Star Trek RPG Proposal Thread

['Gunny]

Now I wish I had voted for Sovereign, rather than Prometheus

And yea, I agree, I'll see what I can scrounge up about the basic layout of the Gamma Quadrant to base things on

[Major Darling]

I think its best we avoid explored space, keeps us away from damaging canon. And means we could have First Contact situations

['Gunny]

But of course we should know the basics, IE where we go to restock our torpedoes

After all we can't use the same cheats Janeway did

[Tazgrent]

I'm pretty excited about this, not to mention honored to be doing it with such an exalted group of forum members. I look forward to serving with you chaps.

[Lord Rahl]

Unless we ever get a special officer just for Stellar Cartography, it would be the responsibility of the Chief Science Officer to take care of mapping, with the help of other science officers, of course.

I'm not sure that's totally necessary. Anyone with graphics skills should be able to contribute to making a map. Of course we'd like to have a science officer to be the one RPing with the map but I'd be fine if the map was used more as a guide or tool rather than something deeply integrated into the game.

The problem with mapping is that since we are in the Gamma Quadrant, we will be basically making everything up, since it is largely unexplored (well, we sort of know where the Dominion and the Borg are).

To be safe, we should number sectors (a 20 by 20ly unit) with six digits (e.g., Sector 120312), to avoid any conflict with already-numbered sectors in the canon. Each mission will take place in a certain sector, which may contain one or more habitable solar systems. Stellar Cartography will keep record of these sectors and the planets they contain, while concurrently mapping the sector on a galaxy map.

I still have to find an appropriate map (high resolution) we can easily edit, and accurately divide into 20x20ly units. Because this region is unexplored, there is no already-existing Star Trek map with numbered sectors. We will have to create it ourselves.

We shouldn't need to have too much canon locations on the map anyway. Perhaps it's because I don't remember much of DS9, as I haven't watched it nearly as much as TNG or ToS, but I don't see much need of having canon locations outside of a handful of planets. All the rest can be added by us. A planet here, an anomaly there, etc. It's not so much the map needs to be spot on with canonical accuracy. We simply need unexplored space and locations to have a blank slate for us to RP. If we do have a map, which I think will be interesting and helpful to us, then we obviously need to pool resources and figure out exactly what we want.

Here are a few maps for reference.

http://i560.photobucket.com/albums/s...Gammamap-1.png
http://uss-callisto.org/nova/applica...gammaqmap.png*
http://www.usss-enterprise.com/images/gq.png

Now I wish I had voted for Sovereign, rather than Prometheus

I don't necessarily want the Intrepid either. I think my obsession with Riker has me still thinking about the Luna-class starship. It was designed to do exactly what we are talking about doing, exploring the Gamma Quadrant, but the Dominion War delayed its mission. At the end ofStar Trek: Nemesis, Riker mentions he's been given the USS Titan, a Luna-class, but there wasn't any design for it. A publishing company for Star Trek books had a competition for a starship design for the Titan and a winner was chosen.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

It's a non-canon starship but I do like the design.

[The Stig]

Wait, I thought Titan was canon?

['Gunny]

Personally, I like something from the Nebula class http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Nebula_class

Though Luna class would be really cool as well, Star Trek Online has it as a ship too

[Lord Rahl]

The existence of the Titan is canon, but not the class or design since they were not in a show or movie, and that's pretty much all that is considered canon in Star Trek. Actually, the class or design never existed. Just a name.

By the way, check out this forum to see how they do a Star Trek RPG: http://uss-callisto.org/phpbb3/ Obviously ours won't be nearly as detailed or in-depth.

I find the Nebula to be a decent design, though since it's a TNG era starship and we're setting this past that, I'm not too keen on it.

[Lord Rahl]

Here's a very early version of the map. MD and I had a lengthy discussion about things and we decided to have a 10x10 map where it takes two days per grid/sector to travel. So far I've only added the Gamma Quadrant wormhole entrance, it's star, and the relative border of the Dominion.

[Diamat]

I don't want to appear like a canon-freak, but 2 days of travel? Each quadrant is 50000x50000ly. At warp 9.6 (maximum warp) it would take 4 days to travel 20ly. The map you made means that each square is 5000x5000ly. 5000/20 = 250. 250*4 = 1000. Hence, each square, realistically speaking, should take 1000 days to travel through at maximum warp.

[Major Darling]

This is where casual RPer steps in Diamat

It would be 2 days real time, so we could extend it a bit, but obviously it would be bad to disrupt the game for that reason. This could in theory be a section of a section of the Quadrant if necessary

[Diamat]

This is where casual RPer steps in Diamat

It would be 2 days real time, so we could extend it a bit, but obviously it would be bad to disrupt the game for that reason. This could in theory be a section of a section of the Quadrant if necessary

Yes. As long as we distinguish between both timeframes it won't be a problem. However, in our logs, etc., we will have to calculate time realistically, even though in terms of the RPG, it would only be a day or two. Meaning that if we indeed travel an entire square, we would have to adjust the stardate by 1000 days.

This basically means that initially we cannot travel too far away. However, you can add to the experience realistically without cheating by discovering wormholes, an anomaly, a Borg Transwarp Conduit, etc.

[Tazgrent]

Rahl, if you don't mind me asking, where did you get that grid map from? I could use something like that for a GURPS campaign I run.

[Major Darling]

He made it, at my slave driving request

[Lord Rahl]

Rahl, if you don't mind me asking, where did you get that grid map from? I could use something like that for a GURPS campaign I run.

I made it from scratch. The image is 2000x2000 pixels and since it's a 10x10 map I just put a line every 200 pixels. Simple yet took awhile.

I don't want to appear like a canon-freak, but 2 days of travel? Each quadrant is 50000x50000ly. At warp 9.6 (maximum warp) it would take 4 days to travel 20ly. The map you made means that each square is 5000x5000ly. 5000/20 = 250. 250*4 = 1000. Hence, each square, realistically speaking, should take 1000 days to travel through at maximum warp.

There is a possibility that we could "magnify" once we enter a new grid/sector. I mean, if you want to play the game in only one sector, if that, then I guess that's fine, but if we're thinking of some grand exploratory mission that is part of the heart of Star Trek, I don't think it makes much sense. I could also make another map where we just have smaller scale. I'm just saying that the potential for us to do more is lessened if we make things realistic. For instance, if we wanted to have any sort of contact with the Dominion then we'd have to start off very close to the border. I mean, if we want to be very realistic then we'd most likely just be flying past a bunch of boring star systems with no life.

[Pontifex Maximus]

All I know is...


We shall have order.

[Diamat]

There is a possibility that we could "magnify" once we enter a new grid/sector. I mean, if you want to play the game in only one sector, if that, then I guess that's fine, but if we're thinking of some grand exploratory mission that is part of the heart of Star Trek, I don't think it makes much sense. I could also make another map where we just have smaller scale. I'm just saying that the potential for us to do more is lessened if we make things realistic. For instance, if we wanted to have any sort of contact with the Dominion then we'd have to start off very close to the border. I mean, if we want to be very realistic then we'd most likely just be flying past a bunch of boring star systems with no life.

I definitely see your point. All I'm saying is that we can at least keep it semi-realistic. I mean, it would have taken Voyager over 26 years at maximum warp to get home. Despite this, Voyager experienced plenty of adventures. But it would be ridiculous to travel the whole quadrant in a year. Even if we zoom in, and the map is actually a representation of a smaller section of the Gamma Quadrant, there will be plenty of adventures on the way. Also, by limiting ourselves spatially, we leave room for more future adventures, instead of discovering everything in only a few years.

To stick with canon, I'd recommend making each sector (i.e., square) a 20x20ly unit, and then name these sectors (i.e., squares) according to six digit numbers, since this is the official size of a sector. It would take 4 days to travel through one sector at maximum warp, leaving plenty of discovery, since 20ly is a lot of space.

And as I said before, we can enhance the experience realistically through wormholes, anomalies, discovery of new technologies, Borg Transwarp Conduits, etc.

[Major Darling]

The plan is to allow a week for each mission, incorporating the 4 days then it takes another 2 days with off duty rp to reach the next sector

[Diamat]

The plan is to allow a week for each mission, incorporating the 4 days then it takes another 2 days with off duty rp to reach the next sector

How long a mission takes outside of the RPG really does not matter. Time inside and outside of the RPG does not have to correspond (and it shouldn't correspond anyway). Thus, a 2 week flight inside the RPG would only take, perhaps, a second, or a day, or whatever, outside of the RPG. As long as the stardate is adjusted accordingly by the person in charge, it really doesn't matter.