Not only is every starship in a class unique, but each spaceframe is a creation of thousands of engineers, scientists, and dockyard workers and automated drones. Every spaceframe built represents the overall philosophy its culture has for the class’s place in the Galaxy, what it wishes the class to accomplish, and how it feels about its spacefaring personnel.
Each spaceframe includes the following information:
LAUNCH YEAR: The year the spaceframe entered service.
OVERVIEW: Information about the spaceframe’s design history and purpose.
CAPABILITIES: Details about the spaceframe’s capabilities.
REFITS AND VARIANTS: Any information regarding upgrades the spaceframe received over time, or specific variants of the spaceframe in service.
SUGGESTED MISSION PROFILES: Suggestions on which mission profiles are commonly used with the spaceframe.
NAMING CONVENTIONS: Details on naming conventions for the spaceframe, if any.
NOTABLE EXAMPLES: The names of notable vessels of this class.
TRAITS: Traits related to the spaceframe.
SYSTEMS: The base ratings of the spaceframe’s systems.
DEPARTMENTS: Modifiers to the ratings of the spaceframe’s departments (which are determined by the mission profile selected for the ship).
SCALE: The Scale of the spaceframe.
WEAPONS: Any weaponry installed on the spaceframe.
TALENTS: Any talents built into the spaceframe.
SPECIAL RULES: Any additional rules or other details relevant to ships using this spaceframe.
Some spaceframes have special rules, representing specifics of their construction and configuration. These are permanent parts of how the ship is designed to function. These are separate from ship talents in that they cannot be removed, and do not count towards the ship’s total number of talents. Other Star Trek Adventures supplements provide additional starship special rules.
ABUNDANT PERSONNEL
The ship’s Crew Support is doubled, after any other modifiers, and any effects or abilities which would increase Crew Support have twice the normal effect aboard a ship with this special rule. Further, when you introduce a supporting character, you may use one additional Crew Support to grant them an improvement immediately.
COMPACT VESSEL
This spaceframe has a Scale of 2, but it does not count as a small craft. It has no small craft capability of its own, and cannot launch or receive shuttlepods, shuttlecraft, or any comparable craft.
FOUR-NACELLE STABILITY
The vessel’s configuration of four warp nacelles can be used to produce a stable and long-lasting warp field. The Difficulty of any task attempted to go to warp, or to maintain warp speed despite hazards, damage, or anomalies, is reduced by 1, to a minimum of 1.
GRAPPLER CABLE
The ship utilizes a physical cable with a magnetic hook at the end, in place of the graviton-based tractor beams used by ships in later eras. This functions as a tractor beam, but if the target breaks free, roll a d20: if you roll above the ship’s Weapons system, the cable is damaged, and cannot be used until repaired. Repairing the cable is treated as repairing a breach.
LANDING GEAR
The vessel is equipped to land safely on a planetary surface, and can return to space afterward. To land a ship requires Reserve Power be rerouted to Structure, and then requires someone at the helm to attempt a Control + Conn task with a Difficulty equal to the ship’s Scale, assisted by the ship’s Structure + Conn. This can Succeed at Cost. Success means the ship lands on the planet’s surface. Taking off requires the same task attempt, but the Difficulty is reduced by 2.
MISSION POD
All vessels of this class are fitted with a mission pod, which provides two of the ship's starting talents as well as adjustments to the ship's system and department ratings. All ships start with a number of talents equal to its Scale.
The mission pod can be changed as if it were a single talent; replacing it takes 12–24 hours at a starbase or other facility.
Certain spaceframes can be fitted with a mission pod, chosen from the list below. The talents provided by the pod may not be swapped out, but the entire mission pod (and all of its benefits) may be swapped out as if it were a single talent.
If the selected mission pod provides a talent the spaceframe already has (either from its starting allotment of talents or from its mission profile), replace it with another talent (so long as it meets the listed requirements for the talent, if any).
Astrometrics and Navigation: The spaceframe has +1 Computers, +1 Engines, and +1 Conn. The spaceframe gains the Improved Warp Drive and Advanced Sensor Suites talents.
Command and Control: The spaceframe has +1 Communications, +1 Computers, and +1 Command. The spaceframe also gains the Command Ship and Electronic Warfare Systems talents.
Defensive Shield Enhancement: The ship has +1 Engines, +1 Structure, and +1 Engineering. The spaceframe also gains the Advanced Shields and Improved Shield Recharge talents.
Emergency Recovery: The ship has +1 Engines, +1 Structure, and +1 Conn. The ship also gains the High-Power Tractor Beam and Redundant Systems (of the players’ choice) talents.
Field Hospital: The ship has +2 Computers and +1 Medical. The ship also has the Emergency Medical Hologram and Advanced Sickbay talents.
Fleet Carrier: The ship has +1 Communications, +1 Structure, and +1 Security. The ship also has the Extensive Shuttlebays and Command Ship talents.
Fleet Command Support: The spaceframe has +1 Communications, +1 Computers, and +1 Command. The spaceframe also gains the Command Ship and Fast Targeting Systems talents.
Mobile Drydock: This pod contains a folded dry dock that can be unfurled and deployed for assisting in repairing other starships. Inside the remaining pod are industrial replicator facilities capable of disassembling asteroids and comets to produce replacement parts and hull for damaged vessels, plus a large workbee bay. The ship gains +1 Structure, +1 Computers, and +1 Engineering. The ship also has the talents Improved Damage Control and Rugged Design, which it confers to any vessel docked with the drydock pod.
Sensors: The ship has +2 Sensors and +1 Science. The ship also has the Advanced Sensor Suites and High-Resolution Sensors talents.
Warp Propulsion Pod: The pod contains an advanced third warp nacelle with paired coils, along with extra fusion reactors that can either assist the ship in maintaining a high warp velocity, or maintain a warp field after saucer separation. The ship has +2 Engines and +1 Conn. The ship also gains the Improved Warp Drive and Secondary Reactors talents.
Weapons: The ship has +1 Sensors, +1 Weapons, and +1 Security. The ship also has the Fast-Targeting Systems and Rapid-Fire Torpedo Launcher talents.
POLARIZED HULL PLATING
Vessels of this spaceframe lack deflector shields common to many other ships, and instead rely upon polarization of the hull plating to resist damage. The ship’s Shields track instead represents the state of the ship’s polarized hull. The ship’s Shields are equal to its Structure, with no additional modifiers. However, these do not count as shields for the purposes of blocking transporter use.
SAUCER SEPARATION
Vessels of this class have the capability to detach their saucer section in an emergency. Once the saucer has detached, the two sections of the ship cannot be reconnected outside of a drydock. Ship’s systems are halved (round up) for the saucer and the secondary hull when separated, the saucer is unable to enter warp speeds or launch small craft, and each section is considered a separate vessel with Scale 1 less than the original vessel; the secondary hull is commanded from main engineering. The saucer can land on a planetary surface with emergency landing gear.
SAUCER SEPARATION AND RECONNECT
The ship is designed so the saucer section can be separated from the engineering section to operate as two distinct ships. Each section has the same systems, talents, and weapons, but their Scale is 1 lower than that of the original vessel (recalculate anything derived from Scale). Further, if the ship suffered any breaches prior to separating, ongoing effects of those breaches apply equally to both sections. The saucer section, which usually contains the crew quarters and recreation areas, does not have the capacity to go to warp. The secondary hull is commanded from main engineering.
Separating is a major action attempted from the bridge (Operations panel) or main engineering, requiring a Control + Conn task with a Difficulty of 3, assisted by the ship’s Structure + Engineering. Reconnecting takes a major action, but the process is automated and requires no task attempt. Separating and reconnecting cannot be completed if the ship (or either part of it) has suffered one or more breaches to Structure.