Ship repairs - do many hands make light work?

[ochd]

Something that players have asked a few times in my games now is whether the duration it takes to do ship repairs is measured in person-hours. That is, repairing a critical hit takes 1D hours or, if going one step slower to get a +2 bonus, 1Dx4 hours. Say I roll that it takes 20 hours; the players often will want to know that if two people do the work, will it then take 10 hours, three people 6.33 hours, four people 5 hours, etc. (The same would apply to other tasks for that matter, but usually it concerns ship repairs, due to the frequency of space battles and then wanting to quickly 'heal up' and move on.)

I am in two minds, and can think of arguments both ways. This must have come up with other referees, though, so what have others done?

Many thanks,

Dan.

 

[Old School]

Dont actually think that has come up in y games, but its a good point. As long as the addtional set of hands are qualified, I can defintely see a corresponding reduction in time on a large system repair, such as the hull. No so much if fixing the computer system. Others could fall in between. A jump-1 drive on a small ship is probably a one person job, but a jump 3 drive on an 800 ton ship could use many extra hands. Iwouldnt set a hard and fast rule, but rather try to envision the repair, and decide based on what seems realistic.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

Say I roll that it takes 20 hours; the players often will want to know that if two people do the work, will it then take 10 hours, three people 6.33 hours, four people 5 hours, etc.

Depends on the task, but in this case absolutely not. I might give them a positive DM for reasonable aid, or even a Boon.

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

the players often will want to know that if two people do the work, will it then take 10 hours

Did those two people roll the dice for the task check? No.

 

[steve98052]

If the high-skill task in the repair work is diagnosing the problem, and the actual repairs are straightforward, I'd allow the work to be split into shifts. But if every step of the task is skilled labor it would work better if helpers assist a lead, up to the point where more people start bumping into each other more than adding effective work.

Judgment call.

 

[DickTurpin]

To gain a benefit from extra hands the helpers would have to be qualified to do the job. If that is the case then at minimum the person rolling the skill check would receive a Boon.

If a Traveller has help, such as good tools, competent aids or other beneficial circumstances, he receives a Boon.

CRB p. 59.

My House rule:
In order to reduce the time required, each character would have to be assigned a portion of the task and make their own skill check. The time required would then rolled for each subtask and divided by the number of characters splitting the task. Note that while this will most likely result in a reduced time, if one character finishes in a short time and another takes far longer then the task is not completed until the slowest person completed their portion. If they fail their check then the time is taken without resolving that subtask, on an exceptional failure the regular penalties are applied to the entire repair.

 

[Old School]

A boon makes sense, perhaps with the effect reducing the time.

 

[Reynard]

Remember that failing the task means you have to continue. A Boon would increase the chance of success and thus complete the task. That's what cuts the time down. Qualified people able to aid in the task also increases success and subsequently reduces the time.

 

[ochd]

Thanks for the quick responses. Deciding case by case has been my approach so far, but then, as has been pointed out, got stuck on what that means for the skill check if more than one person is doing the work.

I'd not thought of help providing a boon, so that seems like a good solution. I've not paid much attention to boon and banes, as I find the guidelines on how to differentiate between applying a boon/bane and making a skill check less or more difficult to be confusing. CRB p.61 says a task difficulty is assigned without considering external factors, but then examples of task difficulty on p.58 often include external factors (e.g. 'landing a ship in optimum conditions with computer assistance', 'making an accurate shot in the middle of a ferocious storm').

 

[Condottiere]

You'll need someone with some coordination capability to supervise, to avoid repetition or getting into each other's way.

 

[SSWarlock]

To gain a benefit from extra hands the helpers would have to be qualified to do the job. If that is the case then at minimum the person rolling the skill check would receive a Boon.

If a Traveller has help, such as good tools, competent aids or other beneficial circumstances, he receives a Boon.

CRB p. 59.

My House rule:
In order to reduce the time required, each character would have to be assigned a portion of the task and make their own skill check. The time required would then rolled for each subtask and divided by the number of characters splitting the task. Note that while this will most likely result in a reduced time, if one character finishes in a short time and another takes far longer then the task is not completed until the slowest person completed their portion. If they fail their check then the time is taken without resolving that subtask, on an exceptional failure the regular penalties are applied to the entire repair.

Excellent house rule.

 

[locarno24]

To gain a benefit from extra hands the helpers would have to be qualified to do the job. If that is the case then at minimum the person rolling the skill check would receive a Boon.

If a Traveller has help, such as good tools, competent aids or other beneficial circumstances, he receives a Boon.

CRB p. 59.

Sounds sensible. Equally, if you're more capable of passing, the "reduce by a time increment by kicking the difficulty up" becomes an option.

I agree it's situation specific. Some task benefit from another pair of hands, even if only semi-skilled (Massive Aslan Marine in Battledress, hold this end of a structural support beam up whilst I nanoweld it back into place), whilst others really don't (I don't know what else is damaged, other than the damage control computer. Go away and stop bugging me)

 

[phavoc]

There are too many unknowns going on here. And so much depends on what was damaged, what spares are available, and what skills are required.

For example, if there were lots of holes on the hull or inside, then yes, extra hands could help hold the new plating, help cut out out the old, or just fetch tools and parts.

If you were running a new superconductor line to a turret, then possibly yes, more hands can help.

If you were very carefully trying to remove salvageable parts from your sensor array so that you could reuse them when you rebuilt it, then probably not due to space and skill restraints.

That's a very quick example, but there is no blanket rule behind this. The referee should use common sense to determine where extra hands make sense. And don't forget the old adage of too many cooks in the kitchen make for a poor meal. When you are mixing up people with 20yrs of experience with people with 0yrs, stuff happens, sometimes very bad stuff...