Hi Tom,
I have suddenly confused myself concerning the crew requirements for subordinate vehicles, aka ship's vehicles, like an ATV in both Book 2 and Book 5.
Book 2 77/81 page 23 lists ship's vehicles tons and MCr, while page 15 references Book 3 for the other details of crew requirements, passenger capacity, fuel capacity, and other items.
I'm not sure I understand you questions, but I'll try to answer you to the best of my knowledge and understanding:
I was trying to say that Book 2 identifies five vehicles from Book 3 providing their tons and MCr. To determine the crew, passenger, and other details the designer is sent to Book 3.
Would the crew requirements in Book 3 add to the crew requirements in Book 2 or can they be filled by the ship's crew?
As I understand it, in most cases yes, the crew of subordinate crafts is added to the ship's crew. As most small crafts have no long term acomodations, their crews need to be lodged somewhere, and that's the mother ship, so accomodations must be provided for them (e.g. fighters).
To me having dedicated crew for most vehicles and small craft makes zero sense. An ATV and other similar vehicles only need crews when they are in operation. In the Navy the crew that operated small boats assigned to get personnel around to different locations had other duties besides handling small boats. Heck, even though the boats, submarines for clarification, didn't carry vans ship's crew members on their duty day where assigned to drive the van in addition to their normal duties.
The AFV will probably have a dedicated crew if part of a military, mercenary, or semi-military unit. However, an AFV picked up as surplus by a ship probably won't have a dedicated crew.
Most small craft, except specialized ones like fighters, do not need a dedicated crew. They do need personnel with the appropriate skill sets. Even a fighter if not part of a military or semi-military unit may only need a body who has the needed skill set.
On the other hand a launch, in my opinion and again my Navy experience, does not need a dedicated pilot and/or second crew member, some of the ship's crew will or should have the skill set needed to operate the craft.
Besides Book 2 p. 16 states that one person can fill two crew positions. Of course being the driver for an ATV, in my opinion, is not a crew position of a starship, spacecraft or small craft.
See that HG2 page 33, under flight crew, says that it includes the crew of the crafts plus one additional crewmember per craft (I understand it's maintenance), aside from the flight officer.
Book 5 HG 2 1980 is geared towards the hulls for primarily military use and makes sense to have dedicated small craft and maintenance types. However, Book 2 1977/1981, at least in my opinion, covers primarily non-military designs. Of course small semi-military and military hulls may also be built in Book 2.
As per vehicles, it talks about the crew of the vehicles plus one maintenance crewmember per 3 vehicles, if more tan 3 are carried (if less tan 3, I guess they can be crewed by any crewmwmber, as in many Bk2 ships subcrafts are.
Each small craft, per Book 5 HG 2 1980 p. 33, requires at least the pilot and one maintenance. My understanding, which seems to be supported by recreating several official designs, is that someone is designated as the Flight Control Officer but is not an additional crew member.
Vehicles on the other hand, again from several recreations, appear to need one driver and one mechanic per 3 vehicles.
If the subordinate crafts have their own accomodations, I understand they don't need them on the mother ship (e.g. Battle Riders).
IIRC, a battle rider is a hull >99 tons and per Book 5 HG 2 1980 is defined as a big craft. As such the battle rider is an independent spaceship or starship which needs to meet the design system requirements.
It does not say 1 driver and 1 mechanic per 3 vehicles, but drivers and maintenance personnel for them (at least one per 3 vehicles). As I understand it (I concede it's not clear), the bold part only applies to the maintenance personnel, not to the drives (if you have less drivers than vehicles, you cannot use them).
Mechanics, as a general term perform maintenance and repairs on a vehicle which in my opinion qualifies as maintenance personnel. My apologies for not quoting the rule exactly as written.
On a ship with two all terrain vehicles and air/raft by Book 5 HG 2 1980 requires dedicated drivers and one mechanic/maintenance personnel. That does not make sense to me at all. Especially, when characters have multiple skills and can therefore do more than one job. Vehicle maintenance personnel/mechanics can have the skill set needed to drive vehicles.
This asside, I'd say yes, you need those crewmwmbers even on ships under 1000 dtons (at least if you want those vehicles to be opperative).
As said above, I think so.
The crew requirements for subordinate vehicles and small craft from both Book 2 and Book 5, even with your help, are still not clear to me.
Again thanks for the time taken in trying to straighten me out.
