Affording a spaceship?

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

If your universe is concieved as a place where small and cheap starships are common then any system that tells you they should cost 10s of millions is _wrong_ (for your universe at least).

This is quite true.

The problem is that spaceship construction rules tend to assume "spaceships are like ironclads, container freighters or jumbo jets.", they're huge, equipped with lots of expensive specialized subsystems - multi-thousand horsepower engines, heavy cargo handling gear, powerful radars, guns - built and maintained by specialists at heavy duty industrial facilities, crewed by dozens, if not hundreds of people, and owned by corporations, governments, or maybe an occasional billionaire.

Spaceship *plots* tend to assume "spaceships are like sailing ships", those are small, don't carry much expensive gear (cannon excepted, and private ships *didn't* normally have more than a couple of those) built of about the same materials and skills to manufacture as a large house, crewed by a handful of people, and affordable by anybody who could pay for a large house. Note that modern yachts, which are still small and don't have much equipment you wouldn't put in a house, are still in the same price range as a mansion.

The two views are not really consistent with each other, you really need to decide which one applies to your setting's standard ships.

[Sunrunners_Fire]

Originally Posted by SCAR

If a Spaceship is merely a way for the characters to get about, then having a Patron provide one, or the GM providing one as the common 'package' for everyone is perfectly reasonable.

That does not mean that wanting to treat a Spaceship as a piece of equipment (like a sword, or a horse) for which the PC needs to pay (points and/or cash) isn't a perfectly valid and reasonable option - for which our rules (GURPS) should be able to provide us with an answer. Dismissing this option in favour or just giving them one is not very helpful.

RAW, affording a spaceship means you've invested a significant chunk of points into the necessary advantages.

A TL 9 space fighter clocks in at G$5.31M. Its' adventuring gear and so isn't included in your CoL. This requires Wealth (Multimillionaire 1; Adventuring Lifestyle; Conditional Ownership (20%), -4%) [72] to afford said space fighter. If your characters are budgeted 150/-50 ... Heh.

[Sunrunners_Fire]

Originally Posted by Refplace

Quoted for truth.
Not sure why this had not made it in the early round of replies.

Because Signature Assets is an enhancement that increases the cost of the Wealth required to afford the ship and Conditional Ownership isn't especially worth taking given the extremely small discount it provides.

[Ragabash Moon]

In the campaign I'm running, I think the ship prices work, since owning a ship is a luxury. The average person isn't even a considered a citizen in fact. But, as long as they don't mess with citizens, the police leave them alone.

[SCAR]

Originally Posted by Sunrunners_Fire

RAW, affording a spaceship means you've invested a significant chunk of points into the necessary advantages.

A TL 9 space fighter clocks in at G$5.31M. Its' adventuring gear and so isn't included in your CoL. This requires Wealth (Multimillionaire 1; Adventuring Lifestyle; Conditional Ownership (20%), -4%) [72] to afford said space fighter. If your characters are budgeted 150/-50 ... Heh.

Yes, and I think I covered that in the rest of my post.

[Flyndaran]

It's not rail roading if it's your corporate handlers telling you where to go, not the GM directly. ;)
You're the only "asset" in the area and being ordered to take this mysterious delegate to Nowheresville. Then you can get back to being one of our tax write offs.

[DangerousThing]

In my new campaign I just loaned the characters a ship. One of the characters has a grandfather and uncle who had a space ship. The actual captain is the uncle, but he won't be seen much because for all intents and purposes he is a spirit in a crystal that is linked to the ship's controls.

The ship was designed for the needs of the campaign. It has extremely high stealth and can outrun pretty much any human ship. It has a fighter on board so the ex-fighter pilot gets to show off his skills, and the ship can be used as a spy ship or merchant pioneer. The uncle being on the ship keeps enough strings on them so they won't just turn pirate. (The uncle uses his abilities to run the power supply which absolutely doesn't work without him at the level needed.)

As it is the players get half the shares of any profit and they'll get paid for a couple of things (three of the characters are secret bodyguards for the techie character - a mad scientist who would be rich if she cared about money - who has two disadvantages:
1. Enemy: The Hidden (the secret police of the enemy interstellar polity)
and
2. Delusion: The Hidden are just a myth. Nobody wants to kidnap or kill me.

They also get paid if the ship is commissioned for an investigation mission into enemy territory.

So basically the four of them (five if you count Uncle Jack - yes, "Jack the Bodiless Son of Butterfly" is his official name). While Jack the character has nothing to do with the fictional Jack the Bodiless I just thought the name was cool. Plus as the official Master of this ship he could be called "Captain Jack."

[RyanW]

Originally Posted by SCAR

In settings like Traveller, Star Wars or Firefly, where Spaceships are very common, I see no problem with simple applying a divisor to the costs. 10% of the sort of cost from a GURPS Spaceships design would make a 'tramp freighter' or small scout vessel a reasonable point purchase.

Which you have to be careful with, or you run into people cornering the ten foot pole market by buying a lot of ten foot ladders and a saw.

[Ragabash Moon]

Originally Posted by RyanW

Which you have to be careful with, or you run into people cornering the ten foot pole market by buying a lot of ten foot ladders and a saw.

Ok, that has to be one of the coolest analogies I've heard in a long time... I get the point entirely, yet it's hilarious too.

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by Refplace

Quoted for truth.
Not sure why this had not made it in the early round of replies.

Because they do almost nothing to solve any of the problems with large assets.

There's a MyGurps alternate rule for large-scale cash-for-points which actually gives a not-absurd way to buy 'own something hugely expensive that you can't replace out of pocket money'.