Hired Help

05 Nov, 2026

No one is an island. In the course of their adventures, interstellar adventurers will need help. There are certain problems that can only be solved with more bodies or more minds. When faced with these problems, adventurers must turn to Hired Help.

There are two types of Hired Help: Crew and Adjuncts. Crew are specialists, employees, and peons hired for a particular skill on a particular adventurer. They provide their services, collect their wages, and when the adventure is finished, they return once more to their normal lives. Adjuncts are nascent adventurers themselves. While they have not yet distinguished themselves in the way a player character might have, they still have a burning dream that pulls them to the stars. They will follow the party. If they are treated well, they can become a true member of the crew and a loyal ally.

Loyalty

Crew and Adjuncts have a loyalty score from 2 to 12, measuring how devoted they are to the party and the rest of the crew. Adjuncts and Crew are each generated with a certain level of Loyalty based on their recruitment, described in the next sections. Over time, the stresses of interstellar adventuring will test the loyalty of Hired Help, which can cause their loyalty to decay. When Hired Help become disloyal, they may slack in their work, refuse assignments, attempt to leave service, or even mutiny.

Tests of Loyalty

When the stresses and pressures of interstellar adventuring become too much, Hired Help test their loyalty. Hired Help test their loyalty when any of the following occurs:

• Anything that would cause Stress (with a +1 penalty to the test per Stress suffered)
• Failing a morale check
• Being deliberately sent ahead into danger
• Unable to pursue their Dream this month
• Late pay

When loyalty is tested, roll 2d6. If it is under the Loyalty, the adjunct remains loyal. If it is equal to or over the loyalty, the Hired Help's loyalty decreases by 1, and they respond depending on their prior Loyalty score.

Finding Hired Help

Hired Help are found in Settlements. (Under certain special circumstances, Hired Help can also be found on adventures.) The maximum number of Hired Help available each month is determined by the Settlement's size:

Characters in a Settlement can advertise their presence and need by spending 25 credits per District in the Settlement per week, per category needed. If fewer than this amount is spent, the number of Hired Help found are reduced proportionally. If no player-character or Adjunct speaks the Majority Culture's language, the cost per week is doubled.

After one week, half (rounded up) of the available Hired Help will be found. After two weeks, another quarter will be found, and after three weeks, all Hired Help is available. At the end of the month, the pool refreshes, and a new crop of potential Crew or Adjuncts are available. If a Crew member was hired on a short-term basis, that Crew member permanently takes up one spot in the Hired Help pool for that settlement.

Contacts of an appropriate background can turn up one Hired Help from one of the three categories. As a Favor, the Contact can automatically put a trusted person into the players' employment as Crew. Additionally, if a character spends a day of shore leave carousing (unable to rest and regain System Strain or lose Stress), they turn up a number of Hired Help in each category equal to their Connect skill.

The types of hired help available in a settlement are randomly generated. Some Settlements have their own chances for different types of Crew and Adjuncts. However, the default tables for a Settlement are shown below in each section.

Crew

Crew (referred to as crewmaids, crewpersons, crewwomen, or even crewmen) are specialists hired to assist on adventures. For details on using crew on starships, see SPIKEDRIVE.

Crew are generated with their job, their skill level, and a name from one of the Settlement's cultures. If the GM needs to determine their bioprofile or culture, roll on the same table for Adjuncts. The following default tables can be used to determine the crewmaid's job for a given settlement:

The GM rolls the skill level for each crewmaid individually.

The crewmaid's job and skill level determines their skills.

Hiring Crew

Crew can be hired as soon as they are found. They must be hired for a job that is in their skillset. At least one player must be able to speak the language of the Majority Culture of the settlement.

Crew are hired either on a short-term basis, or on indefinite retainer. Crewmaids hired on short-term basis are hired for seven days, and will automatically leave the players' service once the time is up. Short-term crew always start at 10 Loyalty (Loyal), but they can never have their loyalty increase, and on any test of Loyalty, their Loyalty automatically drops by 1. If they are still stuck with the player characters after seven days, their Loyalty immediately drops to 2. Crewmaids hired on a short-term basis will never agree to jobs that put themselves at professional risk or in harm's way.

Crew hired on indefinite retainer are more flexible and willing to follow the players into dangerous situations. They accrue pay daily, and must be paid each month. They start with Loyalty 7.

Paying Crew

Crew must be paid Crew hired on a short-term basis must be paid their fees up-front. Crew hired on indefinite retainer accrue pay daily, and must be paid monthly or on dismissal.

The daily wage for a crewmaid is based on their job and their skill level. If the party's Infamy is 5 or more, the required wages are doubled. The wages in this rulebook are for planetary adventures; see SPIKEDRIVE for starship crew wages.

If the players wish to increase the loyalty (or blunt the effects of the disaster), they can pay bonuses to their crew. Once per week, the characters can pay a bonus equal to a month's wages to a crewmaid. That crewmaid tests their loyalty; on a failure, nothing happens, but on a success, their loyalty increases by 1.

Adjuncts

Adjuncts are effectively secondary player characters. While they have simplified statistics, they can and will do almost anything the player characters can.

Each Adjunct has the following statline:

Adjuncts start at Level 1, Skill +1, Loyalty 8. The Adjunct's background dictates their two starting skills. Some Settlements may have specific tables and backgrounds available beyond those shown here.

Adjuncts determine their HD, attack bonus, damage, and Morale from their bioprofile. The GM should also record the Adjunct's culture and age.

Settlements have baseline humans as the dominant bioprofile unless otherwise noted. For a well-connected TL4 settlement with baseline humans as the dominant bioprofile, the default Secondary Bioprofile is Pangean. The default Tertiary Bioprofile is Uplifted Chimpanzee. Most lostworld settlements do not have Secondary or Tertiary bioprofiles.

Every Adjunct has a culture based on their Settlement of origin, which also determines the languages they speak. An Adjunct available in one Settlement could be from another in the same planet or system, and so the GM can feel free to override the results when reasonable.

The adjunct speaks their culture's language and the language of the Majority Culture. Adjuncts from TL0-3 settlements have a 15% chance of speaking Neo-Dominion Yinglés, and adjuncts from TL4 worlds have a 25% chance. These chances are doubled if the settlement is a spaceport or orbital.

Finally, a Dream drives an Adjunct to seek out employment with a band of interstellar adventurers. The Dream should inform the Adjunct's attitude and reactions during the game's events.

Hiring Adjuncts

Adjuncts must be approached individually. The player characters must use a neutral location (bar, hotel, market square, etc.) to meet with prospective adjuncts, renting the space for 10 credits per day. One Adjunct can be interviewed per day. While any of the attending player characters can ask questions or suggest offers, one player must designated the recruiter, responsible for making the final offer of employment.

As a general rule, Adjuncts must be paid 100 credits up-front, told what their job will generally entail (e.g., combat, life endangerment, maintenance, starship travel, etc.), and shown the equipment they will be given. The recruiter must prove that the party has room and board to support the adjunct indefinitely.

When the recruiter makes their offer, the GM rolls a 2d6, plus the recruiter's CHA modifier, Talk skill, and the modifier from the party's Infamy. If the party does not provide the basic requirements, there is a -1 modifier for a roll. A week's wages paid on signing add +1, and a month's wages add +2. The party can feel free to sweeten the pot in any other way they wish, and the GM will add appropriate modifiers.

Paying Adjuncts

Adjuncts have a base wage rate of 100 credits multiplied by their level. They accrue pay daily unless they are on shore leave. The party must provide free room and board, and any equipment they need. They will also demand free medical attention and healing for any injuries incurred on the job, for any reason.

Adjuncts will expect to be paid once per month, or when they receive shore leave. They must have 25 local credits per day of shore leave; otherwise, they can't be given shore leave. If they receive a full week or more of shore leave, they roll 2d6 under their loyalty; if successful, they gain 1 loyalty.

The party must give Adjuncts time or opportunities to pursue their Dream once per month. If a player voluntarily assists an Adjunct with their Dream on their own time, the Adjunct gets a -1 bonus on the next Loyalty test.

Adjuncts can always be given more money. For every month's worth of wages (or items of equivalent value) the party gives to the adjunct above and beyond their expected benefits, they receive a -1 bonus on the next Loyalty test.

Improving Adjuncts

Unless they are frequently endangered, Adjuncts stick with the player characters through their adventures. Over time, they can improve themselves and their abilities, becoming more valuable to the party. This isn't a one-way street: the Adjunct will appreciate being able to see the universe, growing closer and more loyalty the party the more they develop.

When an adjunct has been on shore leave for more than one week, and they have at least 500 local credits, they will attempt to spend money on XP like player characters. The Adjunct will attempt to spend enough credits and time to gain as many XP as their shore leave permits. If they gain sufficient XP, the Adjunct levels up. Adjuncts' levels go from 1-5, with the following XP requirements:

Each time an Adjunct levels up, they gain 1 loyalty. Every even level, their morale goes up by 1. The players also choose one the following options:

• Increase HD by 1.
• Increase attack bonus by 1 (only at odd-numbered levels.)
• Increase damage by 1 (only at even-numbered levels.)
• Increase the skill bonus from +1 to +2 (only at level 4 or 5.)
• Add 1 more skill to the skillset and another language the adjunct has encountered.

Converting Adjuncts

If a player's character dies, retires, or is incapacitated for a long time, they may take over an Adjunct and make them a full player-character. To convert the Adjunct into a player-character, the GM gives the character attributes appropriate to their background and skills, their skills at level 1 or 2, and give them a player-character level according to their XP. They should receive edges corresponding to their background and skillset, and foci appropriate to their skills and experience.

Former adjuncts roll one interest randomly, and gain another Interest based on their Dream.

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