Enoki
SOC-14 1K
I have also been giving this some thought. Another mundane topic but one that would be important to the crew in real life.
Anyway, a typical ship is going to have to stock a pretty substancial amount of meals aboard for a typical jump cycle, if not more. How often replenishment would occur would I think depend on where you jump into... what system that is.
On at least human manned ships I would think the norm would be to stock meals similar to airline food or military MREs where all you do is heat and serve. These might be a bit more bulk items like large trays that serve 10, 20 or more people with several used each containing one meal component. Some fresh food would likely be available too along with refrigerated goods.
But, if you had to stock say, 30 days worth of food aboard this could quickly amount to literally thousands of meals even on a relatively small ship. For example a small freighter or trader with say, a crew of 5 and 20 passengers would require 75 meals per day (assuming 3 each) or 2250 for 30 days, maybe a bit more for waste and such. 2300 "MRE's" takes up a bit of space and would cost a fair amount of money. Higher quality food would raise the price too.
Then there is the problem of replenishing the supply. This likely would be no problem at an A or B starport, maybe even a C. But tech level would play a role too. A low tech world probably won't have the "MRE" available. They might have canned and jarred items, some preserved things but, much of what would be available would be simple bulk fresh food items. These could take up more space and would take greater skill (steward skill levels or equivalent) to prepare than something you simply heat and serve.
So, you could find yourself having food issues jumping into say a tech level 4 would with a class D or E starport.
The other thing would be the population present. Jumping into a world with just thousands of people might result in you finding there isn't enough food on the market available period to meet your bulk requirements for another jump.
Now, on larger ships there might be gardens, livestock pens, etc., available for producing some food on board. I doubt some how that with the general tech levels as given in Traveller that something like Star Trek's replicator is available nor would there be much you could practically do to reprocess waste into food.
Then there are the other races: Vagar, Aslan, etc. Their food needs would change the dynamic considerably. Do these prefer fresh food, particularly meat? The food choices might also dictate how much (more or less meals per day, calorie intake etc., ) food had to be carried.
Lastly, you have to consider the cost. A player operating a freigher or passenger ship would have to consider what the cost of food for the crew and passengers would be. Obviously, a high passage passenger would expect better than a mid passage one would. The crew might not accept minimal quality food either particularly if it were the norm.
Some things to think about
Anyway, a typical ship is going to have to stock a pretty substancial amount of meals aboard for a typical jump cycle, if not more. How often replenishment would occur would I think depend on where you jump into... what system that is.
On at least human manned ships I would think the norm would be to stock meals similar to airline food or military MREs where all you do is heat and serve. These might be a bit more bulk items like large trays that serve 10, 20 or more people with several used each containing one meal component. Some fresh food would likely be available too along with refrigerated goods.
But, if you had to stock say, 30 days worth of food aboard this could quickly amount to literally thousands of meals even on a relatively small ship. For example a small freighter or trader with say, a crew of 5 and 20 passengers would require 75 meals per day (assuming 3 each) or 2250 for 30 days, maybe a bit more for waste and such. 2300 "MRE's" takes up a bit of space and would cost a fair amount of money. Higher quality food would raise the price too.
Then there is the problem of replenishing the supply. This likely would be no problem at an A or B starport, maybe even a C. But tech level would play a role too. A low tech world probably won't have the "MRE" available. They might have canned and jarred items, some preserved things but, much of what would be available would be simple bulk fresh food items. These could take up more space and would take greater skill (steward skill levels or equivalent) to prepare than something you simply heat and serve.
So, you could find yourself having food issues jumping into say a tech level 4 would with a class D or E starport.
The other thing would be the population present. Jumping into a world with just thousands of people might result in you finding there isn't enough food on the market available period to meet your bulk requirements for another jump.
Now, on larger ships there might be gardens, livestock pens, etc., available for producing some food on board. I doubt some how that with the general tech levels as given in Traveller that something like Star Trek's replicator is available nor would there be much you could practically do to reprocess waste into food.
Then there are the other races: Vagar, Aslan, etc. Their food needs would change the dynamic considerably. Do these prefer fresh food, particularly meat? The food choices might also dictate how much (more or less meals per day, calorie intake etc., ) food had to be carried.
Lastly, you have to consider the cost. A player operating a freigher or passenger ship would have to consider what the cost of food for the crew and passengers would be. Obviously, a high passage passenger would expect better than a mid passage one would. The crew might not accept minimal quality food either particularly if it were the norm.
Some things to think about
o:
