Ideas for making mechanics/engineering more fun/interactive

[Eekmonster]

So, to get to the specifics, we just started playing Mongoose Traveller tonight. Lots of fun. I have played lots of sci-fy rpg and it holds up, and even more fun than most other systems just judging from our first session.
So they created their characters. And as usual, i try not to dictate or direct the players in their "roles". Frankly I do my best to discourage players from choosing skills and abilities based on what the others are doing. Though if they want to I leave them to their own devices. Nothing feels more unnatural to me than a fully balanced groups. Makeshift rag-tag outfits that shouldn´t work but to nontheless are the most fun !
But to get on point, I decided to set the stage in the Starcraft universe. for you who have played the starcraft games it is set a few years before the emergence of the Zerg. And they are the crew on an old ass hauler called "Little Hog". Which is owned by a private entity called WakeGate that run a few colonies on the fringes of Confederacy space. And their job is travelling between the colonies, bring supplies, help with local problems, fix what needs fixing. And on top of that keep people moving along the company lines !
And so I told then they just make the characters they want to. I have made an entire crew for the ship, and members will be removed to fit the type of characters they make. And incidentally they all wound up being army engineer types. Although diverse enough in their skill choosing not to be overshadowing each other. Each is fairly specialized in their own thing.
Didn´t expect that, but it´s cool. So basically they are an advanced repair crew that kicks ass. Which is basically they did their first session. Went to an ice moon called Lykor III which has both an R&D station and a mining outpost, whom got into a spat with each other and damaged essential components on board both stations. Attempting to fix the stations and prevent mad scientists and crazed hillbilly workers from killing each other. And on top of that, trying to contain the antics of their SCV operators, Ray, Jay, and Rayjay Wiggins. (They incidentally met the fourth brother aboard the mining facility. Jayray. But it will be unlikely they will meet the final brother, Rayray. He´s a lawyer, nobody likes lawyers).
But to finally get to the point:
Given the fact that the group turned out so specialized towards making stuff and fixing things, I want to elaborate on it and try making it more interesting. It is fun as of now. But I am always looking to improve.
The system itself does not matter. In the sense, core mechanics are really similar/has similar function. So concepts translate easily. If you guys are not familiar with Traveller, the core mechanic is the same as most. (specific die type) + (attribute) + (skill) VS Target Number. As most rpg´s go.

So what i was thinking. How about each "fixing" job could be like a puzzle or a mini game. Drawing up what´s wrong, how to fix it, what´s available. give them options on how to make it work (and options that could end in disaster). Instead of just: one check, you got it, bye bye !
The bad part of that idea is the fact that making puzzles for rpg has always been my weak spot. Perhaps its an opportunity for me to remedy that situation.
So any ideas for ways to make objectives like these more interesting for the long haul ?

And sorry for making it way too long considering how short the question was.
Blame Ray, Jay, and Rayjay.

[Magua]

What are their different specialties?

[Eekmonster]

I don´t have their characters in front of me, but I remember amongst the specialities is life support systems, electronics, power systems, mechanics.

[Knaight]

One option would be to bring in condition tracks in a big way - a station or star ship could easily have several. Then, set them up to interact with each other, build systems of cascading failure and the like, where the decision of what to repair first and how much to repair it before switching to a different system matters. Make a jury rigging system that works with these condition tracks, where there's decisions to make between proper repairs that are slower and improper repairs that get the job done but have side effects. Then, have resources really matter - a coolant leak that is left too long and that wipes out half the plants in hydroponics as a result (because the PCs were focused on the reactor cascade instead) doesn't matter much if food and air are glossed over.

[Magua]

Star Wars Saga had a mechanic -- skill challenges -- for handling something with multiple skill checks in order to overcome an obstacle or advance a plot (eg "Win the pod race" or "Get the Ewoks on your side") but that was really for multiple players making multiple skill checks to keep them all involved. Wouldn't work very well for a single player.

Other than that, I think puzzles are a great idea because they're engaging. Depending upon players, you could let them skip the puzzle for a penalty on the skill check, competing the puzzle is a bonus (or automatic success) on the skill check. FMPOV, the puzzles don't need to be relevant to the game; I'm imagining things like sudoku, a crossword puzzle, where's Waldo, etc, using a variety so that the same player never gets the same type twice.

If not that, it's going to have to come down to giving the players meaningful choices. Give them not enough resources to fix everything, so they have to decide what to not fix (alternatively: a time limit that precludes them from fixing everything, but they could try jury rigging everything...). Or have some good bonus (or safety) equipment that only one can use at a time.

I feel there needs to be some sort of limit in place, whether resources, time, or associated danger. If there's none of those three, then there's no chance of failure, so I wouldn't even concentrate on it at all.

[daniel_ream]

You want the old Torg sourcebook The Nile Empire. Full stop.

It's pulp Weird Science Gadget creation rules are a minigame unto themselves where the player has a set number of necessary components given the type of gadget he's building, required connections between them, and has to draw out a schematic of his gadget with all the required bits connected. Skill rolls to create the gadget are based on what the player draws. There are efficient and inefficient ways to draw your diagram.

You can reskin this for repairs pretty trivially. You can even distinguish (say) power systems from life support by changing the requirements (perhaps power systems requires fewer components but the rolls are harder, while life support rolls are easy but require a fiendishly complex graph).

I am a huge fan of minigames for non-combat skill challenges. It's a neglected aspect of game design.