Every building comes with a staff of L1 commoners to provide the basic services. However, these really are the lowest skilled workers that you can get. While that is OK for homes, and probably OK for businesses or civic buildings, you will want to spend more money to upgrade the staff in military buildings and ships.

A home is just a building for a PC to live in. If you are paying Monthly Cost of Living, cleaning maintenance, basic meals, laundry etc, is carried out for you by servants (L1 commoners with basic skills). These are generally live-out, part-time servants who come in for a few hours to do the work. These are all L1 commoners with average stats – and skills suitable for their role.

Some larger homes (Mansion, Noble Villa, Palace) have Lodgings suitable for live-in servants, in which case you can have up to ten servants living in and working for you, as part of the building cost. They are all Commoner-1, and probably consists of: 1x Cook Housekeeper; 1x Gardener/handyman; 1x Stable master; 3 x general maids; 4x footmen/labourers (use The Watch description, but they serve as general labourers, personal escorts and doormen). Again, they are all assumed to be paid for by your Monthly Cost of Living payments.

If you want fancier servants or better guards, you must pay for them separately - the upgrades replace the existing servants on a one to one basis.

Businesses are there to make money, and part of that income is spent on the day-to-day staff that run the business. Every business has a team of L-1 commoners with the skills to do the donkey work of the business for you. Again, there are live-out employees, a mix of labourers and semi-skilled workers, just capable of doing the everyday work needed to keep the business running and does not (generally) include any guards.

Some businesses (bank, menagerie, mint, museum) include a Guard Post, which gives the building five live-out watchmen to act as security guards, and probably means that you have one security guard on duty at any given point. Black Markets are generally protected by a level-1 Rogues (use cutpurses from Downtime Teams) armed with a light weapon. However, only one or two of them will be presents at a time. This sufficient for simple businesses, but larger businesses, or those dealing in expensive items, probably need better staff. You might want to consider employing a manager, skilled experts or trained guards - but you must pay for them separately.

Unless you are building a town, or want to do a 'good deed', you probably won't be developing too many civic buildings as they don't generate a profit, or give you a military force. Like other buildings, they are staffed by L1-commoner employees, with an appropriate skill set. However, the only Civic Building that comes with security guards (use The Watch description is the jail.

Barracks, Castles, Forts, Garrison, Redoubts, and Watchtowers all count as military buildings as they all come with bunks and armouries. They are staffed with a unit of five Experienced Watch members as security guards.

You might want to consider upgrading the watchmen to other types of military troops, although you must pay for them separately. Note that there are no weapon or armour costs associated with these extra troops. Troops (or any sort) can be detailed for cooking, cleaning or maintenance duties.

If, however, you choose to live in a military building, you can have better food, etc, according to your Monthly Cost of Living payments.

Ships & Boats also come with the minimum crew, of L1-commoners, to keep them moving, but not really enough to operate them effectively. Any ship you buy is assumed to have half of the minimum crew required for the vessel, but they will all be deckhands - which means it can move at about half its maximum speed, and can't defend itself.

See this page for details of vessels and recruiting a crew