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These conversions started off from a couple popular versions of Star Trek gaming
with available miniatures. I combined them a bit as they do have some
overlap. In the Crossover games I ran. I used the Star Fleet Battles ships
but I have a big soft spot for the FASA miniatures and designs.
Now years later, limits to what ships have available
miniatures has been blown away with 3D files of
nearly every ship that was dreamed up. Now you
can use a 3D printer to make your own miniatures or
buy from someone else who printed them. These
new files have as much
if not more detail than many official miniatures.
Due to this, I have expanded the ships available
so more cool and popular designs are
represented but the conversions are still meant to
be fun to play so no overpowered fanboy's dream
ships.
The conversions are two grouped into a couple different eras,
TOS (The
Original Series) and
TMP (The Motion Picture). I feel these eras are
close enough so they can both be on the table at the
same time. TNG (The Next Generation) era ships
are significantly larger and more powerful than the
prior era's ships so they really need a new baseline
and then everything would need to
be re-designed and re-balanced (except for the Borg
who are intended to be scary powerful).
Now with new series going beyond TNG (Picard, Lower
Decks, etc) or re-imagining the universe (Kelvin
timeline, Discovery, Strange New Worlds, etc) there are opportunities to
add lots of conversions but they don't have the
years of debate and relative consensus of ship
abilities and there is a lack of 3D models for many
of the ships in the new series. There is no
guarantee that conversions for these other series ships
would work well with the existing
TOS and
TMP
conversions so I will
leave them alone for now. Maybe someday I will
revisit them.
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Conversion Notes:
TOS Era -
The Original Series ships are basic conversions with
base Full Thrust systems. Most designs are from Star
Fleet Battles and classic fan designs but some FASA Trek ships are included along with
some appropriate extended universe ship designs are included.
TMP Era - The
Motion Picture Era
ships are uprated with stronger designs and
better systems and their more advanced abilities are reflected by having Mass
values a bit higher than TOS Era ships. Star Fleet Battles
never addressed this era due to their licensing limitations so the designs
here are mostly FASA designs plus now fan cannon and extended
universe designs that also fit have been added.
FASA based designs had some unique guidelines on ship types that are
reflected in most of these conversions but as usual there are
exceptions:
Escorts
- Beam weapons only and have a lower thrust rating (Thrust 4) since their main
use is escorting slow transports and civilian ships from pirates, etc and not cruising throughout
the universe.
Destroyers
- Thrust 6 and no screens (all ships are assumed to have some shields or
screens, but the weakest ones are represented by the base value of Level 0
screens)
plus they usually do have appropriate heavy weapons.
Cruisers
- Usually have Thrust 6 and Level 1 screens, they are intended to be the
fast response units of the fleet operating alone if necessary and still
being viable in a massive battlefleet (when not out exploring brave new
worlds).
Frigates
- While they can be as large as cruisers, Frigates are not intended to zip around the
universe by themselves. Their role is to be part of battlefleets and
assault forces and optimized for combat, not exploration - thus they have more weapons
in exchange for lower thrust levels.
Dreadnoughts and Battleships
- Generally larger and upgraded versions of Cruisers (Federation) or Frigates
(Klingon).
Gaming Sources:
Star Fleet Battles - A classic game of ship to ship
combat in the Star Fleet universe. The unique license limits them
to basically original series designs but they have continued their own
timeline and greatly expanded the timeline, ships, and races.
Star Trek Starship Combat Simulator - A
game from FASA that came out after The Wrath of Khan and fleshed out the
Star Trek universe as part of an RPG. The fleet sourcebooks
introduced a lot of new designs and miniatures that are still very
popular.
Fan Publications:
There was a whole 'industry' of realistic books
and blueprints showing and expanding the designs in the Star Trek universe
and some of these 'Fanon' designs have been popular enough to actually
appear or be referenced in later series. The
Star Trek Blueprint Database is a wonderful source of all of these items
and nearly all are available to download as a PDF.
Highlights you should not miss:
For the Klingons, there are a couple great sources that compile the
ships from fandom, Star Fleet Battles and FASA Trek into a workable
timeline. The they have the same author and the Guide is more
comprehensive but has removed the SFB based ship images but they are
both good resources.
I don't like doing stats for ships when you can't put accurate
miniature representations on the table. Thanks to Captain
Mojo and others, there are STLs you can download for free on nearly all these ships
and more so you can print your own copies to put on the table.
Ship Systems Notes:
Shields
The Full
Thrust Screens system are used to represent Shields though they don't work
the same way. There are alternate systems available for FT that more
closely reflect the damage absorbing qualities of Shields but for simple and
introductory gaming the base FT Screen are used with acceptable results All ships are assumed to have some shields but the weakest ones are
represented by the base value of Level 0 screens.
Fighters
and Fighter Defenses
Fighters are rare in this universe so these ships
have no dedicated PDS systems. If they are used in a game with
fighters, allow beam weapons to target and fire at a fighter group just like
any other ship using a Fire Control system and applying dice role modifiers
(see the
Full Thrust Beta Fighter rules)
Federation Torpedoes
There are the heavy weapon of the Federation, a small projectile ball of light that
hits harder than a beam and skips screens.
 Pulse Torpedoes: Mass 4, 1 arc +1 mass
for additional arcs. Cost is 3 x Mass
TOS Era - Pulse Torpedo
as written in the FT rules, damage/hit is 1d6.
 Photon Torpedoes:
Mass 4, 1 arc +1 mass for additional arcs. Cost is 4 x Mass
TMP Era -
Ranges and To Hit rolls are the same as Pulse Torpedoes. Damage is
'2d6 (Higher roll)'.
Example: A Photon Torpedo hits
so 2 d6 are rolled for
damage giving results of a 2 and 4. The roll of 2 is ignored and the
'Higher roll' value of 4 taken resulting in 4 points of damage to the target.
Federation Mega-Phaser
Previously I had converted Mega-Phasers as Class-3 beam batteries but it
never felt right.
After more review I am now converting Mega-Phasers
to Class-1 Grasers (High Intensity Grasers) which better represents their
potential for high damage while having limited range.
1 arc
Mass 2, 3 arc Mass 3. Cost is 4 x Mass
Klingon Disruptors
A new weapon, designed to represent what was seen in the original series
episodes. It is the heavy weapon of the Klingons since they don't use
Pulse Torpedoes / Photon Torps (usually).
 Disruptor:
Mass 3, 2 arcs, +1 mass for a 3rd arc. Cost is 3 x Mass.
TOS Era
- Fired
as a Pulse Torp but instead of a damage roll, a fixed 2 points of damage are
inflicted. Screens have no effect, and if armoured, 1 point of damage to
the outer layer of armour and 1 point to the next layer (2nd layer of armour
or hull depending on design)
 Advanced
Disruptors:
Mass 3, 1 arc, +1 mass for 2nd arc, another +1 for 3rd arc. Cost is 4 x
Mass
TMP Era
- Treat as a class 2 K-gun - fired as a Pulse Torp with a hit doing 2 points
of damage, roll another d6, on a 1
or 2, an additional 2 points of damage are inflicted. Screens have no effect, and if
armoured, half the damage is applied the armour layer and the other half to the next layer (2nd layer of armour
or hull depending on design)
Romulan Plasma Torpedoes
 Plasma Bolt
Launchers (PBLs) are used to represent the Plasma
Torpedoes seen on screen and in games. From FT Fleet Book 2,
PBLs are
used by the Phalons. The PBL fires a big
ball of plasma every other turn placed before movement
up to 30mu away with a strength equal to the weapon
class. Plasma Bolts may be targeted like a fighter
group and strength reduced when hit. The PBL explodes
after weapons fire and damages all ships within 6mu with
current strength of the Bolt x D6 damage.
Screens can reduced the effect. See Fleet Book
2 for a full description.
Romulan Cloaking Device
 Cloaking Field - From the More Thrust
supplement, Cloaking must be included as a movement
order when it is to happen. Cloaked ships may not
fire PBLs or any other weapon.
The rules in MT have
you take the mini off the table and for an amount of
turns you indicate, movement plotting is done and when
the turn to re-appear happens, perform the movement orders
from the last known spot and see where the ship is now
and play as normal.
Here is an alternative that may
fit the source material (Balance of Terror episode)
better: The cloaked miniatures stays on the table but
may not be fired upon until 'Targeted'. In order
to find a
cloaked ship, the opponent must use a Fire Con to spot the
ship. This Fire Con can not be used to target this or
any other ship in the firing phase. Roll a d6 for each
Fire Con dedicated to finding the cloaked ship and read
as regular beam dice and hits totaled.
If the result is
0 hits, the cloaked ship is not found and is not
Targeted so can not be attacked in the firing phase.
A result of 1 'hit'
and the
cloaked ship is Targeted but attacks are resolved as if
the cloaked ship is at twice the actual
range.
With 2+ 'hits', the cloaked ship is Targeted
and attacks are resolved as if the cloaked ship is at 150% of the actual range.
Once a cloaked ship
is Targeted and hit by weapons, other ships do not need
to perform the targeting rolls but attacks are resolved
at 150% the actual range.
TMP Era cloaks are more
effective so the d6 results are determined as if there
were Level 1 screens.
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