[Spaceships] Star Trek Ships

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

I'm pretty sure there were a couple of episodes where ships were able to warp, albeit at reduced speed, with one nacelle out of commission.

(But it's Trek. If you want to require all nacelles to be functional, feel free. It won't be the only contradiction you face, and it was't a major point in most of the series.)

It probably depends on what metaphor writers used; nacelles were part of the entire drive necessary to form the warp bubble, or separate redundant engines that could work in concert to make it go faster.
I can see fun and justification in either aspect.

[Tyneras]

My approach to Warp design has been this:

1. Each nacelle contains at least 1 stardrive system.
2. 2 exposed nacelles is the most efficient design, but not necessarily the fastest. It is the standard design.

So all the modifiers are for deviating from the standard (more/less nacelles, non-exposed nacelles, quality, extra power). I'm still tinkering with the "Warp Level" chart, which is based on a stretched GURPS standard log table.

One of those modifiers is "overcharged stardrives" with gives a speed boost but makes the stardrive a volatile system. The Enterprise-D had these, and thus had to make a HT roll every time it took a hit on one, while other ships could get their nacelles blown in half without worry about exploding.

[Flyndaran]

The Enterprise D was a bigger deathtrap than the original ever was. At least in first show, it was almost entirely unnamed red shirt ensigns dropping dead. On D, 100 dead crewmen was called Saturday.

But your idea makes sense for souped up, cutting edge, etc. drives that perform better than all others but are very touchy.

[Tyneras]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

The Enterprise D was a bigger deathtrap than the original ever was. At least in first show, it was almost entirely unnamed red shirt ensigns dropping dead. On D, 100 dead crewmen was called Saturday.

But your idea makes sense for souped up, cutting edge, etc. drives that perform better than all others but are very touchy.

I'm planning on giving the first flight of Galaxy class starships HT 10 (when I expect any fully equipped TL10^ to have HT 14) to represent their tendency to die easily. I attribute this to high command rushing them out for political reasons before they were ready. The later Galaxies didn't seem to have any particular issues.

[Flyndaran]

That is a massive difference though. It would quickly be obvious that the Galaxy class is garbage and odd to make one the Federation's flagship. But I only disagree with the magnitude not the concept, so in the end it's only minor preferences.

[David Johansen]

Over the years I've come across some thoughts and theories I like though they may not be cannon. The Lost Unicorn Games Star Trek rpg had a Federation source book where they explained the real reason for Galaxy Class starships. The Federation had encountered so many extinction level threats that they wanted to make it possible for humanity to survive the destruction of Earth and all its colonies. Each Galaxy class ship is actually an arc.

I also like a fan theory I saw on rpgnet once. The Next Generation period is dominated by an idealistic government back home that constantly makes policy decisions based on ideology to the exclusion of all reason. Hence the new hand phasers no longer instantly disintegrate whatever they're pointed at, with their maximum setting at what used to be heavy stun. Similarly the Galaxy class ships are under armed and badly shielded.

A couple stray ones.

Warp Nacelles are actually world breaker torpedoes. The antimatter isn't just kept there to preserve the ship in the event of an explosion they can be fired at things. While this was never the intent it seems workable.

The phasers on Next Generation and on are focal array turrets on tracks that allow them to reposition. The reason for this was to reduce the actual number of phasers mounted on the ship to reduce them to civilian cruise liner specifications.

[Tyneras]

I've never had any issues with the phaser strips, viewing them as phased array major batteries.

I'm in the camp that thinks the era between TOS and TNG was one of unprecedented near-total peace combined with massive economic disruption by the invention of the replicator (nanofac with a few extra bells and whistles) resulted in a government that made lots of highly questionable decisions.

Idea: Nerf Kinetics!
TL9^: The invention of hyperballistic armor and early development of laser infantry weapons killed the ballistics industry. Railguns never got past the TL8 prototype stage. Any ballistic guns found in museums or libraries will be TL8 at the most advanced.

Inertial Dampers
Any ship with a working inertial damper colliding with an object of equal or less mass (be it missile or ramming starship) has a relative velocity of no greater than 0.1, running into something bigger than you without an inertial damper (like a planet) has normal collision damage rules.

Desired result: Missiles need to rely on their payload, using speed only to close the distance. Ramming is strong against already weakened targets, but isn't an I WIN button. Ships that wish to fight again another day will rely on energy weapons.

I tend to view star trek ships as being fairly thin-skinned, usually having 1 to 3 armor systems and relying on their shields primarily.

[fredtheobviouspseudonym]

In most games I've run, whether from the Bronze Age to star ships, I like to have available what you might call "lesser" ships.

Tugs. Coastal minesweepers. PT boats and Harbour Defence Motor Launches.

Sloops and cutters.

Caravels and pollacas. [Wiki it.]

Liburnians.

Knorrs.

Runabouts.

The advantage of these for games is that they DON'T have overwhelming combat power -- so you can have your PCs' enemies with realistic resources pose a challenge.

The advantage of these in any game that tries to maintain a connection to real-life is that they're going to be more available and less controlled than the big gun (or aircraft or missile or photon torpedo) ships. The sector admiral isn't going to let you play with a Dreadnought -- but a junior guy on his/her staff might let you borrow a runabout for a few days for a "special operation." Or a warp-capable shuttlecraft. Or a liburnian on the Saxon Shore. Or a PT off New Guinea. (Read PT 105 by Richard Keresey.) Or a revenue cutter off Maine in 1813.

You get the idea. It's more believable and a bit more fun -- the smaller the ship, the more likely that a young and footloose PC can make an impact on the ship & on the mission.

Remember how Stephen Decatur got started.