QUOTE (Rad @ Sep 6 2008, 08:46 AM)
The arms are pretty ridiculous, and we haven't actually used them for anything yet--there always seems to be a better option--but sometimes in a game you want something just for the cool factor.
Lol. You wanna get a bow with a Min STR of 30. That gives it a damage rating of 32 (33 using explosive heads) plus a maximum range of 1800m. Compared to the maximum range of a sniper rifle, at 1500m, it wins by 300m.
If your GM says it'd be too hard to find, just point him to the availability rating: 2. You should be able to pick one up from your local outdoors centre.
It's legal too, so you don't need a license!
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As for pricing the lifestyle, I'd say they pay full price. Sure, they have a place to live, but they're going to need energy and food and have chosen to live in an area where it's hard to come by. They'd also need to pay for maintenance. Sure, they have extremely good repair credentials, but unless they have replacement parts then they're not gonna be able to repair it.
Assuming you're following standard operating procedure for repairs (as anyone throwing 24 dice to repair something will tell you to do), there are a number of standard
aircraft maintenance checks that you'll want to be making. From the sounds of it, you'd need an aircraft shop to do an A or B check, and an aircraft facility to do a C or D check. The number of dice you throw at it doesn't help, because there are some parts you just plain won't be able to reach without the appropriate tools, like winches, and some checks you just won't be able to do without the appropriate tools, like the microwave-based scanners they use to check for minute stress fractures. Tiny, invisible, fractures could lead to the craft falling from the sky if left unchecked. Because you're throwing so many dice, you can probably take a penalty and use a kit for an A check, B checks would require a shop. Similarly you could take a penalty and do a C check in a shop, but you'll really need a facility for a D check.
If the plane is mostly grounded, you can probably increase the times, but staying grounded has its own issues even in a climate-controlled hangar. Their plane is floating, so you've got potentially quite violent motion (natural harbours, at-least the good ones, are generally populated) and various sea creatures are gonna start making it their home. Salt-water is nasty stuff too, and being splashed all-over with it is going to necessitate maintenance anyway. I'd extend times, as it's definitely less stressful than flying every day, but a x3 increase doesn't seem unreasonable, maybe x6 if you want to be kind.
If they steal fuel or replacement parts, let-alone try and steal access to a vehicle shop, they start making even more enemies and people start putting 2 and 2 together. To steal parts, they need to be the parts for your model of plane, and they need to be the parts that are needed. Even their modus-operandi may start giving things away, eventually. Electronic theft (generally done by making someone else pay for it) will eventually be noticed, which can lead to honey-pot traps. Physical theft risks witnesses, and wired communication can't be jammed. It's a risky business, one that quite possibly reveals what type of craft is being used, and more info out there means the net closing around you. It could be risked, but it might be better paying the price in the long run.
How much should it all cost? Well, repairing one box of damage on that thing is gonna cost 15k:nuyen: worth of parts, and that's no-matter how many dice you throw at the task. Assuming that a month's normal maintenance is approximately equivalent to two boxes of damage, the amount of damage it can take before 'wound modifiers' are experienced, they're looking at 2 boxes every 3 months. That roughly equates to another 10k every month (5k if you're being kind)... Doesn't sound too harsh, although it does necessitate regular access to shops and occasional access to facilities. They can ignore this cost, but if they do then just start filling-in boxes of damage on the plane's condition monitor.
You also can't assume that the aircraft had a D maintenance yesterday. I'd roll a D4 and subtract 1 to find-out how many years it'll be before it needs a D maintenance, and roll a D12 and subtract 2 to find-out how many months it'll be before it needs a B maintenance. The reason I subtract two from the B maintenance is that one of the plane's engines was shot-out and it was forced to make an emergency landing. I know they fixed it up using lots of dice, but being wicked-good at repairs only lets you do it faster, and says nothing for the main airframe of the craft. Subtract the time that's passed in-game since it was stolen, and either multiply the rest by 3 or count slowly. That's how long it'll be before they need access to a vehicle shop/facility.
How long will they need the shop/facility for? Well, according to
this article, a D check normally takes "between 15,000 and 35,000 hrs. of labour", so an average of 25000. Assuming an extended test with a period of 1 hour, and that it's normally being worked-on by normal crews rolling 6 dice (Stat 3 skill 3), that means 2 hits per hour and thus a threshold of 50000. That's talking about a 747, however. The tilt-wing is probably 1/5th the size (a 747 is about 4.5 times the size of an osprey), so an extended repair test at with a threshold of 10000 and an interval of 1 hour seems fair. Given that the job is innately multi-task friendly, I'd total-up the skills of people working on it and use averages. I think an easier way to do it is to convert it into a daily task, assuming everyone works 16 hours. That means a repair test (416, 1 day), but you can increase the contributions of individuals that don't sleep (drones etc) by 50%. I don't know how good your party are at repairs, but if you assume a pool of 60 dice then you're looking at 20 hits per day, taking a total of 20 days.
I don't have any solid numbers for a C check, but I think that a threshold of 2000hrs doesn't seem unreasonable (that's the equivalent of being out for a week). Using the same time estimation system as above, it'd take ~4 days if your pool of dice was 60. If you tried to make-do with a shop, however, you'd need to remember to subtract the penalty from each contributor.
I don't mean to be harsh in these numbers. I'm just offering them as an 'all things considered' system for keeping the craft air-worthy. 10k/month doesn't seem an unreasonable expenditure, but your opinion may differ from mine as to how much longer the craft will keep when not flying. They can in-theory steal everything they need, although they could also steal everything they need to maintain a lifestyle. They just need to decide where the line is drawn. Is it really worthwhile to steal the parts/fuel, given the risks and identification factor, or would they be better-off doing jobs and using it to pay for said parts/fuel.