Welcome to STAR TREK • TIBERIUS
A d20 rpg based on Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek
You are invited to a homebrew rpg starting in Late Feb - Mar, with a weekly session via discord on Sunday. Before beginning the campaign, you will have an individual Session 0 to get a feel for your character, the setting, mechanics and my DM-style, so make sure you have time over January and February.
Obviously, all scheduling is flexible and we can adjust as we go; real life always comes first.
- 1 x d20
- 1 x d12
- [ Completed Character Sheet ]
- Faith of the Heart (Optional)
- Species
- Role
- Name
- Rank
- Skills
- Pronouns
- Personality
- History
- Relationships
- Species
There are a lot of races in the world of Star Trek, so feel free to draw from both show and extended universe canons. You're also welcome to create your own species for the roleplay... but be warned, as your DM, I'll need a metric fucktonne of information (that's fuckton in imperial). - Role
There's a lot of work involved in keeping a starship in the sky, but it can help to just choose a broad discipline for now: Command, Helm, Navigation, Science, Medical, Engineering, Security-Tactical, Communications.
Hell, you could just choose a division for now: Command, Sciences, Operations. - Name
When choosing a name try to keep in the conventions of the culture your character is part of - although species =/= culture. If you need help navigating the name conventions for any species, particularly if there's a lot of variations in canon, I'm happy to help out.
A good start is just getting an idea of a nickname or personal name you can see yourself using for the campaign.
- Rank
This sort of goes hand-in-hand with what job your character has, but even within each role, it helps to have a vague idea of where your character falls in both line and chain of command.
Questions to ask yourself are: are they very senior in their job, are they new to it, are they trained for holding the conn, what is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow? - Skills
Another thing that often aligns with role, but don't forget your character probably has hobbies: like fencing, botany or Klingon slam poetry!
A good thing to consider is what languages your character speaks. - Pronouns
Like names, there's a lot of different pronouns in the 'verse. Sometimes a species or culture may have particular pronouns associated with it (e.g: Andorians have four traditionally, and sometimes use the Terran binary as well), but whether a culture has a quarternery, senary, binary or none-ary, individuals are always individual.
- Personality
If you can't make your own, store-bought is fine. - History
It may be worth to brush up on the timeline for the campaign, but feel free to be creative, and you can keep it as a loose or detailed as you like! - Relationships
Any key relationships -- I can't promise to work them in, but I'll do my best.
Our continuing mission to explore new worlds and to seek out new life, new civlizations.
Our duty to protect the infinite diversity, infinite combinations and infinite wonders of the universe.
Our mission begins on SD 59055.9 (2381 in Terran Standard), six years after the Dominion War.
Your character is on the USS TIBERIUS • NCC - 1222, a warship that never earned her stripes, commanded by Captain Ariel.
In the antebellum, new alliances are blossoming between the Orion Syndicates, Ferengi Alliance and the Federation. The Alpha Quadrant proved that it could and would fight together if necessary... but necessary is over and new orders have come in to divert the TIBERIUS to DS9. You all know who I am (Alias, they/them, known y'all for years, Tiff we're married) but some of you will be having me as your Dungeon Master C.O for the first time.
I prefer to focus and favour a compelling and satisfying narrative for both my players, and myself. To me, the d20 brings an element of surprise and inspiration, but I will always defer to the story that we want to tell together.
At the beginning of every session, except 0 and 1, I will invite a player to sum up what happened in the previous session. Ideally, we'll all take turns, but there's inspiration points up for grabs!
At the end of each session, I firmly believe in a small meta discussion where we talk about the game together. This is a great chance to unwind, reset and to shake off some character bleed.
Where there are out-of-character disagreements and issues at the table, I greatly prefer that my players approach me first before confronting each other and give me a chance to address the matter. I've found that the energy of a game can be really hurt by arguments across the table, and at least in-session have to insist on mediation.
With in-character and in-game disagreements, I will often let you reach a compromise by yourselves, but will intercede with C.O privilege if I feel it's best.
Finally, if you have an issue at the table specific to me, please feel welcome to bring it up either with me alone, or with other players there. It can be hard to confront the C.O alone, and often if one player has a problem, others will too. All I ask is that you keep in mind I'm just one person! Although this is a homebrew, it has a lot in common with a standard d20 system. That said, here are some house rules and specifications, as well as a breakdown of the mechanics!
- PvP can be done via rolls or roleplay, but requires both players' agreement.
- Ranking up skills can take place in and out of session, but is player-led
- Ranking up and duty changes can take place in and out of session, and is roleplay-led.
- Players can have secrets from one another, but not the C.O
- The Campaign is expected to be between 5 - 10 sessions, with each session being at least 2 hours.
- We will be using popcorn initiative where Party and C.O will roll to go first. Then in turn, with players deciding and strategizing amongst themselves.
- Character death is a possibility, but while space is cold and indifferent, we aren't and we can save your darlings.
- We can have interlude sessions with 2+ players, but outside of your Session 0 I prefer not to run 1v1.
Your physical strength, stamina, and health are governed by your Fitness.
Likewise, your psychic abilities, shielding and health are handled by your Psionics.
Both of these stats range from Lvl 1 - 20, and work both as an a passive ability score and provide a modifier using the standard formula: ≅ -10 / 2
However, as your levels go up and down, due to shoreleave, injuries, stimulants or "strange energies", your modifier will also be impacted.
- Fitness
Lvl 1 - 20
This provides an average fitness, but terrain can have a significant impact. For example:
Water vapour that won't affect a Terran, can cause Aspirant Pneumonia in a Vulcan.
- Psionics
Lvl 1 - 20
This level does not determine the nature of the psychic ability. For example:
Vulcans are typically stronger telepaths than Horta, but are Touch-Telepaths, whereas Horta are Proximity.
Each of these stats works as an ability score, and provides a roll modifier using the standard formula: ≅ -10 / 2
The stats can be used broadly across checks - if you can justify it - but below are the common checks associated with each stat.
- Intuition
Deception • Improvise • Insight - DIPLOMACY
Insight • Perform • Persuade
- Observation
Accuracy • Investigate • Perception - Logic
Investigate • Knowledge • Persuade
- PRECISION
Accuracy • Perception • Perform - proficiency
Improvise • Knowledge • Perception
These are your ratings in disciplines, which you achieve ranks in.
Your ratings give you a passive check based on your rank but also a skill modifier.
- Combat
- Helm
- Linguistics
- Tactical
- Xenohistory
- Astrophysics
- Botany
- Exochemistry
- Medical
- Xenobiology
- Computers
- Nanocircuitry
- Operations
- Schematics
- Transporters
The final things to keep in mind with your character are the little details, like:
- Martial Arts, Physical Disciplines or Abilities
- Languages known
- Specialist training and knowledge
- Species-specific abilities