Building the "Starship History" for PCs
One thing I really loved about the FASA system (though I barely played it, and that was back in the 80's) was the way you could sort of 'build' your character's backstory, ala Traveller.
In an effort to do this for CODA, I translated over the basic FASA chart and came up with this:
Cadet Cruise Assignment Table
01-15 Explorer (Explorer, Heavy Explorer, Light Explorer)
16-25 Cruiser (Cruiser, Battle Cruiser, Exploratory Cruiser, Heavy Cruiser, Light Cruiser)
26-50 Warship (Battleship, Dreadnaught, Fast Attack Ship, Destroyer, Heavy Destroyer, Frigate, Fast Frigate, Heavy Frigate, Light Frigate)
51-75 Escort (Escort, Destroyer Escort, Heavy Escort, Light Escort)
76+ Scout (Scout, Far Scout, Heavy Scout)
My problem with the above is that - as I did this for my own Vulcan character, who has many tours of duty with Starfleet - I realized that some of the numbers result in types of ships that are difficult to find. I guess what I'm saying is that I found (not only by looking through the Starships book, but also by scouring the net) that some of these types of ships are fairly uncommon or actually rare, especially for the Federation.
For example, when I rolled a Scout (and had specifically a Heavy Scout), I had difficulty finding one, as the Nova class wasn't commissioned yet when he was aboard one (circa 2354).
Then I had a Warship, and it's tough to truly find a Starfleet ship that falls under that category.
Finally, I had an Escort, but most data seems to suggest that the only true Federation Escort is the Defiant.
So I ended up changing my character's backstory around a bit to fit more appropriately with ships (even non-canon ones) more appropriate for the era in which he first adventured. I changed his first cruiser from a Nebula to an Ambassador class, and swapped out a Rigel class Scout for the Nova ones. I made his Warship a New Orleans class, and the Escort a Bolarus one.
I'd love some input to change around this basic chart, to make it more logical/appropriate for the latter part of the 24th century. Any help in making this more accurate (Trek-wise) would be greatly appreciated! What I mean by that is having characters that come fresh out of the Academy (or who just finished a tour of duty) match up with a ship that makes good common sense. Ships like Nebula or Galaxy class might be fairly common, for example, and it might make more sense to have them assigned to a higher range of numbers on the chart.
Note that this is not really anything more than an optional thing for our characters to build backstory for their PCs (if they want to), so it's not that high of a priority. Feel free to have fun with it, and throw in your own two bits about what you think on Trek lore (I certainly am not that knowledgeable on the fine details).
Thanks much in advance! 
Doug Taylor
Member of Decipher's Hall of Fame
Currently running The One Ring RPG. I also occasionally run Villains & Vigilantes (our campaign is in year 25) and WEG d6 Star Wars (both games are mostly on hiatus) and an annual game based on The X-Files (using Conspiracy X).
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