Lore and Legends of the Dezzyverse

Tag: Star Trek Adventures

  • To Boldly Go

    To Boldly Go

    Building Chariots of the Gods

    The ships of Starfleet are heroes of the story almost as much as the people who crew them. With voice-interactive computers, holodecks, and by the 25th century, holographic crew, a Starfleet vessel (and presumedly, an Imperial Klingon Naval vessel, a Cardassian Union Vessel, an a Stellar Imperial Romulan Vessel) can have distinct personalities. In a Traveller game, most Starfleet vessels are firmly Capital Ship class, that is, over 10,000 dTons. Though there are plenty of smaller Adventure Class ships warping through subspace. The ubiquitous Runabouts stationed at DS9 are great examples of a Starfleet ship that masses about 100 or so dTons. For purposes of designing the navies in the Star Trek Universe, we’ll be leaning heavily on High Guard, and dipping into the Traveller Companion.

    Warp Speed!

    The Jump Distances in Traveller figure into Lightspeed (C) by a simple formula, Jump Value X 3.62 (light years) X 52 (weeks). For that week that a Traveller vesel is in jumpspace, they emerge at their destination at an effective speed of C (though the physics of Jump space vessels don’t actually travel faster than C).

    Once the speed in terms of C is known, Warp Speeds can be figured in different scales based on the era of Star Trek. In TOS and the TOS movies, the formula is the cube root of C. with no upper limit. In the TNG and later eras (though we haven’t heard much about the 32nd century’s scale.. more on that later), the formula is Warp Speed = Warp Factor 10/3 * C.

    When compared to Traveller, the various transluminal speeds look like this

    • Speed measured in C/ Jump Drive / TOS (Cochraine Scale) Warp / TNG (Okuda Scale) Warp
    • 189 C / Jump 1 / 5.74 / 4.82
    • 357 C/ Jump 2 / 7.23 / 5.83
    • 567 C / Jump 3 / 8.28 / 6.7
    • 755 C / Jump 4 / 9.11 / 7.3
    • 945 C / Jump 5 / 9.81 / 7.81
    • 1,135 C / Jump 6 / 10.43 / 8.25

    At one point, Voyager is reported at traveling at Warp 9.97 (Okuda Scale). This is roughly equal to Jump 25. Jump 8 allows crossing a subsector in a single jump. Which is Warp 11.18 (Cochraine) or Warp 8.99 (Okuda Scale).

    Whichever Warp Scale a Star Trek Campaign uses is only truly important in so far as the GM remains consistent. After all, in the series’ and the movies, the ships went as fast as they needed to go for the plot. Values were written to contrast the impression of speed. “Warp Factor 5” was relatively middle of the road. “Warp Factor 8” would often be accompanied by the sound effect of an engine hum to make it seem like the ship is pushing it’s limits. Since the Cochraine and Okuda scales differ, especially at the high end of the scale.

    Warp Drives and Dilithium

    The Warp 5 project started in the 22nd Century as chronicled in the Star Trek :Enterprise Series, at this time, the United Federation of Planets was not yet inaugurated, but Starfleet was in existance and acted as the Navy for a United Earth.

    By the 23rd Century, Warp Drives could routinely reach Warp 8 (on the Cochraine scale). And by the 24th Century, after adopting the Okuda Scale, Warp Drives could reach Warp 9.9 and higher.

    Warp Drives in Star Trek feature several fundamental differences from the Jump Drive in Traveller. Warp Drive does not leave the Spacetime it is in fully, instead it creates a Warp Bubble and travels through that subspace region to travel at superluminal speeds. Fuel for Star Trek vessels is not the massive holds of Hydrogen Feul that Traveller vessels use. Star Trek uses a much smaller mass of Antimatter (or in the case of the Romulan Imperial Star Navy, an artificial singularity). While the fuel for an Antimatter Power Plant does not demand as much fuel space as Hydrogen, but Star Trek ships are very hungry for power.

    Dilithium Crystal is a regulator of the matter/antimatter reaction. The crystals degrade through use and need to be refreshed often, so most vessels carry a supply of crystals. When that supply runs low, the vessel resupplies at a Starbase, or trades for fresh crystals at a nearby station or planet.

    For Star Trek Vessels, fuel capacity is measured in time rather than distance. The Warp Core (Power Plant) is the ship’s component that consumes both Antimatter and Dilithium Crystal. The Power Points the Warp Core generates, are what are spent in the Warp Drive, the Impulse Drive, shields, weapons, computers, life support, transporters, even the replicators. When designing a starship, most of the space that would be used for Fuel will likely be taken up by an expanded Power Plant.

    The Warp Drive functions the same as explained in High Guard pp. 80-81. It uses no feul, but a starship needs to generate power (with a starship the size of the TOS Constitution Class (60 dKTons) that runs into a little more than 10,000 power points) to use the Warp Drive.

    Shields Up! Arm Phasers! Load Photon Torpedoes!

    Most Star Trek vessels use Deflector Shields or Screens as their primary defense against weaponry. Using High Guard, Deflector Shields count as Improved Energy Shields in the 23rd Advanced Energy Shields (page 84). Most vessels designed for hazardous duty have multiple shields. Usually Six (Fore, Aft, Starboard, Port, Dorsal and Ventral which can overlap to cover each other.

    Phaser Banks function close to the rules found for Tachyon Cannon Bays in High Guard pp 82-83. In general Phaser Banks are higher powered and more versatile than Disruptors. In the 23rd Century, Phaser weapons are only used by the Federation and their allies. The rest of the Galaxy was using Disruptors. By the 24th Century, most every navy in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants had adopted Phaser technology for their starships.

    Disruptors are very common in the 23rd and 24th Centuries. Relatively simple to design and maintain compared to Phasers, Disruptors follow the rules found for Plasma-pulse Cannon Bays in High-Guard pp 82-83. Even in the 24th Century, when the navies of the Major Empires in the Alpha and Beta Quadrant have adopted Phaser weaponry as their primary weapons systems, Disruptors remain common for system and colonial defense fleets, merchants operating in hazardous regions, and of course, pirate syndicates.

    Photon Torpedoes, and the late 24th century development of Quantum Torpedoes were pioneered by the Federation. By the late 23rd Century, Photon Torpedoes had been engineered and adopted by the Klingon Empire.

    • Photon Torpedo
    • Tech Level: 23rd Century
    • Thrust: 15
    • Damage: 4DD
    • Power: 50
    • Traits: Smart, AP 15
    • Quantum Torpedo
    • Tech Level: 24th Century
    • Thrust: 15
    • Damage 8DD
    • Power: 75
    • Traits: Smart, AP15, Burst 10

    Photon Torpedoes use the rules for Antimatter Torpedoes in High Guard pp 39-41. By the 24th Century, the mass of a Photon Torpedo is reduced to 20% of it’s older design. That is, a 24th Century torpedo masses 15 torpedoes per ton. In the 24th Century, the photon torpedo launcher are capable of launching volleys of 10 torpedoes (use the trait AF10). Quantum Torpedoes have a greater yield and to reflect this, double the damage characteristic (12D). 23rd Century vessels are restricted to Barbettes and Small Torpedo Bays. 24th Century Vessels can mount Medium Torpedo Bays. In either era, only installations the size of Starbases or Deep Space Stations can mount Large Torpedo Bays. In the 24th Century, Torpedo Barbettes and Torpedo Bays are designed to be loaded with either Photon or Quantum Torpedoes.

    Plasma Torpedoes are a weapon infamously developed by the Romulan Star Empire. These weapons were first developed in the 23rd Century and had enormous destructive power at close ranges, but their damage fell off at longer ranges, eventually dissipating entirely.

    • Plasma Torpedo
    • Tech Level: 23rd Century
    • Thrust: 10
    • Damage: 6DD Adjacent/ 5DD Close/ 4DD Short/ 3DD Medium/ 2DD Long/ 1DD Very Long/ No Damage at Distant Range
    • Power: 90
    • Traits: Smart, Enveloping

    Enveloping Trait: The enveloping trait applies damage to every active shield upon detonation.

    By the 24th century some ships designed explicetly for battle began to carry spinal mount weapons. The Romulan Star Empire had refined their plasma torpedo into a powerful beam weapon that could deliver punishing blasts without the limitations of launching a boiling ball of plasma.

    • Plasma Beam Spinal Mount
    • Tech Level: 24th century
    • Range: Very Long
    • Damage: +14D
    • Power: +6000
    • Traits: AP 15, Auto 10

    Cloaks and Holodecks

    A technology developed in the mid-23rd century by the Romulan Star Empire, the Cloaking Device is just as infamous as the Plasma Torpedo. In fact, the two were initially designed to work in tandem with one another. Coming out of cloak to launch a torpedo at close range and returning to cloak to avoid return fire and position for the next attack.

    By the end of the 23rd Century, an exchange of Naval technology between the Romulan Star Empire and the Klingon Empire gave cloking technology to the Imperial Klingon Navy, and a fleet of mothballed D-7 Battlecruisers to the Romulan Star Navy. The Klingon cloaking device is in general less effective and less efficient than the Romulan. By the Khitomer Conferences, Starfleet had become very good at uncovering the Klingon cloak. While the Romulans continued to develop and refine their cloaked navy into the following centuries, presumably all the way to Unification.

    • Romulan Star Navy Cloak
    • Tech Level: 23rd Century
    • Stealth Effect: -15 to Sensor checks
    • Power: 50 per 1,000 dtons
    • Imperial Klingon Navy Cloak
    • Tech Level: 23rd Century
    • Stealth Effect: -10 to Sensor checks
    • Power: 100 per 1,000 dtons
    • Advanced Romulan Star Navy Cloak
    • Tech Level: 24th Century
    • Stealth Effect -25 to Sensor checks
    • Power: 75 per 1,000 dtons

    Replicators in the 23rd century produce nutritional food for every species on board ship. The fare focuses on compatibility, and primarily serves the needs of the species that comprise the polity the ship serves, and have a secondary capacity to serve guests and passengers. The fare is passable and is served in a variety of shapes and colors (looking very much like a ’60s version of “future food”)

    In the 24th century, replicators are advanced enough to accommodate the cuisine and tastes and cultural preferences of the person entering the order. The 24th century replicator also incorporates transporter technology. The food is generated and prepared within the recycling and reclamation matrix at the molecular level, heated (or cooled) to the desired temperature (again through molecular excitement within the reclamation matrix) and immediately transported to a micro transporter pad at the user interface. The ship’s computer maintains an extensive database of recipies as well as the personal modifications from more creative crewmembers.

    There are, of course limitations, Klingons, Kzinti and Gorn often complain that replicators do not produce live food convincingly, and their navies often maintain stasis holds with live prey to satisfy their instincts.

    By the 24th century, positronic computers have allowed for convincing personal interactions, and a combination of holographic emitters, localized electromagnetic force and specialized replicator use have resulted in the development of the Holodeck. Spartan navies like the Imperial Klingon Navy, Romulan Star Navy, (Cardassian) Union Navy and others consider Holodecks at best a frivolity and at worst a distraction. They do make use of the technology for shipboard training, and interrogation, but seldom for recreation.

    Starfleet, on the other hand has a Holodeck on nearly every vessel by the end of the 24th century. Some ships, like the Galaxy class have several. Smaller ships may be restricted to a tiny conference room, but Holodecks are a part of the crew morale and restoration policy. Ships that do not have a Holodeck are frequently directed to starbases or facilities with Holosuites to relieve the tension of long patrols away from suitable shore leave planets.

    A Campaign’s Ship is both Character and Home

    In a Star Trek campaign, the ship the characters serve aboard is as important and colorful as the characters themselves. When voyaging between stars, the ship is the characters’ self-contained world. When at the adventure destination, the ship becomes a base of operations, a source of supplies. While a given team of player-characters can be promoted (or demoted) to different ships, the nature of the Star Trek setting encourages each assignment to last long enough that the characters identify with the ship.

    Even in the 23rd century, a ship’s computer is capable of interacting on a personal level. Quirks can develop in a ship’s operating system through extended use as the ship’s database of personal logs, psychological and medical data and communications grow. In most cases these quirks are purged with routine overhauls and upgrades, however, some may persist, giving the character’s ship a distinct “voice” and persona to interact with. Most of the time, the ship is compelled to service of the crew. (Especially following the M5 incident, no one in Starfleet had a great desire to give command control over to the ships’ computer). But there are rare exceptions where the ship’s computer may become more insistent in it’s “service” requests phrased almost as orders, advice colored with agendas. It is up to the GM, and the players as to how much personality they would like their ship to have. With the addition of Holographic Crew, a ship’s computer could have one or more instances of itself among the crew, performing duties.

    Now, boldly go where no one has gone before!

  • The Triangle

    The Triangle

    Adapting the Classic FASA Trek Campaign Setting

    There is a sector of space in the old FASA Star Trek tabletop RPG game that rests where the United Federation of Planets, Klingon Empire and Romulan Star Empire meet. It is a collection of hundreds of inhabited systems independent of control from any of the three major powers in the Quadrant. It was published in 1985, right in the middle of the Original Series movie run, just after Star Trek III: The Search for Spock and before Star Trek IV: the Voyage Home. Two years before Star Trek: The Next Generation premiered in 1987.

    It Looks Small on the Map

    A colorized map of the Triangle, originally published by FASA in 1985, though I don’t know who to credit with the colorized graphics of this image1

    When compared to the full map of the Alpha/ Beta quadrants of the Star Trek Universe, the Triangle Secor is small. Only a handful of parsecs on each side. However, as discussed in the article O God, Thy Sea is so Great, even at this scale, the sector is vast, 243.25 ly3 (a very rough estimate for illustrative purposes based on the map scale.) It’s got 75 star systems that are listed, with the potential for hundreds more. Warp Drives at least capable of Warp Factor 5 (125 C in TOS Warp Scaling) or Warp 3.58 (in TNG Scaling) would be necessary to voyage between most systems in less than a year.

    Warp Factor in Star Trek was expressed in different scales depending on the era of the show or movie. In The Original Series, the Warp Factor was the cube root of it speed measured against the Speed of Light (C). In The Next Generation onwards, the function was speed = Warp Factor ^ 10/3 x C with Warp Factor 10 being a limit at infinity. It’s all made up numbers anyway, but having a solvable function allows for measurable consistency.2

    This would be relatively slow for the era that the Triangle Campaign was originally designed for, being the TOS movie era. However, in context, the TOS movies (and TOS television episodes) were about the Constitution Class cruiser Enterprise and her 5 year mission into deep space. Civilian Freighters, and Patrol Cruisers don’t need engines capable of speeds at 512 C for an area like the Triangle.

    A Near Frontier

    The Triangle remains unclaimed by any of the three powers which border it. Though the Federation, Klingon Empire and the Romulan Star Empire keep watchful presences in the sector, mainly watching one another, none of them have any authority nor jurisdiction out here. This has allowed the Triangle to develop into a sector of free worlds, pocket empires, pirate havens and homestead colonies.

    This environment is similar to the interstellar frontiers past the claimed systems of the major powers in the quadrant. Except, in the Triangle, the Federation, Klingon Empire and Romulan Star Empire have spread to encompass this sector, creating a pocket between them. Unlike the borders and neutral zones between any two of these empires, this area is tri-lateral, which has made establishing a negotiated border impossible. It would take all three powers to agree to the details of any such treaty which, especially in the era that the supplement was set, could not be possible.

    Instead, the worlds of the Triangle are in a perpetual state of Cold War between the surrounding empires. Each exerting influence against the others, brokering deals, using the sector as a place to infiltrate rivals while maintaining deniability. The settlements within the Triangle swing from being willing pawns in this conflict to brokers making a profit off of the espionage. Especially the multi-system alliances and pocket empires are very good at extracting technological and political resources from one major power or the others to expand their own influence among their neighbors.

    Unconstrained Capitalism, Cartel Piracy, Syndicated Privateers

    Of course the Triangle is a fertile environment for less “formal” powers in Alpha and Beta Quadrants to conduct themselves in the open without entanglements from the overwhelming influence of the major powers in the quadrants. The Ferengi Alliance and Orion Syndicates are less restrained in the sector, free to operate unconstrained and with the power of their polities to back them up. After all, any one Syndicate or the Ferengi Alliance is vastly more powerful in all respects than any pocket empire, or alliance within the Triangle.

    But the presence of the Syndicates and the Ferengi has a stabilizing influence. Freelance piracy or raiding has to operate quietly, or risk attracting attention from the Syndicates. The safer option for these small, independent operations is to operate under the sanction of one of the Syndicates or another.

    There is no Section 31

    The three major powers operating in the Triangle, while not projecting a Naval or Fleet presence into the sector, instead the intelligence agencies operate with very little oversight. Starfleet Intelligence, Imperial Klingon Intelligence, and the Romulan Tal Shiar all play a dangerous game of cloak-and-dagger, peddling influence among the local systems and simultaneously weakening their rival powers. Missions in the Triangle revolve around all the classic spy operations, theft, intelligence gathering, assassination, and turning agents.

    When this supplement was published in 1985, Section 31 had not been added to the Star Trek Universe, so it isn’t called out in the Triangle, or the Triangle Campaign. Truthfully, the Ferengi Alliance isn’t called out either, since they won’t make an appearance in Star Trek for another two years in The Next Generation. Just because the source material from the time is too early to have current elements of Star Trek, that is no reason why we can’t fill them in to our TTRPG campaigns.

    Section 31, is at it’s best when it “doesn’t exist” in the setting. When it was first introduced in Deep Space Nine, the organization was a secret institution within the Federation and Star Fleet Intelligence community. The Federation has the Diplomatic Corps, Starfleet has it’s Intelligence Branch, both of these organizations are acknowledged publicly and operate with oversight from their respective service branches. Ultimately, the Diplomatic Corps and Starfleet Intelligence have to answer to the Federation Government. Section 31, because it’s deniable, has no such oversight. Which in a setting that features Cold-War style espionage makes for a great antagonist.

    Since Section 31 is really well known among the audience of Star Trek today, the subject will most likely show up. This presumption can be really well used by a GM. “It’s a Section 31 plot”, is a red herring that never stops giving gifts. It’s almost never a Section 31 plot. Don’t accuse your players of metagaming, instead concede their characters (especially if they have Federation backgrounds in the Diplomatic Corps, or Starfleet Intelligence) have heard rumors since the academy that “Section 31” as some sort of bogeyman. If the players wish to play a campaign as Section 31 agents, that works as well, but working for an unaccountable secret agency isn’t morally grey, it’s morally void. As the old saying goes “be careful what you wish for”.

    The Ship is an NPC

    This is an element core to Star Trek. Even a city-sized capital ship like the Galaxy Class has a personality and identity that makes it more than just a collection of engines, hull and circuits. Even in The Original Series era, the ship’s computer has voice interface and a personality. Heck, it had to be voice-acted by Majel Barret Roddenberry for years.

    In the Triangle, the ship the characters crew is much smaller. To borrow an element from the classic West End Games’ Star Wars Role Playing Game, the ship can best be described as the Stock Light Freighter. The crew of the ship should be small enough that the characters can run it on their own, but can support a small number of specialists and support crew (which is a great source of replacement characters in the field). Unlike the standard Star Trek campaign, the Triangle doesn’t feature big Cruisers, even the multi-thousand ton heavy freighters are not appropriate for the player ship, though the big freighters can be the subject of an adventure.

    Technology is a Tell

    Phasers (both hand phasers and shipboard) are distinctive Federation weapons. There is a distinct difference between a Romulan and Klingon Cloaking Device (the Romulans have a much more refined Cloak), Bat’leth are Klingon martial weapons with a long cultural history of martial arts surrounding it. This all means that the equipment and the technology a crew of characters use can reveal who they’re working for if they aren’t careful.

    Disruptors are common enough weapons that their origin really reveals nothing about the person using it. It’s kind of like the “AK-47” of the Star Trek Universe. This applies to the hand Disruptor, and the shipboard weapon system. Tricorders, Communicators, Universal Translaters, Transporters are all common in the Star Trek setting and don’t raise much suspicion. After all, the Ferengi trade in everything!

    Hand Phasers, especially the Type I phaser (the little palm-sized device) is almost designed for espionage. Unlike Disruptors, the Phaser can be set to stun, wound, disintegrate, heat matter, and doesn’t look like a weapon. This was originally a feature used by Starfleet to arm their crews without presenting as carrying weapons. The “stun” setting allows to subdue adversaries without killing them. For Pirates and Espionage Agents, this is a valuable little device, concealable, innocuous and capable of stunning a target for later interrogation (or ransom), or disintegrating them and leaving no evidence (or witnesses) behind.

    The Prime Directive Doesn’t Apply

    The Triangle Sector has been settled for a century or more. The worlds have been visited by the Syndicate, Ferengi Merchants, the Klingon Empire and Romulan Star Empire, none of whom restrain themselves with a “Prime Directive”. Even undiscovered worlds (with a few exceptions) have had encounters with warp capable civilizations. Federation, or Starfleet sponsored crews are not expected to adhere to the Prime Directive like their counterparts out in the exploration branch of their service. Intelligence Operatives are expected to prioritize the mission over considerations like the Prime Directive. (And, of course “Section 31” doesn’t play by the rules anyway.)

    The various interstellar alliances and pocket empires in the sector also have no Prime Directive restraining their development. In fact the interstellar rivalries, supported by the major powers are constantly seeking any advantages they can get. This could lead to adventures where the characters are hired to smuggle technology to local governments.

    Latinum Pays the Bills

    Federation characters have to learn how to conduct trade with money in the Triangle. Since they come from a post-scarcity civilization and “have no use for money”, In the Triangle, however, only worlds that are directly supported by the Federation (like the Baker’s Dozen worlds) use the proxy currency of Federation Credits. Everybody else uses either local currency, or thanks to the Ferengi Alliance, gold pressed latinum.

    Federation characters who go through the Federation Diplomatic Core or Starfleet Intelligence should have as part of their skill list a skill that allows them to use money. In Traveller, which is the system the author is most familiar with, this is represented by the “Broker” or “Trader” skills. Star Trek Adventures and other game systems will have similar skills to cover this function. Understanding how to conduct commerce with cash-money isn’t difficult, the skill rolls that will come from these challenges will represent the character’s understanding of value. Buying a replacement coil-inducer for the plasma conduit (mmm.. that’s some good engineering babble there) from your friendly local Ferengi will require a skill check, and failure would result .at the minimum. in overpaying. Other consequences could apply, the merchant could sell the character a less-than-quality item by talking them out of the part they picked out in the first place.

    Without having a culture of money, it’s just hard to judge the value of a strip of latinum. After all, in the Federation all most people need to do is walk over to the replicator and say “Earl grey, decaf” and they get a nice cuppa. Walking into space-Starbucks and ordering a venti raktagino-mokka will require an exchange of money for goods. Considering raktagino is a Klingon drink, the person selling it to might react violently when the character tries to explain that they don’t have the latinum on them right now.

    The skill check can also take the place of keeping a ledger of how much money the character has. If the skill roll succeeds, the character has the money on hand and can buy the thing. If the skill roll fails, they can’t affoard it.

    The purpose here is to make the setting feel more Star Trek. If using money is casual, then it doesn’t feel like the characters come from a society that doesn’t use money. It also allows for those characters who do know how to sling some latinum (like Beckett Mariner from Lower Decks) to have moments of shining in the spotlight. Other factions could face similar challenges. Klingons from the Empire might find trading in latinum to be a slight on their honor. Romulans might only trade in Imperial currency because holding money that isn’t authorized by the Empire could be seen as treasonous.

    Now, slip out of that maroon uniform and into some civilian clothes, belt on a holster and your disruptor and take your Free Trader into the Triangle.