[[[ Playtest Question ]]] Chicken Soup Machine Technician

[MongooseMatt]

Here is something that has made itself apparent while working on space stations, but it applies to ships as well.

As things stand, the crew table does not make any provision for the Chicken Soup Machine Nozzle Technician (or other minor crew roles).

Are we bothered by this?

[Belisknar]

Not really. I'd always just kind of assumed that those roles just fell under a general crewman band. Your Dave Listers and Arnold Rimmers are just lower tier mechanics.

[phavoc]

No. For the most part the crew rules should be generic and suggestions. Beyond that as long as the crew list seems reasonable I'm ok with it. Everyone is going to have different ideas, regulations, social customs, etc on their crewing. It would be impossible to find reasons for each and every one of those situations (like where is the Space Commissar position for ships from certain governmental ruling types?)

[Condottiere]

Funky specializations could be pointed out in a sidebar, and how dungeon masters can incorporate them in character generation.

[Tenacious-Techhunter]

Rather than exclusive positions, crew members should have "primary" and "supplementary" duties, and receive crew pay on that basis; a crew member's most important exclusive duty would be their primary duty, and they would get additional pay for supplementary duties that they do at a reduced rate. A "Jack-of-All-Trades" working hard enough might well earn more performing the sum of his duties than the highest paid primary duty who does nothing else.

On large enough (or important enough) ships, "Backup Pilot" and "Backup Navigator" would be pretty important supplementary duties that might never come into play, but are worth encouraging development in, just in case.

[Infojunky]

Yes.... There has been a distinct lack of service and maintenance crew in the bigger ship crew calculations.

[IanBruntlett]

Here is something that has made itself apparent while working on space stations, but it applies to ships as well.

As things stand, the crew table does not make any provision for the Chicken Soup Machine Nozzle Technician (or other minor crew roles).

Are we bothered by this?

No

[Captain Jonah]

I always assume they are sub skills held by the crew.

So one of the engineers has general maintenance skills and gets that duty which includes the foot long egg extruder, the chicken soup fabricator and the coffee peculator.

Likewise one steward (or more) is the expert protein chef and spice master who can make the food packs edible. The astrogator plays 3D chess and computer games to keep the passengers happy, the merchant handles the smoozing etc etc.


The bigger the crew the more likely that one of the engineers or stewards will be the full time pastry chef

[Infojunky]

Have y'all looked at the Crew requirements?

Flight Crew for Commercial ship; 1 Pilot.... and a 1 Astrogator

Or one shift if both of them are on the bridge... Handling Flight, Astrogation, Sensors, Comp and Comms.... Could use a couple of more watchstanders. Many more on a Military Ship.

And Where are the Crews Stewards?

[Chas]

I guess Marines are optional in this new edition as well?

[Condottiere]

Should be, the other option being redshirts.

[Captain Jonah]

Have y'all looked at the Crew requirements?

Flight Crew for Commercial ship; 1 Pilot.... and a 1 Astrogator

Or one shift if both of them are on the bridge... Handling Flight, Astrogation, Sensors, Comp and Comms.... Could use a couple of more watchstanders. Many more on a Military Ship.

And Where are the Crews Stewards?

Adventurer class commercial ships.

Pilot duties. From take off to jump so maybe six or eight hours then one watch shift while in jump. After jump fly the ship to landing or docking. Given the mechanics of jump there is nothing the pilot can do to fly the ship for a week at a time and not when docked or landed. So outside of watch standing or being off on an adventure a commercial small ship pilot works twelve to sixteen hours every two weeks.

Astrogator, plot jump. watch shift while in jump, check course so pilot doesn't miss the planet when they arrive. Again outside of watch standing the astrogator is working ten or so hours every two weeks.

Engineers at least have general duties plus the watch shift. Plus the maintenance bod.

Comms can be run by either the pilot or astrogator when they are in that jump to landing window, sensors are fairly basic, more a case of watch the blips.

As for the steward, yes having one to support the crew could be useful but at the adventurer ship size most of the crew are running double jobs anyway.

Once you get above adventurer sizes (1,000 Dtons+) then you can be adding extra crew but down with the dregs of the space trade (PCs and free traders) it's cut every corner you can.

[MongooseMatt]

Just a note on this - the space stations chapter will have a line for 'general crewman'. It is there for various refineries and facilities, but also gives the tool needed for refs who just need, well, a general crewman...

[phavoc]

Are general crewman issued red shirts upon arrival?

[Tenacious-Techhunter]

General Crewman sounds like the sort of guys who would have "Profession" skills.

[Condottiere]

As a plot device, you could have Major Damage and Corporal Punnishmont disrupt the smooth functioning of that chicken run service.

[Belisknar]

Are general crewman issued red shirts upon arrival?

Not anymore. In the early 2300's a lot of concerned crewmembers complained. So in 2363 it was decided that to make them feel safer they'd be issued gold instead. As a result Command were stuck in red. Boy were they surprised.