Sailing Rules and Vessels
Sailing is not like driving a car, riding a horse, or piloting a motorboat. The mechanics, physics, and atmosphere surrounding sailing open a whole new venue for adventures. These rules assume that the players have purchased, borrowed, rented, stolen, or purchased passage on a sailing vessel. These rules will attempt to explain some very basic terms and concepts behind sailing but should be treated only as a primer.
The term ship is one that is too often misused. The term ship correctly refers to any boat with three or more sails. Anything less is a boat. The rear of the boat is the stern or aft. The front of the boat is the fore or bow. Every boat no matter the size requires a crew. Each boat may have a different minimum crew complement. If the crew is not large enough for the boat there will be problems in course corrections and in dire weather. The minimum crew required is listed with the statistics for each boat. The crew has an average level of skill that must be determined. Anyone with a sailing skill of 01 – 20% is considered Green. A skill of 21 – 50 denotes a Competent sailor. A skill of 51 – 70 denotes a Skilled sailor, while a Veteran seaman has a skill of over 71. There are also a minimum number of officers for each vessel. An officer must be competent to qualify. Whichever the majority of the crew falls into is the category for the entire crew. There will always be the grizzled sailor or the inexperienced youngster aboard. This should not affect the overall crew skill.
Travel by boat should be broken down into four-hour watches. A navigation roll will be required for every third watch or every time there is a serious course change. Tacking should not be considered a major course change. If the navigation roll fails then the boat will be off course by the percentage failed. Every watch should roll on the random event chart. Most rolls will result in either no event or a peaceful meeting. Roll on the appropriate chart for the area being traversed.
01 – 20 No Event
21 – 50 Fishing Boat
51 – 70 Merchant Boat
71 – 80 Naval Patrol Boat
81 – 90 Fishing Fleet
91 – 95 No Event
96 – 99 Pirate or Brigand
100 Monster Encounter
01 – 40 No event
41 – 70 Fishing Boat
71 – 85 Merchant Boat
86 – 90 Naval Patrol Boat
91 – 95 Pirate or Brigand
96 – 00 Monster Encounter
01 – 60 No Event
61 – 70 Monster Encounter
71 – 80 No Event
81 – 85 Fishing Boat
86 – 88 Merchant Boat
89 – 90 Naval Patrol Boat
91 – 92 Pirate or Brigand
93 – 00 Monster Encounter
Weather also plays an important factor in travelling by sail. If the weather is too inclement or calm then very little travelling will occur. Roll on the following chart for a quick-roll table for determining the wind. For the first watch roll as if there is a Good Breeze.
Quick Roll Weather
Previous Wind Speed
01 – 05 Calm Calm Calm L. Breeze G. Breeze
06 – 10 Calm Calm L. Breeze G. Breeze G. Wind
11 – 15 Calm Calm L. Breeze G. Breeze G. Wind
16 – 20 Calm Calm L. Breeze G. Breeze G. Wind
21 – 25 Calm Calm L. Breeze G. Breeze G. Wind
26 – 30 Calm L. Breeze G. Breeze G. Wind S. Wind
31 – 35 Calm L. Breeze G. Breeze G. Wind S. Wind
36 – 40 Calm L. Breeze G. Breeze G. Wind S. Wind
41 – 45 Calm L. Breeze G. Breeze G. Wind S. Wind
46 – 50 Calm L. Breeze G. Breeze G. Wind S. Wind
51 – 55 Calm L. Breeze G. Breeze G. Wind S. Wind
56 – 60 L. Breeze L. Breeze G. Breeze G. Wind S. Wind
61 – 65 L. Breeze L. Breeze G. Breeze G. Wind S. Wind
66 – 70 L. Breeze G. Breeze G. Breeze G. Wind S. Wind
71 – 75 L. Breeze G. Breeze G. Wind S. Wind Stormy
76 – 80 L. Breeze G. Breeze G. Wind S. Wind Stormy
81 – 85 L. Breeze G. Breeze G. Wind S. Wind Stormy
86 – 90 L. Breeze G. Breeze G. Wind S. Wind Stormy
91 – 95 G. Breeze G. Wind S. Wind S. Wind Stormy
96 – 00 G. Breeze G. Wind S. Wind Stormy Stormy
Crew Checks
Crew Checks must be made during storms, dangerous maneuvers, some combat tactics, and other rushed or hurried events. The overall crew rating (Green, Competent, Skilled, Veteran) will determine the chance for each event to occur. The SAFE event means that the crew pulled together and was able to prevent any ill effects from occurring. A SLOW event results in the boat being unable to travel for one watch as minor repairs are made to the sail, ropes, and other minor items. After this watch the boat can continue to travel with a penalty of ¼ to the normal rate. This result can only be repaired after a week spent to fully repair all of the damage. DAMAGE results in serious damage to the vessel. The vessel loses ¼ of its breakage points to both areas. In addition the crew must spend two watches to repair the boat before it can continue to travel at ½ the normal rate. If the DESTROY event occurs the boat has been lost to the sea and all of its crew must make swimming rolls or drown. Characters still wearing metal armors must include all penalties while swimming. Spell casters may attempt one spell before being tossed overboard.
01 – 10 SAFE SAFE SAFE SAFE
11 – 20 SAFE SAFE SAFE SAFE
21 – 30 SAFE SAFE SAFE SAFE
31 – 40 SLOW SAFE SAFE SAFE
41 – 50 SLOW SAFE SAFE SAFE
51 – 60 SLOW SLOW SAFE SAFE
61 – 70 DAMAGE SLOW SLOW SAFE
71 – 80 DAMAGE DAMAGE SLOW SLOW
81 – 90 DESTROY DAMAGE DAMAGE SLOW
91 – 00 DESTROY DESTROY DAMAGE DAMAGE
Combat
Most crews and vessels will encounter pirates or monsters at some point in their journeys. Thankfully boats are very sturdy and can withstand a good deal of punishment. Every boat has two areas that have breakage points (BP); the Hull and the Mast. If the mast ever takes more damage than it has breakage points it has been destroyed and will be unable to move the boat until it is replaced. If the hull ever received damage in excess of its breakage points the point will begin to sink. Spells that repair items can be used to regenerate this damage. Bows, crossbows, and other piercing weapons will inflict no damage to the boat. Edged and blunt weapons can do injury to the vessel but subtract 5 from all damage dealt. Fire will deal full injury and can quickly consume a boat if it is not contained. The GM must determine effects of attacks that deal damage to specific areas of the vessel. Obvious targets are the sail, the keel, or the cargo.
Since boats and ships are so valuable very few pirates would choose to destroy such wealth. Instead a sail-by hail of arrows would deal less damage to the hull itself but prove devastating to any crew or soldiers aboard. After the first volley the attackers could grapple the ships together and proceed to slaughter any remaining defenders. With the inclusion of magic and enchantment, the lack of gunpowder or cannons aboard would be nominal at best. What could be better than a highly precise series of fire darts that would hit whichever targets you choose.
Cog, Small
10th – 15th Century
Hull BP: 500
Mast BP: 200
Crew: 8 – 30
Officers: 2 – 5
Speed (knots / mph / fpr / mi. per watch)
L. Breeze: 2.0 / 2.30 / 20 / 9.2
G. Breeze: 3.9 / 4.49 / 40 / 18.0
G. Wind: 5.5 / 6.33 / 55 / 25.3
S. Wind: 7.0 / 8.06 / 70 / 32.2
Cargo: 30 – 70 Tons
Cog, Large
12th – 15th Century
Hull BP: 750
Mast BP: 250
Crew: 35 – 75
Officers: 5
Speed (knots / mph / fpr / mi. per watch)
L. Breeze: 1.8 / 2.07 / 20 / 8.3
G. Breeze: 3.6 / 4.15 / 35 / 16.6
G. Wind: 5.0 / 5.75 / 50 / 23.0
S. Wind: 7.0 / 8.06 / 70 / 32.2
Cargo: 100 – 300 Tons
Cog, Great
13th – 15th Century
Hull BP: 1000
Mast BP: 300
Crew: 75 – 125
Officers: 5 – 10
Speed (knots / mph / fpr / mi. per watch)
L. Breeze: 1.5 / 1.73 / 15 / 6.9
G. Breeze: 3.0 / 3.45 / 30 / 13.8
G. Wind: 5.0 / 5.75 / 50 / 23.0
S. Wind: 7.0 / 8.06 / 70 / 32.2
Cargo: 225 – 1000 Tons
Caravel
13th – 16th Century
Hull BP: 500
Mast BP: 200 / 200 / 200
Crew: 12 – 25
Officers: 3 – 5
Speed (knots / mph / fpr / mi. per watch)
L. Breeze: 3.5 / 4.03 / 35 / 16.1
G. Breeze: 5.0 / 5.75 / 50 / 23.0
G. Wind: 7.5 / 8.64 / 75 / 34.5
S. Wind: 9.5 / 10.94 / 95 / 43.8
Cargo: 35 – 50 Tons
Carrack
15th – 16th Century
Hull BP: 750
Mast BP: 250
Crew: 60 – 125
Officers: 5 - 10
Speed (knots / mph / fpr / mi. per watch)
L. Breeze: 2.5 / 2.88 / 25 / 11.5
G. Breeze: 4.5 / 5.18 / 45 / 20.7
G. Wind: 7.5 / 8.64 / 75 / 34.5
S. Wind: 9.0 / 10.36 / 90 / 41.5
Cargo: 150 – 600 Tons
© 2000 J.K. Wykowski & T. Coonrod