Ships of the Sea

After taking some time to become accustomed with Pathfinder's vehicle rules, I've created stats for four types of vessels--the dhow, junk, merchantman and galleon--using old deck plans, and based off of the stats for the bark (sailing ship). I hope they can be of use.

-Nate

Ships of the Sea PDF

New Feats and Combat Rules

Continuing with the space fantasy material, here are some new feats and combat rules.

-Nate

New Feats

These feats are ones that seem appropriate for a space fantasy campaign. As always, the GM should determine which one are allowed for players to select.

Artillerist

You are an experienced artillery commander, familiar with the use of ballistae, catapults and other such siege weapons.

Prerequsite: Base attack bonus +1.

Benefit: You receive a +2 familiarity bonus to checks made when firing siege engines.

Normal: Siege weapons are fired by making a check using a character's base attack bonus, Intelligence bonus or penalty, range modifier and other relevant modifiers.

Force of Personality

This character has such a strong personality that she becomes more resistant to magic and other mental influences.

Benefit: The hero applies her Charisma modifier rather than her Wisdom modifier to her Will save.

Heirloom

You begin play possessing an item that has been passed down through your family from generation to generation, one that is unusual in its value or potency.

Benefit: You begin play with a minor wondrous item or a magical item of equivalent value, as determined by you and the GM.

Herbalist

You know how to use local plants as medicinal applications, making your treatments more effective.

Prerequsite: Heal 1 rank; Knowledge: nature 1 rank.

Benefit: You can make a Knowledge: nature check (DC 10) to aid your own Heal check, providing a +2 circumstance bonus if you succeed.

Normal: Characters cannot make Aid Another efforts to help themselves.

Special: This check suffers a -5 circumstance penalty if you are located on a world that you have not previously visited.

Improved Zero-Gee Combatant

You are so accustomed to fighting in the absence of gravity that you perform better than other characters in that situation.

Prerequsite: Base attack bonus +1, Zero-Gee Combatant.

Benefit: You gain a +2 circumstance bonus to attack rolls when fighting in zero gravity.

Normal: Characters who fight in the absence of gravity suffer a -2 circumstance penalty due to the unusual nature of it. Those who have the Zero-Gee Combatant feat do not suffer this penalty, but do not gain a bonus either.

Mental Acumen

This character is so intelligent that he has built up unusual defenses against influences that would affect his mind.

Benefit: The hero applies his Intelligence modifier rather than his Wisdom modifier to his Will save.

Spacefarer

Either you were born on an aethership, or you have taken to space travel as if you had been. Whatever the case, the challenges of aetherial travel are less of a challenge for you.

Prerequsite: Profession: sailor 1 rank; Knowledge: geography 1 rank.

Benefit: You receive a +2 bonus to Knowledge: geography and Profession: sailor checks made in regard to handling aetherships.

Spiritual Determination

Stubborn is one way to describe this character. When she decides on a course of action, it becomes physically more difficult to force her to do otherwise.

Benefit: This hero applies her Wisdom modifier rather than her Constitution modifier to her Fortitude saves.

Unusual Aptitude

Now and again a character possesses some sort of talent that seems completely out-of-the-ordinary for his profession or background. A man of the church might be a highly skilled gambler, for instance, or an enforcer might be particularly knowledgeably about Renaissance art.

Benefit: The hero may choose one skill that immediately becomes a class skill for him.

Special: This feat can be selected multiple times. Each time it is selected, it allows an additional class skill to be acquired.

Unusual Approach

There are also times when a character can perform a particular task in an extraordinary manner.

Benefit: The hero may designate a new ability modifier that is applied when using a particular skill, selected from the list below.

Special: This feat can be selected multiple times. Each time it is selected, it allows another skill to be affected.

Old and New Modifiers for Skills

Acrobatics—Dexterity can be replaced by Strength.

Climb—Strength can be replaced by Dexterity

Craft (visual arts)—Intelligence can be replaced by Wisdom

Craft (writing)—Intelligence can be replaced by Wisdom

Diplomacy—Charisma can be replaced by Wisdom

Handle Animal—Charisma can be replaced by Wisdom

Heal—Wisdom can be replaced by Intelligence

Intimidate—Charisma can be replaced by Strength

Knowledge (religion)—Intelligence can be replaced by Wisdom

Perception—Wisdom can be replaced by Intelligence

Perform (dance)—Charisma can be replaced by Dexterity

Ride—Dexterity can be replaced by Strength

Zero-Gee Combatant

You are accustomed to fighting in the absence of gravity.

Prerequsite: Base attack bonus +1.

Benefit: You do not suffer the normal -2 penalty when fighting in zero gravity.

Normal: Characters who fight in the absence of gravity suffer a -2 circumstance penalty due to the unusual nature of it.

New Combat Rules

For the most part, combat between aetherships—along with combat between characters aboard them, or elsewhere in space—functions in the same manner as the rules presented in the Pathfinder core rulebook and Ultimate Combat. There are some exceptions, however.

Air Envelopes

The magical effect that provides breathable air and warmth to aetherships has a limited range. It extends forward and aft, to port and starboard, above and below, to a distance of half the vessel's overall length. For example, the air envelope on the Skylark (detailed above) extends for ninety feet beyond the ship's hull in all directions.

Damage to Aetherships

In combat, damage caused to aetherships can have two notably different effects.

Should the sails and rigging be destroyed, the vessel loses all propulsion. What is more, the air in its envelope begins to turn foul, at a rate determined by the size of the aethership and the size of the crew. The air remains fresh for a number of minutes equal to the vessel's total number of hit points divided by the number of crew members. For example, the Skylark, with 900 hp and 20 crew members, has an air envelope that lasts for 45 minutes after the sails and rigging are destroyed. As far as calculation is concerned, small characters count as half a crew member, large ones count as two, huge ones as four, etc. Refer to page 445 of the core rulebook for the effects of suffocation.

In the event that an aethership's hull is destroyed, it loses its artificial gravity. Additionally, the air aboard it slowly turns cold. Refer to page 442 of the core rulebook for the effects of freezing. Due to the frigid nature of the void, the effects of cold begin to set in immediately after a solar vessel's hull is destroyed.

Falling Overboard

Characters who become separated from their aetherships have a small amount of time in which to rectify the situation before they suffer the effects of suffocation and cold. They drift away from the ship at a rate equal to one sixth the vessel's speed in feet per round. For example, a character who falls overboard from the Skylark while it is traveling at 180 feet per round drifts away at a speed of 30 feet per round; this means that the other crew members have three rounds in which to save that character before cold and suffocation begin to take their toll.

Zero Gravity

When characters find themselves in the absence of gravity, it is disorienting and weird. For that reason, zero-gravity situations inflict a -2 circumstance penalty on attack rolls, Reflex saves and combat maneuver checks. Characters can overcome this penalty by taking the Zero-Gee Combatant feat.

On the other hand, being in the absence of gravity increases the distance that characters can jump—vertically or horizontally—tenfold.

“Sure. Standing on the ground of a world, it's easy to look up at the stars and dream about traveling among them. It could even seem romantic. But if you've ever been out in the black, with your aethership's rigging shot to pieces and the air starting to turn cold, you'll see that the romance rubs off of it right quick.” -Maximillian, halfling rogue and lookout

New Equipment

Detailed here are relatively mundane (to space travelers, at least) equipment items for use in space fantasy campaigns.

Weapons and Ammunition

No sooner did the gnomes travel into the aether than they started devising ways to salvage wrecked ships. At first they developed projectiles connected to grappling lines, allowing them snag and retrieve wreckage from difficult locations like asteroid belts. Then they experimented with using alchemical substances such as tanglefoot bags. That, in turn, let to prototypes using alchemist's fire, creating a potent but possibly dangerous new ammunition.

Ammunition Cost Weight Type Special

Grappling crossbow bolt, light 12 gp 10 lbs. B Can snag appropriate targets; trip

Grappling crossbow bolt, heavy 12 gp 10 lbs. B Can snag appropriate targets; trip

Grappling ballista bolt 30 gp 15 lbs. B Can snag appropriate targets; trip

Entangling crossbow bolt, light 52 gp 5 lbs. B Can adhere to targets; trip

Entangling crossbow bolt, heavy 52 gp 5 lbs. B Can adhere to targets; trip

Entangling ballista bolt 155 gp 15 lbs. B Can adhere to targets; trip

Incendiary crossbow bolt, light 21 gp 1½ lbs. B Causes fire damage; can set on fire

Incendiary crossbow bolt, heavy 21 gp 1½ lbs. B Causes fire damage; can set on fire

Incendiary ballista bolt 65 gp 1½ lbs. B Causes fire damage; can set on fire

Ammunition

Grappling ammunition combines a ballista or crossbow bolt with a grappling and a line of silk rope. If fired close enough to appropriate targets (that is, ones with surfaces that the hooks can snag), it allows users to pull them back to the ship. If used against unwilling targets, they cause half normal damage but can be used to make trip attacks.

Entangling ammunition works in a similar manner, except that the sticky substance contained in the tanglefoot bag attached to the end lets it adhere to just about anything. If used against unwilling targets, the projectile does half normal damage, and targets are allowed a Reflex save just like with ordinary tanglefoot bags.

Incendiary ammunition includes a hollow ceramic head with alchemist's fire. For that reason, they cause half normal damage, plus an extra 1d6 fire damage, or 3d6 for ballista bolts. Targets continue to suffer damage unless they make a Reflex check to extinguish themselves. In the case of inanimate objects such as ships, this can be a potent weapon, indeed. The volatile nature of the alchemist's fire means that these weapons have a misfire rating of 1, however. (Refer to Ultimate Combat to find more information about misfiring weapons.)

Fire Aboard Aetherships One of the most frightening events aboard an aethership is a fire. This is because fire can spread quickly, possibly damaging the hull, rigging and sails—and thereby leaving a vessel dead in space. The damage caused by incendiary missiles, or by spell effects like fireball, continue to cause 3d6 damage to the vessel per round until extinguished. Putting out the fire requires dowsing it with water; each bucket applied can be treated as doing 1d6 damage, opposed to the largest amount of damage that the fire has caused in a single round.

Ship Armor

It should come as no surprise that dwarves were the first spacefarers to think of attaching metal plates to the outsides of their aetherships. After all, they usually have access to plenty of meteoroid iron ore. What is more, knowing that ships in space don't need to worry about floating on water, they had no reason not do so.

 In game terms, adding plate armor to a ship increases the hit point total for its hull by 33%, and increases its hardness by 5. This costs an amount equal to one quarter of the original price for the solar vessel. For example, putting armor on the Skylark, detailed above, would cost 25,000 gp, and raise its hit point total to 1200 and its hardness to 10.

Other Equipment

These items, while perhaps not as exciting as weapons and armor, are still very important for safely navigating the spaceways.

Item Cost Weight

Orrery, ordinary 500 gp 20 lbs.

Orrery, clockwork 2000 gp 200 lbs.

Spyglass, mounted 2000 gp 10 lbs.

Star charts 50 gp 1 lb.

Other Equipment

Orreries are devices that depict the movements of the bodies in a solar system. They usually place the primary star in the center of the device, and then have armatures that depict the various planets and moons. In this way, it is possible to represent the relative positions of these bodies, and thus to plot accurate routes between them.

Clockwork orreries are bigger, fancier version of ordinary ones. Whereas those must be moved by the user based on planets' rate of revolution, the clockwork version has an elaborate mechanism that keeps the armatures moving as appropriate to their relative speeds.

A mounted spyglass is simply a larger, more powerful version of the kind normally used by ships' captains. It is usually placed atop the ship's sterncastle or, if it has one, the forecastle. This item magnifies viewed objects to ten times their normal size, reducing penalties to Perception checks based on distance to -1 per 100 feet.

Star charts, much like captains' logbooks onplanet, are valuable resources, with notes about the planets and other bodies in a system, the stars and constellations that serve as reference points for steering a vessel, and other such details. Typical ones cover the basic information needed for navigation, but captains always add details as they explore. Note that a given set of charts is only useful in a particular solar system.

Provisions

A crucial factor to consider when making voyages through the aether is providing enough food and drink for the ship's crew. Per the Pathfinder core rulebook, most characters require a gallon of water or other fluids, along with a pound of food, each day in order to remain healthy. Multiple these figures by the total number of crew members, and the estimated length of a give voyage, and this becomes a large amount of cargo. While some players and GM's may not wish to worry about these details—especially if the PC's are low-ranking members of a ship's crew—they can add a sense of realism and even tension to adventures if they should start to run low.

Refer to pages 444-5 of the Pathfinder core rulebook to find rules for when starvation and thirst begin to affect a crew.

Interstellar Phenomena

A previous post listed some of the monster that are appropriate for encounters in the aether; this one provides guidelines for using natural events as hazards.

-Nate

Interstellar Phenomena

In addition to the monsters that inhabit the dark void of space, the heavenly bodies themselves can present hazards for travelers.

Solar Winds

This occurs when streams of high energy are emitted from stars. Given the fact that space provides little resistance to them, these streams can then travel great distances. In game terms, solar winds require a DC 20 Profession: pilot check to avoid losing control of the vessel. What is more, characters aboard the vessel must make DC 15 Reflex saves or suffer 1d6 damage and be knocked prone.

Asteroid Belts

Many star systems have these broad orbital stretches filled with floating rocks. They are a favorite place for space monsters to make their lairs, and for intrepid miners to acquire ore. Generally, the rocks that float in a stable orbit are called asteroids, while the ones that float freely are called meteoroids. A rock that enters a planet's atmosphere is called a meteor, and one that reaches the ground is called a meteorite. In game terms, asteroid belts require pilots to make a Profession check, with a DC that varies according to the speed at which the vessel is traveling: 5 for minimal speed (1 square), 10 for half speed or less, 15 for more than half speed and 20 for full speed. Success allows the vessel to pass through that stretch of asteroids, while failure forces a collision, with damaged determined by the size of the asteroid in question.

Nebulae

Certain regions of space are filled with these clouds of dust and gasses; they are a beautiful sight to behold, filled with an impressive array of colors. In game terms, while they do not present any direct threat to aetherships, they do grant concealment during any actions that occur inside them. For that reason, some pirate ships prefer to linger inside nebulae, waiting to pounce upon unsuspecting vessels.

Comets

The phrase “dirty snowball” is an apt way of describing a comet. Consisting of a conglomerate of dust, ice and rock, these bodies drift through solar systems on long, highly elliptical orbits. Indeed, the regular appearance of comets in the skies of worlds are a main impetus for philosophers to speculate about the nature of things beyond the confines of their planets. Comets provide an opportunity to harvest valuable minerals and ice, but present a danger when they approach suns. As they draw close to stars, comets begin to vent trapped gases and debris into space; this is what gives them the appearance of having a tail. In game terms, they should be treated as if suffering the effects of an earthquake spell.

Campaign Considerations

This post presents important questions for a GM to consider when thinking about adding space travel to a fantasy campaign.

-Nate

Campaign Considerations

GM's who are thinking of adding aetherial adventures to a Pathfinder campaign should consider a number of questions; some of these are presented below.

How well developed is space exploration and travel?

The answer to this question can have numerous implications for a campaign. After all, if the PC's are among the first to discover the possibility of aetherial travel, they gain a tremendous amount of potential influence. The powers that be are likely to take a considerable interest in the party's vessel; some might wish to hire their services, while others could seek to steal the ship. Many of the party's activities are the first of their kind, perhaps allowing them to lay claim to new territory for their own exploitation.

In what capacity are the PC's serving aboard their aethership?

The possible crew positions are detailed above, and can determine the daily tasks that the PC's face. This can be similar to deciding the watches that characters take during overland travel, in that the players should also determine in which watches their characters are active. There is also the question of how powerful the PC's are when they venture into space. This is likely to influence the positions that characters fill aboard aetherships, as mentioned above. Starting PC's might be ordinary crew members, or perhaps assistants to NPC's in specific positions. More seasoned characters, on the other hand, could fill those positions themselves, or perhaps even be captains or owners of vessels. By the end of a campaign, the PC's could even become merchant princes or military leaders with fleets of vessels at their command.

What do members of the planetary populations know about space travel?

The answer to this question can greatly influence roleplaying situations when the PC's make landfall. Can they just sail into a port city, or must they land in the wilderness and make an overland trek so as to avoid suspicion? In the prior case, they can go about their business as usual, and the locals don't give the matter a second thought; in the latter case, they must conceal the true nature of their activities lest they cause a significant disturbance in the social fabric of the culture.

Is it possible to travel between known campaign settings?

One of the novel elements of the old Spelljammer campaign setting was that it allowed characters to move between the worlds and solar systems of existing campaign settings—say, from Oerth to Faerun to Krynn. A later incarnation of that setting, Beyond the Spider Moon, did away with that, instead focusing the action on a single system, Pyrespace. That seems to be the tendency for Pathfinder's Golarion setting, too. Even so, some GM's may wish to leave travel between settings. That can have serious repercussions, though, if one world has relatively low magic while on another one magic is common. For that reason, such possibilities should not be entertained lightly.

What religious implications does space fantasy have for a setting?

Building off of that last question, one must consider how having multiple worlds, each with its own native culture, affects the religion—and thus the planar structure—of a setting. In the example mentioned above, each setting had its own pantheon of deities. This meant that the universe had multiple pantheons, with deities overlapping in their spheres of influence. It also raised the question of whether gods from one setting had any influence in other settings, and thus whether or not they could grant spells and other divine benefits to their worshippers. That question has huge implications for the overall campaign(s).

What kinds of economic implications does aetherial travel have for a campaign?

Aetherships are valuable items. To that end, giving one to a party of adventurers puts a lot of potential monetary wealth at their disposal. On the one hand, they could share this asset and use it to set out on any number of interstellar adventures. On the other hand, they could sell it and use the gold for buying magical items with which to bolster themselves. The latter possibility could become unbalancing for a campaign, and it could also become problematic if the party faces multiple encounters in which they meet other aetherships in difficult situations and thus have a chance to claim other vessels as booty. For that reason, the GM should be careful to limit these potential acquisitions.

Does the campaign keep moving from place to place, or is it based out of a particular location?

By their very nature, fantasy roleplaying campaigns keep the party of adventurers moving from place to place. While such an arrangement provides plenty of opportunities for plot hooks and action, it can also make for a campaign that lacks any real sense of familiarity. It is true that the ship acts as the characters' home, but that's no substitute for living in a city to which the PC's return between their adventures. After all, that sense of “coming home” helps make the setting feel real for players. That is why it's probably best to avoid a purely episodic campaign in which the heroes are always moving from one place to the next.

What military implications do aetherships have for a setting?

Keep in mind, too, that flying ships have a considerable impact on battlefield tactics. In most medieval fantasy settings, fortresses are still formidable obstacles. While powerful characters have access to magic that lets them fly, ordinary soldiers do not. This all changes when those same soldiers can board an aethership and use it to fly over a castle's walls.

Encounters in Space

While much of the time spent in space travel is uneventful, voyages are not without incident. The cold, barren nature of the aether means that few creatures inhabit it, but there are still some to be found in the void between planets and stars.

For one thing, elementals find the asteroid fields, stellar clouds, nebulae and other such phenomena to be comfortable environments. A fire elemental might enjoy living on the edge of a sun, while an air elemental could flit about a nebula, an earth elemental might dwell amidst drifting asteroids and a water elemental could inhabit the unstable surface of a comet.

Undead have the same kind of advantage. There are certainly restless spirits remaining from failed attempts at exploration, and some necromancers have even relied upon the undead in their efforts to discover what lies beyond the realm of a planet's atmosphere. Rumors tell of unfortunate ships' crews that have turned into ghouls, the spirits of elf explorers that now haunt space as banshees, and the like. Indeed, some even claim that the dreaded nightshades drift through the darkest reaches of space in search of new prey.

Similar claims are made regarding constructs, which have been sent into this harsh realm to undertake the missions that living beings cannot themselves attempt. Perhaps the most feared, however, are the various dragons—lunar, solar, time, void and vortex—that inhabit the far reaches of space.

Among the first races encountered by early aetherial travelers were the formians, insectoid creatures that follow the orders of their queen and seek to expand their settlements onto other worlds. These monsters represent perhaps the greatest threat to life on other planets, since they seek to conquer habitable worlds in order to build new colonies.

Other creatures to be found in space are listed below.

CR / Creature / Source

1 / Akata / Bestiary 2

5 / Brethedan / Bestiary 3

6 / Lunarma / Bestiary 4

6 / Mi-go / Bestiary 4

6 / Seugathi / Bestiary 2

11 / Animated object (ship) / Bestiary 1

13 / Carnivorous blob / Bestiary 2

16 / Oma / Bestiary 4

16 / Plasma ooze / Bestiary 3

18 / Astral leviathan / Bestiary 4

Finally, whispered rumors tell of beings known as Great Old Ones, creatures beyond the reckoning of most mortals, ones who live in the depths of space and plot ever so slowly to conquer the known worlds of the universe.

Life Aboard an Aethership

Building on yesterday's post, this one describes roles for characters aboard a ship and the daily routine that one can expect.

-Nate

Spacefaring Characters

Presented here are suggestions for bringing traditional land-bound Pathfinder characters into space.

Races

Although there are always exceptions, members of different races often tend toward certain occupations in space. For example:

• Dwarves, given their love of metals and mining, frequently delve into asteroids. Indeed, it was their zeal for acquiring new mineral wealth—along with their refusal to admit any kind of fear—that initially helped to push space exploration forward.
• Elves, with their long lifespans and their connection to the natural world, are especially suited for exploration that requires time and patience. They are also curious to discover any kinds of life from beyond their own world.
• Gnomes, having a love for tinkering, often engage in salvaging activities. They are also renowned as inventors, having devised numerous pieces of equipment for use aboard aetherships.
• Half-elves are much like humans, being jacks-of-all-trades who favor not particular capacity except a willingness to undertake daring and particularly lucrative schemes.
• Half-orcs make natural roustabouts, dockhands and soldiers as part of boarding parties, due to their natural brawn and toughness. They also find that the entirely new nature of life in space provides them with chances to prove their worth, freed from the prejudices of planetary society.
• Halflings often serve as brokers and other kinds of go-betweens, being successful merchants as well as proprietors of establishments like taverns and inns. They are also frequently assigned to the crow's nest of an aethership.

The cosmopolitan nature of fantasy space also allows the GM to introduce more unusual character races, too, such as humanoids or races from other settings.

Classes

Just as with the races described above, different classes are more likely to excel at different roles aboard a ship.

• Barbarians serve well as part of boarding parties; their ferocity can often overwhelm a foe even before much injury is caused. Their strength makes them handy for moving cargo and equipment during less adventurous times, too.
• Bards, being natural entertainers, are often retained in order to reduce the tedium of aetherial travel. They also make good navigators and cooks. For them, of course, the chance to visit strange worlds and encounter new cultures provides a good opportunity for adding to their repertoires of songs and stories.
• Clerics, not surprisingly, often serve as healers, and as chaplains for crew members who share their faith. Sometimes they lead expeditions to new worlds, seeing this as a chance to spread the teachings of their deities.
• Druids serve in much the same capacity as clerics. Their skills for dealing with animals and plants make them born naturalists, and they are highly useful as members of exploring parties.
• Fighters, in addition to serving as soldiers, also can be skilled artillerists—especially if they invest feats in operating a ship's weaponry. Some serve in a military capacity, either guarding known spaceroutes against predations, or leading assaults against enemy settlements.
• Monks are especially good at serving in a ship's rigging. Beyond that, space travel is much like any other kind of journey, allowing them another opportunity for self-discovery.
• Paladins can combine the role of healer/chaplain and soldier. Their high Charisma scores make them natural commanders, although not everyone is willing to serve aboard a vessel captained by such upright individuals.
• Rangers are best suited to leading landing parties, what with their ability to find food and water and to prevent others from becoming lost. Some of them develop a love for exploring previously unknown worlds and come to specialize in that role.
• Rogues are also competent in the rigging, and often possess the knowledge and interpersonal skills to serve as quartermaster.
• Sorcerers, in addition to providing offense in combat situations, make good barkers and purchasing agents. Those who've suffered stigma due to unusual bloodlines sometimes find that they are free of such bias while traveling the aether.
• Wizards often serve as pilots and navigators due to their considerable Intelligence. Some of them find a living in writing of their journeys and discoveries, and seek out writings and materials in the pursuit of new spells and magical items.

Here, too, the GM has a good opportunity to introduce character classes that are not normally found in the campaign's starting setting. These could include ones from supplemental rulebooks, third-party products, or even the GM's own devising.

Life Aboard an Aethership

In many ways, life aboard an aethership is similar to living aboard a sailing ship onplanet. Even so, different types of voyages can have widely varying roles for crew members. What is more, traveling the spacelanes includes some factors that are unique to aetherial travel.

Purpose

The first thing to consider is what type of excursion a journey entails. For exploratory missions, the vessel carries as many crew members, along with as much equipment and provisions, as is necessary. A military expedition tends to carry more passengers in the form of soldiers. Mercantile voyages, of course, carry a large amount of cargo for selling, and tend to have smaller crews. Finally, religious or colonial missions usually carry enough people and supplies to establish a settlement on the destination world.

Positions

Next it is important to determine which crew positions the PC's fill. They could always be ordinary hands. Given their exceptional abilities, however, it is more likely that they fill one of the following stations.

• The captain has command of the vessel, issuing orders to the crew and giving other assignments.
• Second in command is the first mate, who acts in the captain's stead, and who is often the one to lead landing parties while the captain remains aboard the ship.
• The pilot is the individual who possesses the orb of control and thus steers the aethership.
• On many ships, the captain or pilot also acts as the navigator—the person who uses star charts or an orrery to plot the vessel's course. Depending on the organization of a crew, however, this job could fall to another character.
• The quartermaster is the individual in charge of equipment and provisions. This crew member passes out weapons and other gear, food, and loot if there is any.
• The bosun (a shortened version of boatswain) is in charge of the ship's sails and rigging. This person oversees the crew members who hoist and furl the sails, thereby controlling the vessel's speed.
• Many vessels have a surgeon, the individual who deals with injuries to crew members. While sometimes this is a character without supernatural healing ability, most vessels have a cleric of some kind to fill this role.
• The surgeon's assistant is known as the loblolly boy/girl.
• The captain often has a steward, a servant who sets the table and delivers food and drink for meals and meetings.
• Given the many ways in which a vessel may suffer damage—collisions, enemy weapons, and unpredictable interstellar phenomena—it is important to have someone who can repair a vessel. (The sub-skills for doing so are listed above.) Since the ship, sails and rigging are magical in nature, this position needs to be filled by an arcane spellcaster with access to the appropriate feats and spells.
• It can often be beneficial for a vessel to have a chaplain, someone who shares a common faith with the crew member and leads religious services. This might be the same character as the surgeon, but not always.
• Observant characters are always welcome to position themselves in the crow's nest in order to act as lookout.
• Young people seeking a life in space are sometimes brought aboard as ship's boys/girls.
• Given the long nature of interplanetary voyages, many crews appoint one or more musicians to provide entertainment.
• It's always good to have a capable cook, too—a position that doesn't seem glamorous, but that can earn a lot of respect if handled well.

Keep in mind, too, that many of these positions have an appointed assistant; this can be a stepping stone for characters who are making the transition from ordinary swabs to more important posts.

Daily Routine

 For the most part, aetherial travel is an uneventful process. Given the distance between planets, the primary star(s) and other celestial bodies, it takes a long time. To provide some structure, the daily schedule is divided into watches, as detailed below. Time is kept via an hourglass, which is turned by crew members on duty when necessary. This system means that crew members who serve on the first, morning, afternoon and second dog watch on one day, then serve on the middle, forenoon and first dog watches on the next day.

For the most part, duty consists of little more than making sure the sails are set properly and then keeping an eye out for trouble. There are also the daily tasks of plotting and monitoring the course of travel, along with cooking and distributing meals and the like.

Watches and Times 20:00 – 0:00 / First watch 0:00 – 4:00 / Middle watch 4:00 – 8:00 / Morning watch 8:00 – 12:00 / Forenoon watch 12:00 – 16:00 / Afternoon watch 16:00 – 18:00 / First dog watch 18:00 – 20:00 / Second dog watch

Entertainment

 Since these voyages can become tedious, any form of entertainment is welcome. The stories and songs of a bard are, needless to say, a welcome distraction. On some ships, this entertainment can even develop into an actual play, with crew members filling the roles of director, actors and other functions. Dice and card games can also make for a good distraction, although playing for money is usually prohibited in order to avoid conflicts between crew members.