[Let’s Study: Star Trek Adventures] Part 9c: Starship Creation & Alien Vessels

Welcome to the third entry for Chapter 9, and we’ll be talking about Starship Creation in Star Trek Adventures

Starship Creation has the following steps:

1. Service
2. Spaceframe
3. Mission Profile
4. Refits

Service

This is the era in which the game is played, and is decided upon by the GM and players.

For the purposes of our example, we’ll choose Service year 2368

Spaceframe

A vessel’s spaceframe is its basic superstructure, core systems, operational infrastructure and all other elements that are common to every vessel of the same class.

The Players choose a single class for their starship, this will provide a collection of abilities that will serve as the baseline stats of the Starship: the ship’s base scores for Systems and Scale, three points towards Departments and what weapons are on board.

Some classes may even have Talents that represent upgrades universally applied to ships of that class.

We’ll be going for an Akira Class Spaceframe for this example. This grants us the following:

Systems: Comms 9, Computers 9, Engines 10, Sensors 9, Structure 11, Weapons 11
Departments: Security +2, Medicine +1

Scale: 5

Weaponry:
Phaser Arrays, Photon Torpedoes, Quantum Torpedoes, Tractor Beam (Strength 4)

Talents:
Ablative Armor, Extensive Shuttle Bays, Rapid-Fire Torpedo Launcher

Mission Profile

A ship’s Mission Profile distinguishes it from her other sister ships. It determines how the ship will be equipped, what facilities and personnel will be assigned to it, and what kind of operations it will be expected to perform.

For our Akira Class Starship, let’s go with Pathfinder and Reconnaissance Operations

This will give us the following Departments: Command 2, Conn 2, Security 2, Engineering 2, Science 2, Medicine 1

We also get to select a Talent, for which we’ll go with: Improved Warp Drive

Refits

Starships normally receive periodic refits and upgrades throughout their service. For every full ten years between the year the ship went into service and the current year of the game, the ship receives one Refit.

Given that for this example we’re going with the same year as the year the Akira Class went in service I guess this means I don’t get any Refits.

Putting It All Together

At this point we have our newly minted Akira Class Starship

Traits: Federation Vessel

Systems: Comms 9, Computers 9, Engines 10, Sensors 9, Structure 11, Weapons 11
Departments: Command 2, Conn 2, Security 4, Engineering 2, Science 2, Medicine 2

Scale: 5

Weaponry:
Phaser Arrays, Photon Torpedoes, Quantum Torpedoes, Tractor Beam (Strength 4)

Talents:
Ablative Armor, Extensive Shuttle Bays, Rapid-Fire Torpedo Launcher, Improved Warp Drive, Rugged Design

Resistance: 5
Shields: 15
Power: 10
Crew Support: 5

Shipboard Weaponry

Shipboard weapons come in 2 broad categories: Energy Weapons, and Torpedoes.

Energy Weapons

Energy Weapons project bolts or beams of focused energy or energized particles at a target. These weapons are fairly commonplace, with most cultures having some form or other of these as a typical armament of Spacecraft.

Making an attack with an energy weapon has a Difficulty of 2, and a Power Requirement of 1. An attacker may spend up to 2 additional Power to bolster an energy weapon’s attack, adding +1 [CD] to the damage of the attack for each Power spent.

The base damage rating of energy weapons is the Ship’s Scale plus Security.

Types

Each type of energy weapon differs by granting a single damage effect or quality to the weapon. Federation Starships always use phasers, but NPC ships can be armed with other kinds.

• Phasers grant the Versatile 2 quality
• Disruptors have the Vicious 1 quality
• Phased Polaron Beam have the Piercing 2 Quality

Delivery Method

The delivery method of an energy weapon describes how the emitters are arranged, and how the weapon is set-up to fire. Each delivery method defines the Range category and provides some additional benefit.

• Cannons have a Range category of Close, and increase the weapon’s damage by +2[CD]
• Banks have a Range category of Medium and increase the weapon’s damage by +1[CD]
• Arrays have a Range category of Medium and the attacking character may choose to grant Area or Spread effects to the attack.

Torpedoes

Self-propelled projectiles containing large volatile, energetic or explosive payloads, torpedoes are less precise but are extremely potent when used correctly. Making an attack with a Torpedo has a Difficulty of 3, but do not have a Power requirement.

Torpedoes are also potent enough to escalate conflicts, declaring an attack with a torpedo adds +1 to Threat.

Torpedoes may be fired in a salvo, which adds +3 to Threat but increases the attack’s damage by +1[CD] and grants the Spread effect to the attack.

Torpedoes have a base damage rating and adds [CD] equal to the the ship’s Security. All Torpedoes have a Range of Long.

• Photon torpedoes have a base damage of 3[CD] with the High Yield Quality
• Quantum torpedoes have a base damage of 4[CD] Vicious 1, with the Calibration and High Yield Qualities.
• Plasma have a base damage of 3[CD] Persistent, with the Calibration Quality

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Alien Vessels

This section has the detailed statistics and special rules for the various Alien Vessels that your Starship are likely to run into. It’s an extensive collection of ships, and I’m glad they took the time to describe each vessel in terms of how it’s used by the particular race.

The special rules are a great way to showcase that these aren’t just another collection of stats. Already, I can sense the panic in my player characters at the thought of running into a Borg Cube.

For those curious, the ships featured in this section are:

 

Klingon Empire
– D7 Battle Cruiser
– K’vort Class Bird-of-Prey
– D’rel Class Bird-of-Prey
– Vor’cha Attack Cruiser

Romulan Star Empire
– Bird-of-Prey
– D’deridex Class Warbird

Cardassian Union
– Galor Class Cruiser

Dominion
– Jem’hadar Attack Ship
– Jem’hadar Battle Cruiser

Borg Collective
– Borg Sphere
– Borg Cube

Ferengi Alliance
– D’kora Class Marauder

The Maquis
– Maquis Raider
– Maquis Fighter

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Okay, this chapter was a lot to chew through. Ship creation is easier than it looks, and I’m grateful for it. I’ve not had a chance to test out ship-to-ship combat, but it certainly looks exciting, and particularly deadly to poor members of the crew who might get caught in all the fires and explosions.

That said, you can’t fault Star Trek Adventures for being as thorough as possible with the Starship rules. It’s such an integral part of the Star Trek experience that it would have been harshly criticized if it didn’t dedicate so much effort into it.

Finally, our next post will be a look at the GMing chapter, with a peek at the NPCs, and the Sample adventure before we wrap up with a summary review of Star Trek Adventures!