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Sailing in D&D
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<blockquote data-quote="Janx" data-source="post: 1351538" data-attributes="member: 8835"><p>Well I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who noticed the problem.</p><p></p><p>For my part, I'm happy with the ship concepts in SFH, I just want stats that seem correct.</p><p></p><p>The point about the tech level is correct. I would agree that most D&D stuff seems scaled for 14th-15th century ship sizes. Whereas most people probably imagine sailing ships like what you see on Pirates of the Carribean.</p><p></p><p>For me, I want construction rules that are concise and answer:</p><p>how long is the ship?</p><p>how wide is the ship?</p><p>How many decks below the main deck?</p><p>how many decks above the main deck?</p><p>how much of the ship is below water?</p><p>How many sails?</p><p>How many oars?</p><p>How fast does it go (modified by propulsion, basic wind, ship shape)</p><p>How much crew does it take</p><p>How much can it carry</p><p>How tall is the ship?</p><p>How many guns can I put on the ship</p><p></p><p>By missing a few of these questions, SFH causes problems when I want to design a ship, and I need to know how many decks to draw in on the plan. Or how tall is it, for sailing under that bridge. Or what deck starts leaking when the PCs swim over and drill a hole in the hull. Or what if the ship sizes increase, beyond 130 feet.</p><p></p><p>It'd also be good to have an appreciation for realistic ships, so more fantastic ships stand out. Knowing that Columbus' ships were about 75 feet long and 25 feet wide or so is useful. But then clipper ships were easily reaching 130 feet long in the 1800s. In my game, the party's ship is about 100 feet long, and it was considered a smaller vessel (solely because I thought that was small).</p><p></p><p>I might consider my own revised formulas, to accomodate this. Something like:</p><p></p><p>Choose width</p><p>Choose ship length factor (3-6)</p><p>Ship's length = width times length factor</p><p>Ships Speed modifer = Length Factor / 10</p><p>Ship's Mast height = Length * .8</p><p>Ship's height (exluding masts) = width /length factor</p><p>Ships Draft = ships' height * length factor/10</p><p></p><p>This might be reasonable, though some numbers might need tweaking.</p><p>Thus a 25' wide ship, 100 feet long is:</p><p>Beam: 25</p><p>LF: 4</p><p>Length=100'</p><p>Speed modifier=.4</p><p>Ship's Mast Height = 80'</p><p>Ship's Height = 10'</p><p>Ship's Draft = 4'</p><p></p><p>The implication is, a narrow ship goes faster, but sits lower in the water. A wider ship can be taller and have more decks. A deck is probably no more than 6' tall, with the bottom most space being ballast. The top deck would also not be counted in that forumla. Thus the above ship would get me a main deck, 1 below deck, and a 4' space for ballast. I'd probably question that my ship has so few decks.</p><p></p><p>Any thoughts,</p><p>Janx</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Janx, post: 1351538, member: 8835"] Well I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who noticed the problem. For my part, I'm happy with the ship concepts in SFH, I just want stats that seem correct. The point about the tech level is correct. I would agree that most D&D stuff seems scaled for 14th-15th century ship sizes. Whereas most people probably imagine sailing ships like what you see on Pirates of the Carribean. For me, I want construction rules that are concise and answer: how long is the ship? how wide is the ship? How many decks below the main deck? how many decks above the main deck? how much of the ship is below water? How many sails? How many oars? How fast does it go (modified by propulsion, basic wind, ship shape) How much crew does it take How much can it carry How tall is the ship? How many guns can I put on the ship By missing a few of these questions, SFH causes problems when I want to design a ship, and I need to know how many decks to draw in on the plan. Or how tall is it, for sailing under that bridge. Or what deck starts leaking when the PCs swim over and drill a hole in the hull. Or what if the ship sizes increase, beyond 130 feet. It'd also be good to have an appreciation for realistic ships, so more fantastic ships stand out. Knowing that Columbus' ships were about 75 feet long and 25 feet wide or so is useful. But then clipper ships were easily reaching 130 feet long in the 1800s. In my game, the party's ship is about 100 feet long, and it was considered a smaller vessel (solely because I thought that was small). I might consider my own revised formulas, to accomodate this. Something like: Choose width Choose ship length factor (3-6) Ship's length = width times length factor Ships Speed modifer = Length Factor / 10 Ship's Mast height = Length * .8 Ship's height (exluding masts) = width /length factor Ships Draft = ships' height * length factor/10 This might be reasonable, though some numbers might need tweaking. Thus a 25' wide ship, 100 feet long is: Beam: 25 LF: 4 Length=100' Speed modifier=.4 Ship's Mast Height = 80' Ship's Height = 10' Ship's Draft = 4' The implication is, a narrow ship goes faster, but sits lower in the water. A wider ship can be taller and have more decks. A deck is probably no more than 6' tall, with the bottom most space being ballast. The top deck would also not be counted in that forumla. Thus the above ship would get me a main deck, 1 below deck, and a 4' space for ballast. I'd probably question that my ship has so few decks. Any thoughts, Janx [/QUOTE]
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