2025 Character Creation Challenge, Day 4: USS Phoenix, NCC-65420

It's day four of the 2025 Character Creation Challenge and I'm already bending the rules. It's back to Star Trek Adventures (1e) with our crew's starship.

In Star Trek, ships are as much characters as those played by the cast. Season three of Picard shows how this works and how it doesn't. Titan-A got a proper introduction in Spacedock, as befitting the hero ship of the season. Shrike was designed to be a menacing vessel for the bad guys who would become irrelevant by the last couple of episodes. It's also a weird name for a villain ship - shrikes are handsome little birds. There are the various starships that appear at the Starfleet Museum. And, of course, there was the huge hit of nostalgia that came with the reappearance of Enterprise-D as the end of the show approached. Unfortunately, Enterprise-E only got a passing mention after being the hero ship of the TNG movies. We barely got a glimpse of Enterprise-F, a disappointment for Star Trek Online fans. And the hero ship of previous seasons of Picard - SS La Sirena - ignominiously disappears around the middle of the season. This all shows how "ship as a character" is built into Star Trek and how it feels wrong when that concept is ignored.

Rant complete.

USS Phoenix, NCC-65420

This is the same USS Phoenix that appeared in "The Wounded" (TNG 4x12). This was also the first appearance of the Nebula-class. It's one of the rare canonical starships that doesn't have much of a history beyond a single onscreen appearance. Notably, USS Phoenix seems to have survived the Dominion War. This makes it a canon starship that is available to Star Trek Adventures crews. Of course, USS Phoenix does have a checkered past thanks to its association with Benjamin Maxwell.

The dedication plaque seen in "The Wounded" indicates a commissioning date of 2363. I didn't have a firm campaign date in mind when I started, but using "sometime between Lower Decks and Prodigy" suggests 2383. This makes USS Phoenix fresh from it's second refit.

Most of the build was straightforward. USS Phoenix is known to be a Nebula-class with a sensor pod. The pod could've been changed at some point - it is modular by design - but that particular configuration tends to be associated with this particular starship. I considered "Scientific and Survey Operations" for the Mission Profile, but the sensor pod already comes with Advanced Sensor Suites and High-Resolution Sensors. Also, "Multirole Explorer" offers "Improved Hull Integrity" as an option. As USS Phoenix canonically shrugs off a direct hit without shields, toughing up the hull seems appropriate. I added Diplomatic Suites to give the ship more flexibility. Finally, I put the refit points into Structure and Weapons.

The following is headcanon and shouldn't be confused with official information from any Star Trek series:

USS Phoenix was escorted to Starbase 211 by Enterprise-D after Captain Maxwell stood down. The ship's crew was extensively debriefed. USS Phoenix sat docked at Starbase 211 undergoing maintenance while Captain Maxwell was court martialed. In the aftermath, Starfleet Command put a new crew aboard and redeployed the ship as far from the Cardassian border as possible. USS Phoenix served in the Beta Quadrant carrying out survey work and Neutral Zone patrols until the Dominion War. With the front badly in need of every capable starship, USS Phoenix was sent back to the Alpha Quadrant. The starship served honorably and survived the Dominion War. USS Phoenix is newly refitted and configured for scientific survey and diplomatic duties.


Resources used:

Memory Alpha's entry on USS Phoenix, NCC-65420.

The Star Trek Adventures Character Creator app.

2025 Character Creation Challenge, Day 3: Emma Johansen, Teamster

Day three of the 2025 Character Creation Challenge dawns. I've selected Mothership for my third character of the challenge. Mothership is a space horror TTRPG by Tuesday Night Games. It isn't an OSR game per se, but the influence shows through.

Mothership features two character sheets - a basic one for those new to the game and an advanced one. The basic character sheet takes a new player through the generation process step by step. Laying everything out like this help to avoid everybody fighting for the rulebook. I'll be using the basic sheet this time and breaking out the other one in later posts.

Emma Johansen, Teamster

I'll focus on the decisions I made during the process. However, Mothership uses die rolls extensively during character generation. So I'll be commenting on some of the results as well.

Yes, there's a space for pronouns right on the sheet. Don't use it if you don't like it. It won't bite you.

I selected the Teamster class in honor of the reigning queen of space horror - Ellen Ripley, played by Sigourney Weaver. This character's name - Emma Johansen - evokes Ellen and honors a couple of women I worked alongside back in my tech days.

My dice were chilly, but not ice cold. The Stats and Saves are around average. I did bomb the Health roll, so this is not a good character to take into combat against toothy alien critters.

Teamsters automatically get two skills: Industrial Equipment and Zero-G. This reflects their background in blue collar space trucking. Picking a Trained Skill was a toss up between Jury-Rigging, Computers, and Rimwise. I've found that its useful to see what perquisites that the various Expert and Master Skills call for when looking at Trained Skills. Jury-Rigging leads to Explosives and Computers lead to Hacking, which don't fit my idea for this character. Rimwise leads to Hand-To-Hand Combat, which is a bad idea for this character due to her low Health. However, Industrial Equipment leads to Mechanical Repair. So I picked Rimwise as her Trained Skill to reflect her rough and tumble work experiences. Her Expert Skill is Mechanical Repair to represent her ability to fix things properly.

I rolled for a Starting Loadout rather than buy the gear piecemeal. The Flare Gun can be used as a weapon and the Personal Locator could be useful. I couldn't find what a Subsurface Scanner does, but it could be handy as a source of parts for fixing something else along with the Water Filtration Device. I used part of Johansen's starting Credits on Assorted Tools and a Flashlight.

For her Trinket, I rolled "Pamphlet: The Relic of Flesh" for Johansen. Her Patch reads "DO YOUR JOB" and fits seamlessly with what I had in mind for the character.

Emma Johansen has been doing her job as long as anybody here at this mom and pop operation and is not here to take your guff. The smell of cigarette smoke clings to her thanks to a pack a day habit. She wears her greying hair short - sometimes cropped - to keep it out of the way. Her no nonsense attitude doesn't make her many friends, but she knows her stuff.

Oh, and I deliberately didn't include cigarettes on her sheet. She's out and is getting twitchy for a hit of nicotine.

2025 Character Creation Challenge, Day 2: Sara Rosewood, Human Fighter

Day two and the second of my characters for the 2025 Character Creation Challenge. This time, I'm harkening back to a simpler time and a slightly less complicated TTRPG - Old School Essentials by Necrotic Gnome. Specifically, I'm using the Advanced Fantasy version with options inspired by Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.

Let's begin with that quintessential starting player character - a human fighter. I'll only be covering significant decision points rather than offering a step by step description of the process.

Sara Rosewood, Human Fighter, page one of two

All OSE characters generated for this challenge use the Advanced Fantasy rules and the Advanced Method of character creation. "Expanded Equipment" by Gavin Norman, presented in Carcass Crawler Issue #3 is also used.

Optional rules include:

• Separate races and classes.
• Ascending Armor Class.
• Demihuman class and level restrictions are lifted.
• Humans are granted Racial Abilities.
• Weapon Proficiencies and Specializations.
• Rerolling 1s and 2s while rolling hit points.
• Secondary Skills.
• Individual initiative.

I'll also be using a house rule. OSE uses the "roll 3d6 for each ability score, in order" method. Gary Gygax comments that this method can result in marginal characters on page 11 of the AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide. He describes various alternatives on the same page. I'm using Method I: "All scores are recorded and arranged in the order the player desires. 4d6 are rolled, and the lowest die (or one of the lowest) is discarded." This is purely a matter of personal taste.

Sara Rosewood, Human Fighter, page two of two

My dice rolls were okay. Using one of the 14s for STR was obvious. Putting the other 14 in CON is debatable - there's an argument to be made for sticking it in DEX. All of the other numbers result in no modifiers at this point, so I dumped an 11 into INT, the 12 in WIS, and DEX got a 10.

As humans +1 CHA and +1 CON with their optional Racial Abilities, CHA raises to 13 and CON to 15.

The OSE rules allow for raising a character's prime requisite by 1 point for every 2 points that another ability score is lowered. I lowered INT from 11 to 9 and WIS from 12 to 10. This improved STR from 14 to 16, increasing the modifier from +1 to +2 without lowering other modifiers.

I choose to specialize in the sword and take proficiencies in the short bow and dagger.

The entire 100 gold pieces I rolled up were spent on weapons, armor, and equipment. I wasn't able to afford a shield, so that will have to wait.

And then I came up with a name and backstory...

Sara Rosewood wasn't raised to be a murder hobo, but found herself with little choice after her village was raided by an adventuring party of chaotic NPCs. Filled with resolve to avenge her lost home, she spent years of her life doing anything but that. Instead, she trained in the sword and spent her life savings on a weapon, armor, and equipment. She recently joined a motley party of fresh-faced adventurers and will soon brave her first delve into the underground. If she meets with a grim fate, she will be quickly replaced by her hitherto unmentioned identical twin sister - Lara Rosewood. If she survives, hopefully the gamemaster will remember to include her backstory in an adventure so she can confront the destroyers of her quaint village.

The character sheet I used is by William Braidis Lee and is available on itch.io. It has some quirks, but I like it so far.

2025 Character Creation Challenge, Day 1: Captain Sulok

Welcome to the 2025 Character Creation Challenge! I introduced the concept in this post here. 31 days of January, 31 characters. What have I gotten myself into?

Starting off with Star Trek Adventures 1e. Why not 2e? I haven't had the chance to make the change while focusing my TTRPG efforts in other directions. I'll get to it.

I'm slowly assembling a Starfleet crew during this challenge. Among other things. Let's start with the captain.

Captain Sulok was born on Vulcan. He learned Vulcan philosophy from an early age and it guides his actions to this day. Whisked away along his parents' diplomatic travels, he learned to apply what he saw of other cultures to himself. Starfleet Academy instructors saw potential in Sulok's diplomatic background and guided him down the Command track. Those plans were derailed by the outbreak of the Dominion War. Sulok quickly picked up the skills he needed to survive against a ruthless foe. He won a commendation for bravery during the conflict, saving the lives of fellow officers. In the years since the war, he has risen to command USS Phoenix and looks forward to a quiet cruise of science and diplomacy. He won't get his wish.

Sulok is considerably more open minded than many Vulcans and doesn't see logic as the only possible path to a solution. Sulok speaks Federation Standard fluently, but with a slight southern drawl that he picked up from the people who taught it to him. That, his relatively relaxed demeanor, and dry wit often confuse those unfamiliar with him.

Curiously, Sulok doesn't know the Vulcan Nerve Pinch. He just never got the chance to pick it up.

A couple of tools I used here:

The Star Trek Adventures Character Creator app (unofficial).

This "Big List of Focuses" on Reddit.

One down, thirty to go!