HG Capital Ship Design Crew Question 2

[snrdg121408]

Evening all,

Why is the range for a Full Crew Strength presented table on HG p. 69 between 76% to 90%?

To me a full crew is one where all underway watch stations are 100% staffed.

In order to get a handle on the Crew Strength I checked out the designs in HG and now I really don't have a clues on how the system works. Can someone here give me a hand.

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

It's a bit complicated, but here is how I think it works.

You determine the crew size using the guidelines on pages 66 - 68. This would be the 100% crew size (Battle size) in the table on page 69.

As the ship takes damage, then the crew size may be reduced and the table on page 69 gives you a quick way to deal with how a reduced crew size affects performance.

For Civilian ships, the Table could also be used to determine how a civilian ship operates if it DELIBERATELY operated at a reduced size (to save money).

Say a civilian Capital Ship has a Battle Crew size of 100 people.

The ship's owner says BS, I never want my ship in combat, so I don't need to staff at that level. I will reduce the crew to 50. They can still operate all the routine stuff. SO, the crew is now 50, which means it normally operates at Half Strength, so every task as a -1 DM since most of the crew members are doubling up on jobs (double shifts or reduced on-board maintenance).

Also, military ships might deliberately oversize their crews to allow crew casualties to not affect the fighting ability of the ship. It gives no bonuses, but it means you can loose some people without reducing your fighting capability.

If I remember the designs correctly, a lot of military ships are designed assuming Overstrength Crew sizes (121 - 150%) which affects how many staterooms you put on the ship etc.

Does that help?

 

[snrdg121408]

Hello Rikki Tikki Traveller,

Yep, you helped a lot by confirming the way I think HG crew calculation works. I have to agree that the method is a bit complicated but not as complicated as the one used in MT. Myabe doing a better example would help make the method easier to grasp for people like me :wink: .

To me the base calculations for 100% should be a Full crew and not Battle at least for naval vessels.

Thank you for the help.