Star Trek Discovery homebrew

Starship Talent

LATERAL VECTOR TRANSPORTERS
The ship has Lateral Vector Transporters which are more accurate but have been phased out of service due to the massive power requirements. Reduce the Difficulty of all Transporter Tasks from the Transporters Room by 2(to a minimum of 0). The Transporter Tasks now has a Power requirement of 3, instead of 1.

Equipment

THRUSTER PACK Escalation 1
A standard Starfleet thruster unit that is attached to a EV suit and allows for a flight in space. To preprogrammed thruster path is a Control + Conn Task with a Difficulty of 0, and can be assisted with Computers + Conn if performed at a starship. Performing manual Evasive Actions with a Thruster Pack is a Daring + Conn Task with Difficulty of 1.

The Thruster Pack appeared in TMP also, so it can actually be included in a rulebook.

Is there a reason you gave the Thruster Pack an escalation cost as opposed to an opportunity cost?

I suppose it could be considered upping the threat level as it's more dangerous?

The EV suit already costs 2 Opportunity and the Thruster Pack can be quite dangerous, so it made more sense.

The opportunity cost for the EV suit can be waived in environments that would be deadly without one -- such as the vacuum of space -- and the thruster pack itself is not particularly threatening or aggressive.

Not saying you're wrong, it's just a very different approach than what I would have taken. Otherwise I like it.

I can't help but notice that there are now so many stickied posts on this forum, that only 4 spots are left over for non-sticky posts. That seems a little lopsided to me, as it means new posts will disappear from the home page almost immediately.

Walker-class

Comms 6
Engines 8
Structure 8
Computers 7
Sensors 6
Weapons 7

Command
Security +1
Science
Conn +1
Engineering +1
Medicine

Scale: 4

Attacks:
Phaser Cannons
Photon Torpedoes
Tractor Beam (Strength 3)

Talents:
Lateral Vector Transporters
Redundant Systems (Structure)

Design Notes/Thoughts:
I took the commissioning date to be roughly 2200 to imply the age of the class, thusly taking the total points of the systems to be 42 (46 from the Constitution from the 2240s and taking 4 off the total to backwards calculate).

For Disciplines, I decided to boost the Conn as the ship managed to match even the smaller Klingon ships' agility to some degree, the Engineering along the same lines as my thinking for picking Redundant Systems (Structure) outlined below, and Security because it seemed to be one of the ships to hold its own for the longest in the battle.


I decided to pick Redundant Systems (Structure) for one of the Talents as in the battle for the second episode a *large* amount of the hull seem to be gutted and yet had some level of operational capability (though not exactly battle-ready anymore). I also added Elijah's Lateral Vector Transporters talent, for obvious reasons.

Any comments or recommendations about potential changes?

@Silent
I would go for Scale 4, since The Shenzhou has around 10 decks (16 in the dialogue, but only 10 visible in the MSD), which more suits the size of a 4 Scale ship. For comparison, Miranda has 8 decks and Defiant 4.

Agreed, I edited it to Scale 4, I was just rewatching the episode now and overheard the dialogue referring to the Deck numbers.

Yeah, I spotted the deck numbers didn't make sense - I think this is like the 1701-A's deck 99...

Alternatively, Walker-class vessels may have some kind of mezzanine effect in the centre portion, with alternating deck numbers.

What was the rationale for phaser cannons?

I was pretty sure I heard Burnham mention targetting the beacon with phase(r) cannons to draw out the Klingons, so I went with them. The Walker class is also a fair bit older than the Constitution-class, so it may be one of the designs still using phase cannons similar to the NX-class (you'll note how 23rd Century classes like Excelsiors and Miranda still use phaser banks in the 24th Century).

I'd like to say the on-screen action backs it up as well, but there wasn't quite the evidence to distinguish between banks or cannons. While cannons tend to be more short range, the fight started off at close range anyway, so banks or cannons, Starfleet was going to be engaged at close range. Similarly, while energy cannons tend to be characterised by energy 'pulses' as opposed to continuous beams, we've seen some instances where banks seem to fire in pulses (such as the Reliant's cross-bar broadside in WoK).

So if you were to feel phaser banks would be more suitable than cannons, or should be included as well, I wouldn't argue against it with any particular gusto :-p

Ah, I see - I think they were NX-style _phase_ cannons, which I guess we don't have rules for as yet - assuming there's an ingame distinction between the two. It has to be said, I'd assumed cannon meant the kind of heavy weapons carried on the Miranda's "rollbar", that some more militaristic Trekkies get real excited about! Hence my query - reading the description in the book, it does seem slightly different - Defiant's pulse cannons, perhaps?

Seriously, I don't think we'll see the classic beam fire in this series (so no banks in game terms), as they seem to have adopted the more common tracer effect for weapons fire. I could be wrong :)

CROSSFIELD CLASS SPACEFRAME

SYSTEMS
Conn 8
Computers 8
Engines 9
Sensors 8
Structure 7
Weapons 8

DEPARTMENTS
Command --
Conn --
Security +1
Engineering --
Science +2
Medicine --

SCALE: 4

ATTACKS:
• Phaser Banks
• Photon Torpedoes
• Tractor Beam (Strength 3)

TALENTS:
• Spore Drive
• Modular Laboratories


Notes:
Decided to take a swing at putting together a spaceframe for the Discovery's Crossfield class, using the guideline Barbarossa posted here. We know the Discovery is fresh off the line, so I went with the full 48 points available to a ship commissioned in the 2254-2263 range.

I went in thinking of it as a science ship / technical testbed, as that seems to be what it's design purpose was -- Saru mentions proudly that they'd set a new record for the number of possible discrete scientific missions with the Discovery -- hence the +2 to Science, and the Modular Laboratories talent. The +1 Security is a last minute addition because of the Federation suddenly finding itself at war, and because I think Lorca's the kinda guy who would push for that on his ship. The relatively low Structure system is base wholly on the design of the saucer section, which I do like, but does appear to have some significant weak spots. Similarly, the high Engines stat is due to the extra long nacelles, and the specific sort of research both the Discovery and the Glenn were conducting.

EDIT: Bit of an update after Episode 4. Considering the rotating aspects of the saucer section, and Stamets' claims, it seems like the Crossfield was designed entirely around the spore drive, so I took a shot at building that -- it's down thread -- and replaced the Improved Power Systems I originally gave the spaceframe.

Exceot that Discovery begins in 2256