What Ships Do You Use?

[Lancer]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Steve Long:
1. a. What ship(s) do the PCs in your series use?
b. Did they pick it, or did the Narrator?
c. In either case, why that ship? What features about it make it so appealing and/or useful?

2. What ships frequently appear in your series as adversaries? If you're the Narrator, why do you use those particular ships?
</font>

Question 2 first: We don't have many space battles in our adventures and when one really takes place we used several designs, about half of them home-grown. Personnaly I like the B'Rel-class, since this design can be easily used as a mercenary ship, a pirate raider or several other kinds of operational roles.

Question 1: Two ships, therefore two answers.

Our first ship:
1.a - Our first design was something I came up with myself, a Ulysses-class scout, a downscaled Nebula-like ship.
1.b - I picked the ship as Narrator.
1.c - I wanted a smaller ship with a crew of about 100 to give PCs of Lt. or Lt.jg. rank a position as department head and I didn't want to deal with several hundreds of NPCs.
The modular design of the Nebula appealed to me, because a ship like this could be adapted to any number of operational roles, which gave us a lot of flexibility in the type of adventures we where running.

And our current ship:
1.a - Akira class, but not the kind depicted in Spacedock. I never liked the idea of the through-deck carrier and simply dropped that part of the Akira-class description. In addition I made several other changes and went with an earlier commissioning date.
1.b - Again I was the one who picked it as the narrator.
1.c - I wanted a ship that was large and powerfull enough to be send on extended missions outside current Federation borders. I could have chosen a Nebula or Ambassador as well, but somehow I just liked the (visual) design of the Akira.

BTW Steve, are you asking simply to satisfy your curiosity or is there any other reason?

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"To seek, to strive, to find and not to yield" - Alfred Tennyson

[Steve Long]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Lancer:
BTW Steve, are you asking simply to satisfy your curiosity or is there any other reason?</font>

Just curiousity, really. Though I suppose if I spotted any strong trends it might influence my choice of ships to put in SRMs, or which SRMs to do first, or like that.

Steve Long

[redwood973]

1. a. Miranda-class.
b. No idea why it was picked.
c. No idea on this either; our RPG has been going since the early 80's. None of the players were in on the start. As old faces left, new ones came in. As ship logs where not maintained for 95% of the games history. . .that history is lost.

2. Our RPG is post ST:Final Frontier. Based heavily around Klingon/Romulan space, so we see a lot of K'tinga/D-7's/BoP's.

[Dan Gurden]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Steve Long:
Just curiousity, really. Though I suppose if I spotted any strong trends it might influence my choice of ships to put in SRMs, or which SRMs to do first, or like that.

Steve Long</font>

mmm. Well you know what that means, (insert subliminal message) Romulan SRM! Please do a Romulan SRM.(end subliminal message} from the responses so far about adversarys it seems that a Romulan and Civilian/Pirate SRM are the much needed entries.

Woo Hoo!


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Dan.

"Hi, I'm Commander Troy McClure, you might remember me from other academy training holo-simulations as, Abandon Ship, the quickest way out, and I sense danger, 101 things you dont need a Betazoid to know..."

http://www.theventure.freeserve.co.uk

[This message has been edited by Dan Gurden (edited 07-01-2001).]

[Steve Long]

Well, the SRM: Romulans is already in the works -- I've done the construction rules and nine ships for it so far, with another 13 Romulan ships to come, at least (plus some ships of species belonging to the RSE or associated with it in some way, like the Taurhai and the M'rok). It's just waiting on the completion of the SRM: TOS Era for me to get back to work on it, and then the resolution of various other matters so that it can be released once completed.

Steve Long

[Dan Gurden]

What can I say.

WOO HOO!

Thats good news. Count me in when you want test readers...

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Dan.

"Hi, I'm Commander Troy McClure, you might remember me from other academy training holo-simulations as, Abandon Ship, the quickest way out, and I sense danger, 101 things you dont need a Betazoid to know..."

http://www.theventure.freeserve.co.uk

[qerlin]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Steve Long:
Time for an impromptu and utterly unscientific survey.

1. a. What ship(s) do the PCs in your series use?
b. Did they pick it, or did the Narrator?
c. In either case, why that ship? What features about it make it so appealing and/or useful?

2. What ships frequently appear in your series as adversaries? If you're the Narrator, why do you use those particular ships?

Steve Long</font>

All of the ships we are on were chosen by the GM. For the TNG/DS9 campaign I run, I wanted something smaller but able to handle itself -- I chose the Steamrunner. Later, as the campaign escalated, they need more firepower & I wanted to give them a sense of accomplishment (having gotten a bigger ship) so I gave them a Galaxy.

One of the characters has split off for solo adventures & is on a Sovereign, more due to plot -- she is an Andoiran serving with her father (CinC, 4th Fleet [Standing])aboard Eagle.

As for the TMP the other GM is running, he chose a Miranda because he likes the design. Personally, I would have preferred a Constitution refit.

Adversaries in our universe have been mostly Romulan and Orion/Ferengi pirates. We've run into just about every kind of ship in the hands of the pirates; they've been doing a lot of salvage after the war & it's not unusual to be confronted by a refurb'ed Starfleet ship, as well as any of the other major races. The Bird of Prey shows up a lot; I figure the Klingons have a healthy trade in surplus to neutral groups. The Cardies are selling a bunch of stuff to.

The Romulans usually show up with at least one Warbird. This is when it's time to really challenge the crew...

[scottmage]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Steve Long:
Well, the SRM: Romulans is already in the works -- I've done the construction rules and nine ships for it so far, with another 13 Romulan ships to come, at least (plus some ships of species belonging to the RSE or associated with it in some way, like the Taurhai and the M'rok).
Steve Long</font>

Steve,
You will need a special rule for the Artificial Quantum Singularities that power Romulan Warbirds. Just because a Warbird is destroyed, does not mean that an opponent can destroy the Singularity.

It would probbly become a navigational hazard for an area of say a LY. If it happened in a star system, it could cause a star to go nova if it is within about 5 AUs.

The general power output suggests that is would have a mass equivalant to all of the planets in our system. Unless they come up with an alternent explaination in the shows.

Just an idea...that is one reason that my crews would never have one. It would be easy to set on auto-pilot to a star that an enemy might be near. Ouch!

I never liked the ideas of destroying stars, since inhabitable worlds are rare enough.

You could also add a rule that would not unbalance Species 8472 Bio-ships and allow them to be able to destroy Borg Cubes.

Their main weapon can be attuned to the Warp Core Harmonics and cause a Breach on a hit. It has to be a direct hit on the core. This is why Voyager was able to survive. The weapon meerly grazed its shields, and Borg Cube's don't tend to dodge any weapon fire.

The damage that is caused to the ship when core breaches is the same as a weapon of the total power output of the core if it was fed into a standard weapon. This would mean that a Borg Cube would have a much bigger explosion than a Runabout.

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Ever wonder why the Borg did not go back in time...then assimilate Earth? Not much of a movie then...

One of these days there will be a series that uses all of the plots and common sense too. They did it in ST Insurrection, so I know it can be done!

PS - Who did the Dominion supplement? Did they read Spacedock? I mean I liked the partial stats on the Mars Defense Platforms, I would just like to see them finish it. Also are there weapons and shields that tough? Why not put them on the Soverign Class?

I just tend to want the best for a ship, also they could explain it away as shields that strong cannot be supported on a Warp capable vessel...

Thanks always!

[Dan Gurden]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by scottmage:
PS - Who did the Dominion supplement? Did they read Spacedock? I mean I liked the partial stats on the Mars Defense Platforms, I would just like to see them finish it. Also are there weapons and shields that tough? Why not put them on the Soverign Class?
</font>

I think you will find, when you look at the writers credits that Steve Long wrote BOTH.

So yes, the DWS does take Spacedock into account.

As for the strength of the shields for the mars defense perimeter, the reason that Starship dont have shields that strong is due to a lack of planet-wide power generators. Instead they use a single warp core... So your assumption is right.

However, while the shields may be strong, you dont see planets taking evasive maneuvres either! (Apart from natural orbits confusing the Pakled invasion fleet) So these shields wont last too long against an organised barrage!


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Dan.

"Hi, I'm Commander Troy McClure, you might remember me from other academy training holo-simulations as, Abandon Ship, the quickest way out, and I sense danger, 101 things you dont need a Betazoid to know..."

http://www.theventure.freeserve.co.uk

[Steve Long]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">You will need a special rule for the Artificial Quantum Singularities that power Romulan Warbirds.</font>

Yes, I'm aware of that, thanks. I've already written those rules, in fact.

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">PS - Who did the Dominion supplement? Did they read Spacedock? I mean I liked the partial stats on the Mars Defense Platforms, I would just like to see them finish it.</font>

I wrote both of 'em, and the DWS does take Spacedock into account. If you want the SD writeup on the Mars Defense Perimeter, just check out page 159. In fact, most of the last 40 pages of the book is SD writeups.

The book was written that way because it was originally prepared for paper publication (just like SD). As such, it had to have the basic rules stats for ships et al. first and foremost, since I didn't want to assume that readers had the SD supplement. (That would, justifiably, upset some readers.) The SD writeups would've been an Icon Link, had all gone as planned.

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2"> Also are there weapons and shields that tough? Why not put them on the Soverign Class? </font>

Ships have limited space, must perform a variety of missions (and in the case of Starfleet vessels, mustn't look too aggressive), and are mobile. Thus, they can only install certain systems, and can only rely on their warp and impulse engines for power. Defense platforms need only perform one function, and can rely on the enormous amounts of power put out by planetary (or similar) power networks, which are much stronger than even the largest warp engine. So, automated defense networks can have bigger weapons and stronger shields than starships. OTOH, they can't go gallivanting across the galaxy, conduct an exploration mission of Nuwurld VII, or ferry a Federation ambassadorial crew to an important meeting.

Steve Long

[This message has been edited by Steve Long (edited 07-02-2001).]

[lone wolf]

quote:
Originally posted by Steve Long:

Time for an impromptu and utterly unscientific survey.

1. a. What ship(s) do the PCs in your series use?
b. Did they pick it, or did the Narrator?
c. In either case, why that ship? What features about it make it so appealing and/or useful?

2. What ships frequently appear in your series as adversaries? If you're the Narrator, why do you use those particular ships?

1a) In my current TNG/DS9 campaign the crew are assigned to the USS Sovereign, recently substantially rebuilt after the Chief Operations Officer (p*ssed off after being passed over for the position of First Officer) used a program he'd put in the computer while overseeing the construction to blow most of the EPS conduits onboard ship and cripple it (as well as killing about 400 crew).

1b) I picked it (oddly enough after saying for weeks beforehand that they would be getting a Miranda class the Players didn't complain).

1c) I picked the Sovereign class because after going over all the ships in the Rulebooks and settling on the Miranda class I watched First Contact on TV the night before starting the game and decided that the Sovereign class kicked ass in a big way.

2) Very few hostile ships have actually appeared in the game as my game is slightly more character driven (some might say, more soap opera like) but my last scenario included 4 Borg Cubes and a Borg Killer (like the Doomsday Machine from TOS only using the idea that it's a anti Borg weapon) which the Soveriegn destroyed using a "inverse gravimetric wave" fired from the navigational deflector dish to create a minute split second long singularity within the Doomsday Machine (after it blew up the Borg ships). Yes, I know the science behind it doesn't bear thinking about but it was late on a Friday night and I wanted to get home in time for the Buffy repeat so I let it slip.

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Kid Mama-san, what do they call that thing they shoot the cats out of?
Mama-san I'm not sure, but I think they call it a catapult.
Kid Boy, I'm glad I didn't have to say that line...

Samurai Pizza Cats

[Karg]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Steve Long:
1. a. What ship(s) do the PCs in your series use? Galaxy Class

b. Did they pick it, or did the Narrator? I picked it

c. In either case, why that ship? What features about it make it so appealing and/or useful? I had the Blueprints also alowed for the TNG feeling and was a good choice for combat or exploration missions


2. What ships frequently appear in your series as adversaries? If you're the Narrator, why do you use those particular ships? Vor'Cha, B'rel, D'deridex, and soon Dominion attack ships

[Captain Blake]

my FASA NextGen series:
Constellation class.

I, the Narrator, chose it because it was new enough to give a different feel from the Excelsior and Miranda classes, but old enough to make them feel like they were on a "rickety old tub" as the chief engineer used to say.

They dealt with a lot of Romulans, cold war type stuff.

My FASA/LUG Next Gen PBEM: Nebula Class.

I, the Narrator chose it, because it was close enough to a Galaxy to give a Next Gen feel, it was easy for people to imagine the interior and appearance, but it wasn't "The top of the line". I could use maps and images that were available, but change things just enough so my Canon Wonks wouldn't go, "Hey, the main antimatter pod is on x deck instead of y."

I had various enemies, including some Talarian pirates, a murder mystery with Ambassadors, and of cource, the obligatory investigation of Iconian ruins. No recurring bad guy, which is quite a change from most of my games, I must admit.

Hope this helps

Alex

[qerlin]

I have to disagree with the idea that the singularity drives of the Romulans are going to cause massive navigational hazards.

Like any other system in the universe, the black hole need energy to feed it or it spins down into entropy. These are tiny buggers, remember; perhaps a meter or so for the event horizon. Yes, it will suck in anything that gets close; like the ship it was part of (I tend to see Romulan ships imploding more when they are destroyed than blowing up.)

But that is a relatively small amount of mass and even with ambient energy and mater in 'empty' space, a singuality of this size will die in a burst of xrays rather soon.

Figure the navigation hazard is only .5AU just to be on the safe side, but the little bugger would die off in a matter of hours to days.

[Diamond]

No, NOT a meter across for their event horizion. Such a singularity would be incredibly massive, far too much to drag around inside a starship. A romulan singularity would have a microscopic event horizion. Furthermore, the more powerful it was, the smaller (but more dangerous) it would be. We've been over this thouroughly in a related thread.