Daily Commutes in Space

And Mapping the Blogosphere

This Week’s post takes a tour of the ship.

Getting around a ship can sometimes be worse than getting around the galaxy. Any point on a ship is defined by its Deck and Compartment numbers.

Decks
Standard-sized ships have twelve decks which, beyond the reach of traditional gravity, are rarely lined up like neat storeys in a tower block.

Like this but worse

Compartments
Each deck is broken down into twelve compartments, each a self-contained room, bay or complex.

Need a random specific place on the ship? Roll 2d12 on the big list at the bottom of this post.

Transporters
Powered movers get you around the ship in the most convenient way, but breakdowns and re-routings are pretty common.

Getting Around
Getting around on a single deck is straightforward enough, but if you need to get between locations on different decks roll d6. Roll even if you’ve already been there before:

1: No obvious way to even get to that deck, you’ll need to go to a neighbouring deck and find a way from there.
2-3: Foot access only, so you’ll be passing through a room on each deck on the way.
4-5: You can get a transporter to a random compartment on that deck but then you’re on your own.
6: There’s a transporter that goes straight from here to there!

Ship Variation
Not every ship follows this precise layout, so roll d6 if you want to know the state of a particular compartment.

1: Nope, we’re coping without one of those.
2-3: It’s limited or in a bad state.
4-5: Yeah we’ve got one of them.
6: It’s state of the art, big, or otherwise impressive.

Decks and Compartments

1. Command Deck

   1. Bridge

   2. Briefing Room

   3. War Room

   4. Captain’s Quarters

   5. Comm Bay

   6. Scanning Array

   7. Study

   8. Panic Room

   9. Ballroom

   10. Guest Quarters

   11. Express Shuttle

   12. Escape Pods

2. Wet Deck

   1. Biolab

   2. Hospital

   3. Surgery

   4. Well

   5. Protein Vat

   6. Pharmacy

   7. Morgue

   8. Arboretum

   9. Algae Tanks

   10. Air Cycle

   11. Holistics

   12. Filter

3. Cargo Deck

   1. Main Hold

   2. Bulk Hold

   3. Small Hold

   4. Vault

   5. Hazmat

   6. Loading

   7. Freight

   8. Pantry

   9. Carriage

   10. Inventory

   11. Transporter Bay

   12. Data Bank

4. Gun Deck

   1. Port Guns

   2. Starboard Guns

   3. Turrets

   4. Prow Gun

   5. Point Defence

   6. Magazine

   7. Simulator

   8. Generator

   9. Targeting

   10. Explosives

   11. Flushing

   12. Grease

5. Office Deck

   1. Filing

   2. Code Bureau

   3. Payroll

   4. Tally Office

   5. Conference Hall

   6. Private Offices

   7. General Registry

   8. Permit Office

   9. Data Processing

   10. Data Assessment

   11. Break Room

   12. Governance Suite

6. Security Deck

   1. Arsenal

   2. Armour Store

   3. Brig

   4. Court

   5. Surveillance

   6. Interrogation

   7. Rapid Deployment

   8. System Override

   9. Boarding Bay

   10. Access Control

   11. Combat Ring

   12. The Hole

7. Logistics Deck

   1. Large Transporter Bay

   2. Personal Transporter Bay

   3. Pump Room

   4. Recycling

   5. Landfill

   6. Sewage

   7. Corridor Services

   8. Commissary

   9. Ventilation

   10. Lander Bay

   11. Docking

   12. Evacuation Room

8. Information Deck

   1. Presentation Room

   2. Training Suite

   3. Chart Gallery

   4. Counselling

   5. Logs

   6. Research Lab

   7. Queries

   8. Viewing Port

   9. Deep Filing

   10. Deliberation Tank

   11. Lecture Hall

   12. Secure Archive

9. Drive Deck

   1. Cooldown Vents

   2. Jump Drive

   3. Cruise Drive

   4. Manoeuvre Drives

   5. Exhaust Recycling

   6. Monitoring

   7. Emergency Shutdown

   8. Manual Steering

   9. Manual Thrust

   10. Intake

   11. Valve Control

   12. Emergency Brake

10. Commons Deck

    1. Mess Hall

    2. Tall Quarters

    3. Walking Yard

    4. Gymnasium

    5. Bulk Quarters

    6. Cinema

    7. Hygiene

    8. Trophy Room

    9. Vending Hall

    10. Promenade

    11. Memorial

    12. Low Quarters

11. Reactor Deck

    1. Wiring

    2. Heat Control

    3. Inner Core

    4. Backup Generators

    5. Power Grid

    6. Gravity Generator

    7. Main Clock

    8. Frag Collider

    9. Frag Condenser

    10. Fuse Array

    11. Main Output

    12. Extinguisher

12. Work Deck

    1. Repair Shop

    2. Union Office

    3. Cleaning

    4. Fittings

    5. Hull Maintenance

    6. Manufacture

    7. Refinery

    8. Brewery

    9. Bar

    10. Galley

    11. Job Assignment

    12. Machine Lounge

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Elsewhere

• Elmcat has carried out an astonishingly deep mapping of the RPG blogosphere, with a galaxy-sized data set you can explore using the bespoke tool.

• Pointless Monument presents a nice, simple system for shore leave in Mothership.

• Dice Goblin revisits the idea of Flux Space in dungeon design.

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No time for any more today, as I just got back from PAX Unplugged and am headed down to Dragonmeet this weekend. Say hi if you see me, and I’ll be taking part in a panel talking about equipment in RPGs at 1:30pm in the seminar room.

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