Arr me maties, here there be ships!

[Oofta]

In case others haven't seen this, there's a UA article for ships and the sea here.

Looks pretty straightforward. At first glance, it was a bit odd that ships have ability scores (int, wisdom and charisma are 0) where a ship’s Strength represents its size and weight. Dexterity represents a ship’s ease of handling. A ship’s Constitution covers its durability and the quality of its construction. Different components of the ship have different HP and AC and some components have DR (which they call Damage Threshold).

I've only skimmed the rules so far, but I'm looking forward to trying them out. I've always wanted to do a privateer based campaign, this might be a great opportunity.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

I find the Complications rule to be poorly designed. I'm sure some math person will correct me, but it roughly equates to a 25% chance of a major mishap each month, where "no profit" is about the best case scenario. Three of the six options are more or less "lose your ship"... this is fun how?

 

[MNblockhead]

It is nice that they are releasing this and I assume they will have some publication to tie in with the big ship mini that is being released. But it isn't going to replace the rules I've been using for the past four years: Ronny Hart's Nautical Adventures: A Supplement Providing Ship to Ship Combat Rules, available on his Dungeon Masters Assistance blog, here: https://olddungeonmaster.com/2015/05/05/dd-5e-nautical-adventures/

His rules are a nice balance between thoroughness and streamlined.

 

[Dessert Nomad]

I find the Complications rule to be poorly designed.

Yeah, it looks similar to me - you get a complication if you roll a 1 on any of the 5d20 you roll for determining how much profit the ship makes in a month, and the best result is that you make no money that month, while you can also lose as much per month as you usually make for 1D6 months, lose your ship for d4 months, have your ship impounded, have you ship captured and have to recover it, or have your ship run off so you have to recover it, kill the crew, and hire a new crew for about two months theoretical profit.

If you use those rules, owning a ship is a massive money sink that often takes you away from your own objectives. It's basically impossible for it to actually profit you over the course of a year, and instead of getting to do adventures based around sailing your ship to interesting places, you're probably stuck rescuing your ship over and over again. If you want a campaign based around constantly saving your own ship then this system is for you!

 

[pukunui]

[MENTION=6801845]Oofta[/MENTION]: There's already another thread discussing this: http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?654912-Unearthed-Arcana-of-ships-and-the-sea