![]() He commented, “I think the focuses don’t have to be relevant to the story, like with Echo playing the accordion. Euan, my youngest player and a Continuing Mission correspondent, plays Echo, our ship’s experimental computerized holographic officer. Eye to the Galaxies became one of my group’s favorite games yet.Īt other times, I use the Focus for the games opening teaser or as a cut scene showing life aboard the ship. In the case of our resident Bajoran, we ended up writing an entire module based on him finding an Orb of the Prophets in the new galaxy. ![]() Assign them to take the lead on the roll.Ensure that the character with the Focus is on the team to tackle the problem.If not, can I introduce some different challenges or B story elements to highlight those Focuses? ( Like most Star Trek episodes, I always write into a campaign a B story wherein we explore one or two characters in-depth.).Do any of the Extended Tasks or Challenges highlight any one character’s Focus?.Review each character’s Focus before the start of the session.Mephit James said, “Well, I definitely signaled that I wanted my Bajoran character to deal with Prophets and Orbs and you really leaned into that.” It took me a few months to design the game, but in the end, I figured it out. However, I didn’t want this focus to go to waste. Now, mind you, our ship is 13.7 million light-years away stranded in the Centaurus Galaxy far from the Bajoran Wormhole. One of the Focuses he chose for his character is “Bajoran Religion”. One of my players and creator of the Mephit James’ blog plays our ship’s Bajoran science officer. One of my regular players and a writer for Star Trek Adventures, Troy Mepyans, admits, “You make a point of reminding players to use their Values and Focuses during episodes and encourage them to think outside of the box when doing so.”īut just how do I make a concentrated effort to keep the story’s momentum while allowing my players’ characters to flourish and become as rich McCoy, Data, Sisko, or Seven? I will outline how and when I employ Focuses, Talents, and Values. One of the best ways I have gotten great performances from my group of amazing players is by wrapping each story around their Focuses, Talents, and Values. We are 22 episodes into the USS Pioneer storyline and, if there is one thing I’ve learned, it is to make the game about the players. I have learned quite a lot about how to get my players engaged. When the crew encounter new peoples there is an assumption of peace, but they defend themselves robustly when attacked (no bellicosity, but no turning of the other cheek here either), and although the men and women of this future cultivate an internal life through meditation or the arts, they accept reason and science as the means by which they can know the universe they explore.īut not too much! The charge that a humanist society would be a coldly rational one with humanity in thrall to unfeeling science receives a blow in Roddenberry’s world.I am a Star Trek Adventures superfan, gamemaster, and occasional player. Although rank is respected, the views of all are given fair airing. They value the equality of persons and the dignity of life. A Starfleet crew values cooperation and liberality. Like any utopia, the Star Trek universe reflects the values of its creator, and this is just as true on the level of human values and relationships as it is on the larger levels. All the phenomena encountered within it are investigated rationally and, though they may at first seem inexplicable, are understood in the end as susceptible to naturalistic explanations. This wonder does not overawe them, because ultimately the universe, and its billions of stars and planets, is a natural thing which the curious can know and understand. Starship crews explore a cosmos that is full of beauty and wonder and they respond with awe and appreciation. It’s a counsellor, not a chaplain that the Enterprise crew turn to when in need of guidance. Roddenberry has a hopeful vision of the future: one in which mankind has united around shared human values, joined in a common endeavour to reach the stars, and happily left religion behind on the way. Later series, after the death of Roddenberry, become a little too new age for my liking. The society Gene Roddenberry created in Star Trek is a very humanist one – at least in the original series and Next Generation. Once I knew this, though, it made a lot of sense. Both Terry Pratchett and Philip Pullman are supporters of humanism, as is Arthur C Clarke, and as was Isaac Asimov. Perhaps there is something about the genres of science fiction or fantasy that is very humanist. It wasn’t until I started working for the British Humanist Association, however, that I realised that Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek, was also a committed humanist. Not to the extent that I go to bed in Spock ears and never miss a convention (these days) but still a really big fan.
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