you -see- them. Humans, Vulcans, Andorians, Tellerites, to a lesser extent (As they should be) Trill. You see them. And not just in the background, but as the focus of the artwork. Not just in the species chapter but all through the book.

The percentage of females is also much higher than you normally see in an RPG.

It may seem like a little thing. But it’s really not. When I play Trek, or Star Wars, or Rifts, or Warcraft, or even D&D, or Pathfinder, I --never-- play humans. I --am-- human(mores the pity). I don’t spend my free time pretending to be a different human. lol if I’m playing an RPG I’m going to play something -else-.

With that said, most books, focus on the humans, with the aliens sprinkled in like seasoning. Star Trek Adventures… doesn’t. The other aliens are given page time. Maybe not 100% equal (I didn’t count) but lots of page time, comparatively. I can honestly say I’ve seen more Tellerites in the core book than I have ENTIRE previous runs of Star Trek RPGs. Same for Andorians. (Trill are sexy and the ‘elves’ of Trek so you see them a bit heavier. And I don’t mean the ears. I mean the ‘sexy pretty ones’.) The percentage of women is also high. Again I didn’t count but it’s much closer to 50/50 than you normally find in RPGs. Of the Humans and Vulcan’s, you see more than just pale pasty versions as well. Which is also nice. other ethnicity is appreciated.

Which is refreshing.

It may not matter to others but from a guy that’s introducing his daughter to RPGs… it matters a lot to me. The other aliens getting significant page count, matters to me.

I’m not trying to be a social justice warrior or anything. I’m not ‘demanding’ higher page counts for any of those things. I’m saying it’s done in an organic way, with out doing it ‘purposefully’. and --that-- is how you -do it-.

Wanted to acknowledge it, hopefully the creators/writers/etc will see this and see that it -is- seen, and that it -is- appreciated.

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I think it is fair to say the books have captured that element of Trek - that all are equal - and that all play an equal role, regardless of race / creed / belief / colour etc

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Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations : )

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I am a dirty SJW and will insist on those things :slight_smile: Representation is important, but yes, it needs to be done well so as not to be tokenizing. I think STA is “just okay” in this regard, which is sadly still considered “progressive” by RPG standards.

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Awwww ■■■■, you opened the window, which I never can close.
I do it again, like Shadow Run, I am playing Elfs.

Regarding your Post: Yes, Modiphius do a really good you with the inclusion from the beginning.
As I rember throug the first playtesting phase the Characters got male and female Names for the Examplecharacter*, a policy I mimic, with the Characters I build for running games on Conventions.

*The German First Officers male Name was a little old fasioned but unmistakenly he had a German name.

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I was considering a Romulan/Trill as my first character for this system. Now I wonder if that would count as a dark elf.

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Sitting here trying to envision the resulting physical appearance. Slightly pointed ears and faded/light spots? Are you adding the Facial tattoos too?

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If memory serves, the facial tattoos were described (in the comic book that served as a prelude to the movie) as part of an obscure Romulan mourning rite (as their homeworld had just been destroyed), so it would be unusual to include it on a character who hadn’t suffered some massive loss.

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Well… with out trying to sound racist, but… Romulan life is pretty draconian. Very 1984 with people informing on other people to the secret police. Assassination, frame jobs, political retribution for things deserved (And very much not), brutal murders, all seen more or less as a way to progress through life.

Now it’s presented alot in the military and politics, but it’s also presented (Even in the Modiphius Beta Quad book) as a way the culture channeled their intense violent natures to survive as a people during their exodus and ascension into an empire.

So while you would see this behavior in the military and such, you may see the same sort of behavior between… sanitation workers… or elementary school teachers.

Thus… a Romulan whom has suffered great loss could be any of them. Smiles Very easily done with a character’s back history.

With their intense elitism, being a cross breed with such a ‘soft’ species such as a Trill would be a pretty big ding as well.

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Looked it up because I sorta kinda remembered the tattoos being mourning stuff. And seems like they kinda backed into that.

Seems they designed the tattoos as “solidarity as a crew.”, then “to keep their hair from getting dirty as they worked.” and to differenciate them from other romulans.

The mourning stuff seems to have come later in the design phase to justify them.

" Script writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman claimed that both the baldness and tattoos of Nero and his shipmates were for “solidarity as a crew.” ( Star Trek Magazine issue 149, p. 13) However, Proteus FX Makeup Effects Supervisor Barney Burman stated that the Romulan crew’s baldness was “to keep their hair from getting dirty as they worked.” ( Star Trek Magazine issue 155, p. 57)

Originally, Neville Page was tasked with imagining how the Narada crew might look different from other Romulans, given that the crew members were separate from the Romulan Empire with which they were familiar. It was Page who conceived the idea of using tattoos to differentiate the Narada personnel, thinking up the concept at that point. He later apologized to the body art community for taking advantage of the widely held misconception that facial tattoos indicate that a person is dangerous.

About the same time as Neville Page decided upon using tattoos for the Romulan crew, it was imagined that – even though it was Romulan tradition to commemorate a loved one by skin-painting with paint that faded along with the period of mourning – the Narada crew had burned their tattoos deep, so that they would never fade."

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In “Children of Time” it showed some Trill/Human (mostly human) and the spots seemed to get more sporadic rather than lighter hued, if that helps your visioning.

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Sitting here trying to envision the resulting physical appearance. Slightly pointed ears and faded/light spots? Are you adding the Facial tattoos too?

No facial tattoos, proper Romulan-Trill child so yes ears and trill row spots, arched and up-swept eyebrows. Background environment and such places him as a rebel on a Vulcan agricultural/spiritual colony and going into Science course in Starfleet Academy.

He & sister were told as a child that the father was a Vulcan military officer until he later learned of actually being half-Romulan (son of a fleeing politician who gave his life to protect wife & children) instead. The Romulan brow ridges don’t appear on the kids due to Trill heritage which means their mother had it fairly easy on the ‘backwards colony’ to raise the children as part Vulcan and the emotional (read: pretty much human-like) childhood was written off as being half-Trill.

After getting into Academy sometimes in mid-twenties the siblings visited planet Trill with their mom and he was Joined while the sister failed as candidate. (As far I understand this system lets you make a main character and some secondary ones? The guy would be my primary and his siter a secondary)

Well… with out trying to sound racist, but… Romulan life is pretty draconian. Very 1984 with people informing on other people to the secret police. Assassination, frame jobs, political retribution for things deserved (And very much not), brutal murders, all seen more or less as a way to progress through life.

Welcome to actual life in half of Europe under communist Russian oppression. While I wasn’t alive yet in 1956 I’m from Hungary and know hundreds of stories of which a dozen directly hurt my family.

I actually like tthe Romulans, both the classic society and the STO Romulan Republic, which somewhat inspired my idea for the character.

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I used an online char creator for him I rolled ‘friend to Romulans’ once, then rerolling that ‘friend to Vulcans’ instead. Not sure how a GM would handle this or even allow it, but after this I just threw the result out and just wrote the new trait to be Nerve Pinch instead as growing up in that colony in such circumstances might validate him learning it.

Story-wise I still think its fine for that Career event being about creating a positive connection to Romulans.

As you can see I made him a science officer with some medical skill but focusing on tech, especially cybernetics/nano robotics (everything about ‘little buggers’ from virology to minibots), Infiltration is thanks to a career thing if I remember correctly, so you could say he is a ‘Romulan Infiltrator’ in a few, various meanings :slight_smile:

edit: actually, I could envision them with a small change in history to become Romulan officers instead of Federation ones, if there would be a campaign for a Romulan ship crew.