Series Idea

[JALU3]

I was hinking of starting a series around 2373 . . . a couple months before the beginning of the Dominion War . . . providing the characters, all first time Star Trek RPGers (have played WoD) with a sence of hour the Federation is prior to the War. This period is a period of relative peace, with background tension. The Klingon-Cardassian War has been finished for atleast four months . . . and the Dominion are about to move into Cardassian space.

This provides for more quiet missions . . . survaying, running of supplies, ports of call to neutral systems . . . but also allows to show the build up of tension . . . whether suttly or outright.

Then I was thinking of throwing them into the conflict unexpectedly . . . for the Federation is not one to strike first.

I'm looking at four males . . . and two females . . . what would be a good starting ship . . . that could hold up to three Dominion attack fighters . . . but would fall against six. A Saber or Norway perhaps?

[tonyg]

I take it you meant 2373 not 1973.

My last campaign was set in just about the same time frame (I my case I started up during the last few seasons of DS9 and incorporated the Dominion War storyarc as thing heated up on TV).

As for a ship, if you want them to be able to handle 3 jem'hadar attack ships you should decide how long you want the fight to last and compare weapon a shield ratings. What you want to be sure of is that the player's ship is tough enough to be able to take the punishment it is going to recieve while it takes out the jemhadar ships.


If you want to run the "more quite" type of adventures, you probably want something more multipurpose than the Saber or Norway type ships. All the Perimter Action ships are pretty much designed for military purposes, like the Defiant.

I think a Light Exploror or Light Crusier might be the best choice. I'd suggest something more along the lines of the Nebula or Intrepid class crusiers. The Intrepid has about the same combat abilities as the Norway, but is capable of doing a lot more. Of course the Intrepid might just be able to hanldle six jemhadar ships.

A Nova class scout is another option. The Nova isn't as tough as the Intrepid, so 3 ships with be thratening and six ships real trouble. Surprisly the Nova class scout is actually a little better in a fight that a Saber class crusier! Still a NOva really isn't supposed to be sent anywhere consdiered dangerous.

[Phoenix]

Well for the timing, I also did nearly the same thing, The game started a year before, during the Klingon invasion of Cardassia.

Ship wise, you might also want to look at the Excelsior Era, Centaur class scout or the Galaxy Era, Freedom class scout. Stay away from the Nova's in any combat they're flying coffins with their write-up. Slow, weak shields and weapons.

I recommend Scouts because they have more leeway in how to accomplish their missions, and their not as overwhelmingly power as an Explorer. The smaller crews make for the PC's to find answers to problems rather than have a GM character hand it to them, also the concept behind them is speed and avoidance rather than head to head encounters. There by making things "More Quiet".

Also something to keep in mind, Dominion Shield technology. The Federation had little in the way of really affecting Dominion ships. I don't remember when the discovery was made off the top of my head, as to when they were able to deal with the Dominion as they would any other hostile species. Plus during roughly the same time Federation Shields were useless against the Dominion.

[JALU3]

As for the shield tech . . . and being able to defend against their weapons . . . this was solved several months after the Defiant crew defended that crashed Dominion Attack Fighter in mid-late 2373. The Klingon-Cardassian war occured in 2372 . .. ending ealry 2373.

I was thinking something more in the line, but not strong . . . so a norway or saber would be about the right size 4-5. Is the Freedom the only class in the TNG era . . . something not built for war, but more regional patrolling?

The way I have the campaign idea in my head right now is:

Episode 1. Embarkation and a small routine patrol. Let them learn their ship . . . and her crew . . . maybe a small evacuation of a neutral planet near he DMZ due to some science related thing . . . maybe a disease.

Episode 2. A supply run to a couple subspace relays, including personnel transfers . . . find out about a couple lost federation vessels along the DMZ . . . find some burning hulks of one of the ships, and its escape pods.

Episode 3. A show the flag routine patrol. Get denied access to some neutral planets . . . maybe get a distress call from some monitoring post. Get a response to their reports from regional command . . . we have logged an official protest . . . we're doing all we can . . . we're sorry for our loss . . .

Episode 4. First strike . . . they hear of the first strike by the federation against the Card/Dom forces . . . and then they get hit by a part of the dominion retaliation. This determins whether they get to keep their ship, or whether they get transfered.

[tonyg]

It was 2373 that the the Federation figured out how to get thier shiels to work against the Dominion.


As for Nova's being flying coffins? In which System? In CODA they are nasty. Essentially a saber with better shields (17/3). and phasers. The Nova is even more manueverable with a +2 H mod.

The problem that any ship is going to face is that 3 to 1 odds is going to be tough to overcome no matter what system is used. In ICON/SPACEDOCK they can either concetrate fire on one shield or spread out an force the players into spending more power on shields. In CODA the rules are different but the situation is remarkly the same. While the PCs concentrate on one ship, the others can set up for some "freebie" attacks. Once the shields are dealt with, the fight is probably over.

[JALU3]

Miranda or Mediterranean Class starship. Both are decent size 5 vessels, multi-mission, and can stand on their own.

Or something more science oriented like a Nova?

[V'Lor]

Another class to consider is the New Orleans class that was first seen in the TNG, 'Conspiracy', you can see New Orleans in various episodes in TNG to DS9 and they were used for the Dominion War alot. This was a ship designed for the Federation-Cardassian War. It is a nice ship the LUG write up kicks in Price of Freedom and the fan based New Orleans for CODA are not shabby themselves.

I am putting a campeign in that ERA a few years before. I plan on having my crew stuck on the otherside of the Wormhole when the war starts up and they need to fight to keep themselves alive until they can use the wormhole again. I am giving them a New Orleans before they enter the wormhole.

[JALU3]

I was trying to keep it size 5 or under to keep them on their toes . . . furthermore, I was thinking . . . maybe they need to loose their ship to show them the seriousness of the upcoming war that lie infront of them.

[Aldaron]

Actually, that's very similar to my end-of-season episode. The crew are aboard the USS Intrepid, and had spent over a year doing typical light explorer stuff before encountering the Jem'Hadar. They were attacked by four JH Attack Ships and managed to shoot down two before being catastrophically damaged. They had two more on their tail when they ejected the warp core and detonated it like a whopping great mine, killing both remaining JH ships.

Of course, then they were left with the spare warp core (that Intrepid class ships have) but with the rest of the ship in terrible shape. Life support almost gone, artificial gravity waning, computer core badly damaged, half the crew dead and the like. They ended up abandoning ship, taking shuttles and escape pods to the nearby planet which they discovered was occupied by the JH as a secret listening post for the Dominion.

We haven't played in a while, but the next episode will be dealing with getting off the planet and warning Starfleet - as well as getting back their ship, hopefully.

But to answer your question, yep, I recommend an Intrepid class ship. It's a good all-rounder, and has roughly the combat capability you need (depending on the players. My players aren't particularly good space combat tacticians - they should have put all power from shields into weapons and impulse, for example, once they realised their shields were useless).

[tonyg]

Well if you want it Size 5 or less and multimission capability , the Miranda, Med, Nova, or Niagra.

The Niagra is a bit newer and generally superior to the Miranda.

BTW, Which system are you setting up in? Ship capabilities vary a bit from one system to the next.

[The Tatterdemalion King]

I like the way the Saber class looks.

What do your players want?

[JALU3]

I like the way the Saber class looks.

What do your players want?

Well a Saber has the right size crew, but lacks the umf to give them a fighting a chance verse more than one DAF.

These players, who shall start playing in three weeks (characters being built on Thursday), have never played a single star trek game. Furthermore, only two have any indepth knowledge of Star Trek, and that knowledge is old at that. They tend to play WoD . . . and have given me the opertunity to GM a game as a way for them to escape that world.

None have military experience.

Thus I will have to help them along in learning in the ins and outs of Starfleet. Thus why they will need several episodes/gaming sessions where they learn what a junior officer does.
My current plan is to have them as third watch bridge officers, under supervision. They may choose to build more experienced characters, but only if they show that they know the universe well enough to warrant it, and at most that would be a Lieutenant (junior grade)

BTW, Which system are you setting up in? Ship capabilities vary a bit from one system to the next.

I shall be using LUG . . . but am thinking, if they are adapt enough at tactics . . . which might take some time, at moving them up to Spacedock . . . but that's a wait and see.

Aldaron . . . yah, that's kind of what I am thinking about with their first face to face introduction to the Dominion. The period just prior to 1973 . . . is one where very few in Starfleet have known large scale conflict . . . our combat against a major determined power for that matter. There have been regional/small flare ups, but nothing where a large portion of Starfleet, or its instructors, would be able to pass down knowledge of a combat situation. For the most part CPO O'Brien was shown in the episodes to be an out of the ordinary servicemember to have served in a wartime environment (maybe a large portion choosing to take their veterans pension rather then continuing on in the Fleet, or being dispersed to other quieter parts of the Federation).

Either they loose their ship, and attempt to hide in the debri (and get transfered to something where they continue to have supervision) . . . or they gain command through combat losses . . . or something of the like.

[tonyg]

In LUG the saber can hold up a a little bit better against mulitple ships than in CODA, but the problem is going to be how the shields work against mutiple targets.. IN LUG, hits rom multiple ships affect the target separately. So after 5 or 6 hits, the shields will be down. That leave the Saber open for mulitifre, and it will get sliced up quickly.

With 3 ships, one fighter can always sneak around to the back, forcing the Sabr to power up both shields (and eating up over 90% of its power).




To be fair, that is going to be true of practically all the ships in LUG-even the big ships. The Jem' hadar DID take out a Galaxy-class ship the first time out.

You might want to consider a 2:1 encounter, or maybe give the players another ship to back them up. This second ship doesn't have to be tough, just give the Jem' hadar something else to shoot at. You could use a medical ship (Olympic/Hope-class) or transport (Deneva or Antares-class). Just something to soak up some hits. You could even have the second ship get trashed/destroyed-so you players can "see" what they are up against (just like in DS9).

Also, keep in mind that prior to 2373, the Jem' hadar's phased poleron beams slice through Starfleet shields. If you ar running you campaign before this date, the PC's ship is going to be toast.

[JALU3]

By this period . . . late 2373. . . say around AUG . . . Starfleet R&D, due to the captured fallen Jem'Hedar DAF (thanks to the command crew of DS9).

But still . . . you are right . . . it's not going to be easy . . . and I will through in a neighbooring Starfleet ship . . . come to assist, but not after their ship (a modernized Miranda) gets a good beating . . . or is polverized to a pulp and a collection of escape pods.

But this wont be until a their fourth or third mission in.

The first mission will be an introduction to Starfleet . . . PERSCOM orders . . . introduction to the ship . . . crew assignment . . . daily duties . . . a normal supply run turn evacuation.

I have a human, with a half klingon-half-vulcan adopted brother, who is trying to be HOOAH command . . . fresh out of SFA

I have a female half-andorian half-human medical branch . . . she hasn't decided what specialty she will be . . . fresh out of SFA

I have a male half-andorian half-human security branch . . . fresh out of SFA.

Now both of the half-andorians . . . are not into Star Trek . . . and play, in most of their games, as selfish power hungry characters . . . they are the ones that I worry about. If anything they may play a Lawful Neutral or Lawful evil alignments (not that effects the system besides their renown (of course there is how their command will deal with their actions ( but that is a wait to be seen))).

[LUGTrekGM]

I am wondering.. why wreck their ship? Why not let them fight it out, and if they win, they do? Are you planning to transfer them to a different ship?

If you smoke their ship, and do not transfer them to a different ship, but then replace the first one, they learn: "If we get our ship smoked, we get a new one."

I suggest having them get their ship broken, (if you are gonna do that), and then when they ask for a new one, Starfleet says no way, fix the old one.. which could lead to all kinds of planet based adventures, while they wait for the ship to get fixed, or shipyard counterespionage adventures or intel or espionage missions...

Just wondering why you plan to hit them hard on episode 4 or 5...