Which Starship and Why?

[Dan Stack]

People seem to like these threads such that they pop up from time to time. I'd like to give a little twist to it...

What starship (or other base) are you using in your game? Why? What else did you consider? How is that choice working out for you?

[Lt Cmdr Matt]

Startrek: Aurora, Intrepid. I picked the Intrepid here because I wanted to give the players a deep space ship that would be comfortable for long missions. I had three choices here really.

Galaxy, Soveriegn, Intrepid

I did not want them being able to destroy every ship that they came across without a challenge. Or resort to guns in every situation. That rules out the Soveriegn completely. It was between a Galaxy and an Intrepid. I did not want there to be over a thousand NPC's onboards. That's why I went with the Intrepid.

Startrek: Eclipse, Nova class. I wanted a ship that would normally be stationed to a starbase but could go out firther if necessary. This brought me to two conclusions. Defiant or Nova. I wanted the players to be challenged when they have to fight and like the claustrophobic state of the Nova, with a complement of Eighty.


I tried a Defiant in a one episode and the players ended up starting a war with the Ferengi. They were court marshailed(sp?) and this resulted in the game starting over. I again chose a Nova for the same reasons as above.

[Don Mappin]

I've told myself several times that I need to write up an article answering this question. It won't tell you necessarily, per-se what you have to use, but does run the entire gambit of why you might want to use such a vessel. One day I suppose I'll get around to it.

Short answer, for a "current" Trek game, balanced ship for all types of mission profiles: Intrepid. Can't beat it, baby.

[Dan Gurden]

The USS Venture was always a Galaxy class from the moment it appeared on screen... And the PBEM has been in existance longer than the LUG RPG.

However when the game restarted with a rules based system rather than the Freeform game that had been collapsing previously, I thought about a total refresh (Not realising the sort of outcry last seen over the re-imagining of Battlestar Galactica ), and part of that was, for a very short time, thoughts of another ship, a new ship.

I did for a short while consider the USS Journeyman an Intrepid class ship. The main reason why I didn't, was simply because there were no stats out for it at the time and I was feeling lazy.

Its worked out well on the whole, and I still have the Journeyman as a backup if a tabletop game ever occurs.

[Phantom]

Imperial Starbird T'Virik, T'Rasus-class.

Why? I wanted something that said Romulan in the TNG era, but not something as overwhelmingly powerful as the Warbird. The Starbird classes are the Romulans answer to the Explorer classes the Federation uses.

[Ineti]

I've always gone back to the Galaxy-class. With the Tech Manual and the blueprints that were published for it, it's hard to find better source material for any other class ship, save the Constitution refit. Since I run TNG-DS9 era series exclusively, well...

If a VOY tech manual ever came out, or if I ever manage to come up with a way to make good deckplans myself, I'll stick with either the Galaxy or come up with a new class.

I tend to do exploration first type of series, so a Galaxy class fits that nicely.

[Diamond]

I like having deckplans. Lately I've been leaning towards smaller more intimate ships. Thus, I've got the Friday group on a Defiant class and the Monday group on a Saber class. I had some re-ocurring one-shots on a Nova class.

[silverthorn]

Since the games I was running collapsed recently (half the players, a married couple, moved out of the area) I don't run a game anymore but the next game I'll run soonish will be set on a Miranda class starship, lost in the Delta Quadrant. I wanted a small starship which isn't all that powerful (ruling out the grossly overpowered Intrepid class) so that the crew may have to think there way out of situation, rather than shooting there way out.

[Sea Tyger]

For my Star Trek: TSI campaign, I'm using a 120m-long freighter of my own design. Since the characters are undercover Starfleet Intel agents in 2275, I needed a small, cozy, civilian ship.

If I ever do a TNG campaign, I'm thinking about the Sequoia-class, simply because it's cool.

[Greg Smith]

Miranda-class USS Boudicea .

Why? A good all round ship, but nearly powerful enough to go up against any Dominion vessels, thereby making the players think their way around problems.

Of course, now they have a fleet of a dozen starships at their command!

[tmutant]

I took a cool picture from Ex Asris Scientia of the Bradbury class, and designed a Coda heavy cruiser to go with it. Crew 280, no families on board, not quite as big as a Sovereign class. I like a ship with no preconceived notions about what it can and can't do.

[Kronok]

Originally posted by Dan Stack

What starship (or other base) are you using in your game?

I chose the USS Asimov. It is an Intrepid Prototype.

Why?

I decided to design my own ship to suite my specific GM needs. I like the lines of the Intrepid, but I too think it is a little “too much ship.” What I did was shrink down the Intrepid class to about half its size. I wanted a small ship that I could create the entire NPC list of crewmembers. If the PCs need a Sociologist, they can check the crew roster and see who fits the job best. I also have a small paragraph of background for each of these NPCs, which helps out immensely during our sessions. I guess I just feel that large ships are so impersonal. Plus, on a large ship, you can always find an NPC who would be skilled in any area you could possible need help with. It really helps “PUSH” PC development in that the PCs are trying to fit the bill for any vacancies that may exist do to ineffective staffing (I make the Command PC roll for this). In fact, during our last few sessions, the ship lost about half its crew in a battle. The Command PC requisitioned more crew to replace those lost. We will be roleplaying this during our next session.

The USS Asimov was built in 2365 as a “demo” to see if the design would function properly. This was primarily done due to the failed computer modeling experiments under various conditions and stresses. The USS Asimov tested successful and was placed in a learning facility at the Daystrom Institute. She was “re-commissioned” in 2375 as a result of the lack of Federation vessels available due to losses in the Dominion War.

The rational came from my dislike of the “holodecks can simulate most everything” concept. The idea of bio-neural gel packs worked well on paper, but early tests proved ineffective and dangerous. A “privately funded” project was used to build a prototype, in the truest sense of the word, to see if the ship would function. It was built half the scale of the, yet to be built, USS Intrepid so as to be more cost effective.

What else did you consider?

I thought about using the Oberth or a few of the smaller canon vessels. In the end, it was way more fun to design my own ship. She is small and has few torpedoes, so the PCs will need to be careful.

How is that choice working out for you?

I love it!!! I would like to have some deckplans, so I think I may switch to the Nova. Publius has made some awesome deckplans that I may just have to borrow???

OR

Maybe he would help me do some deckplans for my own ship!!!

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

[qerlin]

USS Constitution, Galaxy-class. Mostly because everyone knows what the interiors look like & I've got deckplans, etc, if I need them.

[Polanski]

Well, for me it was simple ...
I wanted to start the game with something that a junior captain could/would get as her first command.
I like the feeling of realism where both the captain and the crew are earning their way up.
Since I have considered escort vessels to be a station/patrol based I went for the next best thing, a frigate.
So I took the look and feel of defiant, made it bigger (250m) stacked it with a bit more crew (80+10RRT) then added the intelligence sticker to it, to give a little extra freedom of operation and make players feel a bit more special (this of course tied in with the story and was not pulled out of the backside). And this is how USS Courageous (Avatar class Fast Frigate was created). From now on, the sky is the limit. It is really up to the crew and the captain where it will all go from here.

[SIR SIG]

My current game is Klingon mercs.

So one Character has a beatup Bird of Prey D-12 class.

The other has found a 80yr old crashed K'tinga, and will try to restore it over the campaign.