Re: (TFT) Pirates! ships

["Jay Carlisle" <Jay_Carlisle@charter.net>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Joey Beutel"

Hi Mr. B!

Right off the bat, a wood bat of course, let me say thanks for the 
compliment.

> However, I think for this campaign most of this information won't be
> entirely necessary (specifically, the types of wood... I might have a
> coupla different 'levels,'  but nothing too complex... same with
> gunpowder). The focus of a pirate game is really on the swashbuckling,
> the adventure, and the hilarious/awesome characters. That, and naval
> tactics. And the strategy behind surviving in the tough environment of
> political intrigue and such.

I here you on this.
A lot of what I try to do is toward a "universal" type of ruleset.
I'm trying to do some things like town building, legislating, business, and 
other stuff that doesn't involve violence as directly.
I call this a larger scale "frame" than something like a traditional D&D 
"module".
Larger doesn't imply better.
The style is simply diferent.

> But the point is; the specifics of each ship aren't actually that
> important to the game. Different ship types are in there, but its best
> to fudge it and just have most cannons act the same (the number of
> cannons is what matters!) and have most ships to be assumed to have
> more or less similar wood.

uhhh...

...

I guess this is gonna depend a lot on your players.

...

In my experience, if you hand a player a Figure with a bunch of pull in a 
power structure then they'll quickly use that pull in unexpected ways.
...
Hand a player a ship of the line type resource and the cannons might never 
come into play.
"Okay, everybody hides and waits for them to tie up along side before we 
attack."
My bloody 'combat results table' averaging the guns effect into a combat 
factor starts looking a lot like the twenty seven eight-by-ten colour glossy 
photographs with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one 
explaining what each one was to be used as evidence against my concept of 
role-playing games...
But I digress...
This is probably just my problem, but I understand that the VAST majority of 
my players are likely to be more knowledgable than myself on at least some 
things.
Wasn't that record book distributed to pubs to help difute the Clif Clavens 
of the bar argument world?
I figure that my best defence against an expert player is to tie the rules 
to real-world data amap and define my fantasy stuff against that framework.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that I try to create a set of conditions 
and put players into that model to see how they affect it.
IMO the other side of this approach is to have a story driven "adventure".
There's nothing wrong with this approach but I think the work required to 
produce each instance or "module" or whathaveyou is a whole lot greater for 
a story approach because the players Actions have to be constrained enough 
to reach the conclusion w/o feeling forced on the player over the course of 
play.

I'z most concerned about "the specifics of each ship aren't actually that 
important to the game".
I guess that's true depending on how your concept works.
> From what "I" know of the 'age' there were only a handfull of "ships" built 
each generation, and many didn't make it very long.
As a result, each ship had her own characteristics that were modified in 
following designs and different nations had features unique to their needs 
like the Dutch using hulls that could get into shallower waters than many 
europeian nations, or the French saddeling their boats with a bunch of 
decoration... although they did have the great artistic and fashion culture 
of the day...
Even the "Pearl" for the Depp movies was known for her abilities in a Disney 
joint.
No stickler for accuracy that movie franchise.
Theres only 22 aircraft carriers operating today and half of those are run 
by the u.s. with the rest being run by eight other nations.
Considering there are 7 major ocean areas (5 of them high trafic) I'd think 
that the north atlantic would normally only have a handfull of carriers in 
the region at any one time.
But those are BIG ships... little boats would be too much detail.
(Bad Jay! setting up straw men like that...)
On the 25th of May, 1940 the British War Department made the decission to 
attempt evacuation of the BEF and operations began on the 27th.
Durring preperations 861 boats were found that could make the crossing, 
pretty much anything sea worthy within a day or so's range of Dover.
I'm trying to think of what I can't do with TFT magic that could have been 
done in 1940 England that wouldn't have been possable in the caribbean of 
the 1600's...
The Luftwaffe can be covered somewhat with Flying, Magic Carpets, Gargoyles, 
etc.
There's plenty of communication spells and widgets that are faster than 
travel.
It looks like the best limit is still gonna be the population.
Britian had over 45,000,000 people in 1940 which is a potential 150,000 
wizards just for the english.
Wikipedia says something about the "pure" Spanish in the caribbean region 
not exceeding 250,000 people.
The native population is harder to find although I did run across this 
disturbing ref. "Hispaniola's indigenous population, approximately 100,000 
in 1493, would be down to around 300 by 1570."
Which is gonna make hacienda runners have to import their labour...
blah...
fun subject matter to riff on... sorry.

I have a card game thing that has a really simple movement/combat system.

In a rough aproximation a ship has masts that represent damage and each mast 
has a corresponding gun.

A ship may take an advantage, like "reinforced hull" for a disadvantage, 
like "reduced movement".

Each mast that has a clear 'Line of Sight' may fire if it is within range.

Each gun has a Rank and a Range.

Rank is the number or higher needed on a die 6 to "Hit".
Each Hit removes one mast of the target ships choice.
A ship with no masts is derelict and a derelict that takes an additional Hit 
sinks.

Ranges are Short (white) and Long (red).

The way I do it currently the Ranges are;
Short smooth bore 3"
Short rifled 6"
Long smooth bore 5"
Long rifled 10"

In the card thing, all range and movement was tied to the sides of the cards 
themselves useing combonations of the short side of the card and the long 
side of the card so I do it this way and haven't tried any historical or 
real-world adjustments.
I simulate the cards as 3" by 5" boxes on quarter inch graph paper.
I limit ship construction to what can be laid out on 2 3x5 "cards" with 
different sized components requiring x-many squares of "silloute".

I allow 5" of movement per 1 Tall Mast and 3" of movement per Short Mast.

Movement is on tabletop and is measured from the point of the bow.
Modifing rules for prevailing winds, weather, oars, etc. can be added on a 
secenario to secenario basis.

Ships can pick up specialized crews like expert gunners that give them a 
bonus.

Terain and features can be laid out by assignment for secenarios that the GM 
doesn't have pre mapped, like a random encounter where each player lays out 
2 features.

It's not much but it's simple to tweak, and can play out some of the sit and 
watch stuff that goes on before the boarding stuff kicks in, quickly and 
visually.

Now sending in the dragons to breath on all that tared rope and canvas?
=====
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