A ship with more than 100 Hull points make little sense under the current RT rules though, as loss of crew population and morale would kill it before it was even formally crippled.*

*this can be migitated, it it will remain a problem.

true but id say that a BB takes crew damage at a slower weight due to size and extra crew.

Yea, I noticed this problem early on an implemented a house rule.

Bonus Bonus

Hull Size Crew Pop. Morale

Light Cruiser +20 +20

Cruiser +25 +30

Battlecruiser +30 +40

Grand Cruiser +40 +50

Battleship +50 +100

Space Hulk +100< +200<

Haven't had any players disagree with this concept yet, but any advice is good advice.

A ship with more than 100 Hull points make little sense under the current RT rules though, as loss of crew population and morale would kill it before it was even formally crippled.*

*this can be migitated, it it will remain a problem.

true but id say that a BB takes crew damage at a slower weight due to size and extra crew.

Yea, I noticed this problem early on an implemented a house rule.

Bonus Bonus

Hull Size Crew Pop. Morale

Light Cruiser +20 +20

Cruiser +25 +30

Battlecruiser +30 +40

Grand Cruiser +40 +50

Battleship +50 +100

Space Hulk +100< +200<

Haven't had any players disagree with this concept yet, but any advice is good advice.

I went with Crew Population = (Hull Integrity x 2) for Imperial Ships, and didn't worry about Morale. I haven't tested thoroughly though. Can you explain why you bumped Morale, and by more than Crew Population? And how has this changed your experience in play?

That's assuming that your ship is always at full hull integrity and crew population. On long-term campaigns you can very easily press-gang some Feral world to make up for lost crew, but restoring Hull Integrity can get trickier.

Technically, I was assuming it was a ship under Ad Mech jutistiction and, making sure to fill up at all civilized planets but even more importantly, seeing to the well-being of their Avatar of the Machine God, but you're correct that the assumption was unstated. My bad.

Also on vessels that size you should have a Crew Reclamation facility, and your Rogue Trader should be charismatic enough to Hold Fast any morale damage taken.

I was still thinking of Ad Mech, which means the captain is ... unlikely to be that charismatic.

In y experience, the crew reclamation facility leads to mutinies exceedingly fast, unless combined with a Servitor Crew. I could see Ad Mech use both, but that has it's own draw backs, especially on a battleship.

Presumably though, those would be Best Quality Servitor Crew on the Ark Mechanicus, but even so.

PS: I hate the forum software. This is clearly mutual.

Sorry, I was talking in general. I forgot the point of this was looking at Mechanicus vessels originally.

If you haven't read the Priests/Lords of Mars books , they feature an Ark Mechanicus vessel that replenishes its crew through press-ganging, and how it all leads to mutiny because the Mechanicus are terrible overseers. They explicitly overlook the possibility of their crew revolting or doing damage to them to their detriment.

I can see a more experienced magos implementing a servitor crew despite the penalties because it solves all those pesky revolt problems.

Servitor Crews work OK for transports, but one of my groups insist on having servitor crew on on of their raiders.

The results are ... interesting, at times.

I went with Crew Population = (Hull Integrity x 2) for Imperial Ships, and didn't worry about Morale. I haven't tested thoroughly though. Can you explain why you bumped Morale, and by more than Crew Population? And how has this changed your experience in play?

The reason behind the Crew Pop difference was the numbers they had listed in the description. Frigates had about 25k, light cruisers 60k, cruisers 80k, and BC's 95k average (numbers are probably off). Obviously having larger crew means more man power on components, weapon systems, etc. so instead of boosting the crew pop by X2 or x3 and having to re-write the rules on crew loss due to fire, depressurization, etc., I "guestimated" the difference. So in truth, no science behind it.

Reason behind crew morale was because usually the larger ships have been around longer, and have a lot of history. The crew knows this, and with a ship so vast, they would believe or be lead to believe their ship can take a lot of punishment. Which in essence is true. With smaller ships, the crew know it takes less damage to hulk them, and most probably believe they are not in a true "Ship of War."

With the light cruiser and above, the players have felt they can take more damage and survive longer. In one campaign, the PC's had their light cruiser fight an ork cruiser and frigate. I think the frigate lasted about two rounds before being hulked, and the cruiser lasted about 4 or 5. Can't really remember the total outcome, though I did realize with the damage they were doing on the ork cruiser, the ship would of had no crew left before it was around the 15-20 Hull Integrity mark. I think it was around the 5-10 mark before the crew all died. Regrettably, I haven't tested Battleship sized engagements yet though.

A ship with more than 100 Hull points make little sense under the current RT rules though, as loss of crew population and morale would kill it before it was even formally crippled.*

*this can be migitated, it it will remain a problem.

Quite right, I completely forgot about that.

Battleships might require a whole new set of rules to be truly devastating. I'd even go so far as to reduce the damage to Crew and Morale by the first digit of their rating. It's a big ship after all.

A ship with more than 100 Hull points make little sense under the current RT rules though, as loss of crew population and morale would kill it before it was even formally crippled.*

*this can be migitated, it it will remain a problem.

Quite right, I completely forgot about that.

Battleships might require a whole new set of rules to be truly devastating. I'd even go so far as to reduce the damage to Crew and Morale by the first digit of their rating. It's a big ship after all.

I really don't think they do. A Battleship should not be crewed by NPCs, it should be driven using PC rules with a crack crew and a crazy amount of stat-stacking bonuses, and dozens of ship components. Morale damage should be mitigated by crew actions and Astropath brainwashing, crew population damage should be servitorized away. Also on a ship of that size if you're not constantly in communication then a lot of crew won't know what's going on and would be more likely to panic when the ship takes huge amounts of damage.

With a Battleship's Armour and Void Shields, Macrocannons are going to be all but ineffective, so the only danger it has is lances. Lances are incredibly deadly though, and the knowledge that a giant hole has just been bored through your ship is probably going to be a little distressing, especially if it happens a few times.