STA:Damocles – Creating the USS Damocles

Fingers crossed, the STA:Damocles campaign starts on Saturday. So today I felt like it would be appropriate to go through te basics of the design process i used to create what many consider to be the main character, the USS Damocles herself.

At first glance, creating a ship in STA looks complicated, but is quite easy.

1. Decide on a time frame for the game – After all you would not have a ship like the Enterprise D, a Galaxy class in the TOS (The Orginal Series) era
2. Choose a base space frame – This cover the basic superstructure, core systems, operational infrastructure and all other elements that are common to every vessel of the same class.
3. Mission Profile – Is the ship going to be an explorer, a technical test bed or combat variation of the space...

STA: Damocles – Ship Profile – USS Damocles NX-80271

Commissioned March 2381, Utopia Planitia Shipyards

“…hanging by the slenderest of threads, capable of being cut at any moment by accident, or miscalculation, or by madness…”

Today, I’ll be going over the basic of the ship profile, or character sheet, for the USS Damocles, the main ship in my upcoming Star Trek Adventures RPG game.  Before I go into the details , a few things I have to let you know about the design and my choices:

• No official rules exist as yet for the Prometheus class ship the Damocles is based on
• Strictly speaking, the Damocles is an upgrade to the aforementioned Prometheus class –  To the point, it’s a new class on its own. If the Prometheus was a tactical ship, the Damocles could be classed as an Engineering/Science vessel
• I had to fudge the ship creation rules – Following the rules in the book is fine for 99% of the ships. But in order to fit all the features, I wanted I I let that slide. My reasoning behind this is that the game will be starting in the year 2381, so technology has advanced a little bit. Plus the ship is classed as a prototype, so “interesting things” can happen as she has her shakedown cruise and so-on
• Two new features have been added that don’t exist in the books – The Emergency Holographic Crew and the MVM – Both are experimental improvements over existing technology
• In the Voyager episode “Message in a Bottle” it was shown that the ship could be competently used by 4 people – This is reflected in the ship having more automation than a standard vessel and vastly less crew – At full capacity, the Damocles would have less than 100, with a typical operating capacity of around 60 to 70. Again, this automation, like the experimental features, may play a part in future adventures.
• The stats and information presented below are a WIP and taken from my notes, as much as I can reveal right now. They are subject to change, but for the most part, are complete, or at least useable in game

Enough of me waffling on, time to tell you about the ship herself.

This weeks list covers 20 starship types that have tweaked or expanded to give some variations to the standard fighter, cruiser etc.

Disagree with this list? Think something else should have gone on it? Post in the comments section or on the social media platform you saw this article.

A Chunk of SciFi – 2.09 – Singularity Rider

“We still don’t understand why this particular one works and the others don’t. If we can crack that mystery, it’ could be one of the biggest breakthroughs in the history of the universe”
– Excerpt from the report regarding the Singularity Rider.

Black Holes – a region of space having a gravitational field so intense that no matter or radiation can escape. Despite the dangers, a few cultures hold competitions to see how close to a black hole or another singularity they can get, without being dragged across the event horizon. One such ship named the Singularity Rider by its makers was made by what amounts to a group of students from various cultures and races, including Terrans, working at a university.

Their challenge was simple...

Got a busy day today with comic con, so here’s a nice simple list of 20 names that could be used for ships, either of the nautical variety or the star-going kind.

Disagree with this list? Think something else should have gone on it? Post in the comments section or on the social media platform you saw this article.