Core Rulebook Crew Question 1 Medics

[snrdg121408]

Afternoon alex_greene,

I'm pleased to have the author of the Medic article in Signs and Portents Issue 63 and 64 drop by to lend me some knowledge and wisdom. I'm still digging through them. Thank you for a good article and have you written any others and if so where can I look for them and steal them , oops I mean, add them to my source documents.

Yep, a medics work is never done somedbody is always seeking the person out for something.

Again thank you for the comments and the article.

 

[alex_greene]

Here's one postscript note I only thought of after the fact.

If yout Traveller Universe engine does not recognise that Medic has specialities (in real life, it does, trust me) then instead, treat Medic as the physician skill, and create a whole new branch of Life Sciences, namely the skill of Medical Science - to which you may attach all of those specialities from Gynaecology to Thanatology, and everything else in between.

Your doctor might only have Medic-2, and be little better in general practice than a freshman physician straight out of med school with the amniotic fluids still drying on him - but his speciality of, say, histology or pharmacy could still put him in the top 2% of medics on the planet.

 

[snrdg121408]

???

What, am I chopped liver here?

Okay, what did this old and slow retired submarine sailor overlook or miss state not to mention which post? :?

Hopefully my post after yours made up for whatever I accidentally did in error.

 

[alex_greene]

Note the grins.

I've been baiting Whipsnade on CoTI, and got him to agree that he likes MGT. He's really a nice chap, which is why corrupting him came so easily lol

Anyway, just think of what Star Trek or B5 would be like without their medics. No Bones, and no Stephen Franklin.

Who'd make all the wisecracks?

Look after this thread while I go to bed, now. Night.

 

[CosmicGamer]

I believe the 120 per medic rule has room for personal interpretation.

1-120 = 1 medic
121-240 = 2 medics
or
1-119 = 0 medics
120-239 = 1 medic
240-359 = 2 medics

What I find odd is that Full is the same as Average. I would think there should be a backup.

 

[Galadrion]

I would suggest that a six man crew would benefit from one (or more) crewman having some medical skill, but that hiring a full-time EMT or Trauma Tech to be constantly ready 'just in case' seems overkill.

At 100+ crewmembers and/or passengers, I agree that a full time 'Medic' is appropriate, but at the Free Trader/Fat Trader player scale, it is a secondary skill hiring decision.

I can see your point about the smaller ships not needing a full-time medic. However, such small ships have a number of positions which, while they need filling, do not need full-time support. Exempli grati: steward, gunner, supercargo. For a Type A, you're probably not going to have room for more than seven passengers, assuming "normal" staffing levels, so one steward is probably overkill unless you've managed to book a full load of high passengers. And gunners and cargomasters are both inherently underutilized positions; you're not going to be firing ship's guns for very much of any trip, unless you're deliberately stirring up trouble, and the cargomaster just needs to run occasional, regular checks to make sure everything remains as it should be. Realistically, a Type A could get by on these fronts with one crewmember trained as a gunner/steward/medic (spending most of his time as a steward) and one trained as a supercargo/gunner. (These will be in addition to your engineer, pilot, and navigator.) The engineer is pretty much a full-time position, but you could even potentially combine the pilot and navigator roles, if you're willing to accept a bit of overwork during lead-in to jump.

 

[BP]

...One old article presented the model of Low Berth travel as basically shipping yourself as Freight...

What do you mean you lost my luggage? That was my father you idiots!?

 

[BP]

Generally, I like the Crew Requirements in MGT - since it takes the form of Min., Ave. and Full. A simple look at the table will indicate that a crew of 2 is the minimum (pilot + engineer). Of course, in true contradictory fashion - the text indicates that a scout ship could be run by a crew of 1. :roll:

CT, of course, really shows its age with the Navigator requirement. With computers (a relative novelty to the creators of Traveller) - Navigators are a thing of the past. One could argue a need if the computer fails - but in a spaceship this is otherwise catastrophic. The Navigator's place in Traveller is pretty much for ground-pounders and very low-tech spaceships (???).

Even aboard military capital ships this seems more like a person who would simply parrot the computer (ala Sigourney Weaver's character on Galaxy Quest). Since spaceship Navigator requires Astrogation skill (not Navigator - which is planet-side only) - it should really be an Astrogator! :wink:

As for a medic - I recall coming across a WWII era U.S. Navy manual listing the first aid/trama handling (supplies/techniques) requirements aboard vessels with fare sized crews - as no dedicated medic was standard. From the MGT table (Core pg 113) the min is no medic what-so-ever. Average is the 1/120.

In typical fashion - while Ave., Min, Full is defined and the text refers to 'much slower response times' - the game mechanic is not explicitly referenced. Look to the Space Combat section (Core pg 146) and use your Mystical Referee Skill to apply.

 

[atpollard]

The engineer is pretty much a full-time position, but you could even potentially combine the pilot and navigator roles, if you're willing to accept a bit of overwork during lead-in to jump.

I always found it funny that the two highest paid crewmen work a grueling 8 hours per week heading to or from the 100 diameter limit. Then it is Beer-Thirty for another week. The Stewards should riot. :roll:

 

[Galadrion]

I always found it funny that the two highest paid crewmen work a grueling 8 hours per week heading to or from the 100 diameter limit. Then it is Beer-Thirty for another week. The Stewards should riot. :roll:

:roll: And have you looked at real-world employment, then? It sounds an awful lot like my current employment - the highest-paid of them nearly never suit up and go inside, but instead send instructions to those of us who do. We get paid for doing; they get paid for telling us what should be done. Such a tough life, being a carpet-dweller. :roll:

 

[BP]

... I always found it funny that the two highest paid crewmen work a grueling 8 hours per week heading to or from the 100 diameter limit. Then it is Beer-Thirty for another week. The Stewards should riot. :roll:

Don't forget to add the years of mental training and physical risk involved for the talent...

Also note that a monkey can be trained to fetch one a beer (*useful monkey note) - but would you let that same monkey, with no other training, land a commercial airliner?

[For less than 200 hours of work I have been paid a mid 5 figures - and relieved a work force of some 30+ people grueling some 3 solid months. (note they still had jobs, I just made it a lot easier) But I had over 8 years of hard won experience to be able to do that. Adding those hours in my hourly wage was much less than what those people were making...]

 

[Mithras]

I like to think of Ash in Alien, not just a medic or ships doctor, but a science officer. Having a science officer on board would broaden out his uses, carrying out forensic work, chemical analyses on wreckage or minerals, postulating about alien environments or habitats.

Or, to give the ship's medic more responsibilites, make him responsible for life support - checking air filters, hydro/aeroponics rebreather systems, grav plate settings, climate control, airlock pressure settings, decontamination and external atmospheric testing.

 

[alex_greene]

I like to think of Ash in Alien, not just a medic or ships doctor, but a science officer. Having a science officer on board would broaden out his uses, carrying out forensic work, chemical analyses on wreckage or minerals, postulating about alien environments or habitats.

And if he oversteps his bounds, knock his head off and watch white foam come out of his ears and mouth ...

 

[BP]

... not just a medic or ships doctor, but a science officer...

Spock and Dr. McCoy as one ... Fascinating

[P.S. - like the 'more responsibilities' list!]

 

[Mithras]

Hey, it happened in 'Search for Spock' didn't it! :lol:

 

[GypsyComet]

I always found it funny that the two highest paid crewmen work a grueling 8 hours per week heading to or from the 100 diameter limit. Then it is Beer-Thirty for another week. The Stewards should riot. :roll:

It suggests that the business of flying a small (or not so small) building into orbit and getting successfully to the next world is not so trivial as we often like to think. The smallest commercial starfaring vessels in Traveller are bigger than any modern aircraft, and get a LOT bigger.

 

[BP]

Hey, it happened in 'Search for Spock' didn't it! :lol:

By Jove - I believe you are correct!

Have to dig that one up... to be sure Dr. McCoy was probably free with the colorful metaphors in that one!


Veering back on topic - re. the mention of Ash from Alien's -> I would think that an AutoDoc could take the place of a Medic to meet the 1/120 requirement for ave./full crew compliment...

P.S. - I don't remember mention of Sickbay tonnage/costs...

 

[snrdg121408]

Howdy alex_greene,

I hope you had a good slumber.

Where's the fun in confusing an old retired submarine sailor after baiting such an august person as Whipsnade? :wink:

Who'd make all the wisecracks?

The Chief Engineer of course

Look after this thread while I go to bed, now. Night.

Not sure if I looked after the thread too well.

 

[alex_greene]

At least the pilot and navigator were kept happy when the bar opened.

 

[snrdg121408]

Hello CosmicGamer,

Good suggestions on the medic to passenger lists which seem to support my findings using a spreadsheet.

One of my past times is building basic with minimum frills spreadsheets. I created a spreadsheet for medics based on 1 per 120 passengers using the round, roundup, and rounddown math funnctions.
Below is a summary of the numbers.

Using the formula round(# Passenger/120,0) = # of medics returned that the first medic is required at 60, 2 at 180, 3 at 300, 4 at 420, 5 at 540, and 6 beginning at 700 passengers.

Using roundup(# Passenger/120,0) = # of medics ireturned that the first medic is required at 1, 2 at 121, 3 at 241, 4 at 361, 5 at 481, and 6 beginning at 601 passengers.

Using rounddown(# Passenger/120,0) = # of medics ireturned that the first medic is required at 120, 2 at 240, 3 at 360, 4 at 480, 5 at 600, and 6 beginning at 720 passengers.

I believe the 120 per medic rule has room for personal interpretation.
List 1 title added by snrdg
1-120 = 1 medic
121-240 = 2 medics
or
List 2 title added by snrdg
1-119 = 0 medics
120-239 = 1 medic
240-359 = 2 medics.

The roundup function appears to match list 1 and the rounddown function appears to match list 2.

What I find odd is that Full is the same as Average. I would think there should be a backup.

Looking at the remaining crew requirement on Core Rulebook p. 113 only pilots and navigators have the word backups as a requirement. The exception to the backup requirement appears to be the medics and officers, which I think should have them too. Gunners and Engineers already have the backups I think.

Thanks again for the comments.