Actually, I once entered this RP that was similar to this - it involved characters being transported to a mythical land and stuff. The GM had the idea of characters being from any point of time and space, from the American Revolutionary War or Japan during WW2.

@mokley Well, for what it's worth, since we all randomly are transferred to the ship with no warning, weapons, skills, ect....it really wouldn't matter what era they were from.

Interesting, but what of characters whose profession would have had them be somewhat knowledgeable in combat and the like? Say, a militiaman from some Victorian era nation. Not a soldier by a longshot, but not exactly clueless either.

Waaiiit. What if your character is a soldier, or a survivalist, or a forester, or whaaat? some characters would at least know SOMETHING about how to survive or fight. In the CS, we need to have a 'specialty' field.

<Snipped quote by Skythikon> <Snipped quote by BingTheWing> Good questions all! Through experience I've seen that any characters who have experience in harsh survival and combat tend to automatically take leadership roles. It's not necessarily bad, but the story plays out in a much more interesting way when there's no one character that the others look up to (unless a character simply has the personality for leadership, of course). I'm looking for a group of bankers, florists, bakers, dog groomers and farmers, identified by their personalities and not by their skills. Essentially I would stress nonviolence and unpreparedness in the CS application, and then take them on a case by case basis. If the character has such experience as you're describing, I would probably ask you to clarify some flaw or limit to that experience that puts them closer to the same level as everyone else.

I definitely think this is the best way to go, no offense, but I don't think soldiers, warriors, ect have much of a place in a story that has "a certain amount of whimsy and humor."