Protip, experimentally verified with my entry in this LC: If you're using Windows, type your story up in Notepad. You can then just copy-paste the whole thing into the forum without worry.
The most common formatting problem I've seen is "smart quotes", which many word processors do by default - the quote marks turn in a bit at each side of the quoted section. Many people think that looks prettier. However, the symbols for smart quotes get lost in the transition to forum post formatting....
There's usually an option for turning them off, somewhere in the word processor. Or you can do what I do; type in Notepad and hope your spelling is up to scratch.
Protip, experimentally verified with my entry in this LC: If you're using Windows, type your story up in Notepad. You can then just copy-paste the whole thing into the forum without worry.
Gotcha. I tend to use Microsoft Word because it's easier to read, but I might try copy-pasting into Notepad first and making the corrections there.
@marcusdkane: Thanks. I'm glad you liked it, and am looking forward to seeing what kind of entry you come up with.
@gorvar1: Thanks. Decent reasoning there for your joining the Klingons--I might create a character sometime that does the same, but my plan for Veleen was always for her to ally with the Federation.
And yeah, I am thinking of working a lover or two into her storyline--Got a couple of ideas in mind that I need to figure out and choose between.
@Everyone else: Give me a few days, and I'll see about reviewing some of your entries. :cool:
Gotcha. I tend to use Microsoft Word because it's easier to read, but I might try copy-pasting into Notepad first and making the corrections there.
I find I get my best results if I type in notepad, copy-paste to Word for spellcheck, corrections and editing, and then copy-paste to the forums.
The only symbols I find the forum rejects are left/right quotation marks and apostrophes, long dashes ( - ) and ellipses ( ... ) which Word creates automatically but notepad does not, and Word preserves your formatting if you transfer your work.
Hope that helps.
I'll catch up reading entries tonight. And I have to catch up on my own writing so I can contribute something here...
...Oh, baby, you know, I've really got to leave you / Oh, I can hear it callin 'me / I said don't you hear it callin' me the way it used to do?...
- Anne Bredon
I'm semi-back after some emergencies and distractions, but I'll have to reluctantly bow out of this one too. No Romulan character and not much interest at the moment in the Romulans, though enough to want to avoid future spoilers. The adventures of the Roanoke will hopefully continue in LC44; good luck with everyone's stories in the meantime!
I find I get my best results if I type in notepad, copy-paste to Word for spellcheck, corrections and editing, and then copy-paste to the forums.
The only symbols I find the forum rejects are left/right quotation marks and apostrophes, long dashes ( - ) and ellipses ( ... ) which Word creates automatically but notepad does not, and Word preserves your formatting if you transfer your work.
Hope that helps.
I'll catch up reading entries tonight. And I have to catch up on my own writing so I can contribute something here...
Thanks for the tips.
I'll keep them in mind for later challenges/entries, and I look forward to reading what you come up with--as well as reading what you think of my entry.
Excellent work, jonsills. Nice to see a slightly more 'realistic' Tovan - he tends to get written as the players' conscience so darn much that it's nice to see that a skilled fighter like TC might have a respect for the Klingons even if he's followed his good buddy the PC in another direction.
Tak: Dr. Othan approves of Veleen's attitude about Klingons and the alliance!
Tak: Dr. Othan approves of Veleen's attitude about Klingons and the alliance!
Thanks, cosmonaut!!
To be honest, even though my plans always involved her joining the feds, I was trying to figure out her precise opinion on the Klingons when I read your piece, and I ended up drawing inspiration from your piece on Dr. Othan.
So again, thanks--both for your review and for the inspiration you provided.
Also, a good piece, jonsills. I don't drink coffee, myself, though I would be willing to try a Raktajino if it existed... :cool:
Excellent work, jonsills. Nice to see a slightly more 'realistic' Tovan - he tends to get written as the players' conscience so darn much that it's nice to see that a skilled fighter like TC might have a respect for the Klingons even if he's followed his good buddy the PC in another direction.
Thanks. My Tovan isn't really all that experienced a fighter - he knows some tricks with the torpedo launcher, because D'Vex showed him while the ship was still in orbit, and he has some talent, but he's still a farmboy at heart. He only stayed with the flotilla, and the ship, because he genuinely likes Nniol and thinks he needs to watch out for his friend's best interests. (The fact that his girlfriend dumped him and entered the Tal'Shiar makes him think he's all worldly-wise; he's learning, though, that there are parts of life he never imagined, or wanted to imagine. Installation 18 left a particularly sharp mark in his memory.) And, like most of the rest of the quadrant, he bought into the Klingons' surface mystique; unlike Nniol, he hasn't worked alongside Gorn and Orions and other species who've served aboard Klingon ships.
Nniol's heard the stories, and knows the surface bluster is mostly exactly that; he's also seen various Proud Warrior Race Guys who mistook Humans and Andorians for easy marks in bar fights. He knows Starfleet's at least as tough as the KDF, when all is said and done, and the phasers start sparking up.
Nniol values Tovan both as a friend, and as someone that Nniol knows will always be up-front with him. The rest of the crew might try to smooth things over with the commander, but Tovan's talking to his friend, not his CO.
(Yeah, I've put some thought into these two. The rest of the crew, not so much yet...)
Gorvar is a fancy Gorn! Good to see a lizard of wealth and taste. I like to think at least a few Gorn look at these debates and think "Ugh, who can even tell these tiny little apes apart? Are we on the side of the crusty-headed ones or the pointed-ear ones again?"
@lordvader45 / @qumori - some editing to break up paragraphs would help improve readabiluty. Vader, your bio is interesting, albeit brief. Some more details would help flesh out your character and his motivations. qumori, I thought your log entry neatly summed up your Admiral's reasoning and provided just enough detail of his background to make me care about him. Well done.
@jadz3 - your captain's log did a good job of encapsulating the story we all know. What about you? Your crew? Your hopes and fears? That's what I want to read, not a history lesson.
@sunsehal - that is more like it! Just enough history to provide context, but it's context for your character, not the STO storyline. I really liked the whole concept of the Firebird Children and the idea of a being bred for war choosing peace.
@ailynshadowheart - I loved the wrestling considerations Syndra went through in this piece, and the fact that she's still second-guessing her final decision.
@jonsills - as others have mentioned, I really enjoyed your treatment of Khev as a first officer who occasionally needs to be put in his place. I also liked the way you worked your hapless Captain Grunt & Co. in there. And I like coffee.
@hfmudd - a humorous, sad and honest look at the great powers. I liked that a lot.
@takeshi6 - I love the way you expanded on the events of the mission and the characters in it. I also like the way you let Takor rather naively play along with Section 31... I suspect she'll regret making this particular "deal with the devil" soon enough!
@aten66 - that was a great way to segue into your overall story arc. But I am left wanting more...
@flamesight - most impressive! The way you twisted the Khitomer conference to suit the Tal Shiar's schemes. I do hope we will see more from Commander Dylen at some point.
@gorvar1 - your Commander Gorvar sounds like a Gorn after my own General Ssharki's heart! And I love his metaphor at the end. I am very much looking forward to further adventures between him and Centurion Doutra.
@shevat - I suspect you're jumping the gun by going to Nimbus already; nonetheless a highly enjoyable entry.
Now I just need to get to work and finish The Road so I can write about my own Romulan...
...Oh, baby, you know, I've really got to leave you / Oh, I can hear it callin 'me / I said don't you hear it callin' me the way it used to do?...
- Anne Bredon
@takeshi6 - I love the way you expanded on the events of the mission and the characters in it. I also like the way you let Takor rather naively play along with Section 31... I suspect she'll regret making this particular "deal with the devil" soon enough!
Thank you very much.
As for Veleen regretting her 'deal with the devil' or not... we'll just have to wait and see. To be honest, my plans involving her only extended as far as getting her involved with Section 31 and joining the Federation. Where she goes from here is anyone's guess.
However, Veleen has become fiercely dedicated to protecting her people--which now consist of not just the colonists of Virinat, but the entire Romulan Republic. And if protecting them means working with Section 31 to secretly foster greater ties with the Federation, then that's what she'll do.
To be honest, I'm really looking forward to what ambassadormolari comes up with for this challenge--their character of Ta'nara is really interesting to me, and I want to see what choice she ends up making. :cool:
Gorvar is a fancy Gorn! Good to see a lizard of wealth and taste. I like to think at least a few Gorn look at these debates and think "Ugh, who can even tell these tiny little apes apart? Are we on the side of the crusty-headed ones or the pointed-ear ones again?"
Haha, yeah.
I wanted to make an Kaang kind of guy mixed with Spock in a way with the non-Klingon thing working agaisnt him. But he is calm like a Samurai and sophesticated
Although he fights for the Empire, he knows some would still see him as a lumbering dinosaur.
Doutra is on the other side of the mirror as in she thinks of the Romulans as her family and her relationship with Khev made sense since there was something there, in my head cannon, on Virinat which bloomed into a romance after losing their home.
Haha, yeah.
I wanted to make an Kaang kind of guy mixed with Spock in a way with the non-Klingon thing working agaisnt him. But he is calm like a Samurai and sophesticated
Although he fights for the Empire, he knows some would still see him as a lumbering dinosaur.
Doutra is on the other side of the mirror as in she thinks of the Romulans as her family and her relationship with Khev made sense since there was something there, in my head cannon, on Virinat which bloomed into a romance after losing their home.
A very interesting piece, Gorvar.
I liked how your Gorn actually joined the Klingons before the rest of the Hegemony, and quite possibly even before the Klingon/Gorn War, unless I miss my guess. And I liked your Romulan character, too, and look forward to finding out more about her. :cool:
One of the things I particularly like is seeing how, even though we are given so much about Tovan Khev's bio and personality, players have still been able to create distinct voices and backgrounds for their universes' Tovans. At risk of opening a can of worms, it really gives the lie to certain claims I've seen that placing him into our bridge crews took all of our creative liberties.
Would you say that this man is the same as the "standard" Tovan Khev you see on the first map on Virinat, for instance?
Mine is probably one of the most drastic "Tovan-overhauls" I've seen so far, but I suspect just by looks, he evokes an entirely different set of preconceptions about who he is and what he's like, than the "standard" Tovan. (There'll be a brief walk-on appearance by my Tovan at some point soon...)
Jonsills--You definitely had one of the most notable demonstrations of your Tovan's personality.
It has also been interesting to see how those of you who chose the Federation alliance justified it despite Cryptic's very pro-Klingon presentation.
Oh, and Gorvar--it's funny, but I always thought of the Gorn as more sophisticated than the Klingons...at least the way they're presented in game. Unfortunately I found the game did not really allow me to play my non-Klingon character the way I had wanted to, and so I largely gave up on the KDF. :-( (I'd had a Nausicaan toon that I had wanted to play as a disciplined, intelligent man like General Chang--also upsetting a stereotype--but the game just didn't allow me to play him with his type of honor. :-/ )
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You know, I noticed that dialogue swap too! It was pretty obvious sometimes.
"Wait, Klingons care about arresting terrorists? Shouldn't they be calling me a dishonorable peta'Q?" Oh well - Dr. Othan just took it as proof that obnoxious moralizers can be found everywhere.
Of course, the scary part is - in-universe, anyone who seems out of character may well be an Undine...:eek:
Oh, and Gorvar--it's funny, but I always thought of the Gorn as more sophisticated than the Klingons...at least the way they're presented in game. Unfortunately I found the game did not really allow me to play my non-Klingon character the way I had wanted to, and so I largely gave up on the KDF. :-( (I'd had a Nausicaan toon that I had wanted to play as a disciplined, intelligent man like General Chang--also upsetting a stereotype--but the game just didn't allow me to play him with his type of honor. :-/ )
I find that too. I really wish the Klingon campaign gave some alternate dialogue/actions for species like the Gorn and Trill who might not be totally gung-ho about attacking the Federation. Same goes for a lot of the foundry authors. I often click on the dialogue popups and I think This is not what Ssharki would say... I ended up rolling one of his Tac BOffs into a PC just so I could play those missions and actually enjoy them without all of the OOC hangups.
And yeah, it's like the Nausicaans weren't even considered at all, whether you want to play them to their mercenary "What's in it for me?" stereotype or not.
...Oh, baby, you know, I've really got to leave you / Oh, I can hear it callin 'me / I said don't you hear it callin' me the way it used to do?...
- Anne Bredon
Needless to say mine would NOT fall into the "can't string a sentence together" stereotype of Nausicaans, not by a long shot. Or the "hair-trigger temper so impulsive that he kills people over a game of dom-jot" stereotype.
But I lost interest in playing him when the game wouldn't let me give the captain of that Fed ship an honorable death in a fair, armed duel to the death, rather than the game's insistence that he simply slaughter him like a pig.
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Well for what I gather from the Gorn, they are willing to attack the Federation and really want to fight for the Empire ( save for some rebel forces) but they want to be proper represented in the High Council which isnt happening so far. I'm shamed to admit i dont know the stance with the Nausicans and the Orion people in it though.
Maybe for the next Writing challenge i can delve into Gorvar's stance during the Klingon-Gorn war.
Gorvar is a veteran of the Dominion War, a Bekk in those days, so he is quite old come the events of Khitomer but I headcanon it so Gorn are a long lived species because of the cold bloodedness. He joined the Klingon empire because of the legacy of Chaang and I read ( i might have this wrong) that the Gorn joined sides with the Dominion. So when that happend Gorvar left and joined the Klingons who at this point seem to use anyone they can get (As seen with Alexander joining the KDF).
Now we know from TOS that the Gorn Kirk fought was a crafty TRIBBLE so the Gorn have the cold and calculating part down. they are smart TRIBBLE or else they would'nt have ships back then that could outpace the Enterprise. However people from the Federation and even the Klingon Empire would still seem them as giant lizardmen who throw rocks at people. So Gorvar and i even think Ssharki have that going against him.
However because of his position and track record, being an Commander and being mated to a daughter of a lower house, he isnt completely shunned and his superiors know he is a good bet for any mission.
Doutra I got to admit I created because I didnt want to play a romulan and the remans were a no go for me. I already got a backstory for her race in mind which i'll try to delve in to later. As for Khev, yeah i picked the romance option because it just fit to me. I got to admit everyone;s own version of Khev is cool and the developers really tried to push him in your face i na way with the voice overs. He is your 2nd in Command, your wing man. The Spock to your Kirk in a way. Or Chakotay to your Janeway.
As for the dialogue ingame...yeah I gotta admit it doesnt make you feel any different really. The only time the game adressed me by race was on Nimbus III when i had to fight the other Gorn where they think you were brainwashed by the Klingons to be their puppet while you declare you fight with honour. Which is pretty much what my character thinks.
But that was just once though since even on Doutra I got called a greenblood once despite the fact im playing an alien. I know it;s hard to program in different dialogue options for every race...hence thank god for Foundry and headcanon haha.
That felt like one of the hardest Literary Challenges for a while. It took me about ten minutes to actually come up with a reason why I chose the Federation over the Klingons that translated into an in-world reason. In reality, it was mainly for the amount of C-Store ships/consoles and to be able to join my fleet.
In-world, it turned out to be difficult to define, especially considering T'Mara's backstory from Literary Challenge #42.
I don't think it's as good as it could be. But I was really stuck for ideas, although i'm quite happy that I managed to get Tovan into this instead of R'Vek, and throw a bit of conflict into the mix.
You're just a machine. And machines can be broken.
Furious Dragon, my sadly-neglected Gorn PC, is horrified by this information. "Aagh, what do you even do in the bedroom with your tiny ape mate, aaagh, if I had external ears I would cover them." :eek:
He is going JURASSIc on that Klingon booty!
....
No-one? Really? Okay.
Yeah I thought it would seem to fit that my character would fall for a Klingon female who sees past the scales and sees the honourable warrior within. Also it would make sense he would fall for a Klingon because he feels like one.
I may have opend a can of worms with that line but i stick with it.
That and the Gorn females from that enw game are a bit..eeeeh.
He is going JURASSIc on that Klingon booty!
....
No-one? Really? Okay.
Yeah I thought it would seem to fit that my character would fall for a Klingon female who sees past the scales and sees the honourable warrior within. Also it would make sense he would fall for a Klingon because he feels like one.
I may have opend a can of worms with that line but i stick with it.
That and the Gorn females from that enw game are a bit..eeeeh.
Yeah, personally I pretend that game never happened as far as the Gorn are concerned.
My own Gorn, General Ssharki, has mentioned that he finds certain open-minded mammals to be rather stimulating, and I'm pretty sure his boy Sway and a Klingon female fell in love with each other at the Academy, so I think it's safe to say that particular can of worms was already open.
By the way, I'd extremely interested to hear your take on my Gorn characters, seeing as how you're the only other guy I've seen writing about another Gorn PC.
...Oh, baby, you know, I've really got to leave you / Oh, I can hear it callin 'me / I said don't you hear it callin' me the way it used to do?...
- Anne Bredon
Okay just finished "The Last Candle Burns" ....and I really liked how you handeld the Gorn and the Klingon in this while still being all Star Trek-e. Ssharki is an interesting character to see him reduced to nothing...and then given a chance to build up again.
I think it's the cold bloodedness that sells it to me. He lsot his sister, his home and his shipmates...but there he is talking smack to the Klingons and gets a job from them. It all make sense really haha.
Loved how you made him a Veteran of the Dominion War to like my guy...except he was on the opposite side which i give kudos for. Also well done on the klingon sentences, you gotta give me an link for that.
I'sH'd, Ambassador Kane, Ael t'Kazanak, and the crew of the Valkyrie belong to marcusdkane.
Alyosha, Shalrak, and the crew of the Chin'toka belong to me.
The smartly-dressed version of Tovan Khev briefly seen in this story sort of belongs to Cryptic, but he is my version of Khev, after I did a major overhaul on him.
This story follows immediately after the departure of I'sH'd and Alyosha from the Captain's Table RPG here on the STO forum (in the "Is this seat taken?" thread). In the continuity of the Tales of Alyosha Strannik, it takes place before the events of "The Interdictor" (the fallout of which I still have to deal with in a future LC...).
While the main focus of this story is the alliance of two individuals separated for reasons completely outside of the Romulan-related events of Khitomer, this story does also afford a little explanation as to why (despite Cryptic's highly Klingon-biased mission design) my Reman character Shalrak still went with the Federation despite T'Nae's racist behavior and the lack of Federation ships supporting the player during the confrontation with the Elachi and Tal Shiar.
(The first being an encounter with the more genuinely welcoming Captain Strannik, who--on top of just treating them better--also allowed a very slight mental contact with Shalrak to prove his sincerity, and the second being the events depicted here, which may explain why Federation ground security was disrupted during the conference, and what happened to Starfleet's vessels in orbit of Khitomer. One suspects, however, that the incident was officially blamed on the Elachi for diplomatic and security reasons...)
Christian Gaming Community Fleets--Faith, Fun, and Fellowship! See the website and PM for more. :-) Proudly F2P.Signature image by gulberat. Avatar image by balsavor.deviantart.com.
Comments
There's usually an option for turning them off, somewhere in the word processor. Or you can do what I do; type in Notepad and hope your spelling is up to scratch.
Gotcha. I tend to use Microsoft Word because it's easier to read, but I might try copy-pasting into Notepad first and making the corrections there.
@marcusdkane: Thanks. I'm glad you liked it, and am looking forward to seeing what kind of entry you come up with.
@gorvar1: Thanks. Decent reasoning there for your joining the Klingons--I might create a character sometime that does the same, but my plan for Veleen was always for her to ally with the Federation.
And yeah, I am thinking of working a lover or two into her storyline--Got a couple of ideas in mind that I need to figure out and choose between.
@Everyone else: Give me a few days, and I'll see about reviewing some of your entries. :cool:
I find I get my best results if I type in notepad, copy-paste to Word for spellcheck, corrections and editing, and then copy-paste to the forums.
The only symbols I find the forum rejects are left/right quotation marks and apostrophes, long dashes ( - ) and ellipses ( ... ) which Word creates automatically but notepad does not, and Word preserves your formatting if you transfer your work.
Hope that helps.
I'll catch up reading entries tonight. And I have to catch up on my own writing so I can contribute something here...
...Oh, baby, you know, I've really got to leave you / Oh, I can hear it callin 'me / I said don't you hear it callin' me the way it used to do?...
- Anne Bredon
Thanks for the tips.
I'll keep them in mind for later challenges/entries, and I look forward to reading what you come up with--as well as reading what you think of my entry.
I loved your coffee based story! Ah Tovan know your friends better. *chuckles* Who knew?
Excellent work, jonsills. Nice to see a slightly more 'realistic' Tovan - he tends to get written as the players' conscience so darn much that it's nice to see that a skilled fighter like TC might have a respect for the Klingons even if he's followed his good buddy the PC in another direction.
Tak: Dr. Othan approves of Veleen's attitude about Klingons and the alliance!
Thanks, cosmonaut!!
To be honest, even though my plans always involved her joining the feds, I was trying to figure out her precise opinion on the Klingons when I read your piece, and I ended up drawing inspiration from your piece on Dr. Othan.
So again, thanks--both for your review and for the inspiration you provided.
Also, a good piece, jonsills. I don't drink coffee, myself, though I would be willing to try a Raktajino if it existed... :cool:
Nniol's heard the stories, and knows the surface bluster is mostly exactly that; he's also seen various Proud Warrior Race Guys who mistook Humans and Andorians for easy marks in bar fights. He knows Starfleet's at least as tough as the KDF, when all is said and done, and the phasers start sparking up.
Nniol values Tovan both as a friend, and as someone that Nniol knows will always be up-front with him. The rest of the crew might try to smooth things over with the commander, but Tovan's talking to his friend, not his CO.
(Yeah, I've put some thought into these two. The rest of the crew, not so much yet...)
Ill keep the quote thing in mind for next time.
@lordvader45 / @qumori - some editing to break up paragraphs would help improve readabiluty. Vader, your bio is interesting, albeit brief. Some more details would help flesh out your character and his motivations. qumori, I thought your log entry neatly summed up your Admiral's reasoning and provided just enough detail of his background to make me care about him. Well done.
@jadz3 - your captain's log did a good job of encapsulating the story we all know. What about you? Your crew? Your hopes and fears? That's what I want to read, not a history lesson.
@sunsehal - that is more like it! Just enough history to provide context, but it's context for your character, not the STO storyline. I really liked the whole concept of the Firebird Children and the idea of a being bred for war choosing peace.
@ailynshadowheart - I loved the wrestling considerations Syndra went through in this piece, and the fact that she's still second-guessing her final decision.
@wonvertu - an impressive piece of work!
@jonsills - as others have mentioned, I really enjoyed your treatment of Khev as a first officer who occasionally needs to be put in his place. I also liked the way you worked your hapless Captain Grunt & Co. in there. And I like coffee.
@hfmudd - a humorous, sad and honest look at the great powers. I liked that a lot.
@takeshi6 - I love the way you expanded on the events of the mission and the characters in it. I also like the way you let Takor rather naively play along with Section 31... I suspect she'll regret making this particular "deal with the devil" soon enough!
@aten66 - that was a great way to segue into your overall story arc. But I am left wanting more...
@flamesight - most impressive! The way you twisted the Khitomer conference to suit the Tal Shiar's schemes. I do hope we will see more from Commander Dylen at some point.
@gorvar1 - your Commander Gorvar sounds like a Gorn after my own General Ssharki's heart! And I love his metaphor at the end. I am very much looking forward to further adventures between him and Centurion Doutra.
@shevat - I suspect you're jumping the gun by going to Nimbus already; nonetheless a highly enjoyable entry.
@maverickdude05 - great entry, short but action-packed!
Now I just need to get to work and finish The Road so I can write about my own Romulan...
...Oh, baby, you know, I've really got to leave you / Oh, I can hear it callin 'me / I said don't you hear it callin' me the way it used to do?...
- Anne Bredon
Thank you very much.
As for Veleen regretting her 'deal with the devil' or not... we'll just have to wait and see. To be honest, my plans involving her only extended as far as getting her involved with Section 31 and joining the Federation. Where she goes from here is anyone's guess.
However, Veleen has become fiercely dedicated to protecting her people--which now consist of not just the colonists of Virinat, but the entire Romulan Republic. And if protecting them means working with Section 31 to secretly foster greater ties with the Federation, then that's what she'll do.
To be honest, I'm really looking forward to what ambassadormolari comes up with for this challenge--their character of Ta'nara is really interesting to me, and I want to see what choice she ends up making. :cool:
Haha, yeah.
I wanted to make an Kaang kind of guy mixed with Spock in a way with the non-Klingon thing working agaisnt him. But he is calm like a Samurai and sophesticated
Although he fights for the Empire, he knows some would still see him as a lumbering dinosaur.
Doutra is on the other side of the mirror as in she thinks of the Romulans as her family and her relationship with Khev made sense since there was something there, in my head cannon, on Virinat which bloomed into a romance after losing their home.
A very interesting piece, Gorvar.
I liked how your Gorn actually joined the Klingons before the rest of the Hegemony, and quite possibly even before the Klingon/Gorn War, unless I miss my guess. And I liked your Romulan character, too, and look forward to finding out more about her. :cool:
One of the things I particularly like is seeing how, even though we are given so much about Tovan Khev's bio and personality, players have still been able to create distinct voices and backgrounds for their universes' Tovans. At risk of opening a can of worms, it really gives the lie to certain claims I've seen that placing him into our bridge crews took all of our creative liberties.
Would you say that this man is the same as the "standard" Tovan Khev you see on the first map on Virinat, for instance?
http://oi41.tinypic.com/1zyg7b7.jpg
Mine is probably one of the most drastic "Tovan-overhauls" I've seen so far, but I suspect just by looks, he evokes an entirely different set of preconceptions about who he is and what he's like, than the "standard" Tovan. (There'll be a brief walk-on appearance by my Tovan at some point soon...)
Jonsills--You definitely had one of the most notable demonstrations of your Tovan's personality.
It has also been interesting to see how those of you who chose the Federation alliance justified it despite Cryptic's very pro-Klingon presentation.
Oh, and Gorvar--it's funny, but I always thought of the Gorn as more sophisticated than the Klingons...at least the way they're presented in game. Unfortunately I found the game did not really allow me to play my non-Klingon character the way I had wanted to, and so I largely gave up on the KDF. :-( (I'd had a Nausicaan toon that I had wanted to play as a disciplined, intelligent man like General Chang--also upsetting a stereotype--but the game just didn't allow me to play him with his type of honor. :-/ )
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"Wait, Klingons care about arresting terrorists? Shouldn't they be calling me a dishonorable peta'Q?" Oh well - Dr. Othan just took it as proof that obnoxious moralizers can be found everywhere.
Of course, the scary part is - in-universe, anyone who seems out of character may well be an Undine...:eek:
I find that too. I really wish the Klingon campaign gave some alternate dialogue/actions for species like the Gorn and Trill who might not be totally gung-ho about attacking the Federation. Same goes for a lot of the foundry authors. I often click on the dialogue popups and I think This is not what Ssharki would say... I ended up rolling one of his Tac BOffs into a PC just so I could play those missions and actually enjoy them without all of the OOC hangups.
And yeah, it's like the Nausicaans weren't even considered at all, whether you want to play them to their mercenary "What's in it for me?" stereotype or not.
...Oh, baby, you know, I've really got to leave you / Oh, I can hear it callin 'me / I said don't you hear it callin' me the way it used to do?...
- Anne Bredon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJ99SmAX3os
Needless to say mine would NOT fall into the "can't string a sentence together" stereotype of Nausicaans, not by a long shot. Or the "hair-trigger temper so impulsive that he kills people over a game of dom-jot" stereotype.
But I lost interest in playing him when the game wouldn't let me give the captain of that Fed ship an honorable death in a fair, armed duel to the death, rather than the game's insistence that he simply slaughter him like a pig.
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Maybe for the next Writing challenge i can delve into Gorvar's stance during the Klingon-Gorn war.
Gorvar is a veteran of the Dominion War, a Bekk in those days, so he is quite old come the events of Khitomer but I headcanon it so Gorn are a long lived species because of the cold bloodedness. He joined the Klingon empire because of the legacy of Chaang and I read ( i might have this wrong) that the Gorn joined sides with the Dominion. So when that happend Gorvar left and joined the Klingons who at this point seem to use anyone they can get (As seen with Alexander joining the KDF).
Now we know from TOS that the Gorn Kirk fought was a crafty TRIBBLE so the Gorn have the cold and calculating part down. they are smart TRIBBLE or else they would'nt have ships back then that could outpace the Enterprise. However people from the Federation and even the Klingon Empire would still seem them as giant lizardmen who throw rocks at people. So Gorvar and i even think Ssharki have that going against him.
However because of his position and track record, being an Commander and being mated to a daughter of a lower house, he isnt completely shunned and his superiors know he is a good bet for any mission.
Doutra I got to admit I created because I didnt want to play a romulan and the remans were a no go for me. I already got a backstory for her race in mind which i'll try to delve in to later. As for Khev, yeah i picked the romance option because it just fit to me. I got to admit everyone;s own version of Khev is cool and the developers really tried to push him in your face i na way with the voice overs. He is your 2nd in Command, your wing man. The Spock to your Kirk in a way. Or Chakotay to your Janeway.
As for the dialogue ingame...yeah I gotta admit it doesnt make you feel any different really. The only time the game adressed me by race was on Nimbus III when i had to fight the other Gorn where they think you were brainwashed by the Klingons to be their puppet while you declare you fight with honour. Which is pretty much what my character thinks.
But that was just once though since even on Doutra I got called a greenblood once despite the fact im playing an alien. I know it;s hard to program in different dialogue options for every race...hence thank god for Foundry and headcanon haha.
In-world, it turned out to be difficult to define, especially considering T'Mara's backstory from Literary Challenge #42.
I don't think it's as good as it could be. But I was really stuck for ideas, although i'm quite happy that I managed to get Tovan into this instead of R'Vek, and throw a bit of conflict into the mix.
Furious Dragon, my sadly-neglected Gorn PC, is horrified by this information. "Aagh, what do you even do in the bedroom with your tiny ape mate, aaagh, if I had external ears I would cover them." :eek:
....
No-one? Really? Okay.
Yeah I thought it would seem to fit that my character would fall for a Klingon female who sees past the scales and sees the honourable warrior within. Also it would make sense he would fall for a Klingon because he feels like one.
I may have opend a can of worms with that line but i stick with it.
That and the Gorn females from that enw game are a bit..eeeeh.
My own Gorn, General Ssharki, has mentioned that he finds certain open-minded mammals to be rather stimulating, and I'm pretty sure his boy Sway and a Klingon female fell in love with each other at the Academy, so I think it's safe to say that particular can of worms was already open.
By the way, I'd extremely interested to hear your take on my Gorn characters, seeing as how you're the only other guy I've seen writing about another Gorn PC.
Listed chronologically, Ssharki appears in:
- The Last Candle Burns
- The Victim (centers on Sway)
- Erased (Co-stars Jesu LaRoca)
- The Road To Ruin (work in progress, ensemble cast)
- Frozen
Thanks in advance for reading!
...Oh, baby, you know, I've really got to leave you / Oh, I can hear it callin 'me / I said don't you hear it callin' me the way it used to do?...
- Anne Bredon
I think it's the cold bloodedness that sells it to me. He lsot his sister, his home and his shipmates...but there he is talking smack to the Klingons and gets a job from them. It all make sense really haha.
Loved how you made him a Veteran of the Dominion War to like my guy...except he was on the opposite side which i give kudos for. Also well done on the klingon sentences, you gotta give me an link for that.
I'sH'd, Ambassador Kane, Ael t'Kazanak, and the crew of the Valkyrie belong to marcusdkane.
Alyosha, Shalrak, and the crew of the Chin'toka belong to me.
The smartly-dressed version of Tovan Khev briefly seen in this story sort of belongs to Cryptic, but he is my version of Khev, after I did a major overhaul on him.
This story follows immediately after the departure of I'sH'd and Alyosha from the Captain's Table RPG here on the STO forum (in the "Is this seat taken?" thread). In the continuity of the Tales of Alyosha Strannik, it takes place before the events of "The Interdictor" (the fallout of which I still have to deal with in a future LC...).
While the main focus of this story is the alliance of two individuals separated for reasons completely outside of the Romulan-related events of Khitomer, this story does also afford a little explanation as to why (despite Cryptic's highly Klingon-biased mission design) my Reman character Shalrak still went with the Federation despite T'Nae's racist behavior and the lack of Federation ships supporting the player during the confrontation with the Elachi and Tal Shiar.
(The first being an encounter with the more genuinely welcoming Captain Strannik, who--on top of just treating them better--also allowed a very slight mental contact with Shalrak to prove his sincerity, and the second being the events depicted here, which may explain why Federation ground security was disrupted during the conference, and what happened to Starfleet's vessels in orbit of Khitomer. One suspects, however, that the incident was officially blamed on the Elachi for diplomatic and security reasons...)
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