HOUSE RULES

House Rules United Federation of Planets Emblem
GURPS Prime Directive

Miscellaneous House Rules

Once your skill level reaches 14, addition levels of skill don’t improve your odds of success much.... If you are an adventurer, though, the investment [in higher skill levels] is worthwhile, to help you overcome the penalties for difficult tasks. --GURPS BASIC SET, p. 172

In most cases, a house rule adds detail to an all ready existing GURPS rule. The Profession Skill (Reactor Operator) and several Engineering specialties have been added. Not a house rule, but a GM edict–your character must be the same sex that you are.

Miscellaneous Abilities and Skills

  • Strength (ST): ±3 points/level per GURPS Power-Ups 9: Alternate Attributes, p4.
  • Hit Points (HP): ±0.6 points per ±HP, round up.
  • Arm ST*: 0.9, 1.5, or 2.4 points per +1 ST for one, two, or three or more arms respectively, round up.
  • Lifting ST*: 0.9 points per +1 ST, round up.
  • Striking ST*: 1.5 points per +1 ST, round up.
  • Area Knowledge: Of interest to any Federation citizen, Star Trek appropriate specializations are listed and explained.
  • Code of Honor (Psychic’s): A prerequisite for anyone who wants Telepathy Certification. If you think you’ll ever get a Telepathy cert, you’re better of buying this Code of Honor at character creation.
  • Engineering House Rules: Of interest to Engineering officers, additional Star-Trek-specific specialties for the Engineer skill are provided and the new Professional Skill (Reactor Operator) is introduced.
  • Machine Empathy: An advantage exclusively for Operator officers, it allows them to quickly get a read on new devices and confidently interact with (rarely encountered) artificial intelligences.
  • Meditation: Of interest to Vulcans and anyone who might have this skill, quantitative functionality is added to the previously nebulous Meditation skill.
  • Piloting: Of interest to all Starfleet personnel, confusion is cleared up concerning the various Piloting specializations and atmospheric flight--primarily, when to use Piloting (Aerospace) and when to use Piloting (High-Performance Spacecraft).
  • Species Specialties: Of interest especially to those in the Counseling and Medical Departments, these are house rules and recommendations on ways to efficiently increase the number of species you can competently deal with, via the use of Physiology, Cultural Familiarities, Cultural Adaptability, and Xeno-Adaptability to remove the off-species penalties for physiology-esque and behavior-esque skills respectively.
* As an exotic trait, it is not generally available to players; but the change in costs may effect some Species templates.
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