Consumables

By rgrove0172, in Star Wars: Edge of the Empire RPG

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I know this has been dealt with before but it still seems a little vague.

Are Consumables food/water/oxygen only or do they represent ship operation and maintenance requirements as well. ie. fuel/lubrication/filters or what have you?

What happens when you come to the end of the period? Are there rules somewhere for how to replenish? How much does it cost? What happens if you cant?

help?

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I guess it really varies from campaign to campaign. You could add it to give your Smuggler's campaign a Firefly vibe, but it might not fit in a campaign where the PCs are all performers who have all of their needs catered to

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Definitely along the lines of a per campaign (or adventure) basis. If the party has to go off the beaten path for a while then replenishing is important. Other times it could be assumed the PC's are running small freighting/smuggling jobs during downtime which covers costs. And then there are those with sponsors or support, such as the Rebellion or a Hutt cartel, or a Corporation.

If you come up with a cool campaign or adventure idea that requires it, then use it. Otherwise you're welcome to assume it's taking care of itself.

As to what it includes, I would say anything and everything that ship and its inhabitants need to consume. Even spare parts for repairing damage.

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I think it represents everything needed to keep the ship and crew running for that period of time. So food, water, fuel, minor replacement parts, etc...

It is a bit of a bummer they never gave us any costs for replenishment. But then again this system does heavily rely on handwaving away minor costs like that with "you do odd jobs in the meantime" or the fact you are being sponsored by someone.

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Odd and annoying that they didn't even mention some specifics. I find such omissions don't even have to appear in game terms to create issues.

When simply describing a scene and filling in typical genre color these kinds of questions come up.

GM: You receive clearance and approach instructions and break atmosphere only a few minutes from the Spaceport. You cycle down and orbit once before the controller at docking bay 12 signals you in. Struts down you emerge to find a crew of Utai scrambling to attach umbilicals and perform their regulation safety inspection. One of them approaches, a tattered datapad in hand. He asks if you require any additional services outside those rudimentary and included with the docking fee. "Fuel, lubricants, system spec, nav computer update etc."?

That's very much the way I described a landing in our last game and we played it out fine, but it would have been nice if the situation would have had some game effect, like oh, I don't know - costing the player some cash to avoid a setback die due to delayed maintenance, or worse yet the possibility of complete drive and power failure if you run out of fuel.

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There are a few pregenerated missions where some refueling fees were involved. Crate of Krayts involved a landing pad owner giving you services, like refueling, you didn't ask for and "you know he's charging 3 times the normal fee". IIRC that mission had the fee as 300 credits.

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I interpret consumables as a reference to "supplies consumed by the crew." Mostly food and water. I generally assume a ship's life support systems (breathable atmosphere), while technically consumable, are not included in "consumables." Instead, things like oxygen scrubbers run off of the ships power plants, which would keep them going much longer. The ships fuel, while also consumed, is also something I don't include in "consumables." This is especially true when you take into account that some hyperspace jumps take longer than the consumables than the ships that can make them. These details can be great to leverage once in a blue moon for plot purposes, but mostly its fluff text.

Edited by Vondy
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Yeah, since money is not an abstract concept in Edge/Age/F&D, I wish they had given us an idea of cost for replenishing consumables, or left the concept of consumables out altogether. If it is meant to be hand-waved, why indicate it? And if it is meant for those wanting a Firefly-type game, why not giving a price tag?

light freighters crossing the galaxy seems to be a common thing in Star Wars, so it would makes sense that fueling a ship is relatively cheap otherwise light freighting wouldn't be profitable (and therefore not a as common).

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There are a few pregenerated missions where some refueling fees were involved. Crate of Krayts involved a landing pad owner giving you services, like refueling, you didn't ask for and "you know he's charging 3 times the normal fee". IIRC that mission had the fee as 300 credits.

if 300 credits is three times the price, normal costs would be around 100 credits. If we assume that big ships consume more than small ships, lets give consumables cost a per silhouette multiplier. Assuming the refueling cost was for a standard silhouette 4 light freighter, that would be around 25 credits x silhouette x months.

I can work with that as a ballpark cost.

Edited by Laurefindel
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All the things.

Consumables encompass everything needed to support life.

Air scrubbers, food, water, blah blah blah

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"I find the lack of paper in your fresher disturbing..."

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I figured a Mon Cal would know about the three seashells.

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For my players i have only been treating this as food and water, but after reading these posts, i am thinking more a firefly RP where they may need to start paying for gas!!! and picking up odd jobs the places they frequent.

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Yep, if your players are just passengers, sure - just wing it. The moment they actually start operating their own ship, this has to enter into their thinking. Lots of ways to go about it, a token charge each time they land to replenish or something or something more detailed like Rebel Dave provided. (Cool stuff)

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It only *has* to enter your thinking if you are running a game where those things are plot relevant or genre appropriate. In other words, if they matter to the story you are telling. Otherwise, you really don't need to worry about it. For me, that a starfish terms has 2-3 days consumables not including jump time and fuel doesn't do more than tell me the reasonable non-hyperspace deployment range and duration. The same goes for freighters. Knowing they can operate away from a spaceport for X days is useful. But, unless I'm running a game where scraping buy or planning an expedition enhances the fun, it's not something that merits more than cursory attention.