It would be nice to get official Orion species stats, especially since we have an Orion main character now in Ensign Tendi from Lower Decks.
Well Gamma Quadrant book mentions the Dominion War and has some “ships as characters” templates and basic species templates. But it barely skims over the war and doesn’t give any real detail to plan around. As a Sector Supplement it is a good book. As an Campaign Supplement it lacks.
“phoning it in” is a phrase that mean taking the quickest and easiest way out. Not a compliment. Ships as characters is an affliction that has glomed onto many modern RPG’s. A high level abstract method that allows the task of ship related activities to be pawned off on the players. Sad but what we have. At this point a ship supplement that includes fluff descriptions and information so a GM has something to refer to when making up technobabble would be great. I have the books and supplements from four different Trek based RPGs (FASA Trek, Decipher Trek, LUG Trek and Prime Directive) and I have gathered over 40 deckplans and layouts suitable to the table, so it isn’t as hard to ad lib. But many peeps do not have the material so a ship book that gave a basic, RPG level, description and function of the various parts of Trek Era starship would go miles. Star Trek isn’t like Star Wars where you can ignore the large ships as plot devices and just throw a fighter or one of dozens of small ship deckplans at the players since most ships are a means to get from point A to B. Star Trek uses actual ships as its main focus and GM’s shouldn’t have to get basic needed information from other sources and out of print RPG’s.
Don’t get me wrong, I think STA is an amazing game. It is just Starships and Starbases have basically been “phoned in”.
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I’m late to the convo but I don’t think I’ve seen anyone suggest an Orion Syndicate campaign. We often hear how dangerous that world is but we rarely experience it. Maybe some espionage, intel recovery, captures and escape, chases, deals gone bad.
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Great idea.
Could you please format the starter set tokens PDFs so we could print them on something like Avery’s Presta® 94500 labels? The labels are the right size and count, but not as closely spaced as the token PDF.
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the main differences i can think of is the fact that the Ablative armor generator can deploy and retract the armor, while the ablative armor trait is used more for static hull armor like the Defiant had. also the generator can reinforce/repair the shell during battle if you have a bit of time with no incoming damage. In addition the generator cannot be combined with shields, while the standard ablative armor can. so some new mechanics would be needed to depict it properly.
The two types of ablative armor are completely different technologies, albeit not helped by the writers using the same name.
I’m assuming Voyagers advanced armor is based off nano-tech creating an adaptive barrier around the ship as a more physical version of shields. The Defiant version, which is present in the core rules, I basically just chunks of metal built into the hull in a way that dissipates heat and energy.
There is definitely room for some of this advanced tech to get a STA treatment, since it wasn’t present in the engineering book.
i’d love a pdf with regenerated support crew and gallery of sepperate pictures you can print out and paper clip to them to allow somebody to pick up a supporting character sheet, write in a name and be ready to roll rather thna having to take time out generating support crew when they are needed.
and yes, i realise it doesnt take long, but it takes enough time that i’d prefer to keep in the story and mindframe of the session.
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i’d not jump to nanotech right off, given the blue-glow materialize effect looks rather replicatorish. i’d guess that it probably uses replicator type tech to literally just replicate a shell of thick ablative armor around the ship, and then when needed dematerilize and rematerialize layers of the stuff to repair said shell. agreed that it probably is meant to act as a physical analog to shields. most likely gets tied into the same power and control systems so that you have a choice between raising shields or deploying armor, as the situation requires. i also wouldn’t be surprised if the shield grid wasn’t used to act like an SIF for the deployed armor as well.
GRRR! You are giving me too many fun ideas about what to consider both for STA-based fan fiction and for a game. Keep it up! 
I have some interesting fleeting concepts of the use of the replicated armor, transitioning from typical ablative armor and/or traditional shields to this type of armor, the trials of its development, and more. The Starfleet Engineer in me wants to come out to play now. Now I just need to find the time to develop these concepts…
is the stuff from the old Animated Series in the game yet? Life Support Belt, Delta Triangle, Giant Spock, The Vedala, etc?
We’ve added stuff from TAS. Aurelians, Caitians, Edosians, mentioned the Delta Triangle in the Klingon book. Probably more to come as we find good places to slip it in. 
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And Kzinti!
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As the survey asked, get the license for Picard and Discovery. Discovery season two has grown on me with a second watching and it looks like we will get a Pike Enterprise show. Lower Decks has really grown on me also, but can’t see roleplaying that, character stats perhaps and Titan stats. Please don’t let this devolve into which Trek is best argument.
We have to get a mirror universe book at some point and a section 31 book, pretty much obligatory.
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Stats and a bio on Saavik (drawing off the writing of Vonda M. MacIntyre [novellizations of ST II-IV]) Carolyn Clowes [The Pandora Principle]), for the Twenty Third. And miniatures and stats for her and the two Animated characters, M’Ress and Erex. Robin Curtis version would be the best, she played the part more often and the novels’ cover art featuring her and the Titan Comics used that one.
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Given that, narratively, the ablative armour generators in Voyager: Endgame were essentially super-powered shields (Tuvok even states that they’ve been depleted to various percentages), they’d be an upgrade to the way a ship’s shields work in game terms too.
Of course, a lot of the stuff that Voyager picks up are experimental or unfamiliar technologies applied an in improvised manner to Voyager, they’re very much “future tech” in Federation terms, requiring reverse-engineering and intensive study… so it’s all in the hypothetical “after 2379” period that’s tricky for us to deal with (because there are several competing versions of the future, at least one of which we can’t reference because of licenses).
Wouldn’t say it’s impossible, but that sort of stuff is in a weird space.
Also, a player-facing version of Multi-Vector Assault is an absolute nightmarish prospect to design, considering how many arguments have already been had over saucer separation.
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What would be nice is a online database akin to D&D Beyond. Where all the rules can be accessed in one place, and not spread over several books/PDFs.
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@Sans, I actually suggested something like this recently to Modiphius customer service when I emailed them about another question. The gentleman with whom I corresponded indicated that he would send the idea forth but without any guarantees, of course. If enough of us support the idea, then maybe some of our friendly Modiphius moderators can bring up the idea from this angle too and we can see something happen.
Specifically, my idea was a searchable index in which one could find locate book and page numbers for specific topics of interest (such as the phasing cloak information with which I first began my forum membership just a few weeks ago). This index, as it would not be helpful without having the books available at least in some form, could be free and is how I presented the suggestion. Having a database of all the information as you have suggested, however, would probably need to be at least a purchase if not a recurring subscription fee of some amount since it would become a way to potentially bypass the purchase of the books and, as we all know, Modiphius isn’t creating this game just out of the goodness of their hearts: they expect to make money off their work. 
Modiphius staff, I for one would definitely consider subscribing to a full-text searchable database of all the books if one was offered and would definitely put a searchable index to good use, whether access is free or purchased, so if you are taking any tally of support, definitely add me to the count for both ideas.
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I have no issue with this. My subscription to D&D Beyond has been extremely useful.
Now, your idea isn’t a bad one and I would welcome it.
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I know there’s a relatively limited demand for this kind of thing in the age of Discord, etc, but I’d second the reply that asked for a solo adventure (or more!).
Aside from being indispensable for gamers in remote locations or those of who simply prefer a particular style of play they can’t find locally, solo adventures can be great ways to get to know the rules better/more quickly too
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