True. And that's the one ship I'd really like to have seen a decent set for.
Mad Starship Designs
- Thread starter Stibbons
- Start date
True. And that's the one ship I'd really like to have seen a decent set for.
There were Loknar deckplans made? Was it in one of the FASA RPG supplements or some other 3rd party group? I don't think I've ever seen these, although from what people are saying it doesn't sound like I missed much of anything.
Yeah, it was the adventure module "Decision at Midnight", you can see it here-
https://thetrove.net/Books/Star Trek RPGs/Star Trek (FASA)/2219 Decision at Midnight.pdf
Although calling them "deck plans" would make Franz Joseph spin in his grave. "Vague approximations of what might be found on various decks of the ship" would be more accurate.
Yeah, the Loknar 'plans' are terrible. I made better plans years ago physically cut and pasting onto photocopies of the Franz Joseph Connie deckplans to make a sort of Phase II variant of them for RPG purposes! The afternoon deadline rushjob analogy is apt!
It was especially disappointing considering how more professional the R-1 station plans look.
It was especially disappointing considering how more professional the R-1 station plans look.
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I would pay good money for someone with more artistic talent and technical know-how than me to produce a decent set of Loknar and Surya-class deck plans.
The best set of RPG deckplans I've ever seen were the Burke-class Frigate from the "Prime Directive" RPG "Federation" supplement by Amarillo Studios, and even they look like they gave up half way through. Where are the Todd Guenther, Geoffrey Mandel, Michael Morriessette and Aridas Sofia of today.
Damn the 80's had it good.
The best set of RPG deckplans I've ever seen were the Burke-class Frigate from the "Prime Directive" RPG "Federation" supplement by Amarillo Studios, and even they look like they gave up half way through. Where are the Todd Guenther, Geoffrey Mandel, Michael Morriessette and Aridas Sofia of today.
Damn the 80's had it good.
Yeah. RPG designs seem to be done by people who have a vague idea what a Star Trek ship should look like but none of the in-depth knowledge that would actually let them pull it off successfully. FASA is particularly prone to this alas, in all respects. Sad to say the only thing that approaches the ugliness of the interior art in some of the modules is the sheer crappy designs of the ships. Particularly the Federation ones, they're grotesque. The Original Series designs are great, as I said, I love the Loknar-class Frigate (think one even turns up in the Vanguard series) and the others I'd substitute Franz Joseph designs and the Surya/Coventry class for. Some of the Klingon ones are good as well, I like the D-11 "One-wing" Destroyer. The Movie Era Designs though... Sheesh.
The worst offender I think is the Federation Bader-class Scout. It's a cat food tin with warp nacelles.
I've got nothing against the cover art, that's mostly done by David R. Deitrick who also did the covers for the old GDW Space 1889 books (another favourite of mine), but the interior stuff...
No.
The worst offender I think is the Federation Bader-class Scout. It's a cat food tin with warp nacelles.
I've got nothing against the cover art, that's mostly done by David R. Deitrick who also did the covers for the old GDW Space 1889 books (another favourite of mine), but the interior stuff...
No.
Good Lord those are horrible! It's almost like they tried exceptionally hard not to derive any of their work from FJ's original Connie mid-23rd century layout. Seriously, it takes real work to make something look that horribly wrong. "Not to scale" indeed!
It does seem odd to me that, with regards to the Klingon, Romulan and Orion fleets, FASA actually didn't do too bad on many of them. But when it comes to the Federation designs, you're completely right. Some of them are pretty crappy, or just plain weird. While I love many aspects of the FASA Trekverse, I wish the art had been better in many ways.
Of course, some like the Loknar and Larson aren't too bad at all.Why FASA Federation ships are so ugly is mostly due to them being the ones that recycled existing ship components, namely saucers and nacelles. Alien designs did not have those in ready supply for FASA to copy-paste, so they were safe from the effect...
...But every time an artist drew a side view of a Starfleet vessel, he had to leave the saucer and the nacelle(s) visible, drawing all the interesting bits around those. Which gave the ships hideously tall side profiles, or hideously long, or both. The other two views then made matters worse by obeying more or less the same rules. The ships ended up being, uh, "75% original", when the saucer and nacelles never were intended to be mere 25% of the total. Working from scratch and doing 100% original would have avoided that!
Timo Salomiemi
...But every time an artist drew a side view of a Starfleet vessel, he had to leave the saucer and the nacelle(s) visible, drawing all the interesting bits around those. Which gave the ships hideously tall side profiles, or hideously long, or both. The other two views then made matters worse by obeying more or less the same rules. The ships ended up being, uh, "75% original", when the saucer and nacelles never were intended to be mere 25% of the total. Working from scratch and doing 100% original would have avoided that!
Timo Salomiemi
Back when I regularly played the FASA Starship Combat Simulator game, you could maybe approximate a couple of FASA design that didn't get minis from other minis. For example, take the main hull of the Reliant class without the weapon rollbar and stick one of the nacelles underneath Saladin style to get the Durrett class.
Or take a D-2 missile destroyer , cut the engine nacelles off the wings and stick them underneath the central hull to approximate the D-14 destroyer.
But how the hell could you kitbash a Keith class scout (tall design) a Lenthal class destroyer (long design) or the Brenton class cruiser (wide design), to pick three of the more outlandish FASA Federation designs?
Or take a D-2 missile destroyer , cut the engine nacelles off the wings and stick them underneath the central hull to approximate the D-14 destroyer.
But how the hell could you kitbash a Keith class scout (tall design) a Lenthal class destroyer (long design) or the Brenton class cruiser (wide design), to pick three of the more outlandish FASA Federation designs?
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Back when I regularly played the FASA Starship Combat Simulator game, you could maybe approximate a couple of FASA design that didn't get minis from other minis. For example, take the main hull of the Reliant class without the weapon rollbar and stick one of the nacelles underneath Saladin style to get the Durrett class.
Or take a D-2 missile destroyer , cut the engine nacelles off the wings and stick them underneath the central hull to approximate the D-14 destroyer.
But how the hell could you kitbash a Keith class scout (tall design) a Lenthal class destroyer (long design) or the Brenton class cruiser (wide design), to pick three of the more outlandish FASA Federation designs?
Someone mention the Brenton-class?
And the Lenthal-class? Well don't have that, got the Thufir-class though:
And some Mirror Universe Loknars:
It's a pity you didn't get to run it. Especially with those gorgeous Loknar minis. I've got a few Brenton minis, some Durrett minis and a Thufir too. I really must get round to painting them up!
The Brenton is an odd duck. It looks like an expanding table, has good FASA stats, and despite its weird looks I'd always wanted a few minis of it. Finally got some, along with the others I mentioned above, a couple of years back.
The Brenton is an odd duck. It looks like an expanding table, has good FASA stats, and despite its weird looks I'd always wanted a few minis of it. Finally got some, along with the others I mentioned above, a couple of years back.
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A slightly upgraded Brenton is about as deadly as an Enterprise with more superstructure.
I did run that game once as a test, but also to see what reaction we could get out of a friend of ours when the Terran Empire ships made themselves known (as oppose to the setup looking like a very one sided fight between the Federation and Romulans).
The look on his face was priceless when I toild him one of his Brentons had been hit by an FP-4 torpedo. Not many ships have those, and none of the known or suspected hostiles were armed with it as far as he knew. "Where did that come from?"
:smile: "The Reliantl
"Huh?"
"The ISS Reliant under Captain Tarrell"
...."Oh...OH!"
Up to that point he thought the hostile Loknars were ships captured by the Romulans (that they had been cloaked helped that theory).
I did run that game once as a test, but also to see what reaction we could get out of a friend of ours when the Terran Empire ships made themselves known (as oppose to the setup looking like a very one sided fight between the Federation and Romulans).
The look on his face was priceless when I toild him one of his Brentons had been hit by an FP-4 torpedo. Not many ships have those, and none of the known or suspected hostiles were armed with it as far as he knew. "Where did that come from?"
:smile: "The Reliantl
"Huh?"
"The ISS Reliant under Captain Tarrell"
...."Oh...OH!"
Up to that point he thought the hostile Loknars were ships captured by the Romulans (that they had been cloaked helped that theory).
Yeah, when you can pull a fast one on your players like that, it is beautiful to behold!
Are those all your own minis?
Are those all your own minis?
