Do droids take up passenger space on ships or are they part of the cargo (Encumbrance Capacity)?

Obviously they don't take bunks, nor do they eat food or breathe air, but active droids might use power from the ship and thus count against Consumables.

Opinions?

Tough one. Depends on the ship and what the dev was thinking when it was statted. Personally I consider droids to fall in a weird middle ground, counting against neither unless noted. After all a droid plugged into an outlet probably doesn't draw much more power then a toaster. Not a huge draw on a ship unless you plug in a bunch or something.

A Droid is cargo when it is cargo and a passenger when they are a passenger.

Well what I mean is if a Droid is just being carried then more then likely they power off for the trip but if they are up moving about in the crew and or passenger compartment then they are a passenger.

A Droid is cargo when it is cargo and a passenger when they are a passenger.

Well what I mean is if a Droid is just being carried then more then likely they power off for the trip but if they are up moving about in the crew and or passenger compartment then they are a passenger.

This was my initial knee jerk. But then I started thinking that in many cases passengers are evaluated by bunk. Droids dont need beds, just a corner in the maintenance bay, an outlet, and a strap to keep em from falling over.

Either cargo or crew, but not a passenger.

Pc= passenger since they have belongings

Npc= cargo if you are a douch passenger if you are letting them be active. Unless they are deactivated and sitting in a corner.

Passengers usually means more than just the amount of consumables they use. It accounts for moving about and such as well. A droid passenger, just like a droid crew member, is rarely going to just sit in one space and do nothing unless they are basic, in which case they are more of a possession anyways. Going above the total rated occupants tends to get crowded real fast.

If the consumables are truly the only worry though...
With the nature of FFG's Star Wars, I've never needed to keep track of such things, but in my Saga games I always did things like the following, and I see no reason why you couldn't do the same in FFG.

Add up the total number of typical crew and passengers. Then, multiply the sum by the total days worth of consumables. These are now units of Life Support which would be tracked separately from fuel. Each standard day, any living beings reduce the life support pool by 1.

Example:
A ship has 3 months of consumables, typically has a crew of 2, and is rated for 6 passengers. That means 8 occupants would need 840 units to survive 105 days (3 months standard galactic calender). A pilot, his droid mechanic, and their 3 passengers however could survive for 210 days as there are half as many occupants consuming air/food/water. They would be set adrift long before running out of life support.

I always took the passenger capacity as how many can the life support sustain and how much room they would have for bunk space. The life support always has some wiggle room at my table - "Oh sure, you could evacuate that liner and the 35 people, but you cant go very far and you'll have to overhaul the air filters when you get there."

But for droids, I would assume that the sky is the limit. squeeze in as many as the cargo space will allow.

A Droid is cargo when it is cargo and a passenger when they are a passenger.

Well what I mean is if a Droid is just being carried then more then likely they power off for the trip but if they are up moving about in the crew and or passenger compartment then they are a passenger.

This was my initial knee jerk. But then I started thinking that in many cases passengers are evaluated by bunk. Droids dont need beds, just a corner in the maintenance bay, an outlet, and a strap to keep em from falling over.

Yeah, but by that logic two people sharing a bed are one passenger. I'm inclined to go with the simple: up and doing stuff = passenger. Packed on a shelf somewhere = cargo.

Depends on whether we're talking about a passenger-type transport vessel of some kind, or the Passengers entry on the stat block for various ships.

If someone is travelling on a passenger liner of some sort, I imagine that their droid would be considered a passenger if the owner paid for a ticket. If they didn't want that expense, or didn't feel they would need the droid during the journey, it could be deactivated and shipped as cargo.

Where stat blocks are conserned, I'd let them count as cargo, or more specifically I wouldn't count them towards the ships complement of passengers. Droids don't use oxygen, don't eat or drink, don't need somewhere to sleep and don't produce waste. Unless some "clever" player wanted to take advantage of this by packing 5,000 droids aboard his ship because "you said they don't count as passengers", I just ignore droids for this purpose.

The exception, of course, would be when riding a vehicle such as a landspeeder. A droid would obviously take up a passenger seat in one of those.

Looks like they're stored as cargo on this landspeeder.

Han: She's fast enough for you old man. What's the cargo?

Ben: Only passengers. Myself, the boy, two droids...and no questions asked.

Argh! See if Lucas had properly planned out the Star Wars movies and settings he would have answered this - cheap hack. This is exactly the sort of situation that the new "Legends" and "Canon" clean slate is needed for to resolve!

Pc= passenger since they have belongings

Npc= cargo if you are a douch passenger if you are letting them be active. Unless they are deactivated and sitting in a corner.

Pretty much this.

Or, do they get their own bunk? Then they are passengers. If not: cargo.

Corellian Translines, as of Adventure Journal 16 Feb. 1998, allow for "[...] 100 kilograms of baggage, such as a droid;[...]".

The "Gonk" Power Droids I'm transporting to Nal Hutta, cargo...

R4-V3 "RAVE", my mechanic, she's crew. Plus, she has the added features of playing music and flashing lights and glowing beneath her panels so everyday is a party. *waves glowrods*

If they are shutdown, and in crates.. cargo.

Powered on and moving around = Passenger.

Droids don't need food or air, but they need minor maintenance and recharge

Nailing down a singular answer that everyone in the setting agrees on is boring. Having no galactic standard can lead to great character and story moments.

C4, the PC assassin droid in the campaign I run, has his very own concealed closet on the ship right near the airlock with a power outlet and a gun-rack on the wall. Spends most of his time in there on stand-by mode just waiting for someone to try and board the ship. Not that that happens in hyperspace, but it keeps him amused.

Even if he is wandering around (more than likely using a long trip to modify some gun to be better at killing stuff) he still doesn't count as a passenger. Not using bunk space, oxygen, water and (most importantly due to the bulk size required) food. He doesn't even hog the remote to the holo-vid as holo-vids are boring to him.

IE, he travels with the party more as cargo than a passenger.

When on a planet however and travelling in a (more than likely stolen) speeder, he counts as a passenger because he is sitting in a seat.

So yeah, it's situational.

I would rule it as neither, unless it became relevant. For example, if there was some reason your ship would be running low on power, then having a droid plugged in and recharging could be a problem. If the ship is overloaded and every kilo counts, they're very much cargo.

That said, if its a PC droid, I'd call it a passenger/crew, since they're most likely going to be very active.

During the case Jacobellis V Ohio Associate Justice Potter Stewart famously said about pornography "I know it when I see it". I cannot define for you when a droid is cargo but "I know it when I see it." I think most reasonable people can as well.

Frankly, they're whatever you decide they are.

I could repeat what others have said.

I could tell you about what my droids are (passengers on a YT-1300 even though they're more like crew).

But what matters is how YOU think they ought to be transported. The only thing they need is power unless deactivated.

If the droids are in the cargo compartment all the time = Cargo.

If the droids are in the living quarters around the ship = passengers.

We have a droid PC; super-advanced, self-identifies as female, writes romantic fiction under a human pseudonym. (The player used to be a mime and can do the voice and the movements perfectly, it's amazing to see at the table!).

About half the PCs, and 95% of the NPCs, call her 'it' and see her as equipment, not crew. The one reason she stays is because the other half of the PCs like and respect her as a friend.

So yeah, she counts as passenger or crew, and would react about as well to being stuffed in a closet as a human would; with terror and distress.

It's like poseur said, if it's in the cargo bay it's cargo, even if it's a free droid and paid to be shipped as cargo.

If it's a free droid or its companions paid for it to be a passenger, it's a passenger. Depends on what the crew got paid for.

We have a free droid in our game too, and we treat her like crew when her player is there. At least, other than the guy playing the Colonist: Entrepreneur who is supposedly running this whole outfit.