Ship Crew Requirements

[Gravmonkey]

Is it just me or are the ships in the core rulebook missing something? Ok, I know you need pilot and an engineer. What else? The basic stats should give you some idea of how these ships should be crewed. Any suggestions? My campaign is brand spankin new and my players will defintitely end up with a smaller ship Type-S scout or Free Trader.[/quote]

 

[AndrewW]

Some ships give crews, but Crew Requirements are covered in the core rulebook on page 113. The Scout, Type S though is specifically designed to be operated by a 1 person crew. The Free Trader will depend...

 

[Treebore]

Usually 3 or 4, depending on who has what skills, etc... At least until you get above 5,000 tons.

This is because a large part of things is automated, so you only need to man the critical stations during periods where your computer program won't handle it, such as combat, docking, disembarking, Jumps, etc...

So typically the essentials are a Astrogator/Navigator, Pilot, and Engineer at these times, and gunners, if you have turrets, during combat.

Additional skilled crewmen would be nice as well, but those are the bare essentials. Ideally you want to have someone skilled in all areas you may need repair, so you would like to have a Maneuver Drive Engineer, Jump Drive Engineer, Electrical Engineer, Comms, Computer technicians, etc...

Plus if you transport passengers you want someone with the skills to take care of them. So Ideally you will have all of these skills wrapped up in as few people as possible.

Then, with small ships like the Scout, you have just one person, who is only definitely not going to have a wide enough range of skills, so that is why you have the "AAA Space Travel and Insurance Agency" to come and give you a tow when your Scout breaks down and you can't fix it. Or bigger ship, when it is beyond your crews ability to effect repairs.

 

[AndrewW]

This is because a large part of things is automated, so you only need to man the critical stations during periods where your computer program won't handle it, such as combat, docking, disembarking, Jumps, etc...

So typically the essentials are a Astrogator/Navigator, Pilot, and Engineer at these times, and gunners, if you have turrets, during combat.

Well the computer can handle gunnery.

 

[Treebore]

This is because a large part of things is automated, so you only need to man the critical stations during periods where your computer program won't handle it, such as combat, docking, disembarking, Jumps, etc...

So typically the essentials are a Astrogator/Navigator, Pilot, and Engineer at these times, and gunners, if you have turrets, during combat.

Well the computer can handle gunnery.

That is only if you bought the appropriate software, which is not automatic in computer systems for Scouts, Merchant Ships, and the like.

 

[AndrewW]

That is only if you bought the appropriate software, which is not automatic in computer systems for Scouts, Merchant Ships, and the like.

Nope it isn't, also the computer has to have the capacity to support the program. Just saying the option is there.

 

[Treebore]

That is only if you bought the appropriate software, which is not automatic in computer systems for Scouts, Merchant Ships, and the like.

Nope it isn't, also the computer has to have the capacity to support the program. Just saying the option is there.

Right, I was just going by "defaults", but as usual, you can upgrade to anything.

I was wondering, but am too lazy to go dig out my core book, are the Scouts armed by default?

 

[rust]

Thinking of my experiences with Traveller campaigns, it seems that a
good medic or a autodoc is at least as important as a gunner or gun-
nery software, in the long run perhaps even more so.

 

[AndrewW]

I was wondering, but am too lazy to go dig out my core book, are the Scouts armed by default?

They have an empty double turret.

 

[BP]

Minimum required crew = 0

With the right computer + software and automata, the rules support this. The OTU 3I frowns on such though if you are playing that setting...

The crew requirement on pg 113 (of Core Rulebook) states Pilot and Engineeer with Expert Navigation software as Minimum.

Besides the computer software (also pg 113): Luxuries can be added by the ton in place of stewards (pg 110); Autodocs , Cryoberths, (pg 92-95)and Emergency low berths (pg 110) are options in place of medics.

Military vessels would likely man for 24x7 operations - while commercial vessels will likely only have backup for a critical portion - and private/consumer may only have minimum or below minimum.

Really this is all situational - the rule books give you guidelines with regards to skill checks and passenger rules (steward/luxury tonnage) and combat rules. In the RW, a super tanker has drastically different crew requirements than say an ICBM toting submarine. And commercial concerns view safety factors differently than Military which are both different than Intelligence, Exploration, Consumer and Recreational. So its not so much missing from the rules as left intentionally flexible.

 

[iainjcoleman]

I was wondering, but am too lazy to go dig out my core book, are the Scouts armed by default?

They have an empty double turret.

Personally, I rule that if the character rolls the Scout Ship benefit more than once, each subsequent roll allows the ship to be upgraded to the value of 1d6 ship shares. So, for example, 4 ship shares would allow the fitting of two pulse lasers to the existing turret.

 

[Vile]

This is one of the things I like about the MGT approach to ship design - it basically leaves crew requirements up to the referee. If you can justify your crew numbers based on the ship design and its mission, anything goes.

 

[Golan2072]

Minimum required crew = 0

With the right computer + software and automata, the rules support this. The OTU 3I frowns on such though if you are playing that setting...

It would be perfect, though, for an Alien(s) game: 'Mother' would run the ship during the jumps while the crew would be in cryo until they reach their destination.

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

High Guard has the crew requirements for Military Capital Ships.

Warning though, these rules do not make sense for civilian vessels or smaller (non capital ships).

Another good way to judge crew size is to use the Bridge size. When the bridge size increases, then the number of people on the bridge will go up accordingly.

 

[Chuckhazard]

Minimum required crew = 0

With the right computer + software and automata, the rules support this. The OTU 3I frowns on such though if you are playing that setting...

It would be perfect, though, for an Alien(s) game: 'Mother' would run the ship during the jumps while the crew would be in cryo until they reach their destination.

We know where that ended...

well yeah. There was a tea party, and everyone had a wonderful time.

 

[BP]

HAL-9000 series is available at an exteme discount...

 

[ScottyG]

My players want low berths and an AI for the ship as they're all worried they're wasting their lives in j space........

 

[BP]

Do you have them role extra characters for those ones that don't make it out of cryo?

 

[AndrewW]

My players want low berths and an AI for the ship as they're all worried they're wasting their lives in j space........

Ok, but beware of what happens when those berths fail. Say the computer fails to wake them and pirates board. Perhaps an asteroid impacts the ship knocking it off course and they find themselves being sucked into the gravity of a star, but have slow reactions when coming out of the berths. Could have lots of fun with this one.

 

[BP]

Not to mention fun with AI...