On Thu, Apr 10, 2014 at 11:15 AM, Kelly St. Clair <kellys@efn.org> wrote:

On 4/10/2014 7:14 AM, Richard Aiken wrote:

Of course, none of
these various bits are technically compatible with one another - or with
the hulk in which they are being installed - without the investment of a
lot of sweat and duct tape and prayer. If they were, this particular
trick would have already been performed by somebody else.

Alternatively, for a slightly different sort of campaign, perhaps they ARE technically compatible - all being built to the same thousand-year-old spec(s) - but no right-thinking Vilani would EVER "void the warranty" (why, the resulting ship won't even HAVE a proper* warranty! *clutches pearls*) in such a fashion.

A perfectly valid Vilani response.

But my supposition is that these ships have already passed out of Vilani hands, being sold as used to less-cautious owners. These individuals then performed (or perhaps not) maintenance on them for some years/decades, before passing the ships onward to subsequent buyers and so on and such forth . . . before the ships finally broke down out in the wilds of the frontier and their then-current owners (without either cash or insurance) simply abandoned them where they floated.

This scenario springs from the RL habit of marginal shipping companies simply abandoning worn out tramp freighters at the dockside in third world ports . . . which happens often enough that there is an actual industry whereby laborers are paid (very little) to literally disable such ships *by hand*.

Richard Aiken

"Never insult anyone by accident." Robert A. Heinlein

"A word to the wise ain't necessary -- it's the stupid ones that need the advice." - Bill Cosby

"We know a little about a lot of things; just enough to make us dangerous." Dean Winchester