After Pirates of the Carribean and Sinbad, i wanted my players to go sailing. I know nothing of boats but noticed in PotC that there were many crew members on the Black Pearl. What jobs does each crew member perform? What has to be done to keep the boat moving? I don't want my players to get on a boat to somewhere and tell them "you made it there in a week..." and that being it. I want to add a little more flavor. So how does a boat crew operate? What does each member contribute?
A pirates life for me.....
- Thread starter redwing
- Start date
hellbender
First Post
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Vault/1820/WSP/ships.html
http://www.trends.net/~yuku/tran/tnav.htm
http://www.cronab.demon.co.uk/marit.htm
http://www.sonic.net/~press/
http://www.piratesinfo.com/detail/detail.php?article_id=44
http://dmoz.org/Society/History/By_Topic/Maritime/Piracy/
Many of these links contain journals and a history of nautical endeavors.
h
http://www.trends.net/~yuku/tran/tnav.htm
http://www.cronab.demon.co.uk/marit.htm
http://www.sonic.net/~press/
http://www.piratesinfo.com/detail/detail.php?article_id=44
http://dmoz.org/Society/History/By_Topic/Maritime/Piracy/
Many of these links contain journals and a history of nautical endeavors.
h
NoOneofConsequence
First Post
Hands: everybody who has no other rank. Rig sails, man guns, haul stuff, man ropes (most of the work on a ship has to do with pulling on ropes to some degree or another)
Mates: NCO's - keep discipline, carry out punishment and support junior officers. The First mate is the highest ranking non-officer on board ship, roughly equal to sergeant major.
Midshipmen - junior most officers, gun crew commanders, commanders of small squads
Lieutenants - more senior than midshipmen, and generally in command of such; on smaller vessels they are the XO (executive officer) of the ship; larger vessels have numerous lieutenants, listed from first (the highest) downward
Commanders - essentially glorified lieutenants, assigned their rank on the basis of ship availability (lose command of a ship and a commander returns to being a lieutenant)
Captains - Rank for comanding ships of the line (main battleships)
Admirals/Admirals of the Line - commanders of fleets of ships; the highest rank that still participates in sea travel
Rear Admirals - land based administrative officers
These are the ranks of the British Royal Navy as seen in the Hornblower series. The formality of these ranks is not common in previous eras (ie. Columbus fleet of three ships)
Extraordinary roles not incorporated above include:
Ship's surgeon - the guy who fixes people up.
Ship's cook (often known as the ship's doctor, for some reason)
Sailmaker; Ropemaker; Carpenter - for obvious reasons
Marines - soldiers assigned to do soldierly duties aboard ship - fight off boarders, guard prisoners and treasure, make raids against shore facilities.
In other times, many of the roles performed by ships officers were divided among other specialists, such as
Navigator - in charge of charts and reading the stars (frequently captains took this duty on themselves)
Pilot - the guy in charge of the wheel (more of a specialist skill than you might think)
Most of the time, a ship's crew spends its time aloft, tending to the sails, making sure they are trim (neither too tight nor too loose for the wind conditions); Sails are dozens of yards of canvas and hoisting them, even with the aid of pulleys, takes lots of strong men, as well as those aloft in the rigging; keep things clean and orderly; man the weapons in times of battle and try not to die from poor food, going over board or falling from the rigging.
That's what I know off the top of my head. Of course none of this is expert opinion and is subject to correction by more knowledgeable individuals.
Edit: check Agback's corrections to my land-lubber undrestanding, further down this thread.
Boy was I off.
Hope it helps.
Mates: NCO's - keep discipline, carry out punishment and support junior officers. The First mate is the highest ranking non-officer on board ship, roughly equal to sergeant major.
Midshipmen - junior most officers, gun crew commanders, commanders of small squads
Lieutenants - more senior than midshipmen, and generally in command of such; on smaller vessels they are the XO (executive officer) of the ship; larger vessels have numerous lieutenants, listed from first (the highest) downward
Commanders - essentially glorified lieutenants, assigned their rank on the basis of ship availability (lose command of a ship and a commander returns to being a lieutenant)
Captains - Rank for comanding ships of the line (main battleships)
Admirals/Admirals of the Line - commanders of fleets of ships; the highest rank that still participates in sea travel
Rear Admirals - land based administrative officers
These are the ranks of the British Royal Navy as seen in the Hornblower series. The formality of these ranks is not common in previous eras (ie. Columbus fleet of three ships)
Extraordinary roles not incorporated above include:
Ship's surgeon - the guy who fixes people up.
Ship's cook (often known as the ship's doctor, for some reason)
Sailmaker; Ropemaker; Carpenter - for obvious reasons
Marines - soldiers assigned to do soldierly duties aboard ship - fight off boarders, guard prisoners and treasure, make raids against shore facilities.
In other times, many of the roles performed by ships officers were divided among other specialists, such as
Navigator - in charge of charts and reading the stars (frequently captains took this duty on themselves)
Pilot - the guy in charge of the wheel (more of a specialist skill than you might think)
Most of the time, a ship's crew spends its time aloft, tending to the sails, making sure they are trim (neither too tight nor too loose for the wind conditions); Sails are dozens of yards of canvas and hoisting them, even with the aid of pulleys, takes lots of strong men, as well as those aloft in the rigging; keep things clean and orderly; man the weapons in times of battle and try not to die from poor food, going over board or falling from the rigging.
That's what I know off the top of my head. Of course none of this is expert opinion and is subject to correction by more knowledgeable individuals.
Edit: check Agback's corrections to my land-lubber undrestanding, further down this thread.
Boy was I off.Hope it helps.
Last edited:
reapersaurus
Explorer
If you liked Sinbad, try Treasure Planet.
Azure Trance
First Post
I really enjoyed Finding Nemo. It was better then Sinbad, IMO (comedy wise, at least).
Heretic Apostate
First Post
I just know someone's going to post the lyrics to the VeggieTales song...
NoOneofConsequence
First Post
reapersaurus said:
My wife bought it for me for our fifth anniversary.
Bloodstone Mage
First Post
Heretic Apostate said:
Arrgh! I already hear the song!
I saw Pirates of the Caribbean a few days ago, and I have to say, I'm with everyone else who wants to run a swashbuckling campaign. I myself am interested in the parts of a typical ship and the way they might be situated.
Cheers!
Moe Ronalds
First Post
Bloodstone Mage said:
The whole time I was watching the film I was trying to think up a variant swashbuckler class (I don't own any of the books that have it as a prestige class) to explain some of what they do.
Our group has been running a sailing campaing for a while now.
Our campaign is set in the Forgotten Realms on the Sea of Fallen Stars. We've got a ship's roster, the logs of the executive officer (a PC), some personal letters between PCs and NPCs, and a few other tidbits on the page.
One thing I would suggest, based on my experiences, is change a few of the skills so that they are class skills for everyone. I would suggest you make Profession: Sailor, Balance, Use Rope and maybe Swim class skills for everyone. The reason is with a Sea campaign all of these skills will be *much more* important than they would be in your average land-based campaign.
If you're not willing to do that, be prepared to create sea-based PrCs for all of the spellcasting classes.
Our campaign is set in the Forgotten Realms on the Sea of Fallen Stars. We've got a ship's roster, the logs of the executive officer (a PC), some personal letters between PCs and NPCs, and a few other tidbits on the page.
One thing I would suggest, based on my experiences, is change a few of the skills so that they are class skills for everyone. I would suggest you make Profession: Sailor, Balance, Use Rope and maybe Swim class skills for everyone. The reason is with a Sea campaign all of these skills will be *much more* important than they would be in your average land-based campaign.
If you're not willing to do that, be prepared to create sea-based PrCs for all of the spellcasting classes.
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