Merchant crew sizes

[Brian Smaller]

Whenever I try to make a merchant ship, especially a big one, using High Guard I find that the crew just seems way too big. I tend to ignore the official calculations and go with what feels right. If the Nostromo were built using High Guard there would be about two hundred crew.

 

[BlackBat242]

High Guard is primarily for Naval (military) vessels.

Naval manning standards require that the ship can be operated effectively with up to 50% casualties - and this includes having some crew working damage-control instead of their primary duty - so the crew total is closer to 3x what a merchant ship of the same size would require.

And that is just for engineering/maintenance & pilot/nav crew - the same 2-3x rule also applies for small craft flight/maintenance crew, etc. (except that a merchant likely has no dedicated small craft personnel, with those crew actually being engineering/pilot/nav etc crew that can be spared when on the ground or docked at a high-port).

Remember that merchant ships normally have a lot more crew filling more than one slot in order to save on salary and life-support.

 

[Condottiere]

Going by modern standards, crewing only matters if labour costs are a significant cost factor.

Automation, where possible. Robots and drones neither breathe nor eat, nor unionise.

 

[martletsquire]

Like modern sea-faring cargo ships, most of the non-engineering work is done when docking or undocking. In between, merchant ship crews are "not busy" (in comparison).

Yeah, cargo handlers are supposed to check on the cargo, bridge crew are supposed to have a standing watch on the bridge, etc., but these tasks tend to be minimally crewed at non-essential times.

So, apply this to your Merchant Vessel, and you only need a large crew if you are doing wilderness or minimally equipped field or port calls. Otherwise, the ship, pretty much no matter what size, needs a person/droid/computer program at:

Pilot (can also be navigator)
Navigator
Engineer (varies by tonnage, go with minimal levels)
Gunner (by battery)(can be replaced by auto-fire programs)
Steward (or Gunner/Steward) if carrying passengers or the captain wants one)
Medic (if carrying low berths or high passengers)

Cargo handlers, service engineers, fueling techs, cleaning/service personnel can all be used temporarily at port, so there is no need for dedicated personnel to be carried, except for convenience sake, or clan security or whatever weird reason one may have.

It would be nice to have a dedicated Comm or Computer crew, but that ain't needed for the most part either.

This will cut your crew number down drastically. Cut to the minimal, and add positions as you see fit.

Now, your big premier ships, such as the space version of the Titanic, would probably crew more to the military numbers in bridge (with separate comm, comp and sensor crew,) flight and service (non-steward duties like cleaning and basic maintenance), and a heavy level of sfewards. Of course, ships like this will charge more for passage than a standard ship, most likely.

 

[Spinward Scout]

If the Nostromo were built using High Guard there would be about two hundred crew.

The Nostromo was only a towing vessel. It was towing an unmanned refinery in the movie. The Nostromo itself wasn't that big. 800 ft. long by 500 ft. wide - I'd say more like 40 crew in Traveller terms.

From Xenopedia, the AvP wiki, for all things ALIEN.

"This is commercial towing vehicle Nostromo out of the Solomons, registration number one-eight-oh-niner-two-four-six-oh-niner."
―Ripley (from Alien)

The Nostromo operated as a tug, connecting to and pulling loads like a tractor truck rather than carrying those loads on board like a traditional freighter.

 

[Selandia]

T5 is better than HG/LBB2 in for crewing requirement.

HG crewing iis "if your crew is too small to win the battle you die" LBB crewing is "if your crew is too big to make a profit you die". I never used HG for merchant ships.

The weakness of LBB is the issue of Watch keeping. You need two pilots

Pilot:
a) Once you cleared orbit, (to be understood as constricted water, not as a balistic trajectory) you may be going to jump on auto pilot, but safety would require two pilots, so that you always have a qualified person at the helms, (and that not only to enter new datas in the auto pilot but to interpret properly the overall situation and apply properly the rules of the road)

b) once you are in jump space, you do not need a pilot or a Navigator

Navigator
Once its navigation job is over, he do not need to be on bridge, only to be available if needed. This is a required position with little to do and most likely picked by people that also picked Pilot. So, while navigator is the skill, Pilot/Navigator is the position on every free trader I ever gamed.

Engineer
Enginiring always function. Life support and power plant at all time, while manoeuver and jump in alternance.

Gunnery
Out of jump only

Steward and medic:
Medic are on call.
Depending on advertized services and actual standards, Steward may be day work, on call, or on larger ship, a night steward with one or more day steward.

Security, not mentionned in LBB, anti-hijacking is all timee in effect.

Ultimately it is about having enough person to effectively organise a crewing bill Under

a) starport condition
b) manoeuver,normal condition, constricted space/docking/jumping
c) manoeuver,normal condition, open space cruising, Watch keeping
d) General Battle station,
e) Boarding/hijacking station
d) Jump

Under LBB, given the high level of automation expected, you may operate your freetrader with most crew stations manned on day work/on call for emergency. Only piloting require two Watch keepers during condition C. Once in jumps, the pilot/navigator, the medic/guner and the pilot could alternate on bridge to stand by the alarms and call the required help. Steward will nurse the passengers and engineer will have some routine check and maintenance -might even be repairs- to perform (even if most work is done in harbor, he may as well be usefull since his presence is required)

Of course, the medic been associated with damage control at battle stations, it would be more usefull if the steward is filling for medic.

have fun

Selandia

 

[Patron Zero]

IMTU, I've had drones-droids supplement crews on starships, in particular such my PCs operated, mind that works best for maintenance and routine operations and not combat situations other than damage control.

The chief engineer would oversee the 'critical' functions of the vessel aided by two or three drones specifically equipped and programed for day-to-day tasks as well as rescue-fire fighting duties if so needed.

Simple jobs as housekeeping and meal preparation were seen to by droids capable of limited interaction to voice-commands, more-so operating autonomously to programed schedules or responding to 'on-call' requests.

A cargo hauler could have drones-droids assist in loading-unloading duties if such units were able to access standard power-loaders that are modified to allow for robot 'drivers'.

I find drones-droids most useful on ships operating no-frills transport, again in roles of housekeeping and other passenger needs. Some passengers may even have their own robotic valets but likely not a common occurrence.

 

[salochin999]

Whenever I try to make a merchant ship, especially a big one, using High Guard I find that the crew just seems way too big. I tend to ignore the official calculations and go with what feels right. If the Nostromo were built using High Guard there would be about two hundred crew.

I treat pure freighters (no passengers) differently and say the functional size of the ship doesn't include the cargo hold.

quick LBB example:

5000 dtons
W drives (215) (J1M1)
bridge/computer (105)
fuel (510)
15 x SR (60)
ship's boat (30)
total (920)
cargo 4080

so for crew purposes the ship would count as 920 dtons rather than 5000

7 engineers/maintenance
pilot/navigator/medic

although I add 1 extra crew per nominal 1000 dtons as well from
captain
first officer
chief engineer
sensors/comms
security officer
broker
etc

so 15 crew in total which feels right (in movie terms) for the crews of plain freighters.

#

edit: naval and passenger ships on the other have lots of redundancy built-in as a fail-safe

 

[martletsquire]

Look at the cruise ship industry. There are whole cleaning and replenishment crews that scour and reset the ship in the minimal time that it is in port. Food, fuel, cargo, passengers, complete turnover of every cabin, servicing of all restaurants and pools, restocking of all shops. Takes place in about 4-6 hours max.

Now apply that to your interstellar ship, and the only crew you need are actual flight, engineering and crew/passenger service (stewards, medics, gunners etc.)

IMTU ships can call once they jump in to contract for cleaning and replenishment services, if they don't have a longstanding contract already in place. Makes for some fun time when the crew stands a subtle and quiet armed watch over the local-yokels servicing the ship.

 

[Shadowrunner]

IMTU I allow droids to fill crew positions and it's assumed that many ratings have dual role, e.g. gunner/steward or security/flight etc. Also I tend to design ships with TL14/15 computers, reducing the total crew required. Where a ship might have several small craft, I might only add 2 flight crew and in Star Trek tradition, have officers and key characters do the excursions.

 

[JFGarber]

... IMTU ships can call once they jump in to contract for cleaning and replenishment services, if they don't have a longstanding contract already in place. Makes for some fun time when the crew stands a subtle and quiet armed watch over the local-yokels servicing the ship.

That is an interesting counter-argument for performing many of the service tasks with crew, the possibility of in-flight automation notwithstanding. The likelihood of dastardly deeds by the service crew, perhaps in preparation for an in-flight hijacking attempt, would depend on the darkness of YTU.

 

[WistfulD]

Whenever I try to make a merchant ship, especially a big one, using High Guard I find that the crew just seems way too big. I tend to ignore the official calculations and go with what feels right. If the Nostromo were built using High Guard there would be about two hundred crew.

The Nostromo had exactly as much crew as was required to tell the story of them slowly being picked off, as is necessary in a horror/suspense sci fi. If you want your ship's crew to be "sufficient to tell the stories I want to tell" then change it to match.

 

[flykiller]

Whenever I try to make a merchant ship, especially a big one, using High Guard I find that the crew just seems way too big.

naval ships are crewed for combat - repairing damage, taking casualties, operating high-tech equipment - and administration - training, advancement, leave time. they have no profit goal or bottom line so costs are not an issue. merchant ship manning ignores training, advancement, combat, casualties, high-maintenance equipment, and anything else which does not contribute to the bottom line. consider modern merchant super freighters which may be crewed by only a dozen men and which frequently do not even set a forward lookout as they plow through the empty ocean. there is no reason why a merchant ship cannot be almost completely automated, with just a few humans around to deal with the problems the algorithms and bots can't handle.