So about those ship's boats

DCAnsell

Mongoose
Has anyone else noticed that it's not very uncommon for characters to walk away from chargen with a Mcr 16 ship's boat free and clear?

Both naval and drifter characters can get them, maybe others.

In the group we are putting together, two characters have them. So does this mean that they can sell them on day one, barring GM evil, and start the group out with a cool 32 Mcr?
 
The ship's boat does not have to be a new one, it will more probably be
an old surplus craft in urgent need of maintenance and repairs, and with
hardly any resale value at all.

And the fact that the character owns the ship's boat does not necessarily
mean that he has it, it could just as well wait for him to pick it up on some
other and rather distant planet.
 
rust said:
The ship's boat does not have to be a new one, it will more probably be
an old surplus craft in urgent need of maintenance and repairs, and with
hardly any resale value at all.

And the fact that the character owns the ship's boat does not necessarily
mean that he has it, it could just as well wait for him to pick it up on some
other and rather distant planet.

Fully understood, but to me that falls under the umbrella of GM fiat. Not a bad thing, but to be used somewhat sparingly.

I guess I should ask the question, "Is there anything in the rules as written that would keep the characters from selling off these ship's boats, and taking the proceeds as cash."
 
DCAnsell said:
I guess I should ask the question, "Is there anything in the rules as written that would keep the characters from selling off these ship's boats, and taking the proceeds as cash."
No, at least I have not found anything of that kind.
 
I don't know if this would work in your game.

You could say that the ship was part of Small Business package that the government uses to help veterans get started in life. The government furnishes a ships boat to help the vet get started but has 1 string attached. The character can not sell it until they have fully paid for it or used it for X number of years (say like 4 + years.)

Dave Chase
 
Yes, the rules as written give away too much in allowing beginning characters get hold of small craft when compared to the other possible mustering-out benefits. Your only option, and I would almost say requirement is to use that GM's fiat and give them a clapped-out Fiat. :wink:

Also, remember that any second-hand vehicle is going to be worth less than full price. Still doesn't help much - even MCr 1 is a lot more than you would ever get from all your other mustering-out rolls combined. I personally think no ship or small craft should ever be obtained except through play, or as a referee decision at the start of play.
 
I would think the characters could sell it for approx 50%. This would still give them a good chunck of change to use towards a jump capable ship.

This is the only thing that could make sense, because who would play Traveller with out some time of jump capable ship. If they wanted to play on one world then Traveller would not be their game.
 
cbrunish said:
This is the only thing that could make sense, because who would play Traveller with out some time of jump capable ship. If they wanted to play on one world then Traveller would not be their game.

Not really, can have lots of adventure possibilities on just one world. There is always booking passage on a jump capable ship to move around to other worlds if desired, having one of your own certainly isn't the only possibility.
 
That's right, owning your own ship is only one possibility in an interstellar game. Just look at Strontium Dog (when's that coming out?), everybody travelled as passengers or hired ships. And the actual amount of adventure aboard ships is not the biggest part of campaigns in my experience.
 
cbrunish said:
This is the only thing that could make sense, because who would play Traveller with out some time of jump capable ship. If they wanted to play on one world then Traveller would not be their game.
Well, our campaign is focussed on one single world, and although I gave
the characters a jump capable ship, they very rarely use it - there is too
much to do on that one planet. :D
 
cbrunish said:
I would think the characters could sell it for approx 50%. This would still give them a good chunck of change to use towards a jump capable ship.

Oh, you're being far too generous. In the real world, you'll probably never get more then 25% of the "new" value of something when you're selling it used to a dealer. Just driving a car off of the lot will drop it's value down by 20%. Dealers have to inspect, fix up, clean up, inventory, and market that vehicle, and pay taxes/fees too. Furthermore, they have all of their overhead expenses like paying utilities and salaries. So unless there is something unusual and VERY marketable about something like a used vehicle, the price for selling it to a dealer is going to be aweful, and may go lower then 5% for some items, especially if it's a low demand item, or the market's already saturated...


Here's what I'd do, if you're so inclined. Offer the player that rolls that up a choice: either they have an old decommissioned Ship's boat hanging around their neck like an albatross, OR offer to let them trade it in for something else. Ship shares or other heavy equipment for instance, but I'd tell them that because of the condition/local market/etc, that they're not going to get much return for it if they do sell it. If they opt to sell, then I'd let them roll 4d6, and call that the percentage of the item's NEW value that they managed to get after paying the taxes and other associated expenses. Perhaps a successful roll or good roleplaying could net them a couple of extra dice on the roll too.
 
Hi guys,

Don't be too worried about characters having 'too much'when they muster out in Traveller - after all, the poor sods have been working all their lives, you would hope they would have something to show for it! After all, it is not completely unrealistic for people these days to own their own house at the sort of ages Traveller characters begin play - and is the ability to sell your house and then do anything 'unbalanced' in Real Life?

They could keep the small craft, and putter about a single system. But that will, ultimately, be a limit to them.

They could sell it and buy, well, almost anything they wanted, becoming seriously kitted out. That is just fine. There are limits to what fusion guns and battledress can achieve.

Maybe they will sell it and fund their own mercenary outfit.

However, it is probably more likely they will use it as a deposit on an interstellar ship - and, as a GM, that is just fine, as it means they will be instantly poor again!

Seriously, a few million credits may mean the players are not desperate or needy straight after they muster out, but you can also be sure they won't stay that way!
 
Well, good news, after another read-thru, only naval characters can get the ship's boat. (The drifter had snuck in a term of naval service.) The benefit reads ship's boat or two ship shares. I can't imagine why anyone would take the shares, as written.

I think for my game I'll just dump the ship's boat benefit, and take that line as two ship shares.
 
msprange said:
They could sell it and buy, well, almost anything they wanted, becoming seriously kitted out. That is just fine. There are limits to what fusion guns and battledress can achieve.

Of course then they would have to be able to find such stuff for purchase which could be an adventure all in itself.
 
One of the players in my current game, got a ships boat. A 30 year old fommer lifeboat, with all but 2 of the cryoberths and a single auto-doc removed. The other players chiped in their ship shares to convert it into a belt-prospector.

They added 2 staterooms with an auto-kitchen. A nose mounted mult-laser. A single mining drone. Min-lab for testing samples. A full set of toolkits, safty equipment, vac suit, ect. 2 HEV "pod" suits with all the extras.
 
I kinda like the option of getting small craft, as it gives options some new options to consider that I hadn't thought of before.

My current players are now much more likely to follow up leads in strange places using the boat instead of the ship.

It also allows for more player involvement is ship operations, one player who was kinda disinterested before now doesn't think twice about being involved since his character got his own craft.
 
Infojunky said:
I kinda like the option of getting small craft, as it gives options some new options to consider that I hadn't thought of before.

My current players are now much more likely to follow up leads in strange places using the boat instead of the ship.

It also allows for more player involvement is ship operations, one player who was kinda disinterested before now doesn't think twice about being involved since his character got his own craft.

That's a good point, though not many of the ships a group are likely to have are capable of shipping a 30-ton small craft easily from system to system.
 
This might just be me but I tend to hand out larger ships.

It allows for a larger compliment, with some room for troop style play.

Or to put in another way the max crew for a 1000 ton free trader is only 10 people and will handily run with a much shorter crew.
 
I noticed years ago that much of the middle ground seemed to be missing from the Muster Out tables, and I rather like the addition of the Ship's Boat to the possibilities. Used to be, it was a Cr50 pocket watch, a Cr500 gun of some sort, a single Cr10,000 High Passage ticket, maybe a Cr1,000,000 TAS membership, and a Cr70,000,000 Free Trader. That's a BIG set of jumps at the top end, and often the cash awards got nowhere near even the lowest gap.
 
DCAnsell said:
That's a good point, though not many of the ships a group are likely to have are capable of shipping a 30-ton small craft easily from system to system.

If you could outfit a ship's boat with 2-3 staterooms, you could transport it as cargo for not much more than buying high passage.

A ship's boat could also potentially be sized to fit into a 30-ton module space. If there are starships designed to handle modules (it seems very plausible), the boat could be the "private rail car" equivalent of the 3I.

Naval ships may also give free passage to a ship's boat commanded by a former officer, assuming they have the spare hangar space.
 
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