Scenes & Surrounding Characters     The game is broken into scenes, short periods of play with at most one action sequence (as resolved by rolling). Starting from the eldest player, each player gets a turn introducing a scene for any officer other than their own, they become the scene author. The officer selected is the scene owner. This usually starts off as a conversation between them and the owner of the officer in question, letting them nail down any specifics they need while reaching an understanding about the scene between them. Other player’s officers can enter the scene at any time as it progresses by either opting in or being drafted by the author, regardless its up to the author in the manner they are introduced. The author can also refuse admittance into a scene and instead do a cutaway, but we will describe that later.     A scene can be short and sweet or long and arduous, and the subject of the scene can vary wildly. What does this mean exactly? That the definition of a scene is fast and loose, except that all scenes have a type and at most one action sequence. The type of scene is one of these three: Introductory, Dramatic, or Sensational. Introductory scenes tend to be more common at the start of the game and introduce characters that matter to the officers (in some way) further reinforcing their presence in the ongoing story. The action in introductory sequences always has low consequence.  Dramatic scenes are common all across the game, and focus on the auspice or foible of the scene owner. Action during these scenes can be of any type, but often certain on the characters surrounding an officer.  Sensational scenes always lend resolution (or further complication) to the Mission Statement itself, and the action they embrace is rife with consequence. One or more officers are always present, and usually surrounding characters as well. While the scene author suggests the type, the scene owner actually decides it. The two players should work together to decide the type, but in the end the owner gets to choose it.           Introducing surrounding characters is simple - the scene owner creates a style for one of the three attributes: Attitude, Stunt, or Genius - and then assigns any other player to flesh out the dice values for each attribute. The chosen player assigns from the same pool as officers: d6, d8, d10, d12, and d20 black dice. The unassigned dice are then listed on the officer’s sheet of the scene owner attached to the name of the character. The character may or may not be an officer in Starfleet, but must matter in some manner (from small amount as acquaintance to a large amount as say significant other). Introductory scenes can introduce one surrounding character, but another player can make an existing surrounding character connect with them as well. This lets them define the style of one of the open attributes of that character, and gives them a d10 name on their officers sheet. No more than three officers can share a surrounding character however. For game purposes, all the dice for the same name are part of that character’s action pool (we’ll talk about that later) regardless of the fact they are recorded on different sheets. So a surrounding character named Tim that starts listed with a d12 and d20 for their name, and then gets shared amount two more officers, has an action pool of d12, d20, d10, and d10 - the sum of all the listings. << - @ Tell it with Tropes!