"Lose 'em!" How?

[Kid Charlemagne]

I've been doing a lot of reading (OK, a lot of browsing of wikipedia articles) because I've got a ship captain PC and the PC's are going to be on his frigate for a good number of sessions in the next few months.

You may have heard the term "weather gage." It refers to who has the advantage of the wind. If you've got it, you can choose to attempt to attack, or to break off. If you don't, you can choose to flee, or to try and manouever to get the weather gage back from your opponent so that you can then attack.

In your case, the ships are clearly threatening, so they either have the advantage of the weather gage, or both sides are equally affected.

Two other things to keep in mind from a technical point of view is the rigging of the ships - some ships can tack closer to the wind and gain an advantage that way; also, some ships have shallower drafts and could try to escape pursuit by moving in closer to shore. Actually now that I think of it there are two other things - smaller ships may be more manouevrable, and lastly the quality of the crew can determine how well they respond to orders, and how much sail they can handle putting up.

The very last thing is that sea battles in real life took hours - if you can stay out of reach until nightfall, you're probably safe.

In my game, I'm still developing how to do this in a way thats fun. I run a 3.5 game, but I'm trying to tie a sort of Skill Challenge process into this - allowing as many different skill checks as possible to allow multiple PC's to contribute. The biggest one is Profession Sailor - I'd give a +4 to whoever has the weather gage, otherwise I'd go with a straight up skill challenge.

BTW, I like the Corsair rules from Adamant for ship stuff, though I treat naval battles in a much more free form way.

 

[BlackMoria]

Lots of points.

Smaller vessels (you mentioned the two opposing ships were larger) usually are faster, have shallower drafts and are more maneuverable if they are the same class (you are not comparing schooners to longboats, for example).

Which means in general, the smaller vessel can outrun the larger vessels if they have the weather gauge, they can maneuver hazards easier (like shoals and reefs) and their shallower drafts means they can go into waters with submerged reefs and sandbars that would hole a larger ship.

I mentioned classes of ships earlier. Size not withstanding, some ship designs are just faster than others. A schooner/brig/brigantine of the same size as a galleon will beat the galleon in any measure of maneuver and speed assuming similar skilled captains and crews. A galleon would beat a cog, etc. Do a search online for sailing ship designs or classes for ideas. As a guideline, the sleeker the hull and the more canvas aloft, the faster the ship and the better it can maneuver, based on the mast configuration.

You can also play with environmental issues, like fog banks or storms. Fog banks can make for intense games of hide and seek and storm can add some drama to the chase as lighter and more maneuver vessels can usually weather the storm better than a larger and heavier vessel.

 

[roguerouge]

The ship: She has a length of nearly 90', a beam of 26', a draught of 8' and stands 9' above the waterline to the top of her main deck rails and 17' above the waterline to the top of both her forecastle and poop decks. So a sloop or a cutter is pretty close.

 

[roguerouge]

The very last thing is that sea battles in real life took hours - if you can stay out of reach until nightfall, you're probably safe.

At nightfall, you'd put out your lights, change course and try to get over the horizon line by dawn?

 

[Umbran]

You're in a vessel. Two ships sighted off the starboard bow. Big ships. You can't take 'em. How do you lose them? Let's say they start on the open ocean, but that we're not restricted to just open ocean if the scenario takes longer than a few hours.

Well, trying to attack or flee in old sailing ships could be an all-day affair, depending on the conditions. Battles could take hours as ships did slow passes back and forth past one another trying to get the best wind to bring cannon to bear.

Do these ships have cannon? If not, they have to get a lot closer.

In game terms: 4e - this sounds like a clear skill challenge scenario to me.

3.x - I think we're talking an opposed Profession (Sailor) check by the commanders, modified by relative merits of the ships, and with allowed assist by crew. Craftily cast spells may add significant modifiers. to one side or another.

In either case, I think being dramatic and crafty would be more interesting than being nautically correct. This is more like a pirate movie than an historical reenactment.

 

[knightofround]

One sailing racing tactic is to position yourself upwind adjacent to an opposing ship. So you capture all the air in your sails and block the wind going to theirs. If your boat is small your sails probably aren't big enough to block the wind going to the other two boats. However, if you can position yourself so one of the big ships blocks the wind going to the other one, you could ditch at least one of the ships.

If you've got a small boat, probably all you have to do is get a slight lead. Barring any dramatic changes in wind you should be fine, as bigger boats are slower because they have more mass dragging in the water.

Of course this being D&D you can change anything with magic ^_^ It also depends what kind of seas you're in, as some favor smaller vessels and others favor larger ones.

 

[roguerouge]

Wow. That's a great idea.

As far as cannon goes... when the PC hits higher levels, purchasing wands of sonic orb or shatter/shout might serve that role. Wands of fire ball kill sailors nicely, but ships are fairly hardy against fireballs.

As far as spells go, the party has access to bard spells and a handful of first and second level wizard and cleric spells.

 

[Krensky]

The ship: She has a length of nearly 90', a beam of 26', a draught of 8' and stands 9' above the waterline to the top of her main deck rails and 17' above the waterline to the top of both her forecastle and poop decks. So a sloop or a cutter is pretty close.

What technologic period are these ships emulating? A sloop-of-war is more of a catch all for small ships then an actual description, but generally speaking a frigate with the weather might be able to run her down, but a ship of the line won't without extraordinary luck.

 

[MarkB]

Leaving aside the conventional naval options which others have well covered, what unconventional options do you have available? Especially in 3.xe D&D, what spellcasters do you have?

There are loads of things you can do with spells - summon aquatic animals to attack the opposing ships' rudders, do the same thing yourself with Warp Wood, use cold-based spells to freeze patches of ocean, control the weather to create optimal wind conditions or bury the pursuit in a fog bank, create illusory vessels for your opponents to pursue, even influence the enemy captains' minds to make them decide not to pursue you.

Incidentally, if you can get hold of a copy of the film Master and Commander, it's a great primer on ship-vs-ship tactics and tricks, including pursuit and evasion. It should provide some inspiration.

 

[cr0m]

Do a series of tests that build on each other or a skill challenge.

Some ideas:
Outrun their pincer move with a Sailing check.
Help the crew get the lead out with a Charisma check.
Detect a storm and sail into it with a Weather-wise check.
Find difficult terrain (ie shoals, sandbar) with a Navigation check.
Lure them over the terrain (ie works like a trap for damage or slowed) with a Bluff check.
Make for a hidden cove with a Local knowledge check.
Douse your lights and make for the horizon with a Stealth check.
Outlast them with an Endurance check (who gives up first?).
Appease the sea god with a Religion check.