Towards a Grittier d20 Trek!

I really don't know of a good visual for Hope's ship, but here's the concept

HMS Hindenburg
Hope's ship, named for the ill-fated Zeppelinn is of an unknown and very alien origin. Made of some sort of bio-metal, it seems to be somewhat sentient, able to repair itself and it occasionally acts on it's own strange whims. What is known that it is incredibly old, perhaps even older than the Wanderer.

Registry NRS 1333421
Modified Alien Ship
Ultralightship

Subtype: Modified scout
Tactical Speed: 3,500 ft. (7 sq.)
Defense: 7
Length: 150 feet
Flat-footed Defense: 5
Weight: 600 tons
Autopilot Defense: 5
Targeting System Bonus: +3
Hardness: 30
Crew: 8 (trained +4)
Hit Dice: 15d20 (300 hp)
Passenger Capacity: 8
Initiative Modifier: +2
Cargo Capacity: 30 tons
Pilot’s Class Bonus: +3
Grapple Modifier: +16
Pilot’s Dex Modifier: +2
Base Purchase DC: 52
Gunner’s Attack Bonus: +2

Engineer Notes

Drives:
Still trying to work how it operates.
So far it has shown to have a cruising speed of Warp 3
Sublight drive? Working on it....

Armor:
Unknown. Bio-metal of some sort or another. Regenerative properties.

Defensive systems:
Unknown. I don't want to irritate it enough to find out

Sensors
Unknown.

Weapons:
Unknown

Communications:
Drive Transceiver (recognizable, but oddly configured)
Internal Comms (Still don't know how that works)

Alien Origins
The crew found this ship after detecting a strange distress call in a rather empty bit of space. It allowed itself to be towed into a docking bay and lowered a gangplank of its own volition (they later found that out). After a subsequent search of the ship, they found one lone occupant in some sort of stasis tube. When they approached, the ship activated the tube and revived the occupant, who was found to be from the late 20th or early 21st century Earth. The ship has occasionally revived, once to help fight off bandits and another to rescue Hope from being taken from the Wanderer by some rather unscruplous scientists. In both incidients it has displayed a distressing amount of sentience.

Bigger ship sizes, check. Wanderer being mediumweight it's size still fits.

Three of the 8 in a shift are engineers, cool. I dont think this number reflects the captain or first mate. Where to put the other five? No rush, just something to think about.

5K ft square, approved. Do we want to go metric though? Would just divide all tactical numbers by 3.3 for meters. A square kilometer per square?

I use the optional critical tables in my own games. Further, I do checks on the table when HP falls to certain levels (like we're doing with character HP). The table in Future can be tweaked for our purposes. Consider.

Missle to torps is just a flavor thing I considered. Same stats, just in air a missles but in space a torpedo. No muss no fuss.

I'm glad my write up for Warp and the Partners made sense on a cold read. I think may add a bit to Warp description, to describe what happens if the injectors arent regulated.

How about the write up on the Hindenburg? I'd want it to easily fit into the Wanderer's Cargo hold with space to spare, so.....

Mostly, I'd figure that the ship is pretty much an unknown.

OK ...

Why is it called the Hindenburg, when it hasnt nor shows signs of catastrophically failing?

Who registered the ship? A registry is like the ship's license plate, some authority had to inspect it and certify it space worthy as well verifying it's primary function (escort, scout, etc). Why wouldnt this authority impound the alien ship and strip for technology if not study how to communicate with this entity in a research facility?

It's a quarter the size of the Wanderer, which is kinda big since the cargo hold is about half as long as the ship. Plus the alien ship is heavier than the Wanderer. This is why I re-sized ships in my games, an ultralight should be like a Federation shuttlecraft or fighter (Huge size, 20m or so).

Sorry. I named it Hindeburg for Uncertainty. Cuz you don't know what it's going to do or when it's going to do it. And I never was really good with sizes....

Alrighty then. For the Hindenburg, let's make it a modified 2 man scout craft (something that can go long distances), with some cargo space, enough for the stasis tube thing maybe?

I didn't have a good visual for a shuttle-craft or a 2 man fighter or scout, so I couldn't really get a figure on the ship's actual size.

kirinke said:

Sorry. I named it Hindeburg for Uncertainty. Cuz you don't know what it's going to do or when it's going to do it. And I never was really good with sizes....

Alrighty then. For the Hindenburg, let's make it a modified 2 man scout craft (something that can go long distances), with some cargo space, enough for the stasis tube thing maybe?

I didn't have a good visual for a shuttle-craft or a 2 man fighter or scout, so I couldn't really get a figure on the ship's actual size.

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I think you mean Heisenberg, right? The Hindenburg is the dirigible that blew up. Heisenberg is the guy who formulated the uncertainty principle in quantum mechanics.

Ilium said:

I think you mean Heisenberg, right? The Hindenburg is the dirigible that blew up. Heisenberg is the guy who formulated the uncertainty principle in quantum mechanics.

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Nah dude, she said "the ill-fated zeppelin". Heisenburg could fit though for a name.

A two person shuttle, like the Curie:



... is about the size we're looking for. Giving a ship like this the stats you've posted is gonna represent the alieness well: Warp 3, more than twice as many HD as a similar sized ship, whoa!

Now, what about the registry stuff?

Diggus Rex said:

Nah dude, she said "the ill-fated zeppelin". Heisenburg could fit though for a name.

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That's what I get for skimming the thread instead of reading thoroughly.

That's what I meant, Heisenburg. I was wanting the name of that guy who thought up the principles of Uncertainty. And yeah.... I was thinking that it might be some sort of sentient unmanned scout ship from a long dead/destroyed, advanced civilization.

As for the registry, I was figuring that anyone who found something like that would seek to register it as soon as possible to avoid legal problems later.

Why wouldnt this registering authority impound the alien ship and strip for technology if not study how to communicate with this entity in a research facility?

I'm not sure of the character of the rest of the crew Jephkay has in mind, but if this is a gritty Trek I'd imagine them selling the 'weird' Heisenberg ASAP for a lotta latinum as salvage. It is the crew's primary goal.