Shipboard Conditions

[Supplement Four]

Hmmm. No.

Traveller generally speaking isn't about the career the character came from. It's about what the character is doing after their main career is done.

That's not what I said at all.

What I said was that Travellers are a special class of people. They're the people that travel among the stars.

Most people in the 3I do not travel often or very far. They're not "Travellers". They stay on their homeworlds and/or in their home systems, for the most part.

Travelling is expensive. It costs 8,000-10,000 Credits a jump (not a journey), and when you travel, typically, the conditions are cramped. I've said before, travelling in Traveller is akin to spending $8,000 for a room on a shrimp boat for a single leg of a journey.

Compounding this is homeworld tech level and planetary conditions.

Travellers are a small part of the population.

 

[aramis]

Travelling is expensive. It costs 8,000-10,000 Credits a jump (not a journey), and when you travel, typically, the conditions are cramped. I've said before, travelling in Traveller is akin to spending $8,000 for a room on a shrimp boat for a single leg of a journey.

Conditions are not that cramped. 10'x10'x10' room, plus shared spaces.

 

[welsh]

Conditions are not that cramped. 10'x10'x10' room, plus shared spaces.

Spend a week confined to that space and you'll feel cramped. 10 x 10 isn't spacious and common areas on most deck plans are unpleasantly small ... for passengers, who don't have the run of the ship, travel isn't pleasant.

 

[Supplement Four]

Conditions are not that cramped. 10'x10'x10' room, plus shared spaces.

Not that dirty, either. Just using the shrimp boat as an example.

 

[aramis]

Spend a week confined to that space and you'll feel cramped. 10 x 10 isn't spacious and common areas on most deck plans are unpleasantly small ... for passengers, who don't have the run of the ship, travel isn't pleasant.

I live in a 30' motor home at present. I have spent an entire week in it with 2 teens. It's not that cramped. The average japanese family has under 300 sf per person in apartment.

 

[Timerover51]

I keep thinking of the pictures that I have seen of troopships in World War 2, steerage passage for immigrants to the US in the 1800s, and the forecastle of the whaler Charles W. Morgan in Mystic Seaport, 24 men were housed in there. Then there are the berthing spaces on the former US Coast Guard buoy tender Bramble. I would have to check on the square footage of the CPO compartment, where 6 men were berthed. The crew of the frigate USS Constitution comprised well over 400 men on a ship well under 200 feet long. I do not think that modern people have any idea as to how little space people had to work with in earlier periods.

 

[Condottiere]

In Asia you can live in rather tight conditions, sometimes out of necessity.

But you also tend to take meetings at the local KFC or Starbucks.

 

[welsh]

I live in a 30' motor home at present. I have spent an entire week in it with 2 teens. It's not that cramped. The average japanese family has under 300 sf per person in apartment.

But you're not confined to it. You can go outside.

 

[McPerth]

But you're not confined to it. You can go outside.

That's one of the main points: you cannot go outside to breathe fresh air in a starship, as you an in a ship or house, no matter how small accomodations are there.

THe closer thing I can think about is being on a submarine, although (probably, I've never been in one) with less cramped accomodations

 

[Condottiere]

A submarine has the option to surface, if necessary.

In space, you could at the expense of performance, have an extendable hull for extra space.

 

[Ulsyus]

Spend a week confined to that space and you'll feel cramped. 10 x 10 isn't spacious and common areas on most deck plans are unpleasantly small ... for passengers, who don't have the run of the ship, travel isn't pleasant.

Try nine months with a living space of 7ft x 7ft. Though at least there was minimal time sleeping when working 0630-2230 seven days a week, so it didn't feel like too much of an imposition. Probably better than being in a submarine...

 

[LiNeNoiSe]

I live in a 30' motor home at present. I have spent an entire week in it with 2 teens. It's not that cramped. The average japanese family has under 300 sf per person in apartment.

Ah, but you're Solomani. ISTR some rule about Solos being ok with cramped spaces. Imps are not.

 

[Condottiere]

Ironic, but probably has a to do with a combination of culture and economic necessity.

 

[aramis]

Ah, but you're Solomani. ISTR some rule about Solos being ok with cramped spaces. Imps are not.

The rule is 90% volume needed for Sollies vs Impies (AM: Solomani)

 

[welsh]

Try nine months with a living space of 7ft x 7ft. Though at least there was minimal time sleeping when working 0630-2230 seven days a week, so it didn't feel like too much of an imposition. Probably better than being in a submarine...

We're you working 0630-2230 in a 7x7 space?

The difficulty isn't for the crew, but for the passengers. Look at a type A deckplan and consider the passengers' lot. They are confined for a week to a stateroom, a corridoor, and a tiny lounge, and they have nothing to keep them busy. You can only watch the tube for so long. Not a pleasant trip by any means.

 

[aramis]

We're you working 0630-2230 in a 7x7 space?

The difficulty isn't for the crew, but for the passengers. Look at a type A deckplan and consider the passengers' lot. They are confined for a week to a stateroom, a corridoor, and a tiny lounge, and they have nothing to keep them busy. You can only watch the tube for so long. Not a pleasant trip by any means.

I spent a little over a week working passage on a cargo ship. Weather deck was off limits. Bridge was off limits. Engineering was off limits. I swabbed the mess, the halls, and the head. I had only about 2 hours of work per day. wasn't horrible, and I shared an 8x7x8 foot berth. (Two bunks. Not hot-rack.) For such a period, even a landlubber can usually cope. Most of the time, I was there to keep the cook from going batty. And to take the duty guy his meals.

We played a lot of cribbage, a lot of mah jongg, and not a little car wars. And I played a bunch of solo TFT.

 

[LiNeNoiSe]

The rule is 90% volume needed for Sollies vs Impies (AM: Solomani)

"So when designing Solomani starships, you can reduce the accommodation requirements by 20 percent if you wish."

"Starship Design," Rats & Cats, p.41.

 

[LiNeNoiSe]

It's an option, in the sense that in the short term you wouldn't have a morale penalty, or it effects efficiency.

My take on it was that the Confederation Navy can easily run a Tokyo Express, if they suddenly need to surge troops on a specific planet, or that instead of a Frozen Watch.

I was originally thinking of the preceding paragraph. I interpret it to mean that only Solos can stand being cramped.

Other Hu-mons have K'Kree DNA

 

[Adam Dray]

I spent a little over a week working passage on a cargo ship.

My first reaction was, "One week... How many parsecs did you travel? / What was the J-rating of the ship's drive?"

 

[aramis]

My first reaction was, "One week... How many parsecs did you travel? / What was the J-rating of the ship's drive?"

Hawaii to Am. Samoa. Via two other ports. A tiny fraction of a parsec.