Missions of Mercy...

[Michael Barratt]

In regard to missions of mercy not specifically medical, what ships would you consider appropriate? I've got a secondary gaming group that might want to get together sometime in the New Year, and I'm thinking of running a Bajoran-staffed Federation starship (ie: all the Bajorans they could transfer to one particular ship, they did). It's going to be set around Bajor, Cardassia, DS9 area, and is mainly assigned for coordinating planetary relief efforts along the areas where the Dominon war was hardest fought, as well as providing support to the efforts to heal Cardassia's wounds and fix the planet up a bit. Symbolically, a very Federation-Bajor aid of Cardassia.

All that spewed forth, I don't want it to be an Olympic Class, but I'm looking at the other ships and am at something of a loss for somethign that fits that mission profile. We already have a Nebula class campaign, and I don't want another one, easy "module" fix or not.

Thoughts? I will admit ahead of time to not wanting something huge (ie: no Galaxy class either), but..? This mission would be a lot of scientific/terraforming sorts of things, heavy on cargo and personnel carrying, and quite a bit of civil engineering as well, for the rebuilding of Cardassia, outposts, small ships/shuttles that are needed since the war, etc...

The Doc

[Lancer]

The best choice IMHO would be a Deneva-class Transport. Okay, it's modular and maybe you absolutely want to avoid another campaign on a ship with this feature, but the modules for the Deneva are almost completely geared towards cargo transport, science work or medical relief efforts. If you can locate the thread on 'Fleet Tenders' (was a while ago, must have been the Spacedock section) you will find some more ideas on how to put a Deneva to good use, as well as ideas for additional modules.
And if you want to avoid a modular ship, you can always disallow swapping the modules for reasons of the module stock being depleted by the war. Give them what you think fits the campaign from day 1 and don't change it.

If you don't want to use a Deneva your next best choice might be the Freedom-class. With it's high cargo capacity and large auxiliary craft complement it should be well suited for the kind of adventures you want to run.

And if you really want to cut the work out for your players use an Apollo-class Light Cruiser.


BTW, while you asked here in the basic ICON section these ideas a based on the Spacedock stats found in SRM 1.
That's what I use to make decisions on ships for my game, and then convert them back to basic rules. That way the ship stats get a little more variety.

[Michael Barratt]

Hrm. The Freedom class sounds just about right, thank you! Regardless of it being somewhat ugly (I can't picture a single nacelle on a saucer without going, 'Ew.'), it's just about right for what I want it for. I wonder if I should pull the ultimate narrator indulgence and use the stats for the Freedom, modify it a little to give it two nacelles and a bit more regular appearance, and toss in a story line of a Bajoran in the Starfleet Engineering Corps designing his first ship: the Kai class ship, the USS Opaka - would make sense on two levels: one, as to why the ship ends up mostly staffed Bajoran, and two, why a ship was designed for colony/planetary support and aid - if anyone knows the value of relief coming from the stars, its the Bajora...

Hrm.

The Doc

[redwood973]

I have an unusual liking for the Miranda- class starship for some reason.

They have been adapted as cargo carriers, and with two shuttle bays have plenty of shuttle/cargo room.