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Old 07-07-2014, 11:29 AM   #1
tantric
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Default What's the best GURPS source about boats and ships?

I need to work out how my culture goes from dugout canoes to age of sail, without really copying Europe or China. What book is best for this? Maybe 3e Vehicles? I'm about to buy a bunch of stuff, so I'm xmas listing.
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Old 07-07-2014, 12:03 PM   #2
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Default Re: What's the best GURPS source about boats and ships?

I don't have enough 4th Edition material to make any recommendations for that, but Vehicles, 2nd Edition (not 1st Edition, though both were for GURPS 3rd Edition) would be my recommendation for building ships and boats with a couple of reservations. If you want detail for the age of sail, you're going to want to get Vehicles Expansion 1 for its three pages on historical and contemporary sailing rigs. Vehicles Expansion 2 repeats the rules for paddling and poling from Low-Tech and has rules for rigid sails, as well, though that's outside your area of interest.

It's very tempting to suggest GURPS Low-Tech (for 3rd Edition) as it covers the rules for constructing rafts, scaling boats and sewn canoes and gives the approximate spacing between paddlers, none of which appears in Vehicles or the Expansions. It also lists the statistics for a 15' dugout canoe. OTOH, if you don't need the rafting rules, Vehicles Expansion 2 should do just fine and should be significantly less costly.
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Old 07-07-2014, 12:09 PM   #3
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Default Re: What's the best GURPS source about boats and ships?

I would not go to any GURPS book for historical information of that sort. If you want to know that kind of stuff, look for example at McGrail's Boats of the World and Casson's Ships and Seamanship in the Ancient World; you can get some actual statistics of real boats and ships, which you can then translate into GURPS stats. Cotterell and Kamminga's Mechanics of Pre-Industrial Technology has a good chapter on how boats and ships work, too. Those were among the sources I relied on.

Bill Stoddard
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Old 07-07-2014, 12:19 PM   #4
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Default Re: What's the best GURPS source about boats and ships?

The Aztecs had some shoreline, but did they ever have a navy?
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Old 07-07-2014, 12:35 PM   #5
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Default Re: What's the best GURPS source about boats and ships?

For books with stats on ships Low Tech has some, Low Tech Companions have some, and Fantasy Tech has some wierd ones (Like land ships and such).

It gives ideas of stuff you need to get a boat going. That's about it.
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Old 07-07-2014, 01:30 PM   #6
tantric
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Default Re: What's the best GURPS source about boats and ships?

Okay, what I need to do is to take the dhows and such used by the Swahili and plausibly advance them. I also need river boats. As far as I can tell, the best subSaharan African had were dual outriggers (two canoes with a platform between them) and plank boats. Some of the canoes were pretty impressive.

But I need this to grow, so I need to know generalities, which GURPS is usually good for, though I'll take any recommendation. Part of the problem is that I'm having Africans on a new continent that is just lousy with navigable rivers, so I need to see that develop.

Thanks.
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Old 07-07-2014, 01:40 PM   #7
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Default Re: What's the best GURPS source about boats and ships?

Quote:
Originally Posted by tantric View Post
dual outriggers (two canoes with a platform between them)
To be pedantic, I think two canoes makes it a catamaran, like a big Polynesian sailing canoe. An outrigger is a small side hull that's just for stabilization, but doesn't really carry cargo (also seen in Polynesia).
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Old 07-07-2014, 06:21 PM   #8
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Default Re: What's the best GURPS source about boats and ships?

Quote:
Originally Posted by whswhs View Post
I would not go to any GURPS book for historical information of that sort. If you want to know that kind of stuff, look for example at McGrail's Boats of the World and Casson's Ships and Seamanship in the Ancient World; you can get some actual statistics of real boats and ships, which you can then translate into GURPS stats. Cotterell and Kamminga's Mechanics of Pre-Industrial Technology has a good chapter on how boats and ships work, too. Those were among the sources I relied on.

Bill Stoddard
YEA for Google Books! Thanks - that's exactly it.
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