Topic: Salvage and Treasure in SM:P campaigns

[dutch206]

How does a GM decide how much income to give a party of privateers? 

The party needs enough income to keep their ship repaired, buy new weapons and defenses, buy food and supplies, etc....  Also, they need enough cash left over to pay everybody a living wage.

Do you slavishly keep track of every last ounce of salvage in the adventure?  It's not like you can say "This encounter calls for a 'type m' treasure roll".

Any ideas?

[markc]

 I generally do. And I also use the rules for reselling in the RMSS GM guide so they generally get 30%+ of the new value.

MDC

[Oldgrue]

I dunno. My players are for lack of a better term 'miserly vultures'
It can be cool and all, but we've had casualties stripped pretty much naked (much to the ongoing disturbance of some PCs) and a recurring "Don't plasma that one he's got a *FWOOSH* <insert article here>."
They've tweaked skills to pretty much harvest most of what they have enough time to pilfer/decouple/hotwire/field strip/pry free so I've started to compensate them in supplies. "No, you're out of that part." has been a plot hook twice now.

I think 30% +/-  is more than fair.

[yammahoper]

I use todays standards for cost and what not.  Just pretend inflation doesnt exist.

So living poor/check to check is $25 to $30 thousand  a year.  Below that is the poverty line, and ya figure most PC's wanna be wealthy, so they will make in the $50-$150 thousand a year range (total for the year including treasure).  Unless as GM you want to keep them lean and hungry...then $22500 a year it is.

I always assume it cost 10% of a shipd value for yearly upkeep and operating cost.  The average ship in my game is $1.5 million to $5 million dollars.  Obviously, most of a groups treasure will be eaten up in operating cost.  I assume operating cost covers crew pay, unless the crewmember is a specialist.  Hand out just enough treasure to keep you PC's at what ever wealth level you prefer.

lynn

[Defendi]

I actually based all the money on the British Pound.  Of course in this economy . . . .

[dutch206]

Gotcha:  Go with rule Zero (When in doubt, the GM reserves the right to just fake it)

[dutch206]

If anyone is interested, here is the WIKI on the history of Privateering.  In the original version of Privateering, captains capturing enemy vessels turned them over to the state for prize money.  The state then refitted the vessels and sent them back out as part of their own navy.

(I hardly think that would work in this instance, because the Jeronan Empire has a lower Tech Level.)

Anyway, here's the article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privateer

[yondar]

I think it does work, there are never enough ships and always too many pilots.

Any tech level is better than none.

Besides what a great hook for a spying adventure.

 

[Togaras]

I have a huge problem with handling repaircosts of ships.
Whenever a privateer crew has their own ship, they need lots of credits, but asume they have these money, that mean, that they will be able to buy about everything else in the game twice.

how do you handle that?

[yammahoper]

Normally contacts and missions.  If the ship takes damage and requires 15% of cost in repairs, then the party needs cash, which certainly is a perfect prime for the ole adventure well..

I once paid the group 450,000 creds to haul personal goods, cloths and the like, of a very rich woman to a very abandoned place.  Party assumed all the thugs were just hijackers.  Took em forever to realize the bad guys were after the dog (just one of my homages to Cowboy Bebop).

Contacts and friends can get em work, and various ministers and suits are always looking for talent that will look the other way, or that is just so desperate they cannot afford to ask questions.  This leads to some very good adventures.

lynn

[dutch206]

Togaras,

try this....GURPS uses a mechanic called the "monthly maintenance fee" to cover such expenses as food, clothing, shelter, entertainement, etc....

You could require them to pay 20% of their income in taxes to various planetary and interstellar governments.

You could have a hacker wipe out their bank accounts, if you are really mad at them.

[Togaras]

Anyhow, I understand your answers, but I think, I had not really discribed what I mean.

Lets say the 5 men crew has a ship with has a total cost of 5 millions. 15% repair cost is about 750.000. So the need to get this cash. That also means for the crew, that they wont go out for 1.000 or 10.000 bucks. Only if there is no risk for the ship. They will go out for more money. The issue what I mean is, when they have 750.000 or more cash, they can also affort a lots of other cool items. Eg. a barrier shield or a complete Combatarmor Type X. And all the other stuff simply looks very cheap against having a ship and paying the frequently efforts for it.

So what I mean is, when the players have an own ship. All the other stuff is nearly irrellevant in its worth. they can buy it twice. so it is not very hard for them to earn this. when I am the GM and I give my players a ship and missions for upkeep, than I have problem when they want me to give them cool items for thier bucks, don't I?

[Defendi]

A couple quick options (I'm at work).

1)  They could not own their own ship, of course.  If they have a sponser, he could get most of the money.

2) (Probably more what you are looking for) allow them to scavenge the CIP from other ships.  Specially later in the war, the Jeronans would be using a lot of captured ships.  If you let them scavenge the parts they need, you wouldn't need to give them nearly as much money.

[markc]

Tog,
 Just because it is in the book does not mean the shop has it in stock or can even get it.

 1/2 of 5 mill is 2.5 mil-750,000 damage = 1.75 mil IMO this would be the most a carft could be salvaged for infact a damage carft might only get you 20% of the cost minus the repairs. Also you carft probably took some damage you have to repair it, also wear and tear on the ship is probably in the range of 1% to 20% dpending on the craft. The high tech fighters cost more to up keep.

 Their are no set rules in SM:P for this but as said above i use my old traveller rules for this.

MDC

[Qitah]

I agree, most ships need a maintence budget to keep things running.  1-5% of the cost of the ship per month is the average in a couple of systems I play.  Of course the cost of having a crew... pay, supplies, ect.  I had a spread sheet for my ship when I was a captain to keep things running.  If the players are freebooting (adventuring) then collecting salvage is key to survival.  Most of the time I did not own my ship, I had to make payments (mortgage).  Ran a 5000t merchant vessel for many a year on a 12 planet route.  Since there is a war going on in most campaigns (I know... assumptions) The PC's need to see how sneeky they can get to salvage battlefeilds and recover good stuff.


Ivan

[Allen]

ya'll just have no idea how much this just helped me out! Great thread!
Now to get my game off the ground and for them to find the ship... muhahahahahahah

[markc]

I agree, most ships need a maintence budget to keep things running.  1-5% of the cost of the ship per month is the average in a couple of systems I play.  Of course the cost of having a crew... pay, supplies, ect.  I had a spread sheet for my ship when I was a captain to keep things running.  If the players are freebooting (adventuring) then collecting salvage is key to survival.  Most of the time I did not own my ship, I had to make payments (mortgage).  Ran a 5000t merchant vessel for many a year on a 12 planet route.  Since there is a war going on in most campaigns (I know... assumptions) The PC's need to see how sneeky they can get to salvage battlefeilds and recover good stuff.


Ivan

Firefly comes to mind.
MDC

[Oldgrue]

Piracy...um..privateering...is a tried and true profession.

A few things to look at also:
Having a 5 million credit asset is not the same as being able to sell said asset.  The PC  'Q' Ship (because every PC wants to load their ship with guns for some reason) is a used ship.  Why would a buyer pay full price for a used ship they have to refit?
Their ship may be effectively worthless for resale

[DeadBob]

If anyone is interested, here is the WIKI on the history of Privateering.  In the original version of Privateering, captains capturing enemy vessels turned them over to the state for prize money.  The state then refitted the vessels and sent them back out as part of their own navy.

(I hardly think that would work in this instance, because the Jeronan Empire has a lower Tech Level.)

Anyway, here's the article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privateer

I have the ISC, planetary defense forces and other privateers, buying and refitting captured ships. If you want more efficiency out of a Jeronan ship, you cut a hole in the hull, rip out the power source and FTL, and replace them with ISC tech. The space and crewing savings open up lots of possibilities, like adding more weapons, life pods, fighters, cargo, etc.