I was thinking the other day about things that I’d covered in my now-defunct Cypher System treatment of Star Trek and what isn’t already available in Star Trek Adventures. One thing that I’d thought of, and something that turned out to be in the works for the new Numenera Destiny, is teams of NPCs. Groups were covered in a combat sense in the mass combat rules in Red Alert and today I’m jotting down some of my thoughts on how this can expand to non-combat situations.
Squad
A squad is a group of NPCs of a single type all working on the same Task. This includes engineering details working on repairs, medical teams working on a cure, or science teams working on a research problem. Each member of a squad has stress as described on page 12 of Red Alert and the squad as a whole is treated as a group character with stats, Focuses, and Talents the same as an individual member of the squad.
Consider switching out a Talent to give the squad one of the Extended Task benefits described on page 91 of Star Trek Adventures. The example squads below, for instance, are based on the Starfleet NPCs from the core rulebook which have no Talents at all. I added in a few to make them more interesting.
Strength in Numbers
Squads gain bonus d20s to their Tasks and bonus Challenge Dice (A) to Progress on any Extended Tasks. This is based on their current head count, as shown in the table below. This table originally appeared on p. 12 of Red Alert.
| Number in Squad | Default Task Roll | Bonus Challenge Dice |
| 2-4 | 3d20 | +1A |
| 5-8 | 4d20 | +2A |
| 7-10 | 5d20 | +3A |
Remember, no more than 5d20 can ever be rolled at once for a Task.
Multitasking
Since squads are made up of multiple characters, can they do more than one action without using the Swift Task Momentum spend? Of course! But the whole point of a “squad” is that it’s a bunch of characters doing the same thing. If your squad of six engineers divides to tackle two engineering problems at the same time, it becomes two three-person engineering squads. This reduces their Default Task roll and bonus Challenge Dice as shown above but in some cases it might be worth it. A squad can also send one member to assist a Player Character or Supporting Character on a Task, likewise reducing its head count.
Example Squads
Engineering Detail
Squad Size: 6 Individual Stress: 2 Default Task: 4d20 Bonus Challenge Dice: 2A
Attributes
| Control 10 | Daring 8 | Fitness 9 | Insight 9 | Presence 8 | Reason 10 |
Disciplines
| Command 1 | Conn 1 | Security 1 | Engineering 2 | Science 2 | Medicine 1 |
Progression 1: The engineering detail makes an additional 1 Work for each Effect rolled.
- Unarmed Strike (Melee, 4A Knockdown, Size 1H, Non-lethal)
- Phaser type-1 (Ranged, 5A, Size 1H, Charge, Hidden 1)
- Escalation Phaser type-2 (Ranged, 6A, Size 1H, Charge)
Medical Team
Squad Size: 4 Individual Stress: 2 Default Task: 3d20 Bonus Challenge Dice: 1A
Attributes
| Control 10 | Daring 8 | Fitness 9 | Insight 9 | Presence 8 | Reason 10 |
Disciplines
| Command 1 | Conn 1 | Security 1 | Engineering 1 | Science 2 | Medicine 2 |
Triumphant: If the medical team achieves a Breakthrough on an Extended Task and one or more Effects were rolled, then an additional Breakthrough is achieved.
- Unarmed Strike (Melee, 3A Knockdown, Size 1H, Non-lethal)
- Phaser type-1 (Ranged, 4A, Size 1H, Charge, Hidden 1)
- Escalation Phaser type-2 (Ranged, 5A, Size 1H, Charge)
Security Team
Squad Size: 5 Individual Stress: 3 Default Task: 4d20 Bonus Challenge Dice: 2A
Attributes
| Control 10 | Daring 10 | Fitness 9 | Insight 8 | Presence 9 | Reason 8 |
Disciplines
| Command 2 | Conn 1 | Security 2 | Engineering 1 | Science 1 | Medicine 1 |
- Unarmed Strike (Melee, 5A Knockdown, Size 1H, Non-lethal)
- Phaser type-2 (Ranged, 7A, Size 1H, Charge)
- Escalation Phaser Rifle (Ranged, 8A, Size 2H, Accurate, Charge)
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