Hiring a Crew

[twofalls]

I have to design a crew for my players Cog, the Hyperion. They hired a Captian, a first and second mate, a cabin boy for the captain, and a ships cook who also handles inventory. The ship is a cog, and using Kalamar rules for the vessel its a Colossal Merchantman with a standard crew of 35.

I'm looking through the 3.0 D&D Arms and Equipment guide in the Mercenaries section. The lightest fighter is a light skirmisher, but I'm not sure that would really be the equivalent of a sailor. Both would have to be skilled at what they do. A sailor however wouldn't require the gear that a soldier would be expected to have. Pay per day is shown as 2sp. I use a silver standard in all my games (all gp values are actually sp values) so that makes it 2cp. Does this sound fair as a daily wage for 30 sailors, 60 cp or 6 sp a day?

Also, does anyone have any ideas about prices for berthing a vessel? I decided to charge 1 sp per foot per week at a secure and safe harbor. Is that out of line? I'm going to pay a cabin boy 1/2 a sailor's wage, the second mate x4 a sailors wage the first mate x7, and the captian x10 with a bonus going to all the officers of either 3% of the vessels profits, or 50 sp per month, which ever is higher.

Any comments?

 

[Tonguez]

I'd go with your light skirmisher equivalent being hardened crew who might be worth a 3cp a peice rather than 2. The captain gets double what the others get (6gp a day) and might have a PC level (at which point he can ask for more). The others ought to be experts (2cp) and even commoners (1cp)
how you mix the crew makeup is up to you (ie you could have an inexperienced commoner crew - its cheaper but not as reliable ...)

Also I'd only bother about the Captain as a character the rest can be background and part of an amorphous 'crew' NPC

 

[twofalls]

My figures are the wages are 322sp/mo.
Overhead (not including berthing) 87 sp/mo.
Berthing (1sp per foot of berthing space) /wk
Prize is 10% *
Captian = 3%
Offiers = 2%
Crew = 5%

* Prize is either value of shipping captured, or the profits of a given trade run.

This might be wildly innacurate for actual pricing, but hell, it will do for a game.

 

[Mark Plemmons]

Well, if you're already playing in the Kingdoms of Kalamar, I suggest you think about picking up Goods and Gear: the Ultimate Adventurer's Guide. Though it's designed for any d20 campaign, all the descriptive text focuses on Kalamar. THe NPC section alone includes over 100 NPCs, including sailor, shipmaster and shipwright. Tables also include wages for each NPC.

I assume you're also using Salt and Sea Dogs: the Pirates of Tellene? Don't forget that the crew usually gets a percentage of any booty. Chapter 5: A Pirate's Life, and "Swag and Booty" at the end of Chapter 11: Swashbuckling Adventures might also be some help.