This thread is about crew requirements, but a little background first.
I'm building a very nonstandard Traveller universe (Nova Roma) set in 2175 or so. I'm using MgT, but I realize that there's a fair amount of overlap between what I'm doing and with T2300.
In early-stellar Nova Roma, all ships are military (Navy), though transports for colonists and trade follow very quickly. They're all government chartered, though, and only the biggest corporations can play.
Starships do not jump. They travel via sungates (a la Sundiver) that seem to have been constructed by an (absent?) advanced intelligence an indeterminant number of years ago. The sungate is basically a wormhole between two systems and the travel is instantaneous, but then the climb out of the star's gravity well to a planet takes more time. This is done through a kind of stutterwarp via what is called a hackdrive, which allows for high-speed, momentumless travel in normal space. It's very fast, but it is not FTL.
In a brand new system, a starship doesn't have a way to leave. The science team must use modern astronomy and probes to find the location of any sungates in the system's star. This takes 3d6-3 months. The starship carries a nuclear fission plant (usually two, in case one fails) and doesn't need to refuel often. However, it does need to refill the ammonia coolant it needs for travel, which it can do at many planets.
The typical Aquila-class starship is 500 dT. It has a crew of 50 plus bunks for 50 mission passengers. This is typically the ONLY ship sent to a new world to colonize it. It carries military personnel like Marines, but also several science teams and a diplomatic team.
So far, Nova Roma has discovered that most of the systems it visits have Earthlike, habitable planets with humanlike inhabitants. Most of these cultures are low-TL (1-5) with occasional exceptions. Naturally, scientists suspect some kind of "world seeding" by the creator of the sungates.
The starship needs to study a system from afar, determine threat potential, infiltrate the society with spies, learn as much as possible including languages, and then make first contact. The team then welcomes the world into the Nova Roman empire, with some rules and expectations, and a colonization and economic plan. Hostile worlds receive a show of force from orbit.
I looked at modern submarines. Did you know that the fast attacks and fleet ballistic missile subs displace 7,200 tons and 18,750 tons, respectively? Are we supposed to be comparing these to our starships, cuz holy crap.
U.S. Navy subs run three shifts. Basically, everything in Engineering (power, drive, repair), Weapons (weapons, sensors, shields), Operations (astrogation, communication), and Supply (steward, broker) needs three sets of crew. I assume the Executive (pilot, XO, etc.) does, too.
I don't have the stats in front of me at the moment, but I believe I left room for 30 Marines for a ground force, 10 or so on the science and medical team, 10 or so on the diplomatic team, and the remaining 50 for the crew (16 per shift, plus the XO and Captain).
It was interesting creating the deck plan for the ship, since I needed to jam all those bunks in there. I ended up giving the captain a double stateroom, giving officers normal staterooms, and packing other crew into double-occupancy space in several large rooms (assume bunks). I added a small mess area that can seat a fraction of the crew at a time, and an adjoining kitchen (assume refrigeration and food is kept in the floor, mostly).
I tried to plan for traffic flow. 100 people on a 500-dT starship is pretty cramped.
Things I didn't do well: I didn't draw in toilets or showers. I added stairs at the last minute and they're too small. There's not really a rec room or workout room or laundry, and there ought to be. The bridge, built according to the rules, felt unnecessarily large.
I'll share specs and plans at some point.
I'm building a very nonstandard Traveller universe (Nova Roma) set in 2175 or so. I'm using MgT, but I realize that there's a fair amount of overlap between what I'm doing and with T2300.
In early-stellar Nova Roma, all ships are military (Navy), though transports for colonists and trade follow very quickly. They're all government chartered, though, and only the biggest corporations can play.
Starships do not jump. They travel via sungates (a la Sundiver) that seem to have been constructed by an (absent?) advanced intelligence an indeterminant number of years ago. The sungate is basically a wormhole between two systems and the travel is instantaneous, but then the climb out of the star's gravity well to a planet takes more time. This is done through a kind of stutterwarp via what is called a hackdrive, which allows for high-speed, momentumless travel in normal space. It's very fast, but it is not FTL.
In a brand new system, a starship doesn't have a way to leave. The science team must use modern astronomy and probes to find the location of any sungates in the system's star. This takes 3d6-3 months. The starship carries a nuclear fission plant (usually two, in case one fails) and doesn't need to refuel often. However, it does need to refill the ammonia coolant it needs for travel, which it can do at many planets.
The typical Aquila-class starship is 500 dT. It has a crew of 50 plus bunks for 50 mission passengers. This is typically the ONLY ship sent to a new world to colonize it. It carries military personnel like Marines, but also several science teams and a diplomatic team.
So far, Nova Roma has discovered that most of the systems it visits have Earthlike, habitable planets with humanlike inhabitants. Most of these cultures are low-TL (1-5) with occasional exceptions. Naturally, scientists suspect some kind of "world seeding" by the creator of the sungates.
The starship needs to study a system from afar, determine threat potential, infiltrate the society with spies, learn as much as possible including languages, and then make first contact. The team then welcomes the world into the Nova Roman empire, with some rules and expectations, and a colonization and economic plan. Hostile worlds receive a show of force from orbit.
I looked at modern submarines. Did you know that the fast attacks and fleet ballistic missile subs displace 7,200 tons and 18,750 tons, respectively? Are we supposed to be comparing these to our starships, cuz holy crap.
U.S. Navy subs run three shifts. Basically, everything in Engineering (power, drive, repair), Weapons (weapons, sensors, shields), Operations (astrogation, communication), and Supply (steward, broker) needs three sets of crew. I assume the Executive (pilot, XO, etc.) does, too.
I don't have the stats in front of me at the moment, but I believe I left room for 30 Marines for a ground force, 10 or so on the science and medical team, 10 or so on the diplomatic team, and the remaining 50 for the crew (16 per shift, plus the XO and Captain).
It was interesting creating the deck plan for the ship, since I needed to jam all those bunks in there. I ended up giving the captain a double stateroom, giving officers normal staterooms, and packing other crew into double-occupancy space in several large rooms (assume bunks). I added a small mess area that can seat a fraction of the crew at a time, and an adjoining kitchen (assume refrigeration and food is kept in the floor, mostly).
I tried to plan for traffic flow. 100 people on a 500-dT starship is pretty cramped.
Things I didn't do well: I didn't draw in toilets or showers. I added stairs at the last minute and they're too small. There's not really a rec room or workout room or laundry, and there ought to be. The bridge, built according to the rules, felt unnecessarily large.
I'll share specs and plans at some point.
