Anthony replied to me: > > So I'd like to write starships with a crew of three for a patrol > > craft, four for a destroyer, five or six for a cruiser, perhaps > > eight for a battleship or battlecruiser. No NPCs in the crew. 4E > > has no nuts-and-bolts design system yet, so I'm talking 3E here. > > Why is it necessary for a large ship to be the appropriate size for a > group of PCs? You just need *a* category of ship that's appropriate > scale for a group of PCs, and would commonly be found on independent > patrol. This can be done in various ways, one of the easiest is to tweak > the FTL assumptions.
Hello Anthony, on the one hand, a starship without NPC crewmen has many advantages for the GM. It would be difficult to strike a balance between those NPCs as spokespersons for the GM, and redshirts without their own opinions. On the other hand, if the PCs are running around in small ships and some NPCs command much bigger and more powerful ships, that limits the scope of adventures -- our heroes might be able to find the enemy, but then they have to wait for the cavalry, or resort to trickery. How many times can there be a conveniently placed thermal exhaust port? > Personally, if I were using the vehicle combat rules at all, I'd be > prone to having one ship per PC. That runs the risk of party separation, which can be awkward for the flow of the game. (It doesn't have to be a problem, but it can become one at times.) Regards, Onno _______________________________________________ GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
