Dreadnoughts

[Falconer]

I prefer to stick to ships from the SFTM for the Federation. I love the SFTM, and I prefer to use it as the single “sourcebook” available to players other than the PHB I am putting together.

Well, the way I have worked out my timeline, Dreadnoughts are not present in my campaign — they are a thing of the far future. But I may possibly decide to allow one or two “prototypes” in my campaign, I think after the main campaign is over (i.e., let the players have one for reunion games). I modified the list from the “Lifepath Generator” to reflect my preferences:

1 Affiliation
2 Compactat
3 Corporation
4 Entente
5 Federation
6 Konkordium
7 Star Empire
8 Star League
9 Star System
0 Unifactum

So, other than the two I linked, the rest are the first eight constructed.

I don’t expect this to be particularly interesting to anyone, just thought I would record this before removing Dreadnoughts from my PHB (so I can potentially eventually add them back).

[Traveller]

I know this is a somewhat dated thread, but I still check the forum from time to time. On a side note, I should visit more given a bad experience with a toxic fan I had recently on the Modiphius forums.

Anyway, in my opinion you should use the Pocket Books novel "Dreadnought" as inspiration on how to remove dreadnoughts from the game. To summarize the book, Star Empire was created as a test article only to be stolen by extremists. The Enterprise is sent to recover the ship. If I recall the end result was the ship was recovered, but the revelation of its existence resulted in backlash which resulted in the Federation scrapping Star Empire and forbidding similar ships.

Of course, dreadnoughts actually are canon thanks to Epsilon IX background chatter in ST:TMP, but that's easy enough to ignore - even though I don't.

[Falconer]

Heya, Traveller. Yeah, I saw that exchange you had with that guy. You’re not the first. He’s intolerable.

Well, this place has been sleepy for years, but, we’ve seen a spike lately. Let’s try to keep it going! Are you doing any Star Trek gaming lately?

This thread is less than a week old!

I am planning to read Dreadnought!, but, I have known about the novel for some time, and the implication that the design was tested but not fully entered into service. I was kind of assuming that would happen in my campaign. But also in the back of my head, my idea of giving the players one for “reunion games” stems from the Enterprise-E. Not to mention the “future” Enterprise-D of “All Good Things…” has a third nacelle.

[Ronin84]

Honestly my problem with the Dreadnoughts were the awful names...I mean USS Star Empire? That doesn't sound Starfleet at all, I think if they had some better names I might consider it...USS Ajax, USS Centurion, USS Warspite, USS Resolute. Those sounds a little better to me and of course takes from dreadnought names of the past. Just my two pennies...

[Falconer]

I do like your names better, but I have to say Star Empire is the most egregious one. Probably why they used it in the novel.

[Ronin84]

Apr 20, 2020 15:17:39 GMT -5 Falconer said:

I do like your names better, but I have to say Star Empire is the most egregious one. Probably why they used it in the novel.

It was and I'm sure, Diane Carey is one of my favorite Star Trek authors, those other names just don't sound right to me either though...USS Konkordium, USS Unifactum...nah just can't get behind it. Those are just my opinion, to each their own when it comes to what they are using!

[Traveller]

Apr 19, 2020 1:09:49 GMT -5 Falconer said:

Heya, Traveller. Yeah, I saw that exchange you had with that guy. You’re not the first. He’s intolerable.

Well, this place has been sleepy for years, but, we’ve seen a spike lately. Let’s try to keep it going! Are you doing any Star Trek gaming lately?

This thread is less than a week old!

I am planning to read Dreadnought!, but, I have known about the novel for some time, and the implication that the design was tested but not fully entered into service. I was kind of assuming that would happen in my campaign. But also in the back of my head, my idea of giving the players one for “reunion games” stems from the Enterprise-E. Not to mention the “future” Enterprise-D of “All Good Things…” has a third nacelle.

Rather ballsy of him to try and tell me what I have to accept as canon, and apparently he or someone else flagged my posts in that thread. I'm not losing any sleep over it, but the whole thing reminded me why exactly I tend not to engage with other Star Trek fans. They're simply too toxic and I simply don't have the patience for them. I guess it's good to know that I'm not the only one who has had to deal with him. But I'll find another place with less toxic individuals as I doubt I will be going back.

As for Star Trek gaming, haven't done any in a while. While things have slowed down regarding work with the Trolls, other issues in house had to take precedence.

There is one other way you could have dreadnoughts not be present in game yet have them available for one-offs: cut down the number of them in the fleet and mothball the rest. Dreadnoughts are geared for battle, and it's unlikely they would be mobilized unless the Federation was on a war footing. So it stands to reason they would be held in port until needed. Since Starfleet is intended to be a peacekeeping armada it stands to reason that there would be objections to the very existence of the ships. In my unofficial FASA Trek starship construction supplement, the introduction of USS Excelsior hastened the demise of the dreadnoughts, and all of them except one were scrapped. That one resides in the Starfleet Museum.

[blackbat242]

That set of Dreadnought names are more-fitting for the Terran Empire in the Mirror Universe.

[Falconer]

Just had a flash of insight. Star Empire is named for the Star Empire of Epsilon Indii (mentioned earlier in the book). Conventionally equated with the Andorians.

[TardisCaptain]

Jan 9, 2022 0:08:30 GMT -5 Falconer said:

Just had a flash of insight. Star Empire is named for the Star Empire of Epsilon Indii (mentioned earlier in the book). Conventionally equated with the Andorians.

That works for me. I like it.

[putraack]

Jan 9, 2022 0:08:30 GMT -5 Falconer said:

Just had a flash of insight. Star Empire is named for the Star Empire of Epsilon Indii (mentioned earlier in the book). Conventionally equated with the Andorians.

That was always my understanding; the names were those of various worlds/political groups that had joined the Federation. It would have been clearer, I guess, if the full name might have been used, e.g. "Star empire of Epsilon Indii"

[Traveller]

Jan 16, 2022 12:43:45 GMT -5 putraack said:

Jan 9, 2022 0:08:30 GMT -5 Falconer said:

Just had a flash of insight. Star Empire is named for the Star Empire of Epsilon Indii (mentioned earlier in the book). Conventionally equated with the Andorians.

That was always my understanding; the names were those of various worlds/political groups that had joined the Federation. It would have been clearer, I guess, if the full name might have been used, e.g. "Star empire of Epsilon Indii"

Too long to fit on the hull, LOL.

Besides, the names given in the SFTM are all variations of the word "Federation" and really have nothing to do with the political units that make up the Federation. A better option with historical precedent is to name all dreadnoughts following USS Federation after the homeworlds of Federation races. For example, USS Vulcan, USS Tellar Prime, USS Andoria, USS Al Rijil. Douglas Adams, were he still alive, probably would think naming one USS Earth would be a bit blah. But we can fix that simply by not building a dreadnought for Earth.

United States battleships were all named after states, with the exception of USS Kearsarge (BB-5). Every state except Montana had a battleship named after it. Montana came close a couple times, but the first (BB-51) was cancelled by the restrictions of the Washington Naval Treaty and the second (BB-67) was designed but never built. By 1943 air power was proven to be superior to vessels firing explosive shells. The US Navy saw the writing on the wall and cancelled building the ships before their keels were even laid. The parallel here is that USS Federation (NCC-2100) would be the Kearsarge and Earth would be the only homeworld not to have a dreadnought named after it. The arrival of Excelsior, with superior range and firepower, would render the dreadnoughts obsolete, with any surviving examples being treated as museum pieces.

"Earth? What a dull name."
--Phouchg (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)

[Falconer]

Here’s what I was referring to with Star Empire:



Here’s another one, Konkordium:



And Confederation:



Make of it what you will.

[Traveller]

I see where you are coming from. That accounts for four of them (Federation, Star Empire, Concordium, Confederation). So Franz Joseph must have filled in the gaps when coming up with the name list.

I still like mine better, though I have to remember that Entente would be a second exception to the list after Federation.

[finarvyn]

I like my Trek to emphasize the Heavy Cruiser as the major "big ship" of the Federation. In my campaign there is THE Dreadnaut, not a fleet of them. But I also like the concept of only twelve Heavy Cruisers, so my scale might not match those of others. I figure that Scout and Destroyer ships are the main fleet.