Naval Crafts & Heavy Guns

Following-up my post on Naval Combat, here are some stats to get that working.

Ships

Each ship is unique, but here are some typical numbers.  Note that a fully-laden boat travels at 2/3 speed and an overloaded boat at 1/2 speed.  Also, boats can be loaded to double their standard crew capacity, though it's by no means comfortable.

Jollyboat or Sailing Skiff
Crew: 1-6
Sail Points: 0 or 2
Masts: 0 or 1(doesn't need seperate helmsman and rigger to sail)
Typical Speed: 60ft/round sailing, 30ft/round rowing

Cog

Water Units to Sink: 2
ShipAC: 17
Seaworthiness: 3 or 6

Cog
Crew: 3-10
Sail Points: 5
Masts 1
Max Heavy Guns: 1
Typical Speed: 90ft/round
Water Units to Sink: 10
ShipAC: 10

Caravel

Seaworthiness: 8

Caravel
Crew: 6-20
Sail Points: 10
Masts: 2
Max Heavy Guns: 3 (2 canons on each side of deck, 1 swivel gun on poop deck)
Typical Speed: 120 ft/round
Water Units to Sink: 30
ShipAC: 7

Seaworthiness: 8

Carrack

Carrack

Crew: 8-30
Sail Points: 20
Masts: 3
Max Heavy Guns: 6 (4 canons split between two sides of deck, 2 swivel guns on each side of poop deck)
Typical Speed: 120 ft/round
Water Units to Sink: 60
ShipAC: 5

Seaworthiness: 10

Heavy Guns

Swivel Gun

Hull/Sail Damage: 1d2

Crew: 1

Small Cannon(Biggest gun you can put on a Cog)

Hull/Sail Damage: 1d4

Crew: 1

Standard Cannon

Hull/Sail Damage: 1d6

Crew: 2

Heavy Cannon

Hull/Sail Damage: 1d8

Crew: 2

Huge Cannon(Carrack only)

Hull/Sail Damage: 1d10

Crew: 3

Abstract Naval Combat Rules

Naval Combat with wind-powered boats is complex.  There are different ships with different capabilities, different manoeuvres that can be done, and wind plays a major role.  Evil Stevie does a good job of capturing the experience while simplifying it somewhat, BUT at the same time I'm looking for something even more simple and, by necessity, abstract. I should also mention that I'm assuming fairly small ships, certainly not 28-gun frigates!

I want to have ship-combat, but at the same time, I don't want to lose focus on the individual party-members' actions.  So combat will have Ship Turns, which last a fixed number of rounds.  Each Ship-Turn the relative position of ships can change for the remainder of the Turn.

Ship Status

In this system, any two ships in a particular action have one of the following relationships to one another:

• NOT ENGAGED-cannot fire fixed guns/board one another
• ENGAGED-can fire fixed guns on one another(note that if Ship A is engaged with B and B with C, then all three are considered engaged with one another)
• ALONGSIDE- holding parallel course alongside another ship.  Can attach boarding hooks, board each other, fire small arms

Additionally, a ship's sailing ability depends on the following statuses:

• ABLE
• DISABLED- sails are too damaged to effectively move
• STOPPED- sails are down and ship is stationary--effectively Disabled
• UNMANNED- not enough crew manning it--still moving, but effectively Disabled
• MOORED- attached to one or more other ships(similar to UNMANNED)
• If one ship is faster than the other, the faster ship may FORCE ENGAGEMENT or FORCE ALONGSIDE.  This means that the slower ship cannot evade, but it also means the faster ship is pointing straight at the slower one, not manoeuvring, so it will not get to fire heavy guns this turn.

The Ship Turn

The Ship Turn lasts 6 combat rounds, but it also has a few other ship-related phases that happen only once per Turn.

Phase 1: Crew Assignment

For the ship to function, some of it's crew need to be assigned duties.  These duties keep them busy and they will not be able to take other actions during the Combat Rounds.  If they do abandon their posts during the Combat Rounds(by choice or due to injury) then it is considered as if no one was assigned the duty that Ship Turn.  Duties include:

• Helmsman and Riggers: a ship must have a Helmsman and one Rigger per mast or the Ship will be considered UNMANNED.
• Gunner and Powder Monkey: for a Heavy Gun to be reloaded and fired it requires a gunner and possibly one or more Powder Monkeys(see Heavy Gun descriptions)
• Bailing water from a hull-hit: at the end of the Individual Combat Phase, subtract 1 units of water from the damaged ship at end of turn
• Fixing hull damage: at the end of the Individual Combat Phase, subtract 6 points of hull-damage(Carpenter Only)
• Repair sails: at the end of the Individual Combat Phase, subtract 6 points of sail Damage
• Putting out fire from exploded powder barrel
• At Ready: sailor is waiting ready to take someone else's place if they are unable to man their post(by choice or due to injury)

Phase 2: Individual Combat

Six consecutive combat rounds.  Each crew members may engage in a number of actions during a round:

• Throw a boarding hook at a ship ALONGSIDE their ship(thus keeping the ships alongside as long as someone is holding onto the rope)
• Convert a boarding hook into a Tie, thus making the ships be Moored together
• Cut-off a boarding hook or Tie using a knife, sword, axe
• Fire small arms at another ship's crew(For ENGAGED assume 300ft range.  For ALONGSIDE, assume 30ft or use combat grid, miniatures, etc.)
• Standard combat actions, including crossing over to a MOORED ship or jumping/swinging/climbing over to an ALONGSIDE ship with a successful ability check(fail by more than 5 and you're in the water!)

Phase 3: Heavy Guns

After the 6 combat rounds, the gun crews have had time to reload their Heavy Guns. During this phase, the gunners can fire their heavy guns.  Each ship should roll it's initiative as 1d6+Helmsman Skill Bonus to see who shoots first.

• Heavy Guns can only be fired at ENGAGED ships
• If a ship has Heavy Guns on both sides, only one side can fire on any one particular ship

Firing Heavy Guns works as follows:

1. Choose a target ship
2. Choose a target area: Rigging, Deck, Hull.  (ALONGSIDE: relative deck height determines which.  MOORED: aim at specific thing opposite the cannon, generally hard to hit moving crew-members this way)
3. Roll an attack die to see if you hit(1d20+gunner skill vs. ShipAC).  Bonuses: +4 stationary ship, +8 alongside, etc.

On a hit, depending on where you aimed:

• Rigging: Roll for damage, subtract from ship's Sail Points.  Speed is reduced proportionally. Once Sail Points reach 0, the ship is DISABLED.
• Deck: list the significant items on deck and determine one at random.  Typical items include:
  • Mast- hit means it falls down.  Sail points reduced proportionately.
  • Helm- hit means ship cannot be steered, only started/stopped.  Helmsman takes 1d4xHD damage from shrapnel.  This will take the Ship's Carpenter a long time to fix.
  • Heavy Gun- gun is disabled.  If it had powder, it explodes and anyone manning it takes 1d4xHD damage.
  • Powder Barrel for a Heavy Gun- ignited.  Anyone manning the gun takes 1d4xHD damage.  Ship is now on fire.
  • Character- takes 1d10xHD damage.
• Hull: ship takes hull damage according to cannon.  Ship takes on water-units at the rate of Hull-Damage at the end of each Ship Turn, starting next turn.
• A hull hit on a small boat like a skiff will result in one occupant, chosen randomly, taking making a saving throw or taking 1d10xHD damage.

Phase 4: Ship Control

Since ship's manoeuvre slowly, so navigation actions happen once per Ship Turn.  As such, at the beginning of each Ship Turn, the Helmsman of an Able(or Alongside) ship should declare one of the following manoeuvres(usually at the Captain's orders):

• ENGAGE with another ship for the remainder of the Ship Turn
• PULL-ALONGSIDE an already Engaged ship for the remainder of the Ship Turn
• EVADE another ship(Counters that ship's attempts to engage.  If the ships are already Engaged and the other ship is attempting to pull alongside, they remain engaged but not Alongside)
• FLEE(must be Disengaged from all opposing ships, though faster ships can still engage it)
• GET UNDERWAY if the Ship is Stopped, hoist the sails and get sailing
• HOLD COURSE, don't engage anyone. Just keep sailing, others may engage you if they want

Now determine which ships are ENGAGED or ALONGSIDE each other for the next Ship Turn.

Suggestions Wanted!

I'm trying to think of a name for the Pirate retro-DnD mod I've been working on.  Any ideas?  So far I've got:

• Pistols and Peglegs
• Parrots and Peglegs
• Buckaneers and Bravos
• Muskets and Mainmasts

Pirate Small Arms

Well, now that I'm making progress on my goal of designing a Pirate Sandbox, I might as well stat-up some small arms, as per my post on the FWT System for DnD.  Note that the damage is calibrated for Labyrinth Lord, where Fighters/Monsters use a d8 hit die.  I decreased the range of the crossbow to bring it in line with Backswords and Bucklers.  That seems OK anyway since we're increasing it's power overall.

Crossbow

vs. UAC(Unarmoured Armour Class)
1d8 damage
Range: 60ft/120ft/180ft
Reload: 1 round

Flintlock Pistol

vs. UAC
-2 to hit(due to jamming/misfires)
1d6 per FDM(Firearm Damage Multiplier) of Target
Range: 20ft/40ft/60ft

Reload: 3 rounds for MuzzleLoader (2 rounds for rare Breachloader)

Flintlock Musket

vs. UAC
-2 to hit(due to jamming/misfires)
1d8 per FDM of Target
Range: 50ft/100ft/150ft
Reload: 3 rounds (2 rounds for rare Breachloader)

Flintlock Blunderbuss

vs. UAC
-0 to hit(due to multiple projectiles)
1d6 per FDM of Target
Range: 20ft/40ft/60ft
Reload: 4 rounds

Flintlock Blunderbuss Pistol(Dragon)

vs. UAC
-0 to hit due to multiple projectiles
1d4 per FDM of Target
Range: 10ft/20ft/30ft
Reload: 4 rounds

Matchlock Weapons

For Matchlock versions of the above weapons, a round must be spent before firing, lighting the match.

Note that this effectively adds 1 round to the reload time, for getting of a second shot.

For the first 3 rounds after the match is lit, the weapon can be fired.  After that, the match has gone out and round must be spent putting a new match and lighting it.

Arquebus

Treat as a Matchlock Musket

Heavy Deck-Mounted Arquebus

Same as arquebus, except:
-0 to hit because it's mounted

1d10 per FDM of Target
Range: 70ft/140ft/210ft because it's mounted

In Pursuit of a Better DnD Firearms Houserule

So traditional DnD doesn't do firearms.  And when it does, it doesn't do them well.  I've been thinking about how to include them in my DnD, and I think that there are two main problems: Hitpoints and Armor.

Problem #1 Hitpoints

The hitpoints problem, as I see it, is that guns are the ultimate equalizer.  Any unskilled loser can get-off a lucky shot and kill a Hero.  But in DnD, hitpoints grow proportionally to level while weapon damage is fixed.

Problem #2 Armour

The other problem is that the DnD armour system doesn't make sense for firearms.  Firearms are the reason why armies gradually abandoned traditional armours.  So AC modifiers don't make sense when speaking about firearms.

Solution: Firearms Weapon Type(FWT)

Broadswords and Bucklers solves the Hitpoints Problem by making firearm damage proportional to the shooter's level.  In that DnD mod, level dictates the number of damage dice.  That solves the problem of high level characters gun-fighting, but not the "Firearms as Equalizer" problem.  My preference therefore would be to make damage proportional to the target's level.  This makes firearms VERY POWERFUL, though they have a slow reload time.  I think that actually makes a lot of sense and reflects what happened historically, though it changes the game considerably, since any other weapon is now merely a backup.

As for the Armour Problem, the natural solution is to say that AC bonuses don't count when talking about firearms.  This apparently has been done before in AD&D.

What about Monsters?

Okay, so these house rules basically say that there are two classes of weapons, each with it's own mechanic.    Now the DM needs to give monsters two AC values: one for normal weapons and one for firearms. The one for Firearms or UAC(Unarmored Armor Class) takes into account how much of their AC is due to tough skin vs. how much is due to dexterity.

The DM also needs to give monster a FDM(Firearms Damage Multiplier) i.e. the number of dice that a firearm does to it.  For an Orc or Goblin, FDM=Monster HD, but for a large/tough monster, you have to differentiate between HD due to Size/Toughness and HD due to Martial Skill.  So for instance, a 9HD elephant get's it's HD from it's size/toughness, so FDM=1.  A 9HD Blue Dragon, on the other hand, gets it hit dice from both size/toughness and martial ability, so FDM=2.

Of course, this might be less of a problem, since a campaign with a more modern arsenal may be less Fantasy-focussed and thus have fewer monsters.

What about Crossbows?

Also, what about armour-piercing missiles like Crossbows?  Are they like firearms or like normal weapons?  My tendency would be to make them ignore armour like firearms, but not give them proportional damage, since an experienced fighter might partially parry the shot, thus taking less damage.

Time Raiders

This is a campaign idea I had, inspired partly from XCOM, and also probably from watching too much Sliders back in the day.  It's system-neutral, though I think that CyberPunk 2020 is a pretty-good fit for it, both in terms of mechanics and in terms of mood.

The Company

The place is Earth.  The time is today.  A brilliant scientist has invented a working time travel machine.  Knowing that as soon as his discovery becomes public, the government will take it away from him, he has resolved to see some benefit from his invention before that happens.

As such he has founded a company, taking in a small number of scientists and hired-guns as partners, each for 10% share of the ultimate profits.  Together, they arrange for-profit expeditions to the distant past and far future.

The company begins with up to 10 Partner Characters, some of which must have the tech skills needed for running the time machine: Physics, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering etc.  They also start with a warehouse in the location of their choice to be used as a base, and one million Dollars starting capital.  They can hire perimeter guards, etc. for a fee, but these employees must be kept in the dark as to the true nature of the business, otherwise they will surely sell the company out to the highest bidder.  New Partners can be taken-on, but 10 is the maximum.

Time Travel Machinery

 

The time machine itself cannot be set to a specific date/location.  Rather it gives a peek at a "random" location and the team must decide whether to go there, or look for  another location(takes 1d10 hours, costs $10,000).

Once an expedition has been launched, and some of the team members have been sent to the location, they must check their Chronotracker to see where and when to be for transfer back to their own time.  If they miss this Retrieval Window, there will be another, but the windows will eventually run out and the team will be lost in time.  Sending a team through time costs $100,000)

To determine the Retrieval Window, roll 1d8 for compass direction, 1d10 for number of miles, 1d10 for number of hours.  Each time the party misses a window, multiply the time d10's by 10.  i.e. (1d10 hrs/1d10 mi), (1d10x10hrs/1d10 mi), (1d10x100hrs, 1d10 mi)... Any given expedition will have 1d6 retrieval windows before they run-out.

Making Money/Discovering Technology

Players will need to come up with discreet methods of making money from the artifacts their expeditions bring back.  They need to be able to benefit from them without revealing that they have a working time machine.

Examples:

• The expedition brings back a dinosaur freezes it, and claims they found it on an Antartic expedition
• The expedition brings back a ray-gun and it's schematics.  Their scientists research how it works and they bring-in a new partner to manufacture more in-house
• The expedition brings back a new type of genetically modified grain, researching it's properties, and patenting it's Genome.  It brings-in good money each month in licensing fees

The company has a Publicity Score, which begins at 0.  Whenever the company sells/patents some artifact, their Publicity Score increases by an amount determined by the DM and the DM rolls a percentage die against the total score.  If he rolls the score or lower, then some corporation or government suspects the Company has a Time Travel device.  This makes them subject to spies, raids, etc.

The Publicity Score is cut in half if the company relocates to another country.  It can also be reduced in other ways(if a corporation knows about the technology, but you assassinate their executives, etc.)

End Game

There are a number of ways the game can end:

• The Government shuts you down and takes your technology
• All Partners are killed/lost in time
• The Company runs out of funds for running expeditions and cannot borrow/steal any more

Tone in Gaming

or

Seigwart Murders a Dude

Well Seigwart got to play in his first WFRP 1e session.  His fellow party-members were an Elven Noble and his bodyguard, a Dwarf warrior.  Seigwart was their streetsmart guide to the ins and outs of the city.

The mission: retrieve some chaos-tainted artifact from the thieves who stole it for a local Oligarch, but then refused to deliver it.  The party quickly located the gang's lair, but then found that the entire gang had been savagely murdered by a rival gang, and the artifact was gone.  This segment didn't yield much for the party, except information and a few still-usable crossbow bolts.  But the tone, of brutal, no quarter-given, gang warfare, really set the tone for what was to follow.

The party proceeded to the rival gang's headquarters and succeeded in gaining entry, by impersonating some new hires of that gang.  But then, when the 3 guardsmen went back to their dice game, the party decided that we couldn't afford to leave these guards at our flank.  Seigwart, blocked the door while the other two party members initiated a surprise-attack on the unsuspecting guardsmen.  The quick battle went our way, no thanks to Seigwart's unremarkable martial abilities.  When one guardsman managed to flee past the Bawd, the Noble, despite his ostensibly Good alignment, threw a spear into the fleeing man's back!  And when the final guard surrendered, Siegwart drew his dagger and slit the man's throat, since a prisoner would only hinder our infiltration of the Gang's base.

This episode stood in contradistinction to our previous DnD sessions, where quarter was generally given(at least to Humans) and the unspoken assumption was that "We are the Good Guys".  And I think that it was the tone of the DM's material that made all the difference.  In those games, I was often a Neutral character who "went along" with his good teammates lead.  In this WFRP session, even the "Good" character got swept-up and forgot he's not supposed to just murder anyone that gets in his way!  Atmosphere really matters.