Totemic or Group advantages

[Mailanka]

There's a concept I've been tinkering with that I wished to lay before the hivemind, to be analyzed by your millions of eyes and your clicking, hungry mandibles.

Some RPGs include "group" traits. The group of players either pool points, or are simply allotted a certain number of "group" points they may use to buy advantages "together." A classic example of this is the Totem from Werewolf: With a combination of all points spent on the totem, the players, together, can buy traits that the totem offers everyone.

This can be a problematic concept (Jimmy spends 5 of his 7 background points on Totem, and Tommy spends 0, but Tommy benefits as much from the Totem as Jimmy does) if done poorly, but I think the idea is a sound one. It tends to bind the group together and gives them character.

I pondered something similar regarding starships. In many cases, as a friend of mine pointed out, a starship is little more than scenery, an excuse to get you from point A to point B, but is otherwise "just home." I disagreed, though, because "home" can't find orbital blasts, scan things from orbit, or house medical bays, factories, hangars filled with tanks, and keep loads and loads of your stuff. Spaceships also become something of a "group" advantage, and I've been pondering ways to give ships traits and tricks more interesting than just the stats you can buy out of GURPS Spaceships.

Do we already have material or suggestions for group-advantages? If not, do you guys have any suggestions? Would you simply treat it as a Patron that everyone takes individually who simply grants unique abilities that the GM agrees to? Is there a more detailed system that I don't know about? Or suggestions any of you have?