Greetings,

How many of you are familiar with the Empress Marava class freighter from TRAVELLER and GURPS: TRAVELLER?

What I want to do is use that ship map in my GURPS STAR TREK campaign - but I need good suggestions as to 'how' it would function in the Trek universe and what the stats might be.

For example - where would a person put a transporter pad or transporter room on that deck plan?

What would be the likely Warp Speed upper and lower range?

That kind of thing.

-Ed C.

I did Try to post an attached image of the ship's deck plan - but this version of the forums said the file ewas too big.

-Ed C.

Star Trek has plenty of lumpy and blocky looking freighters, though not usually with big canopy windows in front.  You could explain that bit away with the transparent aluminum, so I don't think it's a deal-breaker.  Civilian ships usually have low warp speeds, I'd say five at the max, lower if it's original series or Enterprise era.  Transporters shouldn't be much of an issue; smaller ships usually have cramped transporters that only handle 1-2 people and are closet-sized instead of the big roomy ones on big starships, and a cargo transporter would just be a big squarish spot of floor in the hold.  I can't see the deckplan so I can't be very specific, but it shouldn't be hard to shoehorn transporters in.

You may want to use screenshots of the Defiant interior from DS9 for inspiration, it's an example of a small starship's interior that is not a big cruise ship layout like the Enterprise.  There are also a few other examples of cramped, small ships like Klingon birds of prey, but they didn't make as many sets for those.

You could very easily steal some room from the fuel tank.

Warp Five was what I was thinking as well, maybe it can push it to five six or so in an emergency.

Starfleet Sez: "Oh, the Empress class? Sure, fine little reliable trader. They're boxy, but they'll get the job done at a reasonable speed."

Starfleet also sez: "Is that tricorder off? Okay, great. I hate those damn Empress-class ships. Slow as hell and the warp engines break down if you look at them crooked. Shields? Good luck, they'll be hard pressed to stop a flashlight. Every time I get a distress call from the Poison Oak Patch, it's from some dumbass Empress captain trying to get that piece of shit out to trade with the Teragans, well past the endurance limit for those busted-ass engines."

Both quotes from Captain Rez Ansalon, USS Jubilant

Captain Ansalon merely has a bad attitude and is generally unfriendly, which is why he's out in the Poison Oak Patch in the first place. And yes, the Teragans are what one might consider a bit of a long trip through some rough space. The Empress class is a budget model freighter but (if properly maintained) is not much more likely to break down than other ships of the same size. Usually. Sometimes. "Finicky" would be a polite way to describe it, and "characterful" is frequently used in sales material.

The player who hosts our game sessions may have forgotton - but somewhere in her house is an Empress Marava freghter deckplan map sized for miniatures.

We used it over 10 years ago for the GURPS Traveller game campaign I was running at the time. It ewas easier to have one map at her place and the ogiginal at my house instead of moving one back and forth for each game session.

Now that we are doing the Star Trek setting, just thought it might be nice to find the old deckpln map and use it in a game session or two.

- Ed C.