Ships & Boats per hex/turn
 

Hey David Pulver, could you give us a breakdown of these boat and ship (from Hexagram #1 article) movements when you are doing 5 second rounds on a hex map.

I realize that the 60' cog might be ridiculous to do this for, but it would sure be nice for canoe, longboat or even longship.

Re: Ships & Boats per hex/turn
 

The world record (if the interwebs are to be believed) canoe speed is 200m in 37.5 seconds, which roughly translates to about 22 hexes per TFT turn, but the typical top speed is estimated at about half that. So, without doing more research than I might while sitting in a game session, I'll estimate a typical speed at 6-10 hexes per turn. Accelerating from a dead stop might reasonably follow the rules for flyers lifting off on ITL 104.

Re: Ships & Boats per hex/turn
 

I haven't actually worked this out at a hexgrid level, mostly because I've only used ships for travel or as places to fight on, rather than doing boat vs. boat or boat vs. sea creatures. Also because of an issue regarding movement.

The issue that gave me pause is that TFT assumes a maximum move of 40 feet every five seconds, or about 8 feet per second, aka 5 mph (6 mph if you have MA 12 Running). which is a bit slow compared to the 10 mph someone of ordinary fitness (not an athlete) can run.

I'm not sure why this is, and as a result, I'm not sure what the best approach to converting "real world numbers" for vehicles are. Should everything be halved? What is the justification? Abstraction? But TFT has precise hex sizes and turn lengths... Some sort of hesitation, which means a turn is only the best second or so of decisive action in a five second period is reasonable! (a swordsman can easily swing 5+ times in five seconds) but how does that work for vehicles that wouldn't hesitate, like a ship under sail or drifting in the current?

Re: Ships & Boats per hex/turn
 

For ships the interesting bits are likely to be (de) acceleration and turning radius. Two ships pass in the night and the adventurers need to make the already given rolls to jump or fire across.

Re: Ships & Boats per hex/turn
 

I think it is interesting how so many players of TFT share the same desire to find that sweet spot between "simulation," and playing make believe.

Re: Ships & Boats per hex/turn
 

I think that's baked into the game from the beginning. It's a very simple game, but it was also designed as an answer to D&D, which at the time of OD&D when Melee and Wizard were first designed (much less so in new editions!) had many rules that were, in the immortal words of someone or other, not "unrealistic" but "anti-realistic" for no good reason at all. Such as movement speed being five seconds per foot in the original game.