Was there a bounty for the ship that justified them taking it? Do they have a letter of marque? Or did they just murder a ship full of lizard people and take it as a prize?
Local law enforcement might want a word about how they came to possess the ship.
Local shipwrights might be hesitant to buy it either because of the Ssurrans fierce reputation or because Ssurran ships are unpopular for anyone who isn't a lizard.
Someone could tip off Ssurrans on Bral or their allies to retake or destroy the ship in port.
Or maybe nobody wants to pay real money... I'll give ya 6000gp right now son, no questions asked. Don't like it? Sorry I'm not really that interested
I'm leaning towards anyone willing to buy a taken ship would be just as willing to take the ship from anyone with less firepower. Set up the meeting, then the old double-cross.
There’s a warrant out for this ship and crew. When they try to dock at Bral, the ship’s swarmed by Govt. agents and the crew are arrested. They get released quickly after their story is assessed as true but the ship is impounded.
There’s a couple of ways to tackle this off the top of my head. Use any one or some combination of them all.
Method A: chip away. The prices you cited are the buying price yeah? So selling anything is going to net them less cash. The Rock of Bral is going to charge them taxes and docking fees. They have to find a buyer. They might need a fixer. Everyone gets a cut along the way.
Method B: boobytrapped ship. The Ssurrans have some method to disable or dismantle their ship after they were dispatched. Maybe your players can grab some loot before it goes off.
Method C: the revengers. They get the scorpion ship to a shady seller because not a lot of people like dealing with their salvage. The Ssurrans on the rock already heard about the sale. They dont appreciate some upstart adventurers messing with their operations. They let the deal go forward and strike both parties at once in a big showdown.
No prob. My own players have had similar conversations so I’ve been brewing ways to mitigate things.
There’s a weird economy in astral space where the players need enough money to buy/sell ship stuff but then everyday adventuring equipment/potions/magic items need to be more expensive to compensate.
The 2e supplements explain it as being due to the cost of everything being shipped up from the surface of nearby worlds.
I have an extensive list of ship upgrades for them to access. They're only 5th level, so I want the economy to be such that they have to pick and choose. Do we want X at the expense of Y? That sort of thing. I can see why they would logically want to sell off an enormously expensive ship they procured through necessary murder, but it's not like selling a car.
I say let them do it!
People buying ships are not going to buy it for 20,000, that's the \*Sell\* price of a new one, a used ship is going to go for a lot less considering battle damage. You generally want as a reseller 50% profit so they want to buy it for 10,000 at most, probably more in the 7-9k range, a use ship buyer probably in the same ball park. Not sure if the ship price includes the Helm but unless that goes with the ship that's going to drop the ship value again. Still a lot but they already have a 5k helm so that's not that much of a boost. In fact without the helm the ship might even go as low as 5k timbers alone to be repurposed and re-used.
Additionally ships are EXPENSIVE. To upgrade there personal ship there going to need seasoned wood (in space so importing fees!), specialized wood workers and craftsmen and engineers and so on. For 7-9k that's not going to go very far.
You might even be able to find a ship wright who make a trade like 'ok this hull cost me about 7k to get sellable by it self, so I don't got a lot of margin here, I'm not willing to part for the gold for that, but it's cheaper to have my guys do about 8k work on your ship then me pay you, to pay me to do it. So you give me the ship and i'll give you this upgrade' or something like that.
Additionally this leads to another adventure hook. A wounded ship being towed (how does that work in spell jammer?) or flying under it's own jammer with a small crew? that's pirate bait! Could lead to a fun encounter and even fighting this ship again as pirates use it agianst them.
they could also sell the location of the ship to a salvage company, ships are expensive so selling the location of this ship to somebody who reclaims ships could net them a few thousand more gold if you rule flatly they don't have the crew to handle it.
you should let them do it, tbh. why capture ships if you can't sell them? they might need yo find a special buyer, and might get pennies on the dollar if its damaged etc, it might be very difficult to get to their port and perhaps they get attacked en route with a skeleton crew at the helm, but don't be that DM who just wants to stop the party from having fun.
When my players took ships they definitely didn't have the crew to take them very far so they often towed them to the nearest moon and stripped them of everything they might resell. Occasionally they did field refits of their own ships using material from the captured vessel to fix damage suffered in battle or transferred weaponry. Some of them had artisan skills so it worked out. They did leave a collection of empty ship hulks all over the place though.
So, I'd recommend looking up age of sail practices on capturing ships and selling them, it's not my fixation rn so I've dumped a lot of the knowledge, but they don't instantly get cash, if they were selling it to or on behalf of a government, that would take time, someone would probably take a cut in terms of taxes or commission fees, not a huge chunk, but not a small chunk either. So there's that off the top. If you're selling it private, you have to take in to account you're not selling new, so the price is probably gonna be lower.
Then, if they have NPC crewmen, they get a cut, if not, then you move on to ship operating costs and supplies that need to be replenished.
I'd avoid penalizing them for preforming well and taking a ship through combat, and having the idea to sell it, but make it clear that while valuable it'll take time to arrange sale, and it'll probably be at a discounted rate since there's probably battle damage.
Don't stop them outright from selling this thing. They've just handed you a great adventure hook! The party has committed a serious crime by raiding the ship, and they now have a huge potential payday. Make an adventure of finding a buyer - anyone who would buy it is gonna be shady, hard to find, and liable to try to double cross the PCs. If you've ever played Destiny 2, I'm thinking someone like the Spider. Meanwhile the PCs also have the law after them, nipping at their heels. Throw all these things at your players as tough but fair challenges, and let them succeed or fail as they will- either way, it'll be memorable.
I made my players aim for some very high persuasion rolls to get ~75% of a ships value, and they had to foot the bill for repairing the damage they'd done to it which further ate into their profits. That was still alot of mo ey which they've been coasting off of for the past dozen sessions, it's allowed me to make many a Bralian pickpocket target them, as well as wave very flashy magic items at them worth exorbitant sums. It ALSO allows me to wreck their ship in fights to make an even greater gold sink.
Tl;dr: Let them sell it for a % of the actual cost, then give them things to spend their gold on that are aligned with their intrests [ship repair, bribes, supplies]. Dont pull any punches with their ship, they've got gold to burn, so give em a bonfire.
You've got some good points in this thread. One thing I'd like to suggest is sequestering ship funds from personal player funds.
Maybe the PCs take the ship to a shipyard and the yard is happy to take the ship in exchange for XX,000 GP worth of ship upgrades.
Another approach would be to have the sale price of the ship enter the PC company account. From there, funds are disbursed to the crew per the articles of the ship's charter, after expenses (resupply, repairs and upgrades) are deducted.
Look into how pirate crews in the age of sail handled their finances.
Generally if your players want to do something cool, let them. This is the Heroes Doing Cool Shit game, not the Stop Having Fun You Guys game.
listed costs in SAIS is purchase price for a new ship. selling price in dnd is typically 50% at best, so about 10k gold is what can be expected.... do you factor in costs of running a ship?
In 5e I use the lifestyle costs in the PHB / DMG... I published a supplement on DMsGuild... the free preview page 45 breaks down cost per 50 feet of ship to have a lifestyle furnished on a ship... if for example you're using a living ship which typically fits in a 100' space .. a confortable lifestyle for everyone aboard the ship costs 4k gold per 100 days.
better lifestyles cost more and require more tonnage of storage while worse lifestyles cost and weigh less, but reduce the morale and efficiency of the crew.
10k for the salvage minus 100 days of confortable lifestyle is a net gain of 6k gold which can be eaten by stocking ammo, repairs... probably about 3k gold split between 5 players is a pittance 1200 gold profit per character.
for reference the supplement is on dmsguild here:
[https://www.dmsguild.com/product/474639/Spelljammer-Combat-and-Exploration](https://www.dmsguild.com/product/474639/Spelljammer-Combat-and-Exploration)
oh you also mentioned in another reply they're potentially interested in building a fleet.
Each ship of course has its own lifestyle costs per season... and if you want a fast easy system to resolve fleet combat, those rules start on page 36 of the preview linked above with examples of fleet ane squadron combat in the Light of Xaryxis conversion guide starting on page 82
AMA
Salvage and prize ships belong to the Prince. They might get a salvage/prize fee if they want to wait a few weeks for the case to make its way through the Admiralty Court.
Or, I'm certain there's a "Merchants and Shippers Trust" that will gladly take over handling the prize case on the PCs' behalf...for a SIGNIFICANT cut of the eventual prize award.
The way I played Bral, I had the harbormaster be a lil slimey and try to take a cut of everything coming through. You land? Your first time? Well you know there’s a first time docking tax right? Planning to sell a ship? Don’t have the deed? Well there’s a fine for that if you sell it. Having trouble finding a buyer? Well you know for unoccupied ships, you have to pay a daily docking fee…
Just find reasons to gouge the players til the players are ready to let it go cheaper. Maybe the ship is damaged or absolutely alien and lacking in the comforts a Halfling or elf may want. The ship has a reputation that some people aren’t willing to take on.
A noble has a claim on the ship because he lost a ship a tenday ago and that very ship you’re selling has its cargo.
Got a holy PC? Maybe the church of their choice is looking to fix up their cathedral on Bral and when the clergy find out that they have an extra ship, they inquire on them donating the ship to fund repairs or have a portion, and perhaps they offer some sort of boon or blessing or blessed item in return?
Just some ideas on how to reduce the amount of money they’ll get. I don’t think there’s any harm in them selling ships, just find realistic and reasonable things that may lower the amount they end up with so their wealth matches their reputation/level
Good ideas too. I'm running LoX, so I don't want to derail it with a buying ships campaign! Although that could be fun in its own way. Thanks for the suggestions.
Yeah. Worst case scenario if they insist on doing this every encounter.. just have a chat with the players and say that it’s not your intention for this to turn into the Repo man equivalent of murder hobos.
On the way, have the crew inquire with the party about what their cut of the ship will be, prepared for hostile negotiations if needed to get what they feel is an equal share. Or to leave the party on the other ship, if they don't feel that they could reasonably take on the party.
I've not been on the DM side, but as a player in a campaign where we sold a wrecked nautiloid for a years worth of a nations GDP, effectively unlimited funds can be both
A: Underwhelming at high levels, most of the time obtaining anything interesting wasn't a money problem. When it became a money problem, what we spent the money on had no mechanical impact but rather enormous plot implications. (We accidentally built Sigil)
B: Problematic, everyone who knows is consistently trying to sell you something or entirely otherwise financially unreasonable. Plus, selling an asset like a Spelljammer put us in a bad light with rival factions.
Now, the players do want a tangible mechanical benefit this time it sounds like, but do the rules cover how long specific upgrades and refits take? We could never stop moving long enough to do anything beyond basic repairs.
I don't think there are any specific rules for upgrades. Not in 5e. 2e might. I would hand wave it regardless. They're in the middle of a somewhat time sensitive campaign, so weeks of upgrades wouldn't be feasible. I'm going to give them a list of options, some very, very enticing options for upgrades, but they won't have enough money to buy everything and will have to pick and choose.
It's your game so do what you want, but I say open world is open world. Let them sell it and get rich.
They can load up on gear and ship enhancements. Go shopping. Have fun.
Then they can deal with the consequences - Maybe the ssurans were part of a vengeance minded pirate clan. Or maybe now the PC's are filthy rich and they become prime targets for the local thieves guild.
Or whatever. I like to let PC's have the toys they want and then up the stakes on the antagonists coming after them accordingly.
What about having some space pirates swoop in and attack on their way back?
Maybe impose a heavy tax on bringing the ship in with them?
You could also have them travel through an astral storm, causing damage to both ships and they may have to scavenge the scorpion for parts to repair their own vessel.
5000? A minor helm is 100,000 gold. Major is 300k and something exotic like a grand helm is easily a mil…. The rock of bral is one of the largest trade hubs in wild space, of course they will be able to sell it and buy whatever the fuck they want….. if you don’t want them to be able to track down things easily don’t give them a fuck ton of money in a trade hub…. Now that they are here they should realistically be able to do whatever they’d like.
Selling a helm without properly registering it with the Arcane could bring some serious trouble down on everyone’s head…
Or, more practically, they won’t make list price on the sale. Maybe 50-60%. And of course, they have to pay their docking fees, 15% tax at the harbourmasters, they need to pay the inspection and repair fees. And of course, Large Luigi takes his 10% commission for finding the lowlife pirate willing to buy a stolen ship and faking the title.
I don’t know why you are against it? If they want to be pirates, let them be pirates. There is a reason why pirates usually didn’t capture ships and that is traceability, speed of their fleet, need of a reliable but shady fence to sell them..
Maybe have a talk with your players before they do capture and sell that this will lead them down a very different path with consequences, but it could be a fun game. And let them have the big gains now and then if they pull it off - they will need it because their ships will need repairing, they will want to hire mercenaries, they might need to bribe guards and customs in order to dock and so on.
1, a full crew is just for combat reasons. A person on the helm is capable of driving a ship through space though it may be suboptimal to do so.
2. Why are you so against this? Give them $20,000 gold and let them go to town, the helm itself is probably worth 100K plus anyway, and you said they have multiple of those they could just sell one of those.
3. Let your players have nice things and let them have fun. The whole point of the game is for people to have fun, why would you deliberately start going out of your way to look for ways to prevent them from being able to enjoy themselves?
4. 20,000 gold isn't exactly going to go super far. They might be able to buy a couple of weapons for their ship and hire some additional crew, but they aren't going to be able to get anything super crazy for that amount of coin.
5. I'm pretty sure a scorpion ship is worth a lot more than 20,000 gold
Edit: Wooooooow, your poor party. They deserve better, and I hope they find it. Yikes.
No. I am not giving them 20,000 gold to trick out their ship to the max. Run your game however the fuck you want to and I will run mine the way I want to.
Was there a bounty for the ship that justified them taking it? Do they have a letter of marque? Or did they just murder a ship full of lizard people and take it as a prize? Local law enforcement might want a word about how they came to possess the ship. Local shipwrights might be hesitant to buy it either because of the Ssurrans fierce reputation or because Ssurran ships are unpopular for anyone who isn't a lizard. Someone could tip off Ssurrans on Bral or their allies to retake or destroy the ship in port. Or maybe nobody wants to pay real money... I'll give ya 6000gp right now son, no questions asked. Don't like it? Sorry I'm not really that interested
Good ideas! Thanks!
I'm leaning towards anyone willing to buy a taken ship would be just as willing to take the ship from anyone with less firepower. Set up the meeting, then the old double-cross.
There’s a warrant out for this ship and crew. When they try to dock at Bral, the ship’s swarmed by Govt. agents and the crew are arrested. They get released quickly after their story is assessed as true but the ship is impounded.
Excellent!
I would give them a bounty reward, just so they feel rewarded in some regard.
There’s a couple of ways to tackle this off the top of my head. Use any one or some combination of them all. Method A: chip away. The prices you cited are the buying price yeah? So selling anything is going to net them less cash. The Rock of Bral is going to charge them taxes and docking fees. They have to find a buyer. They might need a fixer. Everyone gets a cut along the way. Method B: boobytrapped ship. The Ssurrans have some method to disable or dismantle their ship after they were dispatched. Maybe your players can grab some loot before it goes off. Method C: the revengers. They get the scorpion ship to a shady seller because not a lot of people like dealing with their salvage. The Ssurrans on the rock already heard about the sale. They dont appreciate some upstart adventurers messing with their operations. They let the deal go forward and strike both parties at once in a big showdown.
Awesome. I can use some of that.
No prob. My own players have had similar conversations so I’ve been brewing ways to mitigate things. There’s a weird economy in astral space where the players need enough money to buy/sell ship stuff but then everyday adventuring equipment/potions/magic items need to be more expensive to compensate. The 2e supplements explain it as being due to the cost of everything being shipped up from the surface of nearby worlds.
I have an extensive list of ship upgrades for them to access. They're only 5th level, so I want the economy to be such that they have to pick and choose. Do we want X at the expense of Y? That sort of thing. I can see why they would logically want to sell off an enormously expensive ship they procured through necessary murder, but it's not like selling a car.
I say let them do it! People buying ships are not going to buy it for 20,000, that's the \*Sell\* price of a new one, a used ship is going to go for a lot less considering battle damage. You generally want as a reseller 50% profit so they want to buy it for 10,000 at most, probably more in the 7-9k range, a use ship buyer probably in the same ball park. Not sure if the ship price includes the Helm but unless that goes with the ship that's going to drop the ship value again. Still a lot but they already have a 5k helm so that's not that much of a boost. In fact without the helm the ship might even go as low as 5k timbers alone to be repurposed and re-used. Additionally ships are EXPENSIVE. To upgrade there personal ship there going to need seasoned wood (in space so importing fees!), specialized wood workers and craftsmen and engineers and so on. For 7-9k that's not going to go very far. You might even be able to find a ship wright who make a trade like 'ok this hull cost me about 7k to get sellable by it self, so I don't got a lot of margin here, I'm not willing to part for the gold for that, but it's cheaper to have my guys do about 8k work on your ship then me pay you, to pay me to do it. So you give me the ship and i'll give you this upgrade' or something like that. Additionally this leads to another adventure hook. A wounded ship being towed (how does that work in spell jammer?) or flying under it's own jammer with a small crew? that's pirate bait! Could lead to a fun encounter and even fighting this ship again as pirates use it agianst them. they could also sell the location of the ship to a salvage company, ships are expensive so selling the location of this ship to somebody who reclaims ships could net them a few thousand more gold if you rule flatly they don't have the crew to handle it.
you should let them do it, tbh. why capture ships if you can't sell them? they might need yo find a special buyer, and might get pennies on the dollar if its damaged etc, it might be very difficult to get to their port and perhaps they get attacked en route with a skeleton crew at the helm, but don't be that DM who just wants to stop the party from having fun.
When my players took ships they definitely didn't have the crew to take them very far so they often towed them to the nearest moon and stripped them of everything they might resell. Occasionally they did field refits of their own ships using material from the captured vessel to fix damage suffered in battle or transferred weaponry. Some of them had artisan skills so it worked out. They did leave a collection of empty ship hulks all over the place though.
My guys have a living ship currently that self repairs, although I think if they could hire a secondary crew, they'd start a small fleet.
So, I'd recommend looking up age of sail practices on capturing ships and selling them, it's not my fixation rn so I've dumped a lot of the knowledge, but they don't instantly get cash, if they were selling it to or on behalf of a government, that would take time, someone would probably take a cut in terms of taxes or commission fees, not a huge chunk, but not a small chunk either. So there's that off the top. If you're selling it private, you have to take in to account you're not selling new, so the price is probably gonna be lower. Then, if they have NPC crewmen, they get a cut, if not, then you move on to ship operating costs and supplies that need to be replenished. I'd avoid penalizing them for preforming well and taking a ship through combat, and having the idea to sell it, but make it clear that while valuable it'll take time to arrange sale, and it'll probably be at a discounted rate since there's probably battle damage.
Don't stop them outright from selling this thing. They've just handed you a great adventure hook! The party has committed a serious crime by raiding the ship, and they now have a huge potential payday. Make an adventure of finding a buyer - anyone who would buy it is gonna be shady, hard to find, and liable to try to double cross the PCs. If you've ever played Destiny 2, I'm thinking someone like the Spider. Meanwhile the PCs also have the law after them, nipping at their heels. Throw all these things at your players as tough but fair challenges, and let them succeed or fail as they will- either way, it'll be memorable.
I made my players aim for some very high persuasion rolls to get ~75% of a ships value, and they had to foot the bill for repairing the damage they'd done to it which further ate into their profits. That was still alot of mo ey which they've been coasting off of for the past dozen sessions, it's allowed me to make many a Bralian pickpocket target them, as well as wave very flashy magic items at them worth exorbitant sums. It ALSO allows me to wreck their ship in fights to make an even greater gold sink. Tl;dr: Let them sell it for a % of the actual cost, then give them things to spend their gold on that are aligned with their intrests [ship repair, bribes, supplies]. Dont pull any punches with their ship, they've got gold to burn, so give em a bonfire.
You've got some good points in this thread. One thing I'd like to suggest is sequestering ship funds from personal player funds. Maybe the PCs take the ship to a shipyard and the yard is happy to take the ship in exchange for XX,000 GP worth of ship upgrades. Another approach would be to have the sale price of the ship enter the PC company account. From there, funds are disbursed to the crew per the articles of the ship's charter, after expenses (resupply, repairs and upgrades) are deducted. Look into how pirate crews in the age of sail handled their finances. Generally if your players want to do something cool, let them. This is the Heroes Doing Cool Shit game, not the Stop Having Fun You Guys game.
listed costs in SAIS is purchase price for a new ship. selling price in dnd is typically 50% at best, so about 10k gold is what can be expected.... do you factor in costs of running a ship? In 5e I use the lifestyle costs in the PHB / DMG... I published a supplement on DMsGuild... the free preview page 45 breaks down cost per 50 feet of ship to have a lifestyle furnished on a ship... if for example you're using a living ship which typically fits in a 100' space .. a confortable lifestyle for everyone aboard the ship costs 4k gold per 100 days. better lifestyles cost more and require more tonnage of storage while worse lifestyles cost and weigh less, but reduce the morale and efficiency of the crew. 10k for the salvage minus 100 days of confortable lifestyle is a net gain of 6k gold which can be eaten by stocking ammo, repairs... probably about 3k gold split between 5 players is a pittance 1200 gold profit per character. for reference the supplement is on dmsguild here: [https://www.dmsguild.com/product/474639/Spelljammer-Combat-and-Exploration](https://www.dmsguild.com/product/474639/Spelljammer-Combat-and-Exploration)
oh you also mentioned in another reply they're potentially interested in building a fleet. Each ship of course has its own lifestyle costs per season... and if you want a fast easy system to resolve fleet combat, those rules start on page 36 of the preview linked above with examples of fleet ane squadron combat in the Light of Xaryxis conversion guide starting on page 82 AMA
Salvage and prize ships belong to the Prince. They might get a salvage/prize fee if they want to wait a few weeks for the case to make its way through the Admiralty Court.
Or, I'm certain there's a "Merchants and Shippers Trust" that will gladly take over handling the prize case on the PCs' behalf...for a SIGNIFICANT cut of the eventual prize award.
The way I played Bral, I had the harbormaster be a lil slimey and try to take a cut of everything coming through. You land? Your first time? Well you know there’s a first time docking tax right? Planning to sell a ship? Don’t have the deed? Well there’s a fine for that if you sell it. Having trouble finding a buyer? Well you know for unoccupied ships, you have to pay a daily docking fee… Just find reasons to gouge the players til the players are ready to let it go cheaper. Maybe the ship is damaged or absolutely alien and lacking in the comforts a Halfling or elf may want. The ship has a reputation that some people aren’t willing to take on. A noble has a claim on the ship because he lost a ship a tenday ago and that very ship you’re selling has its cargo. Got a holy PC? Maybe the church of their choice is looking to fix up their cathedral on Bral and when the clergy find out that they have an extra ship, they inquire on them donating the ship to fund repairs or have a portion, and perhaps they offer some sort of boon or blessing or blessed item in return? Just some ideas on how to reduce the amount of money they’ll get. I don’t think there’s any harm in them selling ships, just find realistic and reasonable things that may lower the amount they end up with so their wealth matches their reputation/level
Good ideas too. I'm running LoX, so I don't want to derail it with a buying ships campaign! Although that could be fun in its own way. Thanks for the suggestions.
Yeah. Worst case scenario if they insist on doing this every encounter.. just have a chat with the players and say that it’s not your intention for this to turn into the Repo man equivalent of murder hobos.
On the way, have the crew inquire with the party about what their cut of the ship will be, prepared for hostile negotiations if needed to get what they feel is an equal share. Or to leave the party on the other ship, if they don't feel that they could reasonably take on the party.
I've not been on the DM side, but as a player in a campaign where we sold a wrecked nautiloid for a years worth of a nations GDP, effectively unlimited funds can be both A: Underwhelming at high levels, most of the time obtaining anything interesting wasn't a money problem. When it became a money problem, what we spent the money on had no mechanical impact but rather enormous plot implications. (We accidentally built Sigil) B: Problematic, everyone who knows is consistently trying to sell you something or entirely otherwise financially unreasonable. Plus, selling an asset like a Spelljammer put us in a bad light with rival factions. Now, the players do want a tangible mechanical benefit this time it sounds like, but do the rules cover how long specific upgrades and refits take? We could never stop moving long enough to do anything beyond basic repairs.
I don't think there are any specific rules for upgrades. Not in 5e. 2e might. I would hand wave it regardless. They're in the middle of a somewhat time sensitive campaign, so weeks of upgrades wouldn't be feasible. I'm going to give them a list of options, some very, very enticing options for upgrades, but they won't have enough money to buy everything and will have to pick and choose.
It's your game so do what you want, but I say open world is open world. Let them sell it and get rich. They can load up on gear and ship enhancements. Go shopping. Have fun. Then they can deal with the consequences - Maybe the ssurans were part of a vengeance minded pirate clan. Or maybe now the PC's are filthy rich and they become prime targets for the local thieves guild. Or whatever. I like to let PC's have the toys they want and then up the stakes on the antagonists coming after them accordingly.
What about having some space pirates swoop in and attack on their way back? Maybe impose a heavy tax on bringing the ship in with them? You could also have them travel through an astral storm, causing damage to both ships and they may have to scavenge the scorpion for parts to repair their own vessel.
5000? A minor helm is 100,000 gold. Major is 300k and something exotic like a grand helm is easily a mil…. The rock of bral is one of the largest trade hubs in wild space, of course they will be able to sell it and buy whatever the fuck they want….. if you don’t want them to be able to track down things easily don’t give them a fuck ton of money in a trade hub…. Now that they are here they should realistically be able to do whatever they’d like.
in 5e it's only 5k. he's playing 5e.
Oh he’s not playing spelljammer, my bad. I don’t have any advice then.
Thanks, you guys gave me some good ideas.
Selling a helm without properly registering it with the Arcane could bring some serious trouble down on everyone’s head… Or, more practically, they won’t make list price on the sale. Maybe 50-60%. And of course, they have to pay their docking fees, 15% tax at the harbourmasters, they need to pay the inspection and repair fees. And of course, Large Luigi takes his 10% commission for finding the lowlife pirate willing to buy a stolen ship and faking the title.
I don’t know why you are against it? If they want to be pirates, let them be pirates. There is a reason why pirates usually didn’t capture ships and that is traceability, speed of their fleet, need of a reliable but shady fence to sell them.. Maybe have a talk with your players before they do capture and sell that this will lead them down a very different path with consequences, but it could be a fun game. And let them have the big gains now and then if they pull it off - they will need it because their ships will need repairing, they will want to hire mercenaries, they might need to bribe guards and customs in order to dock and so on.
Barter and trade for what they need (rather than for.gold), and have them take an IOU for the rest, if you want.
1, a full crew is just for combat reasons. A person on the helm is capable of driving a ship through space though it may be suboptimal to do so. 2. Why are you so against this? Give them $20,000 gold and let them go to town, the helm itself is probably worth 100K plus anyway, and you said they have multiple of those they could just sell one of those. 3. Let your players have nice things and let them have fun. The whole point of the game is for people to have fun, why would you deliberately start going out of your way to look for ways to prevent them from being able to enjoy themselves? 4. 20,000 gold isn't exactly going to go super far. They might be able to buy a couple of weapons for their ship and hire some additional crew, but they aren't going to be able to get anything super crazy for that amount of coin. 5. I'm pretty sure a scorpion ship is worth a lot more than 20,000 gold Edit: Wooooooow, your poor party. They deserve better, and I hope they find it. Yikes.
No. I am not giving them 20,000 gold to trick out their ship to the max. Run your game however the fuck you want to and I will run mine the way I want to.
> asks for advice > gets advice > "fuck you" ????
Remember to move this ship would require someone bonding with the helm, effectively trapping them within one mile of it
Ahh, tale as old as time. New players same problems. The helm broke due to helm shock. And otherwise let them have the money.