DMs: How do you model heroic medieval naval combat?

[monkeynova]

Hello!

I just saw Master & Commander last night (good movie), and I started thinking about how much fun it would be to model some Napoleonic naval combat in an RPG. Then I wondered, "How did naval combattake place several centuries earlier, during the Middle Ages?" Then I wondered how I would go about modelling that in an RPG...

And that's where I'm stumped. I don't know how to model medieval fleet action, or if heavy naval combat even took place during the Middle Ages. Does anyone have any ideas about where I could start to research this (books, films, websites, etc.)? Also, which rulesets would you recommend I use to attempt such a thing?

Thanks,

monkeynova

 

[diaglo]

for rulesets try http://members.aol.com/wergames/ahwsim.htm

also look into Green Ronin's product Skull & Bones

or MEG's The Deep


or Of SHips & the Sea for 2edADnD

for battle maps try Games WOrkshop boxed sets from the early 1980s.

 

[Calico_Jack73]

As much as I love Skull & Bones the ship combat system has the cannon effects figured into the actual system. You could just make equivalent balistas and catapults though.

Fantasy Flight games has the Seafarer's Handbook and it has a decent fantasy setting ship-to-ship combat system but it does at least require a piece of graph paper and you'll want to have the ships drawn out on a battlemat for boarding actions. Luckily they provide several deckplans for various ships so it is simply a case of copying down what is already provided. The book also has some new spells that are geared toward naval combat.

Long story short, if you want to recreate M&C then use Skull & Bones as I feel that system is the best for ship-to-ship combat involving cannon fire. For a fantasy setting use the Seafarer's Handbook.

 

[Arnwyn]

I still use 2e's Of Ships & the Sea.

 

[Phineas Crow]

... Then I wondered, "How did naval combattake place several centuries earlier, during the Middle Ages?" Then I wondered how I would go about modelling that in an RPG...

And that's where I'm stumped. I don't know how to model medieval fleet action, or if heavy naval combat even took place during the Middle Ages...

Naval Warfare has been around since the first ships crossed the seas. The Vikings engaged in many battles on the sea.

Before cannons, the main objective in ship warfare was to board your enemies' ships and capture them. Bowmen would launch volleys of arrows to soften up the targets and provide support to the boarding attackers and sometimes siege weapons like catapults and ballistae were used to damage or sink enemy vessels. Greek Fire was also a devastating naval weapon.

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

Rams were an important of medieval naval combat up to a very late period. Particularly in the mediterranean.

I highly recommend, if you can find it, Exalted's Savage Seas. It's the only naval supplement I've ever seen for any game that didn't secretly want to be Napoleanic.

The important thing to remember about medieval naval technology and warfare is that you are at the middle point between the classical style of ships where you can park them pretty much anywhere and the more modern stuff that can carry a load of power but can't load it up except in a very few prepared places or through smaller boats.

The upshot of which is that there are going to be a lot of very different boats and ships on the ocean and they're all going to have some military specialties. Which will result in some very odd situations.

Such as the terrible conundrum about longboats.

They're great you can take em anywhere, you can project power, wreck shipping, maneuver like nothing, and put just about anything onboard them.

You will also loose any major naval engagement against an advance naval power. At the end of the longboat period I think they got taken out by a handful of high walled cogs.

Earlier, seven Byzantine ships beat out a vast armada of Viking Longboats on their way down from Russia. Totally and utterly slaughtered them. But then still had to bribe them back into peace. They just couldn't match the longboats ability to be anywhere in rougher seas and crazy rivers.

The Alexiad of Anna Comnena has some awesome naval engagement pieces. And there are several great depictions of medieval landings.

George RR Martin's Song of Ice and Fire has a fantastic naval siege chapter.

 

[Polydamas]

The full text of the Alexiad is available online at http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/AnnaComnena-Alexiad.html

Its parent page, the Medieval sourcebook, is a really wonderul resource:

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook.html

The medieval warfare site has some good reading, check out God, leadership, Flemings and Archery: Contemporary Perspectives of Victory and Defeat at the Battle of Sluys 1340as it contains a discussion of a british landing which contains some intersting tidbits about seawarfare (and could be nicley lifted for a D&d encounter) on
http://www.deremilitari.org/RESOURCES/CATEGORIES/lmw.htm

and the page on naval warfare http://www.deremilitari.org/RESOURCES/CATEGORIES/navalwarfare.htm

 

[Janx]

I've been running a naval campaign for 6 months now.

I originally bought the SeaFarer's Handbook. It was decent, but after seeing Master and Commander, I had to alter things. I did a bunch of research on real ships from all periods just to get a feel for it.

Namely, ships have more guns than most D&D books say they do. I built a funky spreadsheet to calculate all that. You enter the length and width, it figures out how many weapon points, HP, crew, sails, etc.

I've got a 3 page document I wrote on running a simple but tactical level naval combat (includes wind direction, but not speed or current effects).

We ran a 3 hour, 7 ship combat a few months back. Biggest point to make is make sure both sides have access to similar weapon technologies. Cannons are way better than Catapults and Ballistas. Unless you want to illustrate a slaughter, don't mix them, unless you change the weapon stats.

For game play purposes, there's several choices on how to run combats:
tactical: players control the weapons and steering of their ship (regardless of the PCs actual roles on the ship) and the DM controls the enemy)

Fleet: each player controls a ship, and the DM controls the enemy fleet

RP: the DM describes what happens on the ship, as the players only control their PCs (which may not control the ship).

For my campaign, I've tried all three modes. My players are Lieutenants on the ship, so they do not control the ship normally. Thus, I can give them missions (aka Adventures) and they'll most likely do them. Works out well for low level characters. They get XP, they do what they're told. Until they hit a conflict of interest. As the players advance, I'll want to get them their own command (for one player, the rest as sub-ordinants), or they'll likely retire from the navy and go freelance.

Let me know if you want a copy of my notes,
Janx