Classes, paragon paths, and epic destinies for ships

RangerWickett · Oct 20, 2011

Every good ship has character. So imagine you're designing ships for a game, and you build them like characters. What are some of the archetypes that would show up as options?

I'm thinking something like:

ROLES
Artillery – long-range weapons, but not good up close; battleships, missile boats, Death Star

Brute - limited weapons, mostly cargo; merchant vessels, fishing boats, troop transports, Titanic, Serenity, Moya

Controller – either magic or minions to influence the surrounding area; aircraft carriers, Battlestar Galactica

Lurker – able to hide and deliver deadly strikes; submarines, cloaking devices, Red October, Shadow vessels, a Klingon Bird of Prey

Skirmisher - nimble and ready for a fight; pirate ships, scout vessels, Defiant, Millennium Falcon, White Star

Soldier - designed for close combat, fusillades, and boarding actions; triremes, Enterprise, Black Pearl

Not sure what the TARDIS falls under, since I’m unclear whether it has any weapons.

PARAGON PATHS
I dunno. Flagship? Elemental Vessel? Living ship. Excellent explorer. Ghost ship.

Are there any epic ships in our culture? I mean, the Enterprise comes pretty close, seeing as she dies and comes back to life soon thereafter. Ditto the TARDIS. They’ve both had enough adventures to reach epic level. And the Argo, while not as publicly popular these days, got turned into a constellation, which seems like a pretty solid resolution to an epic destiny.

What sorts of ships styles, personalities, and traits do you think would need to be listed for a ship game?

Patryn of Elvenshae · Oct 20, 2011

... This is a fantastic thread idea.

Let me ponder and get back to you.

Kaodi · Oct 20, 2011

Not sure why you described Brute as you did. " Limited weapons " is pretty much the antithesis of a high damage dealing role. If anything, I think the Brute is more properly the boarding action type ship. Think of the cylon commando ships: they were designed for punching right through the hull of a Battlestar, if I remember correctly.

Artillery - Battleship, Guided Missile Destroyer

Brute - Dreadnought, Amphibious Assault Ship

Controller - Aircraft Carrier, Minesweeper

Lurker - Submarine

Skirmisher - Corvette, Cruiser

Soldier - Destroyer, Frigate

Or something like that.

Cor Azer · Oct 20, 2011

Wouldn't an aircraft carrier be more of a leader-type?

Interesting ideas...

You could even ponder themes for vehicles - smuggler for Serenity and Millenium Falcon, patrol for coast guard vessels, rickety bucket for those inevitable PoS ships fancy engineers always need to get fixed in too short of time...

Use an origin/builders as a race - the Federation builds different ships than the Twelve Colonies...

GSHamster · Oct 20, 2011

I'm not really sure that any of your categories really capture the nature of a true ship-of-the-line, like the HMS Victory or an Imperial Star Destroyer, or the ships in David Weber's Honor Harrington books.

You have battleships listed as artillery, but that's not quite right. Ships-of-the-line are slower, larger, but extremely heavily armed, for devastating broadsides.

MortalPlague · Oct 20, 2011

GSHamster said:
Ships-of-the-line are slower, larger, but extremely heavily armed, for devastating broadsides.

Sounds like a brute to me.

RangerWickett · Oct 20, 2011

I was thinking of modern battleships that get nowhere near their targets.

And there's no good role for noncombatant vessels.

FreeXenon · Oct 20, 2011

Things like Death Stars and the TARDIS could be ED, and Star Destroyers could be PP for a ship.

Or perhaps, even better, the TARDIS is something that is a DM only artifact like thing that cannot be reproduced... were talking time travel here.

FreeXenon · Oct 20, 2011

Non-combat vessels can be classified according to ship chassis type.
Perhaps something like Brute (non-combat) for a heavily armored and high HP non-combat ship, and perhaps add its tactical roll as a type which could give certain abilities as well.

Brute (non-combat, transport)

FreeXenon · Oct 20, 2011

Ship PP's could be chassis or functional specializations

Ship ED's could could further enhance a specialization to be even more gross at it, or greatly increase their ship size and add large scale functionality.