Stormwrack: The Case of the Irrelevant Crew

[roguerouge]

What should happen if the crew wins an advantage roll but the captain loses one?

 

[green slime]

I'd say keep it simple. In real life, the tall ships were often manned by rif-raff, quite literally dragged off the street.

It truly was the captian who made everything work. It was the captain who required the sail and gunnery drills until the crew was proficient. It was the captain who drove morale, too, limited by some external factors like number of days at sea and things like that.

Perhaps. But not all of the crew members were riff-raff, freshly press ganged into service, or your looking at disaster, no matter how good the captain is.

 

[Storm Raven]

Sorry Veril, that is just too many rolls. Some ships from Stormwrack have over a hundred crewmen. Would you want to roll all of those dice?

Its almost as if someone should come up with some sort of standard mechanic for allowing characters to just take a 10 for their roll on a skill to speed up the flow of the game.

 

[Artoomis]

Perhaps. But not all of the crew members were riff-raff, freshly press ganged into service, or your looking at disaster, no matter how good the captain is.

That's true, but it depends upon the time frame. Key leadershop was not press-ganged, but, at times, virtually all the crew might be. Times like that were the biggest tests of leadership.

For rank and file crew there were virtually no volunteers, at least not for a long time for ships of the line.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

Anyone got any fixes for this system? I like it's simplicity, but I want to revive the importance of the crew.

Add in modifiers for aggregate crew quality (Elite, Good, Average, Bad, Execrable) and a penalty if the crew is undermanned (or so overmanned the crew can't get around the troops on deck to grab the appropriate rope).

That's really all you need to do.

Brad

 

[Kraydak]

That's true, but it depends upon the time frame. Key leadershop was not press-ganged, but, at times, virtually all the crew might be. Times like that were the biggest tests of leadership.

For rank and file crew there were virtually no volunteers, at least not for a long time for ships of the line.

And yet the navies with experienced crews (say, the British) routinely beat navies without experienced crews (say, the French or Spanish). The fact that the navy payed far less than the merchant marine while requiring more arduous service and so couldn't find volunteers for their crews didn't mean that the navy wasn't crewed by experienced professionals. I'd be tempted to allow (1) officer, and the averaged crew a DC X-5ish check each to give the captain a reroll on a DC X check. That allows a heroic captain the ability to perform with a subpar crew (important for a game like DnD), but a competant officer corps/crew will greatly boost the odds for DCs within their skill range. An incompetant captain will still be able to let a good crew down too, since the actual skill checks are still made by the captai.

 

[Artoomis]

And yet the navies with experienced crews (say, the British) routinely beat navies without experienced crews (say, the French or Spanish). The fact that the navy payed far less than the merchant marine while requiring more arduous service and so couldn't find volunteers for their crews didn't mean that the navy wasn't crewed by experienced professionals. I'd be tempted to allow (1) officer, and the averaged crew a DC X-5ish check each to give the captain a reroll on a DC X check. That allows a heroic captain the ability to perform with a subpar crew (important for a game like DnD), but a competant officer corps/crew will greatly boost the odds for DCs within their skill range. An incompetant captain will still be able to let a good crew down too, since the actual skill checks are still made by the captai.

Well, in truth, it was not the crews that made the differecne, but the captains that trained them. The British took that more seriously than other navies and had better captains.

Naturally, a new crew would be less able than an experienced crew, but the crew was nothing wihout an experienced, able captain - who alone decided what tactics to be used in battle.

It seems to me that, given the history of it, the simple system of using the captain's skill to determine outcome seems perfectly adequate, historically accurate, and simple. A win all around. If you want another factor thrown it, it would be how long the captain has had this crew - a new crew is significantly less able than an experienced crew.