Ship's Locker Contents

[alex_greene]

Think ocean liner

Worse than that - in jump the ship is outside the universe, so if they run out of something they have to improvise, do without or die.
Annoying but survivable, if the ship contracts some sort of fungus that dissolves the paper weave of ship's uniforms - the crew just wears whatever they've got or go naked, and request a full decontamination once they reach Highport at the destination.
Not so okay, if the ship's atmo processor or water processor gives out, or if something gets into the food supply, or if a passenger has an asthma attack and their inhaler has run out. In jump they haven't even got the luxury of sending out a mayday broadcast ("This is the Free Trader Beowulf ...") and hoping a passing freighter will come along. They really are on their own, between the stars, with no way back, only forwards.

As for the fire extinguishers and fire blankets, they would be sited pretty much in every stateroom, a few on the Bridge, several in Engineering and the cargo hold, and at least one in every common area, along with fire alarm points by the exits. So they would not likely be "ship's locker" equipment.

 

[Vargrz]

I am so pleased that this discussion is continuing to evolve!

It is great to get such well thought out input. The better the environment is imagined the better it can be brought to life for the players. I am humbled and thankful!

I'm reviewing what's been shared so far and can see that everything seems to fit well. On military or mainstream commercial ships there would have to be hazardous material controls and weapon restrictions.

I hope to come up with some generalized lockers for various locations:

 

[alex_greene]

On military or mainstream commercial ships there would have to be hazardous material controls and weapon restrictions.

I hope to come up with some generalized lockers for various locations:

Here's something to think on:-

- Armoury / Arsenal: On any ship with a contingent of security or Marine force, these are essential. I believe they're already covered in High Guard. Make use of them; even taking up spare space for one on board a Traveller ship, adjacent to the ship's locker, would give your characters the specialised space they'd need to store the objects of their favourite obsessions.

- Pharmacy: If your vessel has a sickbay, you'll need at least one of these for the drugs and medicines. Access by the Captain, Purser and CMO / chief ship's pharmacist only.

- Kit Store: Your Engineering boys need a place to store those Number 16 sprocket flange decouplers and reg deionisers. Likewise, a ship full of archaeologists, Scouts, Scholars, forensic Agents or general tradesmen plying their Trade skill would need such a storage facility on board to keep the tools of their trade, along with the requisite maintenance equipment to keep those tools in good repair.

- Recreational Goods: Putting all those luxuries in one place, under lock and key, makes sense. The Purser can keep an eye out on stock.

- Spare Parts: Make a room for them, in Engineering. Everyone needs to keep some spare batteries and cabling for their handheld computers and comms units: this is for the heavy duty stuff.

- Food Store: By no means least, your guys will need a pantry for all their food. Wines and spirits, among other recreationals, come under the category of luxuries and there's already a room for those, whether they are fine wines and spirits or e-joints.

This store is just for your comestibles, perishables, viands, spices and condiments, incorporating herb racks, a cold locker and a dry store, and a small cupboard for cleaning and sterilising kit for utensils and work surfaces including all manner of noxious and toxic fluids that can only be stored there, as close as possible to the food prep areas but clearly not meant for consumption. Pretty much essential if you're to keep work surfaces and utensils free from infectious agents, but also a source of poisons should you want to run a murder mystery scenario on a ship in Jump.

 

[Vargrz]

Great list!

I might also include crisis related equipment (planetary survival gear or catastrophic repair), and machine shop/fabrication gear as categories.

 

[rust]

Apart from the actual ship's locker itself, each starship should have
the equivalent of a small workshop (workbench ?) with the gear and
materials to produce at least improvised replacements for whatever
gets damaged beyond repair. This would take some space, but less
than a storage room with one or two examples of each and every mi-
nor item one might have to replace during the voyage. Even a simple
3D printer with the "blueprints" for everything from cutlery to tools
would be good to have on board.

 

[Rick]

Apart from the actual ship's locker itself, each starship should have
the equivalent of a small workshop (workbench ?) with the gear and
materials to produce at least improvised replacements for whatever
gets damaged beyond repair. This would take some space, but less
than a storage room with one or two examples of each and every mi-
nor item one might have to replace during the voyage. Even a simple
3D printer with the "blueprints" for everything from cutlery to tools
would be good to have on board.

I agree with Rust (even though I'm repeating myself! :twisted: ). Most ships will have a small computerised machine shop area in engineering where they can make simple spares and tools - as well as storage for raw materials. I would think that a small 3D printer and lathe would be at the basic end of the spectrum, with more complex and larger machinery being put in if the need and space allows. With our technology now it is the norm to have a computerised database of blueprints for computerised engineering machines so that you can just load up the program and feed the stock material in.

 

[Vargrz]

I saw one of those 3-D printers demonstrated in a video online! They "made" an adjustable wrench and then used it. (Since I love Traveller) I thought of the same thing, that every ship should have one. If you can create specialized tools out of raw material in a matters of minutes to an hour, well that is one cool trick. The machine should allow for data storage of the forms of various tools. So in a pinch you can make what you need without having to carry every imagined contingency.

And all this done with current modern technology!

 

[Rick]

In Traveller terms - I would suggest that a TL 8 'machine shop' could produce all the parts for TL 4 devices and tools, and some spares or components for up to TL 6 devices (not all of them, though). Presumably as you increase the TL of the 'machine shop' - the complexity (and TL) of items you can produce would also increase. Size would be a limiting factor, though. I would imagine that the computerised 'machine shop' that we are discussing would only come in around TL 7, and only be small enough to put in a starship's engineering section around TL 9 (possibly even 10?).

 

[alex_greene]

The question of spare parts for ships is probably the subject of a different discussion, but "spare parts," like "luxuries," are some of the necessities every well-stocked starship would have: the description is vague, but it serves an inevitable function so it's just as vital for the running of a starship as its fuel supply or staterooms.

I'd start a campaign with minimal ship's locker contents, myself, and add to them with more equipment as time goes on. Armour and weapons would all go in there on a free trader, but characters would be able to take them out to maintain them in their staterooms or even, with permission, the common area ("Every well-bred petty crook knows -- the small concealable weapons always go to the far left of the place setting.")

Characters can keep their personal papers in their rooms, along with one small sidearm such as a snub pistol (with one spare magazine), and possibly a blade, in case of emergencies. Emergency vacc suits in emergency closets in staterooms (forget the rescue balls - if the ship depressurises the crew has work to do) and the regular vacc suits in the ship's locker along with the heavier guns, larger blades and ammo. Gun kits in staterooms, along with uniforms, street clothes and personals. Everyone is responsible for their own health and hygiene (roll-on deodorants, not spray, and "dry" showers to minimise water consumption) but in case they run out, the ship's locker should also house a ready supply of ship's soaps, toothpastes, toothbrushes and other kinds of brushing and shaving kit ... as well as contraceptives and other forms of protection, incidentally.

The hygiene thing is probably the most essential, and most ignored, part of shipboard life. Not for nothing do Patrons usually think of adventurers with the words "As a foulness shall Ye know them."

 

[phavoc]

Re: Engineering Workshop

I'd hazard that most ships are going to have some sort of CAD/CAM (computer aided design/computer aided manufacturing) device onboard to create parts and what not as necessary. With the memory storage capabilities of systems, I'd suspect every part on the ship will be in memory, along with 100s of thousands of others. Of course, the machine may not be able to do much with say building a fusion igniter or whatever... but given sufficient materials it should be able to create a lot of stuff.

Ships that are meant to run point-to-point, like a passenger liner on a regular run to advanced planets/starports, is less likely to have a more robust set of equipment (and ancillary parts and materials) than say a ship that spends a great deal of time out on the 'rim' of civilized space, or a ship that spends a great deal of time away from port.

But I agree that the ships locker would not really contain things like uniforms, evacuation gear, weapons, etc. Those should all be specialized storage areas as appropirate.

 

[Easterner]

Equipment and location of gear on Scout Cruiser on long range active duty mission.

Other Arms Locker
10 Short Range Commo
1 Map Box
4 Elec Binocs
2 Radioac Detectors
2 Chem Sniffers
2 Bio scanners
2 Holo Cameras
1 I/R 2-D Camera
1 Gunsmith Tool Kit
5 Blades
5 Knifes
2 Swords
10 Compass
3 Hand Restraints
1 Inertial Locators
9 Cloth
9 Mesh
9 Reflec
9 Jack (Heavy Bomber)
9 Helmets with Psi Screen.

Armor and Clothing - By Pinnace
1 suit Scout Expedition Armor (Absconded by Mason)
9 Cloth
9 Mesh
9 Reflec
9 Jack (Heavy Bomber)
9 Helmets with Psi Screen.
10 Cold Weather Clothes (9 issued)
4 Language Translator
6 Goodwill Kits

Equipment
Cargo Hold
8 Vacc Suits
5 suits Combat Armor
1 Laser Cutter/Welder
2 Carpentry Tool Kits
3 Mech Tool kits
3 Excavation Tool Kits
3 Electronic tool Kits
2 Mini Tool Kits
500m Cable (heavy)
100m Rope
1 Solar Power Generator
1 Solar Still
2 Large Tents
3 Small Tents
10 Sleeping Cocoons
10 Backpacks
10 Field Mess Kits
10 Canteens/Vapor
4 Long Range Commo
2 Laser Communicator
10 Goggles
5 LI Goggles
3 IR Goggles
10 Combo Filter Masks
10 Air Tanks/Masks
5 Tarpaulin
5 Goodwill Kits

Medical Infirmary
1 Field Surgical Kit
3 Med Kits
1 Medscanner
1 Medscanner Computer

Shipboard divided evenly per Deck
10 Lanterns
100 Light Sticks
99 Wall Patches

Survival Gear
10 Survival Kits per Shuttle
2 Rafts (Inflatable) per shuttle
10 Slow Drug
10 Fast Drug
10 boxes Trace Tabs
9 Covert Action Communicator (issued)

Vehicles
1 Air Raft (in Cargo Bay)

Food
5 years Survial Rats for 10
29 tons fresh food

 

[Infojunky]

Shovels. Everybody always forgets the shovels, brooms and other heavy cleaning supplies.

And maybe the VaccSuit equivalent of the Pants Tree...

 

[Easterner]

Shovels. Everybody always forgets the shovels, brooms and other heavy cleaning supplies.

And maybe the VaccSuit equivalent of the Pants Tree...

Only deckplan designers seem to forget those. I surely don't.

Excavation tools covered. 1 DP Sq dedicated to cleaning bots, 1 DP Sq devoted to washer/dryer and clothes making machine or its 56thCent equivalents.

 

[Vargrz]

Shovels I don't take for granted either!

I suspect they belong in survival gear or excavation tools (if carried).

I sort of also expect some cleaning supplies stored in the cargo bay (at the least a shop vacuum), fresher and galley cleaning supplies as given.

On a lab ship (and probably on any ship with unpredictable cargos or destinations) you'd need hazardous waste kits.

I was just imagining how interesting it would be to be on the logistical planning of a Scout Service exploratory mission!

 

[Infojunky]

Shovels I don't take for granted either!

I suspect they belong in survival gear or excavation tools (if carried).

Spoken like someone who never has had to deal with heavy machinery and/or cargo/freight. Shovels are for when brooms aren't enough.

 

[alex_greene]

Shovels are essential for when you've been transporting herds of large, incontinent herbivores that are easily spooked by crazy little girls cussing in Mandarin Chinese.

 

[Captain Jonah]

Beagles. Smallish droppings.

 

[Infojunky]

Shovels are essential for when you've been transporting herds of large, incontinent herbivores that are easily spooked by crazy little girls cussing in Mandarin Chinese.

More I was thinking when the Anchor Windlas decided to have a Hydraulic oil accident all over its machinery room floor, sand and kitty litter all sodden with oil, try moving that without a shovel....

Oh and it did this twice in 9 months.

 

[rust]

More I was thinking when the Anchor Windlas decided to have a Hydraulic oil accident all over its machinery room floor, sand and kitty litter all sodden with oil, try moving that without a shovel....

That's what evolution gave you hands for - although I agree
that a shovel is a real improvement ... :lol:

 

[Vargrz]

Vargrz wrote:
Shovels I don't take for granted either!

I suspect they belong in survival gear or excavation tools (if carried).


Spoken like someone who never has had to deal with heavy machinery and/or cargo/freight. Shovels are for when brooms aren't enough.

I was saying I don't take shovels for granted! However in the cargo bay I still think a high tech shop vacuum makes sense. That's what we used in the heavy equipment shops and storage bays at the copper mines I worked at in the early 1980's. You'd be surprised how much manual labor they save in cleaning up a materials spill!