Boat Building

[olejars]

My PC's have come into a large sum of money and are in the market in purchasing a boat. Here's the conumdrum, this is a landlocked nation with no need for a large navy and no boats to spare. What is a reasonable time frame to give my players in game for a boat to be crafted?

[Greenish]

What size of a boat, and does the nation have any lakes with large enough shipyards for such a boat? If the infrastructure is there, and they've money, it shouldn't take too long.

[olejars]

Lets say a Pinnacle or smaller. Needs to hold at least a 6 person party.

Spoiler for Campaign info

This groups was part of a raiding party from a northern island. Through a series of events they had to run south because their boats and remaining raiders were razed. In the meantime, they came across a crypt and they saw it fit to explore. In their exploring they found a large sum of platinum, several magic items, and a broken artifact that imparts visions when you touch it. They continued south to a large city that is under a monarchy to heal a party member that contracted the blight (Unapproachable East, using some stuff for flavor out of it). I guess in essence they have started war with a nation, they just don't know it yet.



I suppose the infrastucture is there, just not readily usable. Several weeks to a couple of months sound reasonable?

[Drachasor]

What level are they? What classes?

I'm a little confused on the situation, despite your explanation. It was a little vague on the geography.

If the nation is landlocked, then how is the boat going to be of any use? Do they intend to use the boat over the ocean?

[Fouredged Sword]

Obviously they need to build an airship.

I think there are priceings for ships.... Stormwrack maybe, or stronghold builders guide?

Then you take a craft DC for makeing it (likely 15 or so) and then use that to calculate how long it will take to craft with the workers takeing 10's to aid a mastercraftman also takeing 10.

It will take a while. You only get Check X DC silver pieces of work done per week!

[Yorrin]

I'd go with Fouredged Sword's method of using Crafting skills, but keep in mind that if you get a bunch of skilled craftsman working on the various component parts and such you could speed it up quite a bit. Parallel "processing" ftw.

[Hanuman]

Hi, Hanuman here.

I journeyed with french world sailors this year around island chains and I have a history of traditional boat building in my family so I might be of help.

Assuming hammocks, a counter, storage space for a few sails, anchor, rigging, supplies and food you would need a 20-24 footer that would fit in hammocks within a 6' ceiling on the inside.

All supplies are going to have to be secured on the inside as any time you are tacking you are going to be at about a 30 degree angle sideways, and the PC's would need at least one person with ranks in profession sailor to be able to know how to run a sailboat and navigate.

The deck won't be fit for large melee, a dex fighter may be able to navigate around the riggings but generally treat it as dense bamboo forest where there's several obstacles every few feet.

Completion of a vessel that size would require a very experienced builder and would take aprox. 1-3 years divided by the number of people involved in building it. Special building materials designed for boats are needed or else the finished design will be crude and will break down.

Boats are much more difficult than houses, nearly all of the pieces are curved, they all have to be extremely precise, the process of protecting and sealing all the parts is extremely time intensive and it cannot really be made easier.

To crunch it down, a determined party of four who were all competent builders might have it done in three months, where as if they paid a few hundred gold and enlisted a construction crew to build it then it might take a month.

My personal advice is to buy or craft a Lyr of Building (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/wondrousItems.htm#lyreofBuilding), in which case the boat would be done within an hour and wouldn't even need the second hour perform check. (100human*3day)*2halfhours = 600days manpower/hour, and theres your 2 years.

[olejars]

What level are they? What classes?

I'm a little confused on the situation, despite your explanation. It was a little vague on the geography.

If the nation is landlocked, then how is the boat going to be of any use? Do they intend to use the boat over the ocean?

The party originally came from a northern island about two weeks travel with the ocean current. The raid went very bad and they decided a "tactical regrouping" was in order. The group went south further into the nation until they came across the capitol city right in the middle of the nation. This nation, Yorick shares the continent with another nation whom they are at war with. So they have ocean on three sides, but the majority of their fighting is on land. The party is trying to get back home to the northern island.

[Hanuman]

The party originally came from a northern island about two weeks travel with the ocean current. The raid went very bad and they decided a "tactical regrouping" was in order. The group went south further into the nation until they came across the capitol city right in the middle of the nation. This nation, Yorick shares the continent with another nation whom they are at war with. So they have ocean on three sides, but the majority of their fighting is on land. The party is trying to get back home to the northern island.
Have they considered taking small watercraft, gathering supplies by day and traveling 1/2km offshore by night? Kayaks or similar vessels might be available to them already and if not it would take a fraction of the time and may pose a more difficult target to intercept.

[Drachasor]

Does the party have access to Wood Shape?

[Cieyrin]

Hi, Hanuman here.

I journeyed with french world sailors this year around island chains and I have a history of traditional boat building in my family so I might be of help.

Assuming hammocks, a counter, storage space for a few sails, anchor, rigging, supplies and food you would need a 20-24 footer that would fit in hammocks within a 6' ceiling on the inside.

All supplies are going to have to be secured on the inside as any time you are tacking you are going to be at about a 30 degree angle sideways, and the PC's would need at least one person with ranks in profession sailor to be able to know how to run a sailboat and navigate.

The deck won't be fit for large melee, a dex fighter may be able to navigate around the riggings but generally treat it as dense bamboo forest where there's several obstacles every few feet.

Completion of a vessel that size would require a very experienced builder and would take aprox. 1-3 years divided by the number of people involved in building it. Special building materials designed for boats are needed or else the finished design will be crude and will break down.

Boats are much more difficult than houses, nearly all of the pieces are curved, they all have to be extremely precise, the process of protecting and sealing all the parts is extremely time intensive and it cannot really be made easier.

To crunch it down, a determined party of four who were all competent builders might have it done in three months, where as if they paid a few hundred gold and enlisted a construction crew to build it then it might take a month.

My personal advice is to buy or craft a Lyr of Building (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/wondrousItems.htm#lyreofBuilding), in which case the boat would be done within an hour and wouldn't even need the second hour perform check. (100human*3day)*2halfhours = 600days manpower/hour, and theres your 2 years.

Stormwrack has rules for how it goes, though I do agree on using a Lyre to speed up the process if one is available. They make use of Knowledge(Architecture and Engineering) for any sizable boat, which is where the 'experience shipwright' part comes into it, which it sounds like the ship will be big enough to warrant it. I believe the time frames mentioned were in months, though highly skilled craftspeople could make it go faster via the hurried crafting rules of raising the DC so more work is done.

[Hanuman]

Stormwrack has rules for how it goes, though I do agree on using a Lyre to speed up the process if one is available. They make use of Knowledge(Architecture and Engineering) for any sizable boat, which is where the 'experience shipwright' part comes into it, which it sounds like the ship will be big enough to warrant it. I believe the time frames mentioned were in months, though highly skilled craftspeople could make it go faster via the hurried crafting rules of raising the DC so more work is done.
I believe the rules in Storm were mainly for contracting a slavedriver, I'm posting a timeframe for a party-- I mean I'm sure you could do it in that time frame if your life depended on it, but you wouldn't if that wasn't the case IRL.