Star Trek, Disabilities, and Combating Mary Sues

[GloomCookie]

This is gonna get spicy so I'm going ahead and putting this here.

Ok, so here's what's up. I am working on some stuff for a Star Trek game and in the course of discussing anti-Mary Sue characters, I put forward that you were limited on the number of 'points' you could spend on special characteristics. Among them were disabilities that could be reasonably accommodated and still let you do your duty in Starfleet. And the problem is that it's in the same section as mixed-races, being a spy, wanted by a foreign government, etc. And I'm worried that by including disabilities in a section specifically meant to counter players from becoming too 'unique' that I'm shooting myself in the foot.

So, I am asking if there's a better way to combat the issue without making disabilities seem like a cool add-on. My thinking was that this would hopefully prevent every other application from becoming "Oh I'll make a half Klingon half Romulan ex-Borg who can't walk or talk and is secretly a spy for the Cardassians." But, I also don't want to upset anyone, because in my mind a lot of current day disabilities can be reasonably accommodated for in Star Trek, like Geordi LaForge's visor letting him 'see' despite being blind, or the scientist who used an anti-grav chair to get around because gravity was an issue for her. It's not trivializing the disability, it's more that in the future it's not a hinderance to living a happy and productive life.

Below is a snip from the incomplete section, with disability highlighted.

[Azuresun]

Honestly, my experience is that a points system doesn't help. It's less work to just use staff discretion about if any given character would be disruptive, and have a general announcement about there being limited room for super-special characters. And spotlight hogging players are going to spotlight hog even if you force them to play an entirely standard character.

[CopperLily]

Honestly, my experience is that a points system doesn't help. It's less work to just use staff discretion about if any given character would be disruptive, and have a general announcement about there being limited room for super-special characters. And spotlight hogging players are going to spotlight hog even if you force them to play an entirely standard character.

This. Pretty much entirely this.

[Vekseid]

One thing I've seen done is require background submissions for a limited array of 'spotlight hog' concepts.