Post/Author/DateTime	Post
eRaz0r 12-27-06, 02:53 PM	In the Explorer's Handbook, the cost to charter a Lyrandar Airship is 1000gp per day. This includes the crew and captain and the ability to transport you and your cargo anywhere you like. The cost just to ride on one of these things on predetermined routes is also high (can't remember how high, but it's gold per mile, IIRC) Now, the Lightning Rail, on the other hand, has standard passenger rates in silver per mile, rather than gold. It travels faster than the airships, but it is limited to where the rails go. So .. What are the chartering options for rail cars ? A crew-car can be chartered for 750gp per day - which gives you the freedom to travel when you want, as it is an "engine" car and provides it's own motive power. It also comes with an attached Standard Car for passengers and cargo. Yet the standard non-motive rail car is chartered for 1000gp per day. This car has to be hooked up to a crew car to go anywhere, and can be done so at various stations along the route you are traveling.. but at the cost of some time and effort on the behalf of the station Huh ?? So lets compare the options ... Airship : smaller cargo hold, unlimited service area, not bound by terrain, more affected by weather. Standard rail car : larger cargo hold. Can only where the rail goes. Only goes when the rail goes (when there's a scheduled train going past). The only advantage I can see over just buying a ticket is being able to secure the car against others by applying ones own locks to it. Crew Car (includes a standard car ! ) : as standard rail car but can go on it's own schedule. Buying a ticket : as Standard Rail Car but is 2 SILVER PER MILE. Disadvantage over standard car = sharing your space with others, i.e. no security Honestly, I just can't see the point in chartering a Standard Lightning Rail Car. For 250gp LESS per day, you can get your own mini-train (a crew car + another car), which goes whenever you like. For ABOUT THAN ONE SEVENTH of the price you can travel 720 miles on a standard ticket (the full 24 travel distance possible in a day on the rail) (1440sp = 144gp per day. 1000gp/day divided by 7 = 142gp), and if, perchance, you are traveling a shorter distance, it's even cheaper. Now, if you have a whole bunch of cargo, and a whole adventuring party, it might make sense to charter the crew car, as you might wrack up a whole lot of costs in silver per mile for 4-5 people and oodles of treasure. But there's absolutely no reason to pay more to travel at the times Orien tells you if you can pay less for a crew-car and go whenever you want to. And when you come down to it : chartering any kind of rail car only makes sense when you need to go from city to city really fast. For adventuring, the flexibility of the airship makes more sense. The only way I can see the 1000gp/day for the standard rail car charter being justified is for smaller trading companies who want security between standard rail destinations and don't want the hassle of having their own crew. Larger trading companies would just buy their own cargo car outright (56 days of chartering costs = cost to own, IIRC). Even larger ones might buy a crew-car to make their own trips (if Orien sells them - I don't remember if they do). Thoughts ?
eRaz0r 12-28-06, 03:17 PM	OK, no bites. I'm too longwinded, so lets summarize. Per Mile Charter Maximum daily travel Lyrander Airship 1 gold 1000gp/day 480 miles Standard Rail Car 2 silver 1000gp/day 720 mile - Steerage 2 copper Crew Car ___ 750gp/day One person can travel 720 miles by rail for 144 gold by purchasing a ticket, (144 silver if you're willing to go Steerage) OR they can pay 1000 gold and charter a standard car for a day OR they can pay 750 gold and charter a CREW car, which comes with a standard car for free for a day. As far as I can tell, chartering a crew car is in all ways better than chartering a standard car because it comes with the crew to operate it, includes a standard car, and it isn't bound to the Orien schedule.
Lujayne34 12-28-06, 06:51 PM	One thing though, I read somewhere (maybe in Dragonmarked) that private chartered crewcarts are subject to Orien Lightning Rail schedules. They cant interupt standard schedules unless they are Orien agents or heirs on House Business.
eRaz0r 12-29-06, 01:52 PM	How does that work ? A real railway handles scheduling problems by having multiple tracks and interchanges at various places on the route where one train can pull aside for another to go past. As far as I can tell, the conductor stones are laid out in single file, meaning one of two things : The Schedule of trains must go in lock-step (meaning that there can't be "express" trains that skip stops) or there's a way for trains to pass each other (even going the other way, because that has to be accounted for as well). And unless there's two sets of conductor stones on each line, trains going the opposite way must be able to pass each other on the one line. Either that, or there's an interchange at each stop and the schedule would have to be rock-solid and brook no delays or there'd be a catastrophe every day. If there's a way for trains to pass each other then there's no real reason why a crew car can't make use of the same feature. In any case, a crew car with standard car attached and crew provided is just better than a standard car alone because it gives you more options about when you travel. It should cost more, not less, to charter one. I could be persuaded that the greater speed of the rail might make up for the greater flexibility of the airship, but not for most adventurers, IMHO. I would probably make the charter costs as follows : Airship : 1000gp / day Crew Car : 750gp/day Standard Car: 600gp/day But that would just be me. Heck, If Orien can charge 1000gp a day for their standard cars and still remain competitive with Airships at the same price, well , more power to them.