Crew     As your character gains renown and Appeal tiers, they will be capable of reliably leading a group of non-adventuring NPC companions and assistants. Some adventurers do not find this expense particularly useful, but others pursue paths where a large number of dutiful helpers are absolutely vital. Your cohort of helpers is termed crew; although ship crews are the most common application of crew rules, they might also be used to fulfill other purposes, such as shuttling you around in an aircraft or standing watch at a base camp.
     Crew are most frequently hired in cities, thus this chapter contains rules for how non-adventuring workers are typically paid. Crew rules may also be used for other groups, such as philosophical followers or faction-provided assistance. Whatever the source of your crew, the following rules cover the number of crew you can reliably lead, as well as how experienced they are likely to be. If a character is an adventurer, an important NPC, or someone not really under your command, the rules in this chapter are unlikely to apply to them.

Risk & Non-Adventurers     Crew are by definition not adventurers; fellow adventurers, whether PC or NPC, must be convinced to follow your lead without simply applying crew rules. Since the adventuring profession is essentially defined by great risk, crew are limited in the amount of risk they are willing to take on. You cannot use crew rules to gain in-party NPCs who will follow you into Alacrian ruins, bandit strongholds, hostile faction bases, fiend lairs, or the endless variety of other excessively deadly locations that are typical of the adventuring profession. Crew will only willingly take on an amount of risk that would be expected of city garrison or other conventional troops. For example, they will crew your warships, guard your bases, or even participate in well-planned offensives in times of war, but they will not take on the special missions and bold gambits typical of adventuring parties. If you unusually endanger your crew, they might forgive you if you provide hazard pay (see below); if you endanger them regularly, they are unlikely to remain under your control.
    To put it in more narrative terms: your crew helps facilitate your story, but they don't step into the spotlight.

Crew Leadership     When the time comes for you to gain crew, you begin tracking a number called crew leadership. To obtain this number, multiply your renown by your Appeal tiers, then divide by 2; this math may be affected by certain Appeal Abilities and Party Dynamics. Crew leadership describes the maximum number of crew that can reliably remain under your control without complications. It is not an absolute maximum - if the plot allows, you might have the opportunity to gain far more crew, especially if you can pay to hire them. However, if you exceed your crew leadership, the GM may introduce complications and difficulties as a direct result of your crew. For example, when you remain under the limit of your crew leadership and do not recklessly endanger your crew, very rarely will you encounter difficulties as a result of disloyalty, espionage, or infighting. If you overextend your leadership, these difficulties can offset the usefulness of crew in the first place, especially if you have influential enemies.
    In addition to preventing difficulties from arising within your crew, remaining within the limits of your crew leadership makes it hard for other characters to interfere with your crew. At the GM's discretion, your crew may either be immune to persuasion attempts that countermand your orders, or add a large amount of Hindrance to the persuader's social offense rolls.
    Crew leadership presumes that you are in regular contact with your crew (commstone, holographic, or even written communication is generally acceptable). If you are separated from your crew and do not communicate with them for 5 days or more, the protections of your crew leadership no longer apply. The same occurs if you fail to fulfill whatever condition earned you the crew - for example, failing to pay them or disassociating from their faction.
    Although crew leadership considers renown, your reputation is not considered; it is presumed that you locate whatever sort of crewmembers are compatible with your beliefs and goals. The Local Renown LP Element, as well as reductions to renown due to geography, are also not considered. Losses due to slander do apply, thus it can benefit parties with large crews to guard themselves socially.
    If you repeatedly violate the standards of crewmembers (for example, repeatedly putting them at adventurer-grade risk or getting a significant portion of them killed), the GM can reduce your crew leadership value, or simply have your remaining crew desert or mutiny.

Group Crew Leadership     An adventuring party typically has similar goals for their crew, such as crewing a ship that the party shares. Crew may be considered to simply answer to the party as a whole, and all personal crew leadership values can be pooled into a single crew leadership value for the group. This allows the entire crew to use the highest XP Net Worth character in the party for the purposes of determining maximum crewmember XP Net Worth (see below), and also has extra benefits for Personnel Management (Appeal). These benefits do not apply to crew associated with characters outside the party, even if their leader is cooperating with the party.
    If a PC splits from the party and does not communicate for 5 or more days, their contribution to group crew leadership is removed.

NPCs & Crew Leadership     All in-party NPCs, all adventurers, and other important NPCs can use crew leadership rules to protect their hirelings from persuasion attempts and mutiny. This does not mean that all NPC ship crews (or other large groups) are under such protection; many "conventional" social hierarchies keep order through tradition and bureaucracy rather than inspiring leadership. Unless the party finds itself set against charismatic leaders with Appeal tiers and renown, the GM is unlikely to bring crew leadership rules to bear.
    Any character in a crew themselves always has 0 crew leadership.

Crew XP, DP, & InitialStats     You typically control the XP Net Worth, Study XP allocation, and Ability choices of your crew, especially if you are hiring them (and are thus able to select those who fit the role you have in mind). Crewmembers must have an XP Net Worth of at least 15. None of your crewmembers may have an XP Net Worth greater than 60, or 25% of your own XP Net Worth (whichever is less). Personnel Management (Appeal) can raise the maximum of 60. Crewmembers of greater than 60 XP Net Worth (if this limit has been raised) may require social search rolls to hire, and/or may not be available in large numbers. The same difficulty applies to finding crew that have Study Backgrounds costing more than 0 LP. Desired inventory not provided by crewmembers' Studies must be purchased by you.
    As a player (or group of players, if using group crew leadership), it is your responsibility to track your crew - that is, their stats, XP, Abilities, damage, and inventory. Rules such as simplified injuries can help make this task less tedious, but do not hire crew you are not willing to keep track of! For this reason, it is typical for players to hire crews with completely identical stats, tiers, and inventory. If your crew is very large, you might have different blocks of crew (for example, Vehicle-focused engine crew, Vehicle-focused weapons crew, and Close Combat-focused guards), but you are encouraged to keep variation as limited as possible. Often there are in-character reasons to standardize training and inventory for easier management as well - if you have too many different sorts of crew, the GM may reduce your crew leadership value to reflect the added organizational work.
    Higher-XP crew require more pay if hired (see below). On any day you gain XP and your crew contributed to your efforts in some way, your crewmembers may all gain the same amount of XP as you. If using group crew leadership, consider the highest amount of XP earned by any one leader that day. Crewmembers' XP Net Worth cannot exceed the maximum described above, and you can voluntarily decline XP for your crew if you wish (for example, to reflect that you are not willing to increase their pay). You may select certain crew blocks to partially or entirely decline XP.
    Crew have a DP Net Worth of 0 and cannot gain DP. They have 1 depth tier normally, or 2 depth tiers if their XP Net Worth is over 100.
    Crew do not typically have LP Elements beyond Study Backgrounds. They do not track trauma; if your crew becomes significantly traumatized, you are not likely to continue to have a crew.
    Crew have 4 extra initial stat points instead of adventurers' 6 (or 5 instead of 7, for humans). You typically control their allocation, just as you do for XP.
   
Hiring & Paying Crew     Unless the storyline delivers other opportunities to you, crew are typically obtained via hiring in cities. This does not normally involve any rolls (unless a social search for high-XP or LP crew is required), but it takes at least a full day. In almost all of Lur-Asko tradition, full-time hired personnel are paid every 10 days, with their first payment due in advance upon hiring.
    Crewmembers expect to be paid according to their skills and experience. To determine how much a crewmember must be paid every 10 days:
    1. Begin by multiplying their XP Net Worth by 1/3. If their Net Worth changed during the pay period, use the higher value.
    2. Add 5 to the result.
    3. If the crewmember has any Study Background(s) costing more than 0 LP, add 2 times the LP cost.
    If you are exposing your crew to unusual but not excessive risk, you may be able to retain your crew leadership protections by offering them hazard pay - traditionally, a payout 50% greater than usual.
    Crew pay does not become gear for the crew; you must still buy them whatever inventory they need for their job. Crew are not adventurers, and they tend to send their pay home to loved ones or save it for their normal living expenses.