I had mentioned I needed to reorganize what I had written. I spent some time looking at how past books were set up, and using them as inspiration, have reorganized my working document. The combat rules, large-scale movement rules, and ship construction rules are mostly complete, with 13 pages of text in a semi-edited format. There will be at least two more sections, one with sample ships and the other…well, that would be telling.
Based on the Oberstimm river craft, here’s a light vessel that may be of use if characters want to travel between the river forts in SSoS:
River Galley
56’x8’x2’ (freeboard 1’4”)
Tonnage 9
shp 27
Base Seaworthiness 3
Armor Class 1
Base Rowing Speed 4 (equivalent to 4 knots or 1 hex per 90 minutes at 6 mile scale)
Required Rowers 22
Rowers 28
Rowing MP 4
Modifications: Light Hull (-2 AC, +1 MP), Flat Bottom (-1 MP, +1 save vs. ground, -2d6 damage from grounding)
Cargo capacity: 5400 stone
Cargo used: 14 stone (oars), 450 stone (28 crew and 2 passengers), 450 stone (5 days’ rations), 3000 stone (10 stone of equipment per person)
Cargo available: 1486 stone
Design considerations: The original ship was 51.5’ by 8.5’ and around 3.3’ from top to bottom. It worked out best as a 7:1, at 56’x8’x3.3’. It’s known to have a flat bottom, and reproductions done by Projekt Romerschiff have been rowed at around 4 knots (note: I do not know German, but Google Translate is a miracle of technology), so the light hull was added to bring the speed back to 4. This type of boat would be used to transport patrols. The 10 stone of gear is 6 stone for banded armor, 1 stone for shield, 2 stone for weapons (sword, dagger, and either spear or bow and arrows), and 1 stone for miscellaneous gear. Rations were calculated at 3 stone per person. If the troops were actually going on patrol, more rations would be carried, but at 1 stone per person for the days expected to be spent on patrol, rather than the 3 stone for rowing.
I hope this is helpful to someone. Working it through helped me see that I do seem to at least be in the ballpark for stats, and can do this for a relatively small vessel suitable to a (large) adventuring party.
…and I forgot to include cost. The hull of the ship is 2700 gp, the benches for rowers are 140 gp, and oars are 70 gp. Rations are 21.5 weeks of rations, so between between 6.5 gp and 130 gp for rations (based on 3 sp lowest for fresh and 6 gp highest for iron). For the sake of argument, make it 90 gp so that everything totals up to 3000 gp.
I finally managed to dredge this thread up from the deep - what's the latest?
I moved in November 2015, and haven't done much since. The rules are up to around 15 pages. There's also a page of notes regarding harbors and seven fully-statted ships (a river galley, four types of merchant vessel ranging in crew size from 4 to 21, a bireme, and a trireme). However, there are some gaps in the rules - one of the ships has a sewn hull, which I apparently never finished adding to the rules.
Fair enough, real life happens. Any plans to return to it in the near future?
[quote="Kiero"]
Fair enough, real life happens. Any plans to return to it in the near future?
[/quote] Probably not the near future, though I do hope to get back to it at some point. I don't currently have a playtest group, and I haven't had time to do some of the research I need to do.