Tramp Freighter Cap'n

[boot]

This thread is dedicated to the tramp freighter captain.  I started to put this in the GG6 thread, but I realized that I will be citing things in this thread in the future that are sourced in other books.

[boot]

Standard Maintenance and Restocking


This rule is only available in the 1E version of GG6.  The rule is changed into a different version of the rule in the 2E version of that Galaxy Guide.  After reading and understanding the rule, I got excited about it.  Where at first, I thought the rule was too expensive and could not believe what I was reading, I've now seen the light and realize how useful this rule will be to a GM in a game.

This 1E rule really creates an atmosphere in the game where a tramp freighter captain is struggling to make ends meet, keep his ship running, and not fall on the wrong side of the loan shark that gave him the money to buy this ship.

What's the rule?  Standard Maintenance and Restocking costs a flat fee that equals:  10 times the sum of the ship's rating for passengers and crew, times the ship's consumables rating in days.

For example, a standard stock light freighter (from page 56 of the 1E core rulebook) has these stats:  2 Crew, 6 Passengers, 2 months consumables.

So the SM&R is:  10 x 8 x 60 = 4800

What this means is that, to restock the ship and perform all ongoing maintenance, it costs 4,800 credits every time it is done, and the maximum time the ship can go before it runs out of supplies/replaceable parts fail/etc. is 60 days of use.

Now, you may be saying, "Wow!  4,800 credits in Star Wars land is A LOT of money!"

And, it is.  But, that's the point.  Operating freighters is expensive.

This is a good thing.  The players, attached to their ship, will always be trying to keep their ship working--and this will push them into incredible Star Wars adventures where the risk and reward is high in order to gain the funds needed to keep the ship working.



Spaceports of Standard Class or better will automatically charge this fee to the ship when it makes port.  The cost is the same (simple rule!) whether the ship has one day of use or is about to be totally out of everything.  It is up to the captain of the ship to alert the starport (if at one that is Standard Class or better) to not perform this service.  In the real world, think of this as you would changing your car's engine oil.  At 3,000 miles, it is recommend that the oil be changed.  But, people trying to stretch a dollar will push that.  Maybe they'll change their car's oil at 6,000 miles...or at 10,000 miles.  At some point, it becomes detrimental to the car.  So, it is recommended, every time the ship docks (after every hyperspace jump) the maintenance and resupply be performed.  Some captains may push that back to every other jump, every third or fifth jump, or more.

When is the ship "out of gas"?  At the limit of the Consumables rating.

So, the GM needs to estimate how many days the players have lived aboard and used the ship (also count just sleeping aboard and using the ship as a hotel).  Using the ship's resources is a costly exercise.



What is covered under SM&R?  Replenishment of all necessary fluids, like water, lubricating fluids, and coolants.  Oxygen and other gases.  Basic proteins for the food converter system.  Waste removal.  Air filters.  Gravitational disk and ablative heat shield replacement.  Recalibration of intake and firing cells for the ion engine.  Basic maintenance on the hyperdrive.  



In sum, the Standard Maintenance and Restocking flat fee is a large amount of money that the players have to cough up periodically and often.  It drives the game in many ways, sucking up PC wealth, pushing PCs into adventures that they may not otherwise undertake in order to get the funds, and could be a great reason to lead the players where the GM wants them to go.  "You need a Mark II hyperdrive trans-server?  Yeah, I don't have one.  Maybe check with old Snuddle Rowfin.  But, he probably doesn't have one either."

[boot]

Fuel



There is a fuel system presented in the 1E version of GG6, and it was taken out of the 2E version of the book.  I actually agree with it being removed.  It is one of the few rules where I've seen WEG fail.  It's not a good rule at all.  It requires a lot of bookkeeping, and I don't think the effort is worth what the rule brings to the game.

It is easiest to just consider (as it is in the 1E core rulebook and in 2E) fuel as part of the Consumables rating.  And now, with the expensive SM&R flat fee noted above, much of that cost could be dedicated to expensive fuels (especially with the new description of fuel in the Star Wars universe).

If you want to continue to use the "Battery Recharge" version of the rules presented on page 30 of GG6 1E, then do so!  You don't have to call it "fuel".  Why not just call it what it is?  The ship has these batteries that must be recharged or replaced.  These batteries provide power to the ship.  And, the players have another maintenance item to watch for the health of their vessel.

[boot]

HARD LIFE OF A TRAMP



Let's talk about cost--the cost of running a ship.

Now, this is impossible to figure because there are so many variables, but for illustration purposes, I'll make some generalizations.



INCOME

Charters and speculative trade is very hard to figure.  Let's go with an example of a very generous drop point delivery schedule.  We'll use the stock light freighter from page 56 of the core rulebook.  Hyperdrive x2.  Crew 2.  Passengers 6.  Cargo 100 tons.  Consumables 60 days.

Just taking cargo from point to point provides income for the ship to the tune of 5-10 x Cargo in tons per day.  We'll use the example three day rout provided in GG6, and we'll assume that for each run, the ship is completely full.  The example trip is three days:  One day to load, one day for the journey, and one day to off load at the destination.

We'll track this for 60 days, since that is the limit of the ship's consumables, and we will only refill consumables once--at the end of the 60 days.

We'll assume continues use in a pattern like this:  Days 1-3, a cargo, Days 4-6 looking for cargo, Days 7-9 cargo, Days 10-12 looking again, and so on.  I'll also alternate income.  The first will be a 10/ton, the second will be at 5/ton, then back to 10/ton, and so on.

Over a 60 day period, this will generate 10 runs, gaining 3,000 credits and 1500 credits respectively (5 of each).  That totals 22,500.

Now, realize that reality could be a lot different, depending on  what people will pay for drop point delivery, how long the trip is, how much cargo is sent, and the hyperdrive on the player's ship.

What is outside the scope of this example is the chartering of the vessel, like Ben and Luke did with Han and the Falcon.  Remember, they paid 17,000.  Also, there's speculative trade, which can go all over the place.



EXPENSES

Now, let's look at expenses.  First, we know that we have the one Standard Maintenance and Restocking fee of 4800.  

There's the cost of the docking port.  This usually runs 50 credits per day, but it can be as high as 150 credits per day at some busy ports.  I'll figure two days for each cargo (one day to load, one to unload the ship), plus the three days that the crew is looking for more cargo.  I'll just use the 50 credits for this.  Sure, the ship may land in a field somewhere on some worlds to drop off its cargo, but there will also be times when the fee is 150.  So, a flat 50 is fair for this exercise.  That adds up to 2,500 in docking fees over the two months.

And, there's the ship's overhaul that costs 1,000 and should be performed once every 20 jumps.  Since, over this two months, the ship made 10 hyperspace jumps, we'll take half that fee.  500 credits.

22,500  Drop Point Delivery Cargo Income
-4,800  Standard Maintenance and Restocking fee
-2,500  Docking Fees
-   500  Overhaul Fee
=====
14,700
-5,000  Ship Payment to Loan Shark
=====
 9,700

2,425  per crewmember per month


We can't forget our ship payment!  According to the Sourcebook, a brand new stock light freighter costs 100,000.  A used one costs 25,000.  We'll say that this is a used ship, so the ship payment back to the loan shark will be 2,500 per month.  For this 60 day experiment, that's 5,000 credits.

And, I'll note that I didn't charge for ship's batteries, if you use that rule, and I didn't charge for cargo insurance that may be required by some shipping agents (it is hard to figure since it can be anywhere from 0.01% to 10% of the value of the cargo).

Also not figured into this is unforeseen expenses for ship damage.  This is Star Wars, so there's bound to be some space battles.  Plus, the crew may be trying to save to upgrade the ship.

Remember, the ship is rated for two crew, so that means that the profit shown above is divided by 2.  Each character, pilot and co-pilot, get 2425 credits a month (606 credits per week) on this very generous run.  Without the super-generous shippers (like clockwork, a new shipment every three days), this total could vary wildly.

Figure character upkeep into this over the two month period.  The players might say that their characters are staying on the ship, saving money for accommodations, but they'll only do that once.  Because you'll hit them with the 4800 resupply fee much sooner than 60 days if the characters are staying on the ship, breathing up and using up ship's resources.


 

[boot]

OVERHAUL FUND


The ship's overhaul costs 1,000 and should be performed once every 20 hyperspace jumps.

The easy thing to do here is to accept a 50 credit fee for each hyperspace jump.  Take that fee and place it into a fund.  Once the fund reaches 1,000, it is time for the overhaul.  It makes it easy to keep track this way--just watching the total of the fund (if the captain doesn't skip paying into the fund on a cargo run).  And, the ship's captain will have been saving for this cost.