D&D 5E So...keelboats

Fenris-77 · May 25, 2019

The longship in the UA article is rubbish from a historical standpoint, but that's actually not super important. Do we have some templates from which to make pretty much any size ship we want? Yup, and that's the point. Do you want Elven ships? Play around with the Elven racial mods - their ships would be nimble and quick, while dwarf ships would be solid and tough but maybe not super fast, etc etc.

The ships part of the UA article is OK, it's the rest I don't like. The parts of trading and income versus dangers is brutally bad IMO. On average it takes something like 20 years to pay off the cost of a longship, not accounting for the other dangers they wrote in. It's a place to start I guess.

S'mon · May 25, 2019

mach1.9pants said:
OOC:

we're talking real world not sci fi!

Maybe you mean Zheng He, who Qeng Ho was named after, I think

And it's certainly not established, very much debated "There is still much debate about issues such as the actual purpose of the voyages, the size of the ships, the magnitude of the fleet, the routes taken, the nautical charts employed, the countries visited, and the cargo carried."

But still impressive stuff, even the bits that are not debated

It's all Chinese.

Sword of Spirit · May 26, 2019

Fenris-77 said:
The longship in the UA article is rubbish from a historical standpoint, but that's actually not super important. Do we have some templates from which to make pretty much any size ship we want? Yup, and that's the point. Do you want Elven ships? Play around with the Elven racial mods - their ships would be nimble and quick, while dwarf ships would be solid and tough but maybe not super fast, etc etc.

The ships part of the UA article is OK, it's the rest I don't like. The parts of trading and income versus dangers is brutally bad IMO. On average it takes something like 20 years to pay off the cost of a longship, not accounting for the other dangers they wrote in. It's a place to start I guess.

I didn't compare the details, but they made some tweaks to the ships since the UA article. Ghosts of Saltmarsh actually lists minimum crew, for instance. It doesn't include the business rules for ship-owners, but it does include improved versions of crew rules.

Fenris-77 · May 26, 2019

Thats good to hear. I might pick Saltmarsh up just for that.

77IM · Jun 1, 2019

FitzTheRuke said:
Yep. That would have been great!

Hey, maybe we should write all that up and use it ourselves. Anyone wanna take a crack at it? Let's use the system they made as much as possible, just with a few "tweaks".

I couldn't help myself: More Ships of the Sea

FitzTheRuke · Jun 1, 2019

77IM said:
I couldn't help myself: More Ships of the Sea

Nice job! I didn't see anything at all that I object to. Would you like me to make some deck plans for them? (Might take me a bit, but I can do it.)

SkidAce · Jun 1, 2019

At first glance, this looks fantastic. And skimming though I feel it will save me a lot of work that I was considering doing.

Keeping it compatible with existing sources is the key idea that makes me happy.

And it expands the ship option just enough to be versatile for all but the most intricate sea campaigns, and would likely work for that as well.

Thank you, as we play, if I notice any glaring issues I will let you know.

SkidAce · Jun 1, 2019

Yes [MENTION=59816]FitzTheRuke[/MENTION] , get permission and make deck plans.....excellent.....

/goes back to tinkering with alchemy, as sailing appears taken care of

FitzTheRuke · Jun 1, 2019

Speaking of permission, I'm not sure of the legal/moral/common courtesy of using available artwork. I can do anything from completely drawing them myself to using the existing ones and modifying them (less work). Anyone got any opinions on which I should do?

77IM · Jun 1, 2019

I would love for these to have deck plans! I actually googled around but couldn't find any images I felt comfortable appropriating (most look like scans of older books, or images without clear credit). My preference would be for plans in a similar "style" to what's in Ghosts of Saltmarsh, but I am not super picky, as long as they are useful. My only request would be -- I based the "cog" statistics directly on the Sea Ghost (which, compared to the sailing ship, is shorter, has fewer decks, only one mast, and no weapons) so I think the deck plan of a cog should be similar to the Sea Ghost.

EDIT: I try not to use art unless I can give the artist credit and, preferably, a link. For this document, all the art is freebies released by Wizards on the DMsGuild, which makes attribution really easy. Technically that art is only meant for use in DMsGuild products; but if Wizards sends me an angry letter, I'll just move the document to DMsGuild and release it for free.