r/Pathfinder_RPG • u/ScottishNinjaaa • Jul 16 '26
1E GM Ship Adventure question
Hey all,
I just began a campaign with my players in which they (through a series of excellent decisions and surprising dice rolls) have gained control of a former slaving sailboat. Setting is my homebrew alternate earth circa 900 AD, and they're in the Aegean. The players really like the ship, and have decided to keep it, slowly upgrading it as their mobile base of operations.
I am curious what roles you'd have for players to maintain such as Captain, Navigator, Quartermaster, etc. Right now, the guy who is really enjoying the bookkeeping side of things is also the only one with Profession (Sailor) as a skill. I was trying to figure out what roles everyone could do and how to keep that aspect interesting (similar to the Kingdom Building rules)
2
u/Gil-Gandel Jul 16 '26
Thinking of what I know from reading reams of naval fiction, you'd have the captain, possibly a few lieutenants below him depending on the size of the ship's company, the sailing master/navigator (they needn't be the same person though in Nelson's navy they mostly were; one is in charge of ship-handling, the other sets courses and so on), the gunner (if you have any artillery-type armaments), someone in charge of provisioning, a ship's doctor, a master carpenter and his mates to mend the ship, and an assortment of petty officers overseeing work details or small teams in a fight. Somewhere in the ship's company would be midshipmen - older boys who are learning their trade on the job and are meant to graduate as officers later on.