Size of a Bridge

[Jak Nazryth]

I am new to the Mongoose rules and so far I LOVE THEM!
But... Why are bridges so large?
The old rules require 2%
T-20 requires 20 tons min, but only 10 tons is allocated to the actual bridge itself.
GURPS allows for 1 ton for each station (most small ships are around 5 tons for a bridge)
I'm assuming Mongoose is similar to T-20 where the listed required size of a bridge includes more than the actual bridge itself, but it doens't go into any detail. The bridges in the stock deck plans in the Mongoose books are far smaller than the actual required listing. Is there a rule I haven't found yet for the size of the actual bridge vs. the "bridge tonnage"? I know some of it is taken up in life support, computer, airlocks, landing gear, etc... but I am a deck plan guy!
For instance, GURPS as far as I know, is the only system that actually give tonnage requirements for life support.
I am used to depressurizing the ship when going into combat, so it's kinda nice to know "where is main life support" on the ship.
It would be kinda fun to have your players know where main life support was so they would frantically run to fix it if it took a hit! I know it's pointless on larger military sized ships, but on small "adventure - pc owned" ships, I like the idea of know where each piece goes.
I hate to sound uptight, but I'm an Architect, and print out my deck plans on 24x36 plot sheets so the players can use mini's, so I got to see everything on paper, where it's located, what's it function, best place to locate it... is it Feng Shui? lol
Thanks for any input!

 

[zero]

For you to peruse, also so I can flick quickly to this page myself (I use these rules for all my deckplans);

http://www.travellerrpg.com/CotI/Discuss/showthread.php?t=10609

This page suggests plotting a life support space using left-over common space, which I tend to do, generally as a mixed algae tank centre for oxygen production (btw I tend to deckplan v. small ships!)

I also like the idea of having a deckplan on graph paper - why havent I thought of that?- well, hope this page helps.

 

[DFW]

I use ~1ton per station. The rest being sensors, (1 airlock/100 tons), flight computers, etc.

 

[zero]

I'd say any added dtons to the more advanced Electronics gets added to the bridge space if you dont have a seperate area for Avionics or Ship Computer.

 

[DFW]

I also like the idea of having a deckplan on graph paper - why havent I thought of that?- well, hope this page helps.

There is a neat little pgm called digiGraph2.exe Snap to grid graph paper exportable and printable.

http://www.iol.ie/~pkb/DigiGraph 2.exe

 

[rust]

In GURPS Traveller the bridge of a small starship is not only smaller (2.5
dtons for a basic bridge, 5 dtons for a command bridge), it also contains
a lot more equipment, for example 3 computers and the entire "avionics"
(communicators and sensors).

While I think that 2.5 dtons are probably too small to be plausible, since
one bridge crew station in GURPS Vehicles (which is behind GURPS Travel-
ler) requires 90 (normal) or 120 (roomy) cubic feet and the computers,
communicators and sensors also need room, the 10+ dtons (without sen-
sors) of a Mongoose Traveller bridge does indeed seem a bit implausible.

For my own designs for my settings I would not hesitate to reduce the
bridge volume to a standard size of 5 dtons for small starships.

 

[AndrewW]

The bridges in the stock deck plans in the Mongoose books are far smaller than the actual required listing.

Not always the case. The bridges can show the full tonnage allocated on the deckplans. Though some have been modified some with the airlock and ship's locker space taking out of the bridge tonnage, or an enlarged common area.

The avionics/sensor area uses separate tonnage but in a lot of cases is near the bridge, perhaps in front and accessed from the bridge.

 

[zero]

I generally take the airlock from bridge tonnage in my 100dton ships.

 

[Jak Nazryth]

I think I also used to take 1 ton or so as an emergency aid station as described in the GURPS rules. Also added a small ready room and/or captains office etc...

 

[AndrewW]

I think I also used to take 1 ton or so as an emergency aid station as described in the GURPS rules. Also added a small ready room and/or captains office etc...

Some of the Mongoose deckplans have used office space from the bridge space.

 

[locarno24]

But... Why are bridges so large?

Note that things like the captain's office, ship locker (in smaller vessels), sickbay, crew common area, etc, etc come out of the 'bridge' allowance.

Taking the rulebook Type S as an example, the actual 'bridge' on the plans only occupies about 5 1/2 squares - whilst the staterooms take 4 squares for 4 dTons. You can mentally assign the remaining half of that 'declared' volume to the corridors and crew common area space.

 

[rje]

For the bridge I assume 1 ton per spacious control station.

I think 20 tons is excessive for ships like 400t tramp traders. 4 tons seems more reasonable - a station for the pilot, astrogator, engineer, and sensor/commo. The gunner stations are the turrets themselves.

Maybe, just maybe, small traders which somehow can market a sort of luxurious, flashy, super-redundant bridge as some sort of asset can get away with something like a 12t bridge. But 20 seems too much.

Larger bridges seem more likely for military ships, like the Gazelle or a defense boat, or ships where maybe you need more than one engineer for the drives, or if you're in alien space where a number of crewmembers are bigger than humans and need more room.

And on that note, what about the bridges of Droyne ships? Some of those guys are tiny. So it's even more difficult to see a 20t bridge for them. Is it a bridge, or an aviary?

For life support I assume 1 ton per 8 or 10 people, located adjacent to the crew living area, or the bridge.

 

[DFW]

I think I'll use this for my designs:

1 ton per required bridge workstation

Required airlock tonnage

1 ton for included sensors (this doesn't include tonnage required for advanced sensors)

1 ton allocated for access

 

[Sturn]

Though some have been modified some with the airlock and ship's locker space taking out of the bridge tonnage, or an enlarged common area.

I do this (ship's locker, near-bridge airlock) in my deckplans also to make the bridge smaller. If it still seems too big, you could also do things such as putting some of the tonnage into Ready Room / Briefing Room, make a seperate small computer access room (I know per MGT computers don't take up tonnage, but I see no problem with a ship still having a classic scifi main-frame room out of the bridge tonnage), and other things that might be included as part of the, "Bridge", but not actually on the, "Flight Deck".

Edit: I think you could even justify a small fresher as part of the bridge tonnage. Wait shouldn't that be from staterooms tonnage?! Yes for the living quarters area. But, if your bridge is nowhere close to the living quarter's freshers, I think a fresher for the on-duty bridge crew adjacent the crew stations would be highly appropriate (so they don't have to run down hallway A, slide down ladder 5, then through hallway D...oops too late back to the ship's locker for a new vacc suit!).

Plopping down all of that tonnage into one big room with several stations I don't think was the intent.

 

[BP]

Yeah - take the bridge tonnage to include equipment and access to such, more so than crew stations...

 

[Jak Nazryth]

If you want a more detailed design system that is resonable close to MgT in Techlevels and results you can try MegaTraveller. The system has:

+ Individual workstations for each person on the bridge
+ Effects of advanced controls on crew size
+ Separation of computer and sensor volume etc. from "Bridge"
+ VERY detailed life support broken down to "Basic Air/Light/Heat", "Gravity" and "Water/Recycling"
+ Volumes and rules for airlocks etc.

OTOH ship construction is about the same in complexity from MgT and unlike Traveller:The New Era (most detailed build system) and GURPS:Traveller (easiest system, use Tom Bonts software!!) it is compatible when it comes to

+ Techlevel (GT only has 12 and compresses the TL 10-15 in TL10-12)
+ Basic concepts (TNE has different thrusters that use fuel and different weapon concepts)
+ Ship crew sizes (TNE uses a computer setup with "Firebreaks" increasing crew size)

There is a software for building MegaTraveller ships that "works" also it does not cover all tricks. Getting the MT CD from FFE will give you the whole Shebang

GURPS Traveller goes into pretty good detail, but I'll have to check out megatrav as well.
Thanks!