How to read discriptions.

[Lancil]

So, when reading a ships description in a book and it says: crew 8, gunners: 2, skeleton: 2/+5. What exactly does this mean?

Does it mean that to run efficiently it needs 8 people. But to man the guns you need 2 more, or is it implied that the 2 required gunners are part of the 8 crew?

And I assume that skeleton: 2/+5 means that the ship can be run by 2 people with a +5 to all difficulties. If this is the case, then what happens if you have more than 2 but less than 8?

[Naaman]

You are correct about the skeleton crew. As for using more than a skeleton crew, I would just divide the difficulty increase by the difference between full crew and skeleton crew, and subtract the quotient times the number of crew above skeleton from the difficulty, rounding to the nearest whole number.

[Naaman]

As for the gunners, take a look at some smaller ships that you alredy know the numbers for, and see if it includes gunners with crew. For example, the x-wing has a crew of 1. Does it also say you need 1 gunner? If it does, we can assume that the gunners are included in the number of crew. Alternatively, are there any ships that require more gunners than crew? If so, we can deduce that gunners are not included in the entry for "crew."

Note that I am not suggesting using two different methods to determine these numbers. Try both, develop a conclusion as to whixh is the correct interpretation, and apply that to all ships.

[jmanski]

Or... you could just answer the question.

Gunners is separate from crew.
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Blasted rules. Why can't they just be perfect?

[Bren]

Gunners and Crew are separate. Your assumption on skeleton crew are correct. The rules don't tell you what happens for crew numbers between 8 and 2. Some decrease in the difficulty modifier seems reasonable.

[garhkal]

Agreed with Bren. Gunners are listed separately from crew.
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[Lancil]

Thanks for the good info guys

[Naaman]

[garhkal]

Crew: The standard crew complement of the vehicle,
followed by the gunners (in addition to the
crew). The "skeleton" lists the minimum number
needed to fly the vehicle, as well as the penalty added
to all piloting difficulty numbers because of the skeleton
crew.

Straight out of the R&E rule book, page 241
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[vanir]

You could increase detail depending how complex your GM style is, extrapolating that the full crew listing is the number of crew required for full combat operations and manouevres without penalty.

Although not detailed in RAW, this would infer that larger vessels such as cruisers would normally operate on the skeleton crew in shifts, the full crew listing is a maximum which is used only at General Quarters, ie. during combat or encounters or landing cycles, but just cruising through space/hyperspace, the crew are rotated in shifts for rest and recreation and so the vessel normally functions at the skeleton crew and difficulties if engaged in a random, unforseen encounter, until General Quarters is sounded and all stations are manned. This might take 2rds to few minutes depending on the size of the craft.

Any planned encounters however, such as arriving at a destination or planned rendezvous, the ship would already be at General Quarters.

I use this idea particular when doing things like rebel starfighter strikes when the Party has the element of surprise and the target is normal running in deep space. A handful of X-Wings can do tremendous damage against sizeable forces, using hit and run tactics because of how complicated capital ships are to run and the time it takes for them to adapt to a changing situation.