Star Trek: The Next Generation
Starfleet Character Generation System
Version 1.11  June 26, 1998
by Daniel M. Stack

"Star Trek: The Next Generation" and all related items are trademarks
of Paramount Pictures Corporation.  Use of such terms in this article
is not a challenge to this trademark.

Contents:
1 Introduction
2 New Races
3 Starfleet Academy
4 Branch School
5 Cadet Cruise
6 Advanced Training
7 Post-Academy Experience
8 Judging Character Generation

=====================================================================

1 Introduction

These rules are designed to cover the creation of Next Generation
Starfleet officers for FASA's Star Trek: The Role Playing Game
(Second Edition).  For the most part, character creation is unchanged
from the original RPG rules.  This article highlights those
differences between character generation in the Original Series and
the Next Generation period.  It is not a full character generation
system: FASA's rules will still be needed.

Perhaps the biggest change between the two generations is that
characters in the Next Generation period seem to be able to do
anything.  Geordi starts off a helmsman and becomes chief engineer.
Worf has manned the Conn, Ops, and Tactical stations.  Deanna Troi, a
psychiatrist, has piloted the ship.  Doctor Crusher has commanded the
Enterprise.  I have tried to make these rules reflect that.  In the
end, you will wind up with characters who have more skills than those
of the Original Series, and will
accordingly be more "powerful", for lack of a better term.
Gamemasters should take note of this and be prepared to throw even
greater challenges at their characters.  These rules have been
playtested in my campaigns, but you may want to customize them for
your own special needs.

These rules would be most appropriate for characters from the Next
Generation period.  However, they could also be used for character
generation for periods after the classic Star Trek movies.

FASA did come out with a Star Trek: The Next Generation First Year
Sourcebook.  While I do own that book, I for the most part ignored
it, as it described a television show which was, at the time, only
a year old.  However, it does have generation rules for Betazoids
and Ferengi, along with several races the Enterprise encountered
in the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Everyone's view of the Star Trek universe is different so I am sure
lots of people will disagree with many of the assumptions I have
made.  (I imagine the position of Operations Manager will draw the
most complaints.  I viewed that character as a special type of
engineer.)  That's fine: change what you don't like.  Change it all.
I promise you won't hurt my feelings.  If this article makes you dust
off your old Star Trek boxed set and make your own interpretation,
then I will feel like I've achieved something.

=====================================================================

2 New Races

A few new races have appeared on the Next Generation which are
appropriate for Starfleet characters or make good NPCs.  They are
 listed in the table below.

Race       |STR|END|INT|DEX|CHA|LUC|PSI
---------------------------------------------
Bajoran    | - | +5| - | - | - |-20| -5
Betazoid   | -5|-10|+15|-10|+20| - | 70+3D10
Cardassian | +5|+10| - |-10| -5|-20|-30
Ferengi    | -5| -5| - |+10| +5| - |-40
Trill      |-10| +5|+10| - |+10|-10|-30

Note that while the Betazoids from FASAs First Year Sourcebook are
reprinted here, the Ferengi described above are quite different.

For special abilities, Betazoid telepathy can be handled using the
same rules as Vulcan telepathy, with the exception that physical
contact seems to have no effect on its effectiveness.

The stats for the Trill are indicative of a joined symbiont.  Players
should work with their GM to detail the past lives of the Trill
character.  Trills should still use standard character generation
although the GM may allow them to use knowledge from their past
lives.  The caveat of this is that enemies from their past lives may
also pop up to haunt them as well.

=====================================================================

3 Starfleet Academy

Essentially unchanged, with two new skills added.

 Administration   10
 Holodeck Operations  10

=====================================================================

4 Branch School

The following branch schools are available.  Unlike as stated in the
RPG, Branch School is assumed to take place during the character's
four years at Starfleet Academy and therefore does not add any
additional age to the character, unless otherwise noted.

4.1 Command
Characters from the Command branch are those that are placed early
on the track for a command position.  During their time in the junior
officer's ranks, they typically serve as Flight Controllers and
leaders of Away Teams.  They receive the following skills.

 Administration   20
 Communications Systems Op. 10
 Deflector Shield Operation 10
 Deflector Shield Technology 10
 Leadership   10
 Negotiation/Diplomacy  10
 Shuttlecraft Pilot  10
 Starship Sensors  10
 Space Science, Astrogation 40
  two others  10 each
 Starship Combat Strat/Tactics 10
 Starship Helm Operation  40
 Starship Weaponry Operation 10
 Starship Weaponry Technology 10
 Warp Drive Technology  10
 ----------------------------------
    230 skill points total
4.2 Counselor
Counselors are responsible for the mental health of the crew.  In
addition, they learn a great deal about other cultures and may be
quite useful in first contact missions.  They receive the following
skills.

 Communications Systems Op 20
 Languages   60 points, divided any way
 Medical Sciences,
  General Medicine 20 points, divided any way
  Psychology  80 points, divided any way
 Social Sciences   60 points, divided any way
 ----------------------------------
    240 skill points total

4.3 Engineering
Essentially unchanged from the RPG, with the following addition.

 Holodeck Technology  10
 ----------------------------------
    215 skill points total

4.4 Medical
Identical to Medical Officers in the original RPG.  Note that this
branch adds four additional years to the time spent at the academy.

4.5 Operations
In terms of skills received, Operations officers should be treated as
engineers.  However, in place of the 100 bonus skill points allocated
to an engineer, they receive the following skills instead.

 Administration   20
 Communications Systems Op 20
 Computer Operation  20
 Damage Control Procedures 20
 Starship Sensors  20
 ---------------------------------
    215 skill points total

4.6 Sciences
Identical to Science Officers in the original RPG.

4.7 Tactical
Tactical officers handle both internal and external security on board
a starship.  They receive the following skills.

 Communications Systems Op 20
 Communications Systems Tech 10
 Damage Control Procedures 10
 Deflector Shield Operation 20
 Deflector Shield Technology 10
 Federation Law    5
 Marksmanship, Modern  20
 Personal Combat, Unarmed 20
 Personal Weapons Technology  5
 Psychology, Native  10
 Security Procedures  20
 Small Unit Tactics  10
 Starship Combat Strat/Tactics 10
 Starship Sensors  10
 Starship Weaponry Operation 20
 Starship Weaponry Technology 10
 ----------------------------------
    210 skill points total

5 Cadet Cruise
The cadet cruise should be rolled as per the RPG rules.  However, it
is assumed to take place during the characters time at Starfleet
Academy (i.e. does not add any additional years to the character's
age).  Additional cruises do take up additional time: six months per
cadet cruise after the first.  The character becomes a commissioned
officer upon passing the cadet cruise.  Unless the character passes
with high honors, he or she is commissioned as an ensign.  Those that
pass with high honors will be commissioned as a lieutenant, junior
grade.

6  Advanced Training
Department Head School as it existed in the original RPG has been
removed.  Instead, there are three (more can be added at the
discretion of the gamemaster) advanced schools available.  One is a
1 year Bridge Officer Training Course.  All line officers (except
Command Branch officers) must take this class to advance past the
rank of Lieutenant, Junior Grade.  Characters may advance beyond this
rank without this class, but they will be considered staff officers.
(Character who acquire these skills through other means may have the
requirement waived provided they pass a special test -- see the Next
Generation Episode "Thine Own Self" for a possible example of this).

Command Officers may instead take either a Starfleet Tactical
Training Class or a Starfleet Engineering Class.  (Neither of these
are required for Command characters, though it does round out their
skill sets).

This system explains characters like Worf and Geordi, who changed
roles quite a bit in the show.  By this system, Geordi could either
have always been an engineer who took Bridge Officer Training or a
Command Officer who took Engineering Training.

It is assumed that Starfleet Engineering, Starfleet Tactical, and
Bridge Officer Training are all mutually exclusive (i.e. a character
can take only one of these three classes).

Any character may attend Command School and it is recommended
training for any character who is to become a Captain or First
Officer, or a department head on a major ship or station.

6.1 Bridge Officer Training
This school is designed to insure that all bridge officers have a
certain degree of cross-training and so, in an emergency, could man
most stations on the bridge of a starship.  The character is not
expected to be an expert, but should be reasonable competent.  (An
example of this can be seen in "Generations", where Deanna Troi takes
the helm of the Enterprise-D.  Though she did crash the ship into a
planet.)

Characters attending this school receive the following skills.

 Administration   20
 Communications Systems Op 10
 Deflector Shield Operation 10
 Leadership   10
 Negotiation/Diplomacy  10
 Shuttlecraft Pilot  10
 Space Science, Astrogation 10
 Starship Combat Strat/Tactics 10
 Starship Weaponry Operation 10
 ----------------------------------
    100 skill points total

Characters also gain bonus skill points, just like characters in
department head school used to receive.
The character receives Int/10 (round down) d10 rolls to improve any
skill the character already has.

Bridge Officer Training takes 1 year to complete.  At the gamemasters
option, a character could take this training part-time while on
regular duty.  Doing it this way will take 2-3 years and is only
available to characters with access to advanced training facilities
onboard their vessel.  A character stationed on a Galaxy-Class vessel
would have access to this, while a character on a tiny scout ship
would not.

6.2 Starfleet Engineering
This school is offered to Command Branch characters to give them
engineering training.

These characters receive all the normal branch skills engineering
characters receive, except they do not receive the 100 bonus points
available to true engineers. (Giving them a total of 115 skill
points.)

Characters also gain bonus skill points, just like characters in
department head school used to receive.  The character receives
Int/10 (round down) d10 rolls to improve any skill the character
already has.

Starfleet Engineering Training takes 1 year to complete.  From the
television shows, it would seem Captain Sisko of Deep Space Nine
took this class.

6.3 Starfleet Tactical
Command Officers may instead opt to take an advanced tactical class
instead.  Command branch officers choosing to do so receive the
following skills.

 Deflector Shield Operation 10
 Marksmanship, Modern  10
 Personal Combat,
  Armed   10
  Unarmed    5
 Personal Weapons Technology  5
 Psychology, Native  10
 Security Procedures  20
 Shuttlecraft Pilot  10
 Small Unit Tactics  10
 Starship Weaponry Operation 10
 ----------------------------------
    100 skill points total

Characters also gain bonus skill points, just like characters in
department head school used to receive.  The character receives
Int/10 (round down) d10 rolls to improve any skill the character
already has.

Starfleet Tactical Training takes 1 year to complete.

From the television shows, Ro Laren would be an example of a character
who took this class, as seen in the Next Generation episode
"Preemptive Strike".

6.4 Command School
Identical to Command School in the original RPG.

=====================================================================

7 Post-Academy Experience

This is handled identically to the rules given in the RPG.  To better
reflect the setting, the entry for Constitution-Class Starship should
be replaced with whatever the best class of ship from the time period
is.  Some examples from different periods include:

* Late 23rd Century/Early 24th Century: Excelsior-Class Starship
* Mid 24th Century: Ambassador-Class or Nebula-Class Starship
* Late 24th Century: Galaxy-Class or Sovereign-Class Starship

=====================================================================

8 Judging Character Generation

8.1 Choosing a Ship
As in the original rules, the gamemaster must decide what kind of ship
is appropriate for his or her characters.  Note that the characters
dont even have to be assigned to a ship.  Deep Space Nine is an
example of a ship-less campaign.

A Galaxy-class ship can be an excellent vessel for a campaign,
especially for players who are familiar with the television series
but not with role-playing.  It has been detailed in seven seasons of
television, deckplans, technical manuals, CD-ROMs, etc.  But be
warned: the Galaxy-class vessel is a big ship!  Some gamemasters
(myself among them) might find themselves a bit uncomfortable running
a campaign on a ship so large.

If you feel more comfortable with smaller ships, the Miranda and
Intrepid classes make good choices, and have been seen quite
frequently on television.

One possible campaign unexplored in Star Trek (though touched on in
Deep Space Nine) would be giving the characters a stationary base in
unexplored space (perhaps on a Space Station.  FASAs Regula One
Deckplans would come in handy for this) and have them assigned to
runabouts charged with scouting the space around the base. This
would give the campaign a frontier style flavor, and would give
the characters control over every character on a ship.  (The
Mission-class courier, included with the First Edition of FASAs
RPG is also good for this and theres nothing special about it that
prevents its use in the Next Generation timeframe.)

8.2 Choosing Player Character Rank
All that applies from the original game is still appropriate here.
As a side note, the ranks given in Star Trek: The Next Generation
were probably a little bit low; the chief of security of a ship the
size of the Enterprise, for example, would probably have a higher
rank than lieutenant.

8.3 Choosing Player Character Positions
There have been some changes in this section since the original
television series.  The most obvious of these is that Starfleet does
not look favorably on Captains who beam down to dangerous planets
and participate in Away Teams.

FASAs Star Trek: The Next Generation First Year Sourcebook made the
suggestion that the Captain be a NPC and I believe that for some
campaigns this is a good suggestion.  It also captures the flavor of
The Next Generation, in which Captain Picard was rather distant from
his crew.  However, this works best for campaigns in which the focus
of the campaign is off the ship (i.e. survey/exploration missions).
If you want to run games in which much of the action takes place
onboard ship, the Captain should be a PC.  One policy I have used
successfully in the past is having each player make two characters, a
main character and a back-up one.  If one character is on an Away
Team, the other can remain on board ship, allowing the player to
participate more in split groups.

One idea for a campaign would be centered around a special team
assigned specially for Away Team duty.  Such a team would probably
consist of its leader (perhaps the First Officer), a Counselor, a
Science Officer, a Medical Officer, an Engineer, and a Security
Officer.

Bibliography:
Paramount Pictures, Star Trek, Star Trek: The Next Generation,
  Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek Voyager Television Series.
Pardo, Blaine, Star Trek: The Next Generation First Year Sourcebook,
  FASA Corporation, 1989, p. 51.  (Betazoid Stats)
Wheeler, Wm. John with Fantasimulation Associates, Star Trek: The
  Role Playing Game Second Edition, FASA Corporation, 1983.
