On Mon, 10 Sep 2012, Anthony Jackson wrote:
There are basically four viable sizes for ships in RPGs.
Option one is 'everybody gets a ship'. The virtue is that it's probably the
most interesting for ship to ship combat, as it means everyone actually has
something to do.
Option two is the ship that can be crewed entirely by the PCs.
Option three is the ship where the PCs are the command staff, their actions
pretty well determine the fate of the ship, and everyone else is basically
background color (the Star Trek model).
Option four is the ship-as-setting, where the ship basically functions like a
city that's a home base for the PCs.
Option one is mostly used for fighters and mecha, and tends towards
ships-as-characters, since otherwise you have a whole bunch of identical
units.
Option three doesn't work too well in GURPS, as it requires a fair amount of
suspension of disbelief (why is the command staff going off by themselves
when they have a hundred redshirts available?) and isn't generally how the
tech assumptions in GURPS work (you don't have lots of crew unless you
actually need lots of crew).
Option four generally only needs the stats of ships as a plot device.
As such, option 2 is the one where GURPS style ship stats are the most
useful.
Option 3 can be made more viable by the social background. A Klingon or
samurai inspired navy, might require it's command officers to go on away
missions, because otherwise they loose face in front of their crew and
thus the ability to command.
A more Star Treck Federation inspired background might have it as common
occurance that officers are court martialed because redshirts have been
hurt in away missions and all the mission parameters such as how many
redshirts have been sent, what equipment did they get will be intensivly
questioned. If "look i have gone on the mission myself, so it's safe to
assume that i was not reckless in planning it" is considered a get out of
jail card there, it might become SOP, that everyone involved in planning
the away mission and deciding on making it, will come along.
That's both not default background though.
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