Exploring the Kellinan Reach

[Dan Stack]

This is the point where players in my game may want to stop reading... Unless of course of planting misinformation.

For basic info on my Bridgetown setup, see http://216.40.212.6/forum/showthread...&pagenumber=1.


Our next adventure is going to have the discovery of the Iconian artifact under Bridgetown - a limited teleporter which can only teleport to other Iconian teleporters - none of which work currently but may be able to be repaired.

This is going to involve expeditions into the Reach to visit the planets with these primitive Gateways - precursors to the more advanced ones later seen in TNG.

This is going to require the characters getting something a tad larger than a Runabout - something they can spend a few weeks on, with a team of engineers and scientists, to explore the Reach, find those partially working primitive Gateways and try to repair them.

I find myself in a situation similar to that of DS9 as it entered Season 2 - what sort of ship to give them. Want it to be more than a Runabout. It's got to be familiar (i.e. something seen on the shows). It can't be superpowerful or huge (no Prometheus) as I want a smallish crew. But it can't suck combat-wise as I want some starship combat (i.e. no Oberth). We're talking a ship good for short to medium length expeditions, with Bridgetown remaining a base. And something Starfleet can spare in the aftermath of the Dominion War.

I've broken it down into a few possibilities. Feedback as always is appreciated.
Defiant-class - Nice and familiar, I know the players love the type of ship. Perhaps not the best suited to exploration missions, but that never stopped the Defiant. Plus one of the goals is to limit the characters so they don't depend on their ship to do everything. While well-suited for combat, she's not perfect for exploration. Small crew well-suited for tone of campaign - a small Starfleet crew on the borderlands...

Nova-class - Very well-suited for exploration. Probably as cozy as the Defiant - 80 crew in that little ship. Not well suited for combat at all (I'd actually have to think about souping her up a little bit) plus nowhere as near as familiar as a Defiant. The 80 crew may be a tad high, but the ship with a few modifications is definitely appopriate for the mission. Even souped up a bit, she is not a combat-machine, so while she may excel at research, the crew will need to be cautious in dangerous situations.

Intrepid - Well-suited for combat and exploration. Perhaps a little too well-suited given the tone of the campaign. With a crew of 150 plus all those resources make it seem a little unbelievable that she'd be going back to Bridgetown. However, a very familiar design for the players.


Comments? Anyone have personal campaign experiences on one of these ships that might influence my decision? Any other designs I'm forgetting. AslanC/Zymmer/AslanC I know you used a Nova for a while...

[Phantom]

As always my vote is for the Intrepid-class. Fast, well armed, smallish crew (150) and designed for medium range survey missions. As well it has resources that other SF ships don't (ie. spare warp core, bio neural gel packs, etc.)

Don't have active experience with the class, but the next ST game I had intended ( with my old table top group) to run was going to be set on an Intrepid. Never materialized however.

[Capt Daniel Hunter]

Well the Intrepid is a personal favourite of mine, but I'm rather fond of the Nova too. Still, I'd be inclined to say go with the Defiant. It's limited exploratory resources (which make will make it a bit more 'interesting' to play on), matched up with its familiarity and the existence of deckplans make it a good choice, IMHO.

[AslanC]

I did indeed use a NOva for a while and I sometimes miss that small a ship.

But then sometimes it is fun to throw big enemies at them and they have a chance.

Nova's are just too small and too weak for a lot of action that can happen in an adventure.

I think the Intrepid is the perfect sized ship for a Star Trek campaign.

IMHO

[Michael Barratt]

How about one of the PDD ships seen in First Contact - or namely, the Saber class. It's pretty similar to the Defiant, but isn't just a clone thereof, so they might not feel too "Gosh, just like DS9" about it.

It mentions they're easy to produce, are designed for Frontier defense action (ergo a good ship for the area), but they're not flying photon death-machines of badness.

They have a Captain's yacht (always a plus in my book, sort of like a Delta Flyer!), and it could be fitted with a better Stellar Cartography lab or something similar for this particular mission.

The Doc

[Dan Stack]

Interesting feedback thus far. Some feedback-back...

I do like the Sabre, but I think it's a little too unknown - never even a glimpse at the inside. To be honest, the Nova is borderline, but with cutaways of the bridge in Star Trek The Magazine and the high level of attention it receives, that may be doable.

The Intrepid is indeed very tempting. She is rather versatile and doesn't back a huge crew. That said, I wonder if she is too versatile and her crew may still be too large. For example, I'm trying to picture the impact of an Intrepid assigned to DS9 instead of the Defiant. Would it be believable that a ship like that would spend so much time at DS9? Would it have changed the tone of the show too much. That said, the familiarity factor here is a huge plus for her... Despite my dislike of Voyager the show, I do appreciate the level of detail that Sternbach and company put into the ship.

[Phantom]

Originally posted by Dan Stack


The Intrepid is indeed very tempting. She is rather versatile and doesn't back a huge crew. That said, I wonder if she is too versatile and her crew may still be too large. For example, I'm trying to picture the impact of an Intrepid assigned to DS9 instead of the Defiant. Would it be believable that a ship like that would spend so much time at DS9? Would it have changed the tone of the show too much. That said, the familiarity factor here is a huge plus for her... Despite my dislike of Voyager the show, I do appreciate the level of detail that Sternbach and company put into the ship.

All depends. Remember that SF is made up of Mobile (long-range explorers) and Static (staying in one sector) Fleets.

[Cmmdr JT Wayland]

Don,

My vote is also for the Saber class, but I would also go for the Nova class as well. An alternative suggestion is for the Talon class. But I would personally go for the Saber class.

May I suggest that you try the Far Realms Roleplaying site at this site: -

http://www.farrealms.de/

It has detailed deckplans for all three classes at these addresses: -

Saber Class: -http://members.tripod.de/EmperorsArm/st/sabercl.html

Nova Class: -members.tripod.de/EmperorsArm/st/novacl.html

Talon Class: -members.tripod.de/EmperorsArm/st/taloncl.html

I hope these will be of help.

[ghosty]

I'd go with a Saber. Just the right combination of speed, size and firepower you need. Alternatively, one of the old Rigel class ships...70 crew not too big and not all the resources of an Intrepid.

[Lancer]

The Nova has been a favorite of mine for some time now, but I guess that's just to be expected from someone who plays a science officer turned command officer.

Now for the adventure in question I see nothing wrong with using a Nova. Challenges and fights can always be scaled to meet the PCs ship.
Maybe the other "interested parties" in this Iconian artifact thing don't want to draw attention to their own expeditions and therefore send only small ships themselves.
A fight between a Nova and a Hideki or a smaller mercenary ship could make an interesting scenario. In fact this might feel a lot more 'personal' than using some of the more combat worthy crafts.

And if you want some more options on ships to use, how about taking a familiar design and just downscaling it?
That's how I came up with the Ulysses-class (small Nebula-like design) for my game and it worked well for my group.
(Stats for basic and Spacedock versions can be found here on the forums.)

[qerlin]

I would go with the Nova or Intrepid if this is a science mission. The Defiant , while small, is a serious ass-kicker. If you want to keep if 'challenging', I'd go with the Nova .

CDR JT...great job on the deckplans, man!!! I had been thinking of using a Saber for an upcoming campaign, but had been tending to the Defiant because of the lack of deckplans. Woo hoo!!!

[Dan Stack]

Regarding the Sabre deckplans. It's tough for me to judge just by reading from the monitor, but is the scale right on them? For some reason I get the impression it's a little too big. It's hard to tell for certain without a closer study of them...

The Sabre is indeed tempting. The biggest problem is its lack of screen time - it's hard to get a feel for her the way I could with a Defiant. With a Nova, I would assign it many of the same features as an Intrepid - same sickbay, labs, etc.

[Captain Blake]

Well, if you read Starship Spotter (I know, non-Canon) the Nova class has Type X Phasers and Two Photon Torpedo Tubes.

So, if you upgrade the current Template to upgun the SRM Nova (beta Refit Upgrade?), wouldn't that fix part of the problem?

They'd be better able to handle threats, but not as well as a Defiant, or an Intrepid for that matter. They'd have good science facilities, probably better than the Intrepid, definitely better than the Defiant. And, they'd have the same limited range/need for a support base that the Nova Surveyor is infamous for.

I like the Sabre, just because it's different. But that's just me.

Hope this helps.

Alex

[AslanC]

My vote is Uprate the Nova and go with that

She is a pretty, pretty ship. One of the best designs in a long time, she just needs some teeth

[qerlin]

One of the things I do to get people into the fel oft he ship is a couple of pages of 'set designs': the bridge, the other places. For the sabre, I'd use similar sets to the Defiant with just a few differences here and there to show it's not just a redress. Fer'instance: my Akira features the bridge from Enterprise E, but with different carpet coloring. The same engineering deck, same thing on the coloring. But the Voyager astrometrics, sickbay, and transporter sets. The cabins are from Defiant for the average crew guys (one bunk only for upper enlisted or lower officers; more like the Voyager ones for the upper officers, and there's one or two like the one's from Enterprise D for VIPs. I use jeffries tubes from Voyager and a couple like the ones from Enterprise A.

Simply point out the few differences here and there. Most of the time, they fall right into it. If you leave 'em on the table, players will often use them for combat sequences..."oh, I can hide behind that console/beam...that wasn't on the deck plan..."