How would magic interact with late TL5 naval warfare? & Campaign idea

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1. Philosophy of such a game
I've always been fascinated with the idea of a campaign where the PCs are officers in an end-of-the-19th-century navy, especially one which brings in sci-fi/fantasy elements. I think a big part of this is because I read China Mieville's "Bas Lag Cycle" fantasy novels as a kid, and even though it was just a single chapter, the combination of fantasy elements with steel battleships always fascinated me due to its uniqueness.

Of course, trying to stat out such large vehicles in exacting detail in GURPS is a fool's errand, but I think GURPS is still the best system for such an unusual game, for several reasons.

Firstly, because GURPS Mass Combat is probably the best mass-combat system for an RPG if you want something that emphasizes the narrative rather than wargaming aspects, in my opinion, without just throwing up its hands and abstracting individual units out of existence like, say, Savage Worlds does.

And secondly, the lengthy skill list of GURPS allows for a decent variety among characters who will be in a military command position, with numerous specialized intellectual skills that can provide situational advantages in battles and address a variety of non-combat challenges in campaigns, instead of being compressed into just a few "non-combat skills" like most RPGs.

The question might be asked, why even try to run such a thing? Could it actually be fun? And I think, yes, it might be. On the one hand, naval warfare in this era was highly "arithmetical". If you have more guns, more accurate guns, thicker armor, and better trained crew, you're probably going to win (and more to the point, the enemy probably isn't going to even try to fight you in the first place); there is relatively little room for individual courage or fighting spirit.

But on the other hand this leaves room for emphasizing battles as being a psychological contest and a clash of wills between opposing commanders, where they try to out-guess one another, as well as the importance of maintaining cohesion and morale among one's own subordinates. And, by the nature of a naval fleet, allows the PC commander(s) to travel all over the game world and play a decisive role in wartime politics. I imagine a distribution of gamplay being about 40% internal military politics and challenges, 40% external diplomacy, and only 20% actual battles, keeping them somewhat rare and special and emphasizing the permanence of any losses, friendly or enemy.

2. Which setting elements will make for a good game like this?

Obviously you need to get away from the historical, not only because naval warfare with this level of technology was rare, but also because historical naval hierarchies were too rigid to be fun for gamers. That's where the fantasy elements come in - allowing for "special" player characters to ascend this hierarchy through fantastic talents and inherent traits rather than long decades of service and obedience to authority. If this is a setting where magic exists and archmages and priest-kings have a lot of power, it can produce something more colorful and less stiflingly professional than the historical equivalent. This can also give an excuse for player characters to occasionally get in trouble in person - although positions of military command foreclose "adventuring" there can still be room for the occasional honor duel or palace coup.

I think a good basic idea is for a small group (4 or fewer, 3 would be ideal) of players to represent commanders of a joint task force assembled by nations or factions which have traditionally been rivals or enemies, jockeying for position and influence at the same time as trying to defeat a mutual enemy. This would be an excellent use for the mass-scale social conflict rules in "Social Engineering", and allows for "PVP" to keep things interesting, with the caveat that the players generally aren't trying to kill eachother, but rather to hog glory and advance their home faction at the expense of the others. Ideally the player characters should be put in command of sailors and soldiers who initially dislike and distrust them, and be made to understand that the key to success in battle is getting those troops to trust and respect them, choosing between divergent methods of inspiring admiration, or fear. And have "allies" and governing officials who try to sabotage them, out of greed, ambition, or fear that some player(s) might switch sides - a fear which could very well be justified.

And what might those rival nations and that common enemy be? There are lots of interesting referential options. Imperal Japan analogues who make pacts with spirits of the wind and weather, sun and moon? Tsarist Russian analogues ruled by "deathless" lich-kings and crews of undead slaves? Ottoman analogues with a corrupt and declining empire lashing out, still harnessing the power of mystics with divinatory abilities of 'revelation'? French Empire analogues with royalists represented by wizard families under threat of liberal reformers toppling them with a new emphasis on steel and technology? I think analogues of real 18th and 19th century powers with a fantasy twist are the way to go, instead of trying to re-invent the wheel in the worldbuilding department.

3. Game rule considerations

Okay, enough with spitballing ideas, here's the concrete GURPS related questions. Firstly, would any alterations need to be made to "Mass Combat" to accomodate this sort of thing? My first impression is 'no'; it can represent late TL5 naval forces just fine. Battleships, armored cruisers, protected cruisers, torpedo boats, and torpedo boat destroyers. Maybe throw in an aircraft carrier equivalent which serves as a hangar for dirigibles and/or a roost for flying beasts of war like dragons or griffins? Make bound and summoned sea monsters a part of the equation? Aquatic creatures and humanoids could add an interesting under-water threat to surface ships and threaten them with boarding in a way historical capital ships of this era weren't. None of this really involves altering the rules as written, though, just using what's already there. One of the aforementioned proto-carriers could be created applying the same "half TS for late TL5 version" treatment that the capital ships and destroyers get.

Then the really interesting question: what kinds of magic and supernatural advantages would be particularly useful here, and should be given as options in templates for PCs? Although advantages and spells that make the PCs stronger in personal combat would be nice for color, they would rarely get used, so there should be a category of advantages and spells specifically that would be useful in a large battle situation, since any enemies will be literally miles away.

Per "Mass Combat", with such massive amounts of firepower involved, succeeding in reconaissance and being able to choose not to fight a battle if it is disadvantageous, or to force a battle if it is, would be especially crucial. For starters, I think one of the most important fantastic powers a commander of such a force could have, GURPS-wise, would be clairvoyance, and also possibly the ability to nullify clairvoyance. The weather spells in GURPS magic, which most players probably don't care about, would be very valuable for an admiral or commodore to use - in fact, it's one of the only useful spell schools. Naturally, magic users would need to have a very high level of magery (15+) and large reservoirs of FP to cast spells at a range and a scale where they're relevant to 15,000 ton ships firing shells wtih ranges measured in miles. Light/darkness spells could illuminate (or hide) targets at night. Then there's communication spells, making/breaking spells, maybe movement spells could allow hit-and-run boarding actions... even food spells would be a big deal.

The tricky part here is that it runs up against the blunt "numerical sum" of the Mass Combat system. Instead of just having spellcasters give a generic bonus like the ones in the example section, I think it would be better to classify spellcasters by what kind of spell they're capable of, and assign different values to them. This could be a hassle and is very subjective, but I think it's better than having the same flat value for everyone.

Oh well, this is a long and rambling post. Does anyone here have any thoughts on this stuff? Or examples of something similar having been attempted in any GURPS (or other RPG) setting?