Continuing Mission

Starship Sunday: Tanker

“Jester” David
1–2 minutes
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Welcome to Starship Sunday, presenting a new spaceframe for the Star Trek Adventures roleplaying game, filling in some gaps until official material can be released.
Bringing a month of civillian ships to a close is the Merchantman tanker

First seen in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, RPG books describe this ship as a Class III tanker, while other sources label it a Monarch-class tanker. The model was re-used several times for the various series. Unlike other transports, tankers are designed to carry liquids and gases. In Star Trek, tankers might carry deuterium for starship fuel or quantities of antimatter. Various chemical substances could also be ferried. It’s also possible various exotic forms of energy, such as radiation or particles, could be transported within force fields.

With its single hull design, this tanker could probably be refit into a transport or cargo freighter. It could even be given a complete overhaul and converted into a personal luxury ship.  

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Tanker-pic

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4 responses to “Starship Sunday: Tanker”

  1. pattiib Avatar
    pattiib

    I like the idea of playing a non-Starfleet crew with something like this. Maybe a merchant or smuggler crew. I noticed it has no weapons, but +1 Security. I assume that’s an error?

    Reply
    1. "Jester" David Avatar
      “Jester” David

      Nope.
      Security has some other purposes: it also gives the shields a little boost, lets you modulate the shields, does security based scans, and manages the ship’s tractor beam.

      Reply
  2. pattiib Avatar
    pattiib

    Yes, naturally, but it does cheapen the utility of that bonus since it has fewer than the standard number of uses.

    Reply
    1. "Jester" David Avatar
      “Jester” David

      There’s few other places to put the last +1. As Tankers, they’re not really built for Science or Medicine either. And they’re not really Command vehicles, designed to manage a fleet (at least not by default). And while they’re meant to be fast, they don’t strike me as particularly maneuverable, so Conn seems a poor fit as well.
      A +3 in Engineering was possible. But that seems to bend the rules. As would just having a net +2.

      While awkward, the ship will get the most usage out of Security, and it fits the least poorly. (Plus a solid tractor beam would fit with the tanker as well, as it might need to bring itself in to dock with other ships.)

      Reply

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