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--- skull_shackles:vesselpeople [2022/08/13 00:42] – [Passengers & Officers.] johnb
+++ skull_shackles:vesselpeople [2022/09/09 00:37] (current) – [Overview] johnb
@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-====== Capturing a ship ======
+====== Taking a ship ======
+===== Overview =====
+As you raid on The Fever Sea, you will take vessels – then you will have to make several decisions about both the crew and the vessel.
+Plunder you can sell in any settlement, however, the smaller the settlement, the less you get for the plunder.  You can only sell ships, or find Ransom Brokers in a city or metropolis.
+  * **Bloodcove** (Small City) is an independent city state, with its capital built into, and around, the roots and trunks of one of the gargantuan mangrove trees that are found only along the Mwangi coast.  Bloodcove was founded by some of the greatest pirate captains of the Shackles when they realised that they were getting too old for the pirating lifestyle. They saw legitimate trade as the easiest way to keep their coffers full and their lives easy, and founded Bloodcove many miles south of the more rough and tumble of the Shackles.  Kroop says that it is an Aspis Consortium Stronghold.
+  * **Senghor** (Metropolis) The city relies on ocean trade, as the nearby Kaava Lands make all land routes dangerous. It is a conduit for a significant amount of the trade from Sargava to Avistan; trading directly with Sargava risks annoying Cheliax, and the more indirect route through Senghor makes it easier to circumvent the Shackles Pirates. The Senghor navy boasts several dozen ships, and ensures that no piracy takes place within their territorial waters. However, they are indifferent to what goes on elsewhere in the Fever Sea, making Senghor a popular destination for those who are deemed to be pirates everywhere else.  However, this pragmatism does not extend to the slave trade. Slave ships are not allowed to visit Senghor.
-As you raid on The Fever Sea, you will capture a vessel – then you will have to make several decisions about both the crew and the vessel.
 ===== Vessels =====
   * **Release the ship**.  You might just decide to take the cargo, and any other plunder, and then release it to go on its own way.  If you have nothing against the owners, and the crew haven’t fought that hard, you might just release it to go on its way.  That might, eventually, get you a reputation as being a ‘fair’ pirate ship (so long as you fly an identifiable flag) and ships might surrender to you more easily, knowing that you will treat them reasonably.  It  is the least printable way of all.
-  * **Sell the Ship**.  If you can crew(*) the captured ship, you can sail it to a ‘pirate friendly’ city and sell it.  That normally gets you half the base value of the ship in GP (5,000gp for a sailing ship, less for others) although if it is badly damaged you will get less than that.
+  * **Sell the Ship**.  If you can crew(*) the captured ship, you can sail it to a ‘pirate friendly’ city and sell it.  That normally gets you half the base value of the ship in GP (5,000gp for a sailing ship) although if it is badly damaged you will get less than that.
-  * Keep the ship 1.  If you think the ship is better than the vessel that you have, you can keep it and sell your own vessel.  In this case, you probably want to ‘squib’ it.  If you have taken the vessel from another pirate, or (perhaps) the Chelish Navy – you certainly don’t want them to know that you still have it.  That would make some encounters very difficult indeed.  The same is true for any vessel, especially if you intend to visit non-pirate ports.  Sooner or later, the ship will be recognised – and you will be charged with piracy on the high seas.  Again, you will need to have a second crew(*), and reliable officers, to stop the crew taking over
+  * **Keep the ship 1**.  If you think the ship is better than the vessel that you have, you can keep it and sell your own vessel.  In this case, you probably want to ‘squib’ it.  If you have taken the vessel from another pirate, or (perhaps) the Chelish Navy – you certainly don’t want them to know that you still have it.  That would make some encounters very difficult indeed.  The same is true for any vessel, especially if you intend to visit non-pirate ports.  Sooner or later, the ship will be recognised – and you will be charged with piracy on the high seas.  Again, you will need to have a second crew(*), and reliable officers, to stop the crew taking over
   * **Keep the ship 2**.  You might choose to split your crew(*) and run a second vessel.  However, this generally means that a PC (or senior NPC) is leaving your crew and setting up on their own.  Sure, you can call on their help, occasionally.  However, this needs to be for something significant such as large land-based raids, or to challenge a fleet of vessels.  The vessel still needs squibbing, but that expense falls to the PC/NPC who leaves.  This might be a suitable way to ‘retire’ Kaleb, at some point.
-  * **Leave the Ship**.   It might be that the ship is badly damaged, or that you can’t crew it or even that it belongs to someone that you don’t like – but you could just leave the ship drifting or you could sink it.  That might give you a problem with the crew and officers though.  Do you recruit them, release them in an open boat and give them a chance for survival, maroon them on a deserted island, leave them aboard the abandoned ship, kill them or take them prisoner for release or ransom in a port?  Remember that  captured officers and crew might try to take over your ship, and that crewmen who are pressed into service won’t work efficiently and will do a runner as soon as they can.
+  * **Sink the Ship**.   It might be that the ship is badly damaged, or that you can’t crew it or even that it belongs to someone that you don’t like – but you could just leave the ship drifting or you could sink it.  That might give you a problem with the crew and officers though.  Do you recruit them, release them in an open boat and give them a chance for survival, maroon them on a deserted island, leave them aboard the abandoned ship, kill them or take them prisoner for release or ransom in a port?  Remember that  captured officers and crew might try to take over your ship, and that crewmen who are pressed into service won’t work efficiently and will do a runner as soon as they can.
-(&) You don’t need a full crew to sail a vessel.  However, you do need a full crew to sail at normal speed or to fight a vessel.  A ship with a reduced crew is a sitting duck – you can’t outrun other vessels and you are very vulnerable if you are boarded.
+**(*)** You don’t need a full crew to sail a vessel.  However, you do need a full crew to sail at normal speed or to fight a vessel.  A ship with a reduced crew is a sitting duck – you can’t outrun other vessels and you are very vulnerable if you are boarded.
 ===== People =====