STA: Damocles – Ship Profile – USS Damocles NX-80271

Commissioned March 2381, Utopia Planitia Shipyards

“…hanging by the slenderest of threads, capable of being cut at any moment by accident, or miscalculation, or by madness…”

Today, I’ll be going over the basic of the ship profile, or character sheet, for the USS Damocles, the main ship in my upcoming Star Trek Adventures RPG game.  Before I go into the details , a few things I have to let you know about the design and my choices:

• No official rules exist as yet for the Prometheus class ship the Damocles is based on
• Strictly speaking, the Damocles is an upgrade to the aforementioned Prometheus class –  To the point, it’s a new class on its own. If the Prometheus was a tactical ship, the Damocles could be classed as an Engineering/Science vessel
• I had to fudge the ship creation rules – Following the rules in the book is fine for 99% of the ships. But in order to fit all the features, I wanted I I let that slide. My reasoning behind this is that the game will be starting in the year 2381, so technology has advanced a little bit. Plus the ship is classed as a prototype, so “interesting things” can happen as she has her shakedown cruise and so-on
• Two new features have been added that don’t exist in the books – The Emergency Holographic Crew and the MVM – Both are experimental improvements over existing technology
• In the Voyager episode “Message in a Bottle” it was shown that the ship could be competently used by 4 people – This is reflected in the ship having more automation than a standard vessel and vastly less crew – At full capacity, the Damocles would have less than 100, with a typical operating capacity of around 60 to 70. Again, this automation, like the experimental features, may play a part in future adventures.
• The stats and information presented below are a WIP and taken from my notes, as much as I can reveal right now. They are subject to change, but for the most part, are complete, or at least useable in game

Enough of me waffling on, time to tell you about the ship herself.

USS Damocles NX-80271

Based on the successful Prometheus class space frame, the Damocles Project is an attempt to improve on that ship class whilst still retaining many of the features that made the Prometheus a success.

The semi-automated nature of the Prometheus and especially the proposed Damocles class, made it so that they required a long construction time compared to other vessels of the same size, but would require less crew than most other ships. Starfleet felt that this would pay-off in the long term, both in terms of resources and lives. Thus, the Damocles Project was born – It’s goal was simple – To build a flexible craft that would push the boundaries of what was possible with current technology. Its primary focus as an engineering and science test bed would help towards that goal, whilst the MVV mode would give it the tactical edge a ship like this required.

In late March 2381, the USS Damocles was officially launched and along with it’s Captain and skeleton crew, headed to DS9 , where they would receive the rest of her crew and details on her shakedown cruise and first official mission.

(All stats listed below are when the ship is in combined or non-MVVM)

Warp Speed – Cruising 8, Max 9.999

Systems

The Damocles possess Advanced Shields and Ablative Armour, much like it’s predecessor the Prometheus. This makes the ship much harder to destroy in combined mode. Even in the various vector modes, it is still a formidable opponent that should not be underestimated.

Shuttles – 5 Shuttles (1 x type 12 and 4 x type 10)

Departments

Talents & Traits

1. Federation Starship
2. Prototype
3. Quantum Torpedoes
4. Ablative Armor
5. Modular Laboratories
6. Advanced Shields 
7. EHCS
8. MVVM

The first two, Fed Ship and Prototype are defaults and can’t be changed. 3 – 6 are created and used as per the official rules in the book. 7 and 8 however, are the experimental systems and it is because of those I had to fudge the creations rules.

EHCS

Building on both the existing EMH program and the ECH (Emergency Command Hologram) that was developed and tested on the USS Voyager, the USS Damocles is able to generate and use one hologramatic crew member to replace or supplement existing crew.

The ship-wide holo-emitters allow for manifestation and interfacing with the hologram control systems from virtually anywhere onboard, but certain areas may be disabled at the Captains and/or Chief Engineer’s discretion. Starfleet does not recommend this for core areas, such as the bridge, as it can reduce the effectiveness of the system to perform its duties.

A maximum of one EHC can be online at any time. Only an authorized crew member can activate one of the EHCs. If one is active and another program is used, the new one will take precedence. The exception to this is the EMH system which “overrules” the others if active and can be set to be activated by anyone on board

At the time of launch, the USS Damocles possess six pre-loaded EHCs programs, out of a theoretical maximum of 10  can be stored.

• Command
• Conn
• Security
• Engineering
• Science
• Medicine

These can be customised by the captain and crew in terms of appearances and personality as desired.

Attributes

Departments

Depending on EHC department – the main department stat (4) is swapped with the appropriate one

E.G – If Command – EHC, department stats would be Command 4 and Medicine 1.

For ease of play, keep other stats the same.

Holograms do not count towards SC/Crew costs

MVVM – Multi Variable-Vector Mode

The MVAM (Multi-Vector Assault Mode) mode used on the USS Prometheus, whilst resource heavy and time-consuming to construct, gave such positive results, that Starfleet felt it required looking into further. As such, the MVV (Multi Variable-Vector) flight-mode is a core component of the Damocles. Each vector, Alpha, Beta, and Gamma can exist as a warp-capable semi-independent vessel.

Alpha Vector – The largest of the vectors, the most “powerful”. This is also known as “Command” vector

Beta/Gamma Vectors – These two are essentially the same, stat wise. Depending on the activation protocol used, these vectors would be variable in their nature, with emphasis placed on certain aspects.

Current activation protocols available include:

• Standard – If no protocol is requested, this is used.
• Attack
• Defense
• Intercept

The crew is authorized to create and use their own activation protocols as and when required, with approval from both the Captain and Chief Engineer.

In essence, the activation protocol determines the modifiers to the stats of the three vectors, with Beta & Gamma being smaller than Alpha vector. Beta and Gamma are treated the same unless a protocol says otherwise.

Ship Sheet Can be found HERE (Google drive)

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