[Soulfinders] Cast Size

[Cap'n Gravelock]

I was originally inspired to create Soulfinders when I thought that the crew of the Mechane of Order of the Stick probably had adventures of their own. I was thinking of the protagonists sailing through a post-apocalyptic multiverse that resembles a vast sea on the broad back of a turtle the size of an island while hunting for a lich pirate who commands an entire fleet of pirates terrorizing a Cosmic Ocean. So far, I'm getting on just fine with the cast members I've created so far.

However, what do you think is the ideal size for such a large party to be? I mean, I already have a select number of main protagonists which is comprised of five individuals. But in an effort to capture and fight a fleet of pirate ships, what do you think would be the ideal number of allies for the heroes.

Please note, I was also inspired by the large cast of games like the Suikoden Series...

[Lvl 2 Expert]

A lot.

A simple unarmed 120 foot Fluyt from the 17th century would have around a hundred men in crew. The 160 foot 80 gun "Seven Provinces" warship took a crew of at least 420 men, and I figure that does not include any marines to do the hardest fighting. (Plus it wasn't a very large ship by for instance British standards, it was a fleet flagship, but it was also made with accessibility of shallow waters in mind.) Assuming magic airships take about as much crew as our seaships you're looking at tens of thousands for large scale fleet to fleet combat.

Of course the Mechane doesn't actually seem to have hundreds of crew in the comic, more like a dozen, maybe three if we assume most remain unseen. So you can divide that number by ten and have "just" thousands of allies and it would still work. In fact, let's downsize the fleet a little. Say 15 ships as a small fleet, 20 people per ship (although 10 or 5 is just as valid as we're already solidly inside the realm of fantasy here), 300 people (or 150, or 75)could work.

EDIT: The large Hindenburg airship had a crew of 40, that might actually be a much better comparison than sailing ships since the Mechane uses engines and such. So 20 crew for a smaller ship, maybe with 10 soldiers tacked on, seems pretty reasonable.

In true Star Trek fashion you only really need to show the officers of the flagship though, so you can go as low as 4.

That's my number, between 4 and tens of thousands. Or more if magic airships are harder to pilot than sailing vessels...

[Cap'n Gravelock]

A lot.

A simple unarmed 120 foot Fluyt from the 17th century would have around a hundred men in crew. The 160 foot 80 gun "Seven Provinces" warship took a crew of at least 420 men, and I figure that does not include any marines to do the hardest fighting. (Plus it wasn't a very large ship by for instance British standards, it was a fleet flagship, but it was also made with accessibility of shallow waters in mind.) Assuming magic airships take about as much crew as our seaships you're looking at tens of thousands for large scale fleet to fleet combat.

Of course the Mechane doesn't actually seem to have hundreds of crew in the comic, more like a dozen, maybe three if we assume most remain unseen. So you can divide that number by ten and have "just" thousands of allies and it would still work. In fact, let's downsize the fleet a little. Say 15 ships as a small fleet, 20 people per ship (although 10 or 5 is just as valid as we're already solidly inside the realm of fantasy here), 300 people (or 150, or 75)could work.

EDIT: The large Hindenburg airship had a crew of 40, that might actually be a much better comparison than sailing ships since the Mechane uses engines and such. So 20 crew for a smaller ship, maybe with 10 soldiers tacked on, seems pretty reasonable.

In true Star Trek fashion you only really need to show the officers of the flagship though, so you can go as low as 4.

That's my number, between 4 and tens of thousands. Or more if magic airships are harder to pilot than sailing vessels...

Thanks for that.

[Everyl]

That depends quite a bit on the medium you're using to tell the story and the length of the story. From what you've said, I'm not sure if you're talking about an tabletop RPG setting, novel-style written fiction, a video game, or something else.

Regardless, Lvl 2 Expert's advice about taking the Star Trek approach sounds appropriate to me. A core cast of leader characters (the five you already mentioned), with a large cast of supporting characters at various tiers of importance. Some are important named crew members who are along mainly to relay orders from the core cast to the nameless background crew, while the rest are nameless background crew. You can borrow another OOTS trope here, as well - all it takes in plot terms to promote a background crew member to important-supporting-character status is to have their name and a few distinguishing traits mentioned. This gives you the ability to grow your named cast over time, as minor crew members step up and do things notable enough to join the supporting cast.

Depending on the scale of your story (and the attention span of your players, if applicable), you could probably grow your supporting cast well into the dozens, plus however many background crew it takes to run the ship(s) they are sailing against the lich-pirate's fleet.

[Cap'n Gravelock]

That depends quite a bit on the medium you're using to tell the story and the length of the story. From what you've said, I'm not sure if you're talking about an tabletop RPG setting, novel-style written fiction, a video game, or something else.

Regardless, Lvl 2 Expert's advice about taking the Star Trek approach sounds appropriate to me. A core cast of leader characters (the five you already mentioned), with a large cast of supporting characters at various tiers of importance. Some are important named crew members who are along mainly to relay orders from the core cast to the nameless background crew, while the rest are nameless background crew. You can borrow another OOTS trope here, as well - all it takes in plot terms to promote a background crew member to important-supporting-character status is to have their name and a few distinguishing traits mentioned. This gives you the ability to grow your named cast over time, as minor crew members step up and do things notable enough to join the supporting cast.

Depending on the scale of your story (and the attention span of your players, if applicable), you could probably grow your supporting cast well into the dozens, plus however many background crew it takes to run the ship(s) they are sailing against the lich-pirate's fleet.

It's both a novel and RPG setting. To clarify, it's actually similar to the Pathfinder comic that features the iconic characters. The protagonists are essentially the iconics of the setting.