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Ning Leihrec
Lieutenant Commander
Joined: 17 Apr 2015
Posts: 211
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 Posted: Sat Apr 09, 2016 8:41 pm Post subject: Skeleton Crew |
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| What is the number after the / next to the skeleton crew? I used to know this. Cobwebs of the mind. |
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JironGhrad
Lieutenant Commander
Joined: 20 Jan 2016
Posts: 152
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| Posted: Sat Apr 09, 2016 8:50 pm Post subject: |
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| Typically that's the minimum number to operate the ship; I believe the follow on number was the difficulty modifier added to any checks made when below optimal crew numbers. |
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Ning Leihrec
Lieutenant Commander
Joined: 17 Apr 2015
Posts: 211
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| Posted: Sat Apr 09, 2016 9:05 pm Post subject: |
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| Figured. Some ships that extra diff is very high, I guess hence the need for full crew. |
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CRMcNeill
Director of Engineering
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Posts: 16281
Location: Redding System, California Sector, on the I-5 Hyperspace Route.
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| Posted: Sat Apr 09, 2016 9:32 pm Post subject: |
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The bigger a ship gets, the more superfluous that number becomes.
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garhkal
Sovereign Protector
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Location: Reynoldsburg, Columbus, Ohio.
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| Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2016 4:07 pm Post subject: |
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superfluous?? Don't you mean required?
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CRMcNeill
Director of Engineering
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Location: Redding System, California Sector, on the I-5 Hyperspace Route.
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| Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2016 5:21 pm Post subject: |
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| garhkal wrote: | | superfluous?? Don't you mean required? |
No. With small crew ships, like light freighters, having enough crew to operate the vehicle can be a crucial factor in a game. Conversely, when was the last time a group of PCs had to resort to Plan B because they only had 4,999 crew for their captured Star Destroyer (rather than the minimum of 5,000)?
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"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.
The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index
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Savar
Captain
Joined: 14 Feb 2015
Posts: 589
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| Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2016 7:11 pm Post subject: |
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| CRMcNeill wrote: | | garhkal wrote: | | superfluous?? Don't you mean required? |
No. With small crew ships, like light freighters, having enough crew to operate the vehicle can be a crucial factor in a game. Conversely, when was the last time a group of PCs had to resort to Plan B because they only had 4,999 crew for their captured Star Destroyer (rather than the minimum of 5,000)? |
rofl, we can't jump to hyperspace sir, the astrogater is sick |
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garhkal
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| Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2016 7:27 pm Post subject: |
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Several times actually. IN sparks, there has been at least half a dozen (possibly more) modules where part of the mission was to nick a vessel of cap scale, and it was critical to keep X number of droids and NPCs alive, just so that skeleton crew level was still able to be met..
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MrNexx
Rear Admiral
Joined: 25 Mar 2016
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Location: San Antonio
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| Posted: Mon Apr 11, 2016 11:18 am Post subject: |
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On that front, how many people can be replaced by droids and still function?
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garhkal
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| Posted: Mon Apr 11, 2016 3:39 pm Post subject: |
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IMO a lot of that depends on the functionality of the ship. We saw in the novels that the Katana fleet was automated more so than most ships were, so they needed less crew/could have droids fill in. On a ship that has not 'been retrofitted' that way, i would say only certain functions could be duplicated.
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CRMcNeill
Director of Engineering
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Location: Redding System, California Sector, on the I-5 Hyperspace Route.
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| Posted: Mon Apr 11, 2016 3:59 pm Post subject: |
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| garhkal wrote: | | Several times actually. IN sparks, there has been at least half a dozen (possibly more) modules where part of the mission was to nick a vessel of cap scale, and it was critical to keep X number of droids and NPCs alive, just so that skeleton crew level was still able to be met.. |
And how did Sparks manage that using just the official rules?
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"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.
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garhkal
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| Posted: Mon Apr 11, 2016 7:54 pm Post subject: |
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Manage what? having to require the group of PC's to do all they could to keep a certain # of people alive, or the ship wouldn't fly?
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CRMcNeill
Director of Engineering
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| Posted: Mon Apr 11, 2016 9:03 pm Post subject: |
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Yes.
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"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.
The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index
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garhkal
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| Posted: Mon Apr 11, 2016 11:39 pm Post subject: |
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The module that i am thinking of right now, had it where each PC had iirc 3 NPC's and 2 droids they had, and we needed a certain # to be kept alive to make the cap ship we were going to snag.. IIRC we had like 4 droids and 6 npcs we could lose before we dropped below that skeleton limit. BUT cause of the players in the group, having their PCs dodge in the way of bolts, (or take a melee blow meant for), WE were the ones who got bashed and bruised, not them.. In the end i think we only lost 2 actual npcs (one triggered a trip mine, the other none of us were close enough to, to intercept the blaster bolt that eviscerated his head..
From the few times i remember hearing chatter about other runnings of it, one table came 2 beings Under that limit, but had captured 8 or so imps, they conscripted to make up for it.
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CRMcNeill
Director of Engineering
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Location: Redding System, California Sector, on the I-5 Hyperspace Route.
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| Posted: Tue Apr 12, 2016 2:11 am Post subject: |
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So, if I'm understanding you correctly, coming in over the skeleton crew number was more of a story factor than a rules mechanic. The GM either set an arbitrary limit that you had to keep alive, or picked a ship that had that number as a skeleton crew.
What I'm referring to is the actual use of the skeleton crew stat in ship-to-ship combat.
From what you're saying, the ship in the Sparks scenario had a skeleton crew of approximately 20. You'll recall that what I said above was: | Quote: | | The bigger a ship gets, the more superfluous that number becomes. |
I should clarify that the Skeleton Crew number (and Crew in general, really) becomes more and more useless for actual game use as that number increases.
Here's what I mean:
-Per the RAW, the only official way to inflict casualties on a ship's crew is, when the ship takes damage, roll damage individually against every member of the ship's crew. In your scenario above, that's ~24 individual soak rolls every time the ship takes a hit. And a Star Destroyer has around 37,000 crew. So while the RAW method is acceptable for 4-6 PCs on a freighter, it rapidly becomes silly and time consuming as it is applied to ships with larger and larger crews.
-Even when a way is found to apply crew casualties, there are no interim steps in difficulty. For example:-An ISD has a crew of 36,810.
-Because of the vagaries of the RAW, that same ISD can take 31,809 casualties (reducing its available crew to 5,001) and still function without penalty.
-However, if it takes just one more casualty (reducing the crew to 5,000), all difficulty levels immediately jump by +20.
-Lose just 1 more (reducing the crew to 4,999), and the ship is rendered inoperable.
Ridiculous? Absolutely. But that's the RAW.
The RAW, yet again, is broken. Fixing it requires another house rule.
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"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.
The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index
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