Expanded Ship Criticals?

[Izrador]

I've noticed there is a lack of information on when fires/decompression occurs on a critical hit to a ship. Anyone seen any house rules on this?

 

[AnotherDilbert]

From earlier editions ships are expected to depressurise before combat, hence no problems with explosive decompression or fires.

 

[Linwood]

Is that true of civilian vessels? Not sure most passengers would have vacc suits. Or even pressure sleeves.

On a large space station I could see them building in decompression shelters for residents to use if a serious loss of compression occurred.

 

[Reynard]

Emergency softsuits and rescue balls/bubbles have been a thing in Traveller for awhile. To quote Central Supply Catalogue:

"Starships are required to carry enough emergency suits or rescue balls to allow the crew and all passengers to survive
depressurization. Well-equipped ships include a softsuit at each crew position and a few spares at strategic points,
in addition to crewmembers’ own vacc suits."

You will see staterooms and strategic areas in corridors with wall mounted, well marked 'In Case of Emergency' boxes. Passengers will get a mandatory instruction to know where their assigned protective enclosure unit is located and how to procure and don. Once compromised bulkheads are isolated, crew can go in to bring trapped people to safety.

 

[Condottiere]

 

[Linwood]

Emergency softsuits and rescue balls/bubbles have been a thing in Traveller for awhile. To quote Central Supply Catalogue:

"Starships are required to carry enough emergency suits or rescue balls to allow the crew and all passengers to survive
depressurization. Well-equipped ships include a softsuit at each crew position and a few spares at strategic points,
in addition to crewmembers’ own vacc suits."

You will see staterooms and strategic areas in corridors with wall mounted, well marked 'In Case of Emergency' boxes. Passengers will get a mandatory instruction to know where their assigned protective enclosure unit is located and how to procure and don. Once compromised bulkheads are isolated, crew can go in to bring trapped people to safety.

Agreed. Although I wonder how many free trader crews sold off their "useless" suits for extra cash for their Next Big Deal...

Still wondering a little about decompressing for combat with civilian starships. I don't remember those emergency soft suits having much of an oxygen supply. Maybe there are fresh air ports in the bulkheads the passengers can plug into so they can preserve their portable supply?

 

[Annatar Giftbringer]

The softsuit includes a small air bottle (4 hour capacity) and can be plugged into shipboard life-support points to prolong this supply.

4 hours is a lot longer than I remembered/guessed (I was thinking around 1 hour).

Presumably the air bottles can be swapped relatively simply, plus there are life-support points to plug into - how many, or where, it doesn’t say, but I’d guess “many” and “where needed” (probably near the emergency suit lockers)

 

[AnotherDilbert]

The original source says:

Decompression: Starships (and non-starships) depressurize their interiors before combat whenever possible; the passengers and crew resorting to vacc suits for safety and comfort. This procedure minimizes the danger due to explosive decompression as a battle result. In some cases, selected areas may remain pressurized (perhaps the hold, for the safety of delicate cargo) while other areas are depressurized.
...
Hull hits result in explosive decompression if pressure has not already been lowered. Explosive decompression kills all persons in that section unless a vacc suit is available and put on immediately.

 

[Annatar Giftbringer]

Brutal!

The Traveller Companion has a chapter called “Atmosphere and vacuum” that, naturally, includes a section on explosive decompression. It doesn’t say when it happens, but gives rules for how to handle it.

The “upon hull crit” from LBB2 that AnotherDilbert quotes sounds like a good start, but if we assume that even a pressurized ship has a crew competent enough to at least close all the bulkhead hatches we’d then need to know which compartment suffers explosive decompression, right? Or perhaps the referee should simply choose a suitable location and rolls with it?

 

[Reynard]

And since everyone forgot this tidbit from High Guard:

"Starting at TL9, all hulls are self-sealing. A self-sealing
hull automatically repairs minor breaches such as
micrometeoroid impacts, and prevents hull hits causing
explosive decompression."

And also found in CSC:

"The softsuit includes a small air bottle (4 hour capacity) and can be
plugged into shipboard life-support points to prolong this supply."

Not like anyone remembers to add logical bulkhead sectioning to ship plans which is useful to selectively isolate a damaged area rather than decompressing the entire ship during an emergency.

 

[Annatar Giftbringer]

Oh. Yeah, totally forgot that hulls are self-sealing these days, thanks for the reminder

So, basically explosive decompression should be reduced to something that happens only when the plot/referee decrees it?

 

[Linwood]

I prefer “unusual or unique circumstances”. Like an explosively catastrophic drive failure or something similar with multiple bulkhead breaches and such.

Keep in mind that on a hull hit self-seal would likely only slow the leak (providing time for getting into suits and performing damage control). I suspect that if the hull damage is at a level of a rupture or a tear large enough for a vacc-suited person to egress through a GM could reasonably rule self-seal was ineffective. Or perhaps takes a certain number of turns to have an effect as the sealing goop oozes out from between hull layers and expends to fill the gap. (Or whatever makes sense for the tech in use - nanite cloud, maybe?)

 

[AndrewW]

Self sealing was around in 1st edition High Guard as well, it was just made auto instead of an add on in 2nd edition.

 

[Condottiere]

 

[Sigtrygg]

Interesting factoid - that character was killed off because the player dropped out of the game that became the book that became the TV series.

 

[Condottiere]

Five being the ideal party headcount.

Too soon?

 

[Linwood]

Sorry about that, Crewman Number Six.....