Ship's Administration Crew?

[zero]

I generally plot out my deckplans with far-trader's excellent "starship deckplan guide" from the CotI.

At the moment I'm building my 600dton TL 15 Imperial-built vessel for my Darrian chars to ride about in playing merc, it was planning the detachable bridge's look on the deckplan that I found something I've never heard mention of before.

It was written that one station per 300dtons is for administration crew. So my bridge has six stations as follows;

Pilot, Astrogator, Engineer, Gunner plus Two Admin.

Looking at the admin skill in the MGT Core, the admin-guys would deal with stuff like ship's papers, inventories, filing reports etc.

Anyone have Admin crew on their ships? This is rather new to me, as when the PCs usually get in trouble on their 100dton junkers before, thats generally where the adventure started (like firefly :wink: ). But then I've never really built this size of a vessel and never a military-use one, but I like how this is developing

 

[rust]

Anyone have Admin crew on their ships?

Occasionally, for example on colony ships where the ship's crew and the
colony's leadership are different entities, or on big passenger liners, whe-
re the purser needs his own office, but otherwise the ship's command staff
doubles as administration crew and uses the offices.

 

[phavoc]

There is no logical reason why a bridge console needs to be dedicated for administrative tasks. That flys in the face of every naval design I've seen since, well, sailing ships!

 

[GypsyComet]

Since any terminal will handle that sort of thing, the Captain, Supercargo, and/or Purser can handle such things from an office or stateroom.

 

[DFW]

Pilot, Astrogator, Engineer, Gunner plus Two Admin.

Small traders, and even small Mil ships, don't have dedicated Admin personnel.

 

[Reynard]

The Mongoose Traveller (High Guard) rules don't assign an actual Admin to a standard position though it mentions support personnel which could include senechal, yoemen or clerical staff.

Other than that an administrative crewperson makes good sense on commercial vessels especially independents who do business in real time and personal.

 

[Jak Nazryth]

That rule sounds it was inserted by a government bureaucrat.
Leave it to politicians to assign crew stations that have no purpose.

But like all the other said, no need for that rule (especially on a small ships bridge) so just ignore it.

 

[zozotroll]

Just wait until OSHA gets ahold of Traveller. Then you will have all sorts of useless consoles all over the place.

Owen

 

[DFW]

The Mongoose Traveller (High Guard) rules don't assign an actual Admin to a standard position though it mentions support personnel which could include senechal, yoemen or clerical staff.

Yes. High Guard is geared towards HUGE capital ships. Doesn't really apply to the tramp freighter world. You won't find yoemen or senechals on small ships.

 

[locarno24]

Yes. High Guard is geared towards HUGE capital ships. Doesn't really apply to the tramp freighter world. You won't find yoemen or senechals on small ships.

You might find a specific "ship's purser" but they're likely to have other responsibilities - probably either loadmaster or steward depending on the kind of trade the ship engages in.

 

[DFW]

You might find a specific "ship's purser" but they're likely to have other responsibilities - probably either loadmaster or steward depending on the kind of trade the ship engages in.

Absolutely. Multiple hats is the name of the game in almost any small business.

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

For Bridge positions, you might stretch the rules a bit and have Administration include Command - The Watch Officer doesn't really DO anything (station wise) but he/she is in charge of the ship during their watch.

On US Naval Submarines, there is a Watch Officer and a Dive Officer, neither of them actually control anything directly, but both have "bridge stations".

So, for your 6 person bridge, perhaps you have:

Pilot, Astrogator, Gunner, Tactical Officer, Watch Officer

Under Routine watch sections, the Gunner and Tactical Officer positions are not occupied, only during Battle Stations.

During Deep Space or Jump only 1 person is actually on the bridge, keeping an eye on everything.

YMMV

 

[zero]

Atm I have six stations, a central Captain's station, where they can order the bridge bunnies or ship's comp to do whatever.

Then up front is the Pilot/Astro/Engineer combo.

In the middle is the Gunner station for someone to take up if the ship's comp is busy running other software (such as Evade) or the jog to the Bay is too long for anyone to take.
The second station in the middle is for general admin stuff, redtape and jobsworthy sitting in. Its generally empty but is generally the station to go to when checking if a planet will be friendly or not ( :roll: :lol: ), or specific law levels being ok with them etc. Perhaps a certain level of medical prowess is needed, then check the possible destinations there (then the Astro can plot it once they know the destination).

I am also glad I have started to watch Firefly, which is more "Trav" than Lexx and I may be picking up Mercenary and Agent soon, both have rules which I feel are needed in my campaign (money for jobs taken, how mercs work, and also cover stories and general toing and froing).

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

I try to match the number of bridge positions based on the Bridge Tonnage (not exactly but closely).

Bridge Size   Positions
10-ton         Pilot, Co-Pilot, Astrogator/Sensors, Engineer
20-ton         Pilot, Co-Pilot, Astrogator, Sensors, Engineer, Command
40-ton         Pilot, Co-Pilot, Astrogator, 2xSensors, Comms, Engineer, Command
60-ton         Pilot, Co-Pilot, Astrogator, 2xSensors, Comms, 2xEngineer, 2xCommand

Basically, 4 positions with the first 10 tons and 2 extra positions for each additional 10 tons of bridge. That same progression can be used for Capital Ships.

You keep adding Sensor and Engineers to fill the slots, with 1 command per 5 positions.

If you want to add Gunners to the Bridge, that is fine, that is what the 1 ton of Fire Control is for, the extra room on the bridge.

So, for ships with 10-ton Bridges, you can have a 4-person, 5-person or 6-person bridge setup (0, 1 or 2 gunners added). I have always figured those 3 standard bridges are almost universal. As the bridge tonnage goes up, the variations on layout etc, of the bridge increase so that by the time you reach the 60-ton bridges, they are almost unique to each ship design.

I prefer a layout where the bridge positions are in a "C" shape around the command console. Similary to Star Trek, but without the stations behind the Captain and give the Captain an actual console, not just a chair, so he can pull up what she/he wants.

I also figure by TL-9, the consoles are identical with software deciding how it is used. With some simple (but protected) keystrokes, any console can be reconfigured to work any position.

The standard console has 4 display screens (High Def at Low TL, 3-D at Average TL and Holographic at high TL). 2 Primary and 2 Secondary screens allow the operator to pull up a variety of date related to their position.

My bridge layout and operation is heavily influenced by CJ Cherryh's Chanur books.

 

[far-trader]

Not a bad setup at all Rikki Tikki Traveller

...If you want to add Gunners to the Bridge, that is fine, that is what the 1 ton of Fire Control is for, the extra room on the bridge.

I figure the 1ton of Fire Control is local to the weapon (not optional) and separate from the ship net. The gunner(s) actually crew the turret/bay/spinal in the weapon mount itself.

And no battery fire if under only local control, but you are still able to fire even if the bridge is out of action. I figure the bigger bridges, with room for additional and/or relocated gunnery crew is where battery fire is conducted from.

Small ships don't (usually) have a large enough bridge to handle battery fire but can do remote command of the weapons individually from any bridge station. Only the larger bridges have the fire directors to engage in battery fire imo.

 

[zero]

I agree with many points, however I keep the sensor suite a seperate albeit connected room to the bridge. Most Darrian ships do this, and when you have a military countermeasures suite at 20dtons, thats alot of space to take up! :lol:

So I would possibly have comms instead as a station on the bridge. Obviously if sensors picks anything up, ship-comms would patch it through to the Captain (I am using the bridge configeration as noted in your post, like Nerv HQ or Space Battleship Yamato).

I like your console configeration, it makes those at a station unused able to do something constructive, especially with varying watches. I have a TL 15 Model 7 computer and it does have holographic controls. I have trouble imagining what such a computer display would look like, so I generally picture the interface to be similar to the one on the cover of Darrians (which has to be at least TL 11).

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

Both options would work, having high tonnage sensors probably drives the need for additional sensor operators.

Regarding Fire Control. I figure the 1 ton allows 1 operator station. It can be local (common on military ships) or remote (in a Fire Control Center or on the bridge). I see different cultures tending to do things different ways, so the Darrians would almost definitely be different than the Vilani influenced 3I. Bolting on 2 gunner stations to a 4 person bridge in a slightly different room (through a door maybe?) makes sense too.

My main point was that bridges should be pretty standard in layout regardless of the ship but they still have to be based on something, so I used Bridge Tonnage rather than some arbitrary crew factor.

In my mind, the size of the bridge should drive the number of crew in those specialties, not the size of the ship directly. But that is just me.