Medusan starships

[buck rogers]

Ok guys I need your all's help. I making up an adventure where the crew has to rescue a Scientist from a pre-warp civilization (early 21st century humanoid) the Prime Directive in in effect and all that. Scientist in question is a Medusan (without his encounter suit) So he should be fairly easy to locate, yeah right! Anyway sorry my question is this, since a Medusan starship is energy what kind of stats would it have and what would damage it. In the back story I have it become damaged after an ion storm then crash on this planet. Does anyone have any ideas what the make up of a Medusan starship would look like or even how big it is. how fast etc. I'm thinking it would litterally look like a star. I only want to keep things consistant and don't want to find out later that I screwed up by making their ship energy based when it is more conventional, or wouldn't be affected by be ion/plasma storms. Thanks in advance for any help

[Eric R.]

Medusians Non Corporal but yet there ugly go figure anyway they are not in encounter suits but are in containers the only time we "saw" them in "Is there No such thing as Beauty". My guess is that any ship they would have might have a physical form crewed by some servant race they encountered long ago to help them out in physical matters (or might even be a allied race which gains from the medusians there subspace navigational abilities) anyway, in your scenario we can assume that all of the humaniod helpers died in the crash leaving only our good scientist alive. If you want a real good encountering prime directive situtaion play with a 1950's style Earth instead of a mid 21st culture, there is alot of potential to gain from spoofing the Sci Fi/horror genre.

[Dan Gurden]

Originally posted by Eric R.
Medusians Non Corporal but yet there ugly go figure

Not true, they are actually described as incredibly beautiful.

Although Spock might just be taklking about Ambassadors Kollos's mind.

Buck, remember when your crew find the Medusan they will of course go insane from exposure, not to mention the insanity the Medusan Scientist has caused on the planet...

As for Medusan Starships, nothing says the shiup has to be energy, after all, the old FASA starship details used to mention Medusan crewmembers working as Navigators (in a special compartment)...

[Karg]

Originally posted by Eric R.
Medusians Non Corporal but yet there ugly go figure anyway they are not in encounter suits but are in containers the only time we "saw" them in "Is there No such thing as Beauty". My guess is that any ship they would have might have a physical form crewed by some servant race they encountered long ago to help them out in physical matters (or might even be a allied race which gains from the medusians there subspace navigational abilities) anyway, in your scenario we can assume that all of the humaniod helpers died in the crash leaving only our good scientist alive. If you want a real good encountering prime directive situtaion play with a 1950's style Earth instead of a mid 21st culture, there is alot of potential to gain from spoofing the Sci Fi/horror genre.

This has great potential, the Medusans do not have Encounter Suits but they have a container they stay in while among Humanoids.

To spoof the '50's Sci/Fi Genre you could have the Medusan trying to contact the Natives for help (Possibly the Medusan is dissoriented in the crash itself?) and that contact inadvertantly causes the native encountered to go insane thus perpetuating a Rampaging monster from space theme!

The Starfleet Officers can then pose as MIB Types!

Oh this is Evil!

[buck rogers]

You guys are on the right track as far as the adventure theme goes although I was going for more the X-files thing I might change it up the fifties B movie theme sounds cool. One of the things the PC's will have to figure out is how to make contact with the scientist (who is not evil, and wants to be rescued) Problems are that the natives have something about there brains which make them immune to telepaths so he can't communicate with them. Yes anyone coming into contact with him will go insane. I came up with the "encounter suit" idea kinda like Kosh on B5. I figure in a century the box idea could use a little improvment. His suit is damaged anyway. In the new "Aliens" sourcebook it talks a little about their ships saying they are almost completely made from energy. I was just wondering if anyone has any little tidbits on how they might function or operate. Do you know where I can find Fasa stats on one of there ships. I once read they sit in the glowing green bowl at the center onthe bridge roof on the Enterprise NCC-1701 in ST:TMP? Ant truth to that. Thanks for the imput guys I think I might go with the 50's horror theme for fun.

[Sheliak Bob]

If you were using Spacedock, I'd be tempted to say the best way to design a "energy form" Medusan ship would be to select its size and SCU, then ignore inner and outer hulls, just using really, really beefed up "structural integrity fields". The ship would be constructed almost entirely of coherent forcefields. Opaque them for a nice pearlescent, shiny surface that arcs if touched.
Inside you have pulsing lights, swirling gases with a generally foggy look. As an unshielded Medusan approaches, characters could get a warning glimpse of weird, swirling colors and a vague, ill-defined "horrible" shape coming nearer. (If lucky, they run before they get a good look...) You could have tubes and tunnels with walls of coherent energy, with no gravity, even while on planetside.
Control rooms, I picture a sphere with glowing "bubbles" scattered about--energy interfaces that the Medusans directly link up with, but which could be managed by touch with a little practice. For a screen, I'd have the walls become a full-wrap projection of whatever the Medusans want to see, sort of "astrocartography" from the films style.

[buck rogers]

Wow! I like it, that is a cool way to describe Medusan starship. I was looking for something different and "alien" to the star trek norm but not some supership. this hits the mark. Thanks. I think I'll go with your idea Sheliak Bob.

[buck rogers]

Sadly I won't be using Spacedock. but I do have it downloaded for reference if I ever need it. I'm going to put in Coda stats.

[Sheliak Bob]

Hmm. Coda Medusan ships... Could be interesting! Tell ya' what, I'm going to try to carve out enough time to see if I can bash together something tonight. If it works, I'll post whatever weirdness gets spawned tomorrer!

[buck rogers]

Cool, can't wait!

[Sheliak Bob]

Okay dokey, here's my go at a "Euryale" Class Far Scout:
(for the true design mavens, bear with me, this is cobbled together between commercials after a couple of Amber Bocks...)

Design date: 2356
Medusan availability modifiers:
Sensors:+20
Operations:+10
Propulsion:+10
Weapons:-20
Shields:+20

Size: 3 (sphere 30m in diameter)
Decks: 6 (actually, spherical spaces "nested" inside the main shape, sort of like marbles inside a baseball)
Structure: 15 (standard--actually composed of coherent force fields)
Crew: 6

Atmosphere capable: Yes
Cargo: 30 units in stasis field containment
1 Tractor Beam (all facings)
1 Transporter

Operations: Class 4 Reliability E
Life Support: Class 4 Reliability E
Sensors: Class 5a +5/+4/+3/+2/+1 Reliability EE

Mono-Refracting Masking System: Actually energy absorbing field of the vessel itself. Rating 14

Warp Drives: LF-50 (equivalent, not actual machinery parts etc.)
9/9.5/9.99 Reliability E

Impulse Drive: Class 5 .9C Reliability C

Shields: FSQ-2 (advanced) Protection:14 Standard-but can be raised to 17 by reducing Structure on a 1 to 1 ratio. Structure can also be increased (to maximum of standard 15) by siphoning power from shields (IE: Reduce Protection rating and add to Structure to "repair" damage by shunting energy.)
Shields are Meta-Phasic.
Threshold: 1 Reliability CC

Weapon: Charged Particle Beam. (a "mega-lightning" bold that arcs from anywhere on surface of sphere to hit target vessels.)
Offense value: 6
Penetration: 3/3/2/0/0 Reliability A

Weapon does not damage structure of target vessels. It is designed to disable not destroy. Treat Operations, Sensors and Shields as "Vulnerable" systems when struck by particle beam, unless "Hardened".

Traits: Nimble

Manuever Modifiers: Command: 0 Helm:+3 TActical:-1

There ya' go. Tweaked a Leeeetle bit (mostly to get the "nimble" trait. But the spaces used fall between NG's 41 and Starships 39 for size.

I was tempted to try to sneak in shuttle bays or some such because I see the six "decks" actually being ejected from the ruptured sphere if the ship is destroyed--functioning as life pods or even small launches. (got tired before attacking that notion, though...)

hope this fits the bill!

[buck rogers]

Woah!!! That is pretty much what I was going for! This looks great man, I'm going to use this in my adventure. Thanks again. I'm ready to go now with that adventure. Now I can finish my "ALIENS"/Star Trek crossover adventure. I noticed in the Star Trek Star Charts book. Zeta 2 Reticuli is shown on the map later it becomes the system where Starbase 39 Sierra is located. Anyways Its also the system in where LV-426 (Acheron) is located in another famous Sci-fi/horror movie. In Trek its offically charted as Zeta 2 IVb (LV-426, Acheron). I also fudged the history a tad so it would fir into a Trek setting. Interestingly the ships and time frame from the "ALIEN" & "ALIENS"movies closely fits into the Star Trek melieu. Remember the Y-class freighter ECS "Fortunate" from [ENT]. Well the "Nostromo" is a M-class frieghter with similiar design elements and qualities. So anyway I think it would be cool to do a ALIENS/Star Trek crossover adventure. Imagine how screwed the Borg would be if an "Zeta 2 Alien" wnet up against a Borg drone. Wonder how that acid for blood thing would affect Borg nanoprobes? My guess is badly I don't see the Borg being able to put up much of a fight or adapt their shielding to stop the Aliens from riping them to shwreds, since I have NEVER, EVER scene a drone use their personal shielding to stop kinetic attacks. And scince the Borg can only learn about something after the assimilate it they would be at a disadvantage for a little while Force Fields would dtop the Aliens from getting the run of a Borg vessel, And I doubt that the Alien facehuggers could impregnate a Borg Drone. But still it might be fun to explore the possibilities.

[Phantom]

Yikes, since you are using the Aliens (and since there has been a cross over before) why not throw a Pred into the mix? Maybe that is where the Jem'Hadar got thier shroud tech from. They would certainly teach the Hirogen something about taking Prey. Oh, here's a thought, a Predator and a Hirogen hunting party running into each in a new hunting ground. I'm not one for cross overs, but that could be really neat.

[buck rogers]

Hmmm. You just an inesting idea there Phantom. Think I'll try to develop that one into an adventure. After all Predators have been coming to Earth since at least the 17th to 18th century. It might be interesting to see how the develop both technologically and culturally (have they reallized hunting other sentient species is bad and changed their "evil" ways). maybe they were wiped out by some other race? This could be interesting.