Earlier this month, I posted the latest in the It Builds Character series on Star Trek Adventures. That game has got its hooks into me quite strongly in that I want to run a campaign. And since I want to theme that campaign loosely around the Viridian Phage from Star Trek Voyager, but in the Alpha Quadrant that means I want the PCs home base to be a hospital or medical ship.
Specifically, I’m basing the ship loosely around the U.S.S. Pasteur, the Olympic class ship we see Captain Beverly Picard (nee Crusher) flying in an alternate timeline in the Star Trek: The Next Generation finalé “All Good Things…”
An Olympic-class can apparently be seen during the battle scenes in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode “Sacrifice of Angels,” which is set in approximately 2374, three years after the RPGs recommended start date of 2371, but close enough that I can fudge it.
Let’s look at the Starship Creation rules in Chapter 9 of Star Trek Adventures, shall we?
There’s 4 major steps in creating a ship as a base in the game
- Service
- Spacecraft
- Mission Profile
- Refits
Let’s look at each of them in turn, shall we?
1. Service
We already determined this above, since the ship is first canonically seen in 2374, then that’s the earliest date the campaign can take place in (Approximately Season 6 of DS9, Season 4 of Voyager) and the ship must basically be new, so this would be it’s first mission.
2. Spaceframe
This is a little bit trickier, since the Olympic isn’t one of the classes covered by default in the rulebook, so it’s homebrew time!
Doing some research on Memory Alpha, it appears that the accepted length of the class is approximately 320 meters, which is comparable to that of the Intrepid-class, which is statted in the book, probably because that’s the class Voyager was. From that we can determine than an Olympic-class spaceframe would have a scale value of 4. That’s not hugely helpful, since it doesn’t cover most of the other Starship stats that we need, Notably the 6 Systems & Departments and other capabilities. (Though using the Intrepid numbers as a baseline might be comparable, since the launch years were so close together.) Since we only have 2 real appearances to pull from, we’ll lean into this on Memory Alpha, as well as using Memory Beta to cover non-Canon appearances in Star Trek novels, older RPGs and the like.
A bit of trawling finds descriptors of the class that include the phrases “limited weaponry,” “defensive systems and sensors that were very limited,” reflecting the role of a non-combat support ship. Since the various systems are rated on a 0-12 scale, I’d call 7 as being average, and translating “limited” and “very limited” into numbers, I’d guess a standard Olympic-class would have the following System stats:
Communications: 9
Computers: 10 (No reason these wouldn’t be state of the art)
Engines: 9 (The Intrepid class has an Engines rating of 11, and a top speed of Warp 9.975 compared to Warp 9.2 for the Olympic class,so scrubbing 2 points seems right to me)
Sensors: 3 (“Very limited”)
Structure: 4 (“Very limited defensive capabilities,” so I halved versus the Intrepid class)
Weapons: 5 (“Limited”)
And I’m hazarding a guess at the following Department stat modifiers based loosely on the Department Rating Table on Page 213 of the Rulebook
Command: –
Conn: –
Engineering: –
Security: –
Science: +1
Medicine: +2
We know that the class has limited weaponry, as well as extra shuttle bays from it’s appearance(s), so let’s translate that into Attacks:
Phaser Arrays
Photon Torpedoes
And the Extensive Shuttlebays Talent.
3. Mission Profile
We already know that this is a hospital ship, so the only mission profile that makes sense is Crisis & Emergency Response, that gives baseline department values like so:
Command: 2
Conn: 2
Engineering: 1
Security: 2
Science: 2
Medicine: 3
We’ll also pick up one of the Talents associated with this profile, in this case, Advanced Sickbay
4. Refits
As mentioned this is basically a new vessel, so wouldn’t be refitted yet.
5. Putting it All Together
So, let’s look at the final stats (including derived stats) for this ship: –
TRAITS
Federation Starship
SYSTEMS
Comms: 9 Engines: 9 Structure: 4
Computers: 10 Sensors: 3 Weapons: 4
DEPARTMENTS
Command: 2 Security: 2 Science: 3
Conn: 2 Engineering: 1 Medicine: 5
TALENTS
Extensive Shuttlebays
Advanced Sickbay
Emergency Medical Hologram
Modular Laboratories
SCALE: 4
RESISTANCE: 4
SHIELDS: 6
POWER: 9
CREW SUPPORT: 4
ATTACKS
Phaser Arrays (Medium Range, Versatile 2, 6 Damage)
Photon Torpedoes (Long Range, High Yield, 5 Damage)
NAME
As given away by the title of this blog entry, this ship will be the U.S.S. Crumpler, named for Rebecca Lee Crumpler, the first African-American to become a physician in the United States.
REGISTRY NUMBER
This is a tiny bit tricky, since the U.S.S Pasteur was given the registry number NCC-58925,which was also the registry number the (real-world) creator of the class assigned to the prototype vessel, the U.S.S Olympic. My head-canon around that is that the Olympic had the number 58925, but as a first f class prototype, had the NX- designation, becoming the NX-58925. I feel like the Crumpler should have a larger registry number, and basing it around Rebecca Lee Crumpler’s date of birth (February 8, 1831) opt for NCC-62831 which means she entered service sometime between the U.S.S. Akagi and the U.S.S. Thunderchild.
Thoughts of a Lost Limey 