[Basic] Skill of the Week: Boating

[Mailanka]

Originally Posted by johndallman

Actually, I last started one of these threads on Saturday 23rd, about Blind Fighting and Invisibility Art

Bah, I don't know how I missed that.

Originally Posted by cosmicfish

Great! That's how it played out in your campaign. What if those ships were being chased through the straits, where yelling all the orders you want doesn't change the fact that the helmsman has to remain within a tiny fraction of the correct heading in rough seas?

Or gets shot at by pirates. Every vehicle has a dodge value based on the control skill, but sea vessels don't have a control skill. It can't be that they don't dodge, because then we couldn't have riveting sea-battles with pirates and swashbucklers and the like. It can't be that they're too lumbering to dodge, because our giant space battleships can dodge too.

The only think I could see would be Seashipman + Shiphandling, but that means you suddenly can't dodge unless your captain is saying "Hard to port, Schmee!" and heaven help you if he's been knocked out by the latest cannon blast.

No, sea vessels need a piloting skill, especially for your TL 4-5 adventures on the high seas. It's fine to just make one up. Probably DX/A, with a default from boating, probably -3 or -4. ("Any experience on a frigate?" "No sir, but I did used to run supplies through enemy lines on my family's fishing boat." "Good enough!"), and call it a day. But it's odd that the book itself doesn't have something like this. It might be that it's intended (There seems to be some indication of that in the Vehicles section), but I don't know why it's intended for sea vessels and nothing else.

Further weirdness: I dug out Low-Tech for deeper research, which pointed me to Low-Tech 2, which has nothing on any shiphandling, but does have this reference:

If a ship suffers a shearing attack, the flailing motion of
the oars inside inflicts damage on the rowers on that side, as
noted above. However, the oarsmen may attempt to avoid the
attack by pulling their oars back into the ship – or, on a vessel
with one man per oar and one row of oarsmen, raising the
oars above the attacking ship. This counts as a parry at (average
Oarsman skill/2) + 3;

What the hell is the "Oarsman" skill? Is it an actual skill? Or do they mean Seashipman? Or... what?

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by Mailanka

What the hell is the "Oarsman" skill? Is it an actual skill? Or do they mean Seashipman? Or... what?

From Low Tech page 10:

Crewman
At TL1-4, ships can have sails, oars, or both. Sails and
oars require different training. Rowing a ship uses a new
Crewman skill:
Oarsman/TL: The skill of rowing or paddling a large
ship. This includes steering and incidental shipboard tasks,
but not manning the sails. Oarsman and Seamanship
default either way at -2.

[cosmicfish]

Originally Posted by Mailanka

Or do they mean Seashipman?

Typos happen to all of us from time to time, I just loved this one. It sounds like someone was trying to create a new superhero from scratch and just shouted some random words to see if they worked as a name.

"Do not fear, good citizens! Sea...er...ship...man? Uh... is here to save the day!"

[Mailanka]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

From Low Tech page 10:

I was looking for a character section to see if there were any new skills, and even checked in the index to find it, but it wasn't there. Rare that a GURPS index fails me. Thanks!

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

From Low Tech page 10:

And there is your surface ship piloting skill.

[Mailanka]

Originally Posted by Refplace

And there is your surface ship piloting skill.

That's... a stretch. Oarsman is just a form of Crewman, so it would probably fall under the same limitations as Seamanship*. Even if it didn't, it would only reasonably apply to ships with oars, which would mean all those cool pirate frigates and heroic ships-of-the-line would be excluded. It would be really weird if your frigate pilot had Oarsman.

*(Suspiciously eyes Cosmicfish)

[Not another shrubbery]

Originally Posted by cosmicfish

I am still curious why this never made it into the official rules in the first place. It seems odd to me that the oldest type of crewed vessel in existence is the only type where this is not already established in the rules.

If you find it confounding, you could just ask Kromm directly by PM or email.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Mailanka

That's... a stretch. Oarsman is just a form of Crewman, so it would probably fall under the same limitations as Seamanship*. Even if it didn't, it would only reasonably apply to ships with oars, which would mean all those cool pirate frigates and heroic ships-of-the-line would be excluded. It would be really weird if your frigate pilot had Oarsman.

Oarsman lets you steer galleys. Seaman lets you steer frigates.

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Oarsman lets you steer galleys. Seaman lets you steer frigates.

You could probably take the helm of either ship with either skill. The major difference is Seaman letting you work the sails, while Oarsman lets you row a galley.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

You could probably take the helm of either ship with either skill.

Tiller vs. rudder is probably worth a familiarity penalty.

The major difference is Seaman letting you work the sails, while Oarsman lets you row a galley.

Yes, except the galley crew probably have Oarsmen and the frigate's crew have Seaman. Which is where Malinka's cool pirate frigates and heroic ships-of-the-line (which are probably a terrible fit for most RPGs; but whatever) come in.