Keeping track of NPC Crew (Drinax)

[Kulthea]

Greeting fellow travellers.

I'm running the old Drinax campaign (until such time as the new version is out) and I'm wondering how other GMs have handled NPC ship crews. Specifically the crew that the player characters recruit.

The Drinax Intro book suggests a rating (Green, Average, Good, etc) with a DM for their primary skill, and a lesser DM for all others skills. That feels overly powerful to me, as it means all crew members can perform all crew positions.

I guess making the crew just a couple of numbers and really generic prevents crew management from becoming a mini game. The party have collected a couple of other ships along the way and I can only see that continuing. I'd appreciate your thoughts.

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

I treat all characters the same in games, whether they are controlled by the Referee or by the players. Sometimes, an NPC is not as good as they claim to be when hired. Travellers will have to find that out eventually if they care to. See Wonder Woman movie.

 

[allanimal]

In my game, there is a pool of named NPCs that have specific skills and personalities, and a pool of generic crew. The generic crew has 3 types, engineering/mechanical, pilot/electronics and gunner/marine. They have +0-2 in the things in their field, -3 everywhere else. The Generic NPCs crew the pirate fleet that does their thing behind the scenes.

The named NPCs are sometimes with the PC crew doing pirates things, filling in skill gaps, or they may be leading NPC ships or bases on special missions.

For example, one NPC is a very skilled broker and administrator, she usually hangs out on Drinax managing the business, but will fly to a planet when a special deal or especially big score is going down.

Whenever the PCs are back in Drinax ( or now that they have a fast courier that flies a specified route, other locations as well), they provide a general idea of what the background NPCs should be doing. I have some basic checks for how well they do, morale, attrition, etc that basically turns out to be a monthly income (piracy and business gains, minus losses, repairs,etc) all modified by current conditions (the game of sun & shadow is on, so things are tough right now)

Basically, neither I and GM or the players put much thought into it. If the plan is sound and the dice roll well, they make a bit of cash and/or expand. If they want to do something specific, the PCs go off and do it, or a more concrete plan is put in place and we play it out.