Re: [FT] Crew quality house rules [Longish]

>>I like the idea of doing crew quality stuff but what about the
>> technology?	All things being equal would a poor crew really misread
>> the dials and instruments so much to warrent a d10?

>Yep. 
>
>The issue is one of training. 
>
>1) How well does the crew do their job under ideal circumstances? This 
>would be the "reading the dials and instruments", and most navi....

Having just re-read the Honor Harrington Series I have a couple quotes 
from the books that might help prove the advantage of a good crew. Or at

least interest someone enough to go check the books out, they are quite 
good. One can get books 1 + 2 at
www.baen.com
http://www.baen.com/library/defaultTitles.htm

Goto the Free Library section and Author David Weber. Book 1 is On 
Basilisk Station.
http://www.baen.com/library/067157793X/067157793X.htm

All the books are   on CDs that one can freely copy and share, one can 
DL them by BitTorrent from here
http://oberon.zlynx.org/

They are often compared to C.S. Foresters Horatio Hornblower in space.

Anyway... Here be a couple relevant quotes on Good Crew VS bad crew. I 
will leave some spoiler space just in case. This is from Book 6: Honor 
Among Enemies and Book 2: The Honor of the Queen. I think there is 
enough to get the idea across, but not clog ones inbox up to badly.

------ Book 6: Honor Among Enemies
------ Book 6: Honor Among Enemies
------ Book 6: Honor Among Enemies
------ Book 6: Honor Among Enemies
------ Book 6: Honor Among Enemies
------ Book 6: Honor Among Enemies
------ Book 6: Honor Among Enemies
------ Book 6: Honor Among Enemies
------ Book 6: Honor Among Enemies
------ Book 6: Honor Among Enemies
------ Book 6: Honor Among Enemies
------ Book 6: Honor Among Enemies
------ Book 6: Honor Among Enemies
------ Book 6: Honor Among Enemies
------ Book 6: Honor Among Enemies
------ Book 6: Honor Among Enemies
------ Book 6: Honor Among Enemies
------ Book 6: Honor Among Enemies
------ Book 6: Honor Among Enemies
------ Book 6: Honor Among Enemies
------ Book 6: Honor Among Enemies
------ Book 6: Honor Among Enemies
------ Book 6: Honor Among Enemies
------ Book 6: Honor Among Enemies
------ Book 6: Honor Among Enemies
------ Book 6: Honor Among Enemies
------ Book 6: Honor Among Enemies
------ Book 6: Honor Among Enemies
------ Book 6: Honor Among Enemies

Wait! His eyes popped open, and he punched a query into his probe, then
grinned fiercely. It was completely against The Book, and it would be
cumbersome as hell, but if he took down Radar Six and routed the input
from Grave Two through Six's systems to Auxiliary Radar at Junction
Three-Sixty-One, then ran a hardwired shunt from AuxRad—

... Snip ...

Aubrey's fingers flew, setting up the required commands. He was working
as much by feel as training, for no one had ever tried anything like
this before, so far as he knew, but there wasn't time to work it all out
properly. His execution files were quick and dirty, but they /ought/ to
do the trick, and he dropped his control box and ripped open his tool
kit.

... SNIP ...

"Do your best," Hughes said grimly, and Aubrey hurled himself under the
radar display, burrowing into the limited space so quickly Jansen didn't
have time to get out of the way. The lieutenant gave a chopped off,
surprised cry, then snatched his feet out of Aubrey's path, and the tech
ripped the front off the main panel. He forced himself to take a moment,
making sure of his identification, then clamped the heavy alligator
clips to the input terminals. He rolled onto his back, sat up, grabbed
the edge of the console, and sent himself slithering across the decksole
on the seat of his trousers, then rolled under Wolcott's panel.

Unlike Jansen, the assistant tac officer had seen him coming, and she
turned her chair sideways to give him room to work even as she continued
driving her sensors

... SNIP ...

"Incoming birds in acquisition!" Jansen sang out, then swore as Aubrey
reached out, clamped his cable to the terminals under Wolcott's console,
and brought his improvised software on-line. "We've lost Radar Six!
Going to emergency override Baker-Three!"

"/Gravitics up!/" Wolcott shouted in sudden triumph. "Enemy missile
platforms bear zero-one-niner two-zero-three, range one-point-five
million klicks! Designate them Bogies Fourteen and Fifteen! They look
like a couple of converted freighters, Ma'am!"

"Got 'em!" Hughes barked
back. "Stand by to roll pods!"

"Programming fire control," Wolcott replied. A handful of seconds ticked
past, and then. "Solution accepted and locked! Pods ready!"

"Roll them!" Hughes snapped, and six missile pods spilled from
/Wayfarer/'s stern. Their sudden appearance took the raiders by
surprise, and no one even tried to fire on them before attitude
thrusters kicked them to the right bearing and they launched. Sixty
missiles, far heavier than anything the raiders had, shrieked towards
their targets, and Aubrey rolled up on his knees, panting, to watch
their tracks cross the main plot. The laser heads reached attack range
and detonated, and scores of x-ray lasers ripped at the missile ships.
Their defenses were even weaker than /Wayfarer/'s; they never had a
chance, and both of them blew apart under the terrible pounding.

...SNIP...

"I—" Aubrey looked at the missile defense officer, then swallowed
again,
harder. "I didn't think about that, Sir. It was just, well, it was the
only thing I could think of, and—"

"And there wasn't time to discuss it," Lady Harrington finished for him.
"Well done, Wanderman. Very well done. That was quick thinking—and it
showed initiative, too." She studied Aubrey thoughtfully, and her 'cat
turned his head to bend his own green eyes upon the electronics tech. "I
don't believe I ever saw that particular trick pulled before."
"That's because it shouldn't work," Hughes pointed out. She punched up
something on her own terminal and studied it for a moment, then
whistled. "There /is/ a cross-link at Three-Sixty-One, but I still don't
see how he forced data compatibility. For that matter, he had to
convince battle comp to bring three independent buses into it."

She shook her head in disbelief, and all eyes turned to Aubrey, who
wished he could sink through the decksole. But the Captain only smiled
and cocked an eyebrow at him.

"Where'd you get the software for it?" she asked, and Aubrey shrugged
uncomfortably."I, uh, sort of made it up as I went along . . . Ma'am,"
he admitted, and she laughed.

------ Book 2: The Honor of the Queen
------ Book 2: The Honor of the Queen
------ Book 2: The Honor of the Queen
------ Book 2: The Honor of the Queen
------ Book 2: The Honor of the Queen
------ Book 2: The Honor of the Queen
------ Book 2: The Honor of the Queen
------ Book 2: The Honor of the Queen
------ Book 2: The Honor of the Queen
------ Book 2: The Honor of the Queen
------ Book 2: The Honor of the Queen
------ Book 2: The Honor of the Queen
------ Book 2: The Honor of the Queen
------ Book 2: The Honor of the Queen
------ Book 2: The Honor of the Queen
------ Book 2: The Honor of the Queen
------ Book 2: The Honor of the Queen
------ Book 2: The Honor of the Queen
------ Book 2: The Honor of the Queen
------ Book 2: The Honor of the Queen
------ Book 2: The Honor of the Queen
------ Book 2: The Honor of the Queen
------ Book 2: The Honor of the Queen
------ Book 2: The Honor of the Queen
------ Book 2: The Honor of the Queen
------ Book 2: The Honor of the Queen

/Thunder of God/'s second salvo fared almost as badly as the first, and
Simonds wrenched around to glare at his tactical section, then bit back
his scathing rebuke. Ash and his assistants were crouched over their
panels, but their systems were feeding them too much data to absorb, and
their reactions were almost spastic, flurries of action as the computers
pulled it together and suggested alternatives interspersed by bouts of
white-faced impotence as they tried to anticipate those suggestions.

He needed Yu and Manning, and he didn't have them. Ash and his people
simply didn't have the exper-

/Thunder of God/ heaved as two more lasers ripped through his sidewall
and gouged into his hull.

<BIG  SNIP>

"Well, Lieutenant?"

"Sir, we've completed our analysis. I'm sorry we took so long, but-"

"Never mind that, Lieutenant." It came out more brusquely than he'd 
intended, and Simonds tried to soften it with a smile. He knew Ash and 
his people were almost as tired as he was, and they'd had to run their 
analysis with reference manuals almost literally in their laps. That was

one reason he'd been willing to waste time trying to outmaneuver 
Harrington. He'd been fairly certain the attempt would fail, but he'd 
had no intention of reengaging until Ash had time to digest what he'd 
learned from the first clash.

"I understand your difficulties," Simonds said more gently. "Just tell 
me what you've learned."

-----------------

Well Longer then I thought it would be when I thought this message up. 
Could probably cut down more/make more coherent but meh, it's 3 AM and I

am off to bed.

---------
Aaron Davis
jalinth@kingston.net

If you can think clearly, know exactly what's happening, and have total 
control of a situation in combat, then you're not in combat