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Post by steven on Jul 5, 2020 18:09:13 GMT -7
I'm actually working on a sourcebook of sorts for a far-flung Federation sector, the Zeta Nu Sector. Basically it's the edge of the Federation in Quadrant I (the Northwest Quadrant). So it is directly opposite of the Triangle.
In any event, this will detail the sector, what is know about the other side of the border, the Federation worlds and the independent states within the sector, the history of it, the big people in it, and that kind of information. The kind of stuff one would expect to find in a sourcebook.
But something I'm doing a little different is the Shadowrun approach. Think of the book as the official guide to the sector and a bunch of other voices giving their two cents on what is and isn't covered. And maybe one of those voices is right, maybe none of them are right, it would be up to game-masters to figure out and let the players discover. Hopefully it would provide a bunch of hooks for a GM to use. Or even just for someone to read and be amused by.
If it gets that far, I'd like to set it up as a PDF, get someone to help me figure out how to do a layout, artwork of the ships, that kind of thing, but I'm not really even close to that part yet.
Anyway, I'll be posting bits and pieces here and there just to get some feedback and to amuse you.
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Post by trynda1701 on Jul 5, 2020 19:01:22 GMT -7
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Post by steven on Jul 6, 2020 13:07:33 GMT -7
ADDED: This is one of the worlds I've created for my sector. It's still a work in progress, so any suggestions or feedback are greatly appreciated.
-Steven
World Log: Sigma Upsilon b VIII
System Data
System Name: Sigma Upsilon b
Map Location: 5.41N 5.52W
Number of Class M Present: 0
Planetary Data
Position in System: VIII
Number of Satellites: 0
Planetary Gravity: 1.4
Planetary Size
Diameter: 18,000 km
Equatorial Circumference: 56,500 km
Total Surface Area: 1,017,876,020 sq km
Percent Land Mass: Variable
Total Land Area: Variable
Planetary Conditions
Length of Day: 122 Hours
Atmospheric Density: Variable
General Climate: Variable
Mineral Content
Normal Metals: Unknown
Radioactives: Unknown
Gemstones: Unknown
Industrial Crystals: Unknown
Special Minerals: Unknown
Cultural Data
Dominant Life Form: Mixed
Technological/Sociological Index: N/A
Planetary Trade Profile: N/A
Sigma Upsilon b VIII (informally knows as SUB 8) was discovered during a routine system survey conducted on 1/6601 by USS Matewan (NCC-688). The system was noted as being unremarkable aside from SUB 8, which was in a highly elliptical orbit. SUB 8's year is 203 Standard Years and it's orbit is 77 degrees off of the system ecliptic plane. The only feature of note was that the planet was entirely encased in a layer of frozen carbon dioxide, at least 25 km thick. When USS Matewan surveyed the system, SUB 8 was roughly halfway between aphelion and perihelion and was approaching perihelion. The ship's stellar cartographer considered SUB b "nothing more than a rock covered in dry ice."
On 2/2109.30, Star Fleet cutter USS Point Charles (NCC-2033) responded to a distress call from a light freighter in the system. USS Point Charles safely removed the crew of the stricken freighter. As the cutter was leaving the system, it came close to SUB 8. A quick comparison to the fifty year old records revealed an incredible change. As SUB 8 approaches perihelion, its
atmosphere had sublimated, exposing a planet-wide city.
SUB 8 is currently experiencing a "summer" with a carbon dioxide atmosphere, not unlike Mars, only much denser. If projections hold, there are roughly fifty years to complete surveying the planet before the atmosphere refreezes. A new hypothesis from Dr. H'thala du-Ghazka of Cambridge University posits that the planet is no so much a city as a temple. The hypothesis has caused much debate within the academic circles and had garnered some media attention.
Currently, Star Fleet has been assisting archaeological expeditions from the Federation Science Council and several universities. Aside from providing engineering, material, and manpower resources, Star Fleet is also responsible for patrolling the area to prevent artifact theft, sightseers, and the sort.
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Post by trynda1701 on Jul 6, 2020 14:31:14 GMT -7
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Post by trynda1701 on Jul 6, 2020 15:12:21 GMT -7
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Post by steven on Jul 6, 2020 17:09:31 GMT -7
Looking back at it, I can see a few places where I can tighten up the writing. But I intentionally put in a few RPG hooks. I don't RPG any longer, but maybe someone does and could use it.
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Post by trynda1701 on Jul 6, 2020 18:33:20 GMT -7
Looking back at it, I can see a few places where I can tighten up the writing. But I intentionally put in a few RPG hooks. I don't RPG any longer, but maybe someone does and could use it. Hey, go back and edit it a bit if you need to. When I posted that Starfleet Intelligence report in the "Alien Life Form detected.." new race thread by rabid here... ststcsolda.proboards.com/thread/1403/alien-life-form-detected...I put the main text up in the afternoon, and kept editing the thing till about midnight! Or post an updated version if you want!  |
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Post by steven on Jul 7, 2020 17:21:15 GMT -7
I'll just edit it in the file I'm writing up. You guys get to be my guinea pigs though.
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Post by steven on Jul 14, 2020 10:14:49 GMT -7
I haven't forgotten about this. I just haven't had a lot of time to devote to it.
But here's a few tastes of what's to come:
A three planet non-aligned state of sentient plants
A Federation colony with Old West range wars over a cultivated resource that is about to erupt into mass chaos
Clues to a missing Star Fleet expedition
An independent planet of Pirates, Freedom Fighters, Mercenaries, Smugglers, and other Ne'er-do-Wells and what Star Fleet can do about it
A few new Star Fleet ships and a few non-Star Fleet ships
New Alien races
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Post by trynda1701 on Jul 14, 2020 11:39:12 GMT -7
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Post by steven on Jul 25, 2020 13:15:40 GMT -7
First draft is done. It came out to be 30 pages in Word. I'm going to let it lie for a week or so and then go back and re-read and edit it. Then I just have to figure out how to add in a bit of art, do some layout with my limited skillset, and then host it somewhere as a PDF. Sooooo... Who wants a hospital ship?  |
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Post by trynda1701 on Jul 25, 2020 14:12:06 GMT -7
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Post by steven on Jul 26, 2020 10:15:54 GMT -7
[NOTE: I couldn't get the formatting of the ship's stats to work, so I just gave up on it. Use a Liberty Class freighter for the time being if you want to use this in a game.
Besides, what do you want for free?
-Steven]
Stavasla Class IX Hospital Ship
Notes:
After the L’taan Crisis of 1/90 ended, Star Fleet realized that the aging Suture Class hospital ships were in dire need of a modern replacement. While the design, bidding, appropriations, and construction phases of any ship are glacially slow, the ever-changing technological and medical needs of what would become the Stavasla Class meant that the needed design was at a near standstill through most of its early life. Only the worsening tensions with the Klingon Empire and the outbreak of the Four Years War in 1/9402 pushed the project forward with any alacrity.
To meet the needs of the admiralty to provide for casualties, the finished Stavasla Class bears little resemblance to the initial concept, beyond that of “warp-capable hospital” of course. To rush from design to delivered, the naval architects at Mars’ Chandley shipyards used existing and proven technologies only, essentially building a “Franken-ship” that went from the drawing tables to shakedown cruise in a mere three years with the first ship (USS Galen NCC-921) being delivered to Star Fleet on 1/9603.21. The remaining ships were delivered on an average of one per month.
While the war record of the Stavasla Class was mostly one of routine casualty support, they also responded to medical emergencies of a non-military nature. One such incident ended with the loss of USS V’rana (NCC-928) on Stardate 1/9701.18. Providing support to local authorities in the aftermath of a series of massive seismic activities on Eldorado, a strain of a local bacteria being studied in one of the ship’s bio-labs mutated. Despite the quarantine systems and procedures in place, the mutated bacteria, now having a near-100% mortality rate among humans, managed to infect the ship’s company and patients. Within 24 hours half of the humans aboard were dead and the rest dying. The ship’s senior surviving officer, a LTJG in the security section, took it upon himself to plot a course into the system’s sun, vaporizing USS V’rana and ending the bacteriological threat in the process.
On 2/0012.30, USS Sushruta (NCC-933), responding to an outbreak of humanity’s old foe, the Bubonic Plague, on the Triangle world of Akers IV, was attacked and captured by a ship ostensibly crewed by Romulan pirates. Although the crew was eventually “liberated” by Romulan forces and then repatriated to the Federation, USS Sushruta was never recovered, nor seen again. Star Fleet intelligence believes that the ship was taken by the Romulan Navy with the pirate story as nothing more than plausible deniability. Less than two years later, a near identical copy of a Stavasla Class, albeit one of Romulan design, was seen in orbit by an Orion tader around the Romulan colony world of T’Vant VI in the Triangle.
All of the ships in the class are named after early physicians of the founding worlds of the Federation with the class namesake being the “Mother of Tellerite Medicine”. Of the forty ships constructed, eight are held in active service (two per quadrant), two have been destroyed, one has been captured ( likely by the Romulans), four have been loaned to leading universities for medical research, and the remaining twenty-five are in a ready reserve, able to be returned to active service within 14 standard days. The ship is no longer being constructed, but should it become necessary, the hulls of an additional ten ships have been completed needing only to have the medical bays fitted out and the warp engines attached.
>>> I served on the Zeno for three years and let me tell you this: unless you are one of the science or medical types, it's a dumpster fire of an assignment. The operations and engineering divisions are understaffed, overworked, the whole ship is older than dirt and held together by spit, wire, and whatever luck the Great Bird of the Galaxy is willing to provide at any given tie. Beyond that is the fact that the blueshirts treat eveyone else like they are nothing more the the hired help.
If Star Fleet offered me triple my worth and then tripled that in pay, I still wouldn't go back out on her.
--- Alpha C Spacer 2/2312.12.060816 <<<
>>> Check my math here, but isn't 0x3x3 still 0?
---Panty Dropper From Pallas Prime 2/2312.13.103004 <<<
>>> It would be illogical to under staff a ship with the high maintenance requirements you claim it has. Perhaps it is not the workload you disapprove of, but rather the work.
--- Midshipman Stomm, Class of 2227 2/2312.13.175541 <<<
>>> Middie, you haven't been in Star Fleet long enough to truly have an appreciation for just how illogical any and all the decisions the brass make truly are.
--- Alpha C Spacer 2/2312.14.061010
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Post by trynda1701 on Jul 26, 2020 10:53:36 GMT -7
[NOTE: I couldn't get the formatting of the ship's stats to work, so I just gave up on it. Use a Liberty Class freighter for the time being if you want to use this in a game. Besides, what do you want for free? -Steven] Do you mean you can't get the stats of various models to layout like in the ship manuals? |
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Post by steven on Jul 26, 2020 11:03:04 GMT -7
[NOTE: I couldn't get the formatting of the ship's stats to work, so I just gave up on it. Use a Liberty Class freighter for the time being if you want to use this in a game. Besides, what do you want for free? -Steven] Do you mean you can't get the stats of various models to layout like in the ship manuals? I can do it on paper, but not here. I guess if anyone wants them, the'll have to download it when it's available. Here's another sneak preview: It's a hospital ship so it's unarmed.  And that's all anyone is getting for now! |
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Post by trynda1701 on Jul 26, 2020 13:42:21 GMT -7
I've never been able to get the table function to work here, so I just post each model one after the other, like on this thread of my Orion designs... ststcsolda.proboards.com/thread/17/trynda1701s-orion-starshipsOnce I put the first designs in, I copied the layout to a Word document, and when I post new designs, use that as a template. Feel free to copy and paste the layout from my posts if you want.  |
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Post by steven on Jul 26, 2020 14:31:24 GMT -7
[NOTE: Maybe you'd like a person to run into. Or, in this case, avoid if at all possible.
-Steven]
Name: PITT, Amanda "Mandy"
Rank/Title: Rear Admiral
Position: Commanding Officer, Sector Zeta Nu
Race: Human
Age: 60
Sex: Female
Attributes:
STR - 43 CHA - 26
END - 63 LUC - 45
INT - 70 PSI - 07
DEX - 67
Combat Statistics:
To-Hit Numbers - Bare-Hand Damage 1D10+1
Modern: 38 AP: 10
HTH: 46
Significant Skills Rating
Administration 25
Bribery 30
Carousing 57
Computer Operation 32
Language
Zaranite 24
Leadership 43
Negotiation 20
Distinguishing Physical Characteristics:
Pitt is short, obese, and is graying rapidly. The word frumpy fits her like a glove.
Brief Personal History:
Birthplace: Proserpina City, Ceres, Sol System.
Rear Admiral Amanda Pitt, Mandy to her friends, joined Star Fleet to see something more than a domed city on a dwarf planet, but found her real aptitude was in administration. She has climbed the ranks of the administrative side of Star Fleet and will likely end her career on the frontier. She has used her groundside and space station assignment time to learn how to get things done, unofficially if necessary. In the meantime, she is doing what she can to ensure the sector's command post is left in a better state than she found it in.
Personality:
Motivations/Desires/Goals:
RADM Pitt is at the end of her career, a career that has been lackluster. Other than riding along during transfers, she has not deployed on a ship since cadet cruise. Instead, she has spent all her time behind a desk. She is comfortable in her position, but realizes she is a just a bureaucrat. She would like to make a difference in this assignment.
Manner:
RADM Pitt likes to think of herself as being able to talk an Andorian into buying an icebox, but in reality she has an uncanny ability to rub people the wrong way. She has spent enough time in bars and taverns to understand how to use the seedy underside of port towns to get things done. She is also a shining example of the Peter Principle of promoting people to their level of incompetence just to get them out of one's hair. She does not realize it, but her entire career has been built on one superior after another promoting her just so that she becomes someone else's problem. It isn't to say she is incompetent, because she is, but it is to say that her subordinates will have to make up for the admiral's inability to lead and organize.
RADM Pitt means well, and can say the right things to motivate and encourage her command, but is simply in over her head and does not recognize it. Anyone who needs something the admiral should be able to provide would do well to seek CAPT Tha'nav'or, her adjutant. But it would be best to do so in secret because RADM Pitt has a vindictive streak a mile wide if she feels her competency, or lack thereof, is being questioned.
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Post by trynda1701 on Jul 26, 2020 16:06:11 GMT -7
Cool to see the RPG stats of a FASA character here! It would be up to a GM to decide when to set their campaign, but where would you personally have Mandy serving time-wise steven ? |
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Post by steven on Jul 26, 2020 17:35:34 GMT -7
Cool to see the RPG stats of a FASA character here! It would be up to a GM to decide when to set their campaign, but where would you personally have Mandy serving time-wise steven ? What do you mean? I have the sourcebook set 2/2401.01. if you look at the writeup of the Stavasla hospital ship you'll see comments like >>> blah blah blah ---character commenting, stardate 2/2312.39.235959 <<< It uses the FASA stardate system. The last six numbers are the time, so my example above is posted at December 31, 2223 at 12:59pm and 59 seconds. I have the sourcebook written like a Shadowrun one, like it's a in-universe document being commented on by people reading it in some kind of an online forum. In this case, it's the "Welcome to the Zeta Nu Sector" guide being commented on by whoever. We had a comment by someone who actually served on the hospital ship and wasn't impressed, a Vulcan midshipman who didn't get bureaucracy not staffing crews logically, and so on. But the commenters also all have biases and their take on the subject may or may not be the gospel truth or somewhere in between. She's 60 years old, and went to the academy at 18, so she's got 42 years of ineffectual service behind a computer under her belt. But really she could be any time. Instead of everyone in Star Fleet being a superhero or evil or insane, I just decided she kept failing upwards because no one wanted to deal with her, and she's the head of the whole sector. She thinks she's a good administrator, but she doesn't get that she's actually dragging the place down because she's useless and it's her subordinates that are trying to do their Star Fleet best in spite of her, not because of her, but because they care about what they are doing. It's kind of a theme, that Zeta Nu is the "ass end of space" as someone writes in his rebuttal of her "welcome aboard the best sector in Star Fleet" introduction. Zeta Nu is a great place if you're a colonist looking to live without oversight, a pirate, a scientist, or even someone just looking to get lost. But it's also the land Star Fleet forgot, where careers go to die, where spare parts come infrequently, if at all, where the ships are nicknamed "the rustbucket fleet" because they get the ships one step above the scrap yard, and everyone has to make do. Forget about just requisitioning a new warp drive. Every ship has a scrounge or two that can get his captain a new warp drive. Just don't ask about how he got it. It isn't that Star Fleet is actively trying to hamper expansion in the sector; it's just that they have other more pressing issues and priorities and Zeta Nu is going to have to make it work in spite of the table scraps they are given. And they will. |
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Post by trynda1701 on Jul 26, 2020 18:56:54 GMT -7
Gotcha. I'd seen the dates in the hospital ship entry, but wasn't sure about the Rear Admiral. Will remember the sourcebook date! |
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Post by steven on Jul 26, 2020 19:12:27 GMT -7
Gotcha. I'd seen the dates in the hospital ship entry, but wasn't sure about the Rear Admiral. Will remember the sourcebook date! I get it. The hospital ship was rushed into service during the Four Years War, so the class is roughly 30 years old by the time Kirk and Co save the whales, which is roughly where my book starts. She would have easily been a contemporary of the TV show Enterprise and the picture in my head shares that aesthetic. I just need to figure out how to get it drawn. I'm not tech[savvy and can't draw with a pen and paper to save my life. But I'll figure something out. I always do. |
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Post by steven on Jul 27, 2020 13:20:07 GMT -7
I went and looked it up in the Star Trek IV Update Sourcebook. Kirk and Company were given Enterprise-A on 2/2210.15 and the last date in the book is 2/2401. So my book fits in right at the end of what FASA had published, but nothing in it requires it be at that time (or really any particular time) because I went out of my way to avoid referencing other events, especially events involving Kirk and the Enterprise.
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steve
Commander
Posts: 537
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Post by steve on Jul 27, 2020 16:15:31 GMT -7
First draft is done. It came out to be 30 pages in Word. I'm going to let it lie for a week or so and then go back and re-read and edit it. Then I just have to figure out how to add in a bit of art, do some layout with my limited skillset, and then host it somewhere as a PDF. Sooooo... Who wants a hospital ship? Very nice on the hospital ship. Non-combat ships rule! Let others create corvettes, destroyers, frigates, cruisers, dreadnoughts & battleships. The Star Trek universe needs more tugs, monitors (OK, they're kinda combat-y, but still...), repair tenders, hospital ships, cargo ships & colonizers! |
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Post by steven on Jul 28, 2020 8:39:41 GMT -7
First draft is done. It came out to be 30 pages in Word. I'm going to let it lie for a week or so and then go back and re-read and edit it. Then I just have to figure out how to add in a bit of art, do some layout with my limited skillset, and then host it somewhere as a PDF. Sooooo... Who wants a hospital ship? Very nice on the hospital ship. Non-combat ships rule! Let others create corvettes, destroyers, frigates, cruisers, dreadnoughts & battleships. The Star Trek universe needs more tugs, monitors (OK, they're kinda combat-y, but still...), repair tenders, hospital ships, cargo ships & colonizers! I agree. Obviously in a game the utility is limited beyond an objective (defend the ship, destroy the ship, move it off the other side of the map) or something, but I like throwing in non-combatants now and then for flavor. Somewhere I have a Klingon hospital ship write up I did. Their lives might be shortish and brutal compared to Federation one, but even they see being able to care for the wounded makes sense, if for no other reason than being able to put that soldier back in the field once he is healed. |
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Post by steven on Aug 26, 2020 14:25:32 GMT -7
Just a quick update. I've had to rewrite a huge chunk of this because it didn't turn out how I wanted.
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