What ship would you recommend for a TOS campaign, besides the Constitution class?

[eharborclub]

Everyone,

I have 7 players that just wrapped up a TNG & DS9 series campaign. We wanted to hop back to the original series, but are having a lot of trouble deciding on a Starfleet TOS era ship to use. Here's some of the details on our proposed campaign:
7 players, 1 narrator. The players want to play senior personnel, department heads and the captain. Characters will be developed that will have a mid-level amount of experience, so the aren't on par with Kirk and company, just a bit below. The mission types for our series are much like the TV show, a good mixture of action, exploration, mystery, and diplomacy.

Does anyone have ideas on a ship to use? My players are open to FASA, Starfleet Battles, LUG (and at this point, anything else).
Here's some of the ships we have contemplated so far: Ranger class Explorer (LUG), Commanche class Cruiser(mentioned in the LUG ST RPG on page 128 under the Cruiser section), Saladin Destroyer(Franz Joseph's Star Trek Technical Manual), Loknar Frigate (FASA), Larson Destroyer (FASA), Hermes Scout (Franz Joseph's Star Trek Technical Manual aka Nelson scout in FASA).

Any recommendations from the above list? Perhaps you have another ship you would use?

Let me know your thoughts! Thanks!
Erik

[Cochrane]

I guess it would be simplest to use Ranger, so that's my recommendation. It's a neat looking ship, or at least it would be if it had been drawn correctly.

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Games. The Final Product. These are the books of the Star Trek RPG. Their five year license. To explore strange new roles. To breathe new life into get togethers. To boldly play what no fan has played before!

[USS Intrepid]

I'd recommend the Saladin class. It's a nice medium-sized vessel, and there are full deckplans available for it.

We use the Saladin class for our occasional TOS era campaign, and it works out quite nicely.

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Captain Daniel Hunter
CO NCC-74600, U.S.S. Intrepid
Star Trek: Intrepid

[Captain Zymmer]

Also if you can get a hold of the FASA Trek Fed Recognition Manual and check out the Nelson Class scout...one of my favs...Much like a Saladin, but has a V dorsal connector (two trunks basically) instead of one.

If you like I can e-mail you a scan

And I just noticed that you had the Hermes listed, never mind

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Captain Zymmer
=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Visit Star Trek:Lexington at;
http://www.usslexington.net
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[This message has been edited by Captain Zymmer (edited 08-26-2001).]

[Antonsb214]

I would go with an NCL. You can check out CGI pics at www.SFBnexus.com

[Captain Zymmer]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Antonsb214:
I would go with an NCL. You can check out CGI pics at www.SFBnexus.com</font>

Nice ship! Very nice ship



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Captain Zymmer
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Visit Star Trek:Lexington at;
http://www.usslexington.net
=-=-=-=-=-=

[Cmmdr JT Wayland]

Eharborclub,
I would suggest using a Loknar class Frigate, it's quite small, relatively fast and well armed. Just right for an adventuring ship.
Also the great Ship Designer, the Legendary Swampy, wrote it up using the Spacedock rules back in January, here is the thread address so you can peruse it for yourself and see if you want to use it: -
http://www.trekrpg.net/Board/ubb/For...ML/000204.html

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"Those Klingons are up to something, I can feel it in my bones"
Cmmdr JT Wayland
Strategic Operations Officer, Starbase 415, Dragomer Sector, Klingon Border, 2372

[StyroFoam Man]

This message has been removed on request by the
poster

[Thundergod]

Give them something horrifically old. Give them an daedleus or something. Or make up a bucket for them to fly in. The creators of Trek make up a new ship for every show, and I usually do the same thing. I get a new ship for every campagin.
Start them in a Mellenium falcon and have them earn a constitution! besides if I had to be in any ship back then It would be the enterprise. Its the only one that came back.

[Doug Burke]

I dunno, I've always had a soft spot for the Larson-class Destroyer. Maybe it's me, though...

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Doug Burke



McCoy: "You're taking me to the promised land?"
Kirk: "That's what you get for missing staff meetings, Doctor."

[John Raynor]

I'd say give them a Surya-class starship.
In essence, take the movie-era Reliant-class
starship, and "regress" it back to the
TOS-era by replacing its warp nacelles with
old-fashioned cylindrical ones, and removing
the "rollbar" entirely. There's a picture
at "http://www.mcdanielmodels.com".

[Erik Filean]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by StyroFoam Man:
Some varient on the Akiraprise, an Early Miranda, or even one of the first Constellation class ships.
</font>

It wouldn't take a lot of tweaking to make the Loknar class into an Akiraprise variant. The basic configuration is rather similar.

[Commodore 2]

If the crew is a new one, give 'en an old CL ala Starfleet Battles.
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Best speed to Gallifrey!
Commodore Horatio Richard Jaeger
CO USS Audacity,NCC-85901

[eharborclub]

Everyone,

Thanks for the input. I'm running your suggestions by my group tonight, so I should have a winner by tommorrow.

Cochrane, I agree with you that the Ranger has the characteristics to what I'm looking for, and I could always swap out the lasers for phasers (that might not always work correctly) if the players agree.

USS Intrepid, thanks for the tip about the deck plans for the Saladin class. I'll hunt them down on the web. Any ideas where to start my search? It has a very smooth look (I totally agree with Captain Zymmer, one of my favs from FASA was the Nelson. I had a campaign that lasted over a year using that ship back in the 1980's).

Doug, I also have a soft spot for the Larson, as it came like the calvalry and saved my players behinds a few times. Very cool!

Now one ship I always wanted to run a campaign on was the Loknar. I'm going to push that one! Good reasoning for using the ship, thanks Cmmdr JT Wayland!

Love the look of that ship, Antonsb214, three of the players have decided they like that one a lot!!

Well, we see how mean and nasty I can be to them Thundergod! They may not bring snacks anymore if I dumped them in a Daedleus!

I'm going to check into the Akriprise, and the old CL class definitely! Thanks guys.

My first idea was to use FASA's earlier version of the Miranda. It certainly could bring a similar feeling to the Ranger class.

By the way, has anybody stopped by:

http://talk.trekweb.com/articles/200...998851217.html

There's a new Star Trek Ship book due to be released in November, called the Starship Spotter. The premise is this:

Essentially, the writers draw from the practices of military forces to develop recognition pictures of military craft so soldiers, pilots, sailors, etc. would be able to easily identify said military craft.

The Starship Spotter enhances this on the premise that every year, Starfleet Academy cadets add to a tradition every year (in the Star Trek timeline) that goes back to the earliest days of space pioneers.

Check it out, it looks like it might be worth picking up!

Erik

[CmdrBluejeans]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by John Raynor:
I'd say give them a Surya-class starship.
In essence, take the movie-era Reliant-class
starship, and "regress" it back to the
TOS-era by replacing its warp nacelles with
old-fashioned cylindrical ones, and removing
the "rollbar" entirely. There's a picture
at "http://www.mcdanielmodels.com".</font>

For that matter, you could always have them giving the shakedown cruise to the original USS Miranda, first of the Miranda-class ships.


BJ