Advice as starting referee

[Tigleth Pilisar]

So, I've got players and their theme - generally a space crew with a corsair, a guy to negotiate deals, medic, marine for muscle and a few others.

I'm using the 3I Spinward Marches as a start point.

My perception is that now I need to tie characters into to some patron - a company or noble or so on to do missions. They could do "transport" related missions, espianoge, recon, perhaps some limited military influence or I suppose any number of things.

My trouble is that I don't have a good idea of how the "payroll" works. They have eight characters, only 4 players. So are the other 4 NPCs? And if NPCs do they chip in their ship shares and share equally in profits or should they be paid positions and then not put in their ship shares? If paid henchmen/retainers/crew, how much do they get paid? How much should a patron pay for missions? I don't really have a guideline. The only numbers I know are the debt they have on the corsair based on how many ship shares they have. I know how interest costs work and also the Core has guidelines on life support and fuel costs.

How much do you pay NPCs to fulfill roles? How much does a Patron pay for missions? I know .... DEPENDS. But all prudent economic decisions on remuneration are based on an understanding of relative guidelines, and I don't see any.

Thanks.

 

[BP]

Generally, NPCs are referee/moderator players - the non in non-player character. It sounds like your players have 8 PCs (2 a piece?).

As for payments - there are several general approaches:

* Patron agrees to pay the players an amount per job (perhaps with bonuses/penalties). Patron keeps the spoils.
* Patron pays time and material (unlikely since that is more of a typical employer/contractor arrangement).
* Patron takes a (generally large) cut of any spoils based on percentage.
* Patron takes a specific, pre-agreed amount from the spoils - the rest is left to the players.

How the players divy things up is up to them - percentage, amount with left over put aside, etc.

Payment can be fiscal, property, and or services (clear rap sheet, etc.).

 

[rust]

Unless both you and the players are rather experienced, I would not allow
the players to play two characters each at the same time, and would treat
the four surplus characters as NPCs.

In my campaigns PCs and NPCs are treated the same, so the four NPCs
could well have contributed ship shares, and therefore have a say in all
decisions. This could be helpful for you, because as the referee you will
play these NPCs, and can use them to balance player decisions you consi-
der problematic.

The only guideline for wages are the crew wages mentioned in the core
rulebook. They range from 2,000 Credits to 6,000 Credits. If the NPCs
are hirelings of the player characters, I would use this as the base.

A patron would have to pay at least these wages plus the upkeep for the
character's ship (mortgage, maintenance, life support ...), and I think that
up to double that amount would be a reasonable payment.

 

[phavoc]

As the referee you have a good understanding of what is going to be required to pay basic expenses for the ship and crew. Its up to them if they want to buy less munitions, fuel, spares, etc and take the risk of a breakdown somewhere.

So use the baseline cost of maintenance and support as your starting point. They should use it too, but broke characters often grasp at straws, which can lead to all kinds of fun "jobs" for you to play with them..

As for what the patron will pay for, depends on what he is asking for. If he just wants transport, he should pay standard cargo fees, incidentals are left up to crew. If it's gonig through "iffy" space, then they could charge for carge plus expenses. If there is combat going on, its going to be much higher, plus expenses, plus some sort of bonus I suspect.

And your real people playing two characters? It can be done, but its hard to get into the mindset of seperate individuals, so maybe just make the minor characters NPC's, and leave the real people in the more important positions - unless you have someone really hankering to roleplay the ship's cook.