Welcome to Starship Sundays, where we periodically provide new spaceframes for your Star Trek Adventures game.
Introduced for Star Trek Lower Decks, the California-class is a utility spacecraft that does important yet less glamorous missions, such as second contact. While set in the 2380s, by the time of Lower Decks, the California-class had been in service for some time, with older ships—such as the U.S.S. Cerritos—beginning to have system errors and minor failures. Given the saucer and defector resemble those of the Galaxy and Nebula-class, the class was likely established in the 2350s or 2360s.
Each vessel is assigned to a particular division of Starfleet, as seen by the colour-coded accents on the top and bottom of the saucer section. The Cerritos belongs to the Operations division. There would also be California vessels assigned to the Command division and tasked with minor diplomatic duties, and Sciences ships performing routine medical tasks or following-up on anomalies or other scientific discoveries. But, as Starfleet vessels, they can get dispatched on whatever assignment is in the region: if there’s no diplomatic ship nearby, a medical California-class might be asked to ferry an ambassador to a meeting or oversee the repairs on a communications relay.
A California-class is a great ship for a newly promoted captain. If playing a rookie captain and their untested crew, a Cali vessel would be a fun way to start a campaign (or restart a campaign with a former junior officer being given the big seat). While Lower Decks is a comedic story, there’s no reason another Cali ship couldn’t be used in a serious game, dispatched on scientific missions.
Click image for PDF

Click HERE for Black Background PDF
I have to say, I love this write-up for the Cali. I even used the stats on this PDF to fan-stat my Corey Belote-style starship PDF of the Cali class. Find it here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MZrRQ-b64fWKYdh9lMoNvO1-6X-yO5R0/view?usp=sharing
Hi – would you be willing to share the template for your starship sheet ? I think it’s really awesome and I’d like to use it for my own starship creation efforts.
I use InDesign to make my ships, which is a bit of a pricey program. But I did make form-fillable versions here: https://continuingmissionsta.com/2020/12/28/form-fillable-sheets/