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I am sailing, I am sailing ...


Mithras

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Hi,

Has anyone used the sailing rules in RQ3? They look detailed, maybe a little too detailed, and before I integrate them into a merchant trading system, I wondered how well they work - or are they too detail TOO use????

Any info is gratefully received!

Paul Elliott

Paul Elliott

Warlords of Alexander - Roleplaying in the ruins of Alexander's Empire

Zenobia - Fantasy RPG in the Eastern Roman Empire

Zaibatsu - Fast-play Japanese cyberpunk - Gibson-style

www.geocities.com/mithrapolis/games.html

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They work OK. In fact, they are a little bit too simple.

Basically, you use Seaworthiness to keep track of whether the ship can stay afloat and this is the main thing for ships. After all, most of the hazards are things like storms and wear and tear.

Ship to ship combat is handled fairly easily - use each captain's Shiphandling skill to determine how quickly the ships close, in comparison with ships' stats. If they ram then use the Hull Points and Structure Points to see if the ship is smashed. You also use Hull/Structure Points if you run aground or hit a reef/iceberg.

And that's about it, really. There are extra bits for cargo, speed and sailing, but you can ignore most of those most of the time.

It all depends what you want to use Ships for. If they are a way to move from A to B then the sailing rules don't really apply except when there are storms. If you want a pirate or naval campaign then ship combat comes into play.

To tell the truth, I use the rules for wind direction to work out how fast the ship sails, the Special Menaces for occasional encounters and ship combat when absolutely neccesary. I rarely use ship repairs, except for downtime and magical repairs are normally done on the fly with fairly powerful magicians.

In Glorantha, I use the Closing and the Open Seas spell and the Closing comes down fairly rapidly if it is needed. In fact, in Glorantha that's what makes a naval camapign intersting.

The rules in Monggose RQ are better and there are more rules in the excellent Pirates supplement that I'd recommend to anyone who likes Pirates and BRP/RQ.

If you want to do trading as merchants then the RQ trading rules are very simplistic. You'd need to work out costs of food etc for the crew per day, work out the costs of ship repairs and maintenance, calculate profit margins on cargo and so on. It's quite complicated really which is why I tend to avoid merchant campaigns - the PCs either can't make any money at all or make stupid fortunes. But, a Sinbad-style campaign might be interesting - a combination of trading, sailing and adventuring.

Simon Phipp - Caldmore Chameleon - Wallowing in my elitism since 1982. Many Systems, One Family. Just a fanboy. 

www.soltakss.com/index.html

Jonstown Compendium author. Find my contributions here

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Thanks, yes that was my idea, a Sinbad-style trading game but set in the Roman or Greek period, with profit margins hard to meet. Also to run as a solo game.

Paul Elliott

Warlords of Alexander - Roleplaying in the ruins of Alexander's Empire

Zenobia - Fantasy RPG in the Eastern Roman Empire

Zaibatsu - Fast-play Japanese cyberpunk - Gibson-style

www.geocities.com/mithrapolis/games.html

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Sounds like they recycled those ship rules for Sailing on the Seas of Fate. I think they work very well. They give game mechanics to ships, but those mechanics are rarely actually needed until they are really needed, which I feel is a good thing.

70/420

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Sounds like they recycled those ship rules for Sailing on the Seas of Fate. I think they work very well. They give game mechanics to ships, but those mechanics are rarely actually needed until they are really needed, which I feel is a good thing.

Similar. I think RQ3 came out before Seas of Fate. If I recall corectly, Seas of Fate is actually a little more advanced, too. Slightly different movement rates by the wind.

Chaos stalks my world, but she's a big girl and can take of herself.

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The Mongoose rules for sailing are almost the same as the RQ3 ones. Although they do have a lot more options in Pirates which would be good in any campaign.

I think the sailing rules are pretty much the same across the board, which is a good thing.

Sailing on the Seas of Fate has Fumble and Disaster tables which look good and stats for ship-borne seige engines which look good as well with Blue Fire being the equivalent of Greek Fire.

But, for me, the important things about sailing are:

1. How fast can I travel and how far?

2. How much cargo can I carry?

3. What skills do I need to use when sailing?

4. How do I repair/maintain/upgrade my ship?

5. How do natural phenomena affect me while sailing?

6. How does ship to ship combat work?

7. How does monster to ship combat work?

Of those, I reckon I'd use 1/2/3 more than 90% of the time and 4/5/6/7 about 10% of the time. So, the rules shouldn't bog things down too much.

In a Sinbad-style game you'd need 1/2/3 a lot but would also need the others, possibly 80/20 or 70/30. You also need better trading rules and rules for costs of travel, crew maintenance and so on.

I'd also give a ship a character sheet of its own, with skills and abilities. So, one ship might be Fast Running the Wind and another might be Hard to Sink. Different ship types would have similar abilities. Treat a ship as a PC or NPC. Some ships have been awakened, possibly by a ship/sailor cult or by a sorcerer or shaman, and they will have skills and spells of their own.

Simon Phipp - Caldmore Chameleon - Wallowing in my elitism since 1982. Many Systems, One Family. Just a fanboy. 

www.soltakss.com/index.html

Jonstown Compendium author. Find my contributions here

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Well, from what I've read, profit margins for ancient traders were very high. That was whty they did it. THe RQ3 idea of 250% increase isn';'t far from the truth.

Of course, the risks were high as well. Storms, pirates, and monsters all take their toll.

Chaos stalks my world, but she's a big girl and can take of herself.

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