Provisioning the Crew (CSH)

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The most important component of any ship is its crew and passengers. The purpose of spelljamming is to move the people aboard from one place to another. Without a crew, a spelljamming ship (except perhaps the great ship Spelljammer itself) would be inert and useless.
This section discusses the necessities of life aboard ship, and how ships are acquired and maintained.
Food is generally the most bulky provision aboard ship, but in many ways it is the least critical. A typical human requires only a pound or so of food per day, if he is willing to live on dry rations. Moreover, people can survive on partial rations for an extended period of time, and can even live with no food at all for a week or more.
A character can live without food for a number of days equal to half his Constitution score without ill effects. Thereafter, the character must make a Constitution check each day or lose one Strength point and one Constitution point. (This Constitution check is made with each day's lowered Constitution, not the character's original Constitution score.) When Strength reaches zero, the character is incapacitated and can no longer move. When Constitution reaches zero, the character dies unless he can make a saving throw vs. death magic. Success indicates that the character survives for another day.
The Strength and Constitution points lost to starvation can be recovered at the rate of two Strength points and one Constitution point per day, until fully restored. However, if either Strength or Constitution drops completely to zero as a result of starvation, the character loses one point of the affected attribute permanently unless he can make a System Shock roll.
A single ton of cargo space can hold 2,400 person-days of dry rations (this includes the space for packing materials, shelving, etc.). That is, one "ton" of food could feed 24 people for 100 days, or 48 people for 50 days. Most vessels have a ship's pantry able to carry three months' food for a standard crew without taking space from the cargo. Ships on longer voyages, such as those exploring random spheres within the phlogiston, must sacrifice some of their cargo space to carry food. Dry rations will keep for the duration of a voyage without spoiling.
While dry rations will keep a crew alive, such fare gets pretty tiresome after a few weeks. Higher quality food (pickled fish, spiced meats, and salted vegetables) consumes double the space and can be kept for only a month before going bad. Preserved food is generally used on longer voyages, at least for the first portion of the trip.
Replenishing food stores requires access to a source of food. Any civilized spaceport will have ship's provisions for sale at 150% of the normal cost (see the Player's Handbook, Chapter 6). In uncivilized areas, the ship (or some members of the crew) will have to make landfall on an earth world, as that is the only type of world where edible animals can be reliably found. Such hunting forays can gather normal rations (consuming double cargo space), but drying and preserving these foods is impractical. Thus, ships traveling to unexplored spheres generally bring enough dry rations to travel there and back.
Alternatively, food can be harvested aboard ship. Although it is rare for spelljamming ships to carry food animals, if plants are brought along to freshen the air supply (see the later section on "Air"), the species selected are usually those that produce edible fruits and vegetables. These items are a welcome relief from the monotony of dry rations on long voyages, and they seem beneficial to the health of the crew.
Water presents a different set of problems. No character can go without some form of water for more than three days without suffering ill effects, and under no circumstances will that character survive for more than a week.
After three days without water, the character must make a Constitution check every six hours or lose one Strength point and one Constitution point. (This Constitution check is made with the lowered Constitution, not the original Constitution, and these effects are cumulative with the characteristic loss for starvation.) When Strength reaches zero, the character is incapacitated and can no longer move. When Constitution reaches zero, the character dies unless she can make a saving throw vs. death magic. Success indicates that the character lasts six more hours.
The Strength and Constitution points lost to thirst can be recovered at the rate of one Strength point and one Constitution point per hour until fully restored. There is no chance of permanent characteristic loss unless the character also lacked food.
Humans require a minimum of a gallon of water each day. A single ton of cargo space can hold 2,500 gallons of water in 50 gallon casks—far more than any normal crew would consume on most voyages.
Most ships can carry enough water for three months of travel with a standard crew.
If a ship is in danger of running out of water, its captain has two options:
* Purchase water at any spaceport for 1 gp per 50 gallon cask.
* Journey to any water world and fill the casks for free.
Air is every ship's most critical need. Spacefarers can survive for weeks without food and for days without water, but without air they will be dead in minutes.
The Concordance of Arcane Space, Chapter 1, lists levels of air quality, explains how air is consumed on a spelljamming voyage, and describes the consequences of an inadequate air supply. Here we will expand on that information with various approaches you can take to preserve and refresh your air supply to stave off those unpleasant consequences.
* Hire hurwaeti crewmen. The hurwaeti fog cloud ability can refresh a fairly large atmosphere (see Chapter 2 of this book). However, you must pay the hurwaeti, carry enough provisions for them, and have a ship large enough to carry your entire party and the hurwaeti.
* Refresh the air envelope in a planetary atmosphere. Most worlds (except fire worlds and void worlds) possess breathable planetary atmospheres. This atmosphere is always fresh, and is so much larger than any ship's air envelope that the ship's air will be completely refreshed.
To refresh its air, a ship has to go fairly deep into a planetary atmosphere (although it does not actually have to land). For ships that are designed to enter an atmosphere (ships that are able to land either on the ground or on water), refreshing an atmosphere in this way is not a problem. However, a ship that is not designed for the stresses of a planetary atmosphere must make a saving throw vs. crushing blow (see the Dungeon Master's Guide, Table 29) based on the ship's primary material (wood, stone, etc.). If the ship fails its save, it suffers a single critical hit (see the Concordance of Arcane Space, Chapter 4.)
* Carry green plants. Many years ago, a spelljamming captain took on a commission to carry a supply of green plants to an elven colony. He managed to become lost in space for many months. Although he was out of food and on the point of starvation when he was finally rescued, the air envelope of his vessel was still fresh.
From this discovery came the practice of carrying green plants on large vessels, to help preserve the atmosphere. These plants are carried on the deck (they will die if left in the enclosed cargo hold). Each 5' x 5' square of deck space covered with green plants purifies the atmosphere for five tons of the vessel. Thus, if the vessel has a capacity of 40 tons, it must have 200 square feet of its deck occupied with green plants to maintain its atmosphere indefinitely. Extremely large ships, such as the legendary Spelljammer, have a disproportionately small atmosphere for their size and so do not require nearly as many plants as this formula provides.
Any type of green plants may be used, and the ones selected often act as a secondary food source (see the prior section on "Food"). However, most plants are never really "at home" in space. Even hardy groundling species tend to wilt and die at the slightest provocation, making them a fragile and unreliable source of fresh air. It is up to the DM to decide what events might cause "crop failure" on a spelljamming ship ("1 dunno, Cap'n. They all died when we passed that big brown star!").
If the ship has half the required amount of green plants, but not all of the required amount, the time it takes for the atmosphere to be depleted is increased by 50%. If the ship has less than half the required amount of green plants, the plants do not appreciably refresh the atmosphere.
Green plants refresh the air slowly. If the ship's atmosphere is fouled through some external means, such as by fire or by mixing with a fouled atmosphere, the standard amount of green plants cannot correct the air quality (although they can maintain a
steady state). If the ship carries double the normal amount of green plants (two 5' x 5' squares per five tons of vessel), the green plants can convert fouled air into fresh air or convert deadly air to fouled air in one month. Going from deadly to fresh air thus takes two months.