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[Let's Read] Seas of Vodari
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<blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 8281434" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/0N2TFPu.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p> <p style="text-align: center"><strong>Chapter V: Equipment</strong></p><p></p><p>This brief chapter covers gear old, new, and reimagined for Seas of Vodari. For armor we have 3 new options: Heavy Leather Coats have the same bonus as Studded Leather but cost a tad more and weigh less, same case in regards to the new Uniform armor juxtaposed against regular Leather. Bucklers are shields that give +1 AC but can be dropped rather than taking an action to remove.</p><p></p><p>For weapons, we have a bunch of new ones. The boarding axe is a simple light melee weapon that grants advantage on Athletics checks to scale penetrable surfaces, hooks are akin to daggers but deal slashing damage and can be attached as a prosthetic, and bayonets can be attached to a musket to allow for making non-improvised melee attacks dealing 1d6 damage with said weapon in hand.</p><p></p><p>But that’s not what you’re most likely interested in; let’s talk guns and explosives! Firearms in Vodari are at the flintlock stage of innovation, plus or minus some magical innovations. Firearms fall into simple and martial categories, but classes are differently-proficient. All the classes that are proficient in all martial weapons are proficient in simple and martial firearms, but Druids are not proficient in any firearms. The sole simple firearm is a light pistol that deals 1d8 damage and has a 50/200 range increment. There are four martial firearms: the blunderbuss which deals 1d10 damage and has the same range as a light pistol but can also be filled with shot to do a 1d6 15-foot cone AoE; the 2d6 musket that has the best range at 100/400; dragon pistols which are 1d6 and with a shorter 30/120 range but can use shot like a musket that deals 1d4 damage; and finally the heavy pistol which deals 1d10 damage at a 60/240 range. Interestingly none of the two-handed firearms have the heavy property, meaning that Small races can make use of them. And as for handheld explosives, we have grenados and stinkpots that deal 2d4 fire damage/impose the poisoned condition for 1 round in 5 foot radii respectively. Both are very affordable, with 2 gp per grenado and 1 gp per stinkpot. </p><p></p><p>Four optional house rules are provided for firearms: ammunition cannot be retrieved intact post-battle, firearms can be audibly heard and thus impose disadvantage on Stealth for 1 round after using, natural 1s foul up the weapon and take an action to clean, and firearms soaked by a significant amount of water jam the weapon in a similar manner that also takes an action to dry out. Those with gunslinger class levels are never subject to the natural 1 misfire rule if in place.</p><p></p><p><img src="https://i.imgur.com/GND7hGj.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>These rules more or less make sense save for the natural 1 misfire. Critical fumbles rarely add anything to the game besides disproportionately harming players, and make such items less appealing to take. In comparison to traditional ranged weapons firearms have some trade-offs: bows and crossbows overall have a superior range and can be more easily used when sneaking and in wet environs. But heavy crossbows and longbows cannot be wielded by Small races, and while of shorter range muskets deal more damage. Furthermore, the pistols can be used in two-weapon fighting and deal a lot more damage than a hand crossbow and have a greater range. When it comes to price only the firearms that have fancy shots (Blunderbuss and dragon pistols) are more expensive than their non-firearm ranged weapons at 100 and 150 gp each, while light pistols are 40 and muskets and heavy pistols at 50. This puts the latter two in line with heavy crossbows and longbows, and hand crossbows are a pricy 75 gp.</p><p></p><p>In short, Seas of Vodari makes firearms more appealing for player use than some other D&D settings and system clones do, making them more a reasonable default choice than something best used for specialized builds.</p><p></p><p>We also get a broad list of various kinds of adventuring gear, ranging from aesthetic stuff like bandanas and tri-cone hats as well as more affordable versions of spy glasses (100 instead of 1,000 gp) given the higher technology level and some new tools such as a compass (advantage on checks in determining location/direction) and swimming goggles (double distance you can see in non-dark, non-murky water). We also have prices for firearm ammunition and gunpowder in general: a 10 pound keg costs 20 gp, while a full powderhorn costs 2gp and holds 2 pounds of gunpowder, and specialized canisters for culverins cost 5 to 10 gp. There’s also new musical instruments and gaming sets such as fiddles, guitars, hornpipes, hurdy-gurdy, and cheating devices such as loaded dice and marked playing cards! Finally our chapter rounds out with a list of common trade goods commonly found on merchant vessels: rum, sugar, tobacco, fruit, tea, and even aged whisky and fine wine are presented for that Age of Sail feel! We get a d100 Trinkets table for PCs to roll on to begin play with some interesting knick-knacks that may or may not have a backstory hook.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/funEl8z.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p> <p style="text-align: center"><strong>Chapter VI: Ships & Cannons</strong></p><p></p><p>What is a pirate or explorer without a ship and loyal crew? Stranded, that’s what! This chapter provides templates for ships and sample crews, along with cannons and other Age of Sail siege weapons. There’s also Ship Upgrades with sample prices to give some expensive things for PCs to spend their gold on, and finally four sample Ships & Crews to be used for on-the-fly inspiration. There’s no in-depth rules for naval combat, but relevant stats are provided for pertinent aspects, such as how many miles per hour/feet per round a ship can move and the AC, HP, and Damage Threshold of ship hulls, helms, and sails. The hull is more or less the main ‘health measure’ that prevents a ship from sinking, but damage to the helm and sails impairs a ship’s mobility the more damage is taken. Ships in general are statted out like creatures, but they have 0 in all mental ability scores, are immune to poison and psychic damage, and are immune to just about every condition. Some larger ships such as brigantines and galleons can take 3 actions per round a la Legendary Actions provided that they have the requisite crew, most often to move or fire cannons.</p><p></p><p>We have prices, stats, and sample maps for 9 ships, ranging from more conventional types (brigantine, canoe, galleon, etc) and more exotic options such as an Elven Warship outfitted with magical upgrades, Xolenian submersibles, and Waveskippers which are basically surfboards with sails. While I won’t go over the nitty-gritty, from a casual reader’s view it looks like ship combat can suffer the rocket-launcher tag problem. While the larger vessels have a ton of Hit Points, it’s not uncommon for larger vessels to have sets of cannons. While they do have some downsides, a barrage of a half-dozen to dozen cannonballs can inflict a ton of damage even if half of them miss. In the later monster chapter the book acknowledges the possibility that a PC with such a ship can gain a big advantage when fighting otherwise typical encounters (a giant sea monster is but one creature), and the advice more or less amounts to scaling up strength and numbers than any in-depth improvements.</p><p></p><p>Speaking of which, cannons range from medium-size swivel guns (2d6) to 8 to 3-pounders which designate the weight of the cannonball. Even the humble swivel gun costs 25 gold, while the cannons proper range from 750 to 3,000 gold and the 32-pounder is too big to support on ships and thus tends to be in coastal fortresses. 8 pounders deal 4d10 and the 12 and 16 pounders +1d10 for each grade up. At 24 pounds the cannonballs deal 8d10 damage, and 32 pounders a mighty 10d10. Ammunition gets expensive, as cannonballs can cost anywhere from 5 silver (1 pound swivel guns) to 8 gold (32 pound), and that’s not counting the gunpowder which can range from 2-6 pounds per shot for the non-swivel guns. Cannons also require one action to reload, one to aim, and one to fire, meaning that a crew of at least 3 per cannon is required to fire them once per round. There’s also special types of ammunition such as a chain and bar shot which is used to destroy sails, grapeshot that acts as AoE shrapnel, and explosive cannonballs that deal AoE fire damage.</p><p></p><p>In comparison to spells, cannons are expensive and slow, but unlike spells they aren’t limited by Vancian per-day use and can effectively be fired as long as the ammo is there. And given that sailors are far more plentiful than actual spellcasters in the setting, they’re easier to procure and operate.</p><p></p><p><img src="https://i.imgur.com/O12ti1i.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>Ship Upgrades are magical and mastercrafted items that require a set amount of gold (usually a four or five figure sum) and one to four weeks (2d4 for the most involved) to be installed on a ship. Upgrades are divided into categories depending on their function and what part of the ship they occupy. For example, we have hull upgrades that include a shapeshifting hull allowing the vessel to sail upon virtually any surface of water, one that can summon up mists to impose disadvantage on attacks against the vessel, and one that can shift the ship and its crew to the Ethereal Plane. Movement upgrades include mithril sails that grant better AC and less movement losses for damage taken to said sails, while weapon upgrades include arcane cannons that deal magical force damage and thunderstone mangonels* that deal thunder damage instead of the base bludgeoning. Miscellaneous upgrades include a little bit of everything, such as a living mast that grows vines upon its rigging that self-heal the entire ship and lets the ship’s cook cast the Goodberry spell once per day. Another interesting choice is a Ghost-Lantern Bowspirit that has an antique lantern whose light can reveal the forms of undead creatures at night. It can also grant the ship resistance to nonmagical bludgeoning/piercing/slashing damage as a reaction once per day.</p><p></p><p>*mangonels are catapults detailed in the DMG.</p><p></p><p>Random Ships & Crews give us a sample d12 table of personalized ship names (the Sparrow Hawk, Luna’s Blessing, etc) accompanied by the ship template type and the NPC type (bandit captain, gladiator, werewolf, etc) of its captain. We have four more involved entries: the Ship of the Damned is a Brigantine ghost ship inhabited by undead and best used as a creepy random encounter. The Arrogant Sage is a Sloop home to wizards and intellectuals turned into Cursed Souls by the Preserver gods for delving into dark knowledge. The Vile Servant is a Sloop full of mercenaries made up of outcasts and criminals on the run, lead by a former Arushi musketeer and an assortment of other crewmates with varying backstories such as a priest who got ousted after finding corruption in the church of Taevara and a chef whose life was ruined by a criminal syndicate in Port Zavros.* Finally there’s the Crimson Hand, a Galleon whose crew miraculously found a safe port in the storm that was a temple of Fortana. They thus dedicated their lives to battling tyranny, spreading freedom and wealth, and honoring the goddess.</p><p></p><p>*This is a bit of an editing error: the country is called Zavros, but its capital city is Port Zavo.</p><p></p><p><strong>Thoughts So Far:</strong> Overall I find the new gear additions satisfactory. The firearm rules pleasantly surprised me in actually being functional weapons not saddled with downsides, and I really enjoyed the addition of Ship Upgrades. The addition of sample ships and crews along with maps for sample common ship types will be of great use in seafaring campaigns in general. My only real concern is that we don’t really have an in-depth system for ship-to-ship (or ship-to-sea-monster) combat, and it doesn’t solve the common problem of PCs who aren’t pilots or artillerists having nothing substantial to do beyond boarding actions.</p><p></p><p><strong>Join us next time as we learn eldritch secrets in Chapter VII: Magic Items & Spells!</strong></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Libertad, post: 8281434, member: 6750502"] [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/0N2TFPu.png[/img] [b]Chapter V: Equipment[/b][/center] This brief chapter covers gear old, new, and reimagined for Seas of Vodari. For armor we have 3 new options: Heavy Leather Coats have the same bonus as Studded Leather but cost a tad more and weigh less, same case in regards to the new Uniform armor juxtaposed against regular Leather. Bucklers are shields that give +1 AC but can be dropped rather than taking an action to remove. For weapons, we have a bunch of new ones. The boarding axe is a simple light melee weapon that grants advantage on Athletics checks to scale penetrable surfaces, hooks are akin to daggers but deal slashing damage and can be attached as a prosthetic, and bayonets can be attached to a musket to allow for making non-improvised melee attacks dealing 1d6 damage with said weapon in hand. But that’s not what you’re most likely interested in; let’s talk guns and explosives! Firearms in Vodari are at the flintlock stage of innovation, plus or minus some magical innovations. Firearms fall into simple and martial categories, but classes are differently-proficient. All the classes that are proficient in all martial weapons are proficient in simple and martial firearms, but Druids are not proficient in any firearms. The sole simple firearm is a light pistol that deals 1d8 damage and has a 50/200 range increment. There are four martial firearms: the blunderbuss which deals 1d10 damage and has the same range as a light pistol but can also be filled with shot to do a 1d6 15-foot cone AoE; the 2d6 musket that has the best range at 100/400; dragon pistols which are 1d6 and with a shorter 30/120 range but can use shot like a musket that deals 1d4 damage; and finally the heavy pistol which deals 1d10 damage at a 60/240 range. Interestingly none of the two-handed firearms have the heavy property, meaning that Small races can make use of them. And as for handheld explosives, we have grenados and stinkpots that deal 2d4 fire damage/impose the poisoned condition for 1 round in 5 foot radii respectively. Both are very affordable, with 2 gp per grenado and 1 gp per stinkpot. Four optional house rules are provided for firearms: ammunition cannot be retrieved intact post-battle, firearms can be audibly heard and thus impose disadvantage on Stealth for 1 round after using, natural 1s foul up the weapon and take an action to clean, and firearms soaked by a significant amount of water jam the weapon in a similar manner that also takes an action to dry out. Those with gunslinger class levels are never subject to the natural 1 misfire rule if in place. [img]https://i.imgur.com/GND7hGj.png[/img] These rules more or less make sense save for the natural 1 misfire. Critical fumbles rarely add anything to the game besides disproportionately harming players, and make such items less appealing to take. In comparison to traditional ranged weapons firearms have some trade-offs: bows and crossbows overall have a superior range and can be more easily used when sneaking and in wet environs. But heavy crossbows and longbows cannot be wielded by Small races, and while of shorter range muskets deal more damage. Furthermore, the pistols can be used in two-weapon fighting and deal a lot more damage than a hand crossbow and have a greater range. When it comes to price only the firearms that have fancy shots (Blunderbuss and dragon pistols) are more expensive than their non-firearm ranged weapons at 100 and 150 gp each, while light pistols are 40 and muskets and heavy pistols at 50. This puts the latter two in line with heavy crossbows and longbows, and hand crossbows are a pricy 75 gp. In short, Seas of Vodari makes firearms more appealing for player use than some other D&D settings and system clones do, making them more a reasonable default choice than something best used for specialized builds. We also get a broad list of various kinds of adventuring gear, ranging from aesthetic stuff like bandanas and tri-cone hats as well as more affordable versions of spy glasses (100 instead of 1,000 gp) given the higher technology level and some new tools such as a compass (advantage on checks in determining location/direction) and swimming goggles (double distance you can see in non-dark, non-murky water). We also have prices for firearm ammunition and gunpowder in general: a 10 pound keg costs 20 gp, while a full powderhorn costs 2gp and holds 2 pounds of gunpowder, and specialized canisters for culverins cost 5 to 10 gp. There’s also new musical instruments and gaming sets such as fiddles, guitars, hornpipes, hurdy-gurdy, and cheating devices such as loaded dice and marked playing cards! Finally our chapter rounds out with a list of common trade goods commonly found on merchant vessels: rum, sugar, tobacco, fruit, tea, and even aged whisky and fine wine are presented for that Age of Sail feel! We get a d100 Trinkets table for PCs to roll on to begin play with some interesting knick-knacks that may or may not have a backstory hook. [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/funEl8z.png[/img] [b]Chapter VI: Ships & Cannons[/b][/center] What is a pirate or explorer without a ship and loyal crew? Stranded, that’s what! This chapter provides templates for ships and sample crews, along with cannons and other Age of Sail siege weapons. There’s also Ship Upgrades with sample prices to give some expensive things for PCs to spend their gold on, and finally four sample Ships & Crews to be used for on-the-fly inspiration. There’s no in-depth rules for naval combat, but relevant stats are provided for pertinent aspects, such as how many miles per hour/feet per round a ship can move and the AC, HP, and Damage Threshold of ship hulls, helms, and sails. The hull is more or less the main ‘health measure’ that prevents a ship from sinking, but damage to the helm and sails impairs a ship’s mobility the more damage is taken. Ships in general are statted out like creatures, but they have 0 in all mental ability scores, are immune to poison and psychic damage, and are immune to just about every condition. Some larger ships such as brigantines and galleons can take 3 actions per round a la Legendary Actions provided that they have the requisite crew, most often to move or fire cannons. We have prices, stats, and sample maps for 9 ships, ranging from more conventional types (brigantine, canoe, galleon, etc) and more exotic options such as an Elven Warship outfitted with magical upgrades, Xolenian submersibles, and Waveskippers which are basically surfboards with sails. While I won’t go over the nitty-gritty, from a casual reader’s view it looks like ship combat can suffer the rocket-launcher tag problem. While the larger vessels have a ton of Hit Points, it’s not uncommon for larger vessels to have sets of cannons. While they do have some downsides, a barrage of a half-dozen to dozen cannonballs can inflict a ton of damage even if half of them miss. In the later monster chapter the book acknowledges the possibility that a PC with such a ship can gain a big advantage when fighting otherwise typical encounters (a giant sea monster is but one creature), and the advice more or less amounts to scaling up strength and numbers than any in-depth improvements. Speaking of which, cannons range from medium-size swivel guns (2d6) to 8 to 3-pounders which designate the weight of the cannonball. Even the humble swivel gun costs 25 gold, while the cannons proper range from 750 to 3,000 gold and the 32-pounder is too big to support on ships and thus tends to be in coastal fortresses. 8 pounders deal 4d10 and the 12 and 16 pounders +1d10 for each grade up. At 24 pounds the cannonballs deal 8d10 damage, and 32 pounders a mighty 10d10. Ammunition gets expensive, as cannonballs can cost anywhere from 5 silver (1 pound swivel guns) to 8 gold (32 pound), and that’s not counting the gunpowder which can range from 2-6 pounds per shot for the non-swivel guns. Cannons also require one action to reload, one to aim, and one to fire, meaning that a crew of at least 3 per cannon is required to fire them once per round. There’s also special types of ammunition such as a chain and bar shot which is used to destroy sails, grapeshot that acts as AoE shrapnel, and explosive cannonballs that deal AoE fire damage. In comparison to spells, cannons are expensive and slow, but unlike spells they aren’t limited by Vancian per-day use and can effectively be fired as long as the ammo is there. And given that sailors are far more plentiful than actual spellcasters in the setting, they’re easier to procure and operate. [img]https://i.imgur.com/O12ti1i.png[/img] Ship Upgrades are magical and mastercrafted items that require a set amount of gold (usually a four or five figure sum) and one to four weeks (2d4 for the most involved) to be installed on a ship. Upgrades are divided into categories depending on their function and what part of the ship they occupy. For example, we have hull upgrades that include a shapeshifting hull allowing the vessel to sail upon virtually any surface of water, one that can summon up mists to impose disadvantage on attacks against the vessel, and one that can shift the ship and its crew to the Ethereal Plane. Movement upgrades include mithril sails that grant better AC and less movement losses for damage taken to said sails, while weapon upgrades include arcane cannons that deal magical force damage and thunderstone mangonels* that deal thunder damage instead of the base bludgeoning. Miscellaneous upgrades include a little bit of everything, such as a living mast that grows vines upon its rigging that self-heal the entire ship and lets the ship’s cook cast the Goodberry spell once per day. Another interesting choice is a Ghost-Lantern Bowspirit that has an antique lantern whose light can reveal the forms of undead creatures at night. It can also grant the ship resistance to nonmagical bludgeoning/piercing/slashing damage as a reaction once per day. *mangonels are catapults detailed in the DMG. Random Ships & Crews give us a sample d12 table of personalized ship names (the Sparrow Hawk, Luna’s Blessing, etc) accompanied by the ship template type and the NPC type (bandit captain, gladiator, werewolf, etc) of its captain. We have four more involved entries: the Ship of the Damned is a Brigantine ghost ship inhabited by undead and best used as a creepy random encounter. The Arrogant Sage is a Sloop home to wizards and intellectuals turned into Cursed Souls by the Preserver gods for delving into dark knowledge. The Vile Servant is a Sloop full of mercenaries made up of outcasts and criminals on the run, lead by a former Arushi musketeer and an assortment of other crewmates with varying backstories such as a priest who got ousted after finding corruption in the church of Taevara and a chef whose life was ruined by a criminal syndicate in Port Zavros.* Finally there’s the Crimson Hand, a Galleon whose crew miraculously found a safe port in the storm that was a temple of Fortana. They thus dedicated their lives to battling tyranny, spreading freedom and wealth, and honoring the goddess. *This is a bit of an editing error: the country is called Zavros, but its capital city is Port Zavo. [b]Thoughts So Far:[/b] Overall I find the new gear additions satisfactory. The firearm rules pleasantly surprised me in actually being functional weapons not saddled with downsides, and I really enjoyed the addition of Ship Upgrades. The addition of sample ships and crews along with maps for sample common ship types will be of great use in seafaring campaigns in general. My only real concern is that we don’t really have an in-depth system for ship-to-ship (or ship-to-sea-monster) combat, and it doesn’t solve the common problem of PCs who aren’t pilots or artillerists having nothing substantial to do beyond boarding actions. [b]Join us next time as we learn eldritch secrets in Chapter VII: Magic Items & Spells![/b] [/QUOTE]
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