Advanced Recruiting Rules: Beta Version

Date: Thu, 24 Aug 1995 08:47:35 -0700
From: Christopher_Griffen@dmcwave.com (Christopher Griffen)
Subject: Advanced Recruiting Rules:  Beta Version

     I'm currently refereeing a Regency mercenary campaign and have found 
     that recruiting is a bit vague.  Other than making a die roll on your 
     Recruiting skill, I didn't know how else to make the process more 
     in-depth.  In my efforts to make recruiting interesting and more 
     challenging for my players and I've come up with the following.  
     Supplemented with a fair degree of roleplaying, these rules may just 
     work out.
     
     Criticism and suggestions are invited.  Thanks.
     
     --Chris
     
     
     
     RECRUITING:  ADVANCED RULES
     
     Recruiting involves the active pursuit of personnel to be hired for a 
     task, contract or long-term position.  Most often used in the 
     mercenary field, Recruiting skill enables its user to locate 
     individuals suitable for employment using a variety of methods.  These 
     methods include posting job listings in local publications and/or 
     computer bulletin boards, frequenting establishments at which the 
     desired personnel may be located, and networking with one's contacts 
     and other individuals who may come into contact with potential 
     recruits.
     
     Successful recruiting depends on a number of facets.  Among them are:
     
     --Recruiting Skill
     --Population
     --Sampling Rate
     --Military Proximity
     --Starport Level
     
     Recruiting skill is far and away the most important facet.  A good 
     recruiter can find potential recruits in just about any populated 
     environment.  The higher the recruiter's skill, the better he is at 
     beating the bushes for potential employees.
     
     Basically, recruiting depends on a successful task roll made at 
     Difficult level.  If the individual succeeds, he successfully locates 
     a qualified corps of potential recruits.  No success indicates an 
     inability to find viable recruits. Future attempts at recruiting in 
     that system will not be possible until two weeks have passed.  
     Catastrophic failure indicates the same as failure except that the 
     user cannot find any viable candidates for 30 days in that system.  At 
     the end of the established period, the recruiter may attempt to 
     recruit in the same system without penalty.  If the recruiting task 
     was successful, the individual may attempt to recruit in the same 
     system after two weeks have passed, modified by the appropriate DMs, 
     listed below.  Any attempts to do so before two weeks have passed will 
     meet with automatic failure.
     
     The following DMs are applied to recruiting rolls:
     
     
     Die Modifier (DM)
     
     ---------------------------------------------------
     RECRUITING SKILL    +Recruiting Skill (as per normal at Difficult 
     level)
     POPULATION          -1 if Low Pop     0 if Med Pop     +1 if High Pop 
     SAMPLING RATE (EFFECTS NOT CUMULATIVE)
     -2 if same system sampled within 30 days -1 if same system sampled 
     within 60 days
     0 if system not sampled within 60 days or more
     MILITARY PROXIMITY  +1 if naval base present and hiring ship's crew or
     mercenaries
     0 if no military base present
     +1 if Government 7 or Law Level 0-3 (and hiring mercenaries)
     STARPORT LEVEL      +1 if Starport A (+2 if recruiting trader crew)
     0 if Starport B-D (+1 if recruiting trader crew)
     -1 if Starport E-X (0 if recruiting trader crew)
     
     If the recruiter is successful, he is able to muster a number of 
     recruits equal to his Recruiting skill level (not his asset level, but 
     his skill level).  If he achieves exceptional success, he is able to 
     muster a number of potential recruits equal to twice his Recruiting 
     skill level, modified by the rules listed below.
     
     The potential recruits will present themselves within a number of days 
     equal to 2D/Recruiting Skill (drop fractions).  For example, Esteban 
     has a Recruiting skill level of 3.  A roll of 2D achieves a result of 
     7.  Dividing 7 by 3, we obtain 2.333 as our result.  Fractions are 
     dropped, for a final total of 2.  Esteban's recruits will appear 
     within two days of his initial Recruiting attempt.
     
     Ambitious referees may optionally choose to modify the above rules for 
     roleplaying purposes.  You may want to require several methods of 
     recruiting and apply appropriate DMs, depending on the ambitiousness 
     of the recruiting methods of your player(s).
     
     Attempts by multiple individuals to recruit may not be pooled together 
     for a more favorable DM.  Instead, each individual's recruiting task 
     is handled separately.  However, there is a maximum effectiveness that 
     one group can have in collective recruiting efforts.  To determine the 
     limitations on number of recruits, first determine the total 
     recruiting skill levels of the members of your group. If the number of 
     Recruiting skill points exceeds two times the planetary population UWP 
     digit, the total number of recruits beyond 2 x UWP is to be divided by 
     two (drop fractions).
     
     For example, Esteban and his group are rather prolific at recruiting.  
     The entire group, including Esteban, has 10 levels of Recruiting 
     skill.  Everyone achieves standard success on their Recruiting rolls.  
     They are recruiting from a planet with a population UWP digit of 4.  
     To find out the total number of recruits obtained, we subtract two 
     times the UWP digit (2 x 4 in this case, for a result of 8) from the 
     total levels of Recruiting skill (10).  The result is two.  We divide 
     this number by two to achieve a result of one.  Esteban and his group 
     therefore acquire a total of nine recruits.