Which Starship and Why?

[Aldaron]

USS Intrepid, name ship of the Intrepid-class.

Why? It's small - small enough for me to detail every single NPC on the ship (well - at least name, rank, species gender and key skills; and yes *sigh*, I am that anally retentive ); there's a tonne of source material out about it; I've got the really cool cutaway poster of Voyager; I'm somewhere in the midst of deckplans for it (though I keep having to go back and revise decks...grrr!).

Story reasons are that it's the smallest multimission ship I can think of. Nova is great for science missions, but it falls down when I want to do first contact or combat-oriented stuff, Defiant is good for combat stuff, but falls over regarding exploration stuff.

How's it working out? Terrific!

[Dan Stack]

Originally posted by Kronok
Originally posted by Dan Stack
Oh, I am just curious. Is Dan Stack going to answer his own questions for us???

I suppose it is only fair, but I wanted to let discussion go on a little without me first.

I'm a big believer that a ship sets the tone of a game or a television show. So I give such thought a lot of internal debate.

There are a few factors I keep in mind...

Appropriate for the mission?
A small vessel is great for a specific purpose and can, in a pinch, be used for other missions, but realism and believability is stretched quite a bit if you constantly use a vessel for something it is not designed for. For example, the Defiant on DS9 has been used on occasion for exploration (and the Mission Gamma novels have used it for such) but she really isn't optimal for such use. She is really a fighter. It would stretch believability to use one for diplomatic missions - witness DS9 using an Intrepid on a diplomatic mission to Romulus.

Similarly a Nova or Oberth is a great survey vessel but would one be used to defend a sector from a Romulan offensive. Would one be used to open diplomatic relations with a new species.

An Intrepid is a great all-around ship, but with her smaller crew (and a lot of dialogue on Voyager) one gets the feel that she is best suited for short or medium-term missions. However, that is quite often in keeping with an RPG, which is why I suspect she's a popular RPG ship.

The "big ships" of the 24th century - Ambassador, Galaxy, Sovereign, Nebula, Excelsior - to me, those ships, along with the smaller Intrepid, seem to suit the purpose of a "generic" show or RPG. They are designed to do anything - maybe not perfectly suited for everything, but they are all capable of military action, medium to long-term exploration, diplomacy, rescue, escort duty, you name it. If on the other hand you have a very specific sort of campaign in mind, a smaller ship, I find, works quite well.

For example, for my generic games, I've mainly stuck to the Galaxy-class. For the Bridgetown, DS9-style game, the Defiant-class worked well. Similarly, for a ship lost in time, space, and parallel dimensions, where I wanted the characters to lack resources, the Defiant was an ideal choice.

Familiarity?
For me, this is just as important. If I as narrator refer to the main bridge, do the players know what I'm talking about? Not all my players are obsessive tech-heads like me, so saying "it looks just like the bridge of the Prometheus may get a blank state. What does the lounge look like? Engineering? I want the ship to be a given, so that I don't have to expend much narrating energy on making her a character. This, for me, makes the Galaxy and Intrepid classes


Player and Narrator Preference
Sometimes a player or narrator really likes a particular ship or really doesn't like a particular design. (This is where familiarity can be a bad thing).


What Is Your Answer, Dan?
I'm finalizing my decision. And I'll walk you through my thought process. If people have been watching my public mental ramblings on this board, I've been trying to get "back to basics". I love tightly focused games, but they are sometimes a pain to develop - your ability to use a generic adventure is limited. With a six-month old daughter, my free time lis limited, hence my desire to get back to a straight-forward, TNG style game.

If you've seen other posts by me, you'll also note that I've brought characters from the 23rd century into the 24th. This was to allow a more "wild" sort of character while setting the game in the time period that most players instinctively recognize. In the end I also decided to set it after all my other games, so it takes place just after the end of Voyager Season 7 (my Bridgetown game's last adventure was mid-way through Voyager Season 7) - I'm not planning on using a lot of elements from prior games, but I don't want to forbid myself from doing so.

For the 23rd century adventures we ran, we used a Miranda-class vessel - it was the right size - big for its era, able to fulfill multiple roles. It was familar - the interior is quite similar to Enterprise of the film series. And my players liked the design.

For the 24th century component, soon to begin, I'll start with my own personal preference - that is a Sovereign-class vessel. Unlike other people, I don't see them as a "warship" - I see them fulfilling a role quite similar to the Constitution class - designed for deep space exploration - smaller than the Galaxy, but more effective a tactical platform, as it needs to dedicate less resources to a civilian population. I can see one of these in a deep space mission without returning to Earth or other main planets for a while. I also like the idea of a larger crew than the Intrepid - it allows me to introduce a bit more of a social element to the game, something I think I've been a little weak at - I always liked episodes on TNG which had musical performances, gossip on who was dating who, etc. - TNG was more a "community" while Voyager was more a close-knit "family". I like the community aspect a bit better for my game.

The only disadvantage is a large one - while I am quite familar with them, I'm not so sure about my players. One player has only seen First Contact once and didn't see Insurrection. The game group may well see "Nemesis" together, so that may mitigate the unfamiliarity.

However, I need to decide prior to that. My fallback is the dependable Galaxy-class. This has the advantage that I don't need to hold up a "Star Trek: The Magazine" to show a picture of the bridge or explain how engineering looks. This is stuff I want to be instinctive, as some of my adventures, like the tv show, are ship-based. Nothing disrupts an adventure more than explaining - "oh no, I'm sorry, I didn't explain, there's no turbolift there" or "sorry, that's actually a level above". Yes, as narrator it is contingent upon me to explain that to my players, but as narrator it is also my responsibility to plan well enough in advance to mimimize my work. If I expend "narrating energy" making their ship familiar, then I have used energy which could have been better used fleshing out the alien presence taking over their ship.

Whew, that's a long answer. The short answer is most likely I'll be returning my game to the Galaxy-class Icarus, which was the player's ship back in 1998-1999 but has not been used since as a home base since. (It also has the advantage that the player's know the bartender in Ten-Forward (which looks like an Irisb pub), the Reverend Finnegan, a Jesuit minister and grandson of the Finnegan who tormented Kirk at Starfleet Academy). The Icarus was last seen in our Bridgetown game, nearly destroyed by Cardassian terrorists using Iconian weapons. There is a chance, based on player comments we will instead use the Sovereign.

[Edit - Fixed a typo or two]

[Sarge]

Like other people have already said, there are plenty of advantages to running a capaign aboard a small ship. But, my group has played Star Wars for a long time and is used to cruising around the galaxy in little tramp freighters. I wanted the Trek game to feel different from that, so I started the characters out on a big ship, an Ambassador class.

That ship has since been reduced to a saucer section, so I'm going to transfer the crew to a Nebula class. What I like about the Nebula is that I can use all the deckplans and interior pictures for the Galaxy class, but it is different enough so that the players won't ever think they're on the Enterprise-D.

[Ineti]

(blink blink) Duh.

Sometimes the most obvious things elude me. Sarge, I never even considered adapting the Galaxy-class plans to a Nebula. Seems so simple when you just come out and say it, but somehow my brain never made the connection.

What a great idea. Time to research the Nebula!

[Lt Cmdr Matt]

You could always use the New Orleans class as a smaller than Nebula and Galaxy but you could just adapt the deckplans a little bit. Snip out a few quarters here and there. Just a thought.

Hey, I like the New Orleans idea myself.

[Kirbinator]

In the campaign i am starting this saturday i will be using an Ambassador class, mainly because i have always liked them and i have over used the Galaxy class and Sovereigns in the past

[silverthorn]

After mentioning my next game was going to be set on a Miranda class in the DQ, I had a sudden attack of common sense and realised that 220 crew isn't going to last long (I don't even want to think how many crew Voyager went through).

That, added to the fact that I watched 'Yesterdays Enterprise' tonight on the BBC had made me change my mind and set the game on a Ambassador Class, the main reason for which being that I like the design and it looks to be big, but not too big.

[GM_Sam]

I'm currently running a DS9, pre Dominion War Game. The crew is onboard a Defiant Class ship, the USS Ares. What ya think?

[marty4286]

No matter what ship they start out with, my players end up with a humongous armada some point in the future... Pirate campaigns = hard to balance (I was also a newbie GM at the time)

[Don Mappin]

Originally posted by silverthorn
After mentioning my next game was going to be set on a Miranda class in the DQ, I had a sudden attack of common sense and realised that 220 crew isn't going to last long (I don't even want to think how many crew Voyager went through).

Don't sweat it--Voyager didn't go through that many. That's one thing (thankfully) the writers kept close track of. I don't have my figures handy with me, but all told they lost maybe a dozen. They also had a nice "pick up" with the crew of the Equinox along the way.

BTW, let me know how this game turns out!

[First of Two]

I used a Defiant for several reasons:

#1 I like it.

#2 It's got a small crew, which means my players can't delegate major jobs to underlings if they don't know what to do, but can delegate minor tasks.

#3 If I really wanted to, I could detail every crew member (I already have Name, Species, and Position for every crew member on all three shifts)

#4 It can land if it has to. My crew have a tendency to crash ships.

#5 It's appropriate for the time period: Mid- Dominion War

#6 Deck plans already exist.

#7 Too lazy to dream up stats and such for the Invictus Class
http://www.angelfire.com/scifi/FirstofTwo/Page2.html

[Scott MacGregor]

Hi All
Hi All
My crew began on the Gamma watch for the USS Biko. The Biko was a SF JAG ship investigating Neutral Zone violations as a largely stock Oberth class. It carried a number of ambassadors who were present for various incidents and to provide both plot tension and, periodically, get out of jail cards. The crew were transfered to a new ship once their Captain, Cox, was promoted. This was a Freedom II class, the USS Deliverance (something that I made up). It had a variety of experimental equipment including layered shields, a "Dual Core Single Nacelle" (DCSN), and a flotilla targeting system for controlling 'command fire' at specific targets. The crew was raised to Beta Bridge Watch and went exploring on the far side of the Cardassian Empire. The PC's were eventually elevated to the Alpha Bridge Watch on a Norway class, the USS Lor'Tan. A mixed species crew though mostly Andorian. The Lor'Tan spent some time fighting in the Dominion War (2370-74), exploring, and making first contacts. The PC's are now getting close to having a player make Captain. The Biko allowed legal and investigative missions without much firepower being involved. (The Oberth can't even make toast with its phasers!) The Deliverance allowed for a lot of engineering and science missions while doing some fighting and exploring. The Lor'Tan has lots of intrigue and politics. Cheers,
Scott MacGregor

[Sarge]

First of Two, where did you get the info that Defiants can land? In the episode "Starship Down", Sisko said that she wasn't designed to operate in atmosphere. To me, that pretty much precludes the possibility of landing.

[First of Two]

Didn't he say that it wasn't meant to operate in that kind of atmosphere (ie: Jupiter-type)?

The MSD of Defiant has landing legs to the fore and aft of the shuttlebay on deck 4.

http://www.gilsostartrekschematics.c...antcutaway.jpg

[Ensign Arrgh]

It looks like the systems of the room with the firewall on the NSEA Protector to me

If those are landing Struts, they must not be able to land on much more than very flat land...