Solo Game: Improvisational World-Building

And once again I'm behind in updating my game log for the Supers campaign.

Setting that aside, tonight's solo game with my wife Lute was interesting. We're running a Star Trek campaign set in the Next Gen era where Lute's character is a civilian xenobiologist serving on a Galaxy-Class starship. She's wound up in a romantic relationship with the ship's Andorian Chief Science Officer, Arushek.

In the previous adventure, the ship had encountered a traveller from an unknown starfaring race, so it seemed logical for them to find out where it came from.

Now here is one of the challenges I have with this campaign. Lute's character is not a member of the bridge crew; she's not even a member of the crew. How do I get her involved with what's going on? In this case, where the ship is involved in a diplomatic First Contact mission, here character would be completely out of the loop.

So to give her something to do, I decided that the aliens, whom I named the Gloorni, had invited the Captain and his command crew to a formal dinner on their ship, and that Arushek would bring Lute's character along as a date. Why would Arushek need a date? Okay... I decided it was a cultural thing with the Gloorni. They have this big cultural ethos that both the male and the female is needed for a balanced whole, and that therefore each of the ships officers would be expected to have an opposite gendered partner.

The Captain is single. I had decided, although I hadn't yet established this in the game, that the Captain has an estranged wife and a college-aged daughter whom he writes to but rarely sees. As his date to the Gloorni dinner, I had him take the ship's Security Chief, T'Sarran. The Gloorni at the dinner commented on the fact that the two of them did not seem very compatible, forcing the Captain to admit his true marital status.

As I role-played out the dinner conversation, I was also sussing out the cultural ramifications of the Gloorni views on marriage. How would they regard divorce? How would they deal with the loss of a partner. (It embarasses me to realize that until I started typing this post, I didn't even think of the question of how the Gloorni handled homosexuality.) Lute and I decided that they probably have people undergo rigorous testing to determine which partners are most compatible.

Well, all this was very interesting, but I didn't have enough conflict to hang a plot on. Then I came up with something.

I had some of the Gloorni visit the Federation ship. One of them was a widow; a young woman whose husband had been killed in an accident. She kept asking questions about the Captain, which at first puzzled Lute. Then later on she learned that when the Gloorni delegation had returned to their own ship, the widow had stayed behind.

She was lonely; she needed a partner to complete her life; and she assumed that the Captain was the same. So, she snuck into the Captain's quarters to express her love...

Well, Lute was able to save the Captain's virtue; but it was interesting.

But the fun part was how the plot grew out of trying to logically work out a planet's culture, which in turn grew out of finding an excuse to involve Lute's character in the story.

Solo Game: Star Trek Endevour

Lute and I wrapped up the fantasy campaign we were running this past week and so we started a new one. After some discussion, we decided to do a Star Trek campaign set in the Next Gen era. Lute didn't want to be a member of the crew, so I decided to make her a college grad student who has been placed as a civilian scientist on board a Galaxy Class starship as part of an Internship program. (This is one of the reasons why Lute wanted a Next Gen era campaign; because they permitted civilians on board)

I spent much of Saturday afternoon making up character cards for the crew of the Endevour. And I'm rather pleased with the result. We have:

Captain Casmir Bristol: The ship's captain. We haven't seen much of him yet, apart from an authorative, paternal figure.
First Officer J. Tyler: An anime-style slacker; laid back, easy-going, glib and relentlessly romantic. He also has a creative relationship with the truth. Everyone wonders how he ever made it into Starfleet. I'm having lots of fun with him.
Chief Science Officer Arushek: Lute's immedeate superior. An Andorian; calm, grave, mentoring.
Security Chief T'Srann: A Vulcan; very serious, by-the-book. She used to be Tyler's superior before he was promoted to First Officer. She has filed several recommendations that Tyler be demoted/court-martialed/flayed alive, but to no avail.
Chief Medical Officer Yukio Tanaka: Haven't seen much of her. Maternal.
Chief Engineer Clayton Delaponte: Cheery, good-natured; compulsive tinkerer. An accident involving a still he set up in the ship's port nacelle is why the ship is in repair dock as the game starts.
Counsellor Seth Carpenter: A nice guy, but so far a cipher. We'll see if he develops a personality.
Ensign Murray Gebotlick: Helmsman. Gawky, kind of nerdy.
Lt. Mrewlth: Operations Officer. A Caitian (from the animated series; remember M'ress?). Thinks of himself as a smooth ladies' man. We'll be seeing more of him.
Ensign Mina Parker: a microbiologist in the Science Department; one of the crew Lute will be working with.
Lt. Brendon Greensky: an ecologist in the Science Department. Kind of a neo-hippie.
Ensign Carl Blade: astrophysicist. Square-jawed and macho. No idea why he's in sciences; he just screams out to wear a red shirt.
Tohiro Tanaka: Planetologist. One of the civilian staff. He's married to the Chief Medical Officer, but that doesn't stop him from hitting on the ladies. I have no idea why Yukio puts up with him.
Dave Swenson: bartender. Every ship needs one. This one is a retired Starfleet security officer. He's friendly and generally knows all the shipboard gossip.

In the first session, Lute's character, Lauren Wojinski, learned that she was to be placed on board the Starship Endevour. She underwent some training and met some of the crew she'll be working with. First officer Tyler took a special interest in her and flirted with her. At one point he sent a bottle of wine to her cabin's replicator, just as Lt. T'Srann was giving Lauren a lecture on ship's regulations. Only some incredible fast-talking on Tyler's part saved Lauren from a stiff reprimand. And the fact that T'Srann obviously detests Tyler did much to reduce Lauren's original bad impression of him. Tyler took Lauren on a tour of the ship, including a stop in the holodeck to partake in a simulated French cafe.

In the second session, Lauren is doing some routine computer work supervising the download of data from the Starfleet central computer library. She comes across a suspicious file that seems to be full of giberish. Finding a couple other similar files, she brings the matter to Arushek's attention who has her tell T'Srann. It turns out that the files are pieces of a virus, which would not be a problem except that other pieces are already in the ship's computer and has assembled itself into an AI worm program. Lauren manages to corral the worm in the ship's holodeck, which naturally requires people to go into the holodeck to face the worm. I mean, it's just a holodeck; what could go wrong?

The campaign's off to a good start. I think this one is going to be fun