Crew Position

Crew Positions & Characters If you’re planning on running a pirate-based game, it’s advisable to have the player characters as officers rather than common sailors, simply because taking orders isn’t very heroic. Who actually steers the ship is up to the players. Ideally, it should be the character with the highest Boating skill, for obvious reasons. However, if the group wants to run a more historically accurate ship, it’s usual for the quartermaster to be the pilot. Naturally, if his Boating skill isn’t up to scratch, the crew may call for his resignation and elect a better pilot.

Captain The captain is top-dog on a pirate ship, but as with other ranks, his position is an elected one. His authority is unquestioned during an engagement or chase, but at other times all decisions are taken by a show of hands among the crew. The captain is expected to be impartial and to judge his crew fairly. The payoff for all this responsibility is that the captain is entitled to two shares of any treasure. To fulfil their role aboard ship, captains are expected to keep abreast of current affairs, Knowledge on the current state of the various colonies, political alliances, and mercantile activities help him pick rich targets.

• Suggested Traits: Boating d8+, Intimidation d6+,Streetwise d6+
• Suggested Edges: Any Leadership Edges, Captain, Master & Commander

Quartermaster The quartermaster is the ship’s second in command and is also elected by the crew. Outside of combat, he runs the day-to-day affairs on the ship and sees that the captain’s orders are carried out. He is also responsible for maintaining discipline and can punish minor infractions. More serious offenses must be referred to the captain, who can order a trial by the ship’s court, which comprises a jury made up of the ship’s officers. Flogging is common on naval ships, and many pirates are sailors who have jumped ship to escape the harsh navy discipline. As a result, flogging can only be authorized by a majority vote by the crew. More importantly to the common pirates, the quartermaster calculates the value of all plunder and distributes the shares. As this involves keeping track of the treasure, the quartermaster must be able to read and write, as well as perform basic math calculations. On many ships, the quartermaster is also the pilot.

• Suggested Traits: Smarts d6+, Boating d8+, Intimidation d8+, Persuasion d8+
• Suggested Edges: Any Leadership Edges, Pilot

Master of Sails The sail master’s primary task is to set the sails and supervise the rigging crews. On ships without a navigator, it is also the sailing master’s task to decide the course once the captain has given the crew a destination.

• Suggested Traits: Boating d8+, Climbing d8+
• Suggested Edges: Rope Monkey

Navigator While most sailors can plot a basic course using the sun or stars, skilled navigators are rare. Historically, many pirates fleets had only one navigator between all the ships. The ability to accurately calculate longitude remains a mystery in this age, and a navigator who can bring a ship to within a few miles of a destination is held in high regard, at least so long as the ship arrives upwind. By arriving upwind, a ship can ride the prevailing winds to the final destination. Arriving downwind can sometimes mean the ship cannot make headway against the winds and must plot a course far out to sea to catch favorable winds, adding days to the journey. This may not sound too bad, until you think that every day at sea means supplies are running even lower.

• Suggested Traits: Boating d6+, Knowledge (Navigation) d8+
• Suggested Edges: Scholar

Boatswain The boatswain (or bosun) is in charge of organizing, checking, and storing supplies, overseeing the deckhands’ routine activities, and supervising repairs. As such, he is the carpenter’s superior officer. Bosuns also lead foraging parties for supplies.

• Suggested Traits: Boating d6+, Intimidation d6+, Repair d6+
• Suggested Edges: Any Leadership Edges

Carpenter The carpenter is entrusted to keep the ship seaworthy. He oversees repairs and regular careening of the hull. Carpenters are typically excused combat duties, and have no authority, though they still receive the same shares as a common pirate.

• Suggested Traits: Boating d6+, Repair d8+
• Suggested Edges: Shipwright

Master of Guns The Master of Guns is responsible for the cannons and muskets onboard ship. Many are ex-naval personnel and learned their trade by working up the ranks from powder monkey (a boy who carries the gunpowder from the stores to the guns) to master gunner. Many are scarred from powder burns and have hearing problems. The master of guns also sifts and grinds the powder, and must keep it dry. In addition, he oversees training of the gun crews.

• Suggested Traits: Boating d6+, Shooting d6+
• Suggested Edges: Cannoneer, Gunsmith, Steady Hands

Mate Mate is basically a term for an apprentice. Depending on the size of the ship, there may be a mate for the Masters of Sails and Guns, as well as the navigator, the bos’n, and the carpenter.

• Suggested Traits: As the officer he serves
• Suggested Edges: As the officer he serves

Surgeon The surgeon is responsible for seeing to the health of the crew, whether that be amputating limbs, stitching wounds, curing the pox, or offsetting scurvy. On most ships, where there is no trained surgeon available, the position of surgeon is split among other officers. The carpenter, with his skill with saws, is responsible for amputation, the bosun heats his logging axe to cauterize amputated limbs, and the sail master stitches wounds closed (and stitches the dead into sail shrouds ready for burial at sea). A ship with a trained physician aboard is rare, and the crew will be glad of his presence.

• Suggested Traits: Healing d8+
• Suggested Edges: Healer

Sailor Sailors are the rank and file crew, whose task it is to follow orders. Obviously, they need a knowledge of the sea, as well as basic navigation and ship maintenance. Most are willing volunteers, and know that capture means a date with the noose.

• Suggested Skills: Boating d6+
• Suggested Edges: None