Home World Question

[-Daniel-]

Ok, so in another thread the subject of "Gypsy Merchants" came up. The idea a merchant and his whole family living on the ship and this got me thinking, if a child is born on a ship they don't have a home world, rather the ship is their home world. So if I wanted an NPC/PC with such a background what would I use for their "home world attributes"?

I was thinking the obvious is Vacuum, but past that I was thinking what would a young adult under the setting be doing? So the thought came to me, they might be helping handle the passengers. So I could add Stewart 0 for example. Or take Asteroid and just rename it to "Ship" and give them Zero-G 0. Or I could stop at one and let them take the rest from education. Any of these could work. But then I figured, for fun, toss it out to you all.

What would you think? Is there other options you would use?

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

Same home as hollowed out planetoid. When their ship crashes and they are stranded on a planet for years, that becomes the homeworld pretty much.

 

[dragoner]

Ship: Vacc 0, and if you are feeling generous, Zero G. They can pick up Comp 0 from regular education skills. But I'm almost of opinion that just about every adventurer type should have vacc suit skill.

My .02Cr.

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

The rules do not specify how many (if any) of the homeworld skills a character has to take, so if they wanted to have a character who was the child of Free Traders, they could ignore the Homeworld Skills and use all of their Background Skills as Education based skills.

So Steward 0, Trade 0, Vacc Suit 0 (an obvious one) or even Pilot 0 might be allowed.

 

[Condottiere]

I think it's called home schooling.

 

[Jeraa]

The rules do not specify how many (if any) of the homeworld skills a character has to take, so if they wanted to have a character who was the child of Free Traders, they could ignore the Homeworld Skills and use all of their Background Skills as Education based skills.

So Steward 0, Trade 0, Vacc Suit 0 (an obvious one) or even Pilot 0 might be allowed.

My copy of the book says different:

Before embarking on your careers, you get a number of background skills equal to 3 + your Education DM (1 to 5, depending on your Education score). You must take the skills listed for your homeworld; any extra skills can be taken from the education list.

 

[-Daniel-]

I think it's called home schooling.

Or ship schooling in this case. :mrgreen:

 

[Marc]

Actually,


Read CJ Cherryh. Her Human ships are mostly Family ships.
Someone born to the family is born in space or on a ship at dock.

As spacer-born, you start out getting trained on any jobs you can handle.
As you pick up your pace, you learn more and get access to more based on:
1) what the elders think you can handle
2) what is needed

If you're really good enough, you can get elevated to a bridge post.
At first, you're a stand in, say Bridge 4th or 5th...
Then you might get to Bridge 3rd, which is working the actual position on 3rd shift(over night)

The best of the best work their way to First shift after a life of learning every job they've been handed. That is, unless they are the best of the best in engineering...in which case they become the chief engineer.

Seriously, CJ wrote the book (Yes, Pun intended) on family ships.
Even her Chanur stuff is "Family ship" school.

Marc

 

[-Daniel-]

Actually,


Read CJ Cherryh. Her Human ships are mostly Family ships.
Someone born to the family is born in space or on a ship at dock.

As spacer-born, you start out getting trained on any jobs you can handle.
As you pick up your pace, you learn more and get access to more based on:
1) what the elders think you can handle
2) what is needed

If you're really good enough, you can get elevated to a bridge post.
At first, you're a stand in, say Bridge 4th or 5th...
Then you might get to Bridge 3rd, which is working the actual position on 3rd shift(over night)

The best of the best work their way to First shift after a life of learning every job they've been handed. That is, unless they are the best of the best in engineering...in which case they become the chief engineer.

Seriously, CJ wrote the book (Yes, Pun intended) on family ships.
Even her Chanur stuff is "Family ship" school.

Marc

Thanks Marc, I will check it out. This subject has captured my imagination for some reason. 8)

 

[Condottiere]

There is only space around you and failure invites a long walk off a short pier.

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

Actually,


Read CJ Cherryh. Her Human ships are mostly Family ships.
Someone born to the family is born in space or on a ship at dock.

As spacer-born, you start out getting trained on any jobs you can handle.
As you pick up your pace, you learn more and get access to more based on:
1) what the elders think you can handle
2) what is needed

If you're really good enough, you can get elevated to a bridge post.
At first, you're a stand in, say Bridge 4th or 5th...
Then you might get to Bridge 3rd, which is working the actual position on 3rd shift(over night)

The best of the best work their way to First shift after a life of learning every job they've been handed. That is, unless they are the best of the best in engineering...in which case they become the chief engineer.

Seriously, CJ wrote the book (Yes, Pun intended) on family ships.
Even her Chanur stuff is "Family ship" school.

Marc

Thanks Marc, I will check it out. This subject has captured my imagination for some reason. 8)

Perhaps the best of her books on this topic would be "Merchanter's Luck" and "Finity's End" The first hints at Family ship concept more than it details it, but shows how younger people fight to move up the chain of command. Finity's End is perhaps the definitive work on the subject as the ship and it's family is the primary focus of the book.

Both are excellent.