I've been away for a long time and can't remember if there is a rule for flying an alien vessel. How would you handle having PCs fly a Klingon vessel if none of them speak Klingon?
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I've been away for a long time and can't remember if there is a rule for flying an alien vessel. How would you handle having PCs fly a Klingon vessel if none of them speak Klingon?
"Damage control is easy. Reading Klingon–that's hard."
You can either have them take constant Language tests, give each character a constant penalty if they don't know the language, OR you can have everyone trying to use the ship all make a combined, extended test to figure out all the controls and then assume it works fine. I would think that Klingon controls would all be pretty foolproof anyway.
I think there was a mechanic in the DS9 book for ICON that raised the difficulty of success when using an Alien C&C system by 1 level or something...
But I like the idea of a combined/extended language and systems operations test to enable them to figure out all the controls. So thats probably the best way, after all.
Perhaps link the level of success (or failure) directly into their ability to operate and fly the ship... So that if they barely scrape by on the test, they can fly the ship and monitor engines and damage control, but may not have worked out weapons control or shields...
That sort of thing.
Thanks for the great ideas. It's good to know that there's a community out there that will still support the game.
As long as you have one character that speaks klingon, they could read and teach the rest.
What is the likliehood that at least one tricorder or universal translator has a Klingon language plugin?
That's the question, as I see it.
But be sure to let you players think of it... I am sure that if a Starship could be fully controlled on a Tricorder the consoles would be far, far smaller...Quote:
Originally Posted by LUGTrekGM
I agree this is a good solution, but let them come up with the idea.
the technology should help, but not remove a dramatic situation.
ICON used to raise the difficulty by for differernt tech. So you could go up by 1/3/5 or so depending on how differernt you think the controls are.
Also the language thing is a good idea.
It might be good to work up a few mistranslations. As anyone who has used bablefish knows, sometimes a translation doesn't help as much as you might think.
For isntance, a term like "Damage Control Party" might get translated as "Compensation Master Celebration" or Photon Torpedo Launcher ans "Light Light Assassin Floatator"
Hmmm ... inspiring evil GM ideas! I love it >:)
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Originally Posted by Captain Quirk
Evil? You wanted evil ideas?
Have the marines that are kept in cold storage wake up and fight to take the ship. They'd have no trouble speaking Klingon and working the controls -or sabotaging them. Just imagine the fun possiblies with reconfiguerable controls. So the anit-grav control is labled warp drive, port is starbord and the turbolift controls reversed.
Depending on the era, these Klingons could even be potential allies who must be convinced that the PCs are here to help. After the PCs explain what they are doing here, and why the Klingon crew aren't on board.
Now I'm imagining a bunch of hammered Klingons duct-taping a warp drive back together while singing.Quote:
Originally Posted by tonyg
Great idea! This actually is during the era when the Klingons are allies with the Federation. The crew of the Bird of Prey has been killed and the characters must use the ship to get away from an invasion. I think that I'll let them figure out how to get the ship running but accidentally wake up the marines in the process. Just when they think they're clear of danger, a new danger will present itself.Quote:
Originally Posted by tonyg
The ship could be carrying other things, too-an alien artefact they picked up from a Klingon subject planet, something with a disease lurking in it (are Klingon transporters as good at biofiltering?), maybe something that interferes with Federation technology (say, invidium in bio-stasis fields). Instead of marines, the cryo-chambers might have rebels being shipped to Rura Penthe.
Depends on how alien and what era... You could fly a ship with a tricorder or a PADD in the TNG era, and if the systems are compatible then you could presumably do so with alien ships.... In the TNG era it was quite obvious that through a combination of industrial espionage and cross-cultural sharing that most computer systems in the major powers were pretty similar, and even in the TOS setting this was partly the case...
If the system is that of a reconfigurable touch display (circa TNG) it's quite possible you could either reprogramme it to be in English or actually put LCARS in there. That said even if it wasn't you could just sit there with a Tricorder or similar device on active scan, telling you what the thing was saying to you. You might not be able to read alien - but your sophisticated device with scanning peripheral can.. of course, that is likelly to slow you down in combat situations! :D
Technologies not from the major powers (Federation, Romulan, Klingon, Ferengi, Cardassian etc) or from a whole other place may well be an issue! But then presumably the languages will also be more of an issue too - I.e. there's been hundreds of years of refinement on the 'English to Klingon' dictionary, but not the un-named alien of the week :D
Well in the Crossover novel, Scotty manages to run a Constitution class starship by rerouteing the controls through a shuttlecraft and then linking the shuttle to the Connies control panels.
I suspect that running a ship through a tricoder or pad would be more difficult and probably run ito performace problems as you did more. You should probably treat most systems as if the had a basic relaibilty code or maybe A. One hit and they will stop (you overload the tricoder).
Now configuring a PADD as a control panel and linking it to the ships computer....
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Originally Posted by The Tatterdemalion King
The alien thing could also explain the lack of a regular crew. What if the alien caused an emergency/abandon ship situation and the people is stasis were left behind.
Or pirates could have stolen the ship. Depending on how big it is, a group of Orions or Nausicans might have been able to swarm something like a B'rel.
Or what if the prsioners are Jem'hadar? They could have been have been taken captive or even rescued and held in stasis because there was no supply of ketracel white. The "crisis" came up and when the Jem'hadar come out of stasis they are either too far gone from white depredation, or were frozen before the peace broke out and attack.
You could make the adventure a bit more comical if Ferengi or Pakled have stolen the ship (maybe while it was in a shipyard being repaired or about the be decomissioned) when the PCs run into it.
I'm not sure how it's handled using the Coda rules but in Star Trek, I have often seen crewmembers figuring out alien ship controls w/o the benefit of understanding the alien language. It seems that knowledgeable & experienced crewmembers, esp. engineers, just have a knack for figuring out alien tech.
I suppose there might be some differences but I guess the theory is that ship controls are basically the same in most alien vessels, at least in the Alpha Quadrant. It may take some time to figure them out but it can be done.
I would say let them use their skills but add penalties for using the alien ship controls, at least until they've had some experience w/ it.