Federation Commander

Steve Cole wrote:...If we set aside the highest decks for the moment, you're looking at a footprint for the complete ship in "Steve Cole big enough to be playable" scale that is going to be about 4.5 x 8 feet, enough for one pingpong table. Doing the D7 in Traveller scale would take four such tables, and few rooms in American homes can hold four pingpong tables.

But how much of that actually needs to in use at a given time?

Perhaps if you're playing a boarding party raid with marines splitting up and working their way through a ship, you may want the whole thing, but in most RPGs, the only time you need minis on a mapboard is if the characters are involved together in a single setting conflict where individual tactical movement matters: the appearance of an alien on the bridge, an ambush in a hallway; crew defending against boarders in a transporter room or shuttle bay, etc.

It would be impressive to have full-sized deck plans, but I suspect most GMs wll only use one relatively small section at a time.

Until you can accurately predict exactly which section that is, you're going to have to provide them all.

Try telling a player that he cannot go through that door because you didn't print out the plans for it.

Steve Cole wrote:Until you can accurately predict exactly which section that is, you're going to have to provide them all.

Try telling a player that he cannot go through that door because you didn't print out the plans for it.

Oh, I totally agree a GM needs to be ready, I'm just not sure he necessarily needs to worry about finding room for a four-ping-pong-table layout of them all at once.

Although that would make for a wicked cool convention game!

Nobody ever said you needed them all at once, but you need to have all of them, and the difference from the standpoint of the publisher is zero.

SVC wrote on the BBS:

SVC wrote: Pushed forward partly by the Traveller thing, we're going to embark on a push to do a lot of deck plans. I'm talking serious plans like those done to date for the Fed FFG, Klingon G1, Romulan SkyHawk, Free Trader, Federation Express, and whatever others we have done.

I'm going to be using the services of, well, just about anybody who can actually perform the work, paying something like $100 for a destroyer and $150 for a cruiser. (If you want a job, email me.)

But what keeps coming up is "What goes on the plans?" and I don't know. I mean, I can design a house (I've been in several and know that they have a garage, a kitchen, a laundry room, a dining room, a living room, a den, other entertaining spaces, bedrooms, bathrooms, and closets. Oh, and doors and an HVAC system.)

I've never been on a starship and have no idea what is on one beyond the SSD. I could, I guess, look at all of the plans we have, and make a list of features, and at least I'd know if a deck plan artist forgot the turbolift.

So what I want from you guys is to construct a protocol list. What's on a ship? How many square feet do we need? How much storage?

I hope you see my point and can contribute some information.

Contribute here: http://www.starfleetgames.com/discus/me ... 1339786441

Does every deck need to be depicted for larger ships? Some decks need to be available such the bridge, main engineering, hanger deck, and sickbay. However, some may not be. Crew quarters look the same. So do main transporter rooms. Overlays?

My home doesn't have the room for four ping pong tables.

Yes, every deck needs to be depicted, because you don't know where the characters will go.

Doesn't necessarily have to be done in huge detail or playable size.

While every deck should be available they're rarely, in my experience, ever needed at the same time. Most RPGs I've been in usually have 4 to 6 players, and one's table space is limited.

The number of maps needed is based on the number of PCs and their locations. Using the bridge crew setting, you will usually see at least one PC on the bridge depending who plays what PC. In my game, I have at least four PCs on the bridge especially during combat.

The less-used areas can be at a smaller scale for a GM to copy on to a battlemat.

I believe I said that, Doctor.