All the great freebies from Steve, Steve and S. John have made me want to join in the fun and give something back to the Star Trek RPG community.
This weekend, NYC got dumped with just shy of a foot of snow. Stuck in the house all day, I decided to work on a CC2 project idea I've been toying with for awhile. I have created a sector template and symbol catalog for the Star Trek: The Next Generation RPG based on the sector info in the Galaxy chapter in the TNG core rulebook.
The zip file also includes some bitmap (BMP) fill styles and two fonts you will need to install to view the files properly. See the readme.txt file for more info.
I don't have a website, but I have web space, so that's pretty much all that's there. Don has my permission to offer this zip file for download on TrekRPGNet.
So if you have CC2 (version 6.0x) and can take a look at these, please give me your feedback in this thread, good or bad. Let me know what else you'd like to see. Right now, I'm thinking on doing sector templates for DS9, Romulans and Klingons next. From there I'll move on to system templates and catalogs as time allows and the muse moves me. So pray for more snow
You've got lots of new ships for Spacedock, so now it's time to send 'em some place. So what are you waiting for? Go! Go!
In a day or so, I'll upload a sample sector map of my own creation - check back here for the download link when I post it.
Moderator, please feel free to move this thread elsewhere on the boards if this isn't the appropriate place for it.
Sorry to hear about the snow -- but looking forward to viewing the map! As a devoted (if inartistic) CC2 user, I'm always on the lookout for ways to use the program for Trek gaming. I used it to map out (at least at a very basic level) Bridgetown for my Kellinan Reach campaign, for example.
I keep hoping some die-hard Trek fan/skilled CC2 user will start doing deck plans in CC2.
Even cooler would be if ProFantasy and the Realm Overseer (http://www.overseer3d.com/)people could work out a symbol set, etc., so that I could do three-dimensional maps of space....
I too would love to see detailed ship schematics, but I doubt I have the patience or talent (artistic or engineering) to do that. And 3D renderings - that would definitely rock! I come from a theater background, so my idea of "schematics" are a little different than what most people here think of them as - I see them as set designs, much like they would use on the television program. Along these lines, I do hope to do some floorplans of various areas of starships in CC2 eventually.
Speaking of which, I have put together a Web site to house my CC2 files for ST RPGs - "7 of 9's Astrometrics Lab" (yeah, real original, I know): http://home.att.net/~jjbardales/
To celebrate the Astrometrics Lab's launch, I've added a sector template for DS9 based on the TNG one, and two versions of an example TNG sector I mapped, one of which uses the bitmap fill styles included with the TNG sector template. There are also some JPGs of this example sector up so folks who don't have CC2 can see what's up (although the JPG quality could be better).
I draw up my deck plans using a CAD programme and export them to .DXF, then use Paint Shop Pro to colour them and save 'em as .GIFs.
BTW, Steve, I'm glad to note that SpaceDock gives the Oberth as only 4 decks as opposed to the TNG CRB's 11... I did some deckplans for the Oberth, and while I bumped the length up to 148m (solely to allow the Engineering Deck to have a full 2.5m deck-ceiling height), I also used 4 decks (plus a maintenance space in the lower pod accessed by Jefferies Tubes). Couldn't fit the canon 80 crew in, though... I knocked the crew down to 24. The plans will be on line in my new, improved, Star Trek: Relic site in the next week or so.
Anyway, I feel that having at least partial deck plans available to the players makes the ship more "real" to them. I've thought about getting CC2, but can't at this time justify the expense for a recreational programme.
I agree re: making the ship seem "real." There are lots of cool little ways to do this, if the Narrator's willing to put in the work. For example, a while back Larry Bond sent me the "introductory material" for his ST campaign, which is set on an Oberth -- a nifty "welcome to the Mevek" pamphlet sort of thing describing the ship in such a way that it really gave it a nice "feel."
I'm bad. As narrator, I am psychologically unable to run a campaign on a ship for which I do not have deckplans for... (very handy when Klingons are on board and a hate entity is watching...)
So, as soon as someone makes deckplans for a Sovereign-class ship, please let me know. (OK, I'll settle for an Intrepid).
All kidding aside, deckplans are a tricky undertaking. You've got to plan a lot of stuff in advance - the size of each deck, the turbolift network, etc. I started plans of the Defiant with CC2, but have semi-abandoned it. I did manage to complete plans of a freighter for my Star Wars game - I'd suggest any budding cartographers start with something small, like a new type of runabout or scout ship.
Yup, it's that Larry Bond. Besides being an expert on naval warfare, he's also a big Trek fan, and really loves LUG's RED ALERT! game. In fact, I'm proud of saying that "my proudest moment at GenCon 2000 was beating Larry Bond at a ship game!" I refrain from adding that it was a starship game....
I did some deckplans for the Oberth..The plans will be on line in my new, improved, Star Trek: Relic site in the next week or so.
Hey Owen, any idea when this stuff will be up ? Since reading you'd done plans for the Oberth Class, i've not been sleeping, eating etc. Seriously, though, i'd love to get a look at these
my idea of "schematics" are a little different than what most people here think of them as - I see them as set designs, much like they would use on the television program.
Same here. That's definitely the approach I took with the locations in Points in Space 1, and Points in Space 2 (which is a book of spacecraft with full deckplans) will be similar in that regard.
I'd love to experiment with CC2, but it's way beyond my budget Someday.
"a while back Larry Bond sent me the "introductory material" for his ST campaign, which is set on an Oberth -- a nifty "welcome to the Mevek" pamphlet sort of thing describing the ship in such a way that it really gave it a nice "feel.""
Steve, do you think Larry Bond would let you pass this material on ? I'd love to have a look at it as I'm just about to resurrect my Oberth campaign, and this sort of thing might be just what I need to get my players interested in serving on a " bloody science vessel ". Players reaction, not mine.
Thanks
Last night I foolishly began attempting deckplans for the Daedalus-class U.S.S. Icarus, NCC-151, using CC2. No idea if I'll ever finish it - I abandoned plans for Defiant-class deckplans, but the Daedalus should be easier - more regular, less canon info. I'm in the process of drawing the outer hull right now.
Why suffer through this? I don't know. I think I like to suffer. I think it should be a neat ship - huge warp core, bunkrooms, no replicaors, no transporters, etc. I've been spending a few spare cylces thinking about a Star Trek: Generation Zero game about the crew of a starship in the 2160's - no transporters, prime directive, subspace radio, or klingons. I keep having visions of the Kzinti...
When, near the beginning of the 2nd season of Babylon 5, we hear that Anna Sheridan was lost on board a ship named "Icarus," my gut reaction was "anyone who steps on board a ship with a name like that is just asking for it!"
I'm not superstitious, but given the opportunity to board any flying vehicle named "Icarus," I think I'd decline unless I saw no other options
Hey Campaign Cartographer 2 (CC2) Users!
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Someday.
