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Posts
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If you already read my cranky letter in the Shore Leave section this first post in the thread won’t be much new. Mophidius recently set the release date for their New Star Trek RPG game for September and I was loking for a cool modelling project. The first wave for Star Trek RPG is mostly for TNG. I like all Trek (Sometimes I even like Voyager 😛 ) but TOS still has a charm that I really enjoy. The TOS release is just going to be the principles from the TOS Enterprise crew but hopefully they will expand it with generic crewman and Klingons and Romulans shortly thereafter.
In the interim I am doing some storybuilding and model making to get ready. My game will take place at some point in the 2260s on board the USS Mariner (NCC 1685). She is a Constitution class cruiser and ready for a five year mission of her own. My plan is to start creating missions, crew histories and adventures inspired by the classic show that will give my players some nostalgia but also provide a unique experience which will be entirely their own. I have started by knocking up some visual aids. The game has two token for character states. I think they are a bonus or a malus that can be spent or applied to the dierolling action. The “nice” ones are a Starfleet symbol in blue. The “bad” are red alerts. There are TNG inspired ones for sale with the preorder but they don’t fit my TOS theme and paying for shit that is easy to make well is stupid.
I also made a commissioning plaque and a ship’s badge for the crew. The crest is meant to represent a compass with the Starfleet logo representing the needle. The plaque utilizes the most recent movie stardating because it is the most sensible measurement of date notation I have seen in the franchise.
On to the start of the modelling project. The first thing I have to do is find a scale. There are no miniatures released until September so I am SoL on that front. Looking at the models I can see they are on 25mm round bases (pretty much a standard wargaming convention). Figures listed as 32mm are a bit nebulous but I’m a terrible mathematician and tend to eyeball things if I can. The primary guiding principal is trying to make it look cool but still playable. I’m starting with a transporter because I can set the size of each pad as the footprint of a 25mm base. The full circle transporter enclosure mock up I drew is just eyeballed from it’s size in still relative to the individual 6 pads. I will go back and measure then redraw at a standard number because when I must be mathing I prefer round figures 😛 . Here is my crappy looking pad mockup and some of the cool looking figures they plan to release!
Those models look really nice, I might pick some up myself.
Just for some inspiration 🙂 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ek571oB5G0Y
I still want to make 3 plaques for our fleet, one for Main, Delta and KDF (though still have to figure out how a KDF one will look like) and just list the top contributors as the crew. I just haven’t got around it (yet), and I’ve never been stellar with Gimp. Found these templates, maybe you can use them too (I only found the TNG ‘delta’ unfortunately, no TOS one).
Cheers Horrid, looking forward how that transporter will pan out.
"Boldly bashing Borg to bits since 2012..."Capturing a symbol online shouldn’t be too hard Marcase. I find GIMP is challenging. It does a lot of cool stuff but it is tough to learn. I used it a few years back and actually managed to make some really cool stuff; Unfortunately it isn’t intuitive and isn’t very easy to retain unless you are using it a lot so I forgot everything 🙁 . Paint.net is a really solid free program. It isn’t quite as robust as GIMP but it is really easy to learn and get into. I do all my stuff on it.
For KDF the Tri symbol of the Empire would work nicely. Translating a slogan into Klingon would probably help for mood. Another way to differentiate it from Fed ones would be to choose a copper (reddish) metal rather than the brassy sheen the Fed plaques all have. Rather than using a Stardate you would probably want to note time in years of Kahless. Thanks for sharing the plaque texture. I made mine by playing with the noise filter and applying clouds on a layer beneath my lettering. Always work in layers so you don’t screw up the whole thing. It’s easier only to flatten when you are certain. This really helps for troubleshooting where problems are if you have texture, border, lettering etc. layers.
I’ll give Paint another try. The reddish copper thing is a nice touch, I can work with that.
"Boldly bashing Borg to bits since 2012..."Hey all! Work has delivered a wretched kick in the dick so I’ve been busy with crapulence I’d rather not be engaged in. I remain a stranger to STO but I have managed to get some more stuff on the go for my Luddite Trek 😛 .
Sadly the forum won’t let me drop mountains of images at one time but breaking it into chunks makes it easier to explain what I’m posting so the limit is a good thing too.
I’m thinking that setting the Trek RPG in the post Enterprise era might be best. I intend to start the story in the 2160s shortly after the Earth-Romulan War. It appeals to me like Enterprise the show because there is the genuine feel of roughing it. It also seems like a prime time to be explorers rather than warriors. The period is also the birth of the Federation where the newly allied partners are attempting to find their way in union that still is uncertain of it’s direction internally and of it’s reputation to the outside.
Mariner is still the ship. As part of a legacy thing I did a little research and found a few sea bound ships that have borne the name. These included the HMS Mariner and US Mariner (both pictured). I intrigued by the USS American Mariner as she was a liberty ship (in the U.S. Merchant Marine) and eventually served in the U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S. Army, the U.S. Air Force, and the U.S. Navy. She is the only ship to have this distinction.
My photoediting is getting better (I think 😀 ) . I needed to create a catain for the Mariner so I got some pics from Enterprise and found a pic of Shohreh Aghdashloo. She kicks ass in the Expanse and belongs in a command position. A ship would be lucky to have a captain portrayed by such a commanding presence; Maybe 😀 . I get into the possibilities of why not later as I intend to share my story plans here and run them by you guys to get some feedback if you are willing 😀 .
I also threw in the MACO patch for the 10 man detachment assigned to the Mariner. I decided on a viking because he sort of fit with the nautical theme of mariner. The image of the raider representing soldiers and the military contrasting a ship with intentions to explore felt like a good device. I’m hoping it will be a cause of conflict and source of stories for my players.
Sorry it took me so long to post another update. I have lots more that I have been up to and hope to share that soon as well.
Shohreh Aghdashloo is indeed kicking as in The Expanse (my favourite scifi show by far right now) and I love it when she swears. Plus she played a Fed Admiral in ST Beyond, so there”s your canon link. ☺
Interesting choice, Mariner. Sounds fitting with its history.
"Boldly bashing Borg to bits since 2012..."In addition to making stuff I have also been at work building the foundations and seeds for the campaign. The working title for the project began as something like, “Star Trek: Mariner”. Not terribly interesting or imaginative but working titles rarely are and it gave be a semblance or order in my notebooks as I was jotting notes to myself when ideas hit.
I settled on, “Star Trek: Brave New Worlds”. The end of the Earth-Romulan War is the dawn of the Coalition of Planets. In 2161 the young union enjoyed a peace hard fought for and Starfleet, free from the yoke of war could return to it’s mission of exploration.
There we go, a cleaner delivery of the pitch but it probably needs some polish. I made a title card attached below 😀 .
I was also interested in having Section 31 in the wings stirring up trouble. In canon 31 predates the Federation but there isn’t much in the way of explanation. There was no elaboration to be had at Memory Alpha and Memory Beta was worse! Some arsehole thought it was a good idea to have the whole thing randomly run by a shitty computer! WTF? What kind of fan fic dogshit is that? I wanted a human evil so I said fuck that. In the Marinerverse before Section 31 was Section 31 there was Perpetual.
Perpetual is the spookshows and conspiracy theories of old Earth made manifest. Their ancestors were the wetwork and black ops organizations and agents that worked for or ran the world. Things got out of control. The Augment crisis of the 1990s was the first wakeup call. There were threats that transcended political alliances and enmities. By 2051 World War 3 broken out. Under threat of destruction came peace. Perpetual was born on the periphery while the politicians took the stage played at statecraft. The doomsday clock had struck twelve and mankind had nearly destroyed himself. Perpetual would exert subtle pressure or take any action required to preserve humanity. After First Contact with the Vulcans this imperative became even more poignant.
The organization has orchestrated acts atrocious and noble all in the name of continued survival. The murder of thousands of irradiated humans under the Green regime followed by his overthrow. The formation of the Trade Council of Earth and by 2099 a consolidated Earth government. Blah, blah, blah…. This Perpetual bit is still rough draft and more notelike than a draft. Hopefully it will get somewhere. I like it better than a computer even if it is messy and imprecise at the moment.
The Title Card is very nicely done, font is spot on. 😉
Weird fanfic logic re Section 31 being spawned by a computer; it’s already established as ‘section 31 of the Federation charter’ supported by UFP senators (?) being the base/raison d’etre of the ‘Sloan Division’. I do prefer your take on history where it even predates the UFP with the ‘wet work’ roots.
Though in my personal ‘head canon’ Section 31 was more of a Romulan Tal Shiar style outfit; bribing, cajoling and threatening people and organizations by ‘soft power’ to influence them for the benefit of the UFP, not necessarily a ‘man in black’ hit squad. But again that’s me. (Chrisjen in The Expanse would be my perfect ‘Sloan’).
Keep it coming Horrid, good stuff 😀
"Boldly bashing Borg to bits since 2012..."Soft persuasion works as well. I pulled up wetworks because I was looking for the lowest,creepiest depths they would plumb. There should really be a little bit of everything. The latter works, Particularly pushing toward a united Earth government would be the careful work of political pressure and lobbyists. Whispering in ears more than knives in backs. The big difference between the Tal Shiar, the Cardassian’s Obisdidian Order, and Section 31 is that the former organizations openly act in their respective civilizations while 31 remains unknown to the general public and even to Starfleet Intelligence for the most part. Black Ops spies are good and if someone had to vanish that might work well but I was also reading up on conspiracy theories for a basis and considered myths like the Illuminati and the Rosicrucians.
Oh here are some more Mariners 😀 .
I like to think that even before Perpetual various Intelligence agencies were still committing questionable acts in the interests of their respective states. Some of the threads that would bind into the organization gathered their own hidden assets. Are you familiar with Operation Paperclip (WW2 history), this was the American operation but they were in a race with their Soviet analogues while doing it.
One of the elements of my story is built around the end of the Eugenics War. Imagine a secret prison where generations of supermen are being forced to build better worlds. There are some elements of Into Darkness here but I like the carefully orchestrated generational prison more than a space freezer. It feels more in line with Earth technology. Does it work in your mind?
This isn’t very good deail of the ships but I wanted to show off my one planet and asteroids I made so the 22nd century BoP and Columbia refit are pretty tiny. These are 1/7000 scale ships so they are really tiny! The columbia saucer isn’t any larger than a thumbnail! I would have taken more shots but there was a wicked space monster interfering with my photo shoot.
I really like those. Always had (have) a thing for miniatures, as they were easy to bring along and store aboard. For years I had a miniature of the USS Chandley (couldn’t find the Enterprise at the time) as a mascot in my bunk that traveled the world with me, together with a cigarbox with paint and brushes. Unfortunately miniatures (or small models of any kind) stand no chance against the force of nature that is my wife when in zombie-cleaning mode: when a display is ‘dusty’ it will get cleaned, read: demolished. Which is why I’m so happy with my current digital ships ! 😀
I know how hard it is to get the detailing right on small models; too much will muck it up, looks like you just hit the right spot !
Keep ’em coming Horrid, feed my Nerdism 🙂
"Boldly bashing Borg to bits since 2012..."
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