Hired Hands on Trading Ship

[ericphillips]

Hi all:

Thanks for the help. You are all really aiding me is getting a game started ont he right foot.

I have a team of four players. They are concerned they might need to hire some extra hands. For instance, only one character has Steward, so a full load of passengers is beyond his capacity. They might also want some backup, especially in engineering. So they want to hire 2-3 NPCs to help out.

Question I have is, what do they cost. I would like them to work for a flat monthly fee.

The crew is taking their monthly profit (after deducting fees, maintenance, fules, etc), keeping a percentage off the top for rainy day emergencies, then everyone who has a shares gets 1% of the distribution per share, the remainder split evenly between the four.

I think they are going to have a Freetrader.

What are guidelines for cost of these hired hands? And, besides room and board, what else should they get?

Thank you!

 

[AndrewW]

Hi all:

Thanks for the help. You are all really aiding me is getting a game started ont he right foot.

I have a team of four players. They are concerned they might need to hire some extra hands. For instance, only one character has Steward, so a full load of passengers is beyond his capacity. They might also want some backup, especially in engineering. So they want to hire 2-3 NPCs to help out.

You can also take some tonnage and add luxuries as an alternate to steward. Which may or may not be worth it. This means less tonnage available for cargo but if not adding a steward leaves a stateroom available for passengers this could be worth it (and saves on the stewards wages as well).

But the number of passengers that can be served by one steward is dependent upon level of skill and type (high or medium passage) so if the player has a higher level or not that many high passage might not need any others.

Question I have is, what do they cost. I would like them to work for a flat monthly fee.

What are guidelines for cost of these hired hands? And, besides room and board, what else should they get?

Could try this thread:

http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=41513

 

[BP]

...What are guidelines for cost of these hired hands? And, besides room and board, what else should they get?

The first page of Spacecraft Operations (p137) in Core gives crew salaries.

Personnally I would have them negotiate around those - taking into account planet they are on (TL, bases, pop), any negotiation skills (both sides) and the level of skill of the NPCs. This could be a simple - provide x NPCs or it could be a mini-adventure advertising/locating and selecting NPCs.

Room and board would be standard - everything else is extra (special gear like suits, etc.). NPCs should have some possessions (just like starting players) - especially experienced ones. Some may even provide vehicles/ships...

They also might have familial obligations/histories that can be usefull - and old allies and enemies, not to mention criminal histories (may be quicker to take a lower pay)!

 

[AndrewW]

As a GM I'd always go for "hired hands". NPCs are to much fun/too useful to replace by "x tons of luxury".

Just an option and doesn't take away from other positions that might be needed.

Besides can a A/A2 operate with a four man crew and have a Steward? I count

Captain/Master
Pilot/Navigator
Sensors/Commo
Engineer

as a minimum set. And using that they would be occupied, working shifts during normal travel, being all "on station" in emergencies. So none can fill the Steward role.

Minimum crew would be Pilot (who can double as Navigator or use an Expert Astronavigation program), Engineer. Does not require a crew position for Sensors/Commo nor is a Captain/Master required.

Others to consider Medic, Gunners.

 

[BP]

I like the Crew Requirements outlined in Core (pg 113) though I originally missed them.

Basically one pilot and one engineer - and even that can be embodied in one individual (as stated). For good DMs - generally the more the better - and it's a good excuse for the Referee to play NPCs.

The 'Average' of Three pilots does seem exceptional - pilots have little to do in most situations - heck even docking/landing would generally just be oversite. Heck - the Soviet shuttle Buran in the late 80's IIRC was unmanned and that brick landed quite well in adverse winds! Modern bombers are can even complete thier mission and return unmanned - to speak nothing of cruise missiles (granted - topologies are well mapped before hand - but modern systems can make allowances for and avoid unknown objects and dynamically determine optimum paths).

One could presume some regulations requiring certain staffing (and the false identity papers to meet them)

 

[MrUkpyr]

Besides can a A/A2 operate with a four man crew and have a Steward? I count

Captain/Master
Pilot/Navigator
Sensors/Commo
Engineer

as a minimum set.

Looking at this I note that the Captain/Master isn't actually doing anything.

I would suggest Captain/Pilot + Nav/Sensors/Comm + Engineer
And a Steward/Medic

 

[BP]

...Looking at this I note that the Captain/Master isn't actually doing anything. ...

Captain's Prerogative!

 

[CosmicGamer]

With a crew of two you won't get a watch rotation. That means at least 50% of the time a position is unmanned even if they are cross-trained like Hans Olo and Valla (or was than Han Solo and Chewie?) since the layout separates control and drives. Might work technically but I have a feeling it won't work with the authorities.

The 'authorities' have no problem with this. Isn't a scout ship typically run by one person? No shifts, no backup. Page 113 goes into detail what the Minimum, Average, and Full crew requirements are.
My original book (don't know if it has changed) doesn't list crew for the Free Trader or the Far Trader but the much larger 400t Fat Trader lists a crew of five.
Pilot
Navigator
Engineer
Medic
Steward

We are discussing traders and not patrol ships or navy ships that are always on alert. Traders are typically trying to get by with the lowest costs possible and often run with less than the average crew requirement.

When 'off duty' you can't go far. Sensors can be automated and give an alarm when something comes near. Comms typically record everything and can page personnel when there is an incoming message for the ship. The engineer doesn't need to repair what isn't broke and most systems can't be worked on until they can be shut down. Once a course is set, the navigator is a waist of a bed so replace them with a Expert Astronavigation program if they don't fill another position too. Piloting can be automated and for the times it's not, that is when a pilot needs to be assigned to the bridge. I like to have one warm body on the bridge at all times so that they can go make sure people wake up if alarms do go off.

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

Regarding the need for watch rotation...

Remember that the vast majority of your time you are going to be in Jumpspace. The normal 100D transit takes only a few hours for most ships (less than 1 day).

In Jumpspace, you may actually let the ship operate on automatic with a "duty crewman" that responds to any alarms.

Military ships are much less likely to allow computer monitoring and will probably have an engineer on duty and various roving watches that go around double-checking on things.

The only time you need a full crew is during orbital maneuvering and near-planet operations where there are lots of things going on, but those are relatively short periods of time and wouldn't normally require any kind of watch rotation.

 

[ericphillips]

The first page of Spacecraft Operations (p137) in Core gives crew salaries.

Thnaks, I missed it!

 

[BP]

The first page of Spacecraft Operations (p137) in Core gives crew salaries.

Thnaks, I missed it!

Glad to help - my pocket rule book has curved and peeling covers from looking for things I've missed and others have generously pointed out on this forum!

 

[AndrewW]

I have always considered the crew complements "minimum required in an emergency" not "normal staff levels". Based simply on real live facts. In europe even a channel/river barge must have a crew of two qualified "drivers" and they are slow and close to a mooring point at most times.

Looking at the crew complement of the ships I would disagree with these not being normal staffing levels.

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

I have been fiddling with a crew requirement table for a while. It has both Civilian and Military versions and takes into account TL, Robots and the use of Intellect/Expert programs to offset crew requirements.

If anyone has tried to use HG to build a very large cargo ship, you know that the crew requirements rules are broken. However, there ARE ways to legally get around having 1000 crewmembers on your 100,000 ton cargo ship, but you have to be creative.

Traveller has usually considered military staffing levels when determining crew requirements, but civilian ships normally have much lower crew requirements. Why you ask? Reliance on automation of course. The military doesn't trust automation (at TL 7 anyway) because it doesn't work well when things go wrong (like when you are attacked). Civilians don't worry about that nearly as much, so it is more common to have a single civilian monitoring a system while military types might have 4-6 people monitoring that same system.

Also, for space ships, you need to consider the following situations:

Landing/Takeoff (with and without landing control)
Orbital Maneuvering (with and without traffic control)
Maneuvering within 100D limit of the planet
Interplanetary Travel
Jump Transition
Jump Space Travel
Combat
Damage Control

The crew requirements are different for each case above. Your actual crew is going to be based on the MAXIMUM crew needed from those scenarios above. For Civilians, combat is not a crewing consideration in most cases; for the Military, combat is probably the driving force for crew size.

I hope to get this all organized and put into a S&P article (eventually).