[OOC] The Starship 'Fritjof Nansen'

[Adina]

And speaking of numbers: thirteen Survey personnel (mostly colonial) vs four action team Marines.

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by martinl

Sweet teapot on a toaster, the Captain has to restrain them from the longer shots, doesn't s/he?

Damn crazy ... Imperials.

The logic of saving lives in large numbers is a lot madder than Spock let on.

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by jmurrell

And speaking of numbers: thirteen Survey personnel (mostly colonial) vs four action team Marines.

If, instead of building these new Survey frigates, we refitted some mothballed light cruisers, there would be room for, say, a full watch roster of naval officers, an extra orbital shuttle or two, and forty or fifty academics. We could keep a whole section of marines commandos warm with twice as many support specialists, plus another two commando sections in hibersleep in case of emergencies. Because of savings on the drives and spaceframes and such the construction budget would cover a dozen of those, and we'd still get this Survey program done in twenty years. And each mission would have a proper big gun.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Agemegos

and forty or fifty academics.

It then quickly becomes pretty silly when the same four idiots get in trouble on every single planet.

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

It then quickly becomes pretty silly when the same four idiots get in trouble on every single planet.

And the same four marines get sent yo deal with each thing, and the same three naval officers are on watch every time.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Agemegos

And the same four marines get sent yo deal with each thing, and the same three naval officers are on watch every time.

If this is a democracy, I vote for the smaller ship with the totally plausible staffing and logistical handwave.

Also, I've just edited in the educational/career details for Strickland and McAdams back in post #72.

[martinl]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

It then quickly becomes pretty silly when the same four idiots get in trouble on every single planet.

Originally Posted by Agemegos

And the same four marines get sent yo deal with each thing, and the same three naval officers are on watch every time.

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

If this is a democracy, I vote for the smaller ship with the totally plausible staffing and logistical handwave.

I'm not sure it's even a handwave. If the Empire is planning on adding a few hundred new low tech planets, expanding its census of light elements makes sense. It's not like the Council knows that there's 16+ PCs on board.

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by zorg

That would be immensely helpful. I'm a visual kind of guy, a ToE would let me remember who's who much better.

I've made one up in PDF. If you want a copy it might be easiest to PM me your e-mail address.

[Agemegos]

I have incorporated significant updates into post #3, to reflect allocations of characters to billets, etc. <edited to add> I have made significant updates to post #1, too.

It's a list of the billets on the cruise taking into account double-hatting in the Survey Team. It is arranged into a rough TO, though within the Survey Team there is double-hatting that crosses between the departments and that confuses levels, and the Survey folk are mostly tenured academics anyway; treat the Survey Team as an amorphous blob under its cat-herder-in-chief.

Billets are colour-coded for branch of service as follows: Navy, Imperial Office, Colonial Office, Marines.

Billets in boldface indicate the members of the Staff Committee with whom the Mission Commander consults on strategic decisions.

The forum handles of the players of PCs are indicated in bold red.

Please advise me of any errors or omissions.

[Agemegos]

I am starting to think about the 34 NPCs in INS Fritjof: at least setting up an armature for future detailed work. If there's anything you want included now would be a good time to start thinking about it.

Lowell would have some influence over the choice of his officers and crew, and could pretty nearly appoint anyone he liked in the most recent graduating class of the naval academy to be his intern. Was there some family connection of a friend available, or did he just pick the highest in class standing who hadn't yet had a better offer? Or did he look for something else in the graduating class?

Does any PC have an NPC fiancé (or fiancée) in the ship? The Mayflower registries of marriages got blown up a century ago, and since then Eichberger Foundation employees (and employes) and Imperial servants have gotten engaged but never married. Affianced couples (or whatever) can get shared quarters on application, and the Bureau of Personnel does accept and try to accommodate requests co-located appointments provided that they are mutual. But it does not assign people to unsuitable billets to keep them near their fiancés: requesting co-assignment with someone who is difficult to fit in is a well-known way to restrict ones career. A lot of committed relationships between Imperial servants break up more or less amicably after a few years (or five, or ten, or twenty) with one partner accepting a billet whether the other has not been offered one. There are no legal or religious complications to unravel, no community property to divide, and the children if any are in boarding schools anyway.

I am not planning to start this campaign with the characters meeting on assignment to the Fritjof Nansen. There are too many characters to establish, and the medium is too slow. The first adventure will probably start with the Survey Team already on the ground on their first planet. So if you want one or more of your characters to be the practical and unsentimental sort who would have worked out an agreeable modus vivendi with someone else in the ship by the time they reached their first planet, let me know and we'll work on details.

Note that the engineering officers will have been with the ship for several weeks, perhaps a couple of months, before her fit-out was complete, and the captain and first lieutenant for the last three or four weeks of fit-out, and the whole naval complement for a few weeks of space trials and shake-down after the fit-out was complete but before setting off on the first mission. But the diplomats, Survey folk, and marines will only have joined in the last day or two before setting off. It'll take a couple of weeks in warp to get to the first planet.