P&P Ships (early draft, incomplete)
Scott Adams
longshot at DARKTECH.ORG
Mon Aug 13 04:19:27 CEST 2001
At 04:25 PM 8/9/01 -0400, you wrote:
>Please feel free to peruse the attached rules (and design ships! :). I
>still have to round up the rules for using these ships, ship combat, weather
>rules and all that junk, but that is a week-plus task that won't cut it in
>time for my game this weekend (I'll have to fudge the raw runequest rules).
>
>Comments to bchoinski at mediaone.net (at least until monday :)
> -- Burton <<PP Ships.doc>>
Note I did this at work so a bit erratic in note taking
and comments :)
Stuff on the ship info.
First excellent material. Just one question...where the heck
was this when I needed it a year ago! :) Geesh. Could've
used this for recent stuff had to go on my own ...
Some general notes I took
Trader 130 pack animals? Seems a bit arbitary. I think
it might be more formulated by size of the holds and
the individual animal. A goat only needs maybe a 3
foot area while a horse needs 8-9 to be comfy in.
Sailing more than a few days?
You say at top that's generally not done but below you
say for berths I think crew for a few days travel.
I'm assuming you mean on night sea shore jaunts?
Also medival ships sailed for more than days. Going
as far back as norse and viking ships sailing as far
south as south america some believe without huggin
the coast (course I account that to being lost):)
Polynesians also sailed in longboats for weeks across
the pacfic,,,no coast hugging there..just dead
reckonig...
Seaworthiness (SW)
Interesting figure. You give basic loses due to battle
and damage but there are other things like how rowdy
a crew is..a pirate ship is bound to lose more of its
ship structure stuff due to rowydness and brawls than
say a merchant ship that is more dignified. Also there
are coral, and sea creatures that eat the ship though
I guess that's part of your basic lose figure. I'm
just over detailing it :)
Losing 1 SW passenger, trader, warships different
I think you gave a generic 1 loss for all ships? Yet
each ship is unique. For example a trader tends to
hug coasts and shouldn't lose that much from sea effects
than say a warship on patrol. So those differences might
be noted...
Warships only sail 1 day out at sea?
Ton of examples that break that. The vikings and such.
Persians once in the indian ocean would circumvent other
fleets and not hug the coast but sail for days to get
to a base to attack..that kinda thing. I think each
captain's skill could be taken into account even as
simple as say 1/10th of skill in days can go out without
a problem :)...nah too simple..
Fisherman boats
Notice no mention of these. These are the backbone of
civlization in terms of their navy. The crews are
so adapt at being in the water and storms and such
I think they should get bonsues in losing SW as well
as days out since most would spend days out usually
only a days joruney outside of sight of l and before
coming back in.
Culture Differences
You mention this toward the end. But each culture should
be given modifiers. For example a Zenda tribe would
get scared at a boat probably :) but a Marentian culture
would get a bonus for sailing. A climan shipyard should
get bonuses for build times, crew quality and SW and other
factors since they LIVE for the sea pretty much.
So take the time and note this for all cultures :) (yeah right)
Experience builders
Bonuses on construction time and ship quality should be
given for noted ship building creators and designers.
Persians were one of the best naval cultues at the time
and could whip out almost 3 to 1 more ships than say
its neighbors. Stuff like that...Some minor rule on
that effect could be added..
Seaworthiness factor doesn't take into account crew quality/area
Doesn't seem to take this info affect. A Formorian crew
can tend to keep a ship more worthy than say a Zenda crew
with ease. So those differences could be noted. Though
overdetailing area could be taken into account as well
since Sea of tears tend to be less erratic for ships since
its a closed space if you will while the open sea SW would
go down a bit faster maybe as much as 10% due to uncharted
reefs and more frequency of storms. If you get my jist..
Formulas?
Where the heck you get those formulae? :) I mean square
root this..man good stuff but did you make it up?
Wood Quality
Should be mentioned. For example Climans have to import
wood and thus might be less quality (thus less SW by
a slight bit) than say Donara which has tons of wood
from its forests and thus more diversity in quality.
Wood prices? 20gc?
Wow..a bit steep..Again this is per culture I think.
climans have to import thus spend more money than say
Donara does in a single day. Whereas say a culture
with the Great Forests..where lumber is cheap would
not have to pay that much thus can build more.
Construction time quality of yard yes..but crew and culture
AGain going to Clima they are ship builders from Eons.
So they would tend to get a bonus over a small fishing
village say on a Zenda border (if they have such). So
they would get bonus for build times I would think.
Then princs want war fleets fast so they can pay more for
the labor so I think time should be a factor of pay.
As pay is increased crews work harder then of course
theres slave labor where time increases but pay decreases.
Crew requirements - Diff ship types
What about passenger liners and other ships. Its a bit
generic on the requirements. But is doable. hmm..
forgot what I was going to ask here..oh well
what about resources? food and such. I think using the
FP system based on average weights would work better.
Deck space: 0.5t? t=
T is ton? I figured y ou mean say half a foot square area
for each man..makes more sense than a weight figure.
or do you mean resources/gear?
----
? Provision Lockers: On most ships, food and water is kept under lock
and key in special storerooms. 1t of provision lockers will hold
enough food and water for 100 man-days and costs 5SC.
----
That's a bit arbitary i think. I say the FP system might
be more accurate since especially players/princes have to
pay from their own pockets :)
----
? Anchors: One anchor is included in the basic time/cost of the ship,
but many large craft will carry two or even three as a spare. Each
anchor takes up "displacement x .01t" and costs 1GC per ton.
----
Your anchors are Awfully light I thik...I'd have
to run some average figures but my guess isits a bit
underweight from first glance..
-----
The random element assumes competent carpenters. The GM may add or
subtract from the roll based on shipyard skill. As for the previous
footnote, except that improved skill REDUCES the die roll.
-----
Ahh...there comes into skill quality...gotcha
All in all very nice..
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