Random thought on ships, which may not be relevant, but still: Firedrake is a corvette - the smallest of warships, basically - a Tantive IV, if you like, or that one which pointy ship I posted in visual inspirations.
Anyway: corvette crew is normally at least in the 40-50 person range. If that’s of interest (we bring a community with us wherever we go) or not (ugh that’s wandering kinda close to playing Star Trek) - it’s worth noting.
(No reason someone couldn’t to do that ship and NOT have a typical crew, btw - I’m sure Moya on Farscape normally had more than a crew of 6 - but I figured it’s worth mentioning as a ‘thing.’)
Another interesting ship-thing, is the idea that your ship is “level 1” also, at the outset.
With a game like Star Wars, there’s an inherent assumption that your ship is pretty much in the state you can expect it to be in for the duration of the game (barring explosions). Any upgrade/modification rules are sketchy or were bolted on well after the initial rules came out or whatever.
S&V goes a very different, dare I say travelleresque route, where you have a somewhat modified basic ship, and definitely can (and in fact) are expected to upgrade both the ship and her crew as play proceeds, either with crew/ship upgrades, spending piles of cred, or long projects.
That I’ll expect/need everyone to help track that crew/ship stuff on the ship sheet is, I think, stating the obvious.
Yeah, that question of crew beyond the core players was a question mark in my mind. I have to go back and read that section again, plus the bits that touched on hirelings.
My inclination is to go with the obvious high levels of automation/AI/bioware that we see with Moya, the Castle of Lions, etc. so as to avoid complications. Actual military vessels tend to be heavier in compliment for shifts, redundancy, boarding parties, etc. But it’s worth discussion.
This is part of why I like S&V so much, the ship is its own character. As far as keeping track of things, since there is a ship tab in the Roll20 S&V character sheet I recommend making a character sheet for the ship itself and then giving everyone permission to view and edit it.
