Ships crew above the minimum , where are they berthed and how much space?

[ferrinwulf]

Im getting slightly confused here as to the number of crew a ship can take before they become passengers and take up hold/cargo space.

My group has managed to gather a sizeable crew together. They now have a total of 57 sailors, 7 officers and 1 captain.

If I assume that the officers and Captian have their own cabins then that leaves 57 sailors to berth somehow. The minimum crew to sail a ship is 20 and the max no of passengers is 120. So my question is where are they all berthed and how much extra room if any do they take up?

I am taking it that the minimum crew of 20 is how many crew occupy a standard crew cabin and anything above that needs to be housed in the hull taking up cargo space. But I can’t seem to see anything anywhere to tell me otherwise. Looking at the map of the Mans promise it does seem to indicate this as in the crew space there are 21 hammocks.

I’m assuming that if they are taking up space in the hold then for every 8 extra crew members 1 space of cargo is taken up (150 tonnes of cargo, 10 tonnes per plunder point so 15 plunder points, max passengers 120 so divide 120 by 15 gives 8 passengers per 10tonne space).

This would mean then that they would have to get the ship mod additonial crew space to make a comfortable sleeping area but all that says is it increases the no of passengers by 10%. (12 crew) so my group would need to spend an extra 1500gp to house the extra 27 crew and lose 3 lots of cargo space.

Am I correct???? Its all so confusing

[Devo]

The first assumption you can make is that the hammocks are stacked one atop the other, like bunk beds. Each hammock on the map could easily represent two or three actual hammocks. Let's assume you really want to pack them in there and there are three hammocks in each space, minus one or two to give you room to move from one end of the cabin to the other. Let's call it 55 beds.

The second assumption you could make is that the (non-officeer) crew does not get an individually assigned hammock. Instead, the crew sleeps in shifts and they share hammocks. If you had two 12-hour shifts (day shift and night shift), then you could sleep 55 people per shift (using the assumption above) and have berthing for 110 crew, plus officers.

In our game, we removed the storage from the lowest hold (beneath the kitchen), added some walls, and put in individual rooms for the executive officers (PCs). The hatch from the kitchen goes into a Officers Lounge. We had to give the forecastle room to a Centaur PC, so we added a larger room amongst the PC quarters (at the very back of the ship) for secondary officers. This gave us a logical place to put the Quartermaster and Weapons Officer, as they'd need private, lockable storage.

[Tadeus]

I've read is as 150 tons or 120 passengers. After looking at the map of the Promise I've decided this particular sailing ship is build to have about 2/3 cargo and 1/3 passenger quarters. So 100 tons and 40 passengers. By my ruling the crew also counts as passengers.

This way they have room for 40 sailors and if they want to hire more or transport some additional passengers they have to buy the modification or let them sleep in the cargo hold and risk the consequences. These smaller numbers felt much more playable to me and gave them a reason to actually think about buying the “upgrade” which otherwise seems pretty useless.

[ferrinwulf]

Thanks guys, Devo I did think that later, double up the hammocks.

So with that thought I think I will use Tadeus's idea and have room for 42 (21 hammock). Crew quarters as Man's Promise map, hammocks are double so sleeps 42. Any extra need to bo housed in the cargo hold. So that will mean another 15 crew need to be berthed.

I'm thinking that B8 could be used to put some crew in though, it was an armoury but would still need modifying a bit to accomodate the remaining crew. It looks like at a push you could fit another 5 hammocks either side of the stairs. Double bunked that gives another 20 crew, although its going to be very tricky negotiating the hammocks to get to the steps leading to the hold.

So I think I will allow 62 crew max before they need to start taking space up in the cargo hold. But as they will need to modify the area to make it easier to traverse I think I will still say it will cost one additional crew space ships mod.

The Captain has his cabin, the 2 cooks have the cooks room near the galley and the officers have area B6. Now all I have to do is find room for the sick bay and an armoury/crafting area (they picked up a Dwarf armourer and his elf tailor last session).I think these 2 areas will need to be in the cargo hold so another 2 crew mods I think to make it all work.

Sound fair?

[Digitalelf]

For a more realistic look into life aboard a ship, and what space was used for what purpose, read The Aubrey–Maturin series (the books that the movie “Master And Commander” was based on).

Real-life ships did not have the space for luxuries such as lounges or dedicated infirmaries. For the most part any leisure time amongst the officers was spent in the Captain’s cabin, and the only time for such leisure was typically dinner because life aboard ship was hard work and offered little of such time for anybody except perhaps for the captain himself. And the ship's surgeon typically treated patients wherever was convenient or offered the least amount of distractions…

As for the seafarer (the sailors), well, they were typically packed into their quarters like sardines... Especially on pirate ships as these ships usually had many more seafarer than most other ships...