Narrators notes (An adventures notes)
I presented this for the Narrators eyes only if they wish to incorporate it into their game and one game idea. I usually don’t post story ideas but this I made an exception. This can be set up to work for the basic Lug starship and is figured the same as well.
The other day Dave came up with an idea for an adventure. This was not a Star Trek based story but a Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda type story. This works well for as well for a Star Trek, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, Babylon 5, and Andromeda as well can be used for other stories.
The ship’s stores of deuterium fuel has been swiped or lost through a hull breach and the ship is seventeen days away from the nearest source of fuel at warp five and has only so much fuel left to get home at the lowest levels the ship will run short of fuel reaching a nearest fuel source.
So, one point of fuel creates one power point for the ship. Using a Galaxy class starship as an example at full power for three years would need 14,039,827,200 of power in that time. But here is the twist in the problem is no starship runs at full power 24/7. So, a Galaxy class tootling around just scanning here and there at warp factor five would use around 185 power per round so to give the ship just a little for this and that lets say for description here 200 power so it would 3,784,320,000 power in that same time frame of full power I figure that fuel for three years would be somewhere around 60% to 90%.
Before the adventure began I needed to figure out the power needs that would get the ship home without killing the crew and what fuel they would have available. So the Galaxy class just standing still on minimal power (no replicators or luxuries and reserve life support and gravity navigational sensors and navigational computers, inertial dampeners and power for warp five).
So the ship has only 144,000 power points left and they had to figure out how to get back. Even the Bussard collectors would only replenish 1 point of fuel per round. There were no other ships within range to refuel them. They got out there calculators and the Warp velocity charts and started scribbling out math figuring mostly for lower warp travels home. Yet after an hour of figuring they finally figured it out. The answer was to increase speeds getting them home faster using a lower power settings. Any warp factor faster than 7.16 would get the ship to destination in time to refuel the ship at its lowest settings after the wasted hour of figuring out the speed times. It would have been 6.7 if they had been faster.
I figured that a ship returns to starbase facilities every six to eighteen months and tops off the tank depending on the ships consumables. The easiest way to figure the refueling time is half the consumables time one year would be six months and three years would be eighteen months. A shuttle would be refueled after each flight. The regular refueling would make these notes useless but I see it would work well in a voyager like game or Enterprise like series where the ship is smaller where they are on their way home from a great distance.
The Bussard collection is one point of fuel per round at warp speed x the warp factor and ten if in the atmosphere of a gas giant per round. However the Bussard collection modifications for Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda the ship can refuel itself in a single pass through the atmosphere of a gas planet one minute. Yet, it would take 174.4 years to refuel a Galaxy class starship with this method in the gas giant.
All thought there is mention that the ships have been recharged in Babylon 5.
Here are the figures to compute the fuel it is Standard usable power x time (days, month, year or multiples of) x 75% and you come out with the fuel for that ship.
Notes
1 minute (60 seconds) = 12 rounds per minute
1 hour (60 minutes) = 720 rounds per minute
1 Day (24 hours) = 17,280 rounds per day
1 week (7 days) = 120,960 rounds per week
1 Month (30 days) = 525,312 rounds per month
1 Year (365 days) = 6,307,200 rounds per year
2 Year (730 days) = 12,614,400 rounds per year
3 Year (1095 days) = 18,921,600 rounds per year
4 Year (1460 days) = 25,228,800 rounds per year
5 Year (1825 days) = 31,536,000 rounds per year
Some of the fuel figures as examples with the maps shown they each have differences but the math is the same for each.
Star Trek the Next Generation era ships
742 x 75% = 556.5 round up to 557 x 6307200 rounds in a year x 3 years = 10,539,331,200 rounding up to 11,000,000,000 fuel for a Galaxy Class Explorer (in high energy use 2.35 years and in lower power mode 8.7 years)
651 x 75% = 488.25 rounds up to 489 x 6307200 rounds in a year x 3 years = 9,252,662,400 rounding up 10,000,000,000 fuel for a Nebula Class Cruiser (in high energy use 2.44 years and in lower power mode 7.9 years)
850 x 75% = 637.5 rounds up to 638 x 6307200 rounds in a year x 3 years = 12,071,980,800 rounding up to 13,000,000,000 fuel for a D’deridex Class Warbird (in high energy use 2.43 years and in lower power mode 10.3 years)
777 x 75% = 582.75 rounds up to 583 x 6307200 rounds in a year x 3 years = 11,031,292,800 rounding up to 12,000,000,000 fuel for a Sovereign class Explorer (in high energy use 2.45 years and in lower power mode 9.5 years)
455 x 75% = 341.25 rounds up to 342 x 6307200 fuel in a year x 1 year = 2,157,062,400 rounding up to 2,200,000,000 fuel for a Defiant Class Heavy Escort (in high energy use 2.44 years and in lower power mode 6 years)
556 x 75% = 417 round up to 417 x 6307200 rounds in a year x 3 years = 7,890,307,200 rounding up to 8,000,000,000 fuel for a Intrepid class Light Explorer (in high energy use 2.28 years and in lower power mode 16.9 years average power use 11.74 years)
268 x 75% = 201 round up to 201 x 6307200 rounds in a year x 2 = 2,535,494,400 rounding up to 3,000,000,000 fuel for an Oberth class science vessel (in high energy use 1.77 years and in lower power mode 5.5 years)
165 x 75% = 123.75 round up to 124 x 17,280 rounds in a day x 7 = 14,999,040 rounding up to 15,000,000 fuel for a average shuttle craft (in high energy use 5.26 days and in lower power mode 16.69 days)
The Original series
303 x 75% = 202 round up to 202 x 6307200 rounds in a year x 2 = 2,548,108,800 rounding up to 2,600,000,000 fuel for a Constitution class Heavy Cruiser (in high energy use 1.36 years and in lower power mode 5 years)
390 x 75% = 292.5 round up to 293 x 6307200 rounds in a year x 2 = 3,696,019,200 rounding up to 3,700,000,000 fuel for an Excelsior class starship (in high energy use 1.5 years and in lower power mode 7.33 years)
328 x 75% = 246 round up to 246 x 6307200 rounds in a year x 2 = 3,103,142,400 rounding up to 3,200,000,000 fuel for a Miranda class Cruiser (in high energy use 1.54 years and in lower power mode 7.35 years)
Enterprise era
190 x 75% = 142.5 round up to 143 x 6307200 rounds in a year x 2 = 1,803,859,200 rounding up to 1,900,000,000 fuel for a NX class Cruiser (in high energy use 1.59 years and in lower power mode 4.94 years)
Now the other ships
Babylon 5
2000 x 75% = 1500 round up to 1500 x 6307200 rounds in a year x 3 = 28,382,400,000 rounding up to 29,000,000,000 fuel for the Earth Force Babylon 5 space station (in high energy use 2.09 years and in lower power mode 28.92 years) refueling would be constant. Note the first time I figured this I misplaced a decimal point and the station had little power on the constant.
738 x 75% = 553.5 round up to 554 x 6307200 rounds in a year x 2 = 6,988,377,600 rounding up to 7,000,000,000 fuel for the Victory-class space station (in high energy use 1.5 years and in lower power mode 7.8 years)
Battlestar Galactica
1636 x 75% = 1227 round up to 1227 x 6307200 rounds in a year x 5 = 38,694,672,000 rounding up to 39,000,000,000 fuel for the Battlestar Galactica (in high energy use 3.78 years and in lower power mode 61.22 years)
Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda
2224 x 75% = 1668 round up to 1668 x 6307200 rounds in a year x 4 = 42,081,638,400 rounding up to 43,000,000,000 fuel for a The Reconfigured Ultimate Version Of The Glorious Heritage-Class (in high energy use 2.9 years and in lower power mode 27.83 years)
Star Wars
1528 x 75% = 1146 round up to 1146 x 6307200 rounds in a year x 3 = 21,684,153,600 rounding up to 22,000,000,000 fuel for an Imperial II class Star Destroyer (in high energy use 2.18 years and in lower power mode 27.47 years)
60 x 75% = 45 round up to 45 x 17,280 rounds in a day x 3 = 2,332,800 rounding up to 2,400,000 fuel for an Imperial TIE Fighter (in high energy use 2.1 days and in lower power mode 2.28 days)
Basic LUG version of this fuel system.
200 x 75% = 150 x 6307200 rounds in a year x 3 = 2,838,240,000 rounding up to 2,900,000,000 fuel for a Galaxy class Explorer (in high energy use 2.3 years and in lower power mode 15.33 years)
I think the Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica and Andromeda ships should be lower as they have different systems as they are war ships and battle more often and in Battlestar Galactica and Andromeda they talked more about fueling than they have ever in Star Trek. I was thinking about half as much or even less especially for the Andromeda as it just has to stop by any system where there is a star or gas giant and suck up some fuel.
I hope that this is something to works within your games.
