What do starship "consumables" represent? Food and water for the crew? Lubricants, spare parts, medical supplies? Should the amount of consumables decrease one per day, or will it decrease faster if there are more than one crew?

Also, if consumables do include food and water, can they be used to furnish crewmembers with "rations"? Or are consumables assumed to be non-portable?

Thanks.

Consumables include a vast array of supplies (food, water, toiletries, and other bits) in sufficient quantities to support the vessel's full crew + passenger allotment for the specified time.

I also consider fuel to be part of it. So last session, when my players decided to go all the way across the galaxy with a x2 hyperdrive, they had only about 2 weeks left of food and fuel when they ended up, in dead, dark space... with no knowledge of where to go. Some panic could be seen in the eyes of the most experienced players

HappyDaze and Jegergryte are spot on here.

You could also argue that Life Support plays a part of this as well, as a recycler can only do so much before it needs some raw materials to work with. . .

What do starship "consumables" represent? Food and water for the crew? Lubricants, spare parts, medical supplies? Should the amount of consumables decrease one per day, or will it decrease faster if there are more than one crew?

Also, if consumables do include food and water, can they be used to furnish crewmembers with "rations"? Or are consumables assumed to be non-portable?

Thanks.

Everything you mention, although I tend to think of anything referred to as consumables as food. It's all part of upkeep costs.

Thanks for all the helpful comments!

So with 200 consumables on board the YT-1300, should my PCs bother to purchase Rations when they visit, say, Choldonna (in Beyond the RIM)? Or maybe the ration packs are easy to carry, whereas "consumables" would have to be stuffed in a backpack, which my PCs don't yet own.

Also, do you guys reduce your consumables by one per day, or one per character per day? Suppose my four PCs spent 10 days in hyperspace. Does that use up 10 consumables, or 40? I'm sure the answer is "it's up to the GM," but I'm curious what you all do. Thanks again!

Air would be the most important consumable. Gets hard to live if the air isnt breathable.

For me, it is the stuff needed to live full time on the ship. Air, Water, Food and the related stuff to keep alive. I am pretty leinent on how it is allocated, like if someone has a ship that hold 12 people for 3 months, I dont have a problem with them holding 40 for a couple days. The air would get stale and the toilets would back up, but that is just an excuse for the mechanic to be the comic relief.

If the players wanted to use the ships rescources to provide food and water while off the ship, that is fine with me, tho they will have to replace them later.

I'd say consumables is anything the starship and it's crew needs. Fuel, air, food, power...

That said, stacking up more food and such could be a good idea if the characters prefer good stuff instead of prefabs and food bars. Perhaps they prefer whyren's reserve to brand less whiskey or bourbon, or water for that matter...?

I wouldn't just say it's up to you, but I will tell you I just don't track this stuff as closely in my game.

I'd only make an issue of food if my players were embarking on some kind of overland trek and then only as a matter of encumbrance more than cost.

Air and water could be easily made and aren't something that would need to be purchased. 'Refueling' is something that wouldn't happen terribly often either, as the ship uses some variety of reactor and any sort of other propellant could also be easily harvested and need not be purchased.

The other upkeep items would of course be food, which I assume some sort of replicator that uses a basic nutrient paste could produce required nutrition, the real thing would cost more. Spare parts used in the ship that wear out also, would be the most common item. These two and of course anything that gets shot up.

Were I you and if I was going to track this I'd figure it out ahead of time and just be able to tell my players a number, and then break it down for them if they were interested in a detailed accounting.

This is what I think of when I think of when I think of the ship's consumables:

I think if I was making space in the cupboard and the fridge I'd do better than noodle cups. That's just me........

What do starship "consumables" represent? Food and water for the crew? Lubricants...

I got to this part and thought, "what kind of game is Harry S Truman running?"

What do starship "consumables" represent? Food and water for the crew? Lubricants...

I got to this part and thought, "what kind of game is Harry S Truman running?"

LOL! I swear I didn't mean THAT kind of lubricant. Right, Han and Leia? Er, Han? Han?