The basic concept of this product follows the general outline of the Klingon or Romulan book.

1. fiction story: probably a new story that showcases what the Federation is all about. Same in all books. I'll consider drafts from writers but no promises until I see just the story I want.

2. history, politics, justice system: This is for the Federation as a whole. Probably the same in all books. I may write much of this.

3. planetary survey: all of the Fed member races in GPD would get a 2-4 page write up covering biology, history, culture, etc. Current plan is to assign staffers and other proven writers to write each thing. We would also consider two or three entirely new associte member races. The race templates would of course change from game system to game system.

4. military forces: star fleet, marines, national guard, medals, rank insignia, academies, weapons. The templates would be very different from game system to game system. I will probably write most of this.

5. starships: This would vary from book to book. The GURPS book won't have much (as the space combat rules don't exist) but the D6 book would have a full write up. I don't know what space combat rules exist for D20. Obviously, I'll write the background and let each system lord do his own rules.

6. frigate deck plans: from GMPA. Probably identical across each book. Already done.

7. Visions of Glory: short stories, adventure seeds, and the like. See the Klingon and Romulan books. Much of this would be outside writing, some of it from beyond the staff.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, March 18, 2005 - 06:02 pm: Edit

Racial templates and planetary surveys.

1. If you CREATED a race, you get first crack. Sickels has the Mantorese and Plana has the Fralli. Maybe Mark wants to do one of those ones he and time added. I don't remember anybody else who created a race but if you did, tell me. If anybody wants to create a new race, do it in the designated format and send it to me. I may or may not accept it for print.

2. Each staffer can pick ONE race they want to write up and ask me for it. Sickels has the Vulcans and Hugh Bishop (a writer, not a staffer) has the Andorians. I'll assign each race to one staffer who asked for it.

3. See GK or GRoms for the format for a planetary survey. I'm not going to list it here. If you don't have GK or GR then you don't have any business trying to do a planetary survey.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, March 18, 2005 - 06:34 pm: Edit

Assignments:

Plana: Cygnans, Fralli

Sickels: Matorese, Vulcans, Orions.

Bishop: Andorian

Francois: Deian

Costello: Myneini

West: Rigelians

Unassigned: Humans, Alpha-Centaurans, Tellarites, Brecon, Prellarian, Arcturian, new races to be discovered

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, March 19, 2005 - 03:10 pm: Edit

The attached file is the racial profile of the CROMARG race/planet from the planetary survey section of GK4e. It can serve as an example of what to include in a racial profile of a Federation member race.

cromarg.pdf cromarg.pdf (240 k)

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, March 19, 2005 - 03:13 pm: Edit

A couple of things.....

1. We have artists who do the planet picture and people picture so don't sweat it.

2. The RT has to match the one in GPD4e although in some cases (such as the Orions who have both pirate and non-pirate templates) the one in GPD4e might well be just one of several.

3. Planet data can be done by experts if you don't want to, but be warned that the brief line of planet data in GPD4e will define many of the parameters of your planet. If you don't know how to do it, leave it out and we'll get somebody to do it.

4. Use GPD4e not GPD3e as the basis of what you do.

By Mike West (Mjwest) on Saturday, March 19, 2005 - 10:01 pm: Edit

Steve,

May I do the Rigelians?

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, March 20, 2005 - 11:35 am: Edit

Mike: sorry but they were assigned. Check 3 messages up to see who got them.

By Ken Humpherys (Pmthecat) on Monday, March 21, 2005 - 02:21 pm: Edit

Umm if the West in the above message is Mike West then I think he can....

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, April 01, 2005 - 06:43 pm: Edit

"So I was wondering just how much authority a starship commander has over civilians during peacetime."

As a practical matter, not much, or none at all, no more than a US military officer. However, civilians on military installations or ships come under his authority, and those who rely
on star fleet for favors have to "voluntarily" cooperate.

"I know part of Star Fleet's normal mission is patrol of the civilian shipping lanes,"

the 'health and welfare inspection' excuse is invaluable.

"search and rescue, etc, "

In an emergency, a warship can order civilian ships to help in a rescue.

"and that the Federation Police are responsible for tariff and customs enforcements, etc,"

Sometimes star fleet helps out in enforcing these things. In such cases, Star fleet is automatically deputized as a law enforcement agency.

"but how much overlap is there?"

As above. Star fleet assumes police powers under certain cases.

"Can a Captain Kurck of the USS Interprize arrest a civilian for breaking various laws, "

On a civilized planet with its own police, he could make a citizens arrest, or just call the cops. On a military post he could make an arrest. On a colony planet, he and anybody so
designated on his ship have police powers.

"or are there Police personnel on board Star Fleet ships for that purpose?"

Not normally, although one could imagine cases in which police personnel were assigned to a warship for specific cases, much like a few coasties are assigned to navy warships doing
drug interdiction in the Carribbean.

By Chris Bonaiuto (Epyon) on Friday, April 01, 2005 - 11:58 pm: Edit

SVC, building on the above, let's say that a sector has a large increase in Orion Pirate activity, so much so that the Police can no longer contain it, and Star Fleet is called upon to send units in to assist. Would operational command of the anti-piracy operations be taken over by SF, or would it remain with the Police? And if SF takes over command, would the Police units then fall under SF command, or would they be retained under Police command?

By Gary Plana (Garyplana) on Saturday, April 02, 2005 - 02:16 am: Edit

The first question is: would Star Fleet be called in at all? I would think that the police have a reserve police force equivalent to a SWAT team.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, April 02, 2005 - 09:36 am: Edit

The police do have a reserve force, at several levels, but SFB says that fleet ships are the ultimate backups in any empire. It just depends. A major operation by several ships would be run by star fleet. A special operation by one ship would be run by the police. Most would be "cruiser on regular patrol hangs around the most pirate prone spots and coordinates their movement with the police" with nobody under anybody else's command.

By Andy Palmer (Andypalmer) on Saturday, April 02, 2005 - 10:42 am: Edit

In modern day, few "criminals" have more firepower than the police/coast guard can handle; in SFB, the "Orion Factor" changes that dynamic.

By Joseph R Carlson (Jrc) on Saturday, April 02, 2005 - 01:22 pm: Edit

Andy,

The CG firepower/law enforcement capability has taken three decades to get to where it is now. If you consider the late 70s modern as a starting point.

1978 there was a coal miner strike in KY; they blew up a coal dock on the Ohio River. Our unit set up a security zone. We were heavily armed with a piece of paper outlining that violators were subject to arrest.

late 80s early 90s: The active duty host command for our reserve units had 2 M60s but no ammunition. The District wouldn't allocate any. No problem there wasn't any way to mount it on anything and no one had any training on how to fire it.

LEDETs: Those Coasty units on navy ships: I had a chance to speak with a LTJG who had be an OIC of one. He related to me how they had to get permission from the District (a Rear Adm) to use force such as warning shots. He said they were deployed aboard a Navy frigate and were attempting to stop and board a suspected drug runner. The frigate had a SN manning a 50 cal. The LEDET was trying to get the other boat to heave to for a boarding. The JG said the drug boat did something dumb they veered toward the port side of the frigate. The SN opened up with the 50 and blew the stern out of the boat.

Yes the Coast Guard is different today, their aircraft, boats, and boarding teams are armed and the people have received good training.

By Chris Bonaiuto (Epyon) on Saturday, April 02, 2005 - 02:51 pm: Edit

I always assumed the Federation Police was like the USCG anyhow. Used to patrol and do customs and anti-smuggling work, have arrest powers, and can be absorbed into the main military during wartime. At least, that's how they seemed to be presented in SFb history, at least to me. Another question, do Fed Police personnel go through the same Boot Camp/Academy training as Star Fleet personnel, or do the Police have their own training facilities? And also, kinda off topic, but do the National Guard units go thru SF Boot Camp and SF Academy, liek present day NG and Reserve personnel go thru BMT?

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, April 02, 2005 - 03:02 pm: Edit

The police have their own training system and templates.

The national guards go through very similar training but have their own templates which eliminate things like xenobiology.

By Troy J. Latta (Saaur) on Saturday, April 02, 2005 - 07:29 pm: Edit

---

Quote:

eliminate things like xenobiology.

---

By Chris Bonaiuto (Epyon) on Monday, April 04, 2005 - 10:53 pm: Edit

Could a Federation fighter pilot become a line officer and eventually command a starship? Kinda like the USN carrier commanders are usually former pilots/NFOs.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, April 05, 2005 - 09:58 am: Edit

sure.

By Donovan A Willett (Ravenhull) on Tuesday, April 05, 2005 - 10:25 pm: Edit

Not sure if this should be asked here or elsewhere:

Is then a STar Fleet Intel officer posted to normal line ships, at least with cruisers and above? I'm not talking about a secret agent, but the guy who handles and relays intelligence reports for the captain.

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Wednesday, April 06, 2005 - 12:09 am: Edit

Wouldn't that be the XO?

Also, the Captain on Fed ships is the ranking intel guy on the ship and would deal with the GIA directly for matters beyond the XO level (which would be few and far between).

That's my guess... am I right?

By Alan Trevor (Thyrm) on Wednesday, April 06, 2005 - 12:18 am: Edit

Loren;

Well that's not the way the Air Force handled things, back when I was in. Intel reports would come through Intel channels, and the Wing Intel officer would be responsible for distributing the information to whoever needed to know, whether up or down the chain of command. I don't know whether things worked that way in the Navy, however, nor whether the Air Force still handles things that way.

By Alan Trevor (Thyrm) on Wednesday, April 06, 2005 - 12:46 am: Edit

Note, though, that the stuff the Wing Commander typically didn't know about would be the details. He would know the "big picture" overview.

I was a Squadron Electronic Warfare Officer at a USAF Fighter Wing when we had a particular Electronic Warfare capability that was "close hold". Although all aircrew at the base (including the Wing Commander, obviously) knew in general about this particular capability, only two people on the base knew anything about the details. One was the Wing Electronic Warfare Officer (an O-3) who knew about the specific tactics associated with the capability, and one was the shop chief of the EW shop (an E-7), who knew how to install the capability, if necessary.

The problem with this arrangement was that it left open the possibility of a recall while the Wing EWO was on leave or unavailable for some other reason (maybe a traffic accident while he was responding to the recall) and would leave the base with no one who understood the tactical ramifications of the particular capability. He attempted (with the permission of the Deputy Commander for Operations and the Wing Commander (this was before the reorganizations in the 90s)) to convince the appropriate people at TAC Headquarters that more people needed to be read in on the program, and eventually succeeded. The 3 squadron EWOs (of whom I was one) and several additional maintenance personnel were read in, minimizing the likelihood of the base being caught with no one who understood this particular program in detail.

Eventually TAC decided this particular aspect of the program in question didn't need to be restricted in the way it formerly had been. It was still Secret, but Collateral rather than a more restrictive category. At tha point all aircrew on base were briefed on the details of the particular capability.

At least at that time (mid-late 80s) it was fairly common in USAF for the higher ups to know the general outlines of something, but the precise details would be known only to some much lower ranking specialist, who would then brief everyone who had a need to know if ceratin specific situations occurred.

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Wednesday, April 06, 2005 - 02:35 am: Edit

Actually only SVC can answer that question. I logged my guess to see if I'm even close to the right one.

Someone who would know the answer about today's Navy would be Jeremy Grey. But I think he's busy shooting guns and missiles on a DDG about now.

By Alan Trevor (Thyrm) on Wednesday, April 06, 2005 - 07:34 am: Edit

Loren;

Yeah, I wasn't trying to answer the question with respect to the SFU, merely remarking that in real-world military organizations, things don't necessarily work that way. If I had to make a guess, I would suspect that Star Fleet would be closer to Navy practices and I really don't know how the USN handles transmittal and control of such materials.