Mercenary Shares from Book 4

[Gadrin]

after a ticket is paid the owner/etc usually deducts 50% as profit and then the remaining credits are divided up by the number of shares and given out.

I assume only those participating in the operation get shares or could the owner, who also happens to hold the rank of colonel or captain, also get more money that way ?

 

[pendragonman]

Depends on the "constitution" of the merc company. The company owner could certainly get more money that way, since that would be like an owner of a regular company paying himself a regular paycheck.

Theoretically, the company's 50% is to cover overhead (transport, ammo, medical treatments, advertising, lawyers, etc...) There could be very little "profit" left after all of that.

 

[Gadrin]

Cool, that's kinda what I thought, I was hoping there might be some details in an adventure someplace that I didn't know about.

I'm thinking of a small company, say 4 who do the work, and the owner who has the reputation and consults with larger companies who need jobs done (they're bounty-hunters/trackers).

Thanks for your time.

 

[aramis]

Well, based upon other game's figures (Better Games' Crimson Cutlass and FASA's Battletech), owners/sponsors look to take 10-50% depending upon capital expenses up front.

If he's just pulling them together with their own equipment, on the low end. If he's almost a service head himself, possibly 100% less salaries.

If operating on shares, figure 50% of post-expenses for a "Just hiring bodies with skills", with 10% o.p.e. being the OpCO, 20% o.p.e. for the officers, and that leaves 20% o.p.e. for the enlisted... For "bring your gear" I'd use 25/15/30/30 instead of the above 50/10/20/20.

 

[Gadrin]

Well, based upon other game's figures (Better Games' Crimson Cutlass and FASA's Battletech), owners/sponsors look to take 10-50% depending upon capital expenses up front.

If he's just pulling them together with their own equipment, on the low end. If he's almost a service head himself, possibly 100% less salaries.

If operating on shares, figure 50% of post-expenses for a "Just hiring bodies with skills", with 10% o.p.e. being the OpCO, 20% o.p.e. for the officers, and that leaves 20% o.p.e. for the enlisted... For "bring your gear" I'd use 25/15/30/30 instead of the above 50/10/20/20.

I have no idea what that means.

 

[zonk]

I have no idea what that means.

He means if the company owner puts up all the equipment, training, and transportation he takes the entire ticket money minus straight salary for the people he recruits.

If they provide equipment the owners share could be between 10 - 50%. The more he provides the larger his share.

He then gives examples. If he provides the equipment 50% up front, 10% for the company commander, 20% divided amongst the other officers, 20% for the enlisted.

If the mercs provide their own equipment 25% to the organizer, 15% to company commander, 30% for the other officers, 30% for the enlisted.

Using his figures and a 'nominal' company of company commander, executive officer, 3 platoon commanders, 80 enlisted (24 per platoon, 8 in company headquarters squad) the split would 25% to the organizer, 15% to the company commander, 30% split between the remaining 4 officers (XO, 1st, 2nd, 3rd platoon commanders), and 30% split between the remaining 80 enlisted.

But that's just my interpretation. I'm sure Aramis will be along shortly to correct it

 

[aramis]

Zonk: no need to correct it. I will, however, expand upon it...

Let's assume a typical company with 1 captain, 1st Lt XO, 3x 2d LT PltCO, that would be 5 officer shares among four officers... the XO then gets 12%, and each 2nd LT takes home 6% of the take.

Lets assume a Plt has 1 Plt Sgt (E7), 1 SSgt (E6), 1 "buck" Sgt (E5), 3 Cpl (E4), 3 LCpl (E3), 6 Pvts (2) and 9 Recruits (E1), and the staff is 1 1stSgt (E8), 1 SSgt (E6), 1 Sgt (E3), 2 Cpls (E4) and 3 LCpls (E3), that gives us 27xE1, 18xE2, 12x E3, 11xE4, 4xE5, 4xE6, 3xE7, 1xE8, and each man gets a share plus a share for each E#, we get 80+27+36+36+44+20+24+21+8= 296 Enlisted shares, so each enlisted share is about 0.101%, so the E8 is geting about 1% of the take. If we instead give shares solely on rank, it's 216 shares, or about 0.14%, giving the topkick about 1.1% share.

Note that infantry would probably up the enlisted chunk; most of my merc games in traveller and in Battletech are armor, where enlisted are about 2-3x the number of officers, rather than 5-10x... a better fit for the above described unit would be CO gets 5%, officers split 10%, and enlisted split 55%... I forgot to mention determining by unit type. Elite units of infantry would have higher officers:enlisted ratios (3-6x the oficers, rather than the 7-10x for "normal leg")

But also note: in a merc environment, many officers might be financing their troops with better than standard equipment out of their own pocket. Officers also may pay their troops a bonus out of their share....

After all, even if the boss provides uniforms, weapons, and ammo, the officers will likely want to rig the commo far better than the boss wants to... so they provide it for their units, but retain it as "Personal Equipment" and thus earn the better share, since, in effect, they are investing in the unit.

 

[Spiderfish]

Depends on the "constitution" of the merc company. The company owner could certainly get more money that way, since that would be like an owner of a regular company paying himself a regular paycheck.

Theoretically, the company's 50% is to cover overhead (transport, ammo, medical treatments, advertising, lawyers, etc...) There could be very little "profit" left after all of that.

Could is the operative word. The difference between Gross and Net is often considerable in the real world but that doesn't mean the profits are small or the equity holders aren't getting a good dividend. If the company isn't turning a good profit because the contribution is too small to cover the indirect costs you you can either work to reduce costs or just adjust the division of gross profit between the bonus pool and the contribution. The 50/50 split may not be practical IYTU and there is no reason to slavishly obey this figure since it appears to be rather arbitrary. This is of course assuming there is not some sort of troublesome mercenaries' guild or union IYOYGMTU* that views Book 4 as a holy text.


*Anyone like my hoofing new MLA?

Can you guess what it is yet?