D&D 5E Docks Illustration?

dave2008

Legend
I came across this article just a few minutes ago while searching to see if Gregory Manchess had ever done any work for WotC: You should be ashamed Wizards of the Coast

That wasn’t the first time I’ve heard of them not paying their artists well, but I would have to look for more evidence to back that up.
That article is pretty light on actual details and really hates on Marvel. Personally, I would trust an industry insider like @Marc Radle before a disgruntled artist and random internet gossip. Like Marc, I have heard WotC pays very well for art. But I honestly don't know as I have no real insider knowledge except that I couldn't afford WotC artists when I tried to commission some!
 

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Dock it, or merely anchor off and ferry cargo ashore by smaller boat? (in the 1e version that's how the smugglers operate at the haunted house)

100-foot ships with a keel need a fair bit of draft (water depth) underneath them, meaning unless Saltmarsh has deep-ish water right up to the docks anchoring-off is the only option.
The whole point of the haunted house stuff is the Sea Ghost isn't going to dock at Saltmarsh. Docking means an inspection, and the Sea Ghost's smuggling compartments really are not that well hidden!

But as navel technology advanced, round about the end of the 17th century (see the Mary Rose incident) deep water ports capable of handling large ships became of major strategic importance, so they quickly became navel bases. See Portsmouth, Southampton, etc.

The fishing fleets moved elsewhere (along with the smugglers).
 



Hussar

Legend
Dock it, or merely anchor off and ferry cargo ashore by smaller boat? (in the 1e version that's how the smugglers operate at the haunted house)

100-foot ships with a keel need a fair bit of draft (water depth) underneath them, meaning unless Saltmarsh has deep-ish water right up to the docks anchoring-off is the only option.
According to the module, any version, dock it. Which, yup, makes Saltmarsh a pretty decent deep water port. And yeah, 100 foot cog is freaking huge. I more chalk that up to the designers not bothering to actually look up historical ships. They got the shape right - single mast, wide body, that sort of thing, but, greatly overestimated the size.

Of course, it doesn't help that it's also an adventure location, which means that you have to make it bigger to work on D&D scale.

In any case though, you can dock major sailing ships - the food merchants that sail north to Iuz would also be a good example of this - in Saltmarsh.

-edit to add -

Naval stuff is my own hang up. I freely admit that. The anachronisms in D&D for sailing stuff just flies right up my nose. No, I'm sorry, that 17th century British Ship of the line complete with gun ports does NOT belong in a D&D setting. Since the DMG and Saltmarsh both set naval technology at about the same line as the rest of equipment, 15th century, maybe 16th century is about as late as I expect to see.

Unless we're talking Spelljammer, in which case, all bets are off. But, it gets really, really weird to see viking long ships in the same water as, say, a caravel. Those poor vikings wouldn't stand a chance. You wouldn't even need to shoot at them, just ram their tiny little boats and you'd be done with it. Grrrr. It annoys me to no end that when it comes to naval stuff, so many publishers can't be bothered to open a history book.

/me steps off soapbox.
 
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If you have to ask the question, the answer is probably, "Yes."

Though, I think the official term is "hallucinating".

Honestly, the answer ChatGPT gives isn't that bad with regard to the question asked in the thread.


It identified the correct picture the OP was referring too, didn't hallucinate any D&D art from Gregory Manchess, saying there is none, and proposed that maybe it's an association coming from the Sentinel D&D novel cover.

While generative AI certainly has room for improvement (chatgpt is only 2 years old, even if generative AI is obviously older), there is no need to bash it when the result is satisfying for the expressed needs.
 
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dave2008

Legend
According to the module, any version, dock it. Which, yup, makes Saltmarsh a pretty decent deep water port. And yeah, 100 foot cog is freaking huge. I more chalk that up to the designers not bothering to actually look up historical ships. They got the shape right - single mast, wide body, that sort of thing, but, greatly overestimated the size.

Of course, it doesn't help that it's also an adventure location, which means that you have to make it bigger to work on D&D scale.

In any case though, you can dock major sailing ships - the food merchants that sail north to Iuz would also be a good example of this - in Saltmarsh.

-edit to add -

Naval stuff is my own hang up. I freely admit that. The anachronisms in D&D for sailing stuff just flies right up my nose. No, I'm sorry, that 17th century British Ship of the line complete with gun ports does NOT belong in a D&D setting. Since the DMG and Saltmarsh both set naval technology at about the same line as the rest of equipment, 15th century, maybe 16th century is about as late as I expect to see.

Unless we're talking Spelljammer, in which case, all bets are off. But, it gets really, really weird to see viking long ships in the same water as, say, a caravel. Those poor vikings wouldn't stand a chance. You wouldn't even need to shoot at them, just ram their tiny little boats and you'd be done with it. Grrrr. It annoys me to no end that when it comes to naval stuff, so many publishers can't be bothered to open a history book.

/me steps off soapbox.
Well to be fair, the image in the OP is not from Saltmarsh, it isn't even from a D&D product!
 

Honestly, the answer ChatGPT gives isn't that bad with regard to the question asked in the thread.


It identified the correct picture the OP was referring too, didn't hallucinate any D&D art from Gregory Manchess, saying there is none, and proposed that maybe it's an association coming from the Sentinel D&D novel cover.

While generative AI certainly has room for improvement (chatgpt is only 2 years old, even if generative AI is obviously older), there is no need to bash it when the result is satisfying for the expressed needs.
Well when asked if Manchess had done any D&D art, the answer was yes, but evidently he has not. At least we found a pretty great artist.
 
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