I've now added scans of the Apollo, Deneva, Merced and Rigel. And there are lots of background titbits from various LUG books. Enjoy.

Merced: An Enterprised Akira-Norway, the hull shapes are too bizarre, even more than the Steamrunner. It looks too modern.

Rigel: A Sabre clone. Only the engineering hull is different, just the way many fans first thought the Sabre's hull would look like. A reasonable ship, though.

Apollo: Another Galaxy clone. Looks like a swimming swan in the side view.

Deneva: Astonishment. What's that. Looks much too bizarre. Too alien.

Frankly, many members of the forum have designed much more interesting ships.

(Of course, way back last year when I found out this was in the works, and reported it here, I SAID some of our people ought to contact them with the designs they posted here, but who listens to poor First of Two?)

Niagara: very nice but doesn't fit the registry range of the Niagaras. Use it for the Zodiac or Andromeda instead.

The others are just bad.

The book also has the Miranda, constellation, Sovereign, New Orleans, Olympic, Norway, Akira, Steamrunner and Sabre. The artwork is rather stylised and in some cases quite different to the 'real' things. Hence one could re-work these designs a bit.

But starships are just a small part of the book. Indeed these designs are just a small part of starships section. There are large sections on Federation history, how power is shared between the President and the Council. How the various Federation agencies are organised. Lots of detail on the Merchant Marine. Extra detail on starfleet.

Back to ships and the authors have clearly read SotSf and other fandom works. The Horizon class is mentioned as is the Endeavor class, both in contexts that support the fandom histories of those classes. The designations for various types of ships (CH for Heavy Cruiser, FF for Fast Frigate, etc.) are a lot more similar to the SotSF ones than any 'real world' system.

It makes a few blunders. The Akira, Norway, Sabre and Steamrunner are all lsited as 'new' designs introduced after Wolf 359. The Cheyenne is mentioned as being venerable. One or two classes are given designations that are at odds with on screen dialogue.

A good book, it's only the artwork in the ships section that really lets it down.

I'm still trying to become aquainted with the new gaming system. Can someone tell me if the system for both characters and ships seem to be fairly accurate as some of FASAs was?

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-=/\=-
Captain Stark
http://members.aol.com/captaincks/readyroom.html

The person that drew those should be shot and put out of our misery. I'm not the only one here than can produce far better images than LUG's hired ILLustrators.

But hey, thanks for putting them up anyway.

Team up me and RW and we wcould run LUG into the ground.

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I'm the only one who understands me, and I ire of my company.
--Paul Cargile

It's very easy to sit here and criticise, so why don't you write a complete set of RPG rules, background material and campaigns, playtest them, win a license from Paramount, arrange for the artwork and layout to be done, sculpt some miniatures, arrange for printing and distribution.

Go on, if you think you can do it, then do it.

Now, let's be more constructive and look at the five totally new designs...

Apollo, the saucer matches the common description found on the 'net (saucer much wider than it is long). The date isn't bad for the registries.

Deneva, we know it's a transport from on screen sources and so they get that right. Transports are never beautiful, are they? This design fits in very nicely with FASA's transports.

Merced, it's possible to see this as a 'missing link' between the 23rd century Akyazi class Permiter Action Ships and the Defiant pathfinder from the DS9 TM. The saucer shape is at odds with the date, but on small ships this is less important as an indication of date than with big ships.

Niagara, the design is slightly too advanced for the date and the date is too high for the registry.

Rigel, the design is sabre-like and hence it fits well with the registries. But the date is too low for the registry and the saucer shape. It doesn't match the common description of the Rigel, but that might not be a bad thing...

Personally, I would use the Deneva as is; use the Niagara for the Zodiac or Andromeda and use the FF Niagara; change the date for the Rigel; probably use the Merced; and probably modify the Apollo design somewhat.

Andromeda: Akira variant with extended main hull instead of catamaran hull, four nacelles.
Antares: A TOS-like saucer like the unofficial (FASA?) design, possibly modified in the 24th century, so the original Antares and the Hermes are the same class.
Bradbury: An Intrepid predecessor with fixed nacelles (new type required) and some detail changes.
Chimera: No idea.
Deneva: A small ship with a fat Oberth-like saucer and two nacelles directly attached to the saucer bottom.
Hokule'a: Almost as large as the Ambassador, but with a smaller saucer and shorter neck.
Istanbul: A large bulky transport ship, no saucer.
Korelev: No idea.
Merced: Ship with small saucer and long engineering hull, no neck, two nacelles in Excelsior-like configuration, but much smaller.
Renaissance: Nacelles on either side of the engineering hull, short neck, Ambassador-like saucer, but smaller (350m)
Sequoia: Maybe this is a Nebulaized Sovereign with a new type of warp nacelles.
Surak: Originally Vulcan ship type with pointed warp nacelles and triangular main hull. Details like the bridge are rather Starfleet-like.
Wambundu: No idea.
Yorkshire: Transport ship similar to the Sydney in size and shape.
Zodiac: Galaxy-like saucer, four smaller nacelles, small engineering hull directly attached to the saucer rear end.

Who's 'we'? And what's this 'supposed'? And 'use' for what?

If you're playing the LUG RPG then LUG probably do intend you to 'use' them.
If you're collecting as many ship designs as possible (I've got three or four Surak designs on my hard drive from various places all over the web) then you'd be stupid not to 'use' them.
If you're just trying to put a design to each name for your own personal 'use' then you can do what the hell you like.

LUG have a very clear statement about canon in the front of every book. They knew exactly what some people would say...

All you designs use components from existing designs which is a bit boring. If ILM had stuck by that rule we'd never have the Akira, etc.

"Antares: A TOS-like saucer like the unofficial (FASA?) design,"

Which FASA design are you talking about? There is no FASA Antares class. Do you mean the Concordance design?

"possibly modified in the 24th century, so the original Antares and the Hermes are the same class."

I refuse to believe that the Antares from Charlie X (a supply ship) is of the same class used as part of Picard's Romulan blockade over a hundred years later.

"Deneva: A small ship with a fat Oberth-like saucer and two nacelles directly attached to the saucer bottom."

Where does the cargo go? Is it a freighter, cargo internal, or a tug, cargo in external pods? (TPTB seem to use the term transport for all Starfleet freighter types, FASA uses it instead of tug and LUG use it mainly for people carriers.)

"Sequoia: Maybe this is a Nebulaized Sovereign with a new type of warp nacelles."

With a registry lower than the Galaxy? Ferrying people to DS9? I don't think so.