Joe Heck [email removed] writes:
> This are all designed for small ships - I'm not familiar enough with larger
> ships (i.e. Azhinti High Lightning, Kinunir, etc) to be able to say if these
> would work.
Your suggestions make good sense for 'small' ships crewed by player
characters. Most referees want to keep the number of NPCs down, and so the
players will frequently be the only crew of a small starship (typically
ships of 100 to 400 tons). So, operating these ships with reduced crews is
important to many campaigns.
One way to treat this in the game is to assume that the crew requirements
calculated according to the design rules are the "official" numbers, based
on the various rules and regulations (of the Imperium, a Pocket Empire, the
Navy involved, or whatever). You *can* operate a ship with a minimum crew
much smaller than this, though. As long as you've got a Pilot, Astrogator,
and some Ship's Engineers, you can make the ship go (you'll probably want
someone to run the sensor too, though) although if you don't have enough
crew to make the ship's maintainance, you will have serious problems in the
long run.
Presumably small "tramp" ships operated in private service aren't inspected
often (or at all) for infractions of relatively minor things as the crew
complement regulations (although operating with a short crew is a great way
to harass PCs that need it). Annoying starport officials is a good way to
trigger an inspection, I've found. Larger ships are a different story, though.
Large military vessels are generally operated by a military or paramilitary
organization (like the Navy, Scout Service, Patrol, or a starmerc unit).
In general, unless you want a career-killing performance review, you'd
better operate "by the book" unless you have a *very* good excuse (like the
entire rest of the ship's complement are casualties of your last
engagement). If you're running a military campaign, this generally isn't a
problem unless the referee wants it to be.
Large civillian vessels are generally operated in commercial service. As
the value of the ship, the number of passengers, and the value of the
cargoes increase, so do the frequency and zeal with which the regulations
are enforced. Failing to keep the proper crew complement on the books can
result in fines, groundings, and loss of insurance coverage. If you're
running a merchant campaign, all of these things can be tossed at the PCs to
make their lives complicated.
> Gunnery - I leave it at simply a person for each weapon, instead of
> including one for the MFD. My view of that box is something along the lines
> of the targeting system in modern fighters - it just let's you know when
> you're on target and have a lock for missles. Each gunner can choose to work
> with it or not, but it's not something that requires a person manning it.
With the T:TNE starship weapons and MFDs, I'd work it a little differently.
It seems to me that the gunner in the turret can operate that turret by
local control, while the gunner in the MFD (which I imagine as a sort of a
fire control center located on either the main bridge or on a fire control
bridge). The one MFD controls all of the weapons in it's battery (that is,
the group of weapons it's linked to), and is operated by one person, the
battery director.
To operate at full effectiveness, you'd want to have both the MFD and the
turrets manned. The gunner in the MFD would ordinarily fire the whole
battery (much like the gunnery director [a person] in the fire control
center of a battleship) and thereby get the bonuses for central fire
direction through the MFD. The gunners in the turrets can fire under local
control if need be (for example, if the MFD is knocked out, or if the
battery has to engage multiple targets at once - up to one for each
turret) but then they don't get bonuses for the MFD.
When reducing the crew, one gunner in the MFD can control the entire battery
without needing to have the turrets manned. However, if the MFD is knocked
out, then none of the turrets can fire. You could also leave the MFD
unmanned, but then you wouldn't get it's benefits.
> Engineering I pretty much leave as is. It's based off maintenance points,
> and without re-writing all those rules (which I kind of like anyway), I
> leave the engineering staff as is.
Depending on the TL and wear value of the ship, PCs operating with a reduced
crew may have their hands *very* full keeping ahead of the maintainance.
> Anyone else have mod's that they use to help out PC's running a ship?
A couple of obvious ones: A ship that doesn't have any high passengers
doesn't need any stewards (the PCs can eat their own cooking, or at least so
they hope). A medic can be dispensed with if need be, and any PC with the
appropriate skill can handle the small craft (Air/Raft or Ship's Boat).
[email removed]
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Science-Fiction Adventure
In the Far Future