House Rules · 3D6 Stats
Verdigris Cargo Operations
Payload and volume limits, fuel load factor, tie-down ratings, cargo pods, Jarvis’s private pod, and departure checks.
Verdigris Cargo Operations
What the ship can carry
The Verdigris has a working payload limit of 80 metric tonnes and 320 cubic metres of internal cargo volume. Those are usable campaign figures, not a fresh yard survey. The old girl has been repaired by six yards, three crews, and at least one person who thought a structural shim could also be a bottle opener.
Payload includes:
- Cargo and its packaging.
- Cargo-pod tare mass.
- Loose equipment carried in the hold.
- Anything bolted in temporarily for a job.
Crew, normal stores, installed ship systems, and declared fuel are already part of the ship’s baseline operating mass. Don’t count them twice.
If any stack lacks mass or volume, the manifest is an estimate. Unknown cargo never counts as weightless. It means the departure check isn’t finished.
Powered armor and self-supporting frames still use their full physical mass and stowed volume in lockers, cabins, vehicles, and cargo holds. While worn with powered assistance operating, the frame carries its own mass and contributes 0 kg to personal carried load. If assistance loses power, the full physical mass immediately applies again. The armor didn’t become lighter; the servos merely stopped making it your problem.
Fuel effect
At empty payload, use the normal route estimate. Cargo raises fuel use linearly:
Fuel multiplier = 1 + (payload used ÷ 80 tonnes × 0.35)
The multiplier tops out at 1.35 at the legal payload limit. Apply it to the route’s normal fuel-credit band and round each end up.
Example: 40 tonnes is half payload. The multiplier is 1.175. A normal 300–700 credit jump becomes 353–823 credits.
Going over payload isn’t “pay extra fuel and send it.” The manifest blocks departure until the load comes down or the GM establishes a desperate exception with consequences.
Volume
Mass and volume are separate limits. A hold full of insulation foam can fail volume while barely troubling the deck. A compact ore slug can do the opposite.
Internal pods and lockers reserve their rated outside volume whether they’re full or empty. Loose cargo counts its measured volume. External pods add mass but do not consume internal hold volume.
Tie-downs
Every cargo stack needs a securement rating in g. A stack can inherit the rating of its pod or locker. Loose cargo needs its own entry.
- 0.5 g: routine Verdigris cruise plan.
- 1.2 g: hull redline and the standard rating for properly locked deck fittings.
- Above 1.2 g: specialized crash restraint, usually for dangerous cargo or someone’s expensive paranoia.
Before departure, compare each stack’s rating to the planned maneuver load. Unrated or under-rated cargo fails the check. This isn’t paperwork theater. A two-ton printer crossing the hold at half a gravity will redecorate Deck C in a very final way.
Cargo pods
Pods have their own tare mass, payload rating, volume, tie-down rating, owner, and visibility.
The Verdigris carries JRV-1, a small private pod belonging to Jarvis:
- Tare mass: 420 kg
- Payload rating: 2,200 kg
- Internal volume: 8 m³
- Tie-down rating: 1.2 g
The pod’s existence, owner, ratings, and loaded aggregate are visible on the crew manifest. Its itemized contents are GM-only. Players may know Jarvis has a pod without getting to rummage through three centuries of somebody else’s business.
Ownership and crew roles (cargo)
- Owner of Record: Madame Aldith Fenmar (Domaine Fenmar) — Elias’s grandmother; holds the legal title and the paperwork headache
- Captain: Ivan — primary pilot; cargo manifests; final departure call
- Engineer: Elias Fenmar — can ground the ship over load placement or structural concern
- Ship’s Medic: Talyra — nurse-level clinical practice; botanist; chef; backup pilot
- Ship Steward: Jarvis — hold ledger, declared measurements, stowage, tie-down sign-off
Day-to-day operation stays with the working crew. Aldith is not on the crew roster login list unless you deliberately add her as an account.
GM controls
GM and admin accounts can inspect and change every campaign inventory and ledger account. Those controls do not require campaign membership and do not impersonate a player. The actual GM identity remains the actor on audited ledger and inventory operations.
Cargo measurements and stowage are edited from Manifests → Verdigris. Player views are read-only. Private-pod contents are filtered on the server, not merely hidden with CSS.