Okay, so in "Book 2 - Travels" it gives detailed explanation for travelling by land, and then a few pages later it outlines many aspects of seafaring and the cost, size, and crew of boats but neglects to outline the speed of ships and how to govern the travel and distance in which it would take a boat to get from place to place in certain types or bodies of water.
I have a sailor/smuggler/pirate character that is starting out in the port city of Tulg-Naomh and it would be a great tie in to be able to traverse up to Gwidre with some illicit cargo from a job that goes awry.
MY RESEARCH
I have determined the following:
- Merchant is the best Profession I know of for a sailor.
- A sailor has 8Ed wages.
- They can use the Financial Ease advantage to buy a boat (backstory of how they acquired it or the funds to purchase it; i.e. gambling or a bet).
- Seafaring is a Discipline in the Travel domain.
- Orientation/navigation can fall under either Travel or Perception.
10% of ship cost per year to maintain
1-2Fd x ships masts x days of travel = cost to transport cargo
2Ad for regular passengers, 3Ad for private rooms
WHAT I'M TRYING TO DETERMINE
The question still arises:
- How does one determine distance from port to port with the maps provided?
- How much would a captain charge to transport differing types of cargo?
- How long would it take and what is the speed of the ship?
- Is a single mast Koggen slower than a Carrack?
I also don't like that it specifically mentions a Koggen can sometimes have 2 masts but provides no stats for it, so I allowed for the following.
Large Koggen (two-mast)
Price: 35Fd Crew: 15 Passengers: 10 + 1 private room (11) Freight: 6 tons
MY PROPOSITION:
I was thinking something like this for impeding travel on the ocean...
Type of Sea:
Calm = No penalty
Rough or Foggy = -2 to Travel rolls to stay on course, travel time halved
Stormy = -4 to Travel rolls to stay on course, travel time 1/3
I did some number crunching on knots and nautical miles, and my rough estimate is that a ship can usually travel around 50-100 miles in a day with good weather, depending on the type of ship.
So the speed of the ship could be broken down into...
Slow = 50 miles/day
Moderate = 75 miles/day
Fast = 100 miles/day
I'm basing these on medieval ships during the pre-sail era.
And for a rowboat, use slow pace plus an Endurance roll, possible Discipline in Rowing under Feats could help with this.
It would also be nice for the ships to have HP, using the equipment rules to govern ship maintenance as well. Reduce the miles per day of a ship by 20% if in poor condition. Perhaps use a ranking similar to the health condition track to increase this before it sinks. A critical failure when traversing bad sea condition damages the ship. Margin of failure can play into the damage.
IN CLOSING
Please correct me if I have overlooked something and I'd love some assistance with waterway distances in Tri-Kazel. These rules need fleshed out.
Thanks!
