The Federation Campaign

[Werner]

This is a T20 Campaign based on warp drives powered by antimatter power plants. The warp drives are different from the Jump Drives in that they have variable speeds and those variable speeds have varied energy input requirements, generally higher speeds require higher energy inputs. There are three types of warp drives, Warp-1 with a warp range of 0 to 100c, Warp-2 with warp range of 0 to 500c, and Warp-3 with a warp Range of 0 to 2,500c. Now the thing to remember is that Warp 1, 2, and 3 are drives not speed factors, velocity is measured in multiples of the speed of light. (Although technically the ship is in a warp bubble and is not really moving at all, space is just contracting in front of the ship and expanding behind the ship, but as far as the layman is concerned the ship is moving at a multiple of the speed of light.)

Warp ships can change warp speed and direction while at warp, a ship can even warp at sublight speeds. The constraining factor is how empty the space is that the ship is warping through, if through a standard vacuum, a ship warps at a normal speed, if passing through a nebula, a ship warps at half speed, if within 100 diameters of a gravitational mass of 1 Earth density, the ship drops out of warps and must use a maneuver drive to travel within.

Jump Drives and Warp Drives

Type	TL	Cost	Size	Mass	EP	Speed	Fuel
Jump-1	9	MCr4	1 ton	1.35 tons	0.5		5 tons
Jump-2	11	MCr6	1.5 tons	2.025 tons	1		10 tons
Jump-3	12	MCr8	2 tons	2.7 tons	1.5		15 tons
Jump-4	13	MCr10	2.5 tons	3.375 tons	2		20 tons
Jump-5	14	MCr12	3 tons	4.05 tons	2.5		25 tons
Jump-6	15	MCr14	3.5 tons	4.725 tons	3		30 tons
Warp-1	17	MCr6	10 ton	13.5 tons	1/2/3/4/5	20/40/60/80/100 c
Warp-2	18	MCr8	20 tons	27 tons	2/4/6/8/10	100/200/300/400/500 c
Warp-3	19	MCr10	30 tons	40.5 tons	3/6/9/12/15	0.5/1/1.5/2/2.5 kc

Warp-1 Drive: Consists of Warp rings one at the bow and the
other at the stern of the ship, together, these warp nacelles
generate the warp bubble around the ship. Cost is Cr6, requires 10
ton of space, a variable supply of EP per round depending on warp
velocity. A Warp-1 drive requires 1 EP per round per multiple of 20
times the speed of light, thus when traveling from 0 to 20 times
the speed of light 1 EP per round is required, when traveling from
20 to 40 times the speed of light 2 EP per round is required, and so
up to a maximum of 100 times the speed of light. Not available
before TL 17.
Warp-2 Drive: Consists of Warp rings one at the bow and the
other at the stern of the ship, together, these warp nacelles
generate the warp bubble around the ship. Cost is Cr8, requires 20
tons of space, a variable supply of EP per round depending on warp
velocity. A Warp-2 drive requires 2 EP per round per multiple of 100
times the speed of light, thus when traveling from 0 to 100 times
the speed of light 2 EP per round is required, when traveling from
100 to 200 times the speed of light 4 EP per round is required, and so
up to a maximum of 500 times the speed of light. Not available
before TL 18.
Warp-3 Drive: Consists of Warp rings one at the bow and the
other at the stern of the ship, together, these warp nacelles
generate the warp bubble around the ship. Cost is Cr10, requires 30
tons of space, a variable supply of EP per round depending on warp
velocity. A Warp-3 drive requires 3 EP per round per multiple of 500
times the speed of light, thus when traveling from 0 to 500 times
the speed of light 3 EP per round is required, when traveling from
500 to 1000 times the speed of light 6 EP per round is required, and so
up to a maximum of 2500 times the speed of light. Not available
before TL 19.

 

[Werner]

Warp drives are bulkier than jump drives mainly because they form the warp bubble around the Starship and thus have to go outside the hull of the ship. In this setting, there is an extended period of sunlight exploration and colonization prior to the discovery of the warp drive. The tech level timeline is as follows:
1945 to 1969 Tech Level 6
1970 to 2029 Tech Level 7
2030 to 2099 Tech Level 8
2100 to 2179 Tech Level 9
2180 to 2249 Tech Level 10
2250 to 2319 Tech Level 11
2320 to 2399 Tech Level 12
2400 to 2449 Tech Level 13
2450 to 2499 Tech Level 14
2500 to 2549 Tech Level 15
2550 to 2599 Tech Level 16
2600 to 2649 Tech Level 17
2650 to 2699 Tech Level 18
2700+ Tech Level 19

The Federation was formed when it became possible to have Interstellar government, the invention of the warp drive created an era of expanding empires in which a number of systems banded together and formed the Federation for mutual protection against these expanding empires. Unlike star trek, many ships are of the 100 ton to 1000 ton range. Exploration crews tend to number from 1 to 50, the largest ships are freighters, passenger ships, and military ships. The large ships often carry smaller ships. Ships tend to drop out of warp when they get to close as the warp fields interfere with each other, and these warp fields extend out from the ship quite a bit, the most important reason is empty space is easiest to warp, a warp bubble usually contains about 27 times the volume of the ship, roughly an extra Ship's length in all directions, thus if a small ship gets close enough to a large ship, it can be carried away in the larger ship's warp bubble even if it is outside the hull of the ship, it is an engineering principle that one does not want any part of the ship getting too close to the boundary of the warp bubble as gravitational forces will cause damage to the ship, and if an objects drifts outside the warp bubble the ship will drop out of warp and the object that drifted will suffer damage from gravitational stress. To engage the warp, a ship much be more that 100 lengths from any other object, whether it is another ship, comet, asteroid or something else.

The maneuver drive was used for Interstellar colonization prior to the invention of warp, it is a reactionless drive, it only requires a fusion power plant operate, it can accelerate from 1 to 6-G for as long as the power plant has fuel and can provide the power input the drive needs, because of its minimal fuel requirements. A ship equipped with just a maneuver drive and a large fuel tank can reach a fairly significant fraction of the speed of light, there are also low berths available quite early one, so sleeper ships were often the most common sort of colony ship during this era.

 

[Spinward Scout]

I don't know if this will help since it's not T20, but it is Traveller.

Traveller Prime Directive

If you don't know, Prime Directive is the Role-playing Universe for Star Fleet Battles - a miniatures game based on Star Trek.

 

[Werner]

I don't know if this will help since it's not T20, but it is Traveller.

Traveller Prime Directive

If you don't know, Prime Directive is the Role-playing Universe for Star Fleet Battles - a miniatures game based on Star Trek.

Kind of a new take on the Star Trek idea, but with more realistic aliens. Since it is T20, I think I will use the aliens from D20 Future. The Weren, the Fraal, the TSA, the Mechalus or Aleeren, they should be compatible with T20, toss in the Aslan, the Vargr and so forth. Humans have spread across space for 500 years, many colonies were established and many societies developed in isolation until the development of the warp drive brought them back into contact with each other. In the last 100 years there have been wars and conflicts as each society realizes the potential for Interstellar conquest now that an FTL drive exists, some of these societies have banded together and formed the Federation.

Can you think of other technologies that might fit it? Artificial intelligence, black globe generators are related technology to the warp drive.

 

[Spinward Scout]

Kind of a new take on the Star Trek idea, but with more realistic aliens. Since it is T20, I think I will use the aliens from D20 Future. The Weren, the Fraal, the TSA, the Mechalus or Aleeren, they should be compatible with T20, toss in the Aslan, the Vargr and so forth.

Can you think of other technologies that might fit it? Artificial intelligence, black globe generators are related technology to the warp drive.

The aliens you mentioned came from Alternity - converted to the d20 system. It changes things if d20 Future only uses Hit Points. T20 uses Stamina and Lifeblood if I remember right. It will have an effect on weapon damage and critical hits.

Equipment and aliens from d20 Star Wars and Starfinder should be closely compatible.

Here's the Starfinder System Reference Document. It could have some things you're looking for.

Also, here's the Starjammer SRD, which looks to be compatible with Starfinder.

These might have toys you'd be interested in. And they are mostly d20 compatible.

 

[Werner]

The aliens you mentioned came from Alternity - converted to the d20 system. It changes things if d20 Future only uses Hit Points. T20 uses Stamina and Lifeblood if I remember right. It will have an effect on weapon damage and critical hits.

Equipment and aliens from d20 Star Wars and Starfinder should be closely compatible.

Here's the Starfinder System Reference Document. It could have some things you're looking for.

Also, here's the Starjammer SRD, which looks to be compatible with Starfinder.

These might have toys you'd be interested in. And they are mostly d20 compatible.

Stamina is the same thing as hit points, they are used the same way in T20 as hit points are used in D&D, with increasing levels characters get additional die rolls of Stamina points just as they get hit points in D&D. Lifeblood is simply a way to counteract the increasing stamina points characters get at high levels. Star Trek seems to have better healing than your typical Traveller campaign, and I would expect at TL 19 for medical science to work faster at healing injuries anyway. I'm not sure whether there should be transporters or not, what do you think? I'm leaning towards not, not because some form of transporter is not possible, it's just that people don't trust them, they don't want to get disassembled and reassembled just to get transported from a ship to a planet's surface and back, most would rather take a shuttle if their Starship doesn't land.

There are two reasons not to land a starship in this campaign, for one thing the warp rings get in the way, they have to surround the Starship in order to work properly, and they would tend to compromise the streamlining of the Ship's hull since they stick out.

Another problem is the antimatter power plant, the antimatter that fuels it has to be stored somewhere, and antimatter tends to explode upon contact with matter. People do not want antimatter starships landing amidst their cities, which is why such ships stay in orbit and fusion powered shuttles are used instead. Antimatter is really only needed to power the warp drives of starships anyway, nonstarships with maneuver drives use fusion power plants instead.

 

[Nathan Brazil]

I don't know if this will help since it's not T20, but it is Traveller.

Traveller Prime Directive

If you don't know, Prime Directive is the Role-playing Universe for Star Fleet Battles - a miniatures game based on Star Trek.

You may also want to look at its successor, Prime Directive d20 which is the redux of the originals. Their universe is slightly different since they can only use the Original Series, Animated Series, the ancient Star Trek Concordance book and the first movie. TNG and the rest do not exist, there. Given the times it reflects, both in universe, game theme and when it was written, it is a more martial game. So we are talking
The Federation details founding members, the Deltans, and a few others
"Errand of Mercy" Commander Kor Klingons. No ridges. Subject species, some LIKE the Klingons just the way they are.
Romulans
Tholians
Gorn
Kzinti (animated series)
Andromedans (from the TOS episode)
plus a few non-canon empires to round out ship designs
Supplements were made for additiona info on the big three.
Prime Directive PD20 Modern at DriveThru RPG

 

[Werner]

I was thinking more of the general idea behind the television show rather than recreate the societies, and races of the series. Thi setting takes place in the 28th century to allow 500 years of isolated development history, and then the 100 years after that we have culture clashes and wars as the warp drive makes possible what was previously impossible. Most of the aliens were less developed than humans until contacted by them, so everyone is at approximately the same technological level. The Fraal are the exception, they stayed apart as observers until the humans developed the warp drive. The Fraal serve the same role as the Vulcans did in the Star Trek series, they are also known as the greys and sometimes as the "flying saucer aliens" their saucers have retractable warp rings that retract into the top and bottom of their saucer shaped starships, these are landable starships, the power source is a bit mysterious but its not antimatter. The Aleerans are altered humans, a cyborg race in otherwords.

 

[whartung]

So, at 100c, Warp 1 is slower that Jump 1.

Jump 1 moves a parsec in 7 days, 100c is 12 days. Jump 3 is faster than 500c (barely).

Not until Warp 3 do they break through and get faster than J6.

Is there combat at Warp speeds?

 

[Werner]

So, at 100c, Warp 1 is slower that Jump 1.

Jump 1 moves a parsec in 7 days, 100c is 12 days. Jump 3 is faster than 500c (barely).

Not until Warp 3 do they break through and get faster than J6.

Is there combat at Warp speeds?

I am thinking there might be. Warp fields have to stretch out a long distance, when two warp ships come within a certain distance of each other, the warp fields interfere and both ships slow down and drop out of warp, at which point, lasers, sensors, particle beams and missiles come into play. Empty space is the easiest to warp, and space is mostly empty.

The warp fields can stay up even when a ship is not at warp, they act as defense shields, a warp-1 engine gives a ship a +1 bonus to defense when the warp field is up, a warp-2 engine provides a +2 bonus to defense and a warp-3 engine provides a +3 bonus to defense, in that capacity they can operate within a gravitational well or even within an atmosphere, and behave similarly to a black globe, in addition to providing defense to Armor class, they will also absorb damage when a hit is scored much like a black globe would, energy is absorbed by the Ship's warp capacitors until the maximum is reached at which point the ship starts to take actual damage.

Warp drives have a flicker capacity at which half the damage gets absorbed by the warp bubble while the other half goes to the ship. Black globes provide the same defense but without the warp capacity. Warp and Black Globes both operate by warping space around the spaceships, as they are related technologies. A space station, for instance, will often have a black globe generator for defense for example. Black globes are not artifacts in this setting, they are more commonly used and understood by any civilization that also has warp technology.

 

[Werner]

So, at 100c, Warp 1 is slower that Jump 1.

Jump 1 moves a parsec in 7 days, 100c is 12 days. Jump 3 is faster than 500c (barely).

Not until Warp 3 do they break through and get faster than J6.

Is there combat at Warp speeds?

There is also the fact that a Jump-3 drive takes just as long to travel 1 parsecs as a Jump-1 drive. Jump drives have range not speed, they all take 1 week to go where ever they are going, a warp drive will cover one third the distance in one third of the time.

I think the warp drive would have some built in sensors that are capable of detecting other warp vessels traveling at warp, since the warp field lines interfere with each other and slow down both ships as they pass closer, they also can detect other objects that pass through the warp field lines, but anything outside the warp field is invisible if it is something that is not a planet or star moving predictably. The warp fields flicker, and it is when the warp fields flicker off that exterior stars can be detected with passive sensors, the light from those distant stars are out of date, but their current positions can be predicted, not so for other ships moving in unpredictable ways, until they enter the warp field, when they do, the warp ship slows down and they are detected.

 

[aramis]

Stamina is the same thing as hit points, they are used the same way in T20 as hit points are used in D&D, with increasing levels characters get additional die rolls of Stamina points just as they get hit points in D&D.

Not a very truthful way to put it; it overlooks the interactions of other mechanics in a grotesquely distorting way.

D20 HP are what kills you when you run out. (And out being -10.)
D20 Armor makes you harder to hit.

T20 Stamina and lifeblood interact with armor and death rules in a different manner.
Armor doesn't make one harder to hit. (If your armor has Dex penalties, it actually can make it easier!)
Weapon damage is rolled and used twice:
1) the full amount is stamina damage, which, until it's negative, is no actual harm.
2) the damage is reduced by 1 die per point of Armor until only 1d remains, then that is reduced by 1 point per remaining point of armor.
Lifeblood is dying (but not unconscious) when 0 or below.
Stamina at 0 is unconscious, but not dying nor even of need injured.

The interaction means high level characters die just as easily as low level ones... but high level PC's in light or no armor can stick around and keep going well into the "Dude, you're leaking all over the place, including your guts" stage. Low level characters in armor usually don't die because they're unconscious well before serious harm.

 

[Werner]

Not a very truthful way to put it; it overlooks the interactions of other mechanics in a grotesquely distorting way.

D20 HP are what kills you when you run out. (And out being -10.)
D20 Armor makes you harder to hit.

T20 Stamina and lifeblood interact with armor and death rules in a different manner.
Armor doesn't make one harder to hit. (If your armor has Dex penalties, it actually can make it easier!)
Weapon damage is rolled and used twice:
1) the full amount is stamina damage, which, until it's negative, is no actual harm.
2) the damage is reduced by 1 die per point of Armor until only 1d remains, then that is reduced by 1 point per remaining point of armor.
Lifeblood is dying (but not unconscious) when 0 or below.
Stamina at 0 is unconscious, but not dying nor even of need injured.

The interaction means high level characters die just as easily as low level ones... but high level PC's in light or no armor can stick around and keep going well into the "Dude, you're leaking all over the place, including your guts" stage. Low level characters in armor usually don't die because they're unconscious well before serious harm.

My understanding is that critical hit damage comes directly out of Lifeblood, if you lose all your stamina you make a Fortitude check and if you save you remain conscious. Otherwise damage comes out of stamina and after that out of Lifeblood. Okay, so higher level characters have more stamina. It's easy enough to convert the D20 races into Traveller races. The hit points convert to Stamina, and the constitution score is how much lifeblood the creature has. With a little work, I could convert the Fighter class into a T20 class, a Monk could be a T20 class as well. The D&D Barbarian class has a few extra abilities that the T20 Barbarian doesn't have such as the Rage ability. The D&D Rogue is a bit more low tech oriented than the T20 Rogue. So the Fighter D&D Rogue, and D&D Barbarian could be converted to T20, read hit points as Stamina, and the Constitution score determines Lifeblood. There is no reason why Monks can't exist in T20, their metaphysical ability might be chalked up to Psionics perhaps.

 

[aramis]

My understanding is that critical hit damage comes directly out of Lifeblood, if you lose all your stamina you make a Fortitude check and if you save you remain conscious. Otherwise damage comes out of stamina and after that out of Lifeblood. Okay, so higher level characters have more stamina. It's easy enough to convert the D20 races into Traveller races. The hit points convert to Stamina, and the constitution score is how much lifeblood the creature has. With a little work, I could convert the Fighter class into a T20 class, a Monk could be a T20 class as well. The D&D Barbarian class has a few extra abilities that the T20 Barbarian doesn't have such as the Rage ability. The D&D Rogue is a bit more low tech oriented than the T20 Rogue. So the Fighter D&D Rogue, and D&D Barbarian could be converted to T20, read hit points as Stamina, and the Constitution score determines Lifeblood. There is no reason why Monks can't exist in T20, their metaphysical ability might be chalked up to Psionics perhaps.

You are quoting the Starwars mecbanics, not the T20 one.

 

[Werner]

You are quoting the Starwars mecbanics, not the T20 one.

Whatever, we could just use hit points, the way D&D does and keep it simple, and have archaic armor (read D&D armor) provide only half its listed protection against modern ranged weapons, just remember to do that each time that situation develops. One alternative rule would be to have a defense roll instead of a static armor class, you roll a d20 and you add all the defense bonuses to it as you would normally to 10 to get AC, only you do this to directly counter your opponent's attack roll, if the attack roll is higher than your defense roll then he hits and you take damage, if your defense roll is higher than his attack roll he misses. The advantage to doing it that way is that it forces the defender to add the defense bonuses to his defense roll each time rather than just the attacker rolling against a static number called armor class.

 

[aramis]

Whatever, we could just use hit points, the way D&D does and keep it simple, and have archaic armor (read D&D armor) provide only half its listed protection against modern ranged weapons, just remember to do that each time that situation develops. One alternative rule would be to have a defense roll instead of a static armor class, you roll a d20 and you add all the defense bonuses to it as you would normally to 10 to get AC, only you do this to directly counter your opponent's attack roll, if the attack roll is higher than your defense roll then he hits and you take damage, if your defense roll is higher than his attack roll he misses. The advantage to doing it that way is that it forces the defender to add the defense bonuses to his defense roll each time rather than just the attacker rolling against a static number called armor class.

WHich is not close to T20. Starting a response with "Whatever" is a pretty hostile tone, BTW. WHich means you're way off topic.

 

[Werner]

WHich is not close to T20. Starting a response with "Whatever" is a pretty hostile tone, BTW. WHich means you're way off topic.

What? I think you are reading too much into it. "Whatever" implies indifference, seems to me that having two sets of hit points for each character unnecessarily complicates things. What is the point to having mounting hit points per level and then short circuiting it with Lifeblood to get instant kill results? There is a massive damage rule in D&D for instance where if one takes more than 20 hit points in a single attack, the character must make a Fortitude save to avoid dying, I usually don't use that rule, as I don't care about that level of realism.

 

[Nathan Brazil]

What? I think you are reading too much into it. "Whatever" implies indifference,...

I cannot read your mind, merely infer via your writing.

So, no. Werner, sir, I too find your tone in responses to my posts/suggestions to be dismissive as well, not simply indifferent. :nonono:

I am not piling on because I am some friend of aramis (he's an acquaintance, only via this site). I bring this up because I thought I was the only one.

 

[Werner]

I cannot read your mind, merely infer via your writing.

So, no. Werner, sir, I too find your tone in responses to my posts/suggestions to be dismissive as well, not simply indifferent. :nonono:

I am not piling on because I am some friend of aramis (he's an acquaintance, only via this site). I bring this up because I thought I was the only one.

It is hard to have a tone when you only have text. Maybe in your mind you imagine a dismissive tone, but what really is important to me is the story, not the Game Mechanics, I don't care about hit points or Stamina/Lifepoints, I just find hit points to be easier to keep track of. When you have 10 opponents, the GM has to keep track of 10 individual stamina scores and 10 lifeblood scores to see how close to dead they are, with hit points it's just 10 hit point scores, it takes less room on the sheet of paper, and pretty much the only things that vary from individual to individual, other than ammo, and you other wise have only one set of statistics to represent all of them if they are of the same type.

So why do you try, why not deal with they subject at hand, like the game for instance? Can't I be critical of how the game deals with damage without someone imputing hostility on my part? I have my opinions and they don't always agree with yours and we can debate their merits, but you don't have to impute motives and take it personally. I've been around for a while and it seems to me that a lot of people don't know how to debate without making it personal. You need to divorce yourself from the subject and only talk about the subject, if you talk about the me's, you's, and I's then its no longer the subject we're talking about.

 

[aramis]

Can't I be critical of how the game deals with damage without someone imputing hostility on my part?

[m;]Not when the thread has a mechanical tag for a specific edition[/m;]

Anything not from that edition risks an infraction for off topic. That's why the "___ only" tags exist - as a cue to stick to that edition or post in a different thread. Thread starters can set that when they create the thread. They don't have to.

[m;]Any further discussion of the issue needs to be elsewhere on the board.[/m;]

If the original poster wants to open this thread to non-T20 mechanics, they can ask me to pull the tag. But until they do, advocating for non-T20 mechanics is off topic and infractible.