Any classic 'crew comes upon an abandoned fenderation ship' scenarios out there?

I was looking into maybe starting a Star Trek Adventures campaign, or at least a few adventures, out there once Covid-19 clears up, and I have a rough idea about what kind of game I’d like to have. I’d really like to do an ‘in over their heads’ style game, and what I’ve come up with is an idea where the PCs do NOT start out as senior officers on the ship. Instead, a crew comes upon an abandoned federation ship (like an Oberth class) and has an adventure figuring out what happened to the crew and whatnot. At the end of the scenario, the captain diverts some of his crew to the abandoned vessel to man it with a skeleton crew so that they can get it back to starfleet, and then the rest of the games could be about this inexperienced crew and their misadventures flying this thing back to Utopia Planitia. Their ‘captain’ would be a Lt. Commander at most, most of the players would be ensigns or Lt. j.g. I think it would be a fun idea for a game. Any published adventures that I could modify so that at the end of the game the PCs have control of an old(er) federation ship and they have to make a shlep back to Starfleet?

Well, what about The Alcubierre, Part One of the Starter Set Campaign A Star Beyond the Stars? I’d recommend to play through this campaign and transfer the skeleton crew to the Alcubierre only after finishing all three adventures. They’re designed to familiarise the players with STA’s rules and thus would be a good start into an STA campaign. :slight_smile:

Good luck and much of fun with your campaign!

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Wait, there’s a ship called the Alcubierre? A Star Trek ship named after the REAL LIFE Mexican Physicist who theorized how to make FTL possible DIRECTLY INSPIRED BY STAR TREK? Man that is some recursive inception level stuff that I DON’T want to get into.

Anyway, thanks for the info, I’ll look for that adventure.

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Both the mission and the ship it’s centered on are named Alcubierre. The ship itself is a technical-testbed that is exploring new means of propulsion. :wink:

You just gotta love STA’s writing. :smiley:

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Man, I didn’t realize you could make the Oberth into a nasty little ship. I mean, is it going to win against a sovereign? No, if you give it the tactical operations mission profile in 2475 it has enough refit points to give it most stats at ten, and you can give it quantum torpedoes!

Death Oberth, here I come!

Thinking of modifying that scenario. Thanks for pointing me to it. I like the idea of Section 31 retrofitting an Oberth class ship to be a stealth assassination ship. Like, enemy detects an Oberth class science vessel. Next moment, full salvo-quantum torpedoes! Plus their on-board sensors would allow them to spy quite effectively.

For some reason I am reminded of the very first mission of Starfleet Academy. You could choose to command an Oberth-class vessel in the mission. If you do so you receive following comment: “Oberth-class? Interesting choice.”

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There are some Coriolis adventures that could be adapted, The Dying Ship and the Last Voyage of the Ghazalis could be done with some changes.

Working it out more and more in my head, I’m thinking it would be a 3-parter. One would be adapted from the first adventure of A star Beyond the Stars. Ditch the parasite angle and have the ship be a highly modified Oberth class made by section 31 as a camouflaged assassination ship. It is designed to spy on boarders and, if anyone comes sniffing, destroy it then with surprising firepower. Something goes wrong on the test flight and the Remnants of the Obsidian Order have taken it over. The PCs show up, unaware of this, and have to retake the ship mostly exactly like the Alcuberrie mission.

Mission 2 would have the PCs left behind to get the ship up and running and fly it back to Earth. Problem is, when they power up the main computer it asks for their section 31 codes which they don’t have. After that the computer turns on them and threatens to blow them all up to keep section 31’s secrets, and it turns into an episode reminiscent of DS9’s Civil defense.

Last scenario would be that section 31 finds out what is going on and decides to take Out loose ends by sending an Akira class with orders to destroy them. The PCs have to find a way to outwit/survive long enough to figure the plot out and let Starfleet command know what’s up.

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That sounds like fun.

Leaving the refits and the quantum torpedoes aside, there’s a fan theory that the Oberth’s odd configuration is because the sensor pod (the lower part) is just one of a series of modules that can be fitted to the core vessel. It’s basically a very small and low budget Miranda or Nebula for colonies.

I’ve seen designs for tugs (cargo pod slung in place of the sensors), courier (additional warp nacelles on the underside), hospital vessel (purpose-designed pod in place of the sensors), and several versions of what might be called a corvette or gunboat, with a version of the Miranda torpedo pod slung underneath. Wouldn’t last a minute against even a b’rel, but would give pirates a reason to reconsider their assault.

(Hunt on starship schematics for the likes of Fisher-class, Clarke-class, Anqueria-class, or Jester- or Orka-class respectively.)

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was it ever said what it was testing? or was that left up to the GM?

Chapter 1, page 6. Emphases mine:

PART ONE: THE ALCUBIERRE
In their first assignment, the Player Characters must make
contact with and recover the U.S.S. Alcubierre, a test-bed
for a new type of warp drive. It introduces the game rules
and advises the Gamemaster how to run the mission, one
Task at a time.

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so a bit of both… general category but no specifics?

interesting. wonder what you could do capabilities wise… true transwarp seems unlikely, as does coaxial warp. transwarp conduits seem unlikely too, not with only 2 years after first encountering them in TNG “descent”.

trying to replicate Subspace Vortex’s maybe? it’s been over two centuries, i could see the theory on how those were made being developed enough to attempt replication, using warp fields to replicate whatever special trait the expanse had that allowed it to work.

If you assume the Science +2 can be moved based on the modular pod attached, Security +2 for a tactical pod, Medicine +2 for a hospital pod, etc… it becomes a quite capable little ship.

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I was thinking of the physical configurations, but yes, that’s a very practical in-game approach!

Of course, tactical also adds photon torpedoes, other pods would add appropriate talents.

If you make the Oberth a Tactical Operations mission profile it can just get a free quantum torpedo launcher.

Ouch! An Oberth with quanthum torpedoes is actually quite scary… Late period only of course - not available in the 2280s!

But does a weapons upgrade talent include the weapon system in the first place? Otherwise there’s no cost as such - there doesn’t seem to be any way to add an extra weapon system outside of spaceframes and profiles.

Quantum Torpedo launcher SPECIFICALLY says that you ADD a quantum torpedo launcher to the ships list of armorments.

That’s weird - I’m not seeing that:

“The vessel has been equipped with the latest in ship-to-ship munitions: the quantum torpedoes. The ship has quantum torpedoes in addition to any other form of torpedo it carries.”

Doesn’t mention a launcher at all - just the torpedoes. Do you think my copy is out of date, perhaps?