The Hiring Hall

[Spartan159]

How many prospects for a given crew position are you likely to find? Has anyone given this any thought? I'm thinking the obvious modifiers would be Starport class and World Population, travel zone type, possibly trade classifications?

 

[kilemall]

Simply use the High passage roll and modifiers.

Between negative reaction rolls and resumes of people you don't want, that number will boil down to 1-3 real quick- and be very tough to get talent out on boondock planets, as one might expect.

 

[CosmicGamer]

I guess it depends on how complicated/realistic/simulation like you want it to be.

High pop may be a factor, but how much so if it is a low tech world? So TL needs to factor in somehow for some positions.

For other positions, for example streetwise, carouse, combat, and steward skills are something the general population may have without a high level star port or high tech level.

It also depends on how much you want to role play this.

How are the players looking for crew? Walk into a bar "Hey, any pilots looking for work!". TAS postings? The star port bulletin board? Hiring a head hunter or employment firm?

What skills are the players using? Computer skill to use an online job site? Streetwise to find out where folks looking for work might hang out?

How long are you taking to look?

and so on

I typically wing it when needed and don't have set rules. One thing I do factor in for piloting and other ship specific skill recruiting is if there is a naval base and possibly folks leaving the service that might be looking for work.

Or maybe there is a scout base.

Certain things help me determine the career and skills an NPC might have.

 

[Spartan159]

I was pondering whether to create house rules on it or not, Kilemall's suggestion worked as well as anything else I had. In this particular case the crew is looking for gunners at an actual Hiring Hall at Rhylanor Starport, So Navy, Marine, Scouts or Merchants. Or Corsair passing themselves off as one of the previous. :devil: I'm using MgT just for the record, with as much as I can steal from any other version. IMTU the TAS has qualification testing with the following levels:

Skill Ratings:
0 Qualified
1 Competent
2 Experienced
3 Expert
4 Master

I'm always interested in how other people do things, kind of like the Borg I add their distinctiveness to my own

 

[flykiller]

unless there's some overwhelming need for a totally random character, if it's an established crew or team I'll strongly guide the incoming pc or tailor the incoming npc for core skills, and randomly select only the tertiary skills issues. there's no need for random flailing when you're just going to wind up with what you're looking for anyway.

 

[Spartan159]

Right now I am in solo sandbox mode, aiming at starting TTA soon, I've shifted the introductory adventure to Rhylanor and am gaming out the interactions of the characters having mustered out, acquiring a ship and equipping same, and they've encountered Scout Galadden. I'm also doing the merchant aspect and are keeping track of financial records and cargo and such, writing everything down so as to curtail cheating. Once it's on paper there it is, if I screw up I have to dig myself out of the hole. And at the same time as I'm doing this I'm attempting, at the instigation of my daughter, to write the adventure down as a story. I am ill equipped for this task but to please her I'm giving it a shot. Overall this is a damn slow project. I hope to tie in other published adventures along and along. Rambling aside I suddenly realized I needed 2 more crew but did not want to go rolling a bunch of characters to get what I needed, so the need for quick NPCs, and the need for the Hiring Hall, and a framework for when characters die to be replaced.

 

[Putraack]

I ran into this question when running Pirates of Drinax. I think I borrowed the Recruiting roll and mods from Mercenary (Classic).

I added a 2D roll for the skill level of the spacer:
2: 0
3-5: 1
6-8: 2
9-11: 3
12: 4

 

[Spartan159]

I just used 1D-2 but I like yours better, consider it borrowed with thanks