Bored on board?

[Mike Farley]

I would take all those old TSR adventure modules and convert them into holodeck programs. Live action D&D. How awesome would that be?

Wesley Crusher and his Pen&Paper RPG Club like dice and graph paper, thank you very much.

 

[Timewalker]

I like to think there's a dedicated group of purists that DO play it exactly that way while most everyone else is LARPing on the Holodeck.

Sadly, there's a significant segment of D&D players who don't do that now. They're glued to their computers and can't imagine playing it around a table, face-to-face, having to actually pick up a pencil and paper and draw their own maps and roll their own dice.

One of my DMs made real props to go along with the game. If we found a scroll, we were handed a real piece of paper, rolled up and tied with a ribbon. No fudging who unrolled or read it - everyone could plainly see when it happened. If we found a potion and wanted to drink it, she had little containers of water with food coloring and we really were expected to drink it.

Why would you think it's anything more than first come first served. Why should officers get preferential treatment when it comes to holodeck usage? I can understand length restrictions for everyone because otherwise some people could spend all their off duty time there but otherwise, I wouldn't expect any kind of preference structure based on hierarchy.

Oh, please. Picard may labor under the delusion that nobody uses money and everybody works for the joy of self-improvement, but even for him, rank has its privileges. Do you really think that if he wanted or needed to use the holodeck badly enough and Wesley was in there, that he wouldn't either order or intimidate Wesley into leaving?

Of course I would expect he would be fair about it and not selfishly take over someone else's holodeck time that was booked in advance, unless there was some emergency going on. But don't tell me that rank doesn't get first dibs on the holodeck. Remember the episode when Wesley was in the holodeck, Worf came in, and Wesley said, "I'll leave"? To Worf's credit he gave Wesley permission to stay, but he didn't have to.

The crew compliment of each ship is figured on the number of people it tales across x number of ships to man it in various levels of operation. So, it's finely balanced to ensure that everyone has a role.

A ship as large get and complex as the Galaxy-class probably has endless maintenance and upkeep needs. My guess is that mission specialists (like senior geologist or whatever) get assigned to other shipboard tasks as part of their shifts when they are not actively engaged in a project. Also, this is a ship filled with largely technical people and scientists, so I'd wager that a fair amount of their time is advancing their knowledge through some form of continuing education and training. Same for security and tactical people. The medical staff probably keeps plenty busy with scheduled checkups, basic first aid, etc. especially with over 1000 people aboard.

During off-hours, the Enterprise has been surprisingly well depicted as a true community in space. Families spend time together. There are exercise classes, acting classes and plays, music concerts, art classes, various social centers (like Ten Forward), a low-gravity gymnasium, observation lounges, holodecks, arboretums. There's a shipboard school for the children, which likely means homework and projects. The crew quarters have viewing screens and holographic projectors to view entertainment. The computer engages in games.

Damn, it actually sound pretty fun.

Fun... until an enemy blows a hole in the side of the ship and it happens to be in the section where you are. Good luck breathing vacuum.

I would take all those old TSR adventure modules and convert them into holodeck programs. Live action D&D. How awesome would that be?

How flexible would it be, though? The modules don't begin to cover all the available actions the PCs could take, just the likeliest ones, and those are usually fairly basic - listen, open the door, smash the door down, search the room, talk to whoever/whatever is in the room, fight, steal, cast a spell...

That said, taking part in a holographic Dragonlance scenario would be fun, particularly if the music is included (there is sheet music in the modules to go along with the songs and poetry in the novels; I learned how to play some of them, and they are beautiful).

I agree. With families aboard, it may be JUST as important to allow the civilians to use the holodeck as the crew.

The exception would be if the holodeck is needed for a mission-specific function or investigation (see Schisms or Booby Trap, for example).

When did I say the civilians wouldn't be allowed to use the holodeck? The time would have to be apportioned out among officers, enlisted, civilians, visiting dignitaries, etc. I would think there would probably be a few times a month alloted for "first come, first served" but the only fair thing to do would be to have a booking system where people reserve time in advance.

Something I don't recall on TNG was when a holodeck program was considered a community resource, when people could drop in or leave as they wanted (I'm thinking of Sandrine's or Fair Haven in Voyager).

 

[at Quark's]

Well, we know rank at least confers some privileges on the ENT-D. For example, lieutenants (and up) get their own room, ranks below have roommates. (this is implied in the lower decks episode). So I wouldn't be too surprised if there were some other privileges tied to rank also, for example wrt the holodeck.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I would take all those old TSR adventure modules and convert them into holodeck programs. Live action D&D. How awesome would that be?

Live action Labyrinth of Madness FTW.

Although, I read through that really carefully and the way it's written it's physically impossible, because one of the runes is in the last section that you need to get into the last section.

 

[Herbert]

How flexible would it be, though? The modules don't begin to cover all the available actions the PCs could take, just the likeliest ones, and those are usually fairly basic - listen, open the door, smash the door down, search the room, talk to whoever/whatever is in the room, fight, steal, cast a spell...

Those modules don't dictate actions. They present scenarios and the players determine what happens. If I converted a module like B2 Keep on the Borderlands, there is no set direction the players must follow. It's a sandbox. You can do as much or as little as you like. Another one in that mold is L1 The Secret of Bone Hill.

It is true that some modules expect that you will take certain actions. However, any DM with even a little experience will tell you that players don't always do what you expect them to do. There are many paths to take.

 

[Herbert]

Oh, please. Picard may labor under the delusion that nobody uses money and everybody works for the joy of self-improvement, but even for him, rank has its privileges. Do you really think that if he wanted or needed to use the holodeck badly enough and Wesley was in there, that he wouldn't either order or intimidate Wesley into leaving?

No. I wouldn't expect Picard to act that way.

 

[Timewalker]

Those modules don't dictate actions. They present scenarios and the players determine what happens. If I converted a module like B2 Keep on the Borderlands, there is no set direction the players must follow. It's a sandbox. You can do as much or as little as you like. Another one in that mold is L1 The Secret of Bone Hill.

It is true that some modules expect that you will take certain actions. However, any DM with even a little experience will tell you that players don't always do what you expect them to do. There are many paths to take.

Thank you; I am perfectly aware that modules don't dictate actions. I'm an old-school D&D player who prefers pencil & paper over computer games, and I know that any reasonably competent DM can deal with players who do unexpected things.

My preferred RPG game, however, is Fighting Fantasy. My past several NaNoWriMo projects have involved novelizing gamebooks. It would be a hoot to have a holodeck version of some of those (safeties on, of course; some of those monsters and magic spells are vicious).

No. I wouldn't expect Picard to act that way.

I specified if he wanted or needed the holodeck badly enough. For instance: If the holodeck is needed to test some simulations to solve a problem, they're not going to wait for Wesley and his school friend to finish a skiing lesson.

 

[Nerys Myk]

I like to think there's a dedicated group of purists that DO play it exactly that way while most everyone else is LARPing on the Holodeck.

They do it in a holodeck program that simulates a 20th Century basement or dorm room.

 

[Mojochi]

I'd think there's as much there to occupy people's time as any other campus type institution. You have your work, your home life, hobbies, & social life. There are social functions & events or parties, 10F's lounge/bar/eatery, health & hobby classes, gymnasium activities, training exercises. People go on dates, take walks, have projects, & get-togethers, not all of which have to take place on the holodeck. Could be the arboretum, or other public areas.

Any given night you have multitudes of people performing music in the lounge, plays going on. There's a school & salon on board. Two poker games going on the same night in one episode. Barclay totally went down & taught violin technique in the music school, on the spur of the moment. You can do anything

I'm no schematic expert, but I also think the ship has like 16 holodecks, & in the Big Goodbye, one is labeled 4J... which indicates maybe even an A thru G. Plus, I've seen the term holosuite used as well, which means they might have ship's decks devoted to holographic simulators (Holo-decks) upon which there are multiple holosuites?

With a thousand people on board, & an undetermined amount of facilities in the home & public areas, I'd think there's plenty to do & plenty of folks to do things with

 

[Amaris]

While any job can be boring, and tedious, off duty would be a blast in the 24th century. Even so, there are plenty of things to occupy one's mind while on duty.