Step Six: Career Events
Determine two or more Career Events. Regardless of how many events are chosen, the character gains:
Two points for attributes
Two points for departments
Two focuses
The character’s career is a tapestry of experiences, but among this, a few were pivotal moments in the character’s life. A character defines which moments are important in retrospect, and what seemed definitive to someone in their early life may be inconsequential decades later.
This is handled as two identical steps—roll or choose a Career Event, gain whatever benefits it provides, and then repeat the process, giving the character two definitive Career Events.
Each Career Event increases one attribute and one department by one point each, and gives the character one additional focus. Which attribute and which department are improved—and guidelines and suggestions for focuses—is listed in the entries for each Career Event.
Many Career Events also grant the character the option of a trait, to reflect some major lasting impact on the character’s life. These are not compulsory.
The player may wish to combine multiple Career Events into a single event in the character’s backstory or have them as distinct moments in their history. Players may also choose to roll more than twice for Career Events; in this case, the character can mix and match the benefits each Career Event provides, so long as they do not gain more than a total of two attribute increases, two department increases, and two focuses for this step.
Younger characters may assume that one or both of their Career Events occurred during their training—such as cadets gaining field experience aboard a ship during their third or fourth year.
Random Career Event
D20 Career Event
1 Betrayed Ideals for a Superior
2 Breakthrough or Invention
3 Called Out a Superior
4 Conflict with a Hostile Culture
5 Dealt with a Plague
6 Death of a Friend
7 Discovered an Artifact
8 Encountered a Truly Alien Being
9 First Contact
10 Lauded by Another Culture
11 Learned Unique Language
12 Mentored
13 Negotiated a Treaty
14 New Battle Strategy
15 Required to Take Command
16 Serious Injury
17 Ship Destroyed
18 Solved an Engineering Crisis
19 Special Commendation
20 Transporter Accident
Note: random career events do not included career events from Technical Manual.
Random Career Event (Technical Manual)
D20 Career Event
1-2 Encountered a Rogue AI
3-4 Encountered a Spatial Anomaly
5–6 Encountered a Temporal Anomaly
7–8 Experienced an Alternate Dimension
9–10 Fellowship at an Elite Institution
11–12 Studied Archaeotechnology
13–14 Studied a New Power Source
15–16 Technological Catastrophe
17–18 Tested Transporter Improvements
19–20 Worked on a Transwarp Project
Betrayed Ideals for a Superior
The character was placed in a situation where they had to choose between a trusted superior and their own ideals, and they chose to follow the superior.
ATTRIBUTE: +1 Presence
DEPARTMENT: + 1 Command
FOCUS SUGGESTIONS: Persuasion, Inspiration, Investigation
Breakthrough or Invention
The character made an important technological discovery, devised a new way of using a particular technology, or invented some new technology that will be invaluable in the future.
ATTRIBUTE: +1 Any
DEPARTMENT: + 1 Engineering
FOCUS SUGGESTIONS: Experimental Technology, Invention, or Improvisation
TRAIT: The character may gain trait Inventor of X, where X is the name of the technology invented.
Called Out a Superior
The character was placed in a situation where they had to choose between a trusted superior and their own ideals, and they chose to follow their ideals.
ATTRIBUTE: +1 Reason
DEPARTMENT: + 1 Conn
FOCUS SUGGESTIONS: Uniform Code of Justice, History, Starfleet Protocol
Conflict with a Hostile Culture
The character was involved in a battle with a hostile force.
ATTRIBUTE: +1 Fitness
DEPARTMENT: +1 Security
FOCUS SUGGESTIONS: Hand Phasers, Hand-toHand Combat, Tactical Systems
Dealt with a Plague
The character’s ship was assigned to provide aid to a world dealing with an epidemic.
ATTRIBUTE: +1 Insight
DEPARTMENT: + 1 Medicine
FOCUS SUGGESTIONS: Infectious Diseases, Emergency Medicine, Triage
Death of a Friend
One of the character’s friends was killed in action.
ATTRIBUTE: +1 Insight
DEPARTMENT: + 1 Medicine
FOCUS SUGGESTIONS: Counseling, but it may also represent a skill or pursuit the character takes up in their fallen friend’s memory
Discovered an Artifact
The character discovered a device or fragment of technology from a now-extinct civilization.
ATTRIBUTE: +1 Reason
DEPARTMENT: + 1 Engineering
FOCUS SUGGESTIONS: Ancient Technology, Computers, Reverse Engineering
Encountered a Rogue AI
Ancient civilizations, cutting-edge science, and even accidental creation can all result in true artificial intelligence (AI), and encounters with these AIs are often eventful and unpredictable situations. The character encountered one such AI, perhaps discovering it ruling over a primitive society, or attempting to override the ship’s computer, or just carrying out its programming in a strange or dangerous manner.
ATTRIBUTE: +1 Control or +1 Reason
DEPARTMENT: +1 Command or +1 Science
FOCUS SUGGESTIONS: Computing, Cybernetics, Holo-Programming
Encountered a Spatial Anomaly
The term ‘spatial anomaly’ describes any unusual disruption in the normal fabric of space-time, ranging from gravitational irregularities, locations where the laws of physics are altered, or even wormholes across space.
ATTRIBUTE: +1 Daring or +1 Control
DEPARTMENT: +1 Conn or +1 Science
FOCUS SUGGESTIONS: Anomalous Physics, Quantum Mechanics, Subspace Dynamics
Encountered a Temporal Anomaly
The character experienced events or phenomena outside the natural passage of time. Perhaps they were trapped in a temporal loop, experiencing the same events over and over until they escaped. Perhaps they crossed paths with a time traveler, or travelled to the past or future. Perhaps they grew up in a different era or a different timeline, and found themselves stranded in our own.
ATTRIBUTE: +1 Daring or +1 Control
DEPARTMENT: +1 Science or +1 Engineering
FOCUS SUGGESTIONS: Archaeotechnology, History, Temporal Mechanics
TRAIT: The character may take a trait to reflect the lasting effect of their experiences, such as Seen the Future, Trans-temporal Awareness, or Time-Displaced.
Encountered a Truly Alien Being
The character encountered a life-form which is truly alien, something barely within the comprehension of humanoid life. It might have been some godlike entity, or a creature that swims through space, but whatever it was, it was not life as we know it.
ATTRIBUTE: +1 Reason
DEPARTMENT: + 1 Science
FOCUS SUGGESTIONS: Empathy, Philosophy, Xenobiology
Experienced an Alternate Dimension
The universe is far more than what can normally be seen or experienced, and there are many layers of reality rarely interacted with, such as fluidic space, the Q Continuum, and innumerable subspace domains, as well as parallel universes such as the Terran Universe. The character has encountered or experienced some phenomena originating in another dimension, or even visited an alternate dimension personally.
ATTRIBUTE: +1 Reason or +1 Fitness
DEPARTMENT: +1 Science or +1 Security
FOCUS SUGGESTIONS: Alternate Histories, Multi-Dimensional Physics, Subspace Dynamics
Fellowship at an Elite Institution
There are countless prestigious scientific and academic institutions across the Galaxy, such as the Daystrom Institute in Okinawa on Earth, or the Vulcan Science Academy in ShiKahr on Vulcan. The character studied at one such institution for several months or even a few years, carrying out important research and making a name for themselves within the scientific community.
ATTRIBUTE: +1 Presence or +1 Reason
DEPARTMENT: +1 Science or +1 Medicine
FOCUS SUGGESTIONS: Archaeological Medicine, Cybernetics, Theoretical Physics
TRAIT: The character may select a trait representing the prestige and accomplishment that comes with such a time of study, such as Daystrom Fellow or Studied at the Vulcan Science Academy. Name the trait according to the institution.
First Contact
The character was involved in one of the most important of Starfleet’s missions: first contact with another culture.
ATTRIBUTE: +1 Presence
DEPARTMENT: + 1 Any
FOCUS SUGGESTIONS: Cultural Studies, Diplomacy, Infiltration
Lauded by Another Culture
The character was involved in a mission that earned the official praise of a non-Federation culture; they are now considered to be a friend to those people.
ATTRIBUTE: +1 Presence
DEPARTMENT: + 1 Science
FOCUS SUGGESTIONS: A focus of X Culture, replacing the X with the name of that culture or any that represent skills or techniques specific to that culture.
TRAIT: A good example might be Friend to the X, replacing the X with the name of the culture. This reflects the character’s renown among that culture, and the benefits and problems such status brings.
Learned Unique Language
The character encounters a species with an unusual form of communication and learns to communicate with them.
ATTRIBUTE: +1 Insight
DEPARTMENT: + 1 Science
FOCUS SUGGESTIONS: Linguistics, Cultural Studies, Negotiations
Mentored
A highly-respected officer took notice of the character’s career. For a time, the character served as the officer’s pilot and aide, gaining the benefit of the officer’s experiences and lessons.
ATTRIBUTE: +1 Any
DEPARTMENT: + 1 Conn
FOCUS SUGGESTIONS: Composure or Etiquette, any focus reflecting the officer’s specialties
Negotiated a Treaty
The character was part of a delegation that helped negotiate a treaty, agreement, or alliance with a culture outside the Federation.
ATTRIBUTE: +1 Control
DEPARTMENT: + 1 Command
FOCUS SUGGESTIONS: Diplomacy, Negotiation, Galactic Politics
New Battle Strategy
In combat with a hostile force, the character devised a new strategy or tactic.
ATTRIBUTE: +1 Daring
DEPARTMENT: + 1 Security
FOCUS SUGGESTIONS: Combat Tactics or Hazard Awareness
Required to Take Command
During a mission, a crisis left the mission’s leader unable to lead. This required the character to take command, something they may not have been prepared for.
ATTRIBUTE: +1 Daring
DEPARTMENT: + 1 Command
FOCUS SUGGESTIONS: Inspiration or Composure
Serious Injury
The character was seriously hurt and needed to spend a considerable amount of time recovering.
ATTRIBUTE: +1 Fitness
DEPARTMENT: + 1 Medicine
FOCUS SUGGESTIONS: The focus should reflect the circumstances of the character’s injury, something that helped them through recovery, or something they took up after recovering.
TRAIT: The character may gain a trait, which should reflect some lasting effect of the character’s injury or the way they recovered. Examples: Prosthetic Implant or some form of disability.
Ship Destroyed
The ship the character was serving on was destroyed during a mission, and the character was one of the few who survived.
ATTRIBUTE: +1 Daring
DEPARTMENT: + 1 Security
FOCUS SUGGESTIONS: Extra Vehicular Operations, Small Craft, Survival
Solved an Engineering Crisis
The character was instrumental in ending a crisis caused by malfunctioning technology and saved many lives in the process.
ATTRIBUTE: +1 Control
DEPARTMENT: + 1 Engineering
FOCUS SUGGESTIONS: Electro-Plasma Power Systems, Fusion Reactors, Warp Engines
Special Commendation
During a crisis, the character saved the lives of several colleagues, helping them to safety. This earned the character a special commendation.
ATTRIBUTE: +1 Fitness
DEPARTMENT: + 1 Any
FOCUS SUGGESTIONS: Athletics, Survival, Emergency Medicine
Studied Archaeotechnology
Archaeotechnology is the study of technology used in the past, both in the histories of modern cultures and in civilizations that no longer exist. The character has spent time—either professionally, or for their own enjoyment— studying historical technologies, whether the crude pre-warp devices of their own culture or the forgotten science of advanced civilizations long past.
ATTRIBUTE: +1 Control or +1 Reason
DEPARTMENT: +1 Engineering or +1 Medicine
FOCUS SUGGESTIONS: Archaeotechnology, Electronics, History
Studied a New Power Source
While much of the Galaxy relies on fusion and dilithium-moderated matter/antimatter reactors for power, there are always theories and experiments pursuing the possibility of new sources of energy, or refinements of existing ones. The character has spent time and effort researching these possibilities.
ATTRIBUTE: +1 Control or +1 Reason
DEPARTMENT: +1 Engineering or +1 Science
FOCUS SUGGESTIONS: EPS Power Systems, Matter/Antimatter Reactors, Plasma Physics
Technological Catastrophe
Technological advancement is often messy, with false starts, unforeseen consequences, and sometimes even costly disasters. The character was present during an especially serious failure; perhaps they helped contain the consequences, or saved others from it, or perhaps they feel it was their mistake that led to the catastrophe.
ATTRIBUTE: +1 Daring or +1 Fitness
DEPARTMENT: +1 Command or +1 Medicine
FOCUS SUGGESTIONS: Damage Control Procedures, First Aid, Nuclear Physics
Tested Transporter Improvements
For all that it seems miraculous, there are serious limitations to transporter technology, and each generation of new engineers pushes those limits and finds ways to expand the capabilities of the technology. The character was involved in such developments, having worked in situations that pushed the limits of transporters or employed them in an unconventional manner.
ATTRIBUTE: +1 Control or +1 Reason
DEPARTMENT: +1 Engineering or +1 Medicine
FOCUS SUGGESTIONS: Molecular Synthesis, Sensor Operations, Transporters & Replicators
Transporter Accident
The character suffered some manner of strange accident while using a transporter.
ATTRIBUTE: +1 Control
DEPARTMENT: + 1 Conn
FOCUS SUGGESTIONS: Transporters & Replicators, Small Craft, Quantum Mechanics
Worked on a Transwarp Project
‘Transwarp’ is a catch-all term for a variety of faster-than-warp propulsion technologies and projects. The character was involved in one of these projects, whether studying new propulsion theories or developing new technologies for testing.
ATTRIBUTE: +1 Reason or +1 Insight
DEPARTMENT: +1 Conn or +1 Engineering
FOCUS SUGGESTIONS: Astromycology, Quantum Mechanics, Subspace Theory