Renting a Ship?

[Maitete]

Hey everyone,

I'm beginning a campaign with a Noble who will probably want to hire a small ship and crew to travel with, and I can't for the life of me find any costs listed for renting a ship.

Now, it's certainly possible that no one would rent out a ship, or that he should just book passage on a ship, which I found is 1 sp/day (or 4sp/day for a luxury room) in PI. But, if he's hell-bent on paying someone to cart his snotty Zingaran carcass around, how much should I milk him for?

Any suggestions or page references would be most appreciated!

 

[FailedSpotCheck]

I would make it an opposed Diplomacy check. Whosoever has the highest roll (plus mods, if any) wins the haggling competition. Simple.

Welcome to the boards, old man!

 

[Spectator]

If I were an enterprising pirate I would not charge him that much and get him on board then feed him to the fishes several days later.
Great plot hook.


Now you just hit 2 birds with one stone.

 

[Maitete]

I was thinking of charging him somewhere around 50 sp a day for the ship and crew, since the trip he'll be taking will be around 3 days, and he has 200 sp total. That way I've gotten him pretty broke and he'll need to do something about it. The only thing I'm worried about is finding somewhere in the rules where it's supposed to cost 1000 sp a day or something....

 

[Clovenhoof]

I don't have any fixed values, but it depends on how big the ship is and where he wants to go.
For instance, my group hired a fisherman to take them to an unsettled island with his trawler. So for that I figured 1sp per person per day is enough.

If the party/noble wants to charter a ship to have complete control over it, taking on no other passengers and no cargo, he will have to cough up the entire crew's wages, in addition to a fee for the ship itself (based on the revenue that could be generated by normal service), payable to the owner. Of course, the appropriate pay is different for a pirate ship and a merchant ship.

I think you could say that a normal sailor gets 1sp/day, and the boatswain, sailing master and other possible officers each get 4-12sp/day depending on position and ship size. And the commander may demand even more.

So imho, you should only let them charter a ship when it's necessary, for example if they are on a treasure hunt, or if they are pursuing another ship, that sort of thing. Doing it just for getting from A to B would be a waste of money. Just let them book passage, end of story.

 

[pasuuli]

I was thinking of charging him somewhere around 50 sp a day for the ship and crew, since the trip he'll be taking will be around 3 days, and he has 200 sp total. That way I've gotten him pretty broke and he'll need to do something about it. The only thing I'm worried about is finding somewhere in the rules where it's supposed to cost 1000 sp a day or something....

Consider that an NPC with a ship to let isn't going to look up his price in a rulebook: what he charges depends on his situation. Maybe he's lost his primary means of income -- fishing -- because of some evil sorcerer (voila! plot hook!) and he figures he can get some fast cash badly needed.

Or, as a previous poster mentioned, he's an unscrupulous pirate with a hardened, criminal crew, who will try to get the jump on our players once they're out to sea. (In that case, I expect the players will end up gutting the bad NPCs and taking the boat for themselves, or else all will be shipwrecked out on some forbidden island -- plot hook!).

 

[librarycharlie]

The amount the captain will ask is exactly what he can get. A rich noble with an adventuring party dripping jewels will likely find themselves arriving in their home port poor or dead.

Mutiny is recommended in large parties. It's the safest way to get home. Of course, that means, no captain worth his salt would take an armed party onboard in the first place...

Just look at what happens to Conan when he gets "recruited" on a pirate ship. A few weeks later, he murders the captain and takes over. Bada-bing, bada-boom.

 

[Sutek]

You can probably even come up with an easy function to figure cost. Just keep in mind that larger ships will be needed for longer journeys, and as such they have less room for passengers in a funny sort of way. They are also more likely to be able to haggle down for stowage berths versus the upper end of actual rooms with beds! (luxury...)

Take the price of the vessel you feel would be required for the trip, and divide by...something. Seriously, just pick a number, and stick to it. Say it's 10. Dividing by ten gets you nice round numbes from the price lists, but perhaps dividing by seven get's you values you like better.

In either case, it's both a starting value to be bartered and haggled, and it's also negotiable based on factors already stated (the greed and general deprevity of the captain, other passengers coming along, horses and livestock coming along, etc.).

Whatever you do, don't forget to factor in Reputation. Some people will give famous folks a ride just about anywhere for cheap as free...

...until deprevity gets factored into it. :twisted:

"Not so tough out on the open seas, are ye, lubber?!?!? Mwahahahaha!!"