Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Nachturnus Dec 05, 2014 11:15:58	This is a crosspost from the Rules Help section, but I figure it belongs here too as well, so I'll repost it here.    Alright guys.  I'm normally not one to pursue amateur game development, so this is a bit of an oddity for me.  I am beginning to run a campaign based largely on a naval lifestyle (Imagine Darksun + Waterworld,) in a homebrew setting I've termed 'Stormsea.' The issue I ran into was that the DMG's rules regarding sailing ships are rather lacking for this sort of campaign. They're sufficient for the one or two encounters a normal campaign finds themselves fighting on a boat, but for something titled 'Stormsea' I needed something a little more. So... this happened.  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uyX6ggPeU_M5nSD0sXu0xqOXTbo8ekmn-gbL9oZt3Po/edit?usp=sharing These rules are 100% dependant on owning a copy of the core D&D 5th Edition rules, and should be considered soley home-brew supplemental rules for that system.  As a warning, it's 8 pages, but this is largely because I tried to make it's style and presentation similar to that of the PHB/DMG, as I intend to pass this off to my players once the rules are fully fleshed out. There's even a terrible Ms paint diagram for the easily confused. So what's everyone think? If the reaction is positive, I'll release some more of the ships I've designed, as well as writing up a document for the ship-creation rules, so people can make appropriate ships for their own settings.    Notes: 1) The setting is gun-powder positive, thus why cannons are detailed and seige weapons are not. Seige weapons already have stats presented in the  2) We do combats with a square battlemap, and don't do pythagorean diagonals. I've included rules for Hex, but I'm mostly concerened with Square. 3) Each ship has to be designed by the DM, so there isn't a 'standard ship template' as it were. That being said, most Deep V ships are going to have very similar traits, as will most barges, galleys, riverboats, and multi-marans.  4) I've been playtesting these ships pretty frequently on R20 with a friend. My goal is to keep round time under 2-3 minutes, and to try to have combats lasts 5-8 rounds.  5) Cannon are intentionally unable to shoot players. That's why Swivel Guns exist, and do much more reasonable ammounts of damage. 6) The decision to create sepparate Naval Actions from normal skill checks was to help confine what a player could do onboard a ship with regard to a ship's function. It dramatically expedites play, and keeps the rules very simple for what an individual can do to contribute to a ship's function.  I'm also going to keep the one in the Rules forum updated with a changelog, if anyone's interested in helping critique the system. If you'd like to use the system for your own campaigns, go right ahead! :D
#2 Imaculata Dec 08, 2014 0:46:41	Well it seems you are running into the same problems as I am in my setting. When you want naval combat to be realistic, this means adding more rules, which further complicates the gameplay, and makes rounds last longer. I've mostly been using the 3.5 rules from Stormwrack up to this point, but DnD really encourages DM's to speed things up towards a boarding action. I think this is lazyness, because we really need a good combat system for ship to ship combat. Here's the problem though: The larger the ship gets, the bigger the crew of that ship, thus the more individuals taking part in the battle. An average longship has up to 40 rowers, which can all grab a gun and fire. But you don't want to go through 40 dice rolls every round. So, at some point you need to simplify things.   If it's just the players against one small ship, the standard rules will do fine.   If it's the players against a very large crew of one other ship, you can handle the enemy crew as one unit with a collective healthpool. What I've done up to this point, is only keep important enemies seperate from that mob: The captain, the first mate, the look-out and the cannoneers. These are all enemies that the players might target specifically, and the captain obviously has different stats from the rest of the crew anyway.   If it's the players with multiple ships, against multiple ships, now you have a problem.   In naval combat, there is a lot more to it than just boarding and firing at each other. There are many strategies that can be used to fight another ship, and I personally would love a system that simplifies each ship battle down to one or two rolls, while keeping all the following strategies available:   Ramming Boarding Sheering the oars Destroying the rigging Setting the enemy ship on fire Firing different ammo Firing with different cannons/siege Allowing magic to still play a part Allowing unique ship qualities to still play a part  Obviously when large fleets are concerned, you want to use a system that accurately represents the advantages of each ship, while simplifying the combat itself. I've been looking into the Mass Combat rules in pathfinder, but that is intended for large scale land battles, and I'm still fleshing out the details so that it is easy to use. The pathfinder system helps in simplifying large groups of enemies, but it does not yet take into account all the above ship qualities and strategies.
#3 Magistus71 Dec 09, 2014 9:42:41	Something to look at. http://blogofholding.com/?p=6415
#4 Nachturnus Dec 10, 2014 11:29:12	In this case, I've engineered a ruleset that attempts to keep the broad strokes of naval combat, and to allow for boarding actions, whilst also keeping the rules simple enough to understand and use with 15 minutes of explanation.  I'm trying to keep them both complete enough to actually prove fun, and light enough to not be cumbersome.
#5 Magistus71 Dec 11, 2014 13:13:05	The DMG has ship stats, including HP for the ships, and siege wepons listed in it.