Airship minimum crew.

[thezombiekat]

Airship minimum crew.

Was looking through the airship rules just now (they are truly a mess, in every edition) and I cant find the minimum crew to make them fly. Say a pirate galley was to capture a trading galley, who many crew would they need to put on each ship to limp back to port, im thinking something similar to the prise crews that old sailing ships would assign to captured enemy ships.

[arma]

You'll need to look at the Air Sailing talent.
Depends on how good they are. Probably a third of the Crew Size for basic sailors.

[The_Gun_Nut]

Bare minimum to operate isn't based upon number of crew, but number of result levels that the crew gets on their skill/talent test to operate the ship. The number of result levels is based upon a percentage of the listed "crew size" for each vessel. Which basically boils down to 25% for bare minimum station keeping/keeping it moving and on course, 50% for acceleration and steering (basic piloting), and 75% for advanced combat maneuvers or fancy tricks.

As an example, the crew size for a drakkar is listed as 30. Those numbers would work out to 8, 15, and 23 result levels, respectively. However, with an exceptional crew (including the captain) the drakkar can be used effectively in combat by only 6 crewmen. This does mean that every one of them gets an extraordinary result for 24 result levels, but it is very possible for highly skilled veterans to do so.

However, for anyone but crystal raiders* crew size is usually the number of crew aboard, as they man their ships with the cheapest talent available. This usually means mundane folks with only 1 or 2 ranks in the Air Sailing skill, as adepts tend to want to be paid more. You will also notice that only 75% are needed for full combat/special manuevers. This means the extra crew can be used for rotating shifts as well as having an extra "buffer" for losses. The ship can lose some crew and still function.

*NOTE: Crystal raiders pack their drakkars to typical crew capacity (30) with adepts. That's right, every member of a drakkar crew is an adept, with all the nasty surprises that can bring. They are mostly Sky Raiders, with the occasional Warrior or Archer thrown in. Elementalists are highly prized as air ship crew, as they bring abilities to the vessel that are invaluable.