HMS Victorius

[Bleys Icefalcon]

Nobody said it was easy
Oh, it's such a shame for us to part
Nobody said it was easy
No one ever said it would be so hard

I'm going back to the start​

Her name is Claire and she's an enchanted Apple 2e.

And she is destined to control the magnificent (and once very leaky) HMS Victorius, a 74 Gun ship of the line that floundered into a typhoon, coming out they found themselves upon the World of Greyhawk, in the Solnor Ocean...

So, a First Edition rule set game, with the crew of this circa 1780's era Medium Ship of the Line with her 74 guns in Medieval/Fantasy Greyhawk. Could be interesting. I will have them play members of the crew, of course many of their fellow crewmen, and all of the senior officers died in the storm and transition...

What do you guys think?

 

[Bleys Icefalcon]

That is to say, does nayone have any input, or ideas... anything I can add?

 

[Bleys Icefalcon]

One of the things I was thinking about is how do they keep it. Keep the vessel that is. A heavily armed, 74 gun man of war with a limited crew, no senior officers in a strange and magical land. Once it become apparent the sheer firepower the thing is capable of I simply can't see a powerful warlord/wizard type aloowing them to keep her. Then again, possibly they'll be intimidated by said sheer firepower...

What say you?

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

Well you don't sail into every harbor and fire a 21gun salute to announce your arrival. If nobody has seen a cannon before (and if the cannons are in fact behind closed ports) then it's a curiosity, not a threat. There's the question of whether powder even works or whether it can be replicated in Greyhawk (btb it doesn't and can't). Even assuming that they have to make more powder themselves and CAN do so, they won't know that immediately. So if they do a lot of shooting then they'll run out of powder soon enough and it'll be a moot point. The sheer SIZE of the vessel will be impressive to say the least and will attract undue attention for that reason. Handling it properly will require assembling - and training - a whole new crew under the command of the PC's, especially in the matter of firing the guns.

It does make me wonder what you plan to send against the ship that they might NEED the guns? Simply having such a huge ship and sufficient crew will mean it's not likely to be successfully boarded except by a MASS of opposing vessels. Are there any firearms aboard in addition to the cannon? Are there any smaller swivel guns on deck for boarding actions? Anyone who does try to board will have an "uphill" battle.

A good strategy might be to place themselves and the ship at the disposal of some powerful patron and thus have immediate access to crew to train and perhaps protection from usurpers until the PC's "have their feet under them."

 

[Bleys Icefalcon]

I have been told that as a DM I can have a somewhat of a cruel streak, in that I like to place my players in impossible situations and see just what they do with them. They don't necesarily need the guns for anything. There is no plan. It's an experiment to see just what they do. WIll they go on a pirating romp? Will they head to shore and seek aid? Will they even figure out how to sail the damn ship at all? Will they sell her? Will they do everything they can to get home?

 

[Bleys Icefalcon]

Where they appear will not be too far from the Lordship of the Isles... and the southern few Isles are well known to the a safe area for the regions Pirates. Perhaps they might be interested in such a large, heavily armed vessel. Perhaps they'll even try to take her.

 

[Starfox]

If they have no officers, they likely have no-one with navigation skills, and they are on an alien sea. They're likely to founder pretty quickly. I'd let the players be junior officers instead, so they have a chance to have adequate skills. Their status or lack of will have no real bearing in the new world anyway.

A 18C ship in Greyhawk is likely to be able to sink any other ship in a salvo or two, so it would be a dreadnaught at sea. How vulnerable to magic it is depends on on what ship combat rules you use, but 74 cannon do a LOT more damage than fireballs, and at about the same range. The real use of the canon would be in siege warfare, however - a medieval castle collapses pretty fast under artillery bombardment. That's where they ship would do the most good.

 

[Dandu]

How would the ship acquire more powder?

 

[Starfox]

How would the ship acquire more powder?

Entirely up to the GM. Powder-making is a rather simple process in our world (Craft Aclechmy DC 15 perhaps). But would that kind of powder work in Greyhawk?

My own version of Greyhawk has early guns. The sulfur in the recipe originally came from dragon feces. Later, someone realized dinosaur feces worked just as well, which made the Idle of Dread a strategic asset (this was when I played Savage Tide). Sometime soon it might be realized that bird feces also works, and even later that sulfur can be made out of cow feces. But we're not there yet. And this is just IMC.

 

[Dandu]

Entirely up to the GM. Powder-making is a rather simple process in our world (Craft Aclechmy DC 15 perhaps).

I am confident that they could figure it out if given enough time, but I do not believe naval vessels had trained individuals who could make gunpowder from scratch. While the process is theoretically simple, there's a world of difference between the crude gunpowder you or I would make and the refined product that comes out of a factory.

But would that kind of powder work in Greyhawk?

D&D physics is quite different, no doubt.