Deck plans for STA

[Felderburg]

To respond to the original question, the main STA campaign I played didn’t use deck plans, or an MSD. I suppose we relied more heavily on ‘theater of the mind’ type play than other groups might, though. I did start making an MSD and deck plans (we had a Nova class, so it was small enough) that our GM used for reference, since it helped ground things on board the ship, but it wasn’t essential and was never used as an actual image in gameplay.

The part that was used the most was the deck listing, which was mostly based on Memory Alpha’s deck listing for a Nova class. I think that’s probably the most relevant and least-work-intensive item, but even that could be subject to change based on the talents a ship has. An MSD would also be super duper cool, but again, might have some of the specifics change based on talents.

I think there are some issues with creating deck plans. The first being, as @BrianDavion notes, plans made for a “cool” factor that don’t take into account “real-world” considerations may be seen as insufficient for some players (“real-world” here meaning the physical logistics that we see on shows and that officially released plans have shown, as opposed to just lines for walls in important areas. The Ed Whitefire Enterprise-D plans are an especially good reference for this, as they include the physical “keel”-type bulkheads and structural elements).

The other being that many existing deck plans or info on ships carry forward things that are not official or don’t quite make sense. A Call to Duty is a cool site, to be sure, but there’s been several things on there (I can’t think of examples right now) that I find questionable in terms of how we saw the ship work, or that were clearly just made up to fill out a ship’s specs. And the Nova deck plans linked above use the extrapolated size from angled shots of the ship next to Voyager, or the MSD (which should rarely be used for scale), but Rick Sternbach has noted the drawings he made were sized significantly larger, and the Eaglemoss model used his size as the official size. Given that STA pulls much of its lore from beta canon and similar sources, I would be concerned about things like that getting pulled forward to STA plans.

So if Modiphius were to create plans, it would be a lot of work with a lot of potential for dissatisfied people, and I’m not sure how many would even be purchased. I’m sure that there’s a reasonable market for general collectors of licensed deck plans, but I suspect many wouldn’t be purchased unless a table needed a specific ship’s items.

 

 

 

(In case anyone wants to see the incomplete Nova-class stuff I made: https://keithblumenfeld.com/afop/scorpiimsd/. And as long as I’m showing my art, proof I can make a complete MSD: https://keithblumenfeld.com/bajormsd/)

[Astronut]

I always assumed the staterooms had Lower Decks-style bunks or the crew “hot-bunked”. There are supposed to be 3 or 4 crew per room and according to the author, enlisted and officers share!

Regarding the “submarine” look, I may be imposing my own ideas on that - as I say, the “circular” main corridor is on the original plans. I imagine a lot of machinery: the warp core taking up most of the upper engineering section (although I like the high-bay), impulse doing the same on the deck below, with consoles nestled wherever they fit. If someone has a berth there, they’re probably in a hammock (like Kaylee in Firefly). On the other hand, your version does look like a compacy Kirk-era starship - clean and clunky - so that definitely works!

I hadn’t registered the matching rectangle on the cargo deck, but do you need a cargo lift on a ship with transporters and artifical gravity? They might just have a trap door in the corridor or engineering

All of these are extremely minor niggles - I love it - and I might have to try and figure out my own. I’ve done a couple of bridges and odd rooms, but haven’t tackled a full small ship yet!

[Capt_Harker]

THIS is the Blueprint battlemat for a Nova Class Starship (by Falke!)

Each square is meant to be printed at 1-inch, which represents 1-meter. But the squares can be ignored for the types that prefer zones. I posted all of this for FREE, for GM’s and players to use in the STA game! There are PLENTY more for Nova Class Compartments, found here: https://www.pinterest.com/eliyahuyosefKaplan/star-trek-adventures-by-modiphius/

[Capt_Harker]

Heck, I might as well post a few more: (again, all artwork by my good friend, Falke on Deviantart)

Hope you guys get some good use out of these! The cargo bay, as well as the gym, officer’s lounge, and rec room are all very big!!! The shuttlebay and the maintenance bay just beneath on Deck 5 is ENORMOUS when printed out!

[Capt_Harker]

Well, Jim, I have a project going with certain artists to basically do every compartment aboard my Nova Class Starship, including battle mats, and I’ve been posting the results everywhere, so that game masters and players can have access to them and use them in-game! Modiphius has published several compartments for a Galaxy (and presumably a Nebula Class) starship, but there are several smaller ships. Also, we play with 1-inch squares representing square meters, to show accurate position and movement on the gameboard and tabletop. This is a VAST improvement over the old way of playing D&D when I was a kid; I had thrown a fireball at a goblin, not realizing until it was too late that my friend the dwarf was standing in the way, far too close to the goblin! I singed my friend’s beard unintentionally, and the ribbing I got–which lasted for YEARS from ages 15 through 17–have never been forgotten! When D&D finally came up with battle mats and miniatures, I breathed a sigh of relief! So YES–I most certainly do play and run all our roleplaying games with battle mats with squares or hexes, showing exact position!

[bcholmes]

I’ve been watching Falke’s work evolve for several years now, and I think he’s pretty amazing. It’s also cool that you’ve been prompting so much of this cool work.

Kudos,
BC