Good Sailing/Seafaring Sourcebooks?

[Janx]

My current campaign is entirely sailing based. It is in the age of sail (1700-1800 style ships). Some races have cannons (elves).

I bought the SeaFarer's Handbook, and after seeing Master and Commander, I rewrote the ship design rules and combat rules.

I made a spreadsheet to calculate the ship stats based on length and width.
I increased the number of weapons a ship can have SFH says a 150 foot long ship gets 3-4 weapons. The Master and Commander ship was 130' long and carried 30 cannons. Just a hunch, but I think we can pack a few more catapults and ballistae.

My rules assume each weapon takes 10'x10' of space, and it seems to fit on my paper ship layout I built.

I kept parts of the SFH combat (movement), but made paper ruler templates and I use $2 wooden ship models from the local craft store.

I streamlined ship damage tracking by making 2 HP pools Hull and Sails.

Hull = AC10, if you miss by 5, you hit the sail (drift)
Sail = AC8, if you miss by 3, you hit the hull (drift)

AC Speed bonus = current speed / 5

Every 20% damage has a side effect on the ship. Hull affects weapons, sails effects speed.

Ships have a Current Speed, Top Speed, and Turning Rate (distance they must go before they can turn again).

Cannons are far more powerful than Catapult and Ballista due to increased range. Cannons shoot 900 feet, Heavy Cats shoot 600 feet. The range difference slaughters ships. We ran a 3 elf vs. 4 human ship battle. Even weapon points. Difference was Cannons versus traditional weapons. The humans died. Badly. I would suggest tweaking the ranges or avoid mixing the two weapon technologies. In my game, the elves are newly discovered and are supposed to be higher tech (and now at war with the humans). Eventually, I'll rebalance the game, by giving the humans some weapons that are equivalent.

Let me know if you'd like to see the spreadsheet. I did extensive research on real ships (I even have a glossary of nautical terms my players looked up). I tuned my spreadsheet to produce numbers similar to real sailing ships of all sizes and eras. It seems close enough.

Happy Sailing,
Janx

 

[diaglo]

You have several options:

Seafarer's Handbook (Fantasy Flight Games)
Broadside! Naval Adventuring (Living Imagination, Inc.)
Skull & Bones (Green Ronin Publishing)
Swashbuckling Adventures and Ships and Sea Battles (AEG)

edit: The Deep from MEG should be included on this list

also Chainmail by Perrin&Gygax for sea battles
and from 2edADnD Of Ships & the Sea plus FOR3 Pirates of the Sea of Fallen Stars

Wooden Ships & Iron Men is another possible source.

 

[Calico_Jack73]

Sounds good! Skull & Bones makes cannon an intergral part of naval combat with their system. They also have rules for the various types of shot that was most commonly used. Grapeshot basically turns your cannon into a shotgun and while it doesn't do too much damage to the ship it does kill a large number of the crew. Ball & Chain also won't damage the hull so much but it does kill a fair amount of the crew AND it is great for slicking through rigging and masts. Heated shot starts fires which are the biggest threat to a ship but it has it's own dangers as the red hot ball shot may ignite the gunpowder in the cannon before it is fired.
I also like the Prestige Classes in Skull & Bones since they have classes that reflect the classic fencing styles of the day. The Spanish method involves turning fencing into a mathematical equation involving circles (think Mask of Zorro and you aren't too far off). They have Italian styles, French styles, German and English styles. It also has a great magic system reflecting Voodoo. IMC I have my players use these PrCs instead of the Duelist because they offer a much richer feel and each style is unique. There are also setting specific feats (benefits), neutral feats (benefits and penalties), and flaws (negative feats).

I've rambled on long enough... suffice it to say Skull & Bones is my personal pick for any seafaring campaign.

 

[Mytholder]

I already have it on order. How does it compare to MEG's "The Deep", for undersea content?

I haven't read The Deep, I'm afraid. The underwater stuff is about a third of the book, IIRC, and consists of new monsters & PC races, spells and magic items, rules for acting underwater, and some notes on GMing underwater games.

 

[drnuncheon]

My Book of the Sea should be out from Mongoose at some point in the next few weeks. It replaces the old Seas of Blood book and adds a lot more support for sea-based campaigns.

How much detail is there on ships?

Is there any kind of construction system more detailed than Seas of Blood's 'make it up'?

How much detail is given to nautical maneuvering? Wind, tacking, that sort of thing?

In short, if I wanted a Patrick O'Brien style naval chase where the commanders have to use the wind and currents and outwit each other to get the best position, are there rules for it or is it 'fake it'?

J

 

[Janx]

my rules tacked on wind direction modifiers, and in theory you could do wind speed and current effects.

SFH basically let you increase your speed or decrease by 5' a round. No wind modifier. I altered it by saying wind direction, relative to ship facing = acceleration modifier. It forces -10' deceleration if you go headlong into the wind, and +10' if you go with the wind at your back to the left or right. I made a little wind compass we tape to the table. Simple set the wind direction, and compare your ship's facing to the compass each round.

It looked like the following:
+5.-10.+5
+5...V...+5
+10.+5.+10

The V is the wind's direction.

Seems like there's several parts to sea-going adventures:
ship combat & manuevering
swashbuckling
underwater adventures

I've been focusing on the Ship combat and manuevering, as that seems to be pretty weak.

Janx

 

[Mytholder]

How much detail is there on ships?

Is there any kind of construction system more detailed than Seas of Blood's 'make it up'?

How much detail is given to nautical maneuvering? Wind, tacking, that sort of thing?

In short, if I wanted a Patrick O'Brien style naval chase where the commanders have to use the wind and currents and outwit each other to get the best position, are there rules for it or is it 'fake it'?
J

Big ship construction system and about 20 sample ships. The system is more or less compatible with the material presented in Seas of Blood. It uses the same basic seafaring system as in SoB, and does handle chases fairly well IIRC.

 

[kenjib]

Hi Janx. It sounds like maybe you should have brought Broadsides. It is the book best suited for more advanced and accurate tactical considerations and IMO is peerless for a Master and Commander type campaign. It includes all of the stuff you mentioned plus things like tacking into the wind, the angles you have to take to make a turn, lateen versus square sails, reefing sails in a battle, etc. Everything is based on real sailing mechanics rather than the simplified automobile style movement that the other books for the most part present.

my rules tacked on wind direction modifiers, and in theory you could do wind speed and current effects.

SFH basically let you increase your speed or decrease by 5' a round. No wind modifier. I altered it by saying wind direction, relative to ship facing = acceleration modifier. It forces -10' deceleration if you go headlong into the wind, and +10' if you go with the wind at your back to the left or right. I made a little wind compass we tape to the table. Simple set the wind direction, and compare your ship's facing to the compass each round.

It looked like the following:
+5.-10.+5
+5...V...+5
+10.+5.+10

The V is the wind's direction.

Seems like there's several parts to sea-going adventures:
ship combat & manuevering
swashbuckling
underwater adventures

I've been focusing on the Ship combat and manuevering, as that seems to be pretty weak.

Janx

 

[Janx]

Good point kenjib. I only bought the SFH because I saw it at Half-Price Books for $15 and I was already 4 games into my seafaring campaign. It was an interesting read. However, I was perfectly comfortable writing my own material (heck, I designed a world, what's a few more rules).

I guess I'm surprised by the number of people who need to buy a book, versus just designing the material they need. Maybe I'm just old school, and used to making it up myself. I had a lot of fun looking up all that stuff, and figuring out the physics model, while keeping it simple was a good challenge.

Janx