Starship Operators' Manual

[MasterGwydion]

This book is great! Congrats to the writers! For a book without a lot of rules in it, I love the fluff that explains how things work, such as the annual vs. ongoing maintenance. This changed My worldbuilding significantly as I no longer had to look for starports with a high enough TL to do the annual maintenance on ships. Now I just need to add a workshop to each ship and perhaps a small fabricator and call it done.

Thanks for the book guys!

 

[MongooseMatt]

You are welcome! We have some bits and pieces that we cut from this book in the new volumes of JTAS, if you fancy taking a deeper dive.

 

[MasterGwydion]

You are welcome! We have some bits and pieces that we cut from this book in the new volumes of JTAS, if you fancy taking a deeper dive.

If I dive any deeper, I may drown. lol

 

[hrafnkolbrandr]

This changed My worldbuilding significantly as I no longer had to look for starports with a high enough TL to do the annual maintenance on ships. Now I just need to add a workshop to each ship and perhaps a small fabricator and call it done.

Would you be able to elaborate on this part a little bit? I've been looking all over for clarification on the annual maintenance as it relates to starship vs shipyard TL (which is how I stumbled on this thread), and every GM seems to have their own take on it.

I'd love if you could give me a quick rundown on what the book has to say about it.

 

[Sigtrygg]

When will the High Guard supplement be released to include all the SOM tech that is currently not in MgT rule books?

Will the next version of the core rule book and High Guard change the definition of the displacement ton to match SOM, T5, and MT? Which of course invalidates Classic, TNE, T4, MgT1e, MgT2e....

 

[Condottiere]

More likely, it presents alternative facts.

 

[MasterGwydion]

Would you be able to elaborate on this part a little bit? I've been looking all over for clarification on the annual maintenance as it relates to starship vs shipyard TL (which is how I stumbled on this thread), and every GM seems to have their own take on it.

I'd love if you could give me a quick rundown on what the book has to say about it.

Basically, you have two options. Save up the money for maintenance for each Maintenance Period and have all of the maintenance done at once over a 2-week period in a starport, or use that money and have the crew perform the maintenance little by little over the course of the year while they are traveling, if they have a workshop on board. If you use a shipyard, it must be of a TL that handle your ship or you will have to order parts and wait for them to be delivered or fabricated.

 

[hrafnkolbrandr]

Basically, you have two options. Save up the money for maintenance for each Maintenance Period and have all of the maintenance done at once over a 2-week period in a starport, or use that money and have the crew perform the maintenance little by little over the course of the year while they are traveling, if they have a workshop on board. If you use a shipyard, it must be of a TL that handle your ship or you will have to order parts and wait for them to be delivered or fabricated.

So basically the crew of a high TL ship can use an onboard workshop and some elbow grease throughout the year to perform the overhaul maintenance little by little- and not have to search around for a TL 15 shipyard to put in to for 2 weeks?

I love that- and love that it adds some value to the workshop module to make it a consideration in ship design for all ships.

 

[Condottiere]

I suppose the perfect time to maintain the jump and manoeuvre drives would be during the transition, since both are switched off.

If you had a series of power plants, you could cycle through each, as one gets turned off.

 

[rinku]

Week in jump, week in system.

Get those lazy engineers and maintenance crew working on it all while the trading crewmembers are out doing their jobs.

I'd generally assume you can't do a lot of stuff in flight (jump or real space) as there are actively operating drives. At some point you have to work on the exterior hull, the thruster plates, the heat sinks, the laser cannon optics, etc.

Once docked, you can power down and overhaul whatever needs it.

I like to make them do a bunch of rolls and not tell them why. Although it's usually because of that old battle damage they thought was patched up, or the undetected stress from the last couple of barely passed piloting rolls.

Got to keep players on their toes, eh?

 

[AndrewW]

Get those lazy engineers and maintenance crew working on it all while the trading crewmembers are out doing their jobs.

Hey, who you calling lazy? Them trader types get to laze about during jump.

 

[AlanMN1]

I believe that the annual maintenance is similar to the annual inspections all aircraft and ships are required to have In The Real World. The routine daily/monthly maintenance can only do so much. It may find one or more problems that requires a shipyard to correct.

 

[rinku]

But in space.

 

[Condottiere]

You can have the trading team manning the bar, and doing housekeeping.

 

[rinku]

Depends an awful lot on their skill set.

But since MGT Merchants all get Steward-0 now, sure. Unless it's Daisy the Administrator that ended up as the Ship's Purser, with Sir Bunny LaRue-Gvegh who seeks out high passengers with their contacts and ability to charm. Or something.

 

[MongooseMatt]

When will the High Guard supplement be released to include all the SOM tech that is currently not in MgT rule books?

As one of the 'core' of the core books, it is perhaps inevitable that High Guard will see an update at some time. However, we have not even started to pen ideas of what may or may not be in it.

The current book is good for the next few years.

We are making a little change to how things are done in the new Vehicle Handbook, and it is something that could translate to ships - if you guys like the new VHB, that may be something that forms the basis of a new High Guard but, as I say, there is not even an outline of what a new High Guard might look like.

 

[MongooseMatt]

You can have the trading team manning the bar, and doing housekeeping.

Get them painting the corridors, changing them from Navy Grey to Battleship Grey.

 

[Condottiere]

I think that's a bad idea, for someone with professional persuading skills.

 

[AndrewW]

I think that's a bad idea, for someone with professional persuading skills.

Nope, it is good for them, just not everyone else.