Each career book has a chart that shows salary pay scales for that career.
Anyone use these? How did you incorporate them? My PCs are wanting to do this, but I'm not exactly sure how to initiate it. Obviously they want to start off at the highest pay, but I would have them start at lower.
How many sessions into the game do you give them salaries? I'm just curious to hear from people who have worked it salaries in game before.
I've not used those charts, but since my group is the crew of a freighter, they all get a percentage of the job's payout:
The captain gets 20%
The first mate gets 15%
The mechanic and heavy (because they've been aboard longer than the next group) get 10% each
The "cook" (con artist), bounty hunter, crazy Nightsister, and new pilot get 5% each as newcomers.
The balance goes into the group's general operational fund. (Ship repairs/modifications, docking fees during adventures, general supplies, etc.) With gaps of time in between most sessions, we handwave daily living expenses by saying there are small, uneventful jobs that pay their rent and groceries in those gaps.
Characters don't get a cut of jobs they weren't present for.
And, yeah...I've got a spreadsheet to calculate it all.
25 minutes ago, Nytwyng said:I've not used those charts, but since my group is the crew of a freighter, they all get a percentage of the job's payout:
The captain gets 20%
The first mate gets 15%
The mechanic and heavy (because they've been aboard longer than the next group) get 10% each
The "cook" (con artist), bounty hunter, crazy Nightsister, and new pilot get 5% each as newcomers.
The balance goes into the group's general operational fund. (Ship repairs/modifications, docking fees during adventures, general supplies, etc.) With gaps of time in between most sessions, we handwave daily living expenses by saying there are small, uneventful jobs that pay their rent and groceries in those gaps.
Characters don't get a cut of jobs they weren't present for.
And, yeah...I've got a spreadsheet to calculate it all.
When you say that they get a percentage of a job's payout, are you taking about the job they did as a mission in a session, or a job they did narratively to explain what they did since last session (sort of like rolling for starting session pocket change)?
A key thing to remember for the salaries is that they are not one-way. Looking at Special Modifications, we have monthly salaries that require the PC to be on-call, short-term contracts that take a certain span of time such as repairing a ship or wiping a droid's memory, and events that are likely to be played out. Being on-call requires the PC to actually be available for that term when needed; they cannot go traipsing about the galaxy running spice because they need to be in the garage or able to defend a system. Certain set-ups may be able to circumvent this limitation, such as a Droid Tech who has mechanic droids that perform his orders on-site, or a set of slicing tools with a remote uplink that allows a slicer to defend from far away, though a client would need to be persuaded of the PC's ability to accomplish this. Such salaried work likely requires some reputation, but are more flexible because failure to perform may result in simply not paying up. Short-term contracts may require the most reputation, as the payers essentially relinquish their assets to your care. By trackers or by reputation, the mechanic or slicer needs to convince their client that they can be trusted to fulfill their end of the deal.
I think that reputation is really the key to downtime salary pay. The PCs have to be known well-enough to fulfill their work with minimal fuss. In order to take this reliable money, the players have to accept the limitations on their movement. For smuggling, bounty hunting, and other work that can be done across the galaxy, I would tell my players to either find jobs they can convince the party to go along with or jobs they can do where the party is heading. It would be quite a feat to convince the party to take weeks off to travel to some out-of-the-way space station for a few thousand credits, but far easier to do so if it is right along the hyperlane they are taking for a personal mission.
1 hour ago, Darth Poopdeck said:When you say that they get a percentage of a job's payout, are you taking about the job they did as a mission in a session, or a job they did narratively to explain what they did since last session (sort of like rolling for starting session pocket change)?
The jobs they work in sessions. The "between session loose change" jobs are assumed by us all to be how they pay their individual rents, groceries, utilities, etc. The actual recorded credits that they get for jobs during sessions are used for weapons, armor, upgrades, gear, etc.
They can get a "salary"by running a business, with the rules in the Colonist book. That's the only way I would give them one, as it comes with a corresponding cost and/or obligation. That doesn't mean they *need* to settle down and start a business, but it's a good framework for running a tramp freight business. When the obligation comes up, it's time for repairs/supplies/inspections/taxes/whatever.
I've used the pay rules with NPCs to get a grounding on what they might be able to afford to pay the PCs, what it might cost for the PCs to hire help, or what a job might pay that the PCs could be offered. My group is currently running a campaign where they own a speeder shop where they deal with the criminal element, racers, and government security forces who all need their vehicles looked after. Everything about the economy that operates under is derived from the pay scales.