Putting together the Lower Decks Crew

Star Trek Adventures
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So first of all, I know that Lower Decks isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, so please, just remember, if you don’t like it, you can click away. I 100% understand that it is not everyone’s cup of tea, and it probably isn’t even considered canon (in the latest episode, they mentioned the Infinite Vulcan, which is a TAS episode, so I guess it is guaranteed not canon, so . . . hurrah?) But that doesn’t mean we can’t have fun with it. So I thought, if people wanted to, we could post our ideas for for characters and ideas for a fan expansion for Lower Decks? Or we could just dink around with it? I posed an idea for the California Class in another thread, but, well, I went through the core book and came up with a pretty decent rendition of one of the main Characters: Bradward Boimler. His stats are below, along with my reasoning for them. Keep in mind, we are only 8 episodes in, so we might figure something else that could change this, but, well, this is what I have so far.

I know someone else has done write ups for them, but those are still in development and . . . well they haven’t seem to have been updated in a while.

Ensign Bradward Boilmler (Human)
Traits: Human
Talents:
-Spirit of Discovery (Of the two Human traits, this seemed more ‘Brad’ than Resolute)
-Untapped Potential (Has to take this as a young officer)
-Starship Expert (Brad seems EXTREMELY knowledgeable about different Starships, even capable of mimicking the ‘hum’ of their warp drives at different warp speeds.)
-Technical Expertise (There were many I could have chosen from, but I assume that Brad does his best when he is consulting the rulebook and following things to the letter of Starfleet protocol.)

Values:
-From a Utopia (Brad is from Madesto California, and Earth is repeatedly called a ‘paradise’ on Star Trek. A lot of Brad’s Nievite seems to stem from the fact he grew up not knowing hardship.)
-Plays by the Rules (I mean, this defines Brad’s character.)
-“We are Starfleet, we can do anything!" (He says this several times IIRC)
-Lower Deckers stick together (This value represents his bond with Beckett, Ruthaford, and Tendi)

Control:10 Daring:7 Fitness:10 Insight:8 Presence:10 Reason:11
(I mean, this Brad is more competent than normal Brad, but here we see he’s smart and has decent control, but he isn’t daring at all, and has poor insight. He normally doesn’t have great presence, but when he plays to his strengths he can deliver a great speech or two.)

Command:3 Conn:4 Engineering:3 Security:3 Science:2 Medicine: 1
(So I decided to make him a Conn officer. He seems pretty bad at Commanding anyone to do anything, and he’s in command division, so that leaves Conn. He also is seen piloting a shuttle in episode 2, and in episode 8 his battlestation was CONN officer, so I’m guessing he’s at least decent at it. He also does decent at fighting off aliens in the episode ‘Buffer time.’ and he is seen doing a LOT of maitenance, so his security and engineering disciplines are decent.

Focuses
-Inspiring Speeches (In both Episode 3 and 8 his inspiring speeches end up ‘saving the day’ sort of)
-Starfleet Protocol (I mean, he basically lives starfleet protocol. He hates breaking the rules.)
-Shuttlecraft (Of the two times we have seen him pilot, he was much more competent on the shuttle. Also we see him repairing a shuttle in episode 8. Look, I had to stretch for some of these Focuses)
-Routine Maitenance (Not only is this basically all he does, but he LIKES it . . . a lot, as seen in episode 3)
-Starfleet Trivia (He is basically always spouting off Starfleet Trivia. He even knows about Roga Denar!)
-Cultural Studies (He mentions that he’s studied many different alien cultures and learned about them.)

Stress: 12, Bonus damage 3,
Department: Command (Conn)

Character Creation Walkthrough.
Human->Homeworld (Modesto California)->Starfleet(I mean, we can’t be sure, but it seems like a decent guess) ->Command Track (He’s a Red Shirt)-> Young Officer (He’s young and naieve . . . check)->First (Second) Contact (Episode 1) ->Special Commendation (Boimler Effect)(Episode 3)

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Well, TAS is canon. So mentioning events from a TAS episode does not make LD not canon.

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Well, is it? See, TAS mentions the Kzinti and they’re not Star Trek Canon but Larry Niven’s Known Space Canon. So TAS can’t be canon. However, the Kzinti are also mentioned in Picard, consequently, Picard can’t be Canon, too. However, Picard features, among others, characters from TNG (yeah, 7 was in the trailers, too). Thus, TNG can’t be Canon either. DS9 features characters from TNG and VOY features characters from DS9 (among others and vice versa…), thus, those two can also not claim to be Canon. This would leave us with TOS, but TOS’s characters are featured in the movies and in one movie there’s a crossover with the TNG crew, so the movies can’t be Canon and, thus, TOS is also not able to be canon. On a sidenote, I have some bad news for the upcoming Strange New World series, as it prominently features characters from TOS (not canon, remember?). As does DIS, by the way, so DIS cannot be Canon, either. This would leave us with ENT, but also ENT features characters from TNG, so it cannot be on the list of Canon Star Trek.

Concluding to my remark that I have now soundly proven with rock-solid arguments: There is no Star Trek Canon, at all. Wake up, sheeple!

1 Like
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Er, the specific Kzinti in TAS are canon enough to be featured in STA’s Gamma Quadrant…

I think your last statement was most accurate - before the Timeline Wars start again :smiley:

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Guys, guys! I’m sorry if I hit a nerve. I was just going by what I know. In a book I have: Star Trek Chronology: The History of the Future it mentions that Gene Roddenberry didn’t consider it canon. If that sentiment has been upended I didn’t know.

Quote from the Introduction, page vi
". . . in later years Gene would express regret at some elements of the show [The animated series] and instructed paramount not to consider this series as part of the ‘official’ Star Trek Universe.

It later goes on to say that the episode ‘Yesteryear’ IS considered canon, though the rest of the show is not. And, I mean, TAS could be considered non-canon and the Kzinti could still exist. Just because an alien was introduced in TAS and later made canon doesn’t mean all of TAS is canon. Frankly I really don’t want to think about a 50ft tall clone of Spock still living it up on a random planet with a 50ft tall clone of an augment being canon.

Anyway, I think we’re getting off topic. Let’s drop the TAS canon/non-canon thing for now and just have fun with Lower Decks. Which is what this thread was about anyway.

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I still want giant spock to make an appearance

1 Like
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I think “lower decks” is a perfect example of how STA has characters at different levels in the player’s “series”, supporting characters, etc.

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I think LD is a good example for a STA group.

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So I statted out Beckett Mariner as well, let me know what you guys think:

Ensign Beckett Mariner(Human)
Traits: Human, Friend to the Klingons
Talents:
-Resolute (Of the two Human traits, this seems more like mariner)
-Bold (Security) (Mariner seems much more Reckless than the others (read-bold) and we see her knock out four enemies at once in one episode, so I figure this works.)
-Dauntless (We never see her intimidated.)
-Mean Right Hook (I mean, yes, she’s really crazy good at unarmed combat.)

Value:
-Been Surounded by Starfleet all my life (This is implied throughout all of season one, and outright stated in episode 9)
-Best in my class at the academy (Stated in episode 7)
-I’ve seen a lot of sh!*, man
-I ignore rules when they are dumb (Stated in one of the episodes, I think 6? Where she points out that she does get off on breaking the rules, but only if they are dumb or contrary to common sense)

Control:9 Daring:10 Fitness:11 Insight:8 Presence:9 Reason:10 (She’s smart, Really good at fighting, and daring, but she’s bad at self-control and reading people . . . or maybe she just doesn’t care?)

Command:4 Conn1 Engineering:2 Security:4 Science:3 Medicine: 1

Focuses
-Lead by Example
-Klingons
-Routine Maintenance
-Starfleet Martial Arts
-Hostile Shapeshifters (She seems to have a handle on them. Cupid’s errant arrow, she is shown to know all about alien shapeshifters that Brad’s Girlfriend might be.)
-Federation Trivia

Stress: 18, Bonus damage 4,
Department: Command (command)
Human->Starship (we don’t know where she grew up, so I guessed)->Starfleet (rebelled)(I mean, her mom is a captain and maybe her dad is an admiral?)->Command Track (She’s a red Shirt)-> Experienced Officer (in one episode she is promoted to full lieutenant and then busted down to ensign)->Lauded by another culture (Klingon grey ops)->Encounter with a truly alien being (She seems to have experience with these, the ball of light that gives her a tricorder, Q, the floating energy being that destroyed the Rubidoux . . .)

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I’ll start by saying that I am one of the ones that Below Decks (at least the one episode I got to watch for free on YouTube) is not my cup of tea.

That said … GREAT WRITE UPS !!!

Thanks for sharing.

They will be really helpful, if I ever get to play / run a game. My focus would be a lower rank “Lower Decks” type game , so this is a good start point for characters/NPCs.

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Thanks, I’m glad you like them. I will have to say like any Trek show, Lower Decks starts off Rocky and is steadily improving over time. Have you gone back and watched TNG or DS9 season 1? Not. . . Great. Latest episode (number 9) still brought the comedy while actually doing some really good Character development for Beckett.

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I think it does a really good job of making us think: Who was Picard before he became the stuffy Captain? Who was Riker? We’ve seen hints in flashbacks but this makes you think about who those people were in their lives before we were introduced.

It also reminds me of the lower-decks TNG episode where Sito Jaxa “dies”.

In my old FASA campaign I actually had her alive and a prisoner of the Cardassians for several years. She was eventually rescued, but imagine going through what Picard endured… for years. She also became pregnant with a half-Cardassian child, which they used to control her and make her a double agent against my player crew. She was a bit messed up.

It always bothered me that the Enterprise just took things at face value and left her.

1 Like
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Latest (as of this posting) episode of Lower Decks really impressed me (Season 1 Episode 9). Some really good character development and it shows some great growth for Beckett. Might have to change around some of her values. Anyone want me to continue this? There might be enough to work with for me to make D’Vana Tendi.

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Well, I did Samanthan Rutherford today. Even though he’s not a Liberated Borg, I used the stats (and species trait) for one to approximate his cyborg-ness. Let me know what you guys think.

Ensign Samanthan Rutherford
Traits: Human, Cyborg
Talents:
-Direct Neural Interface
-Bold: Engineering
-A Little more Power
-Untapped Potential

Value:
-The Alluring Call of a Jefferies Tube
-Starfleet is just the best!
-Relentlessly Inquisitive (about Engineering)
-The Cerritos is where I’m needed

Control:10 Daring:9 Fitness:9 Insight:8 Presence:9 Reason:11

Command:1 Conn2 Engineering:4 Security:3 Science:3 Medicine: 3

Focuses
-Electro-Plasma Systems
-(Implant Enhanced) Martial Arts
-Surgery
-Computers
-Routine Maintenance
-Engineering Equipment

Stress 12, Bonus damage 3
Department: Ops (Engineering)

Liberated Borg (Best fit for a cyborg)->Homeworld/Earth (Didn’t know, guessed)->Science and Technology (Guessed . . . seems like a solid guess)->Ops Track (He’s clearly an Engineer)->Young Officer (he’s so naieve and full of wonder!)->Dealt with a plague (Episode 1, while he’s on a date!)->Confronted a superior Officer (Episode 5, he prevents the chief Engineer of the Vancouver from abusing his authority to transfer to a ‘less epic’ ship.)

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Wow, has it been a year since I posted in this topic? I can’t believe another season of lower Decks has come out and I still haven’t finished off our four protagonists. I’m going to look into doing some of the others as well, like Captain Freeman, Ransom, and the others. But first I gotta finish off D’Vana Tendi

Species: We have stats for Orions but not Species Talents for them, so I gave her Bold in Medicine. While she initially appears quite timid when doing medicine, 9 times out of 10 she’s doing it in high stress, risky situations.

Environment: We know that she grew up on the Orian Homeworld but never got to see the great wonders of her homeworld because she was too busy. We also know that she used to be a much more ‘stereotypical’ Orion but left that life behind.
-We don’t know what her upbringing was like exactly, but in season2 episode 3 it is implied she used to be a shady smuggler/pirate but left that life behind. I gave her Buisness/Trade but had her Rebel as she eventually left that life.
-She obviously took the science-Medical track in Starfleet, but I gave her also ranks in Engineering (she repairs a LOT of stuff on the ship) and Security (for the aforementioned Romulan fight scene, also when she tries to shoot Ruthoford in Episode 2x01)
-Career Events: Dealt with a plague (Episode 1, gains the trauma Surgery Focus for pumping someone’s heart in the heat of battle for someone.
Career Event 2: Recruited by Starfleet intelligence (Basically the events of 1x08 when she is mistaken for ‘the cleaner.’)
In the end Tendi has poor control (which is true, she’s bad at self-control, both with not doing what she wants to do and also not letting the emotions get the better of her) but she’s good at everything else. On the Dicipline side of things she’s shown competence in everything except piloting, but in the end her true colors are in Security, Command (She’s GREAT at taking command when she has to) and of course, Medicine. It was a toss up weather to give her 3 in Science or Engineering, and while we see her do more engineering stuff, it’s mostly routine maintenance that would have a difficulty of zero, so I chose to make her better at science.

Attributes:
Control: 7, Fitness:10, Daring: 10, Insight 10, Presence 9, Reason 10

Disciplines:
Command 3, Conn 1, Engineering 2, Security 3, Science 3, Medicine 4

Ensign D’Vana Tendi
Traits: Orion

Values:
-Orion Stereotypes are a Sore Spot for me. (All but stated in season 1 episode 10)
-Starfleet is my home and family now (Basically stated in 2x10)
-Untarnished sense of wonder (Basically her character)
-Happy to work hard (Again, she’s a hard worker, but she’s also relentlessly upbeat)

Talents:
-Bold: Medicine
-Mean Right Hook (In Season 1 Episode 8 we see her put the hurt on a LOT of Romulans bare handed)
-Quick Study-Medicine (In 2x10, Dr. T’Ana says she masters all medical procedures instantly.)
-Untapped Potential (She’s an Ensign!)

Focus:
-Orion Society (In 2x03 we see she knows a LOT about Orion Society, both Orion outposts and how to interact with fellow Orions.)
-Xenobiology (We see she is a competent, if shy, medic)
-Genetics (She genetically built a SUPERDOG)
-Routine Maitenance (She repairs a LOT of non-medical stuff on the Cerritos, as well as knowing what a ‘t88’ is)
-Trauma Surgery
-Starfleet Martial Arts (Again, taking out like, four Romulans unarmed)

Stress: 13, Bonus Damage: 3
Department: Science (Medical)

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Good job. I’m hoping we get an official pdf of these soon! Not every Star Trek show is going to be embraced by all but I like this one. (Better than Picard and Discovery anyhow.)