Squirrel_Dude
2012-06-24, 11:11 PM
Background for those that careI'm creating a campaign setting for the Pathfinder game I will be running over the next school year. I'll actually be graduating in January, so I'll need to help the player who will be taking over by having detailed notes. I've got most of it down, except there's this one problem, ****ING SHIPS.
See, the concept for the campaign is two-fold.
A. You're on a boat
B. Fight monsters and explore islands while sailing on a boat
As you might guess, boats are going to play a large role in the game. I was initially going to use the ships presented in The Ultimate Combat Guide (http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/ultimateCombat/ultimateCombatVehicles.html), and then I looked at their statistics. Besides the fact that too many of them use oars, and just have too large of crews for the ship of that size, other problems abound.
An example would be that a Galley has a speed of 18 knots, or approximately the speed of a Mid 19th century Clipper ship. You know, those sailing ships that were famous for being so goddamn fast. Basically the speeds and statistics were so absurd it made it impossible to design ships based off of, you know, real ships, and put them into the Pathfinder universe.
So, I did the only logical thing I could do. I designed another 11 ships for my campaign setting. From the Brig to the Windjammer, they're all designed, except for one thing.
The Problem:
After creating 11 new ships for the campaign setting I'm playing(read the background if you want to know about it), I ran into one serious problem. I have NO idea how to calculate the amount of sails that these ships should be using.
Let me illustrate the problem. Using the "Warhips", found in the Ultimate Combat Book (http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/ultimateCombat/ultimateCombatVehicles.html), and the U.S. Brig Niagara.
The Warship
- takes up 80 squares of space (So probably 4 squares x 20 squares, it's about 100 feet long) and carries 10 guns on each side.
- It has a top speed of 150 ft, approximate 15 knots.
- It has 160 squares of sails ~ 4000 sq. ft. of sail area. on 1 mast
Sounds reasonable, right? Well...
The Brig Niagara
- It has a length of 110 feet, so about 22 squares, and carries 10 guns on each side.
- Brigs were reported with a top speed reaching up to 11 knots.
- It has about 12,300 sq. ft. of sail area. on 2 masts.
Let's just say there is a bit of a disconnect between reality and the Pathfinder ships.
I would use the square feet of the sails of the U.S. Niagara for my Brigs, except it would mean that my sails on Brig (a light ship) would be about 492 squares, so they would have 2460 health. That's more than double the health of the damn boat (It sits at 1200).
The Question: So then, does anyone have any suggestions for what I should do to calculate the area of sails on these ships? If not, do you have any suggestion as to how to work around the health problem without making the sails a target for every ballista and canon.
This is an especially frustrating problem because it's probably the last step to completing the ship plans. Everything else about them is finished.
See, the concept for the campaign is two-fold.
A. You're on a boat
B. Fight monsters and explore islands while sailing on a boat
As you might guess, boats are going to play a large role in the game. I was initially going to use the ships presented in The Ultimate Combat Guide (http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/ultimateCombat/ultimateCombatVehicles.html), and then I looked at their statistics. Besides the fact that too many of them use oars, and just have too large of crews for the ship of that size, other problems abound.
An example would be that a Galley has a speed of 18 knots, or approximately the speed of a Mid 19th century Clipper ship. You know, those sailing ships that were famous for being so goddamn fast. Basically the speeds and statistics were so absurd it made it impossible to design ships based off of, you know, real ships, and put them into the Pathfinder universe.
So, I did the only logical thing I could do. I designed another 11 ships for my campaign setting. From the Brig to the Windjammer, they're all designed, except for one thing.
The Problem:
After creating 11 new ships for the campaign setting I'm playing(read the background if you want to know about it), I ran into one serious problem. I have NO idea how to calculate the amount of sails that these ships should be using.
Let me illustrate the problem. Using the "Warhips", found in the Ultimate Combat Book (http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/ultimateCombat/ultimateCombatVehicles.html), and the U.S. Brig Niagara.
The Warship
- takes up 80 squares of space (So probably 4 squares x 20 squares, it's about 100 feet long) and carries 10 guns on each side.
- It has a top speed of 150 ft, approximate 15 knots.
- It has 160 squares of sails ~ 4000 sq. ft. of sail area. on 1 mast
Sounds reasonable, right? Well...
The Brig Niagara
- It has a length of 110 feet, so about 22 squares, and carries 10 guns on each side.
- Brigs were reported with a top speed reaching up to 11 knots.
- It has about 12,300 sq. ft. of sail area. on 2 masts.
Let's just say there is a bit of a disconnect between reality and the Pathfinder ships.
I would use the square feet of the sails of the U.S. Niagara for my Brigs, except it would mean that my sails on Brig (a light ship) would be about 492 squares, so they would have 2460 health. That's more than double the health of the damn boat (It sits at 1200).
The Question: So then, does anyone have any suggestions for what I should do to calculate the area of sails on these ships? If not, do you have any suggestion as to how to work around the health problem without making the sails a target for every ballista and canon.
This is an especially frustrating problem because it's probably the last step to completing the ship plans. Everything else about them is finished.