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  A distinguishing feature of the Icon system, as developed by Last Unicorn Games, is its flexibility of design. Within the 
  course of play you will undoubtedly find new ways to adapt the system to your needs. Outlined within this Icon Link 
  are some alternate methods to expand the Icon system to provide more options.  
  Before using, ensure that your Narrator has approved the use of these, or any other, optional rules.  
   
  When creating a character and developing their Background, you are afforded the opportunity to spend Development 
  Points on pre-designed "packages." These packages represent particular experiences common to Starfleet officers (or 
  Klingon warriors, Romulan soldiers, or Ferengi merchants) such as combat duty, deep space exploration, or training in 
  advanced engineering, to name a few. Within these packages, characters receive additional skill levels, attributes and/or 
  edges, advantages, and disadvantages, associated with the particular experience. Deep space exploration gives you skill 
  in space and planetary sciences, and sensor use, for example.  
  To suit the player’s individual tastes, alternate skills and traits may be selected, if appropriate, in lieu of those given. 
  This allows you to customize your character even further. Come up with a story for your character, then modify the 
  Background package to fit. While on your deep space mission, did you discover a new alien species? Then take the 
  Diplomacy, Culture, or World Knowledge skill, the Cultural Flexibility or Species Friend advantages, or Chronic Pain 
  (you were injured on duty). Was the ship attacked by a strange, space-borne creature? Then you could choose Systems 
  Engineering (Electro plasma system) or Life Sciences (Exobiology), the Commendation advantage, or the Vengeful 
  disadvantage.  
  These substitutions should be within the scope of the package and have a reasonable justification. You might pick up 
  Diplomacy skill during a Medical/Rescue mission (you had to negotiate with the Regent of Palomar to obtain the needed 
  medicines), but it would be a stretch to say you acquired the Heavy Weapons skill and Vengeful disadvantage as a result 
  of your Political Upbringing. Whenever you change an entry in one of the Background packages, be sure to balance out 
  the Development Points; if you drop the Space Sciences skill from the Deep Space Exploration Mission package, you 
  have three DPs to spend on something else. In many cases, these substitutions provide an opportunity to expand a 
  character’s background and develop background-related skills.  
  Carl is creating a character who had a rather unfortunate childhood, selecting the Early Life 
  Background package of "Orphaned" to reflect his character’s growing up on the street. 
  However, the addition of a +1 Empathy edge doesn’t really sit well with his concept of 
  Duron—a smart-mouthed cynic who has a knack for staying one step ahead of the law. Carl, 
  
  with his Narrator’s approval, substitutes the Shrewd (+1) Advantage in place of the +1 
  Empathy edge. Notice that the DP values remain the same.  
  Matt wants to modify the First Contact Training package to suit his character concept. He 
  figures his character—William Heller—is interested in studying alien cultures. He wants to 
  keep the Diplomacy and Social Science skills, but wants to drop the Perception edge and take 
  another skill—Culture. Dropping the edge gives him one DP to spend, two DP less than he 
  needs to buy the extra skill. Matt elects to take the Code of Honor (Prime Directive) 
  disadvantage, explaining that Heller takes the Prime Directive very seriously indeed. This gives 
  him the two extra DPs Matt needs for the Culture skill.  
  Remember, during character generation, no skill should start higher than 4 (5) without the Narrator’s approval.  
   
  The Icon System builds characters on the foundation of Development Points—the number of DPs spent can compare the 
  relative strengths of characters. This allows a Narrator to scale his or her campaign towards a certain number of points, 
  be it more or less than those given in the Core Game Book and other Star Trek®: The Next Generation™ RPG 
  supplements. This means that while Icon System currently uses a 54-point threshold to represent Starfleet Academy 
  training (the Overlay), within an individual campaign Narrators can adjust the point values to better reflect their needs.  
  The reduction of points to simulate a more competitive environment, where Crewmembers have less of an "edge," 
  should be done with care to ensure that necessary skills are not slighted.  
  In Alessandra’s campaign she wants to have the characters begin with slightly fewer points, 
  and have them start play during their cadet cruise. She never really agreed with the principle 
  that all Starfleet officers learned how to be marksmen, so she eliminates the Energy Weapon 
  (Phaser) skill from the Starfleet Overlays. For the Security Overlay she lowers the Energy 
  Weapon (Phaser) skill to 1 (2). The players may, however, purchase the skill if they wish—they 
  simply no longer receive it for free. The net result is that characters in her campaign are built 
  with three less DPs.  
  When a Narrator increases the number of DPs allotted at a stage, he or she should weigh the costs appropriately, perhaps 
  including an additional skill level or setting aside points for purely background-related skills.  
  John would like his Crewmembers to develop their character’s background skills a little bit 
  more to give them more personality. Happy with the allotment of points at the later stages of 
  the Background History, John gives each player an Artistic Expression skill at level one and 
  three Development Points to purchase an additional skill during the Early Life History stage. 
  John qualifies the points with his players, stating the points must be spent on background-
  related skills that integrate with the character’s history. Susan, as an example, has her 
  character select Slight of Hand (Magic Tricks) to represent her character’s fascination with 
  tricks and entertaining. She purchases this skill with the three extra Development Points 
  allotted for the Early Life stage.  
  Similarly, the Narrator can choose to scale individual stages of Background History creation, to provide player 
  
  characters with greater depth and detail, and to suit the series’ demands. If the Narrator wants a group of highly-
  experienced, seasoned Starfleet officers, he can give the players more Development Points, in the form of "bigger" 
  Background packages. As an example, the TNG Players’ Guide introduces an optional four-point Cadet Cruise, to 
  simulate truly momentous experiences during this period of a character’s life (like single-handedly saving a Federation 
  commissioner, receiving the Kragite Order of Heroism, and gaining her as an Ally). The original Core Game Book 
  provided one point during this stage.  
  For your convenience, here are the points used to develop characters from the Core Game Book:  
  Species Templates – 50 each 
  Starfleet Overlays – 54 each 
  Early Life History – 5 points 
  Academy Life History – 8 points 
  Cadet Cruise – 1 point 
  First Tour of Duty – 10 points 
  Subsequent Tours of Duty – 5 points each 
  This system is particularly useful for characters generated using the Advanced system as outlined on page 77 of the 
  Core Game Book. To create a new character for a campaign where the average Crewmember has three tours of 
  experience, simply give the player an additional 10 points to spend beyond their initial 125.  
   
  The Core Game Book provides many skills and specializations from which players can choose for their characters, but 
  these do not comprise the limit. The Icon System can be expanded to include new skills or specializations as required, 
  with no alteration. If you perceive a missing skill that you would like to include, check with your Narrator about 
  possibly creating the new skill. Many times these skills can instead be best represented as new specializations, not 
  meriting the creation of a new skill.  
  Owen wants his character, Halkin, to have some familiarity with temporal mechanics, but 
  notices there really is no skill that effectively represents this field. After some discussion with 
  his Narrator, Owen creates a new specialization under Space Sciences called Temporal 
  Mechanics. Although his character only has a level 1 in Space Sciences, Owen purchases the 
  newly created Temporal Mechanics for one Development Point to have Space Sciences 
  (Temporal Mechanics) 1 (2).  
  For those instances where a new skill is required, a number of specializations should be created. When we created the 
  Politics skill for the Way of D’era, we thought about how politics is "played" in the real world. Turning political events 
  in your favor (such as using a vote to embarrass a political foe) became the Maneuver specialization while gathering 
  information in the political arena became the Intelligence specialization. Think how the skill could be applied 
  practically—those are your specializations. When defining the attribute off of which the skill is based, use common 
  sense; skills relying on physical activity should be Fitness skills while those depending on eye-hand coordination should 
  be Coordination skills, for instance. Keep in mind some edges may apply to certain skills and/or specializations that you 
  create.  
  
  David plans a series of adventures linked together that deal with some unusual temporal 
  phenomena. Knowing the characters in his campaign will need to make numerous tests during 
  their adventures, he decides this merits its own skill (which he will provide the Crewmembers 
  with for free). He creates the skill Temporal Mechanics and links it to the Intellect attribute. 
  Because of the confusing nature of dealing with time, he resolves that the Logic Edge is 
  particularly relevant when dealing with Temporal Mechanic Task rolls. Under the Temporal 
  Mechanics skill he creates three specializations, Cause & Effect, Paradoxes, and Time 
  Fluidity. He also decides to create a new Law specialization called Temporal Prime Directive. 
  Because it is a Law specialization, his Crewmembers will automatically have the skill, as they 
  all have the Law skill.  
  Remember that skills cost three Development Points per level to raise and include a free specialization at the initial time 
  of purchase. Specializations cost one DP each.  
  While the Icon System provides you with the tools, remember that you ultimately build the game that suits your needs!  
   
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