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Thread: Running a series in dry dock

  1. #1

    Running a series in dry dock

    Hello gang. I thought I would tell everyone what my latest brain storm has been and let you see if you had any small ideas for sub plots and such.

    It's set during the early dominion war. So far, the war has been completly in the background. A pair of characters were in starfleet headquarters for a number of years, and have recently been thrown back into the fleet.

    A new ship is being constructed, and is the focus of the first part of the series. There has been alot of stress, building up to the war. With people they know dieing in the background, and a few rush jobs resulting in small accidents. This has resulted in frustrations and stress among the crew. Also due to the war and everything, only a partial crew is embarked as they are working on the ship, which is nearing (about 18 months away) completion.

    Things are progressing nicely, and the crew (players) are very enthusiastic. Mostly I was wondering if anyone had any ideas for the last part of starship construction. I used the timeline in the guide for the Enterprise D for most of my timeline ideas.
    USS INDEPENDENCE

    "FREEDOM'S FLAGSHIP"

  2. #2
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    One thing to remember is that the timeline for the Galaxy Class seems to have been a whole new ground-up design for not only a new class, but an entire new phase of technology including other ships like the Nebula Class. Even the timeline for the Enterprise-D itself, the third ship of the class, had its share of thechnological hurdles that another class of ship wouldn't face. On the other tentacle, early Dominion War is when such advanced ship classes as the Intrepid and Sovereign Classes were still relatively new...

    Some adventure ideas might involve sabotage attempts, espionage (both political/military and industrial), and the paranoia about Founders. With a few red herrings, you can have the players really jumping at shadows - "Hey, I thoight I saw that hyperspanner move! It's a Changeling, stun it!" "Uh, Joe, it really is a hyperspanner." "Oh yeah, well how do I know you're not a Changeling?"

    One possible surprise to throw at the PCs is an actual Dominion attack, where they have to take the unfinished ship into battle ("Okay, we only have a dozen photorps on board, and we have to connect the targetting sensors before we can fire them..."), then repair the damage after the battle before they can continue with finishing the ship.

  3. #3
    Well, this is supposed to be one of the new sov's (I abbreviate because I can't spell). Any ideas as to any interesting hurdles it might have? Is there a listing of all the ships of that class ?
    USS INDEPENDENCE

    "FREEDOM'S FLAGSHIP"

  4. #4
    Originally posted by Commander Ramey
    Well, this is supposed to be one of the new sov's (I abbreviate because I can't spell). Any ideas as to any interesting hurdles it might have? Is there a listing of all the ships of that class ?
    Yep.

    The listing is the USS Enterprise NCC 1701-E

    Its logical to assume that the first vessel would be the USS Sovereign, and that the Sovereign was constructed and successfully trialed before the full go ahead was given...

    We know that the Enterprise E was active during the Dominion War...

    From these extrapolations we now know that it is eiter proven technology, or that the obvious faults in the design have been picked up and corrected. And that from this your crew are either building the Enterprise E or perhaps one of several sister ships (the choice of name is all yours)...

    Of course this is logical assumption, and we all know that logic can be used to argue any viewpoint. So YLMV (Your Logic May Vary).

    Can anyone remember if Steve Long listed any other Sovereign class vessels, as such a list is non-canon, we may as well take our informatoin from a central source.
    DanG/Darth Gurden
    The Voice of Reason and Sith Lord

    “Putting the FUNK! back into Dysfunctional!”

    Coming soon. The USS Ganymede NCC-80107
    "Ad astrae per scientia" (To the stars through knowledge)

  5. #5
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    According to the Bridge Commander game, Soveriegn was the first to have her keel set down, but wasn't completed until well after Enterprise was in service because they had trouble with the fancy new-fangled shields. Enterprise was able to avoid that particular problem since they saw it coming, but they had to rip out and replace most of Sovereign's outer hull to get things working right.

    You could do similar for your game, or even be the group building Sovereign herself.

    Some suggestions for names: Ascendant, Monarch, Supremacy, Paramount , Ark Royal, Magnum Opus, and Providence.
    "The businessman's job is giving the business."

  6. #6
    You might want to check out the animé series Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket, if you have not done so already. It's an excellent source of inspiration for using war as thw backdrop for a campaign, rather than the subject. The characters are the civilian inhabitants of a neutral O'Niel-style LaGrange colony caught between the feuding major powers (parallels to the minor states between France and Germany, during every war from Napolean on, comes to mind). Could be an interesting way to run a non-Starfleet Dominion War-era story...
    “In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations.”

    -- Great Law of the Iroquois Confederacy

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  8. #8
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    Originally posted by Argyle
    Some suggestions for names: Ascendant, Monarch, Supremacy, Paramount , Ark Royal, Magnum Opus, and Providence.
    I might suggest such names as Liberty and Argus as well, but only because I got hooked on some of the TetraLuminare fan-fiction...

    -Chris Landmark
    "Was entstanden ist, das muss vergehen. Was vergangen, auferstehn." -Klopstock & Mahler

    "Only liberals really think. Only liberals are intellectual. Only liberals understand the needs of their fellows." How much viciousness lay concealed in that word! Odrade thought. How much secret ego demanding to feel superior. - Heretics of Dune

  9. #9
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    Originally posted by Argyle

    Some suggestions for names: Ascendant, Monarch, Supremacy, Paramount , Ark Royal, Magnum Opus, and Providence.
    Or, my personal favorite: Proxima Centauri (I've loved that name since one of the FASA Excelsiors used it.)

    I really would like to contribute to the thread, but all I can come up with is Star Trek: Next Tuesday. Must be this damned cold.
    Davy Jones

    "Frightened? My dear, you are looking at a man who has laughed in the face of death, sneered at doom, and chuckled at catastrophe! I was petrified."
    -- The Wizard of Oz

  10. #10
    I was thinking "Ticonderoga." Strong name for a warship, and also can be shortened to "Tico" for a more "intimate" referral. I appriciate all the info. I didn't know that the Soverighn had been stuck in dry dock longer than the big E. Anyone know what year she launched? Or when the Enterprise launched?
    USS INDEPENDENCE

    "FREEDOM'S FLAGSHIP"

  11. #11
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    Originally posted by Commander Ramey
    I was thinking "Ticonderoga." Strong name for a warship, and also can be shortened to "Tico" for a more "intimate" referral. I appriciate all the info. I didn't know that the Soverighn had been stuck in dry dock longer than the big E. Anyone know what year she launched? Or when the Enterprise launched?
    We used to call our Ticonderoga the "Ty" for short.
    Davy Jones

    "Frightened? My dear, you are looking at a man who has laughed in the face of death, sneered at doom, and chuckled at catastrophe! I was petrified."
    -- The Wizard of Oz

  12. #12
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    Originally posted by Sea Tyger
    I really would like to contribute to the thread, but all I can come up with is Star Trek: Next Tuesday. Must be this damned cold.
    You could call it Star Trek: Next Friday and really be in for some trouble.

    I picked those names because they suggest self-determination and/or rulership. I'm just a sucker for name themes, I guess.

    If you call her Monarch, your dedication quote can be, "Hail to the king, baby!"
    "The businessman's job is giving the business."

  13. #13
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    and where all them *%^(*! rocks come from when they do explode....
    Well, console explosions are actually caused by:

    1) Microscopic black holes (I don't care if the Vulcan's say they don't exist), which are attracted to the energy signatures of phasers and disruptors. These singularities open to the Elemental Plane of Earth, hence all the rocks. Or...

    2) Gee, those big ole' ships have to store their ballast somewhere, don't they?

    -- Daniel
    - Daniel "A revolution without dancing is a revolution not worth having."

  14. #14
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    Back OT, the series...

    A) Maybe Starfleet Intelligence could run a "security check" on board the ship. Some operatives do some suspicious stuff that gets the PC investigating, thinking there are some Dominion operatives around. How far it goes is up to you. Or maybe there's a real mole in SI, and the "game" turns into something bigger. As far as command and drydock personnel, who knows about what is also up to you.

    B) If the ship's still in dock when the Breen attack, maybe some ship debris piles into the dock and ship, causing a search and rescue and repair effort. OK, that's an episode unto itself.

    Actually, is the ship being built at Utopia Planitia (Mars) or Earth Station McKinley (Earth) or somewhere else?

    -- Daniel
    - Daniel "A revolution without dancing is a revolution not worth having."

  15. #15
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    "According to the Bridge Commander game, Soveriegn was the first to have her keel set down, but wasn't completed until well after Enterprise was in service because they had trouble with the fancy new-fangled shields."

    Uh, nope. Don't buy it. It's established Trek practice that the class is named after the first ship commissioned - commissioning doesn't happen until the ship is accepted for service - builders' trials and precommissioning trials come first, especially for a new class. Something might happen in post-commissioning trials to require a refit, but the scenario you quote doesn't hold hydrogen oxide.

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