'Nathan Burgoine's Blog, page 4

Tabletop Tuesday — A Tale of Traitors (Part Two)

It’s Tuesday again and I’m back with my series of traitorous garbage characters discussion. When I first thought of this as a topic it occurred to me that I have two stories—and maybe a bonus semi-third—from a TTRPG point of view about weaving traitorous characters—this time an NPC—into campaigns as the narrator, and that it could be fun to talk about them. 

This time, I’m heading back to Star Trek Adventures, which mostly plays as an episodic game—which can make weaving in a traitor a bit harder. You generally only get one shot with most characters, but it’s the most I’m talking about today because of a pre-printed adventure and the kismet of the characters in one of my ongoing campaigns. 

Let’s talk Tal Duron.

Trill Seeking

In one of my gaming groups for Star Trek Adventures, I’ve got an (almost) entirely Trill-based crew. This happened at random (I’ve told this tale before) as a result of me asking if I knew anyone who’d like to try Star Trek Adventures online, and getting eleven people who said yes, half of which wanted to play Trill characters. I leaned into it, and the USS Curzon was launched: the first majority Trill-crewed Starfleet ship. This allowed the ship to have some cool qualities (traits, in Star Trek Adventures terms) like “Trill-crewed,” and “Grand Experiment” (this latter being a more political than technological or scientific, but adding some pressure for Curzon to always be a PR success for the Trill Ministry back home, who pushed for this ship to happen even though Trill isn’t yet a Federation Member).

I tend to use pre-published adventures about half the time (and I’ve talked before about how awesome pre-published adventures are), and one of the joys of having the two groups is deciding which adventure works best for which group. When I was looking at the three-part adventure included in the Starter Campaign, which (spoiler territory) deals with the parasite aliens from the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation, I’d pretty much decided this was going to be handed to the Trill group. We never saw any Trill interact with these parasites, but it would have to make for a solid narrative for a species that embodies symbiosis to face off against a species that embodies parasitism and enslavement, no?

Then, while reading the adventure synopsis, I found him. Tal Duron.

Building a Villain The starter campaign, “A Star Beyond the Stars.“

Again, spoiler-territory, but Tal Duron is a Trill NPC who shows up mid-way through the three-episode trilogy in the starter campaign as working with the alien parasites, and his motivation is basically: he wants to be joined, but didn’t make the criteria cut-offs for the Trill Symbiosis Commission, and this—he feels—is his chance. He’s doing horrible things, genetic augmentation, messing with genomes, trying to make things more of a “partnership” for the parasitic aliens, but to be clear? This is for him. He’s not trying to make anything better so much as trying to touch immortality the way he could have done had he been joined with a symbiont. He’s horrible. And there’s a chance the players can turn him around, sure, but he’s already cut a swath through flesh and blood.

Now, in the campaign as written, he’s that. That’s his whole role. Whether or not the players turn him to their side, whether or not he ends up helping them or not, they can get past the problems and head to the main climax of the campaign. But given he was a Trill doing this horrible thing, I decided I wanted him to be way, way more important. But how do you do that when he pops up mid-adventure?

Easy. You seed him backwards into the campaign. Have him show up ahead of time, have the players briefly meet him or interact with him. Make him a known quantity before this major moment. I popped him into an earlier episode… just as a “oh, and there’s the somewhat infamous Tal Duron moment…”

And it almost went completely off the rails, of course.

Ah, Players. Is There Nothing They Won’t Notice?

Here was my simple, “what could go wrong?” plan: In an episode before the players would go through the starter campaign boxed trilogy, they were attending a medical conference. The plot of that episode was centred around harm and the fallout of not dealing well with ones own loss and grief—one of the players learning they could have been a Guardian, that they’ve got some latent telepathic ability—but in the worst way possible: accidentally telepathically connecting with a surviving Miradorn twin who’d lost their sibling and starting this sort of cascade “flashback of trauma moments” telepathic outbreak during the conference.

While all this was happening—the A Plot, as it were—I had Tal Duron be present at the conference, had another NPC character on board the ship (one the players don’t particularly like), get into a fistfight with Tal Duron on sight. Like, Dr. Mahar, the older, frustrating, fussy Symbiosis Commission expert on board the Curzon, just haul off and slugged Tal Duron. In keeping with the theme of trauma, the crew learned that Tal Duron had been put on trial (and importantly, found not guilty) when the ship he’d been on with a Joined Trill friend was badly damaged, the Joined Trill injured, but Duron deciding to operate to “save” the symbiont without the right equipment or for-sure knowing that the host was dying. The prosecution presented that Tal Duron was basically doing a “I want to be Joined, so I’ll “save” this symbiont,” whereas the defence presented it as him truly trying to do the right thing. The host and symbiont died. The trial happened. Duron was basically shunned out of society despite the not-guilty verdict because his family were important and influential and among Trill the general consensus was he got away with it because of who he was, not his actual intent being pure.

Oh, and that joined Trill who died? The Captain’s brother.

So, what was intended to happen was for this to play out in the background. The players would learn a bit about the Captain’s past (specifically, her brother), Tal Duron would get his first glimpse as “Okay, we don’t like him, but he’s not doing anything illegal or wrong, so… that’s the end of that.” And onward we’d go, right? After all, there’s a telepathic outbreak happening where people are falling into telepathic replays of traumatic events, and we need to focus on that, obviously.

Right?

Wrong.

Alternative Access Protocols

The Chief Engineer and the Ship’s Counsellor both immediately picked up on Tal Duron being bad news, and they 100% didn’t trust him to breathe at this conference without ill intent. They hacked his security. They listened in (both with tech and telepathy).

Ultimately, I ran with this—I wasn’t going to give them anything illegal they could action (and I kept reminding them of the illegality of some of their—ahem—alternative access protocols they were using to gain information about him through the hotel computers and the like. All the while, the other A-plot was unfolding, and Tal Duron was even suspected of being involved. He was a trained doctor and a geneticist. Maybe it was his fault? He’s an asshole. Surely he’s involved?

Then the crew overheard him getting the “job offer” that would place him where he needed to be in the upcoming episode, and they seriously considered figuring out a way to ground him, arrest him, you name it—and I had to lean pretty heavily on “Under what charge?” while they got annoyed that this obviously bad person was agreeing to “freedoms” he’d have with the Cardassian Empire for his research (I swapped out Cardassia for the Romulans in my version of the campaign, I should note) but they had nothing to work with. “I don’t like him being hired by Cardassians because he’s a bad man” doesn’t exactly hold up as a legal charge.

Ultimately, this side-track worked out for the best. The players loathed Tal Duron before he’d even done anything to them. But I definitely learned my lesson about dangling any potential less-than-great character in front of them at any time: less is more.

You Again! (And Again, Kind Of)!

Eventually, the players did face off against Tal Duron in the campaign, more-or-less as written in the three-part adventure. The Ship’s Counsellor got to deliver quite the therapeutic “You’re Lying To Everyone, Especially Yourself” talk with him where Duron basically had a breakdown. This was after the Science Officer had his “Everyone Deserves a Second Chance!” Value challenged by Duron existing and decided sometimes that second chance is to be slugged in the face with prejudice (his Value is now “Everyone Deserves the Chance to Show You Who They Are,” I believe).

Duron was brought up on charges for what he did, Trill justice tossed him in jail, and while it wasn’t entirely satisfying given the death and destruction in his wake—and how almost everything ended up classified—he definitely went down as one of the most memorable villains in the campaign thus far.

(Then, for funsies, I brought him back again—kind of—when the group went into the Mirror Universe, and it was great. They didn’t trust him to do anything. He was a pilot, not a scientist or doctor, and it didn’t matter. Ultimately, they also learned he was a murderer there, too, and Mirror Duron tried to betray them, and it was honestly really fun to play out the moment. They were all more-or-less, ‘And there it is!’ about the whole thing, and had prepped for it.)

And there. Tal Duron is done.

Well… he’s in jail. So surely he’s finished appearing in the campaign, right?

Right?

Right?

Anyway, tell me about your favourite villains from your campaigns—either as a player or a narrator—and if you, like me, ever flubbed up and accidentally shifted your B-plot a major slice of the A-plot time because you gave the players too much shiny in the B-plot.

Tabletop Tuesday — A Tale of Traitors (Part One)

For absolutely no reason whatsoever, I’ve been thinking about traitorous garbage people lately, and it occurred to me that I have two stories—and maybe a bonus semi-third—from a TTRPG point of view about weaving traitorous characters into campaigns as the narrator, and that it could be fun to talk about them.

To be clear, this is not something I suggest doing often—and especially only with major hesitation and everyone’s awareness if we’re talking about a player character—I’m not sure I’d even suggest doing a player traitor at all, frankly, but now and then? Well.

Treachery from within can make for a compelling game.

The First… Time.

My first occasion where I intended a long-arc of a traitorous character goes back to Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, Second Edition (I know, I’m basically dust in a humanoid shape, like a mephit), and a group of players I had over summer before the start of university year. I had an idea for a D&D Campaign where the players were part of a prophecy (I know, groundbreaking), but the reveal was going to be that someone was forcing this prophecy, guiding and nudging the players to fulfil it (again, I know, groundbreaking), and all because said individual was aware of the price if they failed because he’d been there when they did—and then ended up in the past, thanks to a massive magical eruption caused (in part) by their failure. This prophecy dude took everything he’d learned and tried to leave clues and advice to the future heroes—ones that hadn’t even been born yet—knowing he’d die of old age before they’d come of age. I made him a bard, and his songs, poems, and tales were a central part of the plot.

Oh, also? They were all orphans. (I know, groundbreaking.)

Then I got the group together and asked them to make characters. What’s important here is one of them was intending to go away at the end of summer, but he asked if he could join in, and said the magical words that would change my plan—”I don’t mind playing a character you’re intending to turn into an NPC.”

Thus Emit Half-Elven was born. (Yes, I’ll acknowledge here that at the time, pretty much every half-elf was called “Name Half-Elven” because of Tanis, and Dragonlance, and did I mention I’m made of dust in a humanoid shape?) A transmuter (a specialist in alteration magic) with a flare and penchant for boosts and buffs more than ka-blammo-type magic, Emit was created to be a character the players would later rely on when they needed magical aid (no one ever wanted to be a wizard in this group), and an NPC I could bring in and—yes—he was a traitor. I’d decided that from the start, but I thought it would definitely help lay the foundation for the players to never consider him being a someone who’d turn on them if our good pal played him first.

We played all summer, my friend had fun for the first time with a wizard character (partly because of the lack of ka-blammo, in fact—it turned out he liked using the spells that mostly changed or nudged the usual rules for the players), and after an incident with some objects that belonged to the Bard who put together the prophecies in question, Emit started having visions—glimpses of places, or people, or things, many of them having not happened yet. He turned his magical research towards divinations and temporal magics, and then, at the end of summer—Emit’s player decided not to go to university in Vancouver after all, and ended up staying local.

So, my plan was suddenly very derailed. I’d intended to have Emit send the group on various adventures while he tried to figure out his new magical abilities, pushed boundaries with temporal magics, and basically was off-scene while the players pieced together more and more of these prophecies: including how they appeared to be the ones identified by the bard to be the best shot at stopping a big evil that was definitely coming—an already old and powerful dark wizard already rumoured to exist elsewhere, biding his time.

Now, here’s the thing eagle-eyed readers (or just people who know me and my penchant for anagrams well) likely already noticed: Emit is just “time” backwards. He’s literally the big villain of the story, only he doesn’t know it, and that big explosion didn’t just toss the bard back in time, it tossed the villain back in time, too—and, because it was temporal magics—it also de-aged him back to a kid, including rewinding his memories. Which it had done to all the players, too. This was why they were orphans with no families: their families in some cases hadn’t been born yet (Of note, this was only possible because no one played an elf, and the dwarf said he wanted to be very young without me prompting. I got lucky).

But now I had Emit’s player… wanting to keep playing. I rolled with it (though I had a few sleepless nights trying to figure it out) and it became a recurring gag among the players that they were “The Chosen Five—plus Emit.” In fact, they’d meta-game laugh about how him staying had created this “extra” character, and I’d chuckle and play along, and they’d say how cool it was I’d managed to fold him into the story and make his weird visions the instigating factor for their adventures and dungeon crawls for all these artefacts they believed the evil wizard was hunting for.

And then it happened. During one of the dungeon crawls, the players found the object in question (in this case it was an old spellbook that Emit’s visions had him believing was going to be important to the big bad evil wizard), and he got another vision, and this one had built on another vision from another session—One of Emit’s chronomancy spells had gone a bit wobbly and I’d had the party cleric’s holy symbol get cracked, I think, and the cleric had decided to leave it that way as a sign that faith didn’t have to be perfect to be strong, something like that—and in the spellbook were some drawings, and I described them—including symbols for each of the “prophesied heroes” and mentioned a “little wiggly line” through the symbol for the cleric.

Apparently, that did it. “The little wiggly line is the crack, right?” Emit’s player waited until after the gaming session, hanging back. “Am I the bad guy?”

I’m the Bad Guy? Just look at that nerd. I loved my Enigma t-shirt. This is roughly the right time period; I’m not flush with photographs.

I admitted it, told him what the original plan had been, how he’d derailed it—kinda—and that now… Well, now I guess we had to decide what to do? I told him we could make this a heroic arc instead if he wanted to: after all, the “other” version of him was already an old half-elf, starting to research the temporal magic that would allow him to “steal” years of life from other people by aging them and start his long fall into further and further evil, but if Emit realized this was his future, maybe he could work to stop it?

And this wonderful, friendly, super-cool friend who was always the guy who picked up extra pizza or brought candy, turned to me and said, “Oh hell no, I wanna go all evil.”

Now, looking back, I was really lucky was everyone involved was super-mature about things, really loved the story we’d made together, and the ultimate reveal—which we held onto for a few more sessions of Emit slyly manipulating the players into getting his most powerful scattered objects lost across the time-explosion—was nice and dramatic. Emit found “the staff of shards,” got a massive leap in power, and when the staff gave him a make-over that included mystic runes all over his left hand and arm that the players had read about over-and-over-and-over in the various bard songs as “the first sign of his evil” they were floored.

Also, then Emit froze them in time, thanked them for giving him “the head start he needed to get it right this time,” and walked away. He told them he wouldn’t kill them—not this time—but they already knew it would be pointless to try and stop him—he is a master of time itself—so they should do themselves a favour and leave him to his work. This was their only warning.

It went over like gangbusters. They loved it. Emit’s player got to do this major dramatic monolog—his girlfriend was so jealous that he got to be the villain, which was one of the funniest parts to me—and he retired the character to NPC status (though I did let him guide me when the group faced down against him way later at the height of the campaign). He picked up another character—I have no memory of who that character was—joined the group, and despite the setback, ultimately they ended up triumphing (they realized their best option was to face down the older version of Emit, because if he was stopped, the younger, time-tossed Emit might not even exist—or something like that—they realized they needed to stop the staff of shards from ever being made. It was a whole time-magic thing, but in the end they were right and Emit’s player got to do a “no, no, no!” scene as he faded away and the staff of shards just sort of unexisted. It was cool.)

But Seriously, It’s Not a Good Idea

Emit Half-Elven ended up as the character of that gaming group. I haven’t seen most of those people in years—oh, God, I think I can say decades now—but the last time I bumped into one of them, when they came at random into the bookstore where I was working, the first thing they said to me was, “I still think about that Emit campaign.”

It was great.

I don’t think I’d do it again.

I’m not against inter-player conflict, but when I look back at Emit, that could have gone so wrong. I really, really caution letting one player screw over the others, especially if it’s going to be some big reveal. I realize I just spent a whole blog-post talking about how cool it was and now I’m saying “but don’t do it!” but it’s more that I think you need to make sure everyone would be on board with the possibility. These days, I’m pretty careful to chat back and forth with players before a game about what they’re looking for, what sort of tone they’d like—there are whole guides out there about Session Zeros—and I’m down with that.

So why did Emit fly so well? In Emit’s particular case, I think the reason it worked so well was because Emit wasn’t screwing over the other players from the start, or even for most of the time he was played (or, well, he kind of was, in the sense that Emit’s visions were leading him to the power he’d need to become the villain, but neither he nor his player knew it).

Also? I’d intended him to be an NPC before he got too consciously down that path—and had to change plans. No one involved set out to have a player turn on the other players. That trust wasn’t broken from the start.

You wouldn’t want to break player trust in each other.

Leave that to your NPCs. Which will bring me to next week’s story about a Trill Geneticist…

Tabletop Tuesday — Lore Master’s Deck

Hey all! It’s Tuesday, so I’m back talking tabletop, and since most of what I’ve been playing lately has been Star Trek Adventures, Pathfinder (where I’m actually a player!), Star Wars (ditto!), and Mutants & Masterminds, I thought I’d bring up the third of the tools from the creators of the Story Engine Deck and the Deck of Worlds (both of which I’ve talked about before, and you can click to read those entries).

As I’ve mentioned before, those decks are a goldmine for me when I’m working on a TTRPG session, and I’m sure it won’t be long before I’m back here talking about another adventure, setting, or character spun up via the decks, but it’s only recently I really started to sit down and play with the Lore Master’s Deck—and it’s unsurprisingly awesome.

Pick a Card, Any Card

Like all the deck products you can get from the Story Engine webstore, it really comes down to just drawing a card to start yourself off, but the Lore Master’s Deck is designed to—I’ll quote the instruction guide—create ideas for fictional factions, figures, events, locations, objects, materials, and creatures, and organize these ideas in a web of connections and relationships. The way it works is pretty simple, you pick one of those categories—Faction, Figure, Event, Location, Object, Material, or Creature—and you’ll be faced with four choices like many of the cards in previous decks.

Five cards and we’re already sparking ideas.

Given I’m still in a Star Trek Adventures frame of mind from the Nyberrite Alliance groups I’ve been working on, let’s grab a location and build up somewhere for the Nyberrite Alliance. I draw a Location card, and my four options are: Temple, Channel, Farmstead, and Compound. That last one grabs my attention—maybe this’ll end up being a Balduk compound of some kind?—so I run with that.

Now, unlike the other decks, where you draw a card of each type (with perhaps one or two modifying cards) with the Lore Master’s Deck you’re striving to create a web of interlacing results, so you actually draw (up to) four more of the same type of card—in this case Location—but you flip them over. On the reverse side of the cards are potential links. These are traits or background details that you’ll tuck beneath the card you drew and use to connect new cards and… well, it basically starts sprawling from there.

Let me start with the example we already have, that Compound, and work from there. Of note, you don’t have to draw four cards—I often draw one at a time, and stop when something strikes me—but this is an example, so let’s go all in. Given I’m drawing four more cards, each with four traits or backgrounds to choose from—sixteen total—I’m not going to list all the options, but what I ended up choosing were the following four: Constant Sunlight or No Sunlight; Used as a School (by a Faction); Art or Statuary Depicting a Creature; and Mosaic(s) or Sculpture(s) (made of a Material). As you’ll see on the image there, there are symbols beside three of those cards: those represent other decks (in this case, a Faction card, a Creature card, and two Material cards). Those are meant to link in another cue via a draw from those decks (on their face-up side).

One Lore Cluster!

So, I grab a Faction, a Creature, and two Material cards. Each, again, have four choices, but I end up choosing “Regiment” for the Faction, “Dragonfly” for the creature, and “Polish” and “Dye” for the Materials.

This creates a “Lore Cluster.” In my case, I’ve got the image to the side there. So, we’re looking at a compound that’s used as a school for a regiment—at this point, I’ve already decided these are definitely the Balduk, the most notable warriors of the Nyberrite Alliance—and the compound itself is adorned with art and statuary denoting dragonflies (or, given this is an alien world, I decide they’re a dragonfly-analog, and are in fact closer to the ones from way back, and are quite a bit larger than the ones we have here on Earth today). Of note, these designs of dragonflies are made with polish and dye—and I’m reminded that when I came up with the Balduk, I decided they had a keratinous growth that grew up and over their skulls from their foreheads, which they called ellem, and they had a history of shaping this protective growth—and using it for tools when it broke or needed trimming. So, the decorative touches throughout this compound are made of polished and dyed ellem—and part of what this school teaches is the creation of weaponry, including using ellem to craft blades, knives, or arrowheads. As for the trait of constant sunlight or no sunlight, I’ve always been in love with the notion of tidally locked planets—so-called Eyeball Worlds—so we’ll decide this compound is located on one of those theoretical planets (after all, it’s Star Trek), and thus the sun is always up—though I’m going to say it’s also not very high in the sky, but rather it’s like it’s always just a little bit before sunset, the sun low on the horizon providing some heat, with those alien dragonflies zipping around in the wetlands around the compound hunting for smaller insect prey.

But Wait, There’s More!

Now, that’s more than enough for me to have crafted a setting, and if that was all I was looking for, I could call it a day—that’s one of the great things bout all the decks from Story Engine: you use them until you’ve got an idea you want to run with, discounting any bits that don’t fit right (or, sometimes, sitting with those draws you initially frown at and asking yourself to think, ‘yeah, but could I come up with something that works for this?’)

But the Lore Master’s Deck can also keep going. Going back to my example, sure the location gave me something to work with for the Balduk regiment, but… what if I wanted more than “they learn how to make weapons at this compound”?

You’ll soon learn to read upside-down if you can’t already.

Well, I just tug that Regiment card out, and give it the same treatment I gave the Compound in the first place. There’s another deck full of Modifier cards, and they’ve got handy little arrows you can use to help yourself keep track of your growing lore, so after I tug the Regiment free, I draw one of those and pick a modifier. My four choices on the first side of the first card I draw are “Textured,” “Meticulous,” “Sunken,” or “Traditional,” and that last one feels like a winner because we’re talking about a school teaching people how to make knives and blades and arrows when there are phasers and space ships. This Regiment? They’re old school.

After that, you keep going as you did before, tucking (up to) three new trait or background cards on the unused sides beneath the card you just pulled out—using the reverse of the same sort of card—and see what you get. In my case, I’m drawing from the Faction deck (because I’m building on that Regiment card) and from those three cards I choose the following from the four options on each: a background, Formed out of Colonial Interests or Resistance; a trait, Masters of a Sport or Fighting Style; and an agenda, Dismantle a System or Institution—that last one has my choice of two symbols on it, either another Faction card, or a Location card. I go with another Faction, draw a Faction card and get my choice of “Office,” “Platoon,” “Group” or “Mob” and… Mob. The Orion Syndicate has come up a few times in my campaign, and they’re basically a crime syndicate mob, just Trek flavoured, so at some point this Balduk Regiment has definitely butted heads with the Orion Syndicate—they want them taken down.

As for the other two prompts: “Masters of a Sport or Fighting Style” has me definitely leaning toward the latter, deciding these Balduk are absolute masters of small blades and archery—maybe worthy of giving them a Special Rule or Talent in Star Trek Adventures to give them a game mechanic advantage when they’re using blades or bows, and I’d already decided that the Balduk were one of the few species to manage to resist the Klingon Empire when it tried to invade, so these warriors can trace their heritage back to that proud moment in their history with “Formed out of Colonial Interests or Resistance” with the latter option: they resist.

The full spread of two lore clusters.

Now, that’s two lore clusters complete, but you can keep going as long as you’d like. Maybe next time draw the “Mob” card out to learn more about the Orion Syndicate people who specifically interacted with this Traditional Regiment of Balduk warriors, or pull out the Dragonfly card to learn about the alien creature the Regiment honours in decoration—why? What does it signify?

Given the cards can get pretty spread out, the Lore Master’s Deck also gives you these adorable little wooden arrows you can use to draw little pathways between cards, but I’ve yet to really use them (I only have so much table space). But you can see how easy it would be to keep going and going… and how much it sparks the imagination with every new draw.

As it is, I’ve got enough to work with from multiple angles here for a session. A regiment of traditionalist Balduk warriors who can trace their lineages back to the original attempted invasion of their home world, living in a compound on a tidally locked planet where giant dragonfly-like insects dart around, who have a particular dislike of the Orion Syndicate? Maybe the crew need help in finding someone who ran afoul of the Syndicate and has vanished—and the Balduk are the closest experts on the Syndicate. Or, maybe the crew are visiting the Balduk for unrelated reasons, diplomatic or trade, and the Orions use the moment to stage an act of sabotage. Maybe a Klingon Warrior with a grudge decides he wants to reclaim some family honour by taking down the regiment that successfully resisted his House’s assault on their people so many years ago. Either way, I’ve got enough to put together a session, and all via drawing some cards.

Putting Them All Together—Wait, Can I Put Them All Together?

Yes. One of the great things about the Lore Master’s Deck is the back page of the instructions kit, where it points out you can mix-and-match cards from The Story Engine and Deck of Worlds—for example, instead of drawing a Location card (the Compound, in my case) I could have drawn Anchor cards from The Story Engine, or Landmarks or Regions from the Deck of Worlds—and then still used the Lore Master’s Deck to create lore clusters around what I drew. Similarly, when you’re using the Story Engine Deck, you can draw Modifier cards instead of Aspect cards, or Object, Material, or Creature cards instead of Anchor cards, or, or, or… It also helps that where possible, quite a few of the symbols are the same: Figure cards use the same icon as Agents, and Location cards use the same icon as Landmarks, for example, so you don’t often need to look at the sheet to figure out what you can draw from where.

And there are also Bridge Expansions, too, which cross the various decks over on purpose, with symbols and card types of all three core decks. I think I have every expansion they’ve done, but honestly, any one set—or even creating your own with the pdfs—are a trove of ideas.

Tabletop Tuesday — The Nyberrite Alliance: The Halee

Happy Tuesday! I’m back on Star Trek Adventures again this week for Tabletop Tuesday, with the last of a quartet of species I fleshed out for my group playing their way through the Shackleton Expanse campaign put out by Modiphius. Three weeks ago I introduced the Nyberrite Alliance with the Nyberrites themselves, then two weeks ago I added the Balduk, and then the R’Ongovians, and finally today: the Halee, which is another “blink and you’ll miss it” mention from an episode of Star Trek: the Next Generation.

Halee

TOS ERA ONWARD

Halee II, the Class M homeworld of the Halee, exists on the inner edge of the star system’s habitable zone and has a particularly high axial tilt, which, combined with its orbit, leads to  an extreme variance between seasons throughout the planet’s two-hundred-and-ninety-five-day year. Punishingly hot and humid summers are followed by winters where sunlight is scarce for a quarter of the year, and temperatures plummet. Yearly hurricanes seasons used to pummel the coastal areas of the planet, and while weather detection and adjustment satellite systems have been in place for nearly three decades as of the 2370s, the dreaded “storm season” lives on in the minds of older Halee citizens. The Halee hav a cultural—and spiritual—sense of communal care and compassion, alongside a religious tradition of honouring and elevating the dead who died in service of the community.

Halee evolved from brachiating primates, originally surviving the larger predators of the dense forests and jungles by learning to work together and climbing to safety, and working to gather necessary supplies to ride out winter in nest-like structures they built and insulated in the higher-altitude forests before the first temperature drops. As humanoids, their skin tones are generally shades of yellows and oranges matching the bark and branches of the forests of their homeworld; their eyes pale yellow, grey, or gold; and their lean bodies are built to be graceful, with longer-than-average arms that hang lower past their waist than most humanoids (a throwback to their brachiating heritage). Most have black hair that greys as they age, which grows from high on their scalp and notably also in two denser groupings from high on either temple—the young can cling to the denser hair growing from both temples while riding parental backs, as they retain a strong-grip reflex even in infancy, though most modern Halee prefer to carry their infants and children with cloth wraps. As beings that evolved on a very warm planet, they find most locations a bit cold for their liking, and often wear voluminous robes to compensate.

Halee II contains a wide variety of predators, all of which live very much up to the notion of nature being “red in tooth and claw.” For example, flights of white-tailed Halee condors—an avian with a wingspan of nearly four meters—form mutualistic relationships with prides of Halee grass leopards, the two species working together to herd smaller, quicker prey that might otherwise escape either predator species on their own. This means humanoids in the wild need to look down and up, just like the rest of the prey species on the planet—and greater predators than these exist among the wilder interiors of Halee II’s four large continents. 

The need for protection when Halee venture into the deeper, predator filled jungles of their world led to the rise of a legion of protectors—Halee Rangers—tasked with learning the routes to the isolated communities within the deeps (traditionally the source of rare substances). Any willing to take on the dangerous job are considered—even those with less-than-stellar pasts. In fact, disgraced Klingons are known to choose serving in this legion in exile if they wish to seek a more honourable death—of which those serving know there are ample opportunities—while defending groups heading into the deeps. 

Fairly recently the Halee have colonized Halee III, originally a Class L world within the outer edge of the habitable zone of the system. Aided by their fellow Nyberrite Alliance members in its terraforming and expansion of the initial sites, Halee III is set to become a thriving world over the next few decades, with a great deal of expected immigration coming from Halee II itself given Halee III’s lack of native fauna. Of note, this colony has been a contentious issue among the more religiously and spiritually aligned of the Halee, who believe removing themselves from the dangers of Halee II is akin to rejecting all those who gave their lives to ensure their continuance on the world that gave them birth.

The Halee are a part of the Nyberrite Alliance (having joined the organization after its initial founding as the fourth member), and while as a whole the Nyberrite Alliance are not quite as technologically advanced as the Federation, each of the species work together and their overall collective technological capabilities are about on par with the Cardassian Empire or the Ferengi. In the Nyberrite Alliance, the Halee provide much of its environmental technologies, as well as providing adaptable and think-outside-the-box engineering acumen.  

EXAMPLE VALUE: Together we remain standing where those apart would fall.

ATTRIBUTES: +1 Control, +1 Fitness, +1 ReasonTRAIT: Halee. While not particularly large nor one of the strongest humanoids in the galaxy, the Halee have a strong tradition of acrobatics going back to their brachiating ancestors, have both a keen sense of balance and proprioception, as well as particularly strong grips and dextrous fingers. Similarly, their eyes are fairly well adapted to noticing detail and motion even when in dim lighting or shadows, which their genetic ancestors used to watch for predators among the upper branches of their trees. TALENTS: The character receives access to the following talents: NATURAL CLIMBER

REQUIREMENT: Halee, or gamemaster’s permission.

Even modern Halee spend a great deal of time—especially while young—climbing and balancing in the trees of their homeworld (though usually in safer, predator-free, areas), and for those with this Talent, their senses of prioperception and balance, and their climbing skill, have been well honed indeed. In any Task where a sense of balance or ability to climb is involved, characters with this Talent reduce the Difficulty by 1 to a minimum of 0. Further, they may ignore the first Complication rolled in any such task. 

NAMES

Halee personal names tend to be short, single- or double-syllable sounds, while their clan names are longer—most clan names were originally formed by amalgamating ancestral lineage names into one longer name as a kind of spoken lineage equivalent of “Elm, father of Ara, mother of Aya.” Younger Halee sometimes create their own clan names, and some have even borrowed other species nomenclature practices in doing so, especially if new species have married into the clan, which may perplex outsiders expecting a Halee-typical introduction only to be given a Balduk or Nyberrite-inspired clan name. 

Male Names: Elm, Moto, NisFemale Names: Rin, Ara, OyaNongendered Names: Noth, Osh, EthSurnames: Elmaraya, Prishonwen, KarlinpayaExample names: Rin Elmaraya, Shon Payawennis, Eth Khateth

USING THE SPECIES

The Halee were a species I brought into my Shackleton Expanse campaign specifically to flesh out Narendra Station’s ambassadorial presences, but also to further detail the Nyberrite Alliance as another polity of note in the Beta Quadrant area of Federation Space, especially during the Klingon-Federation war of 2372-2373. Given their only real canon mention was that dishonoured Klingons sometimes chose to be exiled there to gain an honourable death, I came up with the notion of their predator-laden interior jungles and the idea of “Halee Rangers” to explain it.

For your own games, the Halee can offer another face to the Nyberrite Alliance, as well as being a “go-between” species with an apparently cordial relationship with the Klingons during times when the Federation perhaps does not. Their colony world provides some options for Federation terraforming aid—especially if you want to highlight a positive relationship between the Federation and the Nyberrite Alliance, or bring up a conflict between the more spiritual, ancestor-elevating Halee and those seeing the colony as a safer future—and their homeworld can be a great setting for a “crew vs nature” conflict if they somehow found themselves (willing or not) in the deep Halee jungles, surrounded by predators.

Tabletop Tuesday — The Nyberrite Alliance: R’Ongovians

Happy Tuesday! I’m back on Star Trek Adventures again this week for Tabletop Tuesday, with the third of a quartet of species I fleshed out for my group playing their way through the Shackleton Expanse campaign put out by Modiphius. Two weeks ago I introduced the Nyberrite Alliance with the Nyberrites themselves, then last week I added the Balduk, and now the third of the original founders of the Nyberrite Alliance: the R’Ongovians—who are the first of these species who’ve had actual screen time (in this case, on Strange New Worlds).

R’Ongovians

TOS ERA ONWARDS

The R’ongovians are a spacefaring humanoid species native to R’ongovia in the Beta Quadrant. Their striped grey-blue and grey-white skin is distinctive, as are their brighter blue/yellow irises, pointed ears, and visibly sharp teeth. The R’ongovian Protectorate controlled a small but highly strategic region of space between the Romulan Star Empire and the Klingon Empire in the 23rd century—territory that would end up creating a “path” for the Federation to reach further into the Beta Quadrant, thanks to an alliance between their people and the Federation.

R’ongovians believe in a radical empathy: they interact with others by listening and mirroring the larger species cultural traits—with a Vulcan, becoming logical, with a Tellarite becoming argumentative—but they greatly value those willing to do the same: to understand the R’ongovian frame of mind. Seeing the universe through the eyes of others is a central cultural tenet of their people, and has aided them greatly in avoiding conflicts with even the most volatile of species.

The R’ongovians are a part of the Nyberrite Alliance (creating the initial organization alongside the Balduk and the Nyberrites; which has since been joined by other independent worlds in Beta Quadrant space such as the Halee), and while as a whole the Nyberrite Alliance are not quite as technologically advanced as the Federation, each of the species work together and their overall collective technological capabilities are about on par with the Cardassian Empire or the Ferengi. In the Nyberrite Alliance, the R’ongovians provide much of its communication, cultural, and diplomatic strengths. Multiple Nyberrite Alliance facilities exist within the original R’ongovian territories itself, and the R’ongovian subspace communications network continues to be the main communications network of the Nyberrite Alliance and many independent worlds in the Beta Quadrant. 

The Nyberrite Alliance’s neutrality comes in part from the Balduk having mutual respect from the Klingons, the R’ongovians having ongoing diplomatic relationship with the Federation, and the Nyberrites themselves having a trade relationship with the Romulans. None of the involved governments want to risk the access and relationships they have by upsetting any of the others. 

EXAMPLE VALUE: Our greatest duty lies in understanding those around us.

ATTRIBUTES: +1 Fitness, +1 Insight, +1 PresenceTRAIT: R’Ongovian. R’Ongovian eyesight is well adapted to darker environments than many humanoids, and their natural dermal striations can aid them in camouflage in darker or dimly-lit environments. As a species, R’Ongovians tend to have an elegant and thorough appreciation of sociology and psychology—and their language often contains very specific terms for the ease of understanding mental or emotional states; where a human might say “sad” a R’Ongovian would have multiple words for different kinds of sadness, each denoting a cause or the severity of the impact on the individual.TALENTS: The character receives access to the following talent: RADICAL EMPATHY

REQUIREMENT: R’Ongovian, or gamemaster’s permission.

While not a telepathic or empathic ability in the psionic sense, the keen R’Ongovian intuitive perception of another individual’s psychological and emotional state should not be underestimated. When interacting with another species, a character with this Talent gains one Bonus Momentum on any attempted Insight or Presence Task, whether successful or not. This Bonus Momentum may only be spent to Obtain Information about the emotional, psychological, cultural, or mental state of those being interacted with. 

NAMES

Like a great many species, the R’Ongovians have personal names and familial names, with a lineage denoted by a simple prefixed syllable denoting a paternal (L’), maternal (K’), or mixed (R’) line. Their species name is a reference to their origin myth, an being created by the universe in order to itself learn about the universe—Ongovia—denoting them all as children of that single line: R’Ongovia, or R’Ongovian.

Male Names: Brax, Dossex, VassoFemale Names: Rano, Thona, ElethaNongendered Names: Mir, Mek, Pleno Surnames: K’Nella, L’Gaelia, R’PerroExample names: Rano K’Nella, Rano L’Mir, Plano R’Brax

USING THE SPECIES

Only seen once in Strange New Worlds (at least thus far), the R’Ongovians were placed as holding a particularly important area of space we’ve seen quite often on star charts: the corridor between Romulan and Klingon space that connects (or once connected, depending on the map) main Federation Alpha/Beta Quadrant territory and the more isolated, smaller Beta Quadrant territory space. 

In the episode, we saw the R’Ongovians agree to an agreement with the Federation, ultimately granting them access to their territory, but since future maps didn’t really show the R’Ongovian territory as Federation territory, I decided that they took Pike’s words to heart and eventually joined the Nyberrite Alliance: a far more neutral approach to keeping what could otherwise be two aggressive anti-Federation polities from shoving at their borders. 

The R’Ongovian hallmark is their radical empathy—as a people they attempt to shift their view to understand those they’re dealing with, and greatly respect those who do the same. R’Ongovians, then, become a great way to shine a light on individual, organizational, political, or narrative qualities that perhaps the players haven’t been examining too closely. 

For my own Shackleton Expanse campaign, the R’Ongovians allowed me to flesh out the Nyberrite Alliance, as well as underline just how tenuous the connection was between that cut-off area of Federation Territory in the Beta Quadrant and the rest of the Federation at large, especially during the Klingon-Federation war of 2372-2373, when access through Klingon space was simply impossible. 

Tabletop Tuesday — The Nyberrite Alliance: Balduk

Happy Tuesday! I’m back on Star Trek Adventures again this week for Tabletop Tuesday, with the second of a quartet of species I fleshed out for my group playing their way through the Shackleton Expanse campaign put out by Modiphius. Last week I introduced the Nyberrite Alliance with the Nyberrites themselves, and this week I’m tugging on another thread only briefly mentioned in canon Star Trek: the Balduk.

Balduk

TOS ERA ONWARD

One of the few people in history to successfully fight off a Klingon invasion, the Balduk are known for producing particularly fierce warriors. As a result, there’s a Klingon aphorism when denoting something next-to-impossible or extremely difficult, “I’d rather face ten Balduk Warriors than this.” Balduk Warriors typically train in both unarmed combat, with a variety of bladed and blunt weaponry, and with phaser pistols or rifles (which come with stun settings).

The Balduk are tall, densely muscular humanoids with yellow-tan to ochre-brown skin tones, arrow-head shaped ears, dark brown to pale yellow irises, and a thick, strong keratinous growth the Balduk call an ellem which begins above their brow-line to the edge of their ears and grows up and back over the front, top, and sides of their skull, curling back over their head protectively with a shape much like a lobed leaf (splitting into threes or fives most commonly, though some individuals grow more complex ellem). Hair still has room to grow behind and beneath this protective covering, often gathered into braids that hang down the back of their necks. Individual Balduk often have their ellem polished, trimmed, or otherwise maintained in styles both decorative or aimed to make its defensive uses more functional, though if a Balduk’s ellem is ever snapped or broken, even down at its root along the forehead, it will regrow over time. Ancient Balduk used such broken ellem in crafting tools, and there is still a movement of art and crafting dedicated to ellem decoration both on living Balduk and with removed or trimmed ellem pieces. On either side of their jaw, between their chin and angled, is the other most distinctive feature of the Balduk: small, inch- to inch-and-a-half twinned horns that curve back, vestigial remnants thought to date back to mating displays of their ancestors. Some sharpen or decorate these horns as well, which will also re-grow if broken. 

As a people, the Balduk are proud, resilient, and have a deeply held warrior tradition that influences a great deal of their society and cultural values, but this tradition is counterbalanced with a notion of the function of the warrior as protector, not conquerer. Displaying strength over those weaker than oneself is not considered the act of a warrior but rather a discredit to the very concept of strength itself. The highest call of a warrior is in using ones strength to defend those under your own protection, and to lift others to safety. All members of Balduk society are of value, but the esteem given to Balduk warriors comes from the knowledge that they would lay their lives down to ensure the freedoms and protections of all the others. This belief, more than anything else, fuelled the initial resistance to the Klingon invasion when their people first encountered them. 

The Balduk are a part of the Nyberrite Alliance (creating the initial organization with the R’ongovians and the Nyberrites; which has since been joined by other independent worlds in Beta Quadrant space such as the Halee), and while as a whole the Nyberrite Alliance are not quite as technologically advanced as the Federation, each of the species work together and their overall collective technological capabilities are about on par with the Cardassian Empire or the Ferengi. In the Nyberrite Alliance, the Balduk provide much of its security and tactical acumen. One of the largest Nyberrite Alliance facilities exists within the Balduk system itself, and the Balduk shipyard is where many of the Alliance ships are built. 

The Nyberrite Alliance’s neutrality comes in part from the Balduk having mutual respect from the Klingons, the R’ongovians having ongoing diplomatic relationship with the Federation, and the Nyberrites themselves having a trade relationship with the Romulans. None of the involved governments want to risk the access and relationships they have by upsetting any of the others. 

The Balduk, in part due to their cultural beliefs, aren’t generally driven to be colonizers as a people, preferring to explore in the service of others (most often the case for their warriors), or as invited guests among other species. As such, through the last couple of centuries, they’ve only expanded out from their home system to a small number of other star systems on any permanent basis—mostly among other Nyberrite Alliance systems—where they exist often in quarters or sections of other cities, creating “Balduk Neighbourhoods.”

EXAMPLE VALUE: Strength is best used in the name of those without it.

ATTRIBUTES: +1 Control, +1 Fitness, +1 PresenceTRAIT: Balduk. Balduk—especially their warriors—are generally stronger than the average humanoid, with dense musculature rivalling that of a Vulcan or Klingon. Balduk with intact ellem functionally have keratinous helmets protecting their skulls from impacts from above and either side. Their culture tends to instil a “protective streak” in their kind, making them far less likely to stand by when witnessing someone taking advantage of those smaller or weaker than themselves. Their voices tend to be deep, with a rumbling bass that many find intimidating.TALENTS: The character receives access to the following talents: VOWS OF THE WARRIOR

REQUIREMENT: Balduk, or gamemaster’s permission.

You gain an extra Value, which in some way relates to your vows and training to protect those weaker than yourself. When you use this Value to spend a point of Determination in a scenario where you are actively defending or fighting for someone under your protection, you may also regain half of any Stress you may have currently taken this scene (rounded up).  

BALDUK MELEE TRAINING

REQUIREMENT: Balduk, or gamemaster’s permission.

When in close-range combat using melee weapons or unarmed combat, the Difficulty to hit you increases by 1. Further, when you spend 2 Momentum to Disarm an opponent after a successful opposed melee combat check, if you are currently unarmed you may spend another 2 Momentum to take the weapon from the opponent, rather than having it drop to the ground within close range.

NAMES

Balduk are given names at birth as well as having family bloodline names, like many species, but upon adulthood, all Balduk may choose to take a chosen name either alongside the name they were given by their family, shifting the given name to a secondary or “middle” status, or replacing it entirely as they prefer. Many simply keep the name they were given, but if a chosen name is declared, however, it is thereafter the Balduk’s name legally and culturally. Balduk who have decided to take the warrior vows at adulthood almost always change their name, usually choosing from the ranks of the honoured dead who have given their life defending others in the past. 

Marriage bonds among two or more Balduk has a similar impact on a Balduk’s surname, where the individuals involved may keep their own family name, take one of the involved bloodline family names, or create a new bloodline name of their own. 

Balduk names are, like many species, are quite varied depending on subculture, family history, and interaction with other species. Balduk who are more diplomatically inclined, for example, may choose to give their child the name of a valued friend from another species as their child’s birth name (and said child might keep the name upon adulthood, as either a given name or a middle name, should they also value their relationship with the individual in question to the point of wishing to maintain the honour). 

Male Names: Zuron, Jamin, Sonat Female Names: Ilay, Orinne, AmahNongendered Names: Orit, Fayn, AvinBloodline Names: Jahsten, Phastith, Mennek, Khesh, Phastith, KhatethExample names: Zuron James Khateth, Orit Fayn Mennek, Amah Ghellen

USING THE SPECIES

I decided to use the Balduk (and particularly their warriors) during the time period of the Klingon-Federation dissolution of the Khitomer Accords and War in 2372-2373. The crew of my Beta Quadrant-stationed officers in the area of Federation Space that ended up more-or-less cut off from the rest of Federation Space interacted with the Nyberrite Alliance, and I wanted to populate the only-referenced organization with species from the local area and saw the Balduk as a prime candidate, and decided their tactical acumen provided much of the “muscle” and security side of the Nyberrite Alliance alongside R’ongovians, and the Nyberrites themselves, who I decided were the “original three” of the Nyberrite Alliance in my campaign (and who had been, over the decades, joined by the Halee, among others). 

In my campaign, when the Klingons were recalled from Narendra Station, the Balduk Ambassador set up a constabulary force in Narendra’s Galleria to take pressure of the over-stretched Starfleet Security. The uniformed Balduk became a regular (and welcome) sight on the station thereafter, and it allowed the Starfleet Crew to focus on the rest of the station’s security needs—and will make for some fun “jurisdiction” wrinkles in future sessions.

Balduk Warriors—either on their own or as part of the Nyberrite Alliance—make for a potential “rescue” option for crew on the losing ends of a one-sided fight, and their code of honour can make for interesting storytelling options highlighting their different points of view with other warrior-aligned species like the Andorians or Klingons, revealing diversity even among “warrior people.” 

Tabletop Tuesday — The Nyberrite Alliance: Nyberrites

Hey all! I thought I’d take a wee breather from my own world and head back into Star Trek Adventures again this week for Tabletop Tuesday, with the first of a quartet of species I fleshed out for my group playing their way through the Shackleton Expanse campaign put out by Modiphius. Based on a throw-away line from Deep Space Nine about an organization Worf is considering joining after the destruction of the Enterprise-D—”the Nyberrite Alliance”—I bring you the first of the species involved in that alliance, and the ones for whom the alliance took its name.

Nyberrite

TOS ERA ONWARD

The Nyberrite homeworld is located close to Romulan space in the Beta Quadrant, and is a Class O planet with 81% surface ocean with a single, closely gathered cluster of landmasses  denoting a fairly “early” state of continental drift. The Nyberrites evolved from amphibian ancestors, though they’re humanoid, with heads about half again as wide as most humanoids. Their broad, rounded, smooth head shape is somewhat reminiscent of Earth turtles, with long nostrils bearing nostril-flaps, widely-set eyes, and barely visible ear-holes. Their blue-grey skin contains whiter or silvery spots and stripes that tend to repeat down family lines, and the majority sport residual chin-barbels capable of aiding in scent and taste (especially while submerged). Their fingers and toes are webbed, and while they are capable of breathing air for extended periods of time without ill effect, most prefer to spend at least some of their day in water, usually swimming, especially communally with familial, romantic, professional, or platonic groups.

These groups form the basis of their society, and outsiders might find the ways Nyberrites bond a little confusing, as it’s not unusual for any given individual Nyberrite to consider their friends, co-workers, romantic partners, or biological family as the singular most important group in their life, and as a whole their society doesn’t favour any one sort of group over another, just the value of being connected to others. This means one Nyberrite might have an extended biological family with siblings, children, and cousins, while another might spend most of their time among a group of childless experts of stellar cartography that work together on a regular basis. Neither would be considered unusual or preferred behaviour. 

This Nyberrites tendency leads them to be generally community-oriented and to enjoy intellectual pursuits, and they have better-than-average spatial awareness and mental acuity when it comes to three-dimensional thinking, owing to their ancestry and propensity for enjoying life in water. Their technological progression as a species took longer than the average in part because of their consistent awareness of potential environmental and sociological impact—as a result, Nyberrites had a slow growth into and through the industrial period, but without much of the environmental damage most species withstood—and when they reached the stars with their initial low-warp vessels, their first encounters were with Romulans. The Nyberrite’s careful, respectful reaction to finding others in space led to tentative nonaggression from the normally paranoid and territorial Romulans.

As Nyberrites met other species, their tendency to neutrality came to the fore, especially as they encountered the Balduk and the R’ongovians, who had similar views, as well as the Federation and the Klingons, who seemed to the Nyberrites to be much like the Romulans in their propensity to destabilize through conflict. This caused the Nyberrite to become the central impetus in the formation of the eponymous Nyberrite Alliance. Their initial organization was formed with the R’ongovians and the Balduk and has since been joined by other independent worlds in Beta Quadrant space such as the Halee, and while as a whole the Nyberrite Alliance are not quite as technologically advanced as the Federation, each of the species work together and their overall collective technological capabilities are about on par with the Cardassian Empire or the Ferengi. 

However, most important to the Nyberrites—and the Nyberrite Alliance as a whole—is the neutrality they maintain, which has led to generations of peace even when wars strike those aligned with the Klingons, Federation, or Romulan people. The Nyberrite Alliance’s neutrality comes in part from the Balduk having mutual respect from the Klingons, the R’ongovians having ongoing diplomatic relationship with the Federation, and the Nyberrites themselves having a trade relationship with the Romulans. None of the involved governments want to risk the access and relationships they have by upsetting any of the others. 

Within the Nyberrite Alliance, the Nyberrite provide much of its scientific and logistical acumen. The largest of the Nyberrite Alliance facilities exist within the Nyberrite system itself—its functional headquarters, the significant training facilities, and a shipyard where a significant portion of the Alliance ships are built. Beyond scientists and technicians, Nyberrite pilots are particularly valued for both their ability at the conn and their tendency to form close bonds with the rest of their crew.

EXAMPLE VALUE: In all things, respect the group’s balance.

ATTRIBUTES: +1 Control, +1 Reason, +1 InsightTRAIT: Nyberrite. Nyberrites are functionally amphibian, capable of holding their breath for a significant amount of time while underwater, and are particularly graceful in liquid environments (a skill which translates to Zero-G and Low-G environments as well). Their eyes are just as capable of vision underwater thanks to secondary eyelids, and their vestigial chin-barbels offer them sensitivity to particulates in water much like a sense of smell and taste combined. Their larger, rounded skulls and widely-set eyes in larger-than-average eye sockets give them a wider field of vision than many humanoids. Their sense of hearing, however, is less acute out of water. Many Nyberrites complain of discomfort if they spend more than a few days out of water—but even a liquid shower can alleviate this issue, though the majority prefer to actively swim. Nyberrites generally don’t handle extended periods of solitude well, as their psychology lends itself to communalism, much like Grazerites or Denobulans.TALENTS: The character receives access to the following talents, and would also qualify for the “Three-Dimensional Thinking” Talent from the Lower Decks sourcebook, or “Underwater Acrobat” from the Animated Series sourcebook:AT ONE WITH THE OCEAN

REQUIREMENT: Nyberrite, or gamemaster’s permission.

Nyberrites are born underwater, and spend much of their lives swimming. As such, while swimming or in zero gravity environments, or holding their breath, characters with this Talent gain a bonus d20 on any task related to moving while underwater or in a Zero G environment, or to function while holding their breath (be it underwater or otherwise). 

NATURALLY COMMUNAL

REQUIREMENT: Nyberrite, or gamemaster’s permission.

When providing assistance on any Task, a character with this Talent doesn’t count when determining the Complication Range increase from more than two or more individuals working on a single task. For example, if a Nyberrite with the Naturally Communal Talent were to assist two humans on an Engineering Task, the Complications would only occur on rolls of 20, despite there being three individuals working on the Task, which would normally increase the Complication Range to rolls of 19 or 20.

NAMES

Like Bajorans, Nyberrites list their communal or group name first, followed by their given names; the specific epiglottal-like sound denoted by an apostrophe in their given names is difficult for other species to imitate, and many Nyberrite individuals shorten or adopt a simpler name for those they might respect and know well with whom they might be on a given-name basis. Their communal names often refer to bloodlines, fields of study, or locations. A Nyberrite community name might mean “descendents of M’T’Nit” (by using the prefix “Kish-“); or be “Oletta,” the Nyberrite word for “peacemakers”; or something as informal as “Ril-Orrif,” meaning “friends who swim in the Orrif river.” 

Male Names: O’R’Vost (“Voust”), P’Q’Yolt (“Yoult”), Q’Q’Qolt (“Koult”)Female Names: M’T’Nit (“Neet”), M’V’Sil (“Sheel”), V’R’Yin (“Yeen”)Nongendered Names: S’S’Wyn (“Wen”), S’W’Vys (“Vess”), V’Q’Myl (“Mel”)Example names: Oletta M’T’Nit, Kish-V’R’Yin Q’Q’Qolt, Ril-Orrif M’V’Sil.

USING THE SPECIES

In my campaign, fleshing out the Nyberrite Alliance was a way to bring the non-aligned locals in Narendra Station to life, and detailing species involved in the Alliance added some political flavour to the major events of the campaign—especially when the Klingon Empire first dissolved the Khitomer Accords and then later became openly hostile with the Federation. The neutrality of the Nyberrite Alliance can be a resource for players, at other times a frustration or outright impediment, depending on their goals. 

In diplomatic stories, the Nyberrite Alliance is always the neutral option—which can be dangerous during times of conflict such as the Dominion War, where neutrality favours the strongest oppressors. That said, the Nyberrite Alliance has freedoms Starfleet doesn’t—their traders and merchants and ships are at least nominally welcome in Klingon, Romulan and Federation space, which can be useful for missions of mercy and trade alike.

A Nyberrite in Starfleet would be a rare thing indeed, and would be seen as very odd by their own people, which can be a rich source of narrative fodder—what made Starfleet more attractive to someone who grew up in such a communally-minded, staunchly-neutral culture? 

Birthday Presence

It’s that time of year again! I made it all the way around the sun without getting killed by a faster or more efficient predator, which means I get cake.

Birthdays are weird.

Okay, joking aside, I’m turning fifty today—and mostly I don’t have a whole lot of feelings about that, just like when I turned forty and more-or-less shrugged about it—but there’s one exception to that, and it’s that young queer me never thought this would happen, because young queer me had been told all gay people died—by pretty much everyone and everything—so it’s really, really nice to once again note that “they” were wrong.

The other thing about turning fifty is I don’t need anything. My closest will ask me what I want for my birthday and every year there’s less I can think of—and what a wonderful reality that is, no?—so I fall back on the tried and true: experiences. A nice evening out to dinner, or a play, or a trip somewhere.

That’s what we’re doing right now. We rented a lovely cabin and quite literally are sitting back and watching deer walk by. But—and if you’ve been here for any of my other birthdays, you knew this but was coming—there is one thing authors never run out of needing, and that’s word-of-mouth.

Or, because I’m punny, “Birthday Presence.” Get it?

Sorry. (Not sorry.)

Three Sentences

I started a tradition years ago where instead of presents, I asked people to tell me about a book they loved instead.

When I became an author, I started asking people if they’d maybe take a moment to write a review about a book they loved somewhere. Just one book, and just one review, and only if they were up for it. (And, no, it doesn’t have to be mine. I’m not using my birthday to guilt reviews of my own books.) Making noise about a book you loved gives the book presence—and no matter what you say about algorithms or SEO or anything else, word-of-mouth is pretty much the best thing ever in the world of publishing.

Now, I’m not talking about writing an essay here. Truly. Back when I worked at the bookstore, we had these little “Staff Picks” cards that slid into acrylics, and they were pretty small, so by virtue of their size there was only so much room to write a review. It may surprise you to learn a lot of staff struggled to write reviews. They could hand-sell out loud in conversation like gangbusters, but writing down a review stopped them cold. So I came up with a quick and easy three-sentence review process, and it worked fine.

The Three Sentence Review

An example cue-card review might go like this:

A sentence letting a reader know what to expect from the book (without spoilers). In romance, this is often where I likely mention the main trope of the book, drop a word about the characters, and give a general idea of the tone: “Recommended Reading by Paul Coccia is an awesome YA opposites-attract queer rom-com with a big, match-making, romance-loving hero who has grand plans for a romantic gesture—and starting a romance of his own—that fall apart immediately.”A sentence talking about what was unique/awesome/moving/exciting about the book (again, without spoilers). Something you think really stood out about the book and speaks to why you loved it. Staying with Recommended Reading, I’d probably say, “The heart of this book is in being different, and not just owning it, but deciding not to stop at owning it and instead decorating it, celebrating it, and declaring it to the whole damn world.”A sentence that uses either a well-known author or some facet or genre as an example of the type of reader you think would enjoy this particular book. So, “Anyone who loves an underdog romance but doesn’t undercut the realities of being the underdog—allowing that sense of being unsure even when they’re awesome as they are—will freaking adore this one.”

So! It’s my birthday, and if you’re up for it, drop a line telling me about a book you loved. Or just link to a review you agree with. Or, heck, just drop a note saying “I LOVED THIS” with a link. All of these things are also super-valid and wonderful ways to do that whole word-of-mouth thing. Clicking a “like” or an “agree” on someone else’s review somewhere also helps. I don’t want this to be a guilt-thing, or an imposition. If you’re not up for it—look at the state of the world, who is up for anything right now?—that’s cool. No harm done, truly. 

Ditto if you’ve already got your own method of writing reviews or gushing about books. That little blue cue-card up there is meant to be a helpful guide for people who want to write a review and feel stuck, not a form to fill in if you’ve already got your own, authentic style. (I feel like I keep saying “you don’t have to do this” over and over, but to be super, 100% clear: you don’t have to do this.)

See you next year…

Tabletop Tuesday — Triad Blood and Mutants & Masterminds: Luc Lanteigne

It’s Tuesday, and while I’m away for the week celebrating my 50th (eek!) today I thought I’d drop the third piece my attempt at a tabletop role-playing-game set in the Triad world—or, more to the point—using Green Ronin’s Mutants & Masterminds system, treating the Triad world as a setting—and it seems fitting it’s time for the oldest of the group (he’s far older than fifty, though he doesn’t look a day over 28).

 Two weeks ago, I attempted to stat up Curtis Baird, the first of my three main characters from the novels, the wizard; Last week it was the demon of the group, Anders Hake. Today? Luc, the vampire of the trio. It was a struggle to give all the abilities I gave Luc in the stories—but then I realized at this point I only had to work on what he would have had before he formed the triad with Anders and Curtis, and at that point it fell together well enough, though the lion’s share went to the whole “immune to Fortitude Effects because he’s undead” thing.

But, as always, M&M was up for the challenge.

As I’ve explained in the previous posts, the Triad fellas were originally written in short stories, and when it came time to write a novel with the three characters, I originally intended to do the trilogy with first person narration, just like the stories. Triad Blood would be from Luc’s point of view, Triad Soul would be from Anders’s point of view, and then Triad Magic would be from Curtis’s point of view. Scenes where I needed to shift to the non-dominant POV for the book I’d write in third person, I figured.

That fell apart quickly, and my editor (rightfully) pointed out it’d work better if I just stuck to deep third POV with the characters, and during developmental edits, it quickly became clear giving the lion’s share to one character per book also didn’t quite work out right. In the end, they all got (roughly) the same amount of page-time as each other in each of the books—though thematically, the books remained mostly in the possession of the characters as planned: Triad Blood is a vampire book centred around Luc, Triad Soul is demonic and sticks close to Anders, and Triad Magic wraps it up with Curtis most central to the issues at hand.

Luc Lanteigne, Lone Vampire (PL 8) Artwork by the awesome Micah.

Cis Male, Appears 28 (is much older), Height 1.88m, Weight 83kg, Brown eyes, Black hair; Group Affiliation: None, Base of Operations: Ottawa

Abilities: Str 6, Sta —, Agi 1, Dex 1, Fgt 1, Int 2, Awe 2, Pre 2 (22 points)

Powers:

Blood Drain: Regeneration 8, Source (Blood) (4 points)Predator Senses: Senses 2 (Darkvision, Acute Olfactory) (2 Points)Undead: Immunity 31 (Aging, Fortitude Effects); Enhanced Strength 4 (39 Points)Vampire Graces: Dynamic Array (17 Points)Glamour: Perception Ranged Affliction 6 (Resisted and Overcome by Will; Entranced, Compelled, Controlled), Visually Sense-DependentDomination: Perception Ranged Affliction 6 (Resisted and Overcome by Will; Dazed, Compelled, Controlled), Cumulative, Limited to other VampiresSpeed: Speed 3, Enhanced Advantage: Improved Initiative 3, Enhanced Dodge 3, Enhanced Parry 3

Advantages: Assessment, Benefit (Wealthy 2), Defensive Attack, Defensive Roll 4, Equipment 2 (Car, Small Home, Office), Languages (Native French; English). (10 Points)

Skills: Close Attack (Unarmed) 2 (+3), Deception 5 (+7), Expertise (History) 6 (+8), Insight 2 (+4), Perception 6 (+8), Persuasion 5 (+7), Vehicles 2 (+3) (14 Points)

Offense: Initiative +1 (up to +13 with Vampire Graces); Unarmed +3 (Close, Damage 6); Glamour — (Perception Ranged Affliction 6)

Defenses: Dodge 6 (up to 9 with Vampire Graces), Parry 6 (up to 9 with Vampire Graces), Fortitude —, Toughness 0/3 with Defensive Roll, Will 4 (12 Points)

Power Point Totals: Attributes 22 + Powers 62 + Advantages 10 + Skills 14 + Defenses 12 = 120

Complications: Complication Motivation—Freedom: Like both Curtis and Anders before him, Luc wants nothing more than to be free. He’s managed a kind of freedom over the many decades since he was turned—he has an antiques business, and he manages to eke out the blood he needs on the three nights of the full moon—but his existence isn’t exactly fulfilling so much as survival. Still, as he wasn’t formally presented or accepted by the vampire coteries, he doesn’t have a lot of options, and as such has thrown himself into maintaining what little independence and freedoms he has access to; Undead: Luc is a vampire, with all the issues thereof: holy water and sunlight burn him, he sleeps in a death-like trance during the daylight hours, he cannot step foot on consecrated ground, requires blood, and the Law of Residency is particularly potent against him; his abilities are all tied to blood, and if he hasn’t fed enough, they will wane or become unavailable; Lone Vampire: As a vampire without a coterie of his own, Luc is particularly vulnerable to the domination abilities of other vampires, who can—and have—toyed with him for their own amusement in the past. Now he does his level best to avoid other vampires at all costs, even though that means losing out on the possibility of finding others such as him self in the same position who might want to form a connection of their own.

A Bit More Explanation

Luc took a lot more time and finesse than the others mostly owing to the undead thing I mentioned earlier. He’s immune to Fortitude effects, and doesn’t have a Stamina score (because undead), which took a lot of the initial 120 points. I’d waffled over giving him his Well-Informed and Connected advantages, then remembered he really only got those after he became the local duke, and then I realized that was true of a great deal of Luc’s situation. He had money and a business selling antiques, yes, but that was pretty much the sum total of what Luc had available to him before Curtis and Anders.

For the Vampire Graces, I went with a dynamic array partly to differentiate him from Anders’s demonic abilities but also because I feel like Luc often zigged or zagged in a multi-tasking way. Multiple times in the books it’s mentioned that demons are fast but vampires are faster—thus making sure Luc had Speed 3 to Anders’s Speed 2—and while Luc can be quick (and is strong, owing to being a Vampire), he’s no fist-fighting genius, just someone who’s learned to do well enough to turn the tide and get the hell out of there.

At least, at this point in his existence. Once again, this is how I’d represent a lone vampire who is also a player character—I’d drop a random NPC lone vampire down to PL 6.

Happily, for a lot of Luc’s abilities, I just had to turn to the Vampire entry in the Mutants & Masterminds Deluxe Player’s Handbook, so really it was about figuring out how many points I could apply to his various abilities given I wanted to represent him as PL 8 at this point, prior to joining with the other two. 

And, of course, just like Curtis and Anders, once Luc forms the triad, he’ll upgrade.

As I mentioned, I’m on vacation this week, but I’d love to hear if you’ve got any nerdy news or gaming news in your sphere! I’m going to take a couple of weeks to ponder exactly how to translate the triad and their bonds into gaming mechanics (it’s not going to be as simple as upping their PL, though that’s part of it), so I think next week I’ll head into outer space instead of the urban paranormal.

See you then!

Smashwords eBook Celebration Week Sale

Hey-yo! The Smashwords ebook week celebration sale started today! March 2nd to 8th, a tonne of ebooks are on sale (or free!) I’ve got all four of my indie titles included—that’s In Memoriam, Rear Admiral, Handmade Holidays, and Upon the Midnight Queer. They’re all half-off at least, and free for Rear Admiral. You can click those links there, or you can click the images below.

You have to enter a wee code at checkout: EBW50 for the 50% off titles, and EW100 for Rear Admiral, but you’re capable technologists, I’m sure.

In Memoriam, by wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey queer romance. Rear Admiral: my cringe-cute comedic romance/erotica between a nurse and his porn star crush. Available in ebook and paperback, Handmade Holidays was my first holiday romance novella. Upon the Midnight Queer, my collection of holiday stories, retold queerly.