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Old 11-22-2017, 06:22 AM   #1
Magic_Octopus
 
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Default How to handle ship ownership?

I'm just about to start a GURPS Interstellar Wars campaign. How should I handle ship ownership?

At the moment I'm leaning towards the "default campaign" in the Interstellar Wars book, i.e. free traders, who might have a scouting duty as well.

Should I make one of the characters take enough wealth to buy a stake in the ship? Or maybe have a character take debt? Or just have a patron give the use of a ship to the group (e.g. the Terran Confederation, in order to do the scouting duties).

How have you usually handled ship ownership at the start of a campaign?
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Old 11-22-2017, 10:06 AM   #2
Fred Brackin
 
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Default Re: How to handle ship ownership?

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Originally Posted by Magic_Octopus View Post
How have you usually handled ship ownership at the start of a campaign?
I don't think I've ever just given anyone a ship. My usual answer seems to have been to arrange it so that PCs earn ownership through adventurous actions.

Very long ago in a Space Opera game the PCs were hired by a "spice" smuggler and after they helped their boss get the spice something "happened" to him when he went to sell it and they just forgot to turn the ship in to the Lost and Found department. I think that ship was the Nebula Wastrel.

More recently I used the same scenario for the starts of both the Gloria Monday and Tuesday Weld campaigns. The PCS were clues on a trader which had a critical equipment failure and stranded them on a backwater planet until a replacement part could be shipped in.

The NPC captain who was in debt to a groundside cargo broker took the opportunity to sell out leaving the PCs in limbo.

Then after the word about he stranded ship leaked out some raiders came to grab the ship. The PCs turned the raid into a counter-ambush and disabled the raider ship (and did worse to the raiders).

Under local law this left them with a partial claim to the raider ship (shared with the broker). The broker traded them full ownership of their ship in return for full salvage rights to the raider ship.
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Old 11-22-2017, 02:23 PM   #3
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Default Re: How to handle ship ownership?

What I did was use the option from T:IW, to let the players put in a down payment on a ship and then the rest is paid for by a backer who will take a % of the profits they get from sales. See p. 174.

But I found that even with that, the players couldn't put much down, so I also give them "Ship Credits" as a % of starting wealth. IIRC staring wealth in T:IW was 50k, so they had 10k for starting gear. I let them also have 30k (60%) for ship shares.
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Old 11-22-2017, 03:13 PM   #4
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Default Re: How to handle ship ownership?

Making or even allowing one player to own the ship would have consequences. They'd deserve/want far more say in missions and deals. Those points spent are not going to cool limelight abilities after all.
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Old 11-22-2017, 03:15 PM   #5
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Default Re: How to handle ship ownership?

Although it is in a Star Wars campaign, here's how I did it:

The heroes started at first using commercial passenger liners. After a while,t hey got to work for a company and the ship they are "given"was company property. They had to do missions for the company and in the meanwhile they had their own missions In space or on the planets which they had to visit for the company).

Later, they managed to save a ship (rather expensive one) and brought it back to the company (als, the pilot died which happend to be the son of the CEO).

As a reward, they were given an old freight junker. But it was their property. No duties attached. The ship was registered under Galactic Government Registry at a Corporate Private Port on Corsucant.

A few years later, a new player brought with him a personal cruiser (small capital ship which handles like a fighter). It was his former master's property (and he did send a few assassin after him to get his ship back but now he has bugged the ship so he can monitor them at all times). The new player saved the heroes just in time (their old junker was destroyed while docked on a planet).

Now they are outside the influence sphere of the new player's former master. The ship is registered under a Flag-of-Convenience at a planet well outside charted space.

I let them pay a yearly tribute for the Certificate costs, license fees, and docking fees when they land somewhere
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Old 11-22-2017, 03:22 PM   #6
sir_pudding
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Default Re: How to handle ship ownership?

Why not use Patron? See "The Captain's Boat", Pyramid #3/71: Spaceships II.
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Old 11-22-2017, 03:34 PM   #7
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Default Re: How to handle ship ownership?

It looks like that at this period most ships are in the hands of either cartels or taipans bathing in gold. Ships will deflate in value as Vilani ships are captured or defect. As the Terrans expand, barratry will become safer, with plenty of ungoverned territory. That will reduce the ship price somewhat but hot ships from the Terran side probably are not going to have so much effect as the disturbance on the frontier will be quickly recivilized by advancing Terrans. Still as there is a lot of territory to govern, a skip can survive a long time, a la Firefly.

The biggest cause of price deflation might be mass barratry from the Vilani side though. While there will be skipping from the Terran side just to get out from under the cartel's thumb, the Terran government has a motive for protecting Villani skips and recognizing their ownership as that is a cheap form of commerce raiding. The skipping Skippers of course have their own motivation in owning a ship of their own.
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Old 11-23-2017, 01:06 AM   #8
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Default Re: How to handle ship ownership?

TIL what barratry is!

Thanks for the answers. I'll have to look into that Pyramid issue.
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Old 11-23-2017, 02:29 AM   #9
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Default Re: How to handle ship ownership?

The fact that barratry has its very own name tells you that it's an old and popular practice.
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Old 11-23-2017, 02:46 AM   #10
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Default Re: How to handle ship ownership?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Magic_Octopus View Post
TIL what barratry is!

Thanks for the answers. I'll have to look into that Pyramid issue.
Barratry=the captain flies(sails) off with the ship

Mutiny=the crew overthrows the captain

Ramius committed barratry because the Red October was owned by the USSR.
The staff of Captain Queeg were tried for mutiny for overthrowing the captain.

Obviously your lawyer can tell the difference better. But that is enough for the point.
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