Copyright © 2012 ADB Inc.

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sanity in it for safe keeping, because you might lose it

How to Draw otherwise as you get deeper into the project. Just
kidding: it’s not all that bad. It can be a daunting task,
Starship Deck Plans however; the Federation police cutter, the smallest ship
By Garth L. Getgen and Stephen V. Cole in the fleet, is the equivalent of a six-story building the
size of an NFL football field.
When most players look at a set of deck plans for a The first consideration is which computer program
starship, they think “How cool is that!” Some might think to use. Obviously, one can draft plans the old-fashioned
it’s easy to draft the plans up and be tempted to try their way with pencil and paper, but at best you could
hand at it. They probably can, given time and effort, plus produce plans someone with a computer could copy. If
a little bit of artistic talent. In this article, we shall you decide to do the computer work yourself, you’ll need
endeavor to provide advice to those who are willing to a decent drafting application. You will need what’s
attempt such a project. known as a vector graphics program, as opposed to a
The point is that we want to publish a lot of starship raster (or bit-map) editor. Raster editor applications
deck plans in RPG books and as separate products. To such as Microsoft Paint and Corel’s Paint Shop Pro will
publish a lot of deck plans, you need people doing deck not work well because once you draw a line, the
plans, and given the time element for the first of the program “forgets” that it’s a line and turns it into a bunch
Traveller books, we’re going to have to use everyone of pixels. There is no easy way to select that line to
who ever drew a set of deck plans and recruit a few move or adjust it later on. The two best options are
more people. We need everyone working from a computer-aided design (CAD) programs such as
common set of protocols and concepts, producing plans TurboCAD™ or ViaCAD™, and high-end graphic editors
that even if they don’t look like the work of a single such as Macromedia Freehand™, Adobe Illustrator™,
artist, they are all equally usable. Corel Draw™, or Smart Draw™. There are 2D versions
ADB, Inc., as of 2012, pays $150 for a set of “Level of many CAD programs available for under $50, but
2” plans of a cruiser, those being plans that have every these are still full-featured programs with fairly steep
wall, every door, and every “fixture” (e.g., control panels, learning curves. The graphic editors tend to be a bit
major equipment, and so forth). We’ll pay a bit more for more intuitive to use but cost several hundred dollars.
“Level 1” plans (with furniture). If we’re up against a The home designer programs such as Instant
deadline, we can publish products with Level 3 plans Architect™ are intended to draft houses and other
that have only pressure bulkheads, major (SSD) square buildings, thus lack features and abilities
equipment, turbolifts, and so forth (leaving out many required for drafting space ships.
interior partitions). A set of Level 3 plans might say in If you intend to submit your finished deck plans to
effect “this area has crew quarters” without breaking ADB for publication, you’ll need a program that can
down the details. It would be preferable for key areas export in a file format that ADB’s computers can import
(bridge, engine room, etc.) to be at Level 2 or Level 1 and edit. The point here is that if we notice a problem
standards. we need to be able to fix it, not depend on you to send
The single most important thing you can do is, in a revised file. (With our luck, you’ll be on vacation
before you start, contact ADB, Inc., tell them you want to when we need fixes done.) At this time, the programs
be part of this project, read everything that the company known to work are: NOT SURE YET. SVC is buying a
makes available, and perhaps demonstrate your abilities PC for this and other reasons.
by doing a sample page of plans. You’ll be assigned a Whichever program you decide to use, we
ship and given not just a deadline, but a series of interim recommend playing with it before starting on the
deadlines. If takes a month or more to do a set of plans starship project. Start by mapping out your house, or
and ADB, Inc., cannot afford to wait a month to find out one floor of the office you work in, or maybe design your
that you aren’t going to produce (or produce anything dream house. Be sure to use as many features the
useful). We’ll want to see preliminary plans within a program offers as possible, such as snap-grids. Be sure
week and a deck every few days thereafter. to create a symbols/objects library. (If you create a nice
Drafting a good set of deck plans is part science control panel, copy it to a library document so you can
and part art. A quick on-line search will reveal a plethora easily find it when you need one instead of scanning
of deck plans available for space ships not only for Star through deck after deck looking for a particular
Trek but most other sci-fi genera. A large portion of conference table that looked really nice. Use the
these are very basic and/or have serious flaws which standard symbols and concepts seen on our other plans
suggest the artist put little thought or effort into them. and our reference and resource documents.
These are “okay” for a one-off adventure setting, but if Next, create a small starship from scratch, perhaps
you want a ship that your players can use as their home a civilian science vessel, about 50 meters long by 25
base for a campaign, you will want something that looks meters wide by 12 meters high, with 3 or 4 decks. By
realistic. Take time to study as many deck plans as you now, you should be comfortable with the program’s
can. menus and have a feel for how to fit rooms and such
into the ship, so you’re ready to begin the project.
BEFORE YOU BEGIN
One cannot simply sit down and start drawing a WHAT IS A STARSHIP?
starship and expect to create anything useful. There’s a None of us have ever designed a starship and
lot of planning and forethought involved before drafting precious few have ever designed so much as a real-
the first line. You may want to find a box and put your world house or aircraft. You need to understand “naval
Copyright © 2012 ADB Inc. — page 2

architecture” at least to a basic level, and we don’t have your rooms need to have no “white fill color” inside
time for you to spend five years in engineer school. You them.
can read a few books on how to build World War II
battleships, but they’re not going to be of a lot of serious GETTING DOWN TO SERIOUS WORK
immediate use in building a starship. Select the ship you want to design. Consult with
Probably the most familiar analogy for any of us is ADB, Inc., to make sure nobody else is already doing it,
an office building. A starship is really just a big building and for any specific guidance. If you’ve shown any
designed to do business (albeit one designed to fight off promise that you can deliver good plans, ADB, Inc., will
an enemy attack and, by the way, to move at highway shower you with no end of JPG files of existing art, even
speeds). People have to have a way to get in it, move creating some new art for you in some cases. (We have
around inside it, do their business, interact with the at least a top view of every major ship.) Review all
outside world, keep things running, breath and eat and available material for it, including SSDs for all known
sleep, watch TV, have a small social gathering, and variants and upgrades. Obtain and look at the miniature.
keep up with all of the paperwork. In our case, it’s a self- Write a checklist of everything that you need to include
contained building without utility connections, although in the deck plans.
you could think of those engines out there on the struts Write a crew list (based on published crew lists and
as the power company (and those engines don’t need SFB data about crew size) to determine how many
deck plans, just “engine access” routes from your plans personnel are needed for each duty location, e.g., two
to them). You’re going to have to store and recycle the per weapon (plus two or three supervisors per battery of
water and do something about the trash. You cannot weapons), about ten per two-box main bridge, auxilliary
count on a delivery truck from the food warehouse or control room, emergency bridge, etc. You don’t need to
office supply store or hardware store more than once name every crewman; you just need an idea of how
every few weeks or even months. many duty stations each compartment needs. Creating
Oh, and the taxpayers paid for it and don’t want you a crew list really isn’t that hard. Get the SFB data for the
to include anything that isn’t going to be used all the number of crew units (each with 10 people) and Marine
time. That means a lot of spaces have to work for their boarding parties (each five people). Remember that
primary task and their occasional emergency duties. Marines (and deck crews) are in that total crewmen
The house you live in and the building you work in figure.) Figure out the weapons crews and the bridge
probably have two kinds of walls. Exterior walls are crews. Then get one of the published crew lists and just
weather-tight and insulated. Interior walls aren’t much scale everything up or down.
more than soundproof privacy screens (and if you don’t Start by drafting a top-plane view of the ship to
like your little sister’s music, you know that soundproof scale. Presumably, the ship is already in the Star Fleet
is not as strictly defined as we’d all like). Firewalls Universe and therefore there will be clip art available
between adjacent apartments are not much different from ADB. If there is a miniature available (and there
from exterior weather-tight walls. There may be “wet probably is), even better. According to the Franz Joseph
walls” that have plumbing in them, but their actual Technical Manual (the basis for SFU), the ST:TOS
construction has few differences from the wall between Enterprise is 288.6 meters long, and its saucer is 127.1
the den and the bedroom. meters in diameter, so adjust your ship to be of
Starships have four types of walls. The exterior hull reasonable size compared to this. The new Starline
is thick (no one knows, but go with a foot or so); proof 2500 miniatures are supposed to be on a 1:3125 scale,
against radiation, heat, cold, vacuum, and enemy but there is some room (no more than +/- 125 points) for
weapons; and not something you want to make any error if you need your design to be slightly larger/smaller
more holes in than you have to. The “interior partitions” to fit. The most critical thing you must do, and must do
between two staterooms (say, two or three inches thick) first, is to establish how big the ship is in meters (and
are not going to stand up to blast and explosive how high it is in decks). This is information you want to
decompression. (It would be too expensive to make calculate closely and have approved by ADB, Inc.
every interior wall that way.) The intermediate type of (Since ADB, Inc., is going to ask experts such as Nick
wall is a pressure bulkhead, which is thicker (call it six Blank and Will McCammon to help us decide if you got
inches), is stronger, and won’t collapse if one side is the size and the number of decks right, you might just
suddenly in hard vacuum. (The ability to withstand blast want to ask them.) Remember that there is a BBS topic
damage varies, but generally speaking, a hand grenade for deck plans. Ask ADB to set up a folder for your
or slug-rifle won’t penetrate a pressure bulkhead.) The specific project and use it to get information and input.
fourth type is an armored bulkhead, a thicker form of Get as much input as you can from the acknowledged
pressure bulkhead (call it nine inches), which surrounds experts before drawing the first stroke.
the bridge, the arms room, the weapons compartments, One point here. It’s necessary to have other people
and munitions storage. These are not much different review your work, but you don’t want to randomly email
from an exterior wall although they lack the insulation copies to people you do not know who just offer to
and heat/cold redistribution systems. For your purpose, review it for you. Maybe they don’t really know what
these are just thicker or thinner (solid) lines. they’re talking about (the acknowledged experts do) and
Many game systems use a grid of some sort. maybe they someday (soon) start posting your deck
Ignore that for now; it’s easy enough to add another plans all over the place. Talk with ADB, Inc., about who
drawing layer later. (For RPG books, the smaller size of can be trusted with actual copies of your work. You can,
the printed plans means these will be omitted or the of course, just generally ask in the topic for general
plan will be unreadable.) This does, however, mean that advice (“Should I put the mess hall in the front or
Copyright © 2012 ADB Inc. — page 3

back?”) but don’t go posting the plans themselves. It art or miniatures. There’s no need to draw much detail
doesn’t hurt anything to let a local friend review a hard at this time; you just need the general size and location
copy. If you take hard copies to a convention, make mapped out. Use existing deck plans as a guide to
sure that they don’t disappear into somebody’s properly size each item. For example, the Federation
briefcase. (If nothing else, you just lost all of your own heavy cruiser’s main bridge bubble is 16.2 meters in
notes you hand wrote on them from the input you got.) diameter, and the bridge itself is 10.5 meters interior
For now, you just need the outline of the hull and diameter. The Federation frigate’s main bridge is seven
any major features such as the bridge bubble and meters interior diameter.
phaser bumps. Next, draft a side-plane view of the ship. The SSD defines lots of things in a general way.
Align this next to the top-plane view so that the bow and Labs, bridges, security stations, and transporters are
stern are on the same line (as if you simply rolled the “sort of in the general area” but not really specific. [The
ship on its axis). There’s precious little clip art that is not Marine boarding party diagrams in Module M have more
top-down view, so you may need help here based partly information, but are still not precise.] If it’s on the left
on the miniature of the ship. Measure the side of the main hull, you cannot move it to the rear hull
height/thickness of the ship and determine the number or the right side, but you could put it on any deck (and if
of decks it will have. For humanoid ships (Federation, you pencil in transporters now, don’t be afraid to move
Klingon, Romulan), the standard is usually 3.0 meters them up or down a deck later). Indeed, you might (if
per deck. This allows for 2.5 to 2.75 meters floor-to- your drawing programs allows it) even color-code stuff
ceiling height plus 50 to 25 centimeters of overhead that you just “stuck somewhere” as opposed to things
duct work and deck plates. If you’re designing a Gorn or that “absolutely positively have to be right here and
Kzinti ship, you will obviously need a little more nowhere else.” At the end, do a “select-all” and turn
headroom (3.5 meters should be fine). Nothing says the everything to the basic black color.
deck must be on a continuous plane from bow to stern; You’ll learn over time the “tactics” of graphic design.
a wedge-shaped ship would probably have the decks in Assuming your program does it, you can “group” all of
staggered tiers as you move back in the thicker part of the features of one compartment (say, a transporter
the ship. Likewise, the shuttlebay and engineering room) into a unit. This allows it to be moved, or copied,
section will probably be over-height decks. or colored, as a block.
Remember when we told you to study existing
ANOTHER POINT OF VIEW plans? Those plans may tell you that the bridge on the
Draw the deck plates in the side-plane view to SSD comes with a nearby navigation compartment that
create a cut-away view of the interior of the ship. Unless is not on the SSD. The navigation (stellar cartography if
the ship is a Federation saucer ship or Gorn bubble you want) compartment can be anywhere in the general
ship, draw a front-on (bow-plane) view of the ship and area of the bridge, so color-code it as movable for now.
draw in the deck plates to match the side cut-away view. There is also going to be a fairly big computer room.
If the decks are staggered (per wedge ship mentioned (Look at the ones on the existing plans and scale up or
above) or has odd-shaped hull (e.g., the Federation down by the overall size of the ship.) Without a real-time
police cutter or old light cruiser), you will need to make Internet to refer to, a starship has to virtually carry the
several cross-sections at various points down the length sum total of the empire’s knowledge with it.
of the hull. This will allow you to see where there is
insufficient headroom along the edges of the hull, etc. THE BIG PIECES
Use those wedged-shaped edge areas for water and Next comes the shuttlebay (or bays), its location
gas storage tanks, or other cargo storage. defined by the SSD and miniature. Obviously, this is
Next, make several copies of the top-plane view, next to the external hatches. Remember that the
one for each deck of the ship. Place these side by side, shuttlebay must be large enough to house shuttlecraft
with the bow to the top of the screen, with the noses all ready for flight and those in storage (with access to
along the same line. Draw a centerline from bow-to- bring them out), plus room to land an extra shuttlecraft
stern on each of these. The next step can be a little for visitors.
tricky. Starting with the left-most top-view, draw the The engine room is traditionally located adjacent to
outline of the deck space for Deck #1, taking into the impulse engines. It must be large enough to
account the side cut-away and front cross-section views accommodate the engineers and all the secondary
above. Make note of both the total width of the deck and hardware that makes it all work. There is always a
the width of usable headroom. (The headroom outline power-control switching room and a computer
for one deck will be the footprint outline for the next compartment somewhere near the engine room, but
deck up. The footprint outline for one deck is the same those can be “somewhere around here” and moved
as the headroom outline for the next deck down.) Do later.
this for the rest of the decks, left to right and top to Few warships have a proper cargo bay, but almost
bottom. all ships will have some cargo storage areas. Except for
At this point, you are ready to begin laying out the bulk freighters and tug pods, which have much larger
ship’s interior features. If you’re basing it off of clip art cargo bays, one SSD box is typically about 100 square
and/or a miniature, some decisions have already been meters floor space or 500 cubic meters volume.
made for you. Sketch in features such as main bridge, (Remember that Orion ships only steal the good stuff
weapon mounts, tractor beams, probe launchers, and their cargo spaces are half-size per SSD box. Only
impulse engines, shuttlebay (more below on that one), police ships have real cargo bays and those may also
and anything else that is pre-defined by established clip be undersized as they are carrying emergency supplies,
Copyright © 2012 ADB Inc. — page 4

not pallets of random commercial cargo.) Pick an empty vertical shafts are locked in, it will be very hard to move
spot near the front edge, one without adequate them later on. If you find that you must move a stairwell
headroom, and mark it for storage of the solar sail. to make something else fit, you will need to move it on
The next thing you want to figure out is where you other decks as well, which could force you to re-draw
will put sickbay. (This is always somewhere deep inside, major sections of those decks if they were near
far from any outside wall). The mess hall or cafeteria is completion. Plan ahead; plan carefully.
very likely to be very close to the shuttlebay, sickbay, Sketch in the corridors, allowing space for rooms.
transporters, and the main external docking ports. (That Previous deck plans typically use two-meter wide
may end up defining where sickbay and the main corridors, but some use 1.5-meter or even 1.25-meter
external docking points are.) This is because that big corridors. Make sure it’s possible to walk to any part of
empty area is often used to triage mass casualties and the ship that the crew would need access to. Be sure to
to marshal large numbers of people who are arriving or allow enough space to create adequate-sized rooms.
leaving. Double-check that all systems have been
The gym (with its large public rest room) is often accounted for. Don’t forget to allow for variants and
somewhere near transporters and might even be near upgrades. Take a moment and look through every
the sickbay so its space can be used to handle mass variant of the base hull. If the commando variant of this
casualties or to house temporary visitors such as ship replaces the photon battery with barracks, you
evacuees. need to have adequate access to move a lot of Marines
Now, step back and try to visualize how the rest of out of that barracks in a hurry.
the ship will be laid out. Go over the protocol list and At this point, you probably have everything required
make note of big things like recycling, machine shops, for a Level 3 deck plan.
recreation areas, and how much housing (crew
quarters) you will need. DETAILS, DETAILS
One of the last things you want to sketch in is crew
GETTING AROUND IN YOUR SHIP quarters. These come in small pieces and you can fit
Try to visualize foot-traffic, the corridors, and some here and some there if you have to.
turbolift routes. Once you have that in your head, lay out The minimum space required for a one-man room
the turbolift system. Start with the smallest deck (i.e., with a bed, night stand, dresser, wall locker, and small
main bridge deck on a Federation ship) and locate the table with chair is about 2.5 by 3.5 meters. [This
vertical turbolift shaft. The Federation standard size for assumes humans. Gorns and Kzintis will need 15%
a turbolift car appears to be 3.0 meters, but some deck more space.] A space of 5 by 6 meters can easily
plans use 2.0 or 2.5 meter diameter cars. Draw a accommodate four bunk beds and eight wall lockers for
horizontal guideline through the center of the vertical a small barracks area, or it can be a single stateroom
shaft and extend it to the left/right to the other decks. with separate bedroom, living room, and private
Measure the distant off-set from the ship’s center line. lavatory. Make sure that there is a bed for every
Go to the next deck down/up and draft in the turbolift member of the crew; unless it’s a troop ship, there’s no
vertical shaft using the reference line and off-set to need for “hot bunks.” You may have been planning to
properly locate it directly above/below the first one. provide staterooms for the entire crew but now discover
Remember that a single turbolift vertical shaft need not that you don’t have space and so must use two-man
extend all the way from the top to the bottom of the ship dorm-room style quarters for most of the crew. If there’s
(it’s a little better if it does), but the turbolift systems still not enough room, you’ll have to cut back the size of
should extend to every deck and allow for rapid other systems. We’ve all had to scrap an entire project
transport to important sections of the ship. Sketch in the (three-quarters completed) and start all over from
horizontal turbolift tubes connecting the vertical shafts, scratch due to lack of space for everything the ship
leaving space to either side for rooms and corridors. required.
The ship will also need space for the vertical runs of If on the other hand you find that you have “too
HVAC (heating, ventilating, air condition, a.k.a., life much” space, go back through the checklist to make
support, including plumbing and the main electrical sure you have everything the ship and crew needs. Add
cables) so lay those out. They have to extend onto space to other things (engineering, power switching,
every deck, but on larger ships you really need multiple fuel, etc.). Turn a small unused area into a conference
vertical access shafts. It is sometimes convenient to room, or a lunch room for the chief petty officers. Feel
place these next to the turbolift shafts, since you’re free to create extra recreation rooms and such, or use it
“blowing a hole” through every deck in the stack for more storage space. If you can’t find a use for all the
anyway. (On larger ships, you’ll need two or three extra space, you may need to scrap the design and start
vertical turbolift shafts. Imagine asking yourself if you’d over with a smaller hull outline or lose a deck.
put up with the delays of going from the front of one It should go without saying that you need to check
deck, to the center or rear of the deck, and then back to with ADB, Inc., or a mentor (if you can get someone like
the front of the next deck down. If you have horizontal Nick Blank to take you under his wing) at every step.
shafts on adjacent decks, draw a hole to connect them That way, if you did something that is not going to be
near the extreme ends. Traffic control will love you for approved, you don’t have to start over but can just
that.) correct your path from where you are. By all means, if
Likewise, map out spiral stairwells and other access you get to the point of “I cannot make this work” then
ladders, taking care to properly align everything with the make sure that ADB Inc. and your mentor see your work
deck above/below as needed. Remember that once the and offer their advice.
Copyright © 2012 ADB Inc. — page 5

one item every day. If you put the project on the back-
FINISHING THE PROJECT burner, it will end up in the freezer. Keep at it
Once you’re satisfied with the results, set the At the end, you’ll have a design that you can feel
project aside for a day or two and then review it again proud of, especially if it makes players think, “How cool
with fresh eyes. is that!”
Then, send it to ADB, Inc., and let us look at it. This
is the hardest part of the whole job. You have to freeze
the design (except for any notes you think of, which you
put on a separate document) while waiting for a review.
It’s going to be really bad if you move a conference
room while ADB, Inc., is reviewing the now-obsolete
plans. You should, at this point, have a full set of Level 2
plans and don’t really have to go any further.
If you’re still happy with it, methodically go back
through the ship and harden in all the features by
adding in furniture and work stations and such. Double-
check that walls are where you want them so that, for
example, a row of crew quarters are all (more or less)
the same size rooms. Clean up any stray lines that you
used for reference, and add labels to define features.

AN ART, NOT A SCIENCE

That is the science of drafting deck plans; the art
part is the ability to make things fit together in a realistic
and logical package. Remember that form follows
function, and this is very true in designing a starship.
You would not want to place the main bridge, auxcon,
and emergency bridge all side-by-side (or stacked on
top of each other), for example, nor would you want the
sickbay to be near the outside edge of the ship or too
close to the engine room. You need a reason and a
function for everything you draw. For example, on the
Federation police cutter, Garth placed the gymnasium
near the shuttlebay and transporter room to allow the
gym to double as a staging area for boarding-party
actions and also as a medical triage area for mass
casualty events. Part of the fun (and a major source of
headaches) is coming up with creative ways to resolve
unusual design requirements.
Remember that taxpayers spent a lot of money for
this ship. They did not design in a Christmas Tree Room
because it would be used only two weeks a year.
Spaces must be multi-functional, and that includes
emergency use of spaces. (If the mess hall is full of
refugees, your crew is going to have to get by with the
equivalent of brown bag lunches for a few days, but the
taxpayers would not pay for a “refugee accommodation
compartment” that will rarely be used.)
Much like writing a fiction story, success derives
from a good start with a vision and plan of what you
want the end result to look like. As in writing a story, you
may find yourself with “writer’s block” from time to time.
The advantage here is you can move to a different part
of the ship and come back to the section that’s giving
you difficulty later. When you come back to that part,
don’t be surprised if things suddenly “click” into place
and it almost draws itself. We've told you plan ahead
and plan from start to finish, but don't be afraid to
change the plan if you must. Don't get obsessive and
"lock in" the placement of something that you might
need to move to another location. Moving the lab to
another deck, for example, might free up space you
need for something else. Lastly, try to draw in at least