Klingon service/support/maintenance ship?

[The Tatterdemalion King]

And very skilled in carbon-based psychiatry.

Attempting to reactivate that thing is just plain nuts....

The TNG novel Vendetta offers some non-canonical insights into the lunatics who built it in the first place...

I never really pictured it as something having been built...

[Cdre Bob Wesley]

Attempting to reactivate that thing is just plain nuts....

Heh, what 23rd century Klingon wouldn't?

This scenario is just begging for a TOS version of Commander Kruge from STIII. He's running on limited info about the thing, and making rash assumptions.

[Nuclear Fridge]

Heh, what 23rd century Klingon wouldn't?

This scenario is just begging for a TOS version of Commander Kruge from STIII. He's running on limited info about the thing, and making rash assumptions.

"This Federation terror weapon must be claimed for the Empire!"
And when they get it running again...
"What do you mean, it's targeting us?" ZAP!!!

[selek]

Commodore B,


I also suggest that you take care that the boarding/inspection/entry process be sufficiently arduous and complex. Make them earn their victory.

Granted the anti-proton beam was the thing's main line of defense, the hull is still made out of cast neutronium (the densest metal known to Trek technology).
That means simply scanning- let along beaming aboard- will be difficult at best, impossible (or suicidal) at worst.

Even knowing WHERE to board the thing should be a challenge.

Finding a way into the hull in the first place should be a cast-iron (or cast-neutronium)... um....witch. The outer hull is designed to operate inside incredibly dense asteroid/debris clouds (the device's primary fuel) and will have few exterior ports of any kind- and those few likely to lead places the crew doesn't want to be anyway (such as fusion chambers and particle emitters).

Since the bore of the beast is both fuel intake and weapon emitter, it, too will be incredibly resilient and built-to-last, and is likely to have very few ports usable by the crew. Residual radiation levels will also be very high, if not fatal.

Once inside, the device should have multiple lines of defense (not necessarily against intruders per se, but against vermin, contaminants, and the like).
Since the device carries no crew, internal passageways will be narrow, cramped, and not designed for human (or Klingon) occupation. Very little of the device's overall volume should be habitable.
Control surfaces in the beast proper would be extremely rare (if not non-existant) and even the ones in the command center/control room/programmer's officer may be out-of-service a/o difficult-to-interpret.
Finally, the device was meant as a weapon of last resort (or if you believe the stories) as a Borg-killer. Its designers would have taken obsessive care that the device NOT be turned against them- and will have layer upon layer of security to prevent unauthorized manipulation of the programming and control matrices.

One thing you must consider- neither the Federation nor the Klingon Empire have the engineering or technical skill to build and program such a device. Despite it's age and antiquated appearance, the Doomsday Device was built by an advanced culture with technologies generations (or more) beyond anything with which the characters will be familiar.

In deciding to attempt to take and control the Doomsday Device, the Klingon Empire has likely bitten off FAR more than they can chew. Unless your characters are very wise and very clever, they should face the consequences of that folly.

[Cdre Bob Wesley]

In deciding to attempt to take and control the Doomsday Device, the Klingon Empire has likely bitten off FAR more than they can chew.

Right, like Genesis.

Unless your characters are very wise and very clever, they should face the consequences of that folly.

Oh, agreed 100%. But when I stated, "They," I meant the NPC antagonists; not the PCs. My players are all Federation and must prevent the Klingons from succeeding.

I try to stick with canon as much as I can and keep it to the player's POV. That way, it's left as ambiguous as possible.* All they see from their perspective is a couple Klingon specialty field repair vessels parked inside the opening.

Then the players take it from there.

*Unless the Starfleet crew captures a Klingon for interrogation or something, then I'd have some explaining to do.

[selek]

Oh, agreed 100%. But when I stated, "They," I meant the NPC antagonists; not the PCs. My players are all Federation and must prevent the Klingons from succeeding.

Well, that nips my next idea in the bud. I was going to suggest a Federation vessel arrive right at the climax of the adventure. Since your people ARE the Feds, that's already built in.

[Owen E Oulton]

In my Gaming Miscellaney section, I have done some replacement deckplans for the Doomsday Machine to replace the ones in the FASA adventure. I decided to do them as if the species had no artificial garvity, so they're designed to be traversed in Vacc suits in Zero-Gee. I've done them to scale so players can envision their characters doing so. The URL is: http://coldnorth.com/owen/game/misce...y/doomsday.htm - Enjoy!

[selek]

In my Gaming Miscellaney section, I have done some replacement deckplans for the Doomsday Machine to replace the ones in the FASA adventure. I decided to do them as if the species had no artificial garvity, so they're designed to be traversed in Vacc suits in Zero-Gee. I've done them to scale so players can envision their characters doing so. The URL is: http://coldnorth.com/owen/game/misce...y/doomsday.htm - Enjoy!

Well, when Mark Okrand was doing the Klingon language, he decided to omit the phrase "to be"- just to be curmudgeonly. (Which backfired badly when they asked him to translate Hamlet).

Why did you assume that a race advanced enough to shape/handle/machine pure neutronium and anti-proton beams would lack artificial gravity?

[PGoodman13]

Why did you assume that a race advanced enough to shape/handle/machine pure neutronium and anti-proton beams would lack artificial gravity?

Perhaps they'd grown past needing it, having adapted to weightlessness aeons ago. Perhaps it was a simple aesthetic choice - they like floating. Perhaps they reasoned that it was necessary in a vessel that, well, wasn't really meant to be manned. I can think of a number of reasons, none of them being that they weren't capable of artificial gravity...they just didn't see a need for it.

[The Tatterdemalion King]

Well, when Mark Okrand was doing the Klingon language, he decided to omit the phrase "to be"- just to be curmudgeonly. (Which backfired badly when they asked him to translate Hamlet).

Why did you assume that a race advanced enough to shape/handle/machine pure neutronium and anti-proton beams would lack artificial gravity?

Same reason you don't put crew quarters inside an ICBM?

[selek]

Uncle!

I wasn't saying Owen was wrong, just curious at his reasoning.

I give! I give!

[Owen E Oulton]

Just to be curmudgeonly. Or, perhaps they didn't "lack" it, they just didn't need it, or found it too restrictive.

BTW, some upgraded graphics today.

[Owen E Oulton]

The web reveals something called the G-27 Builder class Construction Ship:

http://www.tacticalstarshipcombat.co...ds/G27_sds.htm

[The Tatterdemalion King]

The web reveals something called the G-27 Builder class Construction Ship:

http://www.tacticalstarshipcombat.co...ds/G27_sds.htm

Looks like the construction ship from Armada.