naval combat systems oh my!

[RichGreen]

I've read the books, but got them at different times and haven't read the ship to ship combat chapters in detail. I'm looking for something that's fairly quick and easy -- Broadsides seemed a bit too complicated, so maybe I should give the Seas of Blood rules a try.

Has anyone tried the WotC rules?


Richard

 

[Donatello]

There are no WotC rules really, which is exactly why we, along with FFG and Mongoose, decided that hole needed to be filled.

 

[Bob Aberton]

I myself prefer Broadsides, because of its detail.

As someone with a bit of sailing experience (mostly small craft, though - 12 & 14 footers...) in RL, I find that Broadsides simulates sailing a ship very realistically. Of course, not everyone wants to deal with such a level of detail, but I enjoy something like:

"Alright, my ship is square rigged, and the wind is from the North-east. Since I can't lie closer than six points against the wind, I'll come around on the port tack. My speed was 4 knots, but tacking slowed me down..."

as opposed to

"My ship moves two squares to the right."

I can see, though, that that's not for everyone...

 

[Gez]

Indeed. It's a hell lot more flavorful, but IMO, it may detracts from the PCs to give the spotlight to the ship, and that ain't really what I'm personally looking for. Plus, with a couple of players in our group, the simpler the rules, the better. I bought Seas of Blood. I did catch some quick glimpses of Seafarer's Handbook (and also, the less well known Archipelago, which will one day get published by Eden Studio), but havn't analyzed in detail its rules. I never saw the others (Broadside, Swashbuckler), and don't consider Arms & Equipment Guides to feature real rules.

 

[Larry Fitz]

Gez,

I have to disagree with you on one thing. The more detailed naval rules do not make the combat all about the ship, because the ability to get the ship to do what you want is skill based, it's based on what the players can do. They can give themselves an advantage over their enemies in naval combat. If all you want is a regular square mat dungeon fight why use ships at all? As someone with some sailing experience I can tell you the Broadsides! rules do translate into reality very well. But you can use a simpler version, like all D20 products if wind direction rules seem too complex you can "rule zero" them. I don't think the system is all that complex once you get the hang of it. You can use the elements you are comfortable with unless and until you are ready for more. One of the reasons my friends and I game is suspension of disbelief. We can become fully immersed in our gaming experience. You can argue that too many rules get in the way of this, but I can argue that without enough of them it never actually happens. I think Broadsides! has enough rules to give players a realistic concept of naval tactics, without bogging them down in rules that take away from the smooth flow of the game.

At GenCon I was able to teach the system to nearly a dozen people in less than two minutes each and we engaged in several battles using stats for ships that we brought. Despite my famiilarity with the system I was beaten a few times by people who saw the book for the first time that day. Once I was spectacularly trounced by a ship opening up all 36 of her port guns on my Elvish Man O' War and scoring hits on more than 3/4 of them (highly unlikely). My support ships did not succeed in their attempt to "limp" home... Almost everyone who played the demo bought the book.

Bob,

I can tell you for the class of boats I'm used to (38' to 42' mostly) the rules stay true to my actual experiences in sailing too.

Don,

Hi captain!

Rich,

As I mentioned above, if the rules seem a little complicated at first you don't have to use all of them, though the section entitled "putting it all together" really does a great job of explaining exactly how to do just that. Once you get the system down it's really rather elegant, and your players will be able to smell the salty air and hear the gulls and terns....