The game I am in is transitioning from Edge to Age. During our time as dirty, thieving pirates, we, uh, "Acquired" a Pelta-class frigate. And since we are moving towards a more AoR type game, from what I understand the game will become more of a fleet based combat/running space missions type game so likely we'll be coming into more and more ships as the game progresses. (I'm hoping for a sort of Battlestar Galactica type feel). I was wondering how other GM's would handle the upkeep on a ship that size.

Note: The current system the GM has in place is 1/10th the ship cost in upkeep at intervals determined by the length of time the ship has consumables for, which we've all agreed isn't really tenable as we continue especially if we get into much much larger ships that cost tens/hundreds of millions of credits.

Note: The current system the GM has in place is 1/10th the ship cost in upkeep at intervals determined by the length of time the ship has consumables for, which we've all agreed isn't really tenable as we continue especially if we get into much much larger ships that cost tens/hundreds of millions of credits.

I understand that is a hurdle for what you are wanting to do, but a massive ship should have a massive crew, massive consumables, and thus a massive cost to operate. If you wanted something concrete but still simple, you could say the % of price operating cost lowers as the size of the ship increases. Hand wave it while saying something like you are buying bulk supplies and the capital ship's life support and fuel systems are more efficient then smaller craft. Imagining that your 10% cost was for a Silh. 4 transport, you could come up with something like:

Silh. 2 or 3 20% restocking fee

Silh. 4 or 5 10% restocking fee

Silh. 6 or 7 5% restocking fee

Silh. 8 or 9 2% restocking fee

If you want something much more detailed I'm still working on a Vehicle Operations supplement which is finally coming along more quickly. You could use it to track NPC crew costs (suggested pay rates) and more detailed consumables (divided into supplies and fuel). But, I think my figures for operating a capital ship will not be to your liking. I think the figures are realistic, but they are very costly, something only a government or corporation could afford when operating capital ships. My figures may actually be higher then the 10% you use.

How I do it: You need to restock when the GM says you need to restock.

The thing worth mentioning is I don't do the campaign-as-dungeoncrawl style where every session picks up right after the last. Like a TV series my adventures are more like episodes, where anywhere from hours to weeks may pass between one adventure and the next. So making things like restocking a story point is more valuable to my campaign development than doing careful resource tracking. I still make a point of keeping it reasonable, no restocking mission after restocking mission unless there's good reason.

If the ship is out of supplies, it's because it's the catalyst for the next adventure. To get the supplies the players need to do more than just pull into port and make a Costco run.