A yacht crew: Reputation, device, or colour?

Burning Empires Burning Empires Character Burner
#1

My player Sherman has a character named Coren Fauxly, one of the Gonzagin Emperor’s lord stewards sent to planet Caiphus to remedy a trade dispute. As part of her Owner Aboard lifepath, in her possession is an interstellar hammer called the Inquirer, which she uses as transport as well as for throwing parties for planetside dignitaries. This ship, using the device rules, gives her a +2D to persuasion tests when trying to convince someone of the material benefits of working with the throne. This costs Sherman 3 Rps at burning.

But of course a ship is nothing without a crew. One of the relationships Coren has is her steadfast constable Hest. Where Coren’s words don’t suffice, Hest’s intimidating physique more than make up for them. Another of Hests duties is to manage the day-to-day running of the Inquirer, as well as manage the servants, assistants, and pilots.

What I need to know is how to show the crew mechanically. The crew of a yacht, after all, does not require the blood-bond between a hammer captain and his subordinates to function. Should the Inquirer’s crew even need to be represented as an affiliation? If so, does Sherman need to buy a 3D Reputation with the crew to be its boss? Can that reputation be saddled onto Hest as part of the Kerrn or Stentor rules? Or can the crew of the yacht simply act as colour if Hest does all the piloting and Coren does all the schmoozing?

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#2

Yay a Burning Empires game! :smiley:

I would say, it depends how important the player wants the crew to be (relative to other things).

  • The crew can certainly just be colour. If you ever need to rely on their skills, of course, they won’t be much help. OTOH, they are free.

  • The crew can be an affiliation, of 1D 2D or 3D (and can be improved during play with appropriate context). This means when you are searching for that one crew member who knows what you need to know, you can add the +2D or whatever to your Circles test.

  • p118 is the “Gang or Crew” rules.
    ** Coren has a relationship with Hest (tick)
    ** Coren has an affiliation with the crew [1 Circles point per die]
    ** Coren has a relationship with the crew specifying Coren as the boss. [1 Circles point per die]

So how many Circles points does the PC have and how do they want to spend them? Lots of fun options. BE is all about challenging how much an important thing is worth to the player (vs the character, even).

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#3

Wow, fast response, thanks!

What I’ll say is the Circles points are no issue. I think where I’m getting stuck is in the reputation. I’ve been thinking of reputation as the character’s power within the crew.

Of course, Coren is “the boss”, which would probably elicit a d3. What you said has sort of reminded me of something though;

Leadership goes both ways!

Since Coren is more concerned with her job and not the actual day to day operations on the yacht, Sherman might be able to get away with a 2D or even a 1D for reputation. After all, she might be the one paying the servants and pilots but she probably doesn’t even know their names. Perhaps she is less a boss and more just a really important customer, and the servants probably know her name, and that she’s paying them, but don’t care about her mission in the same way she does, and maybe spit in the food occasionally.

I think I have my answer. I’ll tell Sherman that he doesn’t have to put 3D into reputation with the crew, just a dice into both the affiliation and reputation. Then Hest (who he’ll burn separately as a bodyguard) can handle the d2d operations.

Tanks!

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