Dorritos Class and D-10M 3d Models and Stats!

It's been a while since I updated the blog despite making some minor hobby progress in the meantime.  For some reason, I had an urge to throw together some new Star Trek ships for the FASAverse and worked on both an update to a classic Klingon design as well as a retro-take on the newest official Trek hero ship.  Both ships were created using CaptainMojo's parts kits on thingiverse (link here) so special thanks to him for making them available to fans of the classic game!  For the first time on this blog, I'm including the 3D model STL designs in addition to the stat sheets and tokens for those who want to use either ship on the tabletop.

A new Star Trek cartoon came out in the past month and it included a new hero ship that I thought I'd try to retrotrekify (is that a word?) into the FASAverse.  I haven't watched the show but supposedly the ship is a second line support vessel.  Due to the parts that I used to construct a FASA version with the same overall design asthetic, I decided instead to make this a torpedo destroyer instead.

The second ship is a minor update on one of my two favorite FASA designs, the D-10.  I decided to "fix" the minor quibbles that I had with the design including the overly flat/featureless secondary hull by adding gribbly bits to the bottom and putting a proper impulse deck housing ala the D-7 on the top.  I also enlarged the engines and sloped the top of the hull a bit to give it a bit more variation from the front view. 

In the background and rules, I consider this D-10M to be a dedicated command and support variant of the venerable design meant to lead fast moving and cloaked battle groups.  It lacks both the troops characteristically found on Klingon cruisers and research facilities on modern D-10 models, replacing them instead with additional support and command facilities.  Already fairly cavernous due to the hull design, the removal of those facilities as well as external mounting of the impressively powerful impulse engine allows it to fulfill both those roles.  While the offensive armament is unchanged from the most recent model, defensive capabilities are markedly increased with a more efficient variant of the KWE-3 engines and new KSP shielding as well as the installation of the power hungry KCD cloaking device.

For those interested in playing the ship with the FASA rules, here are the fan stats of this pair of vessels as well as printable tokens for use on a hex grid and the 3d models that I put together from CaptainMojo's parts.  Due to my unpleasant experience on thingiverse with my Winged Hussar models being unceremoniously removed without notice/warning, I've decided to host the files here instead.

DORRITOS CLASS 3D MODEL DOWNLOAD LINK 

  D-10M 3D MODEL DOWNLOAD LINK 

State of the Blog Address (2019 in Review)

I have to say that this year passed by quickly!  It's basically a blog tradition that I go over what I did and didn't accomplish over the past 12 months and this year is yet again a bit of a mixed bag.  I'm the traditional hobby front, 2019 wasn't unfortunately much different than the prior year.  I managed to finish what I thought would be my final Winged Hussar (link here) as well as four figs for basically the same rpg character idea.  Why so many?  Well, the character changed as well as my ideas of how to portray him.   The first fig (link here) was printed on shapeways for a previous defunct campaign attempt whereas the others were done at home on my only big hobby project purchase, the Elegoo Mars 3d printer.

I had previously thought I was done with my hussar project but the upcoming release of Master Lazarus for 40k as well as a free 3d model from Artel W might convince me to dip my toes back into that pool later this year.  In the meantime, I've taken a stab at samurai inspired space marines instead with some success (link here) that I have yet to paint as well as a Space Wolf that at least I finished (link here).

Too big...too small...just right!

On the Star Trek front, I made a few entries to my SHIELD UP! house rules section.  While I didn't end up revising my Fasa STSTCS ship manual, I revised the existing D-15 FASA ship (link here) as well as added the Atlas dreadnought to my STA house rules (link here).  I also decided to test out a theory regarding whether you could noticeably improve prepainted heroclix minis with a quick wash and/or drybrush (link here).    Finally, I  came up with some more nuanced rules for playing STA in the Enterprise/NX era of trek (link here).  In that same update, I previewed a 3d version of my old NXL ship design which later got a test print or two (link here) but I never did more with them.  It's not alot but I suppose an optimistic way to look at it would be that I put out at least quarterly trek updates if averaged out for the year.  I don't have any ambitious plans for the trek side of the hobby but I do hope to revisit printing my NXL design now that I'm more experienced with supporting prints as well as coming out with a short Klingon D-7 update for FASA.  I generally need a direct motivation for my hobby work and the lack of any real chance of playing anything trek related locally unfortunately hampers that.

 Cactus Trek!

Ending the recap on a positive note, I was finally able to find a relatively stable rpg group this past year.  While I'm not enamored particularly with the ruleset (review link), it works for me as a player and we've been managing a monthly game since the summer.  It's because of that campaign that I've been focused more on my Krogan miniatures than the others.  I'd love it if we were playing longer than the 3-4 hours per session we average as well as playing every two weeks as originally planned instead of monthly but it's a good group of easy going players and I'm glad to have them.  With that, my yearly TL;DR hobby therapy session post is over and I wish everyone a happy 2020!

 

Another upcoming Krogan RPG character mini!

Birth of the Federation (NX era rules for STA)

I've been working on my first ever "remix" of a Star Trek 3D model (basically the digital equivalent of a plastic model kitbash or conversion).  A while back on one of my first blog entries, I posted my NXL Long Range Exploratory pod idea (link here) and decided recently to try and add a 3rd dimension to the visualization.  That of course brought up the more practical gaming uses for it and reminded me that I wasn't entirely happy with the rules for the NX era in the modern Star Trek Adventures RPG.  The problem that I have with it is that I feel that the rules penalize ships from the era a bit too much as you not only get downgraded but also have to pay an extra cost for the privilege.  For example, you have to pay for the privilege of downgrading your tractor beam to a grappler cannon using a ship trait; similarly, downgrading shields to hull plating costs another.  While I wholeheartedly support making ships of that era worse than those from a century earlier, this double penalizes the worst ships whereas the most powerful ships of the era are functionally equivalent to those that come over a century later when updated. 

Tripp: "How can you be so damn sure what our sensors can do?"

T'Pol: "Vulcan children play with toys that are more sophisticated."  

RULES FOR PLAYING IN THE NX ERA

Ships originating from this era (pre-2200 introduction) have a baseline technology level below that of most eras covered by the Star Trek Adventures core rules.  As such, the starting equipment for a spaceframe introduced before 2200 has the following changes:

• Remove access to shields and the tractor beam; replace them with the polarized hull plating and grappler cable rules respectively from page 55 of the Command Division book supplement.
• Remove photon torpedoes and phasers/disruptors and replace them with plasma turrets (no special qualities) and either the spatial torpedoes and/or nuclear warheads from page 55 of the Command Division book supplement.

   Tripp: "That tractor beam of yours is quite somethin'.  Any chance we could take a look at the specifications?" 

Vannik: "That information is classified."

 In order to emulate the more advanced ships from the era, the following talent is available for selection.

STATE OF THE ART 
Pre-2200 service date introduction only.  This ship contains systems that are far in advance of the common technology of the day.  Each time you select this talent (max twice), you must choose to either upgrade the offensive or defensive systems of the ship.  If you choose the offensive option, you may upgrade your baseline weapons to phase weapons and/or photonic torpedoes.  If you choose defensive, you may upgrade your systems to include shields and/or tractor beams.

For example, the original NX class as launched would just include plasma turrets and spatial torpedoes with all three talent slots open.  If you instead choose to portray the ship as equiped in later seasons, the ship would have the State of the Art (Offensive) talent with the phase weapon and photonic torpedo upgrades.  If you instead wanted to go even later in the era, the NX refit would spend another slot on a second State of the Art talent in order for the ship to include shields and tractor beams.  As always, feel free to let me know what you think of this as an alternative to the official rules for the game.

The Atlas Dreadnought... now in full Trekkiecolor!

A while back, I converted the Atlas Dreadnought that was introduced in the awesome TOS themed Agents of Yesterday expansion in Star Trek Online for the FASA system.   I was holding off from doing a Star Trek Adventures spaceframe until I had the right artwork for that style and JAFisher44 came through yet again!  I've used his 3d models (link here) in the past for my Pioneer and Derf STA writeups and he didn't disappoint with his take on the Atlas either.

I deviated a little bit from the STO version of the ship as I didn't want to stray too close to either my recent Pioneer writeup or my original Hood Class dreadnought in terms of stats and talents.  If you want something that replicates the official console that comes with the ship on STO, just replace the improved shields talent with improved power systems instead (or just take it as one of your optional ones as it's on my recommended list as well).  As with all my fan rules, feel free to comment below.  The full size image is available if you right click/open in new window on the pic or just download the pdf version linked below.

PDF Link

D-15 Klingon Command Cruiser Refit

It's been a while since I did any Trek content for either the current Star Trek Adventures RPG or the classic FASA tabletop game so I figured I'd put up something for both hopefully this week starting with FASA (age before beauty!).

A while back, I put up a FASA STSTCS sheet for my Klingon D-15 cruiser write up (link here) where I used a future 1701C era design that had a retro feel from Star Trek Online.  The prolific trek fan artist Atolm posted his take on some of the highly incongruous Klingon designs shown in Star Trek Discovery (link here) around the same time.   I really liked some of the designs but figured it would end with just that thread and I couldn't adapt those designs for my sheets.  Fortunately, artbraune also liked the designs and decided to commission Sean Tourangeau (the artist who created the Axanar Ares awesome final look) for a set of orthos for many of the ships (link here).  One of the most recent designs he's fleshed out was the Klingon Command Cruiser shown below.  The command cruiser seemed like a great fit for the D-15 with its plasma weapon and later rotary photon torpedo tube launcher due to the enlarged gullet compared with the traditional thin neck on ships like the D-7.

 

Sean Tourangeau's Deviant Art Link

I was fortunate enough that all involved allowed me to adapt the art/design for my blog so I present the revised D-15 Quick Death cruiser for FASA STSTCS.  I've changed a few things both in the story and the stats from my original version to better reflect what Atolm originally created and Sean fleshed out.  As always, right click/open in new window to get the full sized jpeg image or save the pdf linked below instead. 

PDF Link

SHIELDS UP! Custom Ship files for the STSTCS PC Game

 A few weeks ago, I posted a step by step installation guide for the fan created PC version of the STSTCS miniatures board game by FASA.  Since I've been creating house rules for various fanships for a while, it was only natural that I'd try to add some of them into the game itself.  There were some issues in creating and saving the fan ships but I think I've succeeded in making them.  I've combined the files necessarily along with some simple test scenarios into a single zip file along with a readme.txt file with the instructions on where to copy and paste them.  I'm not a programmer myself so an auotinstalling mod is way beyond my abilities unfortunately.  Since I can't test to see if it'll work on computers other than the one they were created on, I'd appreciate it if anyone who attempts to add them let me know if it works.  Thanks again for reading and enjoy!

SHIELDS UP! Fan Ship Files for the STSTCS PC Game

Tales from Terra Nova Issue 1

A while back, I posted a comic book style report of my last Heavy Gear game (which occured a while before the post too!) and mentioned that I was trying to figure out how to publish a PDF version of the complete report instead of the more disjointed single images.  In the intervening years, I've figured out how to do that thanks to my efforts with my SHIELDS UP! Star Trek house rules so I figured I'd finally post the full pdf version of my battle report.  Please note that the game took place prior to the release of the current rules so may reference mechanics no longer used in Heavy Gear in addition to my own FLASH! house rules.

Tales From Terra Nova PDF Link

Attucks Class Attacks! (part 2 FASA version)

 A while back, I came out with a blog post (link here) for the Attucks Class by M. Christopher Freeman for use with the Star Trek Adventures RPG.  Normally, I try to cover new fan ships on my blog for both that current system as well as the classic FASA games but the latter gave me a bit of a problem.  The older FASA game didn't support "fighter" style combat which is the focus of this type of "aircraft carrier in space" style ship.  I decided instead to just cover that specialization in the backstory for the class and have instead stat'ed it up as a frigate in the classic game.  For FASA RPG purposes, the ship still has a large amount of fighter shuttlepods that GMs and players can use but they won't come into play in the tabletop miniatures game.  As always, I've included the full size images below of both the ship sheet and the counters (right click and open them in a new window for the full size) as well as a PDF link.  Thanks and enjoy!

PDF Link

Star Trek: What if? The Century Class for STA

What if the Federation never encountered the Borg and the Dominion?  What would the next heavy cruiser in Starfleet look like?  A while back, I discovered DJ Curtis' Century Class design in a mod for the Star Trek Bridge Commnader video game (link here).  I liked the sleek design of the ship and was happy to see that unusualsuspex on deviant did his own artwork for the ship as well.
 

Deviant Art Gallery Link 

Unusualsuspex was kind enough to allow me to use his gallery for some of my sheets so I was excited to do a variant of the Century for Star Trek Adventures.  In DJ Curtis' fan created backstory, the Century class was the followup to the Sovereign and the bearer of the coveted title of 1701-F roughly 30 years or so after Star Trek Nemesis.  Star Trek Adventures doesn't internally cover that time period and that fan created backstory has largely been replaced by licensed Star Trek Online in the decade since so I decided instead to reimagine the Century as an alternative to the Sovereign class.

To borrow from the title of a classic Marvel Comics series, what if Starfleet had never encountered the Borg or the Dominion and instead pursued the same focus on peaceful exploration that had lead to the creation of the Galaxy class?  Without the urgent need for increased tactical capabilities, I instead focused the ship onto the role of an advanced heavy exploration cruiser with a focus on science, medicine, and exploration.  The command speciality as the flagship of the Federation would be gone as would be the tactical upgrades of the Sovereign.  Instead, the ship would have slightly less overall power and lower top speed than the Sovereign but able to travel with increased efficiency (allowing it to cruise at max warp for many hours despite its size similar to the smaller Intrepid).  The quantum torpedoes would instead be replaced with improved shielding (the only tactical upgrade) as well as advanced sensors and automated laboratories.

As always, let me know if there are any mistakes in the writeup and feel free to comment below.

PDF Link

Derf Tender to the Rescue!

One of the easiest overlooked and least glamorous classes in the old FASA Star Trek game was the Derf Tender.  Much like Chief O'Brien, these ships were the no frills, hard working unsung heroes of Starfleet.  Funtioning as a mobile repair station, the ship capable of doing extensive repairs on deep space buoys as well as other ships and even small stations on site without the necessity of having them towed to a larger starbase.

Obviously this ship already has FASA stats but I wanted to also update it for the new Star Trek Adventures game.  As with the Pioneer class, I thought that the upcoming release of the Ops book would be a good time to introduce this TOS era engineering focused starship.  For the first time, I decided to use official talents not in the core book but instead from the Command Division supplement as they seemed very appropriate to the role that I wanted the ship to fill.  With a high powered tractor beam (backed up by a secondary grappler cable), I imagined this starship being capable of towing at low warp much larger objects up to and including the K series stations.  With a large dedicated engineering staff, it would have the capability to also repair multiple other ships simultaneously as part of a larger fleet.

As always, let me know if there are any issues and thanks for looking here at my custom fan ship sheets.  Normally, I make a single version of the stat sheet but I've decided for this class to instead make two.  CaptShade's art, whose art (link here) I've used for some of my other FASA conversions, graces the classic FASA style sheet below so thanks to him for allowing me to use it.  

PDF Link

 When searching for a more realistic style of art for use on the post's banner image, I found JAFisher44's 3D model pictured above (link here) for this little known class as well.  I decided to make another STA style sheet for the workhorse of Starfleet using his image as well.  The stats are the same on both so the choice on which to use for readers comes down to which style you prefer.

PDF Link

TNG Time... The Emissary and Patriot classes for STA

As mentioned before, I've mainly focused on TMP and especially TOS era can ships for Star Trek Adventures due to the lack of care variety both in the game rules and the source material.  I decided recently though to take my first dip in the TNG pool with my take on the Emissary and Patriot classes below.

Die-hard trekkies might recognize the image above as the original concept version of the Enterprise C Ambassador Class by veteran trek artist and designer Andrew Probert.  While I'm a fan of the version that made it to the screen in the Yesterday's Enterprise episode, the original is hands down IMO an amazing design that much better segways between the Excelsior and Galaxy classes. Years after the end of the show, this original version of the ship was fully fleshed out and updated to modern standards by the talented Tobias Richter for the Ships of the Line calendar.  Both artists were kind enough to allow me to adapt their work for my sheet and I thank them for being able to bring the ship into the game with the free fan stat sheet below.  Initially I was going to refer to it as an Ambassador refit or maybe even the Diplomat class but a synonym search for Ambassador turned up a name that I thought was more appropriate to Trek flavor for a diplomatic and exploration heavy cruiser... the Emissary Class!  I had to differentiate it from the on screen version of the Ambassador that already has official stats so I gave it advanced warp drive to showcase its streamlined look as well as improved hull integrity to put it a half step between scales 5 and 6 mechanically.  The obvious choice of the diplomatic suites talent that was not on the Ambassador class official writeup rounds out the third standard talent for the ship class.

Emissary Class PDF Link

On the other end of the size spectrum is the light cruiser Patriot class shown below.  I found this awesome design by Joe McMullen by happenstance while looking for images of another ship and was instantly hooked.

While I don't have exact dimensions, some of the images Joe made have a scale human figure in them showing the ship to be midway between the Nova and Intrepid classes in size.  When I matched the size of the bridge dome and the escape pods of the Nova class to these, the Patriot turned out to be about 10% longer and has a beefier saucer and secondary hull.  I decided to keep it as a scale 3 ship similar to the Nova but to specialize it for reconnaissance and electronic warfare instead.  In 20th century aviation terms, it's a mix between a SR-71 Blackbird and a wild weasel aircraft.  Equipped with sensitive electronics capable of both spying on and jaming the communications of adversaries, this small ship relies on its extreme speed (Warp 9.985 for up to 6 hours) and electronic capabilities as its primary defense.

Patriot Class PDF Link

As always, right click on the image to open it up full size in a new window or just click the pdf link for that format.  I'd appreciate any feedback folks might have and please  let me know if you find any errors.

A Dastardly Duo Approaches!

I initially focused on custom hero/player ships for the Star Trek Adventures game as obviously they'd see alot of play if used and the pickings for the TOS/TMP eras were pretty slim in the core book.   Equally slim though were the choices for adversaries in those eras and the subsequent expansions haven't really broadened the choices either outside of the TNG era.  As such, I decided to stat up two of my favorite ships from the classic FASA game for use with Star Trek Adventures.

Luckily for me, Brad Torgersen has a treasure trove of classic FASA ship images on his STSTCSOLDA website that he reworked to modern standards and graciously allowed me to use them.  Here are what I will call my dastardly duo double pack... the D-10 Command Cruiser for the Klingons and the V-7 ECM Cruiser for the Romulans.

PDF Link

I've included a section for breaches on the sheets using the NPC quick damage rules format.  If you prefer using the full player character ship damage rules, just pencil in the first few letters of the system damaged in each box instead of filling it in.  And, just in case anyone out there is playing a "villain" campaign and would like to use either of these as their player character ship, just add 2 points each to the systems and the departments divided up however you want and then choose two additional ship talents.  Once you update those stats (and any dependent ones like shields and weapons for example), you'll have a fully capable player character ship to use for your Romulan or Klingon crews.  As always, let me know if there are any typos that I missed or mistakes in the ship construction and thanks for checking this out. 

Javelin Class Shuttlecraft for FASA

Master modelmaker Bill Krause was busy yet again this year creating another scratch built TOS era Star Trek model for the Wonderfest competition.  His design for a 1/24 scale N-Type Javelin Shuttlecraft took both the Best Scratch Building and Trekcellent Awards for Wonderfest 2018.

 

With a fully detailed interior complete with all the modern amenities expected in such a vessel and multicolor lighting throughout, it's not surprising that he came home with some more awards to add to his trophy case.  The full build process from concept to finished award winning model can be found here at Bill's WIP thread.  As with several previous of his designs, he was kind enough to let me stat his latest design up for tabletop gaming.  I'll eventually revisit the Javelin when some more supplements come out for the Star Trek Adventures detailing shuttlecraft rules but I've already come up with a sheet to use it for the venerable FASA system.  As always, just right click and open the image in a new window for the full size or just click on the link below for the pdf version.  Enjoy!

PDF Link

Granting a Quick Death to Enemies of the Klingon Empire!

It's been a while since I did a non-Federation ship for my SHIELDS UP! house rules and for good reason.  Simply put... most fans choose to create Starfleet fanships and it's alot harder to find Klingon and/or Romulan designs let alone ones whose images I can convert to a FASA art style!  Luckily for me, the Star Trek Online game came out with a TOS era expansion a year or two back which got me to take a closer look at their ships.  While not technically a part of the expansion, the Kamarag cruiser in the base game definitely had a TOS/TMP feel to me and the overall ship style looked like it could easily be converted to a FASA ship sheet design. 

PDF Link

I decided to make it an elite heavy/medium cruiser (depending on the era) with an emphasis on speed and stealth.  I try to incorporate less frequently used gear on my ships so the KWF-1 engine (only used in one ship in the official Recognition Manual) seemed like a good choice along with a 2/3 ratio shield generator for the earlier versions.   Debuting not long before the first Romulan/Klingon technology transfer, the D-15 Quick Death cruiser class incorporated and pioneered the use of torpedoes and cloaking technology in the Klingon Empire.  The B variant is identical to the A except that it adds 2 superstructure and the RPL-1 plasma torpedo and KCC cloaking device. While quickly overshadowed by later D-7 and D-10 upgrades, it got a significant upgrade a decade later which put it midway between the aforementioned ships in terms of total firepower.  With the subsequent C variant, I decided to break with the mould of a single forward photon torpedo launcher and use a dual magazine but single launch tube torpedo on the command pod for some more focused firepower along with higher numbers of medium (instead of heavy) disruptors as well.

For a full size version of the jpeg version of the sheet, just right click and open it in a new window.  The pdf is available for free download at the link above as well.  Special thanks to Crypic Studios for coming up with some cool Trek ships designs for STO and to fasaststcs.com for the sheet template I use.  As always, feel free to comment below and let me know if you find any typos or errors that I missed and I hope you enjoy it!

Let Slip the Ships of War! (Ares Class)

Anyone remember when this ship and its production were the most controversial and divisive topic in Trek fandom?  Ah, the good ol' days of 2016!  :)   It took me a while but I've finally gotten around to stating up the cool looking Ares class from the Prelude to Axanar fan film for both the new Star Trek Adventures RPG by Modiphius as well as the old FASA Starship Combat and RPG game.  There isn't a single complete repository of information about this fan created ship so I've looked around various wikis and the extensive series of Trekyards interviews in order to properly stat up the ship.  Special thanks to CaptShade who has allowed me to use his images on my blog as well as to Sean Tourangeau and Alec Peters for creating the Axanar ship design in the first place.  While I may disagree with how the Axanar team conducted themselves in the years after their initial crowdfunding, I can't deny that I enjoyed the initial fruits of their labor in Prelude.

For balance purposes, the Ares in the FASA rules has "only" six (!) photon torpedo launchers for the Mk I instead of the eight officially listed and I've reclassified it as a frigate built during the Four Year's War given the its role in the Axanar lore as a dedicated warship (instead of an assault cruiser which doesn't exist in Fasa).   Additionally, I've included some small counters for the class to use as needed on a hex board.  The more abstracted and less nitty gritty Star Trek Adventures rules for ship frameworks meant that I could pretty much stat it up without changing anything significant.  Just click on the images below in a new window for full sized versions of the sheets or click on the subsequent PDF links for that format.  As always, feel free to comment below and I hope you all enjoy this tough uncharacteristic warship of the Federation!

Ares FASA pdf

Ares Star Trek Adventures pdf

SHIELDS UP! FASA Framework Four Pack for Star Trek Adventures RPG

On the heels of my TOS Fanship framework pack, I decided to incorporate a few of the more unique (and some of my favorite) designs from the classic FASA RPG for use with the new licensed game by Modiphius.  Obviously these are my own personal takes using Captshade's expansive collection of classic FASA artwork so completely unofficial but hopefully based on the letter and/or spirit of the old FASA rules. 

 

PDF link

I used elements from Modiphius' TOS sheet along with some from the classic FASA ones as well.  Thanks to Modiphius for allowing me to modify their sheets for posting on my blog, CaptShade for the permission to use his artwork, and FASASTSTCS.com for the Fasa style templates.  Thanks for looking and enjoy!  As always, comments/questions/criticisms are welcome.

SHIELDS UP! Fanship Framework Four Pack for Star Trek Adventures RPG

Over the past two weeks, I've been working on a set of frameworks for Modiphius' Star Trek Adventures RPG to give TOS fans a bit of variety in the ships they can choose to set their campaigns on beyond just the officially statted out Constitution class.  I decided that I'd combine a few of my favorite fanships from the era into a set similar to what I did with my FASA ships of the same era.  With the permission of various talented artists like Scott Bell-Fleitas, Bill Krause, Chris Freeman, and Masao Okazaki, I've made framework sheets for the Sentinel, Hood, Attucks, and Archer classes for use with Modiphius' new rpg.  Modiphius has also kindly allowed me to modify their official TOS sheets for use on my blog and I've combined them into one easy PDF download as well as linked the individual blog posts below.  Thanks again to all those above for allowing me to use their designs as frankly I don't have any artistic talent of my own.

Fanship Framework Four Pack for STA PDF Link

For those interested in larger images and pdfs of individual ships, just click the tab to the right for my SHIELDS UP! fan rules and you'll find them there.  Let me know if this format works (especially in regards to legible text when printing) in the comments below and thanks for checking it out.

Archer Class Scout Framework for STA

The fourth and final fanship framework in my planned TOS fourpack for STA is the Archer Class.  Designed by Masao Okazaki on the Starfleet Museum and popularized in the Vanguard series of Trek novels, the Archer class was an instant favorite of mine when I got back into Trek expanded lore with my FASA sheets.  It seemed like a great ship to base a fan production or rpg campaign on due to the unique size and role it played compared with normal "hero" ships in Trek.  When Scott Bell-Fleitas of Starship Dynamics came out with his deckplans, I ordered them as soon as possible.  Luckily for me, Masao has allowed me to use his design and Scott his deckplan exterior artwork so I'm able to come out with a framework for this class as well.

At first, I had planned on statting it out with some custom rules to go along with the atypical ship.  My idea was to come up with a "medium ship" trait that gave it some of the benefits and penalties of small craft but only to a limited extent.  I decided that the final result might be a bit too much of a lightweight for a campaign setting and that the custom nature of the rules (especially untested) might turn folks off.  Instead, I utilized the normal rules in the ship section along with one unwritten one from the examples.  The Nova class is an official statted out ship that is the TNG equivalent of the Archer and has roughly 4 less system points than the Intrepid that was developed during roughly the same era.  Though it doesn't state that as an official rule, I decided to incorporate that penalty for the Archer as well.  As always (and especially the case in this atypical framework), feedback would be appreciated.

PDF link

Hood Class Framework Sheet for Star Trek Adventures

What if you took a grand heavy cruiser designed as the preeminent multirole exploration vessel and kitted it out instead for combat?  That's what Bill Krause did with his Hood Class Battlecruiser 1/350 scale model shown below and I'm happy that he allowed me to adapt his ships yet again for my sheets.

Obviously his physical model is photoshopped into a digital scene but the original scale model is quite impressive as shown in the link above to his WIP thread.  Also, Scott Bell-Fleitas was kind enough again to allow me to use his art from his deckplans (which I highly recommend as an RPG aid as an owner of two sets).  This ship, while still capable as an exploratory vessel, is statted out as a refitted combat bruiser.  While I suppose simply applying the "refit" rules for a few decades could also have depicted the Hood Class, I thought that the changes were significant enough (both in role and superstructure) to be its own class.  Additionally, the "refits" of the Connie are obviously the TMP era Enterprise and subsequent 1701A so I thought it best to further differentiate it from them.

As always, I appreciate feedback on the sheets as the format is still somewhat evolving.  Finally, thanks to Modiphius for allowing me to adapt their TOS era sheet for my favorite fan ships.

PDF link

Attucks class, attacks! Star Trek Adventures Framework

For almost a year after seeing some excellent 1/1000 scale model conversions of the TNG Akira to both TMP and TOS versions, I attempted various methods of making a TOS era Akira ship equivalent to no avail.  I tried Neale Davidson's ship toolkits and came up with this:

I also tried converting the Sins of a Solar Empire Trek mod's 3d model of a similar ship into something more FASA like in appearance coming up with this:

Both are excellent resources but I was never really confident in the my efforts on the final FASA style appearance to put it into a sheet.  Luckily for me, I stumbled onto another Trek ship site and found Chris Freeman's much, much better take on the same subject.

Chris' Treknology Ship Entry

Obviously there is a wide gulf in the difference in quality between my own efforts and his so I asked if I could use his decision for both FASA and Star Trek Adventures sheets and he kindly allowed me to.  It turns out that these sheets are a bit quicker to do for STA than the old FASA ones since they don't involve (relatively) labor intensive calculations and fitting them into decades old discontinued fluff so I worked on the STA version first over the weekend. 

PDF Link

I kept the ship true to Chris' own ideas on the class as much as possible (moreso than I'd have been able to with the FASA rules!) keeping the dates and the theme of it being a Trek carrier style ship intact.  Also, I made a few minor tweaks in the appearance and layout as well as added some explanatory text compared with my initial Sentinel prototype version (which I've also updated since) in response to some feedback.  I'm debating whether I should add in more explanatory text as well such as what the talents actually do so feedback would be appreciated. 

Update: I've finally come up with a version of the Attucks class for the FASA game as well that you can find at the link here.