Character Creation: Boldly Go!

Every time I look at or think about this game, my brain goes to this Henry Cho bit. Anyway.

The Game: Boldly Go!
The Publisher: Geoffquest
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

I am not a Trekkie; I've seen a couple of the older movies and the first couple of nu-Trek movies, and an episode here or there, but I never got into it. I like the idea of Star Trek, and I love Galaxy Quest; I think you can appreciate the humor and vibe of Trek without knowing the minutia. But fuck it, maybe after I finish the movie project I'll watch TOS and see where that takes me (assuming I live that long). 

So anyway, Boldly Go!, aside from being weirdly hard to type (I keep wanting to miss out the second "l" and type "boldy", which isn't a word), is a humorous take on Star Trek. You make a ship, you make a crew, and you go have adventures! It does a couple of things I like - it has you make not only a primary character but detail a couple of"shipmates" that can help you out or act as redshirts.

DID YOU GUYS EVEN WATCH THE SHOW?!

The book details a few different races, and I applaud them for not making the races direct knock-offs of shit you'd find in Star Trek, at least not insofar as I could tell. So let's do a character!

First off, we need a name and a basic concept. One of the races, the mordon, are silicon-based creatures. They're very heavy, super-strong, which is fine, but what I like about them is that they have this almost reverent regard for objects, precisely because they have to be so careful not to break them. So I think I'm taking inspiration from the Robert Frost poem "Nothing Gold Can Stay," and from the Vision as depicted by Paul Bettany. My guy is philosophical, gentle, and not emotionless but contemplative. And also fully capable of wrecking your shit, but y'know, he'd really rather talk it out. His name is Oom'nitu (there are no naming conventions listed for the non-human races, so I'm just going with syllables that sound good). 

I get three traits and a special ability by dint of my species: The Fragility of Life, Great Strength, and Silicon-Based. I also get Earth-Shaking Punches as a special ability. 

And now I need an occupation aboard the ship. I think I'll take Social Science - Oom'nitu is a talker, not a fighter. I have visions of him physically lifting the representatives of two warring planets off the ground and calmly saying "now, now, if you kill each other, no progress will be made and you will cause such grief. Wouldn't you rather sit and chat?" 

I start at Lieutenant Junior Grade unless I wish to start lower for an extra trait, which I do not. I get the Academy Training trait, and then five more traits of my choice. 

Well, Contemplative is on the list, and that's definitely one I want. Likewise, Pacifistic (but like the reasonable definition of pacifist, someone who will defend themselves or others when need be, not sit by and get murdered). I don't see Philosopher on there, but I do want that. Ooh, Well-Read, that makes sense. One more. How about Easily Fascinated? 

Neat! And like...that's actually it. I picture Oom'nitu as staying very even-tempered and peppering his conversations with a lot of koan-like questions and observations. I would also, if I'm honest, use variations of Vision's "what is grief, if not love persisting?" statement every chance I got ("what is a meteor, if not rock persisting?" "OOM IT'S GONNA HIT THE SHIP.").