Yes. Want to write one? Give it a shot. The Federation has at least a hundred races.

By Robbie Chastain (Leandar) on Monday, February 02, 2004 - 10:41 pm: Edit

Hi. Newbie here. I created a race for roleplaying purposes. Should I post it here or is there somewhere else I can do that and let you see what you might like.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, February 03, 2004 - 09:48 am: Edit

Do a one-page summary and Email it to me at design@starfleetgames.com and I'll advise you if we're interested.

By Robbie Chastain (Leandar) on Tuesday, February 03, 2004 - 04:43 pm: Edit

Ok, thanks. I'll do that.

By Donovan A Willett (Ravenhull) on Tuesday, February 10, 2004 - 06:37 pm: Edit

A few questions to help those of us considering work on this.

Are the Federation Police forces (i.e. the operators of the Police Cutter and stablemates) equivalent to our Coast Guard?

Are the Federation Marshals a branch within the above, or their department within the Fed DoJ? Is there a detachment of Marshals on any given POL?

How much were the Police forces 'Navalised' during the General for Fleet support?

By Robert Herneson (Rherneson) on Tuesday, February 17, 2004 - 01:46 am: Edit

Donovan, do some keyword searches, especially in the PD areas. SVC has addressed most of those points directly or indirectly.
I could rattle of answers, but frankly, they would be highly suspect and second, if you find SVC's posts, you will most likely get even more additional information.

Good luck!

RH

By Gary Plana (Garyplana) on Tuesday, February 17, 2004 - 12:31 pm: Edit

I would assume that there is at least one person with Marshal credentials aboard any Police ship (Fed or otherwise) otherwise they could not perform much of their function.

The Captain might hold Marshal credentials as SOP.

By F. Douglas Wall (Knarf) on Friday, February 20, 2004 - 02:02 am: Edit

There should probably be a number of Marshals aboard a Police ship. Would support personnel be Marshals, civilains, or some sort of auxiliary?

By Gary Plana (Garyplana) on Friday, February 20, 2004 - 02:34 am: Edit

Good question.

I would lean towards support personnel being mostly Star Fleet. Some Marshals would be in roles Star Fleet did not have, such as CSI-type forensics personnel. But I do not have a strong opinion either way.

By William F. Hostman (Aramis) on Friday, May 21, 2004 - 12:07 am: Edit

OK Gary...
Re POL's

In previous PD games, for lack of anything better, I assumed POL's were part of a separated command, much like the modern boomers... part of the same service, but really almost a separate military branch in operations... much like modern submariners... in part this was due to the small crews...

How do they tie in to Starfleet Operations? Are they part of the numbered fleets? Part of a separate fleet system still fully interasignable? Detached separate service during peachtime but navalized during war (Like the USCG during WWII)? Non- or limited-interassignable sub-section of SF, similar to how Subs are now?

Would POL SF personell be able to go POL now, CA on Explore next tour, and elsewhere, or would they remain POL based?

Would any of the Boarding Parties be Fed Marshal Search & Seizure teams? (No real difference in SFB terms, but massive differences for Roleplaying purposes... a much wider skill set.)

By Christopher E. Fant (Cfant) on Friday, May 21, 2004 - 01:09 am: Edit

POLs are not fleet, though SVC mentioned that Fleet personel might serve a tour ( a few at a time) out of the academy to gain real combat experience.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, May 21, 2004 - 11:13 am: Edit

Police ships belong to the police, not to star fleet. They don't tie into fleet operations at all.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Friday, May 21, 2004 - 01:43 pm: Edit

Steve-

Do the police ships operate out of the same network of Starbases and BATS that star Fleet operates out of? (meaning they draw from the same supply grid, logistics and communications infrastructure that star fleet uses) or is there a kind of "police precinct" or specialized police base?

Comparing to Real World military verses comunity or state police forces, the funding, supply and replacement equipment for police is entirely separate from those facilities supporting the US Army or Navy.

Just want to clarify what you mean when you say "They don't tie into fleet operations at all."

Thanks!

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, May 21, 2004 - 02:44 pm: Edit

The police operate out of the SBs and BATS, but also out of numerous other facilities. Remember that there is literally a pol for every hex, except in the core, where there are two or several.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Friday, May 21, 2004 - 05:28 pm: Edit

This makes the Federation Police Forces potentially huge in total strength...added to the 250+POL's (one to every hex) and the 49 FLG's (one to each province, including the off map ones) now we have the potential of the "numerous other facilities."

This just might move the police forces past the Star Fleet Marines in total crew units and ships on the O.O.B. tables.

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Friday, May 21, 2004 - 05:56 pm: Edit

Jeff, indeed the total Police force is large but it is spred out and MUST remain spread out to counter the forces against the Federation that they were designed to stop.

If you ever were to gather them together the only hex you could maintain peace in would be the one you gathered all the police in (and it would indeed be the most lawful hex ever).

Think of it this way. The LAPD has several thousand officers in it. If you took all those and sent them to Iraq what would happen in LA? (clue: I'd be running like hell to get out.)

By Christopher E. Fant (Cfant) on Friday, May 21, 2004 - 06:34 pm: Edit

The Police are not a military force. THat is not what they are designed to do.

It is like looking at the total number of police in the entire country and saying, "Wow, we have an army".

By Gary Plana (Garyplana) on Friday, May 21, 2004 - 10:24 pm: Edit

The other races have dozens of police ships, too. All of them spread out over the entire empire, just like the Federation.

As to gathering all of them into one hex, I have just four words to say: "Command and Control limits."

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Friday, May 21, 2004 - 11:35 pm: Edit

Hey, now wait a minute there fellas!

Not arguing that they POL's would be gathered anywhere in horrifying numbers...but police departments do have the ability to mobilize forces to address specific threats...such as riots, mass public demonstrations, search and rescue missions, or othe events to deal with threats to public safety.

There are already scenarios in SFB's that have POL's cooperating to address a specific pirate threat, and a number of scenarios where POL's are part of the order of battle during invasions by various border races (Klingons and Romulans).

All I am suggesting is that each province (or even serveral prvinces cooperating in a region) might have contigency planning inplace to address a variety of threats....Just like LAPD would mobilize all off duty police officers in the event of a riot, or if a massive wave of illegal imigrants came ashore or overland from mexico, or as quarantine guards in a public health emergency that affected one part of the county.

In terms of SFB's, what if a large number of monsters migrated through the area, single POL's would be overwhelmed but groups of 3 or more (with FLG's) could be effective against sun snakes, doomsday devices (ie the creature that ate sheboyganIII) or other similar kinds of monsters (what about a Lemming type behaivoir by a couple of thousand space dragons!?!)

While I conceed that against a Klingon type invasion of the Federation would overwhelm and destroy large numbers of POL's before they could coordinate an effective defense, other threats might find a serious challange in POL "SWAT TEAMS"...

Just a thought.

By Christopher E. Fant (Cfant) on Saturday, May 22, 2004 - 01:09 am: Edit

Any specific mission that would require a "fleet" would be given to the actual Fleet. Like, taking out an Orion base located in one area, that would be given to the FLeet, not all of the POLs in a province and the FLG, they just couldn't handle it.

There might be a handful of scenarios that have more than 1 police ship in them, and I think most of those include a large planetary station....

SH63.0 ...Strike at Rigel IV.---Major core planet being raided by Romulans, 2 POL+ are part of the defense force.

SH58.0 ...Starhunt. 2 POL. 1 arrives 10 turns after the game start, they are trying to rescue a MRS protoype from a lone LR and FL.

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Saturday, May 22, 2004 - 02:48 am: Edit

What I was going to say has already effectively been said by CFant.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Saturday, May 22, 2004 - 11:24 am: Edit

Cfant and Loren:

Sometimes the perfect ship or fleet is not available when you need it.

The Fed POL's and FLG's would be the "first responders" in many times...and possibly destroyed without completing the mission.

I am sure that in both scenarios qouted by cfant that had better ships been available, the fed commander would prefer FFG's instead of the POL's...but the point is in an emergency, one uses the tools available instead of crying about what one doesnt have.

By Gary Plana (Garyplana) on Saturday, May 22, 2004 - 02:41 pm: Edit

More to the point ... when there is trouble, who is going to get there first?

DEFINITELY a thankless job.

By Christopher E. Fant (Cfant) on Saturday, May 22, 2004 - 02:50 pm: Edit

Jeff, yes, POLs will be used to respond to problems that are put there, that is their job....but you are not going to see all 5 POLs and the FLG that operate in a province all at the same place at the same time. If you did, then the convoys and planets in the other 4 zones of a province will be in dire shape when the pirates get through with them.

You would not see the POLs + FLG assembled for a base assult, as that would mean fleet units protecting the convoys and responding to pirate sighting. What would be FAR more likely is that the FLeet units escorting convoys would be called away for the base mission and the 1 POL would take their place through that province.

Hell, the Klingon invasion happend so rapidly that the Fleet units were ambushed piecemeal. The POLs never had any idea what hit them as the Klingons fired a salvo and kept going.

By Christopher E. Fant (Cfant) on Saturday, May 22, 2004 - 02:56 pm: Edit

Also, I would expect to see a POL or 2 as part of the defense of a major planetary location, as they are assigned to that area and a planetary raid is going to be higher priority than getting a convoy out of dodge with an escort. But you would never see all of a sectors police force in one location.

Would be like every cop in Dallas responding to a hostage situation in downtown.