Quote:
Originally Posted by YankeeGamer
How much volume is in a cargo hold of a certain rated weight? And, then, what happens if you FILL that hold with something extremely dense, such as lead. Acceleration will, naturally, drop for reaction engines, but what happens to things like the ship's handling? Are other effects likely, besides awkward scenes like landing in the ocean and sinking instead of floating?
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Minor overloading is probably not going to do much other than reduce acceleration and possibly mess with handling. Major overloading might strain the structure around the cargo hold and damage the wall and floor plating, especially if the spaceship does things like fly through atmospheres and land on planets. All cases will attract the ire of those entities in charge of ship registration, certification and, of course, of the Health & Safety people.
I'd require a Freight Handling check every week or so of operation in which the ship manoeuvres (constant acceleration wouldn't count, nor would just drifting, etc.) with a penalty for being seriously overweight. Failure would result in a minor problem (a minor repair required, something coming lose and causing a minor injury, etc.), and a critical failure causing something more severe (loose cargo crushing someone and causing broken bones, etc.). I admit my motivation for such things is as much to stop PCs getting 'free' load capacity as a desire for realism.