Recruiting for non-mercenaries

[Brandon C]

A few years ago, while rereading the recruiting rules from Book 4 and thought with some modifications they could be used for hiring characters other than mercenaries, with starship crew being the best example.

Some changes would be to the Recruiting Matrix (change the numbers for TL, disregard law level and government, DMs for starport class, possibly give a +1 if naval or scout base is present (for those recently discharged from service)). Any character with a term in merchants, scouts or navy is a "veteran", or an "officer" if commissioned. A "raw recruit" is anyone else, even if they have terms in army, marines or other.

Most ships won't bother with raw recruits, but if they do, familiarization still takes 6 weeks and gives two level 0 skills: vacc suit and a skill on the Service Skills table, chosen by the recruiter or captain (taking into account any skills the recruits already has and needs of the ship).

Any thoughts?

 

[Selandia]

In Canada today you do not get in the Seafarer Union without the "Safety at Sea" class of the Coast Guard.

Major starports should have a "Vocational School" with both the extended cursus for some useful ship skill 1, an a short cursus for shipboard life 0 (Vacc suit 0, lifeboat 0) for apprentice deck apes and shorehands with useful skill (cook, doctor, casino staff, scrubber…).

Actually the Starport authority in mid-high law level world may refuse to give a departure permit to a starship without safe standards of manning

So your "raw recruit", unless you wish so, should always get Shipboard 0. Of course, if you recruit a starstruck youngster along the bedrock of a class E starport for a working passage as scrubber, it will be on the job training,

have fun

Selandia

 

[Brandon C]

Actually the Starport authority in mid-high law level world may refuse to give a departure permit to a starship without safe standards of manning

So your "raw recruit", unless you wish so, should always get Shipboard 0. Of course, if you recruit a starstruck youngster along the bedrock of a class E starport for a working passage as scrubber, it will be on the job training

Unless operating outside of Imperial space (or in a campaign not using the 3I), raw recruits would be extra crew, not filling required crew positions (one exception might be ship's steward, since it only requires Steward-0).

And, honestly, I think few ships would bother with any raw recruits.

 

[mike wightman]

Working passage, and hiring and firing crew has been a thing since the books were written in '77.

I like your idea of adapting the LBB:4 table.

I do not think Imperial starship crew certification policy in the fifty seventh century would bare even a passing resemblance to how Canada, the USA, Russia or China do it today.

You are on a frontier world when tragedy strikes - your engineer is gunned down due to an altercation involving... let's leave that for now

You need a new crew member, you are on a frontier world in the Spinward Marches, the game begins...

 

[McPerth]

IIRC, in MT Assignment Vigilante module there are rules for recruiting starship crews , more or less in the line the OP suggests...

Yes, I know it's MT, not CT, but I guess it's quite applicable too.

 

[McPerth]

And, honestly, I think few ships would bother with any raw recruits.

I disagree with this statment.

IMHO, the CharGen signing for a Free Trader in LBB7 represents just this kind of signing: a Free Trader signing up a 18 years old raw recruit and teaching him from the begining, so hinting it's not so rare a practice.

 

[Brandon C]

IMHO, the CharGen signing for a Free Trader in LBB7 represents just this kind of signing: a Free Trader signing up a 18 years ols raw recruit and teaching him from the begining, so hinting it's not so rare a practice.

Good point. I didn't pick up Book 7 until long after I stopped playing CT on a regular basis and never actually used it for anything, so I tend not to think about it in general CT discussions.

 

[kilemall]

Makes sense.



I have an extra Advanced Education-like table, call it Advanced Skills, for tacking on LBB4+ skills to LBB1/S4 careers. Requires INT 8+, so the idea is they are off the main line of service/career skills but provide useful support without having to redo everything.


I am also looking to use some of the 'soft' skills from the MgT series and compress skill bloat down, so Recruiting is subsumed in Persuasion, which also does duty as Liaison and Bribery. I replace Forgery with Deception and require Mechanical or Electronics/Computer for either printed, digital cards or e-docs, while having a skill that can be used for Acting, Lying, Camouflage, etc. Investigation replaces Interrogation, the polar opposite of Deception.



Another overlooked LBB4 skill in my add-on table is Instruction. That can fix up a lot of player's 'I can't improve my 22 year old's skills in less then 4 years' issues.

Trick is to start out with Skill-0 sessions that are easy to get with just Instruction-1/Skill-1 required of the instructor, almost like a continuing ed/local college/online class. Then as the player wants to improve the character to Skill-1/Skill-2, it becomes progressively harder to locate instructors that can actually get the job done (Instruction-3/Skill-3 is hard to come by and should be like the 4 year sabbatical in terms of availability).

Remember, it's also not automatic that the player will 'get' the skill, so they may have to 'retake' the class and that should be tougher to get done the next time round.


Skill-3+ gets into some really rare teaching talent, and should involve significant play 'quests' to impress the potential 'sensei' into giving precious time and skill to the prospective acoloyte.