Ships in Greyhawk

[dutorn]

Would you say that one of the types of ships you could find would be a large multi-mass ship which carries cannons for battle? I'm uncertain of this because of the gunpowder used to power these cannons so I was curious whether you would only find ramming/boarding ships. And if there are cannons that doesn't necessarily means there are gun, correct?

 

[Michael Dean]

Cannons are not canon in Grayhawk...Sorry, couldn't resist.

You can do whatever you want with your setting, but there are no cannons in official Grayhawk material. As to the second part of your post; I assume you mean that just because there are large cannons that doesn't necessarily mean that there are small arms too. Yes, that's correct, but not for very long. Once the genie is out of the bottle, so to speak, technological advancements make it inevitable that smaller arms will soon follow.

 

[The Lost Muse]

If you want to use cannons that is certainly fine - I think they infuse a little buckled swash into any game - but ancient ships also had bronze rams to ram enemy ships with, lots of archers to kill the crews, Greek Fire to set them on fire, catapults and ballistae to take the place of cannons, etc... The Romans used ships as big platforms for infantry battles, at least to begin with. There are lots of offensive options that do not require the use of gun powder.

 

[bastrak]

As I recall gunpowder and smoke powder is inert on Oerth (WoG planet) and therefore cannons would never be produced in the Greyhawk setting.

Of course there is nothing to stop an individual DM deciding to ignore Greyhawk canon regarding this but personally I don't feel the introduction of cannons fits or adds anything to the setting.

 

[dutorn]

I just wasn't sure if it said specifically that there were no canon (thx for the grammer check MD, hehe) on Oerth I just wanted to double check before i brought it up to the DM. I personally would prefer canon and huge mast ships for that 18-19th century carribbean/european ship feel. Pirates v. lawful society and all that sort of stuff. I'm with Timm in the thought that it would give the swashbuckling feel to the game.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

That rather depends upon what you think is very long and what you consider a canon. There was quite a long period of time between the first canons being deployed in European warfare (under Edmund the Black Prince IIRC) and the advent of effective small firearms on the battlefield. That said, there wasn't nearly so long between the effective deployment of naval cannons and the large scale use of small arms on the battlefield. IIRC, the Mary Rose was one of the earlier ships to use canons as a primary naval weapon and that was during the reign of Henry VIII. (End of the 15th/beginning of the 16th century). By the end of the 16th century, and the beginning of the 17th century, gunpowder weapons were being deployed in large scale and to great effect on the battlefield such that the magnificent Greenwich full plate of Henry VIII's day had shrunk to the buff coat and cuirass of kind James. To tell the truth, the transition probably happened a good deal before that since Sir Francis Drake and Cortez etc predate King James by about half a century. So you're probably looking at, at most, 50 years between the effective deployment of cannons and the large scale use of personal firearms.

So, while you could have naval canons in Greyhawk if you wanted, if you wanted to remain historically accurate, you'd probably have to depict the transition to guns and gunpowder centric land battlefield in the course of your game.

Cannons are not canon in Grayhawk...Sorry, couldn't resist.

You can do whatever you want with your setting, but there are no cannons in official Grayhawk material. As to the second part of your post; I assume you mean that just because there are large cannons that doesn't necessarily mean that there are small arms too. Yes, that's correct, but not for very long. Once the genie is out of the bottle, so to speak, technological advancements make it inevitable that smaller arms will soon follow.