[SBRD] Prep: setting discussion

[sabredog]

Originally Posted by DaveChase

Maybe something else to consider if this is a rebuilding, frontier like area

The ship has medical bay, not just a medical kit, for when we are planet side or in orbit to help out for those smaller pop worlds or the poorer ones.

The ship also carries regularly; plant seeds, medicine (in bulk) and machine/shop parts.
The ship also has a dedicated machine shop (again for planet assistance besides ship use)

Not that I want the ship to be subsidized to any government or megacorp, but as a free trader that wants to build up a solid rep, we could fill in the voids a bit.

Possibly have a few low berths for those medical emergency that need to be taken to actual hospital.

If we are going to be dealing with Aslan or other non-human races, Can I have the prime non-alien race language as a skill-0?

I can explain why I have it at skill-0 because of my one level of xeno medic skill (Medic skill 4, 3 standard, 1 xeno)

Dave Chase

I agree, the Launch has a cargo space perfect for stashing seeds, medical supplies, small luxury goods (toys, games, candy, booze), and all those small things we can use for establishing goodwill. We land with that and maybe start handing some of it out for free where we see the need and toss candy and toys to the kids? The expense would be small and just come from the ship's slush fund.

We could use that, too, as a way to show locals what we can bring in bulk so if they would like to place an order now that they saw the samples....?

The leftover cargo capacity on the ship is 190 tons. And I added 4 more staterooms for a total of 14. If we set aside 5 tons for a med bay, and designate 5 tons for mechanical supplies, small tools, farm machinery parts and lubricants that we try to keep stocked up no matter what the rest of the cargo we can find is then we'll be able to keep a lot of colonists in the backwoods supplied with fan belts, gears, wrenches, and penicillin. The kind of stuff that wears out and you might not be able to get off a large freighter except by the ton. The sales from these sort of incidentals would be able to self-supply that stock and help keep the medbay running.

Do you think 10 tons will do for the machine shop so we can have space for working on someone's combine or ATV, too?

I'll add 10 low berths.

That will bring the cargo capacity to 165 tons.

What does everyone think of that?

[samuelvss]

Originally Posted by SpaceBadger

Would you want to slave all turrets to one control and have only one Gunner? Can civilian ships do that, or only military? Hmm, I'm the GM - I guess if that is usually only for military ships, that might be another refit that would be reasonable to seek out here in the Deep.

If we are using HG2, then any ship can create a battery controlled by a single gunner when it is made, but not as a retrofit. A commercial design would certainly want to used batteries. Another idea is having robot gunners.

e.g.: From BALLARD ROBOTICS:

Astromech droid. Gunner and basic rescue functions.
URP: 82203-04-LQ226-PF4D(D)
TL 13, kCr 243, 278 kg 25yr note @ kCr 1.54/mo.
120 Liters Lhyd fuel gives 50 hr endurance (closed) or
500 hours endurance (open). Work stations typically have
power run to them.
All systems will typically not run simultaneously, so endurance
will typically be much greater. E.g.: Cannot walk use arms and all tools
at once.
Gunnery-4, Security-2, Mech/Elec/Med/Rescue/Commo/Ship's Boat-1

See the thread on the brains. Note that apparent intelligence is limited to the TL, so the above is limited to IntD. It is cylindrical, three legs, two medium arms, one light arm, one light tentacle.

See the discussion: http://www.travellerrpg.com/CotI/Dis...ight=astromech

[SpaceBadger]

Originally Posted by sabredog

The three turrets sounds good. I think a mix of BBB, BBB, MSM would be optimal - the beam turrets would hit hard and provide anti-missile fire, and the missile turret could always be held for the desperate situations. No sense firing off missiles left and right since they cost money and doubling the lasers gets us two hits per turret.

I use a Slave Turrets program IMTU: Space=1, 2MCr. It allows a gunner in one turret to control multiple turrets at once. All turrets have to fire at the same target (missiles are the exception since they are fire and forget homing jobs) so Multi-Target cannot be used with this program. Anti-missile fire is handled normally for each turret. The gunner's expertise is halved if Gunner Interact or Predict Fire is used. (this isn't a ship equipped with military grade fire control after all)

Waddya think?

Sounds good to me. Please include that in your ship design.

[sabredog]

Originally Posted by samuelvss

If we are using HG2, then any ship can create a battery controlled by a single gunner when it is made, but not as a retrofit. A commercial design would certainly want to used batteries.

I stuck with LBB2 because I like the greater durability of the drives. We have 3G M-Drives, but it'll take 3 hits before it degrades to 1G, and then two more before they fail. You'd only get three hits in HG. The jump drives are about the same.

And with three to five turrets we can mix and match weapons better than if we limit ourselves to batteries - which would be pretty puny given how little we can put in them at least for now.

Originally Posted by samuelvss

Another idea is having robot gunners.

e.g.: From BALLARD ROBOTICS:

Astromech droid. Gunner and basic rescue functions.
URP: 82203-04-LQ226-PF4D(D)
TL 13, kCr 243, 278 kg 25yr note @ kCr 1.54/mo.
120 Liters Lhyd fuel gives 50 hr endurance (closed) or
500 hours endurance (open). Work stations typically have
power run to them.
All systems will typically not run simultaneously, so endurance
will typically be much greater. E.g.: Cannot walk use arms and all tools
at once.
Gunnery-4, Security-2, Mech/Elec/Med/Rescue/Commo/Ship's Boat-1

See the thread on the brains. Note that apparent intelligence is limited to the TL, so the above is limited to IntD. It is cylindrical, three legs, two medium arms, one light arm, one light tentacle.

See the discussion: http://www.travellerrpg.com/CotI/Dis...ight=astromech

I thought a robot of some kind would be a good idea, too, but I don't know how that would fly in the OTU. I've been under the impression the Imperium cultures tend to distrust them as something like Zhodani use. Or is that just warbots? But I say, so long as we can keep the thing running a robot would be handy. With the Security programming it'll make a dandy addition to anti-hijack when we are away form the ship.

[sabredog]

Originally Posted by SpaceBadger

Sounds good to me. Please include that in your ship design.

Roger-dodger!

[SpaceBadger]

Originally Posted by sabredog

Do you think 10 tons will do for the machine shop so we can have space for working on someone's combine or ATV, too?

Dunno if you need to devote that much space. You probably won't be wanting to actually drive the combine or ATV into the ship to work on it; just load the tools you need onto a grav pallet and have the owner drive or drag his project into a shady place like a barn or under a big tree where it is comfortable to work.

If you are thinking of needing the ship's cargo hoists to lift something heavy, that would probably be rare enough that you could just rig something as needed - or drive/drag the project into the cargo bay.

If it occurs often enough to be worthwhile, maybe invest in a manipulator (something I borrowed from H. Beam Piper) - a grav vehicle w heavy-duty gravs for lifting heavy stuff, with a heavy-duty frame to handle the loads, built-in winches and grabber-arms, and attachment points for other tools as needed. Sort of like the proverbial sky-hook; fly it into place above what you need lifted, and hoist away. Could be handy for cargo manipulation, too, in those E or X starports w no facilities.

Dunno if we could justify starting w one of these already on-board, as probably not needed often in area you are coming from, but maybe another thing to buy out here in the Deep. I never really made any stats for size or price - something like a G-Carrier in size, I guess, at double the price. Would also require extra storage space (and higher price) if you wanted optional attachments like dozer blade or backhoe (plus it really isn't as efficient a dozer as the traditional type w treads on the ground for traction). Not sure how often you'd need those options, anyway; maybe not enough to justify the expense.

[sabredog]

Yeah, you right. I'll make the machine shop 5 tons. The ship will have a cargo lift platform on the side of the hull, and the nose swings up for roll-on, roll-off loading.

So that brings us back up to 170 tons cargo space.

[SpaceBadger]

Originally Posted by sabredog

I thought a robot of some kind would be a good idea, too, but I don't know how that would fly in the OTU. I've been under the impression the Imperium cultures tend to distrust them as something like Zhodani use. Or is that just warbots? But I say, so long as we can keep the thing running a robot would be handy. With the Security programming it'll make a dandy addition to anti-hijack when we are away form the ship.

Robot prejudices vary by world. There isn't really any universal culture in this setting (not even to the extent of what the Imperium has in a later era), except for maybe what remains of Vilani culture on old First Imperium worlds. The short duration and communication problems of the Second Imperium, along with all the issues of just trying to make that government work in the first place, never really left much energy for establishing any kind of cultural norms.

It seems likely to me that our campaign will be midway into the Long Night, so contact between worlds is very much a local thing, and some are completely out of contact if not near any other worlds that have retained starfaring technology.

Back to the robots: I don't think I'd go with that rule on Int=TL; that still makes some pretty smart robots, smarter than a lot of people. I see them as needing closer supervision than that, unless doing fairly repetitive tasks. There is no AI in this setting; about the closest you get to even simulating that is what is called IA, for Interface Assistant, something like the iPhone Siri that can simulate a personality for interacting with your ship's computer, for example, but really is more of an expert system and interface for giving instructions, not capable of independent thinking.

You probably would not want to entrust your ship's security to a robot, although one under control of the ship's computer could do the basic IFF and "Go away, you are not authorized. Leave now, or I may be required to use force against you." Not real intelligent for being able to make decisions it isn't programmed for.

[rancke]

A suggestion:

If the ship is a skip, the PCs will be relieved of one major pressure, that of coming up with money to pay the bank loan. You might consider balancing that by having the ship start out very much not custom-fitted for Reaver's Deep, having spent its days up until recently jumping between civilized worlds. Early problems could then include getting the ship fitted out with guns and repair shops and such.


Hans

[SpaceBadger]

Originally Posted by rancke

A suggestion:

If the ship is a skip, the PCs will be relieved of one major pressure, that of coming up with money to pay the bank loan. You might consider balancing that by having the ship start out very much not custom-fitted for Reaver's Deep, having spent its days up until recently jumping between civilized worlds. Early problems could then include getting the ship fitted out with guns and repair shops and such.

Good point. We've already discussed adding more turrets, but on reflection maybe the machine shop should be save for refitting, also. Sure, the ship would already have necessary tools in the engineering section for repairs on the ship itself, but an actual repair shop such as we were discussing wouldn't really have been needed back in Daibei sector travelling in more civilized routes.

Sorry if this messes up your ship-planning, Sabredog - maybe we could just eyeball a corner of the cargo bay for adding the machine shop later?

Perhaps the ship's three existing turrets are not quite so heavily armed yet, either.