Following on from the character creation done yesterday, today I’ve picked up and worked through the remaining two members of our Proving Team.
To recap, the default character generation rules in M-Space generated four different sets of characteristics and allowed me to design some specific heroes around what I rolled.
A Proving Team is made up of several character roles, each with its own slang title: Boss, Enforcer, Nerd, Geek, Snitch, Quack, Face, and Fixer.
Where’s the Doctor?
Firstly, using the characteristics generated earlier, I’ve picked up Set 4 and turned them into the Quack / Snitch.
The Quack?
The Quack is the team doctor, veterinary, xenobiologist, psychologist and counsellor. Operating far from medical facilities, the Quack is essential to the success of any mission. The Quack is far more than a field medic and is also expert in mental health, handling Uplift species management and Chipped Augmentees. While this function has some overlap with the Enforcer, the Quack is more concerned with the “care and feeding” of these resources, as well as handling routine discipline and behavioural issues.
The Quack can relieve the Boss if they make the determination that the Boss is medically or mentally unfit to perform their duties. Deciding fitness typically requires confirmation by the Snitch, or the Enforcer (if the Snitch is not available).
The Snitch?
The Snitch is a Corporate representative on the team whose primary purpose is to ensure that the Sponsor’s interests are the key motivation behind all the team’s activities. For example, some Sponsors have a greater interest in the development of specific mineral resources while others might be more interested in producing claims with high a Habitation Suitability Index.
The Snitch will submit a report on the effectiveness of the Boss, as well as the suitability of other individual team members, to the Sponsor. Their job manages a tension between looking out for the interests of their masters whilst being responsible for accessing their continued sponsorship. Snitches often find allies in the Face and Enforcer whilst earning the ire of the Boss, Geek and Nerd.
Introducing… James White
James is more of an all-rounder in the team with an interesting set of responsibilities that make him more politically powerful than is immediately apparent. Here are the choices I made during creation:
- James comes from the Rural culture. I chose Track, Survival, and Navigation as his Professional Skills. Gave him a Combat Style named Farmboy but didn’t give it any extra points.
- Used the Medic career. Chose Medicine, Science (Astrobiology), and Knowledge (Psychology) as Professional Skills. Added Bureaucracy skill to allow him to write reports.
- For Passions, I gave James Loyalty to the Gazprox Corporation plus ‘Uphold the Hippocratic Oath’ and ‘Seek the Truth’.
- I gear him up with a Jumpsuit, Medpak, Comlink, a Multiscanner, and a Combat Knife; he rolled up 7,000 Credits for starting cash.
You can see a copy of his initial character sheet here: James White v1.0
Who’s the Nerd?
The final character, using the Set 1 characteristics, is the guy I slated as the Geek / Nerd. He’ll be the technical and scientific expert.
The Geek?
The Geek is the mission scientist, specialised in at least one area and often in many. Accomplished researcher blended with experimental lab-tech, this role is all about delivering on the Proving Mission. If there is a resource to be found and exploited, it’s the job of the Geek to find it and exploit it.
Generally, Geeks don’t like to “get their hands dirty” with non-scientific matters; that said, life in a Proving Team is complex and any successful Geek will have picked up other skills. The high level of importance accorded to this role has led many pundits to comment that the core purpose of any Proving Team is to get this guy into a mission, keep them alive, and get their research back out.
The Nerd?
The Nerd is the team technical specialist and engineer. Starships require constant maintenance and frequent repair. You really don’t want the Nerd absent when the life-support system packs up in deep space, for example.
Often derided by other glitzier roles, the Nerd is essential and often well-protected within the team. This has a lot to do with the fact that the Nerds are responsible for keeping each team’s droids and other technological paraphernalia operational. Some are also accomplished inventors and gadgeteers, coming up with solutions on the fly to suit any circumstance… or at least that’s the popular perception.
Introducing… Harry Komez
Harry is mostly about brains and speed. He’s going to need to spread points across a lot of skills. Here’s how I built him:
- Harry comes from the Orbit culture, originally from Luna. I chose Streetwise, Electronics, and Mechanics as his Professional Skills. Gave him the Self-Defence Combat Style.
- There isn’t a Scientist in M-Space, so I used the career in Mythras Imperative. Chose Engineering, Science (Geology), and Research as Professional Skills. Gave him Computers as a hobby skill.
- For Passions, I added ‘Seek Knowledge’, ‘Loves the Ship’, and a Loyalty to the Gazprox Corporation.
- I gear him up with a Jumpsuit, Comlink, Datapad, a Multiscanner, and a set of Fusion Tools; he rolled up 6,000 Credits for starting cash.
You can see a copy of his initial character sheet here: Harry Komez v1.0
That’s the characters ready for play.
It always amazes me how much energy n creativity can be spent in character creation and as per Traveller, how much fun can be had generating back stories n fleshing out the character’s personality and interrelationships.
I like a little more control over character development than in Traveller (where a bad roll can wreck the concept you had in mind), yet credit goes to the more ‘real’ characters that can help create.
Using the Mythras base seems to find a balance somewhere between: you can still create the essence of whom you were aiming for, yet it reduces the min:maxing that other systems are prone to with too much creative freedom.
‘Real’ characters are required to survive the more ‘real’ challenges a non-combat oriented game will create. You can’t always rely on the specialist to take over for you and you can’t afford everyone to waste too many points on combat skills if you’re to achieve any success outwith that field.
This Serene Dawn proving team setting allows for a wide range of challenges or ‘encounters’, so broad skill ranges should serve well.
It’s all too easy for character creation to dictate how the setting plays out. If everyone goes for one type of character ur limited to running encounters that fit that build, or else watching the group flounder and become frustrated.
The biggest trick w the wider skill bases in encounters is perhaps making sure everyone gets there time in the spotlight. … hopefully not too far apart and hopefully not in exclusion of the others. Therefore trying to reign in, or make dominant players aware that when they turn an encounter to their strengths when another could have ‘done it their way’, they could be killing the game by ruining the other’s experience.
A group of fighty characters in a combat setting is far easier to manage in this sense,.
Verisimilitude is a massive challenge to the GM and relies heavily on the players doing their parts to maintain it too.
Cheers UbiRat
I look forward to reading what this lil posse get upto next.
Feels like if it was a movie it could all go Alien w internal conflicts in the face of external threats.