The ship's locker

[Duroon]

I started a google group for the Traveller campaign I am going to run soon. We have been discussing the new rules as put forth by Mongoose and how we want to implement things. Our largest discussion to date has been about the ship's locker.

Traditionally the ship's locker has been used as a sort of magical closet, in which any item the crew might need is kept. I personally have a problem with that, especially given that the ship's locker usually isn't even on the deck plan.

I asked my players-to-be just what sort of stuff they would want in a ship's locker. The lists were huge. I do believe inspiration struck me this morning though. Why can't the ships locker have a mechanical retrieval system hooked into the ship's computer? Add an intelligent interface and items could conceivably be stored between the decks of the ship. Simply go to the ship's locker interface, tell the locker which items you want, and after a small delay the items are found and brought to the player.

Mainly I am just looking for a plausible way to handle the ship's locker without over complicating ship design here. Any suggestions?

 

[Golan2072]

The easiest way would be to create a list of items that come with the ship and included in its price (or in the standard inventory if they're detached-duty scouts). That list would be quite short and include essentials such as one vacc suit (some with paraphernalia such as thruster-packs) per required crew position, some vacc-suit patches, one generic non-military weapon per crew position (autopistols, shotguns or semi-auto rifles work well) with about 50 rounds per weapon, a medkit or two, one of each of the main-book toolkits, a few flashlights, a crowbar, a fire-axe, a fire extinguisher, a rope or two, some long-duration rations, a few utility knives, and maybe one rescue bubble per intended passenger. In addition to this some minor generic spare parts would be included (extra light bulbs, screws, fasteners, some wire, isolator band, duct tape, etc - nothing really game-relevant). A used ship (or most detached scouts) would probably have less items, and/or items in bad conditions.

Anything beyond that list they'll have to buy from their own funds.

I usually tend to subsume the ship's locket in the stateroom tonnage; I usually make the stateroom itself about 2 dtons, with the ship's galley having 0.75 tons per stateroom, the ship's locker 0.25 tons per stateroom, life support gear 0.5 ton per stateroom, landing gear 0.25 tons per stateroom, and corridors 0.25 tons per stateroom. Out of that 0.25 tons a large part is access space, walls, security measures, non-game-relevant* minor spares etc. So I'd say that it'll store about 1 m^3 and circa 100kg of gear per stateroom on the ship. Anything beyond that capacity goes into the cargo hold.

* By "non-game-relevant" I mean that these minor generic spare parts would mostly be kept off-stage and rarely would be considered in-game; however, in their absence conducting most types of maintenance and repair would be difficult, if not impossible. These includes screws, nails, reels of duct-tape or isolator band, soldering supplies, fasteners, wire coils and so on.

 

[Vile]

I have a different view on the ship's locker. I think all those "survival" items should be in whatever the vessel's escape vehicle is, and they should include the stuff from Marooned/Marooned Alone and not much else.

The ship's locker, on the other hand, is more like your garage, workshop or junk room at home - it contains all those rarely-used or awkwardly-sized items which are nevertheless essential to have. Toolkits, laser welders, the odd squad support weapon, grav belts, solvents, vast quantities of rope and cable, vacuum cleaner (lots of cosmic dust) ...

 

[Golan2072]

I have a different view on the ship's locker. I think all those "survival" items should be in whatever the vessel's escape vehicle is, and they should include the stuff from Marooned/Marooned Alone and not much else.

I agree with you about rescue bubbles. As I said, when the ship comes new most of it is in the ship's locker, or in the ship's secondary lockers near the airlock. The older the ship, the odder the places you'll find the gear (if at all) - the vacc suits might be stored in an haphazard way in the airlock (and maybe their helmets might find their way to staterooms or the bridge); tools would find their way to crawl-ways and air-ducts; and guns might be taken by the previous crew when they left the ship for th last time.

 

[Vile]

Of course, many players like to keep their guns in their bunk ... :shock:

 

[Golan2072]

Of course, many players like to keep their guns in their bunk ... :shock:

Or under the chairs or acceleration couches at their posts...

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

Or just strapped to their hip like a gunfighter...

They also tend to wear their Cloth and Reflec armor all the time (even to bed...)

 

[Duroon]

I am looking for how it works and how much space it should take up on a floor plan mostly here. The idea of an intelligent interface and mechanical retrieval system doesn't work for you guys?

I am going to make sure the engineering section has a tool locker, cargo holds will need a locker for storing straps and bindings when not in use securing cargo, and a weapons locker for both the crews and passengers weapons during spaceflight (with a sophisticated locking system to keep the passengers from getting at the weapons of course).

 

[ErnestBORG9]

Has anyone used the Admin or Leadership skills of ship's officers to determine the availability or loss of items in the ship's locker?

 

[Golan2072]

I am looking for how it works and how much space it should take up on a floor plan mostly here. The idea of an intelligent interface and mechanical retrieval system doesn't work for you guys?

The more complex a system is, the more likely it is to fail in the case of emergency or technical difficulties; and you typically have to access the locker in an emergency. So an automatic and mechanized system would be problematic, especially for the occasions when the computer and/or the power-plant have taken damage.

So you need something robust, simple, usable with minimal or no power in an emergency and with multiple manual overrides.

Regarding the space it'll take in the floor plan, I'll repost my earlier idea: I usually tend to subsume the ship's locket in the stateroom tonnage; I usually make the stateroom proper about 2 dtons, with the ship's galley having 0.75 tons per stateroom, the ship's locker 0.25 tons per stateroom, life support gear 0.5 ton per stateroom, landing gear 0.25 tons per stateroom, and corridors 0.25 tons per stateroom. Out of that 0.25 tons a large part is access space, walls, security measures, non-game-relevant* minor spares etc. So I'd say that it'll store about 1 m^3 and circa 100kg of gear per stateroom on the ship.

I am going to make sure the engineering section has a tool locker, cargo holds will need a locker for storing straps and bindings when not in use securing cargo, and a weapons locker for both the crews and passengers weapons during spaceflight (with a sophisticated locking system to keep the passengers from getting at the weapons of course).

It is quite easy to split the locker tonnage among all the locations you want, especially on a large ship. And regarding the sophisticated locking mechanism, if it's electronic I'd give it a long-duration (several hours for the very least) emergency battery and make it independent from the ship's main computer (if only to prevent remote hacking).

 

[Golan2072]

Has anyone used the Admin or Leadership skills of ship's officers to determine the availability or loss of items in the ship's locker?

On a small ship you could probably have a list of all the game-relevant stuff and track each independently as you do for a character's inventory. For larger ships (especially BIG military ones with large number of crewmen and huge store-room and armories), Admin would be useful.

 

[Duroon]

The more complex a system is, the more likely it is to fail in the case of emergency or technical difficulties; and you typically have to access the locker in an emergency. So an automatic and mechanized system would be problematic, especially for the occasions when the computer and/or the power-plant have taken damage.

So you need something robust, simple, usable with minimal or no power in an emergency and with multiple manual overrides.

I see your point. I also like your guidelines on how much space to use for a locker and other storage. One of the reasons I am so interested in the deckplans equation is I plan on creating a few ship models using Hirst Arts space terrain molds. I have used his other molds to build some modular dungeon stuff for D&D campaigns in the past. I know Traveller isn't as mini-focused as D&D but I like my visual aids.

 

[Infojunky]

I don't specifically worry about space for the ship's locker. In that under the 1.5 meter (5 foot) square that ships are laid out in leave plenty of room for the various nooks and crannies that make up the lockers on a ship. Having lived on numerous ships (the floating sort, not space) in years gone by, storage space is prolific even in the tightest designs.

 

[Golan2072]

On a second thought, the 100kg limit per stateroom I've posted above is a bit low; earlier Traveller books (such as Striker) usually allow one metric ton* of cargo per m^3 so 1,000kg or 500kg (for easier access and better packaging) would be reasonable.

* note that ship tons are tons of liquid hydrogen displaced by its volume; most gear has far higher density than liquid hydrogen so a metric ton of gear could easily take only 1/14 the volume of what a ton of liquid hydrogen would.

EDIT: By the way, Duroon, which ship type are you using? I might write a standard-issue locker contents list for it for you if I'd know the type.

 

[aspqrz]

Or just strapped to their hip like a gunfighter...

They also tend to wear their Cloth and Reflec armor all the time (even to bed...)

Cloth and Reflec are only for beddy-bye ... unpowered Battle Armour is for awake time :lol:

Phil

 

[Duroon]

EDIT: By the way, Duroon, which ship type are you using? I might write a standard-issue locker contents list for it for you if I'd know the type.

I am planning on my players winding up in a Far Trader. I have a start to a campaign that will eventually destroy whatever ship they start with (pretty early in the campaign too). But they will end up with a replacement Far Trader, modded to act as a covert espionage ship with J3 and 3G thrust. The ship will look as a standard Far Trader on the outside and close as possible on the inside too. They are going to lose some cargo space and some of the low berths, maybe a stateroom or two as well, but I am going to try and make the floorplan as close as possible to the one in the deckplans on the website here.

 

[Golan2072]

Hmmm... Who gives them the covert espionage Far Trader? If they have a powerful patron, he'll probably furnish the ship with the necessary equipment for their mission. Of course, if they request anything in particular, he has the full authority to just say "no" to them.

 

[Duroon]

The ship is supplied to them by a group of psions. They are the remnants of an order of psionic knights that once served the Imperium. During the psionic suppressions the group had to go underground. They are still loyal to the Third Imperium however and are resisting the Ine Givar and the Zhodani in the Spinward Marches. As the new rules are set shortly before the Fifth Frontier War the group should get a chance to run a lot of covert ops, both before and during the war.

 

[Golan2072]

So, essentially, that group of psions has enough resources to provide the group with any inventory the psions (not the PCs!) deem necessary for the mission. Am I correct?

 

[Duroon]

Essentially yes. They are a well funded covert group operating outside any formal chain of command with the Imperium, yet loyal to the Imperium and what it stands for. Quite frankly the Imperium itself doesn't know that they still exist. The order was wiped out by Imperial order, at least the Imperium believes that they succeeded in destroying the group. Up until the time that the group was moved on by the Imperium it had been a visible military branch. Afterwards the Imperium covered it's tracks by deleting every scrap of reference to the group it could find. All of this happened several centuries ago and it is quite possible the current Imperium doesn't even know that the group ever existed. They operate a psionics institute in the Spinward Marches, and have operatives based on several worlds throughout the sector. It is the groups hope to one day be able to be recognized for their efforts in defending the Imperium and be reinstated as a brotherhood of Knights.