OK, I asked elsewhere about the canonical book answer on this, but it doesn't really scratch my itch. So, I'll ask it a little differently:
If you break individual things on a small scale - the transponder (as part of the bridge allotment) is out for example, or the grav plates (life support) are skittish - how would you figure out how much they had to spend to get it fixed? It would seem intelligent to do the transponder as a % of the bridge cost, until it hit a certain point - where would you draw that line?
And, you guys have great ideas, so far. Keep 'em coming!
There are several components to that:
Skills of the character(s). Obviously one that is highly skilled can do repairs faster than one that isn't. A side issue is if you have a marginally skilled character fixing a system you increase the chances it breaks again sooner as the repair was botched to some extent. Even more fun is if you have say two or three characters that potentially can fix it. Have them start arguing over
how it should be done..... After all.... When you have several cooks and set out to make chicken soup you usually end up with some nasty chilli....
Difficulty of the repair. Is it just a swap out of a component... using your transponder example is the transponder a "black box" that unplugs and a new one gets plugged in or is it something the character has to crawl into a cramped space and then try and identify the problem among a mass of other circuitry?
Another nasty thing is that the broken component requires you remove like half a dozen other components that potentially could be damaged or broken taking them out and putting them back in order to get at the broken part itself.
Are the parts necessary available to do the repair? If not then the problem is largely moot. You just have to deal without that system somehow. I like to use the part cost as 1D6 x 10 to get the percentage of the total equipment cost as replacement parts if the system is to be repaired 1D6 x 20(%) + the original cost for the replacement of the entire system or component with a new one. The reason is that many components are going to be one-off or odd ball even in standard designs.
When you work on complex machinery that was manufactured even in mass production over a number of years things vary from year to year and even within a year. So, the local vendor may say "Yea, I can get you one of those but it has to ship in from the other side of the planet. It'll be 1D6 days getting here and you have to pay for the shipping..."
If the parts are not available a very skilled character may have an alternate jury rig, ad hoc, half @$$ed, backyard means of "fixing" the component at 2D6 more hours time than originally estimated (increase that as necessary). :devil:
If it is complex do you have the manual and drawings? Answer on some small Far Trader is probably NO! Without these you are likely to find it really, really hard to put the now disassembled hundred plus little bits back in the proper place even if you are fairly skilled. Raise the difficulty by one or two levels.
Lastly, do you have the proper tools? A player with a 5 gallon bucket containing a Multi tool, vice grips, a hammer, a roll of duct tape, some bailing wire, and a few tie wraps is going to have a really difficult time when he needs a 35mm wrench to take a bolt off with....
If there are alot of "no's" to the above the system is just :toast:
If all else fails they can follow the example of that cult classic: John Carpenter's
Dark Star and just go live in the food locker 'cause it is too much trouble to fix the berthing compartments....
