As part of developing materials for my all-Undine game of STA (more on that at the end), I sat down and hammered out stats for the Cheirax-class. The Cheirax was first introduced into Star Trek Online in June as an upgraded form of the classic Nicor-class we see in VOY and in the Delta Quadrant Sourcebook. Of note, the Cheirax is a Scale larger and combines the NPC Talents/Attributes to allow Players to select a Mission Profile, a Talent granted by that profile, and a freely-available Talent.
Some might be wondering why I’ve paired down the weapons compared to the NPC stat block. To be blunt, the “default” qualities of the Fluidic Space Energy Weapon (Piercing 5 and Vicious 2) are overpowered to the point that giving them to the Players would invalidate all but the most grueling combat scenarios. By making the base qualities Piercing 1 and Vicious 1, it makes the weapon effective without massive power spikes at random. Players can still upgrade their weapon(s) using Threat, much like one might give their GM Threat to fire a Torpedo.
If you’re still here, I’d like to talk a little bit about my Groundskeepers game and the G.V. Traust. The concept behind Groundskeepers is that a pair of Undine from the faction we see in VOY 5×04 have been sent out on a two year mission into the Delta Quadrant during the year 2412. They will encounter new life and new civilizations, boldly going where no Undine has gone before. In a way their journey will be similar to the “old” NX-Era ones, where every contact is First Contact and rules like the Prime Directive aren’t in play. Of course, there will be those who shy away from or even attack Undine out of principle, but that’s half the fun!
The G.V. Traust is the Cheirax Bioship for Groundskeepers. If used in any of your games, it is piloted by “Rhez” and “Tabris”. Each of them is rolling against an Attribute of 10 and a Discipline of 4.
One final thing I’d like to say is that Groundskeepers will stream its first session on July 26th at 9:00 PM EDT (GMT-4) on my Twitch Channel. I’d love it if you dropped by and checked things out!