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Old 11-09-2008, 06:37 PM   #24
Icelander
 
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Default Re: Sailing Ships -At least until CCoI (Low-Tech) arrives

Quote:
Originally Posted by ravenfish
If an e-23 supplement would require too many new reference book purchases, what about a Pyramid article? My understanding is that those are less rigorous. You could, in Pyramid, publish it as Gameable Low-Tech ships rather than Perfectly Accurate Low-Tech ships.
There is something in what you say. If I could develop a two or three page rule system for sailing, simple but yet capable of giving concrete bonuses for choosing one type of vessel over another similar one, I'd be a happy man indeed.

Then I would propose several articles. First a generic one about using a modified version of the Action chase rules with sailing ships (and a little about oared vessels as well, I suppose). Then a Vehicles: Frigates and Ships of the Line (A Guide to the Naval Ships of the Napoleonic Wars) one for certain (if they'll allow me to make it about roleplaying in the Royal Navy, I'd write it for free), Vehicles: Viking Ships, Vehicles: Ships of the Age of Discovery (Carracks, Caravels and Galleons) and Vehicles: Pirate Ships of the Caribbean Sea. Probably a few more to fill in the gaps. Maybe Vehicles: Trade Ships from Cog to Clipper just to find an excuse to include the profoundly unglamorous ships somewhere.

These sound more like e23 products, though. Could model them so that the first product includes some rules and the major vessels necessary for fantasy GMs and the rest includes more specific eras for the historical GM. That would make the first product Vehicles: Sailing Ships.

Quote:
Originally Posted by ravenfish
Myself, I like free stuff, but I'd pay decent money for a set of ships that, if not historically perfect, could at least be run in my fantasy games without ridiculous results.
You'll get that on these forums, for free, just as soon as I finish writing up the other time periods. I promise that the stats will be as accurate as I can make them and I'll try to finish things before the end of next week.

The stats will be more accurate than those two sailing vessels we got in the Basic Set and certainly more accurate than Fantasy. Acc will be guesstimated based on the apparent relation between Move and Acc in Campaigns and Cost will be internally consistent and in the same ballpark as Fantasy. All other details should match historical evidence, as well as experimental archaeology if at all possible.

I'll even finish the list of historical vessels with a few examples worked out for my fantasy campaign, which might be useful for other GMs as well.

Quote:
Originally Posted by ravenfish
Of course it's now an open question, with New-Pyramid replacing Old-Pyramid, whether an appropriate issue would appear in a reasonable amount of time- or even before Cabernet Chicks on Ice (Or whatever we're calling it now) comes out.
Cabaret Chicks on Ice isn't even written yet. Authors haven't even been announced.

Based on the time it takes to get a good GURPS hardcover out, I'd say that we'll see more than enough Pyramid themes to cover any and all articles we want to write before we can even start dreaming about CCoI.
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