 NX-CLASS STARSHIPS
Craft: United Earth Starfleet NX-Class
Type: Space Explorer
Scale: Capital
Dimensions:
-Length: 225m
-Beam: 135.8m
-Height: 33.3m
-Mass: 80,000 meteric tons
Skill: Capital Starship Piloting (NX-class)
Alternate Skill: Archaic Starship Piloting (NX-class)
Crew: 83 (87?)
-Gunners: 1 (13 if manually operated)
-Skeleton: 5/+10
-Emergency Evac: 100-150 (very short term)
Crew Skill: Astrogation 5D, capital starship engineering 3D, capital starship gunnery 4D+1, capital starship piloting 5D+2, capital starship repair 5D (8D), missile weapons 4D+2, scholar 4D, sensors 4D+1
Passengers: 10
Cargo Capacity: 500 metric tons
Consumables: 5 years
Cost: Not available for sale
Warp Drive:
-Cruising Speed: Warp 4.5 (x66)
-Maximum Speed: Warp 5.2 (x58)
Nav Computer: Yes
Maneuverability: 2D
Speed:
-Space: 4
-Atmosphere: N/A
Hull: 2D (4D)
Defenses:
-Polarized Hull Plating: +2D (see below)
-Shields: N/A
Sensors:
-Passive: 30/0D
-Scan: 60/1D
-Search: 90/1D+2
-Focus: 3/2D
EXTRA CRAFT CAPACITY::
2 shuttlepods
2 workbees
WEAPONS (After Refit):
12 Phase Cannons
Location: Mounted across the hull, retractable
Fire Arc: (all partial turrets)
-4 right/front/left
-4 front/right/rear
-4 front/left/rear
Crew: 1
Skill: Capital ship gunnery
Scale: Capital
Fire Control: 1D
Range:
-Space: 2-5/15/30
-Atmosphere: 200-500m/1.5km/3km
Damage: 4D
Rate Of Fire: 1/2
SPECIAL [Overcharged Shot]: 8D (more details, see below)
SPECIAL [Pulsed Phase Cannons]: +2 Damage (see below)
6 Torpedo Launchers (Photonic Torpedoes)
Location:
-4 in forward lower saucer section (cannot fire "up")
-2 in rear hull
Fire Arc: 4 front, 2 rear
Crew: 1 (for all 6 together)
Skill: Missile Weapons
Scale: Capital
Fire Control: 1D
Range:
-Space: 1/2/4
-Atmosphere: 100/200/400m
Speed: 4 (400m in atmosphere)
Damage: 6D
Ammo: 60 (10 per launcher)
Rate Of Fire: 1/3
SPECIAL: Fire-link optional (see below)
WEAPONS (Before Refit):
6 Plasma Cannons
Location: Mounted across the hull, retractable
Fire Arc: (all partial turrets)
-2 right/front/left
-2 front/right/rear
-2 front/left/rear
Crew: 1
Skill: Capital ship gunnery
Scale: Capital
Fire Control: 1D
Range:
-Space: 1-5/10/20
-Atmosphere: 50-500m/1km/2km
Damage: 2D
Rate Of Fire: 1
6 Torpedo Launchers (Spatial Torpedoes)
Location:
-4 in forward lower saucer section (cannot fire "up")
-2 in rear hull
Fire Arc: 4 front, 2 rear
Crew: 1 (for all 6 together)
Skill: Missile Weapons
Scale: Capital
Fire Control: 1D
Range:
-Space: 1/2/4
-Atmosphere: 100/200/400m
Speed: 4 (400m in atmosphere)
Damage: 3D+1
Ammo: 60 (10 per launcher)
Rate Of Fire: 1/3
SPECIAL: Fire-link optional (see below)
Grapplers
Location: Mounted in lower sections of the hull
Fire Arc: Turret
Crew: 1
Skill: Missile Weapons
Scale: Starfighter
Fire Control: 1D
Range:
-Space: 1-2/3/4
-Atmosphere: 50-200m/300m/400m
Damage: 2D
Rate of Fire: 1/2 (must reload if missed or separated)
DESCRIPTION:
The NX-class was a type of United Earth starship in Starfleet service during the mid-22nd century. The class is notable for having been the first to be constructed with the warp five engine, allowing Humanity to explore beyond neighboring star systems. The lead ship of the class, Enterprise, was launched in 2151, weeks ahead of schedule, while the second, Columbia, was launched in 2154, after lengthy delays in drydock.
HISTORY
United Earth
The NX-class was conceived of in the early 22nd century as part of the NX Project at the Warp Five Complex: a research and development site on Earth, where Henry Archer, Zefram Cochrane and Captain W.M. Jefferies, among others, worked on the creation of the warp five engine. (ENT: "Broken Bow", "Home"; Enterprise (NX-01) dedication plaque set artwork)
Starships of the NX-class were far more formidable than the freighters that had preceded them. Following the construction of the first starship of the class (the Enterprise NX-01), three more NX-class starships were on the drawing board by August 2151. (ENT: "Broken Bow", "Fortunate Son")
NX-01 Enterprise
Enterprise was launched from the Orbital Drydock Facility on April 12, 2151, under the command of Captain Jonathan Archer. The launch occurred three weeks ahead of schedule because United Earth needed to return the Klingon Klaang to his homeworld. The early launch was strongly protested by the Vulcans, who believed Humanity was not ready to explore space. Ambassador Soval managed to wrangle a concession from Starfleet, forcing the placement of Subcommander T'Pol on Enterprise in exchange for Vulcan star charts. (ENT: "Broken Bow")
The early launch of Enterprise meant that it left spacedock somewhat unprepared: its spatial torpedoes were uncalibrated and its phase cannons weren't even installed. The spatial torpedoes were calibrated in the heat of battle in May of 2151; the ship only survived because of the intervention of the Axanar. (ENT: "Fight or Flight") The phase cannons were not installed until September 2151, while Enterprise battled an unknown enemy. (ENT: "Silent Enemy")
After the Xindi attack on Earth in March of 2153, Enterprise was recalled home. Arriving on April 24th, the ship was refitted and upgraded with new photonic torpedoes, a universal translator update, and a new command center. She was relaunched on a new mission to the Delphic Expanse to search for the Xindi weapon. (ENT: "The Expanse", "The Xindi")
The search for the Xindi was long and perilous, taking almost a year. In February 2154, Enterprise determined the location of the Xindi weapon and arrived in the Azati Prime system. (ENT: "Stratagem", "Azati Prime") There, the ship suffered severe damage due to multiple attacking Xindi ships. The primary warp coil was destroyed, damage that required drastic actions on the part of Captain Archer to repair. (ENT: "Damage")
Enterprise accomplished its mission to destroy the Xindi weapon and was returned to Earth by a Xindi-Aquatic cruiser following the end of the mission, though it made a slight detour to an alternate timeline's 1944 with the help of Daniels, where the vessel's crew managed to stop Vosk and bring an end to the Temporal Cold War. (ENT: "Zero Hour", "Storm Front", "Storm Front, Part II")
After returning to its own timeline, Enterprise continued to serve the United Earth Starfleet for another seven years. The vessel was decommissioned in 2161. (ENT: "These Are the Voyages...")
NX-02 Columbia
At the time of the Xindi attack on Earth in 2153, the second NX-class starship, Columbia, was still under construction. In November 2154, Columbia was launched under the command of Captain Erika Hernandez. (ENT: "The Expanse", "Affliction")
Compared to the class prototype, Enterprise, Columbia's hull polarization was improved by twelve percent. Furthermore, the ship possessed ventral and dorsal photonic torpedo launchers as well as pulsed phase cannons. Another improvement was that the bridge stations were directly tied into the primary EPS junction. (ENT: "Home")
In November of 2154, Columbia was stuck in dry dock with engine trouble, delaying the ship's launch, and rendering it unable to assist Enterprise during a large-scale orchestrated hunt for the Romulan drone-ship. (ENT: United")
In late 2154, the vessel's engine troubles were fixed upon the transfer of Enterprise engineer Charles Tucker to Columbia, allowing the vessel to be launched in November of that year. (ENT: "Affliction")
Mirror Universe
In the mirror universe, NX-class battle cruisers were the pride of the Terran Empire, with vessels such as the ISS Enterprise and ISS Avenger serving as the flagships of fleets. They were slightly more advanced than the vessels of United Earth, a result of the application of stolen Vulcan technology taken from the T'Plana-Hath in 2063. These vessels primarily used plasma cannons and photonic torpedoes in battle, though they did carry phase cannons as well. (ENT: "In a Mirror, Darkly", "In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II")
TECHNICAL DATA
Physical Arrangement
The NX-class consisted of a habitable saucer module that contained seven decks (lettered A through G) and a symmetrical warp field governor located just aft of the saucer section, that regulated the warp field shape that would otherwise break apart at higher warp factors. Two half-decks were inserted between D and E deck, as well as between E and F deck. These contained plasma conduits and access tunnels.
Propulsion Systems
NX-class ships achieved warp flight through two warp nacelles, which housed multiple pairs of warp coils. Maximum speed was warp 5.2, and the NX-class was the first Earth vessel to achieve warp 5.06. (ENT: "Babel One", "Affliction") Standard cruising speed was warp 4.5. (ENT: "Broken Bow") A retrofitted Enterprise from an alternate timeline was theoretically able to reach warp 6.9 for short intervals. (ENT: "E?") There were two fairing impulse engines, mounted on the aft of the pylons leading to the warp nacelles. The navigational deflector was mounted on the front of the saucer module.
Tactical Systems
Initially, in 2151, the NX-class starships were designed to carry three phase cannons as the primary weapons of the ship. (ENT: "Silent Enemy") While these were powerful weapons by Human standards at the time, they were still considered to be "low-yield" particle cannons by the Klingons of the era. (ENT: "Judgment") The ship was also fitted with plasma cannons and spatial torpedoes that also turned out to be mostly less than effective in combat. (ENT: "Broken Bow", "Fight or Flight") Later on, the NX-class weapon systems were upgraded to include several more phase cannons. In 2153, photonic torpedoes were installed and improved pulsed phase cannons were developed by 2154. (ENT: "The Expanse", "Home")
The defensive systems of the NX-class were also not as advanced as those of other races at the time. Instead of deflector shields and tractor beams, the NX-class was equipped with polarized hull plating and grapplers.
Shuttlecraft Systems
Located mainly on E Deck was the launch bay. The pressurized sector of the bay ? limited to E deck ? contained the launch bay control room, while the launch bay itself, on F deck, was where the two shuttlepods were docked. A magnetic docking arm extended from the launch bay's ceiling to lower or raise a shuttlepod upon arrival or departure of the craft. (ENT: "Broken Bow", "Fight or Flight")
GAME NOTES:
-SKILLS: Some of the skills listed above may seem abnormal when compared to stats presented in Star Wars D6 RPG books. This is to represent that this is an exploration starship, not a ship of war, as Star Trek focused more on exploring space, and not the Good VS Evil conflicts that Star Wars was known for. Also, some of the skills presented (scholar, engineering, repair) are to represent how many times in Star Trek stories the crew had to think their way out of a situation when combat was a poor option. In the time of the NX-class of ships, this could not be more obvious, as their early weapons compliment almost never had the punch to deal with threats, and sometimes even the later weapons would not do the job and other methods had to be found.
-ALTERNATE SKILL (CAPITAL STARSHIP PILOTING): The NX class is Starfleet's first true warp capable deep space explorer starship to be produced in fleet numbers. It is also a very old design when compared to classes of starship to be produced in the coming centuries, having more analogue controls and other design elements closer to modern day than the far future. As such, while Capital Starship Piloting will work to fly the ship, if set later in Star Trek's timeline, then Archaic Starship Piloting may be a better skill to apply to the NX class. As later designs of starship are more advanced, replacing analogue controls with more computerized and less physical controls, many people in the future may have no idea how to pilot these older vessels. Also, depending on the views of the GM and players, the NX class may also be seen as closer to a space transport instead of a capital starship, as it is much smaller than established capital ships in Star Trek and Star Wars. As such, Space Transport Piloting would also be an accepted variant skill.
-WEAPONS SYSTEMS: While the weapons lists "Crew" and the Crew lists "gunners" above, all weapons can be operated either from the bridge or the ship's armory. In effect, the weapons could all be operated by one single very skilled crewman if they know what they're doing, and often are operated as such. The Phase Cannons can be operated manually if needed, and more crewmen can be present in the armory to aid in operating the weapons or loading the torpedo launchers faster (instead of relying on the free actions of a single crewman).
-POLARIZED HULL PLATING: During this era, Starfleet did not have energy shielding yet. Instead, they used a form of "Polarized Hull Plating", where the hull would be energized and become more resilient to impacts and other forms of damage. Though this is not as powerful or advanced as energy shielding, it is quite possible that the NX-01 Enterprise would have been destroyed at some point if it did not have this defensive ability. When using Polarized Hull Plating, it must be activated in the same manner as using one of the Starship Shields skills (if the GM allows, Shields skills could be substituted for Computer Use, Piloting or Repair/Engineering skills for activation). When activated, its extra dice/pips add to the ship's Hull Dice just as shields would. Polarized Hull Plating cannot divide its dice to cover multiple fire arcs of the ship, but grants its benefits to all fire arcs simultaneously. If damage is take that would reduce shield dice/pips, this damage is applied to the fire arc the damage was taken at and remains until repaired by the ship's crew. Otherwise, Polarized Hull Plating can be damaged much in the same way as energy shields, such as rolls on the damage chart removing shields alltogether. Due to the nature of Polarized Hull Plating, it cannot be specifically targeted by attacks, unlike energy shields which have identifiable components.
[ALTERNATE RULE NOTE]: I was considering applying a rule that the Polarized Hull Plating could offer an option to taking damage where the dice/pips could instead be reduced at -1 pip per damage category. However, this is more along the lines of Ablative Hull Armor, something developed later on in the 24th century with ships like the USS-Defiant and later vessels. For an NX-class, this is too powerful and should not be done, as it was meant to be a precursor to these later ship designs.
-GRAPPLERS: The NX-class did not possess tractor beams, instead using physical grappling cable devices, "grapplers", to latch onto other objects. As a rule of thumb, these can only be used on Starfighter scale and smaller objects, such as shuttlepods, other forms of shuttlecraft or starfighters, floating debris, and other objects such as the Xindi weapons platform. Their range is limited, and often the Enterprise has had to swing by while flying at full speed to grab an object and get away from enemies to avoid return fire. Compare to tractor beams, they are rather weak, but will do when nothing else is available.
-WARP DRIVE: In the Star Trek setting, instead of using hyperdrives to achieve faster than light travel (FTL), warp drives are used instead. Warp drives are limited compared to hyperdrives; nstead of being able to travel the full breadth of the galaxy in reasonable time, they can only cover a small portion of the galaxy (though this area is still vast and considerable!). Though not as fast as hyperdrives, there is still much to see in a Star trek setting, as the main feel of Star Trek has always been about exploration into new frontiers of space. In the future I may create a travel chart much in the same vein as that in the various Star Wars RPG books, as well as a decked out explanation on Warp Speed (actually, I believe one Simon Lucas may already have!). Until such time, using a warp drive is pretty simple; the larger the number, the fast you go (unlike hyperdrives, where the lower the number the faster you go), and Star Trek often uses a "speed of plot" approach to travel, zipping around quickly to different locations in space, and sometimes racing against the clock and other antagonists as part of the story. These simple elements are easy to work in to any Trek game. Also worth noting: Warp 10 isn't supposed to be possible to achieve, and mishaps occur when people try; other methods are discovered for achieving faster speeds to cross the galaxy, such as transwarp, folding space, quantum slipstream, the rare galactic anomaly or scientific accident, and of course when Q snaps his damn finger.
-TRANSPORTERS: A big difference between Star Wars and Star Trek is the use of transporter technology. While there are many cases where a transporter could be vastly advantageous when compared to Star Wars, they do also have their quirks and disadvantages. Where they could be used to board a ship, space station, or beam to the surface of a planet, this could simply be looked at as a quick bypass of using other ships (much like a cutscene in a movie to quickly switch from one scen to another). While many players could quickly get ideas of how to use transporters to gain a quick advantage against an enemy, GMs and players should remember that these same ideas could be used against them as well, especially if the enemy has a more advanced transporter. As a general rule of thumb, certain ideas should be disallowed and given reason for why (can't transport an enemy ship's warp core out of the ship because of too much distortion caused by the radiation and/or power output, and even if it were done, it could cause damage to the transporter's systems or the rest of the ship, something like that). Also, the transporter could make for a handy plot device (crew members could take part in an away team off the ship, then can't get back due some kind of interference, leaving them to continue on with the mission, and the interference simply be bad weather, or an actual part of the plot itself). All of this being said, there are still many great ideas to use transporters for, even tactically, and anything is at least possible if a Difficulty is set. Basic rules for using transporters: first the transporter operator must make a sensor lock on the destination or object to be transported to or from the ship's transporter pad. Then the transporter must be activated, at least as an action taken after the sensor locks have been made, though other factors could make this also require a skill roll with a Difficulty Level. Skills involved: Sensors to make target locks, and Computer Use to activate the transporter; "Transporter" could also be its own skill in this setting, or at least be a Specialization of Computer Use. If transporting an object from one location to another without the use of a transporter pad, then two separate transporter sensor locks must be made (one "to" and one "from" the desired locations/objects). Transporter usage starts at Easy Difficulty, and is modified based on other factors, such as distance (Easy in Focus Sensor range, +1 Difficulty Level per Sensor Range Category after that), and then followed by other random factors the situation can present (+1 Difficulty for unfavorable circumstances such as transporting through dense materials like many meters of thick bedrock to an underground facility, some form of radiation mucking up the sensors, alien design of the location being transported to/from, random cosmic anomalies, weather, ionic stuff, that nature, Q deciding to redirect the plot of the campaign on purpose, and just about anything you can think of). For the NX-class of ships, transporters are still new and unrefined, giving them an automatic +1 Difficulty. Any increase in Difficulty Level past Very Difficult adds +5 to the rolls required.
-VARIANTS AND ODD RULES:
--ORIGINAL LAUNCH VARIANT: The stats presented here are to represent the NX-01 Enterprise after its upgrades and refits with better weapons and technology overall. To represent the Enterprise as when she first launched from dry dock, the weapons for this time are provided above, and some of the ship's stats could be reduced slightly (Polarized Hull Plating -1). Also, when the Phase Cannons were installed, Enterprise was meant to carry three, and did so for some time after the crew installed the weapons themselves. The compliment of twelve listed above was installed after the refit.
--NX-02 COLUMBIA UPGRADES: It is also worth mentioning that the NX-02 Columbia was more advanced than NX-01 Enterprise, benefitting from further advances in technology after Enterprise's refit: Polarized Hull Plating was increased by 12% (add +1); Phase Cannons were replaced by Pulsed Phase Cannons (+2 to Damage); Columbia is said to have both dorsal and ventral torpedo launchers (spread the four front launchers at two each in the upper and lower saucer section, allowing fire both above and below the ship).
--PHASE CANNONS [OVERCHARGED SHOT]: At one point early on, Enterprise faced a powerful unknown enemy ship and could not damage it with the weapons she carried at the time. Since she launched weeks early from dry dock, the phase cannons she was meant to carry had not been installed yet, but were still aboard awaiting proper installation. The crew, being technicians and engineers, installed the weapons themselves. However, a malfunction occurred during test firing the weapons, resulting in an overcharged shot that completely obliterated a lunar mountain used as the target. The weapon required extensive repairs after this and could not fire again until repairs were completed. If this Overcharged Shot is used, it requires a Moderate Repair/Engineering roll to prepare, and a Difficult Repair/Engineering roll and lengthy stretch of time to fix afterwards (good part of a day, higher difficulty to reduce time, minimum one hour).
--TORPEDO LAUNCHERS [FIRE-LINKING]: The torpedo tubes can only fire once every three rounds (1/3, shown above) as they take time to prepare and reload (this is done more personally by the crew, since this is the old days of Trek). However, to maintain pressure in combat, often the launchers are fired one at a time, so that one launcher can fire, while the previous launcher(s) can be reloaded. Another ability of the weapons is to fire multiple shots together for greater damage, as per the Star Wars D6 rules for Fire-linking weapons. If this is done, as per the revised rules, Damage is +1D for the first extra torpedo, and +1 pip for every extra torpedo afterwards.
--DOUBLE SHIP MANEUVER: At one point the Enterprise and Columbia successfully attempted a maneuver where both ships flew at warp speed while in close formation with each other. During this event their Polarized Hull Plating some how managed to combine to make both ships more resilient. If this maneuver is attempted (Very Difficult Capital Ship Piloting roll), the Polarized Hull Plating dice will combine and both ships will benefit from the combined dice of this defensive system.
OTHER INFO:
-Owner: United Earth
--Mirror Universe: Terran Empire
-Operator: Starfleet
--Mirror Universe: Starfleet
-Active: 22nd Century
-Decks: 7 (A-G)
DESIGN NOTES:
In making starship stats for the Star Trek setting, I used an "evolution/branch out" approach to building the ships. Considering the number of various classes of Starfleet vessels that exist, this seemed the best approach to maintain a sense of balance and progression through the history of the setting.
To start with, this means I first chose a starting point to begin making stats. In this case, the NX class, as it is one of the earliest designs of Starfleet ships, if not THE first, that the future fleet of ships was based on.
Then, as I statted out later variants of the design, I "evolved" the stats as I went by looking at the future ships, which would obviously be more advanced and powerful. This pretty much meant every version of the Enterprise after the NX type, all of which had a similar design (forward/upper saucer section; a stretched out lower hull; a neck section connecting these from lower/rear saucer to upper/forward lower hull; twin warp necelles behind the saucer, somewhat beside/above the lower hull; pylons connecting the warp nacelles to the lower hull; all in similar position as a whole).
After statting out these specific ship classes and creating a progressive baseline to go by, I would then "branch out" to stat out other classes of starship, based on what time periods they exist in and how their visual designs show that they used technology and design elements related to the baseline ships (for example: Constitution class ships have similarities to Miranda and Constellation classes; Galaxy class ships have similarities to the Nebula class; Sovereign class have similarities to all the newer designs that appeared in First Contact and everything afterwards, etc).
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