Who do you need to crew an airship? [3.5, Eberron]

[true_shinken]

OK, my game is not set in the Eberron setting but I use Eberron airships. I only see vague definitions on what do you need for an airship to operate correctly, so I'm trying to figure out what you should need on a crew. I talked to a few of my players tonight - we are looking for something like a mesh of Firefly and One Piece (one player wants to play a warforged that is the ship's figurehead, for example).
For now, I have:

• Captain. Doesn't actually need to know stuff about the ship; more of a leader figure.
• Pilot. Needs Use Magic Device or a dragonmark. Makes sure the elemental is running.
• Navigator. Makes sure people are going to the correct place. Needs high Knowledge (geography) and Survival.
• Medic. Every adventuring party should have one, IMHO. Heals diseases, ability damage, curses, negative levels, all that jazz. Makes sure you stay alive and kicking.
• Mr Fixit. Makes sure the ship is alive and kicking.
• Fighter. Somone needs to be very good at hitting people very very hard.
• Sniper. To use the ship's weapons well. As I dunno which weapons I'll give them yet, this one is kinda hard.
• Cook. People need to eat. Magic could fix this.
• Cleaner. Keeping the ship clean means you don't get sick. Prestidigitation could do this, but you need a lot of level 0 slots to cover a whole ship, I believe.

For now, they have an aasimar Witch 5 (helps with the Medic and Cleaner roles, backup Pilot) and a half-elf Bard 5/Spymaster 1 (possible Navigator). One player wants to be a heavy hitter Warforged, so that fills the Fighter role.
I'm looking for suggestions on what roles still need filling and how to fill those roles. We play 3.5 using stuff from Pathfinder eventually, all sources are initially open, I use refluffing with a lot of care (as in, no you can't refluff a spiked chain as a longsword because when you lose it you'll give me a headache and you can't refluff your spells as swinging your sword because that's silly and you can't refluff your magical equipment as crappy nonmagical equipment because that gives you an edge... well, you probably gor the picture already).

[balistafreak]

(one player wants to play a warforged that is the ship's figurehead, for example).

This is awesome.

Back on topic, do Eberron airships require vast staffs of redshirts crew members to maintain?

As for roles, consider basic structural maintenance. This can be handled by above staff of generic crew.

[true_shinken]

Back on topic, do Eberron airships require vast staffs of redshirts crew members to maintain?

Theoretically, yes.
Seeing as it's a chunk of wood propelled by fire, I can't see why, though.

As for roles, consider basic structural maintenance.

Oh, my players caught on to this. Forgot to add it to the main post.

[Toliudar]

By the standard guidelines, 7,750gp gets you a resetting trap that provides food and water, flavoured and textured as desired (Create Food and Water and Prestidigitation). One casting of Unseen Servant takes care of the cleaning.

[Greenish]

Back on topic, do Eberron airships require vast staffs of redshirts crew members to maintain?

Well, it requires a watch of 20 to operate on maximum capability (without taking penalties to shiphandling), and has the crew compliment listed at 150.

The crew is needed to operate the control fins and rudders that are used for more precise steering. The elemental provides motive power, and is almost always suppressed before docking.

[Necroticplague]

Entire Crew:
1. Wizard Spell to Power Erudite with haunt shift, animate dead, control undead, unseen servant, create food and water, endure elements, psionic repair object, and locate city.
2.A random redshirter with enough charisma to be a poltergeist.

[true_shinken]

Entire Crew:
1. Wizard Spell to Power Erudite with haunt shift, animate dead, control undead, unseen servant, create food and water, endure elements, psionic repair object, and locate city.
2.A random redshirter with enough charisma to be a poltergeist.

I'm sorry, dude, but that's not exactly helpful.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Animate Object + Permanency, cast either on the ship itself and just point it where to go, or cast on several humanoid-shaped objects to serve as unskilled crew.

Maybe just go with a Five Man Band trope, each player picks one of the five for his character to represent, and each character gets assigned multiple ship roles until all are filled. It would be up to each player to build a character capable of filling that role, if someone's character can't do their job(s) they may get fired or the party may have to hire an NPC to do it thus reducing the party's overall wealth.

[true_shinken]

Maybe just go with a Five Man Band trope, each player picks one of the five for his character to represent, and each character gets assigned multiple ship roles until all are filled. It would be up to each player to build a character capable of filling that role, if someone's character can't do their job(s) they may get fired or the party may have to hire an NPC to do it thus reducing the party's overall wealth.

That's basically what we are doing. I'm trying to point them in the right direction about how to make your character capable of filling said role.

[Bayar]

Here you go.

[balistafreak]

I suddenly recall an Excel spreadsheet where someone took Leadership, and then statted out every single one of the followers, with one-line descriptions of relationships and personalities.

It. Was. Epic.

But I can't find it anymore.

[Engine]

I had a character who was the captain of an airship in a steampunk homebrewed setting. A lot of fun to play, even mine was a more serious game than One Piece. I took Leadership for the crew, while the other party members were the officers of the ship. The medic was a NPC Adept, the cook was a NPC Expert, the ship's weapons were manned by NPC Warriors, the mechanic was a NPC Expert, most of the crew were NPC Commoners (cleaning, repairing, aid in manning the ship's weapon and so on), some Fighters to provide the ship with a group of marines for security, the Cohort was the boatswain. First officer, navigator, the sarge (the guy who had command of the ship's marines) were the other characters.
Leadership is a great talent per se, almost mandatory for a ship captain.

[Narren]

[*]Captain. Doesn't actually need to know stuff about the ship; more of a leader figure.

I would think that the captain would need to know a good bit about running the ship to maintain the respect of the crew. After all, why would they follow him if he has no idea what he's doing? Not that he needs to be the BEST navigator or mechanic or defender....but he should at least know the basics.

[cupkeyk]

I would think that the captain would need to know a good bit about running the ship to maintain the respect of the crew. After all, why would they follow him if he has no idea what he's doing? Not that he needs to be the BEST navigator or mechanic or defender....but he should at least know the basics.

This is actually Sisay and Girrard of the M:tG's Weatherlight. Totally funny chemistry too.

I think each ship has a listing of how many, minimum crewmembers each ship needs. There are unseen servant magic items for the menial labor. a lyrandar airship may have a Lyrandar helmsman, and a Cannith Artificer. The guys who binds the elemental top the ship is a Sivis Truenamer, who usually does not accompany the crew, but having one along is not totally out of the question since the ship will probably have its own Sivis Speaking Stones that need encrypting and decoding. Considering these three are all powerful spellcasters, i say the three of them and their bound, summoned, or created servants can man the entire ship. Heck, challenging a party of three dragonmark heirs is asking to get yourselfed struck by lightning, swarmed by automatons and named as jell-o and cursed to an lifetime as a light dessert.