Re: Merchant organizations in Wildspace

On Tue, 13 Apr 1999, S. Wilson wrote:
> If the crew is more talented, Mr. Elite must be too. Simple.
>

Suppose the crew is supplemented with some 4th level types: human
mercanaries, giff, hadozee, what have you. The ship can now take on
all kinds of external trouble. However, the supervisor has to
be more than 10th level to keep these bruisers in line by force, maybe
something like 18th level. I imagine 18th level folks
ruling/saving/destroying kingdoms, not working for some
copper-pinching merchant consortium, managing the hired help on a
shipment of salt beef.

But this is getting off what I thought was the main point: why should
merchants loan PCs ships? I think the answer depends on the GM's view
of human (and nonhuman) nature in her world. _In_my_experience_, most
PCs will gladly steal things they really want. If characters like this
are not very rare, then merchants will likely resort to magic before
loaning out ships. Otherwise I could see merchants relying on their
own judgement of character, perhaps supplemented by high-level
supervisors and ship-wanted lists.

<I suggested Know Alignment to boot the Evil and Chaotic applicants.>
> Um, no. I wouldn't trust that one bit. In fact, I'm much more inclined to
> trust a Lawful Evil personality (e.g. Korel the Necromancer) than a
> Chaotic Good one.

Eek, no alignment flamewars please! Using alignment to select loanees
is very dependent on how alignment works and what it means in each
campaign. Now I don't know Korel myself, but I too would trust a LE
before a CG, if I got a promise out of him.

Peter.Mikelsons@????????.edu