Stuff

[Scott Cohan]

  <<My Replies will start off with a << at the beginning of the line.

Well here is how I see it:

-----Original Message-----
From:   Scott Cohan [SMTP:scott.cohan at SSA.GOV]
Sent:   Wednesday, November 12, 1997 2:09 PM
To:     POWERS-AND-PERILS at DUTCGEO.CT.TUDELFT.NL
Subject:        Stuff

  Well, had a successful game last night.  The party managed to fight off three
  Athachs with only one member getting near death (An Athach bit his head).
(COOL)
  Got a question:  I've noticed a blank space on the web site for characters.  I
  have a good character from a previous game that I think I could write up
  (although I'd collaborate with the player).  Would people like to see this?
(YES!)
  <<See, the problem is that I don't use the P&P rules, so I don't have a P&P
  writeup.  I have the Fantasy Hero stats and a charaacter description.  I'll
  probably just send the character description and a thumbnail description of
  stats (along the order of Average Strength, but very dextrous).

  Also:  What is the tech of the Perilous Lands? (?Pre-Copernicus? Magic; no
need for lenses)
  We have Plate Armor, which is
  Late Medieval, we have no gunpowder, (<- +4 magic arrow) and shipbuilding
skills seemed to have
  stagnated in the trireme stage.  Now, I'm no expert, but it seems to be that
  it's a little unbalanced.  (NOT REALLY, AFTER ALL THEY HAVE GODS DIRECTLY
INTERFERING)
  <<Except that the gods can't act directly in the Middle
  World unless they have an avatar there (like Slidranth).  At
  least, that was my understanding.

  Does anyone out there have any good information on
  pre-gunpowder ships?  (yes, I do, and I'll explain below.)
Likewise, perhaps true sailing ships haven't been
  developed because of the vast number of Climan Priestesses with Sea Powers
  (Friendly Current). (STORM POWERS)
  <<Mea Culpa
see below

     As far as P&P v2, I'd like to see some more rules for sea travel.  (me too)
The "Sea
  of Tears" article was helpful, but left much to be desired, like what sort of
  ships are commonly used, perhaps some tactics of naval warfare, how far away
  you can spot that Climan excise vessel and how to lose them, that sort of
  thing.  Questions, comments, suggestions?

Well, it seems to me that ships would never have to be more than the transport
or trade required, in Perilous Lands at least. Magic makes transport fairly
safe, and I feel that SOME peoples should have developed teleportation or
inter-world gate travel ports too. This is not covered in Perilous Lands.
The ships they offer work for the populations the game designers set, but are
lacking in that they are ships that cannot take on the high seas. That makes
MAGIC a MUST. Which is not to say that this is a bad thing, just a necessary
feature of the Lands. Since there are no bigger ships that can handle rough
weather, magic has to be used to safeguard the ships they have, either personal
magic or prayers to responsive Deities. Another problem which is often missed is
cost. A Spanish galleon would cost around 210000 gold based on the cost for a
war galley. Not even the Dwarves would pay that much for a hunk of flotsam. And
why spend all that money when it can be sunk by a few fireballs or lightning
bolts?
The only reason bigger and faster ships were developed on earth was because we
had to meet demands of trade and the conquest of 1million plus nations.  In the
Perilous Lands nations have traded hands very often and the populations have not
had time to be built up at all. War would seem to be the biggest factor on earth
for making bigger faster ships, but in the Lands it would not be a necessity due
to the inherent magical nature of the Lands and it's Deities.   Please read this
and think about the ideas it gives you, it too me over 2 hours to write, like I
told Wout, I'm not normally articulate in these matters, but here is my attempt.
  Lyndon Liberty

  <<Well, the Spanish Galleon was an extreme example, but we know that Climans
  build their ships big in order to run down other nations' ships (SoT article).
   Also, Lemasa must have large, ocean-going ships for their travels EAST.  And
  then there's the Armagh, who came from the misty WEST (although who's to say
  how far away their homeland is).

  <<Here's my basic problems:
     How far can each ship type travel in a day?
  Nowhere are we given more than a mention in "Tower of the Dead" which states
  that the ship the party is on (Captain, 1d6+6 crew) can make about 20
  miles/day.
  If a small vessel like this (probably a small carrack) can make 20 miles/day,
  then how fast can larger ships go?  What is the difference between a normal
  trireme and the fast triremes mentioned in the Culture Book?  How much
  cargo/How many people can each ship carry?  What's the minimum crew, etc.  I
  don't really know this information for early medieval shipping?  (I have an
  excellent sourcebook for 17-18th century shipping, but that's way too advanced
  for this game)

  And, how common is magic?  Can every merchant ship leave port with a mage for
  hire on board?  Is it a regular shipboard position, like Captain, First Mate,
  Quartermaster, Ship's Mage?  (Ok, we can probably assume that all Climan
  Excise Ships have a Priestess who is commanding, but what magic does she have?
   Storm and Sea Powers for sure, probably)

  <<Admittedly, some of this, people really don't need to know.  The minimum
  that we do need is a description of general types of shipping (river boat,
  fishing boats, merchant vessels, military, pirates, those darn Climans, and
  the proposed ocean-going vessels from Lemasa), which would include min-max
  crew, max cargo/passengers, average miles/day.  (Larry, this is what I think
  should be in the core rules.  Let's face it, it would take up less than a page
  and is the bare minimum the players and GMs would need.  More detail could
  wait for a naval travel book.)  Let's face it, right now, if you have a
  merchant character, you probably have all sorts of questions for your GM
  concerning how much cargo can you fit on your ship, how much space does 5 tons
  of textiles take up, how many slaves can you back in below decks, how fast you
  can go, so you know how much food to buy, etc.

  The Sea of Tears article states that few ships "travel more than two weeks
  before they must restock with food, water and other supplies."  Yet, ships
  routinely travel from Affea to Clima with no stops for provisions or
  orientation (where could they stop?  Everyone hates them).  And they are
  separated by 28 hexes.  At 20 miles/day, it would take 28 days for this trip,
  assuming that all Climan ships have magic compasses which point directly
  toward their destination. Although it is all east-west travel, which can be
  reorientated by the rising and setting sun, but still there must be storms and
  overcast days, stopping to retrieve crewmen who fall overboard, and the like,
  call it 35 days on average.  That's a long time for a trip with no stops.
  Especially, since they intersect with the Pelara-Maoun trade route.  Do the
  Climans have some special way of preserving food?  Do they have magical
  hydrofoils? (That's a joke, son).  Or am I completely off-base and this is a
  normal journey for triremes?

  <<I'm going to try and get some more information on early sea travel and see
  what I can come up with.  I'll present my findings here and we can discuss
  them.  Shoot, if Larry is willing, perhaps I can make up an entire naval
  travel section for the new rules, which would include things like:
  Description of ships and their capabilities.
  Life aboard a ship. (including what each person does, captain, mate,
  navigator, etc.)
  Naval combat
  Navigation (the quick and easy version)
  Merchanting (how much room does each cargo take up?  Where do you buy what?)
  And the like

  Do people thing that this is worthwhile?  Would people like to see naval
  travel explored in more detail (since we've got almost none, any detail would
  be nice)?  Questions, comments, suggestions?

  Scott Cohan