One thing that RT does not address at all is the initial hiring and equipping of your crew at the beginning of a new campaign. This document aims to address that.

First comes the selection of your crew's Quality after your ship is purchased, and excess Ship Points are converted into Profit Factor. The Quality of your crew is costed as follows:

• Incompetent (20): +4 Starting Profit Factor.
• Competent (30): No cost.
• Crack (40): -4 Starting Profit Factor.
• Skilled (50): -8 Starting Profit Factor.
• Elite (60): -16 Starting Profit Factor.

Next is the equipping of your crew.

Each piece of equipment purchased is effectively available to all crew members and explorers.

As per normal acquisitions, the ship effectively has an unlimited supply of purchased disposable/consumable gear, and basic munitions for purchased weapons so long as their use is kept restricted to a reasonable scope.

Each article of equipment is costed as per their net Availability Modifier, barring Scale Modifiers as follows:

• Ubiquitous: No cost.
• Abundant: No cost.
• Plentiful: No cost.
• Common: No cost.
• Average: -1 Starting Profit Factor.
• Scarce: -2 Starting Profit Factor.
• Rare: -4 Starting Profit Factor.
• Very Rare: -8 Starting Profit Factor.
• Extremely Rare: -32 Starting Profit Factor.
• Near Unique: -128 Starting Profit Factor (effectively impossible to purchase).
• Unique: -512 Starting Profit Factor (effectively impossible to purchase).

A piece of equipment cannot be purchased if it would incur penalties to an Acquisition Test that equals or exceeds the remaining Starting Profit Factor of the purchasing group. For example, if a group's remaining profit factor was 20, they could not purchase equipment that's Very Rare or rarer (20 - 20 = 0).

Of course, the GM retains the right to annul and refuse any purchase he sees fit.

Questions, comments, constructive criticism?

Each crew member knows a number of Skills and Talents equal to the tens digit of his Quality level's Attribute score. The specific nature of these Skills and Talents are decided by the player whom assigns the NPC to perform an action, and once selected, they cannot be changed. All Skills and Talents assigned in this way must meet all appropriate prerequisites. Clearly some Skills and Talents may not be suitable, and are likely to be denied at the GM's discretion (Forbidden Lores as an example).

Lasers said:

This is already in the rules; pg. 193, third bullet point under Construction of a Starship . The costs are listed as follows:

• Incompetent (20): +5 SP.
• Competent (30): no additional cost.
• Crack (40): - 5 SP.
• Veteran (50): -15 SP.

And yes, any unspent SP still converts 1:1 to PF.

The purchasing rules seem a bit overly harsh; though, I may just be misreading what you mean by them. Are you talking about permanent hit to the Dynasty's starting PF?

I rather like the "crew members have X skills/talents" idea. For your average voidsman it sounds like it would work nicely. And for those who would like a little more meat for their NPC crews, it can be used as a base to be built upon.

-=Brother Praetus=-

Ah, missed that.

And yes, the equipment you purchase is deducted from the PC's starting Profit Factor. While it may seem harsh, you should keep in mind that any purchased items are available for all members of the crew, including all PCs in essentially unlimited numbers, and there is no Acquisition Test involved.

Further yes, the skills/talent rule is meant primarily for use with one of the thousands of faceless mooks that make up most of your crew, such as an entourage of bodyguards that may accompany you on an expedition to a planet's surface.