A newbie with a problem...

[Gadrin]

Probably I didn't explain myself very well. This is the main
frame for the idea:

1. Locate a stranded ship, forgotten and lost ships possibly from some war or just ships
with problems who made a mayday signal.

okay, I'm not sure how many you can find in a given time-frame. you might have to
decide (as a GM) how much they're worth and just why all these derelicts are floating
around for people to find (how much you plan to give the players and how come no one
else finds them). Also a decent backstory for each ship, what happened ?

2. Board the ship probably with a pinnace or a similar ship large enough to carry
the PCs (they are going to be able to pilot the ship for themselves) and the materials for
a quick fixing if needed.

sounds right.

3. Check the ship state, if it's good enough for making a jump as far as I know
making different jumps should be a non-sense because all the problems you could have! (I
mean, if you have a misjump at least you still have a ship to sell and make some
profit!)

sounds right.

4. If the ship drives are out of service beyond repairing the main ship should tow
it to the nearest starport (not necessarily jumping). That way they could sell the still
working parts of the ship in a scrapyard (is that the word?).

usually "towing" is performed by ships designed to do that, so you might have to give the
players a modified "tugboat" or something, if you want them to do this right off the bat.
it's not like a car where you tow something with a chain.

I think GURPS Far Trader or GURPS Starports has a tug ship in it.

Is it a very...strange idea?

no, you just have to have a reason why all these ships are laying around, if you plan on
doing this every week or something.

I was developing some reasons for Salvage adventures, so that it looks like the pcs aren't finding something to do, when they stumble across an adventure that leads to a salvage operation.

P.S.: Keep in mind that I have some problems with English, therefore maybe I didn't
choose the right words for my thoughts!

you're fine.

 

[Drakon]

Reasons for a derilick ship:
1) Piracy. Pirates looted the cargo, killed the crew, did not need, nor could not pilot/repair the ship with what they brought with them, so they cut it adrift in space.
2) life support failure: kills crew, leaves ship intact.
3) Battle damage: Leftovers of war or major battle. Note that military vessels are recovered by the either the original government owners, or the victors of said combat. And really don't like strangers going over any classified systems.
4) Marie Celeste: The ship is perfectly operational, food still on table, no reason is apparent as to why they all left. Either the shuttles are gone, or spacesuits. Or not. Leave it as a mystery. This could be good as authorities would automatically have to check in and question the salvage crew, to make sure they did not just kill the former crew and space the bodies.

And what do you do if, say you come across an aparent derilick and there is a single crewman left aboard? Do you help him (either for a fee or not) or simply shoot him and take over the ship.

Your English is far better than my Spanish.

 

[NightRaven]

I have seen a few problems with the campaign. First of all, the PCs need to be part of a larger company, probably a familiar business, so their profit will never be too high, I mean, if you have a 40MCr worth ship and you sell it for, let's say, 20MCr or just 10 MCr if you divide profits between five or six PCs, after the second ship they'll probably stop adventuring! (of course, that's being reasonable...an advantage who is nearly forbidden for the adventuring life ). So they'll receive a payment plus a 10% of the profit.

Second. Ok, maybe the galaxy could be full of ships in that state but the PCs will have to maintain certain conecctions with the Imperials, Scouts and some Megacorporations if they want to know about some of them! Others could be famous "ghost ships" or battleships lost in any frontier war. The rest of time they are suppouse to be doing two different things: working as towers (is that the word???) at a starport, not as a private business, not selling the ships, just towing spaceships with problems (like towing trucks in reality) or doing a different job at a spaceport. They could be anything!!

Of course, every gossip not has to be real! They could travel to a distant system, a even more distant planet just to find that the "famous ship that crash landed" there never existed!! The plot around those things could bring the PCs to another kind of adventures. Probably looking the inexistent ship.

And thanks Gadrin, you were right, in Far Trader I found the 800-ton Tug (TL 10), with a few modifications will be perfect for the campaign!

And, of course, my players will gladly bring more problems into account... they are the best doing such things! :rofl:

Thanks for the help!!!

 

[Arthur Denger]

Probably I didn't explain myself very well. This is the main
frame for the idea:

1. Locate a stranded ship, forgotten and lost ships possibly from some war or just ships
with problems who made a mayday signal.

okay, I'm not sure how many you can find in a given time-frame. you might have to
decide (as a GM) how much they're worth and just why all these derelicts are floating
around for people to find (how much you plan to give the players and how come no one
else finds them). Also a decent backstory for each ship, what happened ?

This sounds like the perfect premise for a private company/corporation, perhaps even a small one (with a single ship) and an investor with enough venture capitlal to finance it! Certainly it would be a niche market, but maybe the salvage company works under contract for the Scout Service, which surely has records of reported wrecked and derelict starships and other major space-going vessels. The Imperial Navy would also keep detailed records of its own wrecks, as well as those enemy vessels disabled by fleet action.

As an example, perhaps one such vessel had misjumped, and is now on a highly elliptical orbit and usually too remote and costly to be salvaged, but it is now approaching the perigee of its 300-year orbit, and might be able to be reached.... Others wrecks might be found on planets which are amber (or red) zone classified, or are (again) resting in such a remote location that retrieval by the original owner is prohibitively dangerous or costly.

In the far future, there must be multitudes of such wrecks scattered throughout Known Space. Many would probably be found in and around war zones, such as the Spinward Marches, or on either side of the Frontier. The key, it would seem, would be to make retrieval sufficiently difficult that the average Free Trader or Belter would not have already filed a salvage claim upon them.

 

[Gadrin]

for another RPG I had Triple R Salvage, with one of the founders an ex-naval captain who had a decent reputation (salvaged an important enemy scout ship as well as numerous salvage ops under his belt like go in after a battle and find something).

he was given startup capital after mustering out by an Insurance firm, who of course insures starships. They pretty much have a long list of MIAs. They also do things like research ebay ops where 2nd hand equipment can be traced by serial number to the ship it was installed on (all the stuff the PCs would find boring). The pcs get tapped to do the actual salvage, or to spice it up you can have them do the finding -- an investigator tags along and ends up drawing them into a salvage mystery.)

I have a couple of others I'm doing writeups for.

 

[The Thing]

I don't think the idea of finding derelict ships is too implausible for a serious game in traveller. After all, people have been building and using spacecraft in the traveller universe, at least the classic timeframe, for thousands and thousands of years if you count the vilani phase of history, and in that time more than a few ships have likely been lost to various mishaps.

As to finding one in great condition, loaded with treasure and neat weapons just ready to go, well, that's stretching credibility, but finding one that could be salvaged and made serviceable isn't.

I could see finding a 'treasure ship" that was taken by pirates and hidden away to await their return that was never claimed because the pirates ran into unforeseen problems, but that would be a rare event. Maybe one could come across some first imperium vessels abandoned by their crews or even stockpiled in a site to await a call to rise up against the terran invaders that never came, but they'de be obsolete and need a lot of servicing.

 

[Gadrin]

oh no I wasn't bagging on the guy's ideas, just pointing there's a few things to consider.

I think either Ahzanti High Lightning book or game offers a few scenarios where it's floating dead in space. We played that scenario back in the 80's (went 2 days straight thru) and it was a lot of fun -- exploring a lost ship.

 

[BlackBat242]

Other than in an active combat zone, almost every military contracts out for salvage and towing services... the USN had only 6 specialized salvage vessels at the height of the Cold War... when the fleet was at over 800 combat vessels over 2,000 tons.

They did have some 75-100 tugs, but nearly all were in actual use for routine duties.

A great example is the USS Cole... a Norwegian heavy-lift ship was chartered to bring her back from Aden.



So, a Salvage & Towing company, especially one with a contract with both the Scout Service and the Imperial Navy, and with a jump-capable tug, could do well in the right area.