How would crew/NPCs and PCs act after months to 400ish days in a cramped ship?

[Pika...]

So, my players have decided to do the Spelljammer equivalent of traveling between galaxies in my cosmology, so they and their crew will be spending the next 400ish days in a crapped giant turtle with only like 8 rooms and a cargo bay.

Aboard there is a catfolk, were rats + rat familiars, Dogbolds (variants of Kobolds based on KAMB) + a Gnoll (and a Dire Pig pus two monstrous crabs in a aquarium, but eh...). :smalleek:

Also, there are cannibal Athas halflings, and Crucians (turtle men), but that is neither here nor there...


Anyway, what would so much time in isolation, cramped, and unable to go anywhere do to you?

[kharmakazy]

It's unclear how many bodies you have in that space, How big that space actually is, and whether or not their is any sort of food source.

[Rogue Shadows]

Bring a lot of books inside my portable hole.
Write a book.
Read written book
Write a sequel.
Read written sequel.
Become really good at sudoku.
Start pondering ways to make a permanent, magical version of Tetris.

[Grendus]

Learn rope trick, get a few bottomless pits (mic), maybe learn a few spells from 3rd party material (you know the book I'm talking), you'd get by. Not that bad in a high magic world, honestly.

[kharmakazy]

Sounds like there is plenty of room, honestly.

And since there are X number of people it's not really isolation.

Assuming there is no bad blood among passengers, and an adequate food supply, it's not much different than early naval expeditions. Astronauts spend more time than that in space in smaller spaces.

Casters can make a world of difference in this scenario. Illusion spells make for great shipboard entertainment. Boffo the wizard can read a book and have minor image act it out as he reads.

[Yukitsu]

Mine spent it all doing sit ups, reading and eating very nicely prepared meals, and drinking himself silly.

Then when he hit land he slept with anything approximately female with 2 legs and a chest.

[PollyOliver]

Really? This (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-bbbQDjkTY) hasn't been posted yet? For shame!

Anyway, it depends. A lot of people get sea sick, a lot get claustrophobic. I'd probably go stir-crazy once I ran out of stuff to read.

[Yora]

At 400 days? I'd say everyone is dead.

[Pika...]

It's unclear how many bodies you have in that space, How big that space actually is, and whether or not their is any sort of food source.

Sorry.

They got enough rations for the trip.

About 18 bodies.

The ship is has eight 10x10 rooms, a hallway, and a cargo deck/level.

[Temet Nosce]

I would expect that at the beginning they'd act relatively normal - separation, attempts to maintain public personalities, etc. However, as time goes on first they'll wear each other into the familiarity, and then a situation similar to how you'd act around someone you'd lived with. Each stage would correspond to a greater level of informality and a larger degree of unfiltered reaction.

In the long run however, not even families are trapped together in that kind of close quarters with no escape in most cases. They'd begin wearing heavily on each other, fights would break out, and tension would rise until/unless they managed to arrange things individually to deal with the pressures.

If there were breaks, or some way to escape from the situation temporarily more easily they'd certainly be ok, as is however there may very well be some serious problems before things smooth out or they arrive.

[Solaris]

At 400 days? I'd say everyone is dead.

Because they've never done ocean voyages like that before, right?

[Eldan]

They got enough rations for the trip.


Do you have the right rations?
I recommend plenty of Oil of Vitriol, to prevent Scurvy. Also, alcohol. Your men will get sick from drinking water.

[Pika...]

Do you have the right rations?
I recommend plenty of Oil of Vitriol, to prevent Scurvy. Also, alcohol. Your men will get sick from drinking water.

Good points!

Now, how do I treat scurvy in game? :smallbiggrin:

[gomipile]

I thought that oil of vitriol was one of the false cures to scurvy, which led to many deaths?

You'd be better off with lots of dried hot peppers and parsley, as they flavor food, and contain lots of vitamin C. If you have an especially astute herbalist on board, rose hips (the fruit of the rose plant) are an especially potent source of vitamin C.

[Eldan]

I thought that oil of vitriol was one of the false cures to scurvy, which led to many deaths?

You'd be better off with lots of dried hot peppers and parsley, as they flavor food, and contain lots of vitamin C. If you have an especially astute herbalist on board, rose hips (the fruit of the rose plant) are an especially potent source of vitamin C.

Nonsense!

Do you doubt the Surgeon General of the East Kara-Tur Company? Scurvy can't be healed by a few silly plants and spices.


Yes, Sulphuric Acid doesn't cure Scurvy. But this is D&D. If we have Phlogiston, the elemental planes and aether, I see no reason why 17th century medicine can't work along with science from the same period. Now please lie down here while we balance your humours. :smalltongue:

[Kaeso]

To give a serious awnser, perhaps you might want to read up on how the African slaves were transported to the Thirteen Colonies, Principality of Louisiana, New Spain, Brazil or any other portion of a large, colonial empire. As far as I know they were literally crammed on the ships, being stuck there until the Atlantic was crossed (I don't know how long crossing the Atlantic took in those days, but I'm pretty sure it'd take at least a few months). Of course crew members will have a significantly more 'pleasant' journey because they don't have to poop where they sleep, but it's a good starting point for you I guess.

Also, I'm not sure how it works with intergalactic travel in your Spelljammer campaign/universe but in the real world 16th century ships would almost never go straightly from one continent to the other. There's a reason why all those small, insiginificant islands in the ocean (St. Helen, Cape Verde, the Azores etc.) were considered to be of great importance to the Portuguese and other colonial empires: they gave the crews of large trade ships the oppertunity to get off board, strech their legs a bit and, most importantly restock their supplies.

[Eldan]

From what I know, the actual crossing didn't take all that long (still several weeks), but there was a lot of shipping up and down the coast until you found the right wind.

[Kaeso]

From what I know, the actual crossing didn't take all that long (still several weeks), but there was a lot of shipping up and down the coast until you found the right wind.

You're right! :smallsigh: Christopher Columbus' journey took 'merely' five weeks according to wikipedia. Sure, that's not exactly a short time but a lot shorter than I expected (barely over a month). Nevertheless I believe that my point about the small islands in the atlantic (and other oceans) still stands. Maybe there are some space-stations on large meteors or whatever where spacecrews can stock up on their space-supplies (and stretch their space-legs, get some space-grub and spend their space-booty on space-ale? :smallamused:), it'd prevent the crew from being stuck in a small spaceship for too long, maybe a week or so at a time?

[Acanous]

When my Illusionist got trapped in Undermountain, he started crafting traps of Programmed Image, with the trigger setting off one being something that occurred in another... He restocked XP and gold by killing monsters, and dissassembled traps he encountered for extra parts.

The trigger for one programmed image would be a visual or auditory event in another image. Certain events could set off multiple other traps, and sometimes one or more of those traps would still be resetting when the trigger happened.

Basically he built a magical computer out of illusion spells. 400 days to a high level wizard (Min Lv 11) could be 400 bits of information that you have to play with.

Magical traps can be small enough to hide inside a book, and Programmed Image doesn't HAVE to be bigger than a 5 foot cube. Also it can occupy the same space as another programmed image. Nothing stopping you from doing this in your quarters.

Seeing as you're on a spelljammer, I suppose you're high enough level to do this. You, the player, should do a little research on early computer programming. Don't go off learning binary, just have some interesting points to show your DM about it :3

Being that programmed Image comes with whatever interface you want it to have, and can appear as anything you can imagine, the coding for that doesn't need to be done, and you're left with raw binary data, that can in of itself look amusing.

Who knows, if you get enough free time, enough gold and XP, you could get up to a kilobyte.

[Eldan]

Or you build a holodeck.

[Acanous]

I do not see why these two ideas cannot be done simultaniously.

IRL, a lot of the data that goes into games are the graphics and audio, with the mechanical code being more simplistic. Maybe not 400 bits simplistic, but eh, you could definately get a choose your own adventure game out of it.

[kharmakazy]

Cast expeditious retreat on the turtle all day long. An extra (at least) 30 feet every 6 seconds could speed up a 400 day journey significantly.

400 days is 9600 hours is 576,000 minutes, 1,440 minutes a day...

Lets say a 10th level wizard... who would have a minimum of 32 spells a day...
Thats 320 minutes a day of expeditious retreat...

Thats... 19,200 seconds a day... 3200 extra feet moved per day.

edit: well I've actually used 0 level slots to cast level 1 spells by mistake... but whatever.

BUT Dimensional door gets 800 ft per casting (assuming you can ignore size due to space being weightless) at least 8 castings per day is an extra 6400 feat per day...

Or 3 times per day teleport for 3,000 miles... which is admittedly much more.

But a 13th level wizard (or a scroll) can get you across the void of space as a standard action.:smallcool:

[Jack_Simth]

Anyway, what would so much time in isolation, cramped, and unable to go anywhere do to you?
This is the wrong place to ask. Find a navy base, and ask one of the low-ranking sailors fresh in to port what it does to someone. Granted, they're generally only out to sea for a few months at a time, rather than years at a time, but it's expected to be the same thing to a different degree.

[Eldan]

Another problem I just thought of, at least without magic:

400 people. That's anywhere between 50 and 70 litres of water per day. Depending on what food you give them, you may perhaps halve that. 400 days? You are looking at 14400 liters. 14.4 Cubic metres. That's a small room.

[The Glyphstone]

Another problem I just thought of, at least without magic:

400 people. That's anywhere between 50 and 70 litres of water per day. Depending on what food you give them, you may perhaps halve that. 400 days? You are looking at 14400 liters. 14.4 Cubic metres. That's a small room.

It's only 18 people for 400 days, isn't it?

[Eldan]

Eh, yes. That's what I meant. The calculations are also for that.

400 people? Better have a second ship full of water.

[Cog]

Don't neglect the possibility of recycling (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/purifyFoodAndDrink.htm) your drinking water.

[kharmakazy]

Don't neglect the possibility of recycling (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/purifyFoodAndDrink.htm) your drinking water.

Was I the only one hoping that linked to a picture of Bear Grylls...

[Darcand]

In Iraq I spent months in a bigger space then that, with far more people to interact with. For the first few weeks we fought, setting our boundries. The next few months were good, keeping each other company. After a long while however, with nothing ever changing we ran out of things to talk about and games to play. Eventually it reaches a point where half a day will go by without anyone saying a word simply because there is nothing left to say.

It draws a good parallel because these were guys I was close to, had spent years living with, much like an adventuring party might be. It is also similiar in that, when action came, insult and injury were immediately put aside. I've seen guys risk thier lives for someone they were screaming at hours earlier.

Also, sub groups begin to form. An Us vs Them mentality is too tightly inbedded in our nature not to.

[kharmakazy]

Must... resist.. urge to sperg about sociology...

B.S. ... subsiding...:smallsigh:

Yeah, what Darcand describes is pretty much exactly tuckman's stages of group development, and how ingroup outgroup dynamics start.

[Eldan]

Don't neglect the possibility of recycling (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/purifyFoodAndDrink.htm) your drinking water.

That's why I said "without magic".

[Cog]

That's why I said "without magic".
Yes, and your point stands entirely on its own. I never said "you're wrong" or anything like that. When the relevant magic is a 0th level spell, though, it seemed worth a mention of its own.

There are nonmagical means of water recycling as well.

[kharmakazy]

What the heck does the space turtle eat?

[Cog]

Empty space. That way there's less space in the way, and it can get there faster.

[Yora]

Because they've never done ocean voyages like that before, right?

But 400 days without setting foot on land or encountering another ship?

[JaronK]

They sound foolish to me. Why didn't they purchase a portal before this extragalactic voyage? They could simply place one end in this turtle ship and the other back home. Then they'd have easy transport back and forth as needed, and only need a skeleton crew (perhaps literally, with Awaken Undead) to man things and run back for help if it was needed.

JaronK

[ffone]

The PCs should bring along a complex board game involving sheets, maps, dice, figurines, manuals, etc. This game engrosses them in roleplaying that they are not, in fact, stuck in a small high tech temperature controlled abode, but out strolling the untamed wilds, slaying dragons and spelunking into dank dungeons.

[Telonius]

Aboard there is a catfolk, were rats + rat familiars, Dogbolds (variants of Kobolds based on KAMB) + a Gnoll (and a Dire Pig pus two monstrous crabs in a aquarium, but eh...). :smalleek:

So in a cramped space, you have dogs, cats, and rats. By day 400, they'll have re-enacted most of the Tom & Jerry cartoons.

[kharmakazy]

The PCs should bring along a complex board game involving sheets, maps, dice, figurines, manuals, etc. This game engrosses them in roleplaying that they are not, in fact, stuck in a small high tech temperature controlled abode, but out strolling the untamed wilds, slaying dragons and spelunking into dank dungeons.

Is a giant space turtle really high tech? Not sure how it is temperature controlled either tbh.

[Yukitsu]

You're not supposed to really be asking any of these questions in spelljammer. It's supposed to be about as realistic as FLCL, which is to say, don't think about anything at all. You'll have more fun that way.