Crew compliment breakdown question ...

[djg_p]

Hello all,

I believe that the following has been in an earlier conversation thread, but for the life of me I can not find it. So please forgive me if I now cover ground that has been already covered.

As a hobby, I'm slowly developing a TNE campaign that have embedded scenarios. As part of this, I have also developed some of the craft that is planned to be used in this campaign. Use the process(es) from FFS, crew numbers in each of the main categories have been produced.

The question is this: How are each of these main categoey numbers broken down? By way of actual example, I have a 1000dt vessel with the following crew compliment breakdown as follows:- Total Crew: 36 (Engineering: 12, Electronics: 3, Manoeuvre: 2, Gunnery: 10, Maintenance: 2, Command: 5, Stewards: 1 and Medical: 1).

Looking at the Engineering Staff of 12: Yes they are engineers, but A) What would their specialties be, B) What internal command structure would they have within the Engineering Dept?

Looking at the Command Staff of 5: There would be a Captain and an immediate second. Yes, I agree with this. But what about the other 3? Who would they be? (Command Bridge Runners?)

Also by saying this, this is the complete compliment of crew. How would a craft operate with the crew operating say a 24hr rotation duty roster of 8x8x8 hours each? This then would follow that only 12 crew members would be operating this 1000dt craft under normal operating conditions. That this one step further, how does the craft operate when one member of the Manoeuvring Crew (STL pilot for example) is away from his/her post when required (eg: Asleep)?

Would a standard crew need the requirement of being multi-talented of being able to cover other people's duty requirements when they are not at station?

Any comments and other views on this topic I would be very interested in receiving.

Cheers,

DJG_P

 

[PBI]

On the shift sched, it would most likely be 4 watches of 6 hrs each, thus allowing people some variety. Also, not everyone would be standing watch when not on alert, so most likely the ship would be running watches with, at most, 50% of the crew on duty.

I'm also assuming the command section would include the navigator and communications officer and/or the weapons officer in addition to the CO and XO.

As for the maneouvre crew, I'd imagine the command staff could double up for routine duties, requiring the pilots only for things like jump or combat.

 

[PBI]

Oh, to amend my previous post, they might have an 8 on, 16 off sched for normal duty and a 6 on 12 off for alerts or something similar.

 

[Badbru]

DJG_P The formula for Command Crew is total crew (more or less) divided by six. Therefore I allways took this into consideration when thinking about how ships opperate. For example your 1000 tonner has 12 Engineering crew so therefor Two of your Command staff of 5 are Engineering Command officers. I'd call one the Chief Engineer and the other the engineering dept deck officer or something like that. You're ships gunnery crew totals ten so another of your 5 Command crew is due to having more than six gunner's, thus this Command officer would be something like the ships Weapons officer, and act like a Fire controler monitoring sensor locks and handoff's from his/her bridge workstation and allocating targets to gunners etc. Now the other two Command officers are the ships Captain and the ships First officer who probably doubles as the ships Executive officer though this might go to your weapons officer as that officer's primary responsibility will only be required during Drill training and actual battles etc.
As for running scheduals of who's ondeck/on duty at any given time this wont matter much in jump space (one or perhaps two bridge officers and one or perhaps two engineers monitoring.) The real tricky bit is normal space. Most merchants will just run from the world to the 100D pretty much all crew should be able to stand watch during that time it's at most a 24hr watch twice a week.Or more rather once at the start of the week in Jump and once at the end of it.
Your 1000DT ship sounds like a warship though, and for these not having spare crew so multiple watch's during system patrol's can be achieved allways seemed to be a flaw in the design sequence to me. Then again what is a warship on insystem patrol doing? Mostly it's either just sitting in orbit of a world or gas giant showing the flag and keeping sensor watch. Just need an electronics officer and a few engineers keeping an eye on the powerplant for that. Or, it's transiting from one world to another (insystem transfer)Once your course is set you can stand down maneuver personel again just need sensors & comms monitored and powerplant monitored and an officer in charge. Any of the five could do that for four hours on and twenty off.
Or, third option, it's in battle. In which case it's "Battle Stations All hands on deck!"
Just a few of my thought's and IMTU ways is all.

 

[Straybow]

Most merchants would not even have 3 full shifts of crew. During jump crew sit watch. Basically, stay awake on post just in case a warning light comes on or some such, keep passengers out of restricted areas, etc. You may have gunners, stewards, and other non-rated crew to sit watches rather than higher priced crew.

Acceleration out to jump point will not always take longer than one watch. If it does take a little more than 8 hrs they'll just rotate out in the middle hours for a break.

If grounded, only a skeleton watch is necessary unless you expect trouble. Then you're on alert status anyway.

The only time you would really need a full crew rotation schedule is in orbit, when you need to pay attention and be prepared to maneuver. Some ships would not normally land but use shuttles to carry cargos to and fro.