Thoughts on Exploration Games

[Publius]

It was the Avenger I got started on, I remember now why I wandered off too. The bridge is really too small. I could compensate by increasing the size of the ship overall, but I'd already started and the whole thing kind of fizzled as I moved on to other projects.

I may get back to it, do a little bit of adjustment and see what's shaking. My biggest enemy right at the moment is time.

[Sho-sa Kurita]

OK, got an Anton-class pic

[tonyg]

Originally posted by Dan Stack
So some more thoughts... Ship and crew.

I mentioned the use of a Constitution-class vessel. I think it is a good default, but it may be possible to do better.

I think a frigate or a scout with a crew under 200 would be ideal - small enough to get the impression everyone knows everyone else but large enough to afford a few casualties and to carry passengers.

According to THE CAGE, the Enterprise's crew complement was 203, so it might still meet your needs. If you throw out ENTERPRISE and it's alternate timeline, and go back to the orignial timeline you get an early Connie with lasers, slower Warp drive, and all could help in creating more of the swashbuckling/age of sail. It also gives you a lot of room to mke future improvements as you wish. New labs, sensors and whatever as they come out.

I was thinking of using the 2240s or 2250s for a campaign that never got started (things kept cropping up that stopped me from being able to game).

[redwood973]

I am surprised no one has mentioned this class at all.

It's small (around 120 meters) with a crew in the 250 to 300 range. Four laser cannon, two torpedo tubes (carries 24 [unspecified, but I assume non-photon] torpedos. Cruising at warp 4 with a flank speed of 4.9 for about 12 hours.

There seems to be a growing interest by fandom in the class. I found a few very nice class related items (class patch, deck layouts, sideview status monitor board) on-line. If I could ever get the chance to do a pre-TOS series this would by the class ship I would use.

[tonyg]

Originally posted by redwood973
I am surprised no one has mentioned this class at all.

Wrong time frame. That class was removed from service 50 years or so before the time of the campaign.

[Dan Stack]

Actually the Daedalus isn't a bad suggestion - this is pretty theoretical stuff for me right now as I'm in a D&D game so I'm pretty flexible in my musing... Also, I'm in the middle of redoing my Daedalus deckplans now that I've got ProFantasy's Cosmographer. (When I say "middle" I might be a little generous, though I have begun the interior)

So let's think about how my idea would be transferred to a Daedalus... Or more specifically, the era that one would be in service. Does it buy us anything?

In my original thoughts I mentioned that I wanted something of a frontier - not in the middle of nowhere, but rather on the edge of nowhere - a few colonized worlds surrounded by a lot of unknown. Someone referred to it as California-like and I like the analogy.

Now one could set it before the founding of the Federation, but I think an early Federation might work a bit better. Say it is the year 2176. The Federation has been around for fifteen years. Older characters could be veterans of the Romulan Wars or they could be fresh out of Starfleet Academy. A mix of such characters could provide some interesting interactions. Without a Prime Directive, characters need to make their own judgements on how to interact with other societies. Colony worlds will probably be fairly new, probably settled by ships using the Warp 5 Engine as seen on Enterprise. The colonies are probably scattered far and wide. With the Federation being young there is possibility of conflict between colony worlds - maybe not actual battles, but conflicts of interests. Andorians laying claim to mining rights on a moon orbiting a Vulcan colony world for example. Klingon raiders. Unknown space. Maybe the Kzinti for good measure. And a very small Starfleet means the characters are probably the only law in the sector.

This might be more of an Old West feel than the Odyssey comparisson I made earlier, but there is still a ton of unknown space to exploit.