Federation Commander

In the old FASA game, the starship combat game had "control panels" that the PCs would use to fly their starship. Each bridge position had a seperate page of charts that they would use. For example, the Engineer would get the power from the engines and allocate them to movement, weapons, shields. The Helmsman would take that amount of power and use it to determine the speeds, whereas the Weapons Officer would use the power for weapons and decide which weapons to arm and fire. For PD you could add a Science Officer panel to do Tac Intel which was something that wasn't really supported in the FASA game.

Has someone done this for SFB/FC/PD?

Very few of our PD games involve any ship combat... and if they do, it's over pretty quick. It has to be, since our "team" is a group of research scientists exploring ancient civilizations / ruins along the Fed-Rom border.

All they have is an APT, so if anyone comes along - they usually have to run and come back some other day

I have considered this. It's on the back burner. I haven't decided if it is worth doing.

However, one player at Kublacon last month showed me some control panels he did by hand.

Well, if it is worth doing, it's worth doing well.

But for some reason, the concept sounds a bit too fiddly for in game play. Especially when you consider that one would proably have make these charts compatible with GURPS and two versions of P20, not to mention the upcoming D6, Savage Worlds, and Hero versions.

A good comprimise might be a single ship control sheet that's generic enough to be used in all versions of Prime Directive, (if it doesn't already exist).

Since it's just skill rolls in GURPS, the control panel would be a prop. One could set, say, the ship's warp factor, or shield controls. The prop could be used as reminder that the ship is, for example, going warp 5. markers cn be used to show teh speed, energy used, and so on.

I general., I think props are a good idea. Last year SJ games released an issue of their online 'zine Pyramid 3/9,
http://e23.sjgames.com/item.html?id=SJG37-2609. In that issue there is "space opera scanner", a prop that can act as a tricorder or even use it as control panel.

I guess it depends on how much time you want to spend preparing.

Seems to me, some of the things your discussing, could be done in some kind of video game format -- just make the gauges adjustable, set a laptop on the edge of the playing table and you have it right there ---

HMM, maybe.

But as a semi lazy GM, I don't care my for using a computer for running games when FtF.

But as I like to use www.rptools.net for online games, such a thing might work.

As long as its a prop, ie buildings for armor battles, dungeon tiles for fantasy rpgs etc ---

The pc route would help clear out space in your travel bag for other things needed for gaming ---

Just imagine the control panels would be similar to Dungeon Master Shields where data/charts are held for a quick check now and then ---

hedgehobbit wrote:In the old FASA game, the starship combat game had "control panels" that the PCs would use to fly their starship. Each bridge position had a seperate page of charts that they would use. For example, the Engineer would get the power from the engines and allocate them to movement, weapons, shields. The Helmsman would take that amount of power and use it to determine the speeds, whereas the Weapons Officer would use the power for weapons and decide which weapons to arm and fire. For PD you could add a Science Officer panel to do Tac Intel which was something that wasn't really supported in the FASA game.

Has someone done this for SFB/FC/PD?

Yes. See the mashup thread. I did this with my own homegrown system, and then later again with PD1.