GUIDE · SURVIVAL & MANAGEMENT
Frozen Ship Crew Management
Twenty people, one ship, a planet trying to kill you. You don't fight the cold with your own hands alone — you fight it by putting the right survivor in the right job and keeping them sane. Here's the whole system.
The Core Idea: Assign, Don't Micromanage
Your crew of 20 is managed by assignment. Send people to work inside the ship (kitchen, boiler, workshop, infirmary, research) or to gather resources outside. The art is balancing homesteaders who keep the city running against scavengers who bring home the means to keep doing it. Rough opening split: ~60% home, ~40% out, shifting toward more gatherers once warmth/food are stable.
Every Role, and What It Actually Does
| Role | Purpose | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Boiler / Heating | Keeps the ship livable vs the ~600 wood/day burn | Critical from hour 1 |
| Kitchen | Cooks meals at a fixed rate for 20 crew (3/day each) | Critical from hour 1 |
| Housing / Rest | Cuts fatigue; assign tired crew here | High, early |
| Workshop | Crafts gear & repairs from scavenged materials | Medium, after basics |
| Infirmary | Treats illness/injury; morale firewall | High once sickness appears |
| Scavenger | Ventures out for wood, cloth, scrap, food (mind curfew) | High, daylight only |
| Guard | Defends the ship from predators/hostiles | Situational |
| Researcher | Unlocks tech that compounds survival odds | Luxury, stable colonies |
The Seven Jobs (Post-Launch Confirmed)
After launch the crew is organized into seven explicit roles. Heating and food come first — staff them before anything else.
| Job | What it does | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Kitchen | Cooks the 3 meals/day for all 20 crew | Critical from hour 1 |
| Wood gathering | Feeds the boiler's ~600 wood/day burn | Critical from hour 1 |
| Food foraging | Brings in food to keep the kitchen supplied | Critical from hour 1 |
| Scrap collection | Salvages scrap for crafting and trade | Can lag early |
| Fabric | Produces cloth for clothing and warmth | Can lag early |
| Construction | Builds and expands ship structures | Only after stable |
| Hospital | Treats the sick and injured (see morale below) | High once illness appears |
The Four Morale States You Must Track
Frozen Ship models your crew as people, not pawns. Each state has a cause and a counter. Two of them are expedition-enders you must respect: illness cascades, and faith is a soft meter that quietly ends an otherwise stable run.
| State | What causes it | How to fight it |
|---|---|---|
| Illness | Cold, injury, contagion | Infirmary + rest breaks; isolate the sick. A sick crewmember still eats but produces nothing and occupies a hospital bed — left unchecked it cascades to others and can collapse the colony. |
| Fatigue | Overwork, chained scavenge runs | Rotate shifts; send tired crew to housing |
| Fear | Losses, predators, failed runs | Keep wins coming; contain losses |
| Faith | Belief in the mission | Stable food + safe returns; avoid needless deaths. Faith is a soft indicator — it can silently hit zero and end an expedition that looked stable, so protect it before crisis, not during. |
A Staffing Plan by Phase
Opening (Days 1–3)
- Boiler 2 · Kitchen 2 · Housing 1 · Scavengers 4–5 · everyone else on flex.
- Goal: survive the first nights with warmth and food secured.
Stabilizing (Days 4–10)
- Add Workshop 2, Infirmary 1–2, grow scavengers to 6–7.
- Cross-train so no single role is one sick person away from collapse.
Scaling (Week 2+)
- Specialize: dedicated researchers, a guard rotation, redundant boilers.
- Specialization is a luxury of a stable colony — earn it first.
Practical Tips
- Keep at least one dedicated medic the moment illness appears — an infirmary unused is a colony at risk.
- Never send your last healthy scavenger out alone past mid-afternoon.
- Rotate, don't grind — fatigue penalties cost more than the short-term output gain.
- Protect faith: celebrate safe returns, avoid avoidable deaths, stabilize food first.
- Spend surplus fabric on coat and thermal-equipment upgrades for your scavengers before selling it — warmer crews survive longer, farther runs and the payoff compounds every sortie.
- Use laws and restrictions (see Base Building) to enforce rest and rationing when morale dips.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many scavengers should I run early?
Around 4–5 out of 20, paired with 2 boiler + 2 kitchen + 1 housing. You want a wood/food surplus before growing the gather team.
What happens if a crewmember dies?
Losses spike Fear across the crew and remove a worker from an already-tight roster. With only 20 people, every death is felt — protect faith and avoid needless risks.
Should I specialize or cross-train?
Generalize early (warm bodies on every job), specialize once the colony is stable. Specialization boosts efficiency but creates single points of failure.
Can I control crew directly in the field?
No — you assign roles and they execute. Management is about assignment, rotation, and morale, not real-time control.