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CRMcNeill
Director of Engineering
Joined: 05 Apr 2010
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Location: Redding System, California Sector, on the I-5 Hyperspace Route.
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 Posted: Wed Jun 12, 2019 1:38 pm Post subject: Luxury Charters |
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I've been watching random YouTube videos, and one of the series I've stumbled across is a yacht captain who posts various vlogs about his ship. I was peripherally aware that chartering a yacht (as opposed to owning one outright) was a thing, but hadn't really thought about it in application. Apparently, though, the ship is operated as a business venture, providing charter yacht services.
Apparently, there are other, larger, yachts kitted out as luxury science & exploration vessels, complete with internal moon pools for deploying submersibles, drones or sonar arrays, along with helo-pads and work decks for deploying larger craft.
So this got me thinking (as so many things do) about applications of the concept in the SWU. PCs usually run around the galaxy in beat-up junkers being held together by duct-tape and the Force, but something like this would allow a crew of PCs to operate on a higher level, providing a service to the galaxy's rich and powerful. It'd also provide opportunities for Alliance side missions, such as using the ship's systems for espionage, or as a secret meeting place for the Alliance.
Thoughts?
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"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.
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Bren
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Joined: 19 Aug 2010
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Location: Maryland, USA
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| Posted: Wed Jun 12, 2019 8:23 pm Post subject: |
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We have used luxury liners on several occasions and two different PC groups have had modified luxury yachts for their ship. But those were in the small transport size range. What you describe sounds more like the Star Wars version of Windjammer Cruises.
I think the idea works and it could make a good campaign premise or a multi-session change of pace for group of Rebels. |
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CRMcNeill
Director of Engineering
Joined: 05 Apr 2010
Posts: 16174
Location: Redding System, California Sector, on the I-5 Hyperspace Route.
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| Posted: Wed Jun 12, 2019 8:38 pm Post subject: |
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| Bren wrote: | | We have used luxury liners on several occasions and two different PC groups have had modified luxury yachts for their ship. But those were in the small transport size range. What you describe sounds more like the Star Wars version of Windjammer Cruises. |
There are yachts on that scale (few and far between, but they do exist), but it seems that the majority are smaller vessels: room for a dozen or so passengers and minimal cargo, with 8-10 crew counting guest service personnel. In the SWU, much of the latter could be performed by droids, so a PC group of 3-4 could man the traditional ship systems.
| Quote: | | I think the idea works and it could make a good campaign premise or a multi-session change of pace for group of Rebels. |
In my Deckplan Archive, there is a multi-deck staryacht named the Rising Dragon that would be perfect for just this sort of campaign. The decks aren't labelled, but the purpose of much of the interior design details can be extrapolated; the ship includes cargo decks on the lower level, a hangar bay for a tender, speeders and other light craft, a swimming pool and separate decks for crew and passengers.
_________________
"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.
The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index
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garhkal
Sovereign Protector
Joined: 17 Jul 2005
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Location: Reynoldsburg, Columbus, Ohio.
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| Posted: Wed Jun 12, 2019 9:20 pm Post subject: Re: Luxury Charters |
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| CRMcNeill wrote: | I've been watching random YouTube videos, and one of the series I've stumbled across is a yacht captain who posts various vlogs about his ship. I was peripherally aware that chartering a yacht (as opposed to owning one outright) was a thing, but hadn't really thought about it in application. Apparently, though, the ship is operated as a business venture, providing charter yacht services.
Apparently, there are other, larger, yachts kitted out as luxury science & exploration vessels, complete with internal moon pools for deploying submersibles, drones or sonar arrays, along with helo-pads and work decks for deploying larger craft.
So this got me thinking (as so many things do) about applications of the concept in the SWU. PCs usually run around the galaxy in beat-up junkers being held together by duct-tape and the Force, but something like this would allow a crew of PCs to operate on a higher level, providing a service to the galaxy's rich and powerful. It'd also provide opportunities for Alliance side missions, such as using the ship's systems for espionage, or as a secret meeting place for the Alliance.
Thoughts? |
One of our groups, after purchasing a Baudo, did just that. Hired it out for luxury jaunts in the Tapanii sector. Another Wanted to do similar around some of the core world 'water-worlds', with a Luxury-5000, but got jailed before she ever could get the money to buy one..
Cause of his status As a charter ship, the imps restricted the owner of the baudo to one weapon (he chose a twin medium ion turret for anti-piracy reasons), and was less likely to get looked at hard when doing runs for the rebellion.. The down side, was he couldn't use that ship (OR that id) in any other rebel mission he went on, so also had a L-19 with several heavier weapons for when the mission called for it..
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CRMcNeill
Director of Engineering
Joined: 05 Apr 2010
Posts: 16174
Location: Redding System, California Sector, on the I-5 Hyperspace Route.
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| Posted: Wed Jun 12, 2019 9:36 pm Post subject: |
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There is also the adventure, The Capture of Imperial Hazard, in AJ#10 (page 157), where the yacht Starcrossed is essentially what I described, but operating as a Rebel ship behind that cover.
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"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.
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Bren
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Joined: 19 Aug 2010
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Location: Maryland, USA
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| Posted: Wed Jun 12, 2019 10:14 pm Post subject: |
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| CRMcNeill wrote: | | There are yachts on that scale (few and far between, but they do exist), but it seems that the majority are smaller vessels: room for a dozen or so passengers and minimal cargo, with 8-10 crew counting guest service personnel. In the SWU, much of the latter could be performed by droids, so a PC group of 3-4 could man the traditional ship systems. |
We may be talking past each other. One can charter real world boats equivalent in capacity to a YT-1300, but what you described sounds more like a somewhat larger yacht that would have the space for a dozen passengers and some amenities. That's the size I think of for a Windjammer Cruise.
Adding droids to supplement the PCs seems quite fine. Alternatively (or in addition) one could include NPC crew who may not (yet) be part of the Rebellion. That would present an additional challenge of keeping the Rebel activities secret from passengers and some of the crew. |
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CRMcNeill
Director of Engineering
Joined: 05 Apr 2010
Posts: 16174
Location: Redding System, California Sector, on the I-5 Hyperspace Route.
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| Posted: Wed Jun 12, 2019 10:20 pm Post subject: |
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I hadn't heard of Windjammer Cruises, but when I looked it up, Wikipedia described ships accommodating 60-100 paying passengers and 20-40 crew, which is much larger than the ship size I was picturing. I expect the concept is quite similar, but I think smaller numbers are probably better suited for use by PCs in a campaign.
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"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.
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Bren
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| Posted: Thu Jun 13, 2019 1:43 pm Post subject: |
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Oh, that's quite a bit larger than I thought. I looked at Windjammer Cruises about 20 years ago and I had a friend who went on a cruise a decade or two before that. My recollection (which could easily be wrong) was that passenger size was more like 12-20 people. Another interesting point was that the passengers were allowed and encouraged to do some of the work sailing the boat.
Adding that in could be interesting. The PCs having to teach, oversee, and protect from their own mistakes, a bunch of novice paying passengers who want to help fly a starship could provide some frustration for the PCs and amusement for the players - or at least amusement for the GM .  |
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CRMcNeill
Director of Engineering
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Posts: 16174
Location: Redding System, California Sector, on the I-5 Hyperspace Route.
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| Posted: Thu Jun 13, 2019 2:42 pm Post subject: |
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| Bren wrote: | | Adding that in could be interesting. The PCs having to teach, oversee, and protect from their own mistakes, a bunch of novice paying passengers who want to help fly a starship could provide some frustration for the PCs and amusement for the players - or at least amusement for the GM . |
Or perhaps something along the lines of a flight school, where the passengers are given basic instruction on how to operate a starship over the course of their charter...
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"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.
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Bren
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| Posted: Thu Jun 13, 2019 2:59 pm Post subject: |
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Of course flight schools exist.
The starfighter campaign we ran started with the PCs going through flight school and that can be interesting in and of itself. And PCs having to be flight instructors (think driving instructors in a teen comedy movie) could be amusing.
But I more focused on the PCs having to juggle supervising passengers as novice crew along with getting the charter ship safely from A to B AND completing their undercover Rebel Alliance mission. Sometimes it's interesting to make the PCs/players juggle an extra ball or two. |
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CRMcNeill
Director of Engineering
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Posts: 16174
Location: Redding System, California Sector, on the I-5 Hyperspace Route.
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| Posted: Fri Jun 14, 2019 11:30 am Post subject: |
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| Bren wrote: | Of course flight schools exist.
The starfighter campaign we ran started with the PCs going through flight school and that can be interesting in and of itself. And PCs having to be flight instructors (think driving instructors in a teen comedy movie) could be amusing.
But I more focused on the PCs having to juggle supervising passengers as novice crew along with getting the charter ship safely from A to B AND completing their undercover Rebel Alliance mission. Sometimes it's interesting to make the PCs/players juggle an extra ball or two. |
I was thinking more in terms of an on-board "flight school," advertised along the lines of a "working cruise" where vacationers can learn the basics of actual starship operation while the ship is in flight. So, the passengers pay for the charter, but also spend their shipboard time trailing the crew around learning how to perform basic shipboard tasks. For character building purposes, this might even count as "training time," so that the NPCs leave the ship with maybe +1 to Space Transports, or something minimal like that.
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"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.
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Bren
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| Posted: Fri Jun 14, 2019 12:58 pm Post subject: |
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Gotcha. That's how the Windjammer cruise my friend took worked. She had no prior sailing experience.
I gotta say I'm just loving the visual. Imagine Han and Chewie having to explain simple ship activities to a bunch of well-off passengers. Priceless. |
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Sutehp
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| Posted: Fri Jun 14, 2019 9:51 pm Post subject: |
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| Bren wrote: | | Imagine Han and Chewie having to explain simple ship activities to a bunch of well-off passengers. Priceless. |
As soon as I read that, I immediately pictured Malcolm Reynolds explaining the ship rules to Simon, Book and Dobson in the pilot episode of Firefly.
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Bren
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| Posted: Fri Jun 14, 2019 10:49 pm Post subject: |
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| Sutehp wrote: | | As soon as I read that, I immediately pictured Malcolm Reynolds explaining the ship rules to Simon, Book and Dobson in the pilot episode of Firefly. |
Yes. Ship captains who take on passengers ought to have some rules. |
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