Playable approximation for Buying a Spaceship

[Sunrunners_Fire]

Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen

As I've said before, and will say many times again: Why don't you just create the characters for the players. Why don't you decide what kinds of characters they are to play?

Um. I do tell them what kinds of characters they are going to be playing

Example: "We're playing a Star Wars game set in the New Republic Era that is going to see a lot of space combat. Your characters are going to be a space-fighter unit which is part of an amoral mercenary company. Most everyone should have piloting skills, everyone should be combat-useful, at least one of you needs to be force-capable and its' suggested that you take a mix of humans, near-humans and aliens. If you don't have a ship of your own you are going to be left out of the action about half the time; custom fighter-class ships are encouraged. Once you have a concept going, sell me on it and we will refine it until we're both satisfied. Interested?"

[munin]

When one character pays points for a spaceship, they should have all of the advantages of being the spaceship's owner -- they get to make decisions about where the ship goes, what cargo or passengers it carries, etc. They might delegate day-to-day operation to a character who has paid points for skills appropriate to being ship's captain, but they're still the owner.

For a more team-based approach, the players could all chip in by being part-owners in an "organization" that owns the ship, by taking the Patron advantage at 6 or less with the Equipment enhancement. For example, if starting wealth at TL10 is $50k, then Patron (Powerful Organization; 6 or less; Equipment, +100%) [15] gets them co-ownership in "assets" worth up to $500M* (i.e., a spaceship). They get to use the spaceship, and, once per adventure on a 6 or less (each), they get some organizational benefit. If they decide that the organization should sell the ship (effectively dissolving the organization), they have to trade Patron points for Wealth points.

"Organizational benefit" might include an opportunity to use organizational assets (including people) to help you with a personal problem (gambling debts, a unique investment, applying social pressure, etc.), letting you make decisions for the duration of the adventure, an opportunity to set goals for the organization, etc.


* maybe use the partial wealth multipliers from GURPS Spaceships 2 for finer control of value? [10] gets you assets worth $50M, [11] for $100M, [12] for $200M, [13] for $300M, and [14] for $400M...

[Daigoro]

Originally Posted by munin

When one character pays points for a spaceship, they should have all of the advantages of being the spaceship's owner -- they get to make decisions about where the ship goes, what cargo or passengers it carries, etc. They might delegate day-to-day operation to a character who has paid points for skills appropriate to being ship's captain, but they're still the owner.

I would see that as worth no more than levels in an appropriate rank (e.g. Shipboard Rank, 1pt/level).

My problem with one PC spending all the points necessary for a starship, which usually provides most of its benefits to the party as a whole rather than the individual onwer, is that the owner-PC is then effectively a less powerful character than anyone in the rest of the party. He may even not have enough points to be as good a pilot, captain or strategist as other PCs.

Therefore in a one-ship/one-party campaign, I'd say the ship should either be a campaign feature or bought with party resources (whether that's points or cash).

This might not apply if each PC is a pilot or captain in a convoy of ships, then relative spending on ships will have commensurate relative benefits accrue to each PC.

[DemiBenson]

Originally Posted by munin

When one character pays points for a spaceship, they should have all of the advantages of being the spaceship's owner -- they get to make decisions about where the ship goes, what cargo or passengers it carries, etc. They might delegate day-to-day operation to a character who has paid points for skills appropriate to being ship's captain, but they're still the owner.

For a more team-based approach, the players could all chip in by being part-owners in an "organization" that owns the ship, by taking the Patron advantage at 6 or less with the Equipment enhancement. For example, if starting wealth at TL10 is $50k, then Patron (Powerful Organization; 6 or less; Equipment, +100%) [15] gets them co-ownership in "assets" worth up to $500M* (i.e., a spaceship). They get to use the spaceship, and, once per adventure on a 6 or less (each), they get some organizational benefit. If they decide that the organization should sell the ship (effectively dissolving the organization), they have to trade Patron points for Wealth points.

"Organizational benefit" might include an opportunity to use organizational assets (including people) to help you with a personal problem (gambling debts, a unique investment, applying social pressure, etc.), letting you make decisions for the duration of the adventure, an opportunity to set goals for the organization, etc.


* maybe use the partial wealth multipliers from GURPS Spaceships 2 for finer control of value? [10] gets you assets worth $50M, [11] for $100M, [12] for $200M, [13] for $300M, and [14] for $400M...

You know, I rather like this method! Thanks!

[SCAR]

Inspired by this thread, I thought I'd take a look at this again.

Originally Posted by ericbsmith

I've played with the idea of just making the spaceship cost 50 points, split between the players however they want. If one player wants to be sole owner he can pay all 50; if they want to be even partners they can split the cost evenly. If they want to let one person be "captain" but everyone else still has a say then the captain can pay Y points and everyone else pays X points, where Y > X.

It's completely arbitrary, but no less so than arbitrarily adjusting the cost of ships to allow one, or several, of the players buy one.

This might actually prove to be a pretty good approximation (even if it seems arbitary).

Originally Posted by SCAR

The 'Base' Rule from Supers did lead me to another thought: Take the Monthly Costs for the Spaceship (SS2 suggests a flat 0.5% of the Value per Month as a simplification) - so an SM+8 Spaceship (~$60M) would have a Monthly Cost of $300K - and compare that to the Cost of Living for a given Status, which would make it Status 5 which has a CoL of $600K.

Pay a point cost equal to the equivalent Status to get a Spaceship for which the Monthly Costs (assuming the simplified 0.5% of Value), is equivalent (within) the Cost of Living for that Status.

This makes an average SM+7 ship [25] points (such as the Serengeti-Class Bio-Survey Ship, SS5.p17), and an SM+9 ship [30] points (such as the Kiev-Class Farhauler, SS2.p6).

The points cost above for a Spaceship gives you Use of a Spaceship, you don't technically 'Own' the ship, and you still need to make the Monthly Cost Payments! This might be the equivalent of having a Patron who owns the Spaceship.

Double the cost, to actually 'Own' the Spaceship, meaning nobody else can tell you where to go, etc; OR to automatically cover the Monthly Costs, saving on Book Keeping, and the need to actually earn a bucket load of money each month.
Triple the cost to be the 'Owner' AND have no Monthly Costs to make!

So Eric's 'arbitrary' [50] points would cover Owning an average Spaceship, but with the need to make money to pay the Monthly Costs; or, 'Use' of a Spaceship with no Monthly Costs to pay, but you don't technically 'Own' the ship, so the 'owner' may sometimes tell you where to go.

If the values don't quite work for you, adjust the 0.5% Monthly Costs to 1% or 1.5% (which are still within reasonable ranges for a ship on Finance, etc).