Unearthed Arcana Unearthed Arcana: Of Ships and The Sea

Interesting. There's an old AD&D 2e "blue book" with that title: Of Ships and the Sea

 

[rmcoen]

I like the quote about "How to make a small fortune"! The other alternative to risking Complications is... don't let your boat put out to sea! It sits in port, costing you money for salary and maintenance, but isn't at risk of most issues. (Fires in the port, confiscation, military press gangs...) Or maybe you don't "try so hard" on the profits, and choose to roll fewer dice; less profit, but less risk. Heck, you could, on that thought, have the ship running such basic cargo that it never makes a profit... but never risks complication (no dice rolls)! It just makes enough to cover its costs - which is still a win, because it's ready and repaired when you need it, but costing you nothing and inconveniencing you not at all.

And honestly, considering how much a ship costs (unless you - ahem - "liberate it"), are you really worried about making 100gp?


I like that this UA gives enough ideas for how the rules *could* work, to pull out if I need them unexpectedly in my primarily land-based game. If I wanted to run a sea-based game, I'd want a lot more detail and options -- for which I would expect to buy a supplement.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I like the quote about "How to make a small fortune"! The other alternative to risking Complications is... don't let your boat put out to sea! It sits in port, costing you money for salary and maintenance, but isn't at risk of most issues. (Fires in the port, confiscation, military press gangs...) Or maybe you don't "try so hard" on the profits, and choose to roll fewer dice; less profit, but less risk. Heck, you could, on that thought, have the ship running such basic cargo that it never makes a profit... but never risks complication (no dice rolls)! It just makes enough to cover its costs - which is still a win, because it's ready and repaired when you need it, but costing you nothing and inconveniencing you not at all.

And honestly, considering how much a ship costs (unless you - ahem - "liberate it"), are you really worried about making 100gp?


I like that this UA gives enough ideas for how the rules *could* work, to pull out if I need them unexpectedly in my primarily land-based game. If I wanted to run a sea-based game, I'd want a lot more detail and options -- for which I would expect to buy a supplement.

I would definately love to see a suppliment that builds on this once this is published in something, with different riggings for sails, modeling of the difference between clinker and carvel-built hulls, advice for placing and handling prevailing winds and how that impacts trade routes, and some ideas for how a magical world might do some aspects of sailing differently.

And ecology! Island dwarfism and gigantism! Pigmy ogres and giant kobolds! Coral monsters, friendly and unfriendly intelligent octopuses! A whole oceanic cultural milleu to draw upon!

 

[R_Chance]

I would definately love to see a suppliment that builds on this once this is published in something, with different riggings for sails, modeling of the difference between clinker and carvel-built hulls, advice for placing and handling prevailing winds and how that impacts trade routes, and some ideas for how a magical world might do some aspects of sailing differently.

And ecology! Island dwarfism and gigantism! Pigmy ogres and giant kobolds! Coral monsters, friendly and unfriendly intelligent octopuses! A whole oceanic cultural milleu to draw upon!

And they could call it "Of Ships and the Sea"

Honestly a re-working of the environmental books with setting material (inevitably) for FR would be nice. Seas, Deserts, Jungle, Artic / Mountain, and Underworld. I enjoyed the 3.x line of books. With a simpler system like 5E the rules would be shorter giving room for some (mini) setting information. people would buy them either for the environmental crunch (like me), the character stuff, or the FR setting bits. Or some combination of those. I think this would be a better bet than pure setting books for sales, especially new settings that don't have a built in (D&D) following.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

And they could call it "Of Ships and the Sea"

Honestly a re-working of the environmental books with setting material (inevitably) for FR would be nice. Seas, Deserts, Jungle, Artic / Mountain, and Underworld. I enjoyed the 3.x line of books. With a simpler system like 5E the rules would be shorter giving room for some (mini) setting information. people would buy them either for the environmental crunch (like me), the character stuff, or the FR setting bits. Or some combination of those. I think this would be a better bet than pure setting books for sales, especially new settings that don't have a built in (D&D) following.

They could, but one of their “things” this time is to not put out books they’ve put out before.

Still, an adventure at sea, with accompanying mechanics for players and DMs, and all the types of info we're talking about, with at least some basic ideas for running it in different settings, is a distinct possibility.

I’d love to see a “Seas of The Multiverse” supplement, with chapters on different worlds, though.