My Current Crew

Working a little at a time painting figures on and off  I came up with a small crew for gaming "Five Parsecs From Home, Salvage Crew". It's a mix bag of folks that I believe are going to do well in the game.

Game set up;

Combining two sets of rule or at lease the ideas of the two. Pinnacle Entertainment as a supplement set to rules "The Last Parsec: Jump Corp Guide to Interstellar Salvage" which can be found at https://www.drivethrurpg.com/ . The rules a subset of rules for "Last Parsec Core Rules" the supplement is about recovering massive ships adrift in deep dark space from massive battles long ago, dealing with a wide range of problems and hazard of salvaging such ships, to recovering survivors, running into killer robots already dismantling ships, to Slavers Ships, some hauling great riches some hazardous cargo.

With the rules from Nordic Weasel "Five Parsecs from Home Salvage Crew" a set of solo rules

Background Story;

The crew of the "Celestial Queen" all together.

 

The Great Galaxy War had just dwindled to an end, pretty much all sides basically ran out of rocks to throw at each other. All the boundary lines that all sides are using are the same lines that were of the Front Battle Lines.

The war was quick and massive, no one really knew what the reason for such a massive war was for. The little folks, the ones who actually did all the fighting for many of the government didn't know why, they were all just pushed into service as were any and all ships were pressed into service. Old ships pulled from old mothball fleets to salvage yards were quickly patched together just barely able to operate, refitted with some updated equipment, weapons and crew, rushed in to battle with the off chance they would get a few punches in. This same action was done on all sides for none of the governments thought that the time and cost of constructing new ships wasn't warranted for the battles were quick and fast and ever moving, loss of ship on all side were so great that the time for newer ships was just not possible if you were going to win.

Ships in these massive battle that were to greatly damaged or a drift were left behind as those that survived moved on to the next bigger battle, no recovery or rescue ships were dispatched to retrieve such ships, for many just could not spare ships for this task for all were needed in the ever shifting front lines. Space battles moved so quickly and so far apart with each side so desperate to win that many battles generally ended up with just one or two ships limping away just trying to save themselves little alone other ships in distress. It is plausible that many crew left behind on those ships may have died from failing life support or have been adrift so long they may have died from starvation, other ships may have drift into the gravitational pull of a planet or sun maybe even an asteroid and were destroyed on impact. Some in the battle areas may have drifted into each other causing further damage coming to their demised as metal on metal crushed upon each other, there could be ships out there working together pulling their resources just to survive making one large drifting habitat.

The new sectors and boundaries are setting up their governments many are launching their own search and rescue efforts for any and all ships, outposts and other facilities from all sides and to salvage as much of a those resources that they can of what is left, for resources are very very low, if none at all in some areas. Many civilian centers that would process or manufacture products of all kinds were destroyed or severely damaged. Special Offices are set up to sift through all the military orders to find official orders for ships and facilities to locate their last whereabouts. Not only were there ships sitting out there but there are other facilities out there as well observation outpost, communication  stations, supply depots to include medical stations as well, many at this point may be in dire straights at this time if not disfunctional, serverely damaged or destroyed. To add to the problem these facilities could be anywhere on asteroid, moons, planets of all kinds to even being their own station floating out there somewhere.

These ships, these SRSS (Search Rescue Salvage Ships) are set up roughly to render little medical aid and quarters if needed and to salvage as much of the ship as possible, if they can tow it back to their spaceport they will. If they can't tow it then they will leave a marking buoy to find it later on there return to salvage more of the ship till they can tow the rest home.

Now this may sound all fine and well, but with each ship or derelict encountered are new hazards such as crews still able to fight with their last and final punch maintaining the idea that they will be boarded and destroyed. Depending as to where ships are found such as planets or asteroids others could as well find new unknown creatures that has taken up residence in their new found homes. many other hazards could be engine sitting at a critical stage like a floating bomb from the crew last ditch effort to strike back, even weapons and booby traps could be laying about always standing sentry, may even be another salvage crew working it for the same government or another that are very much not willing to share in their spoils. Pirates and mercenaries as well working for anyone that willing to pay the right price. 

This is the one such ship the "Celestial Queen" and her crew, out of the many out there doing what they can to recover anyone, everyone and everything. They are working out from a small space port and mining facility called "Styler's Point" on a very large planet named "Saharamanji".   

Shipwreak

Shipwreck

The idea came to me when I received my Mega Minis "Salvage Crew" and I thought they need something to salvage, duh that's a no brainer, So I first thought why not a crashed spaceship and how was I going to go about this. I figured it had to be in sections for ease of moving it around and then how big, after all it's has to fit on a small gaming table and what sections, so I came up with the idea of four sections, a bridge section, two cargo sections and an engine section.

Based off of this picture


Then what shape to make it in. A box or square sort of shape with square edges and an angled hull would be the easiest to make and to cover it in card stock, then it would to make a round rounded with lots of curves and bends, hey mama didn't raise no fool.

So something like this comes to mind but in four sections


I sketched up the sections on 1/2 inch grid paper to get a feel and the idea of size. http://www.printfreegraphpaper.com/

Four separate sections, for the main hull and two wing like sections, each section could be used as stand alone terrain piece or put all six together as one big terrain piece with room to move between each section and space for movement in and on each section.

On 12x12 inch MDF board would allow it all to be on a 4 foot table or spread out over a larger table

I can dress up the shipwreck with tips from this link http://www.happinessismandatory.com/misc/Tutorial/  and download PDFs referring to scratch building.

Plus I can build up the interior walls using some of the ideas here http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/251905-scratch-build-bt-thunderhawk/ can make the inner walls looking something like this picture from the link above.

This site is more for  the War Hammer 40K stuff but full of pages of great ideas

A visit to my local junk shop where I can get all kinds electronic stuff cheap. should help dress it up nice, you would be surprise how a hand full of electronic parts can dress up a wall and make it look busy

Foam core board and card stock will be the main material, with lots of wire and wood dowels of different sizes plus different wood flat and round shapes, beads and bits from the local craft shop.

Craft gems from the craft store, based on size the square ones, the oval ones and round ones  make for great hatches and other odds and ends

 

 

Watch gears and parts for engine room stuff and other things as well.

 

 

Well this just the beginning, figured this would be a good practice run before I start the Star ship Project posted information about it earlier.

 

I'm hoping this helps give you all ideas for your own projects.



Running a Salvage Crew

Being a Salvage crew Captain

If your going to be traveling the stars, then your going to come across a crashed ship from time to time or a derelict a drift in space. If your running a salvage crew as the captain then your going to have to look for work everywhere you can so you end up looking at all the reports of every lost or missing ship at every star port or base you come to and their last known location in hope for a score.

Hit the bars for rumors of missing ships not reported, so talk to other trader ship captains some traders like to travel under the radar so to speak when their carrying cargo let's just say that they don't want to be caught with. Great to have a few smuggler friends to off load that kind of stuff  quick but cheap.
Plus if there is any clashes going on then there is a chance for an even easier score just don't get caught in the middle between the two clashing sides, best way to find this information is to find young marines, sailors and soldiers in the bar and offer to buy a few drinks, older veterans and officers know better to not to talk about such things but younger troops want to brag about their heroic deeds of battle and where it happened.
Large  battlefields are littered with equipment that was either damaged, destroyed, just plain lost, or just left behind due to cargo space, not everything is broken or wasted, most military campaigns just keep moving on and pretty much just leave broken or useless equipment behind, nice stash of weapons, ammo, firing computers, comms equipment and a like can be found. Lots of fair size colonies feel the need for such stuff to protect themselves and you can get a good price for your stuff there.

 

Talk to Scout ship crews, they come across derelicts drifting from time to time and fail to report them, either by accident or on purpose for a score of their own, and a few drinks will help loosen them up many times. What the crew knows is not always what the captain puts in to his ship's log.

Working ship parts and ship's equipment cost a lot of credits, and one can get about half as much for them, depending on a lot of factors working or needing some repair, but there is always a buyer somewheres for what you find or recover, so make sure you have a long list of potential ship builder clients. ship building yards are good for buying engines, jump drives and ship computers of all kinds to cut cost of a build or repairs to save time for new ones to arrive.

Avoid areas where pirating is going on, two bad things can happen there, either you get hit by pirates or the authorities hit you for being a pirate. Unless you know the players on both side in that system and they know you but be warned you'll have to play both sides against the middle, because both side will want you to throw them a bone from time to time.

One of the last jobs you want to take on, is to salvage a failed colony, it's sad when you know that these were families trying to make a fresh start and fail, many personal items are left behind to remind you that this was once someones home and life, it can make you feel alone and lost in your mind sometimes thinking this could have been your life. Better jobs are old refineries and mining operations.

 

Why be on a salvage crew, why not be a belter working on some asteroid or working with a demolitions crew on some city world revamping some city block, work is steady and so are the hours, and life will be the same day in and day out and a rut, for me a salvage crew seeing the stars and other worlds, my live in my hands and hold to no man but me.

 

 This is the view from my window, What's yours?

 

OK ordered a set of 15mm Salvage crew, From Mega Miniatures http://freeboardgamesnow.com/ they will be closing shop on June 1st, sorry to hear that in the mean time, I can't wait for my set of them to get here.

So if you would like a set I would order them soon.

My plan is to combine them with construction Mechs from Ground Zero Games http://shop.groundzerogames.co.uk to form a salvage crew for Traveller RPG game


" Hercules-C" civil/military CLEM (Construction, Logistics and Engineering Mecha), Heavy Site Clearance variant with log grab, chainsaw, cutting laser

" Hercules-B" civil/military CLEM (Construction, Logistics and Engineering Mecha), Power Loader variant with heavy loading arms.

" Hercules-A" civil/military CLEM (Construction, Logistics and Engineering Mecha), General Purpose variant with standard arms/hands.

They all look to be great models and I have hear nothing but good reviews about GZG's products and I have some myself that I am very pleased with and so I can't wait to order them when I can.
I do have plans to add additional equipment, and will update that from time to time.

The "Main Plan" is to make a terrain board of a crashed ship for them to salvage and let the fun begin