Crew Rules

The Crew

The crew is the party's shared identity: its reputation, resources, and specialty as an organized group. It has a type, a Favored Job, a Lair improved through Upgrades, optional Cohorts and a Patron, and a shared level.

Crew Level & Advancement

• One level: every character in the crew has the same character level, which is the crew's level.
• Shared Experience: all Experience the party earns (fights, hazards, completed jobs, anything else) goes into a single crew pool.
• Leveling up: when the pool reaches the next threshold, every member levels up at the same time.
• Replacements: a new or replacement character joins at the crew's current level (for example, a hireling or contact stepping up, or a newcomer who already matches the crew's standing).

Crew Type

The crew type is its core identity. Each type provides Starting Upgrades, a Favored Job list (some types choose a cargo or sales type instead), a list of type-specific Upgrades, and a list of Special Abilities.

All starting Upgrades are received at their base tier.

Favored Job

Choose one Favored Job (or cargo/sales type) from the crew type's list. While pursuing a job of that type, each crew member gets:

• one free downtime activity to prepare for the job, and
• 1 level of Advantage on checks to gather information related to that job.

Special Abilities

Each crew member picks one Special Ability from the crew type's list at character creation, and another at levels 4, 8, 12, 16, and 20 (six total by level 20). Some abilities require a minimum Crew Level, and many scale their Advantage at Crew Levels 12 and 20. The full ability texts are in the Crew compendium.

The Lair

The Lair is the crew's home base: a hidden camp, a room above a saloon, a proper homestead. It starts as simply a safe place to be and grows through Upgrades bought over time.

Upgrades

Each Upgrade lists a minimum Crew Level and a cost. Some Upgrades have multiple tiers; each higher tier may need a higher Crew Level and an additional payment on top of the previous tier. To take an Upgrade: confirm the crew meets the level requirement, pay the cost, and record it (plus any choices it asks for, such as a skill, region, or authority).

General Upgrades

Available to every crew:

Type-Specific Upgrade Patterns

Each crew type has its own Upgrade list built from a few recurring kinds:

• Rigging (Crew Level 1): pick two items of the listed kind (weapons, armor, tools, gear) and reduce each one's Bulk by 1. Smugglers may change their picks with a downtime activity; Hawkers instead perfectly conceal one item whose Bulk no longer counts.
• Elite [Cohort type] (Crew Level 4): Cohorts of that type gain 1 Advantage on checks related to their type.
• Ability training (Crew Level 1): each crew member gains a permanent +1 to the ability score that suits the crew's work: Assassins (Hardened) Reflex; Bravos (Hardened) Might; Essence Hunters (Hardened) Intellect; Hawkers (Composed) Charisma; Prospectors (Hardy) Perception; Raiders (Battle-Hardened) Might; Shadows (Steady) Reflex; Smugglers (Steady) Charisma; Wardens (Steady) Perception; Arcane Investigators (Steady Mind) Intellect.
• Reputation/Influence (Crew Level 1–8): choose a specific authority, organization, region, or settlement; Cohorts working in that context gain 1 Advantage on type-related checks (e.g., Marked for Silence, Grease the Wheels, Feared Name, Standing Authority, Quiet Buyers, Trusted Consultants).
• Unique: e.g., Camouflage and Mobile Lair (Smugglers), Recognized Claim (Prospectors: the Lair doubles as a legal claim yielding a small steady income).

Crew Patron

A Patron is an NPC or organization with a real stake in the crew's success: someone who opens doors, offers work, or gives support the crew couldn't easily get alone. A Patron is optional, and the relationship can sour or end as easily as it began. (See the One-Roll Frontier Patron table in the Adversaries chapter for quick generation.)

Cohorts

A Cohort is a group of hirelings, allies, or specialists who serve the crew. Recruiting one costs an Upgrade purchase. Any skill a Cohort isn't Strong or Weak in is Average.

Cohort Types

Choose a type when creating a Gang. The type sets which skills the Cohort is Strong and Weak in; all other skills are Average.

Second type: a Cohort can gain a second type (a genuinely dual skill set) for another Upgrade purchase.

Gangs and Experts

Gang scale grows with Crew Level:

An Expert is a single specialist (doctor, investigator, mystic, and so on) instead of a gang. Its scale is always one person, but it uses the Check Bonus, HP, and Soak of the next level band. The bands start at Crew Levels 1, 4, 8, 12, 16 and 20: at Crew Level 1–3 an Expert uses the level 4 values, at 4–7 the level 8 values, and so on. At Crew Level 16 or higher it uses the level 20 values.

Using a Cohort

When you send a Cohort to do something, roll a check with its Check Bonus for the relevant skill (Strong, Average, or Weak per its type). The GM sets a DC or, for open-ended outcomes, reads the result on the Yes/No ladder.

Cohort Harm & Healing

A Cohort has its own HP and Soak, scaled by Crew Level like a Standard adversary: a Gang uses the Standard values for its Crew Level; an Expert uses the values of the next level band. Damage is resolved as for any adversary: subtract Soak, then remove the rest from HP.

• 0 HP: the Cohort is lost. A Gang scatters, is captured, or otherwise leaves service; an Expert is killed, captured, or driven off (GM decides the details).
• Recovery: HP returns during downtime when circumstances allow, in an amount the GM sets.
• Replacement: costs a downtime activity plus currency scaled to Crew Level (GM's call).

Cohort Tables