Re: Leroy's 3E Ship Construction System

Thanks for the response Leroy.  I've read through the ship combat section (at
least once fully) so I've got some more questions/comments for you.

First off as to the rams.  I rummaged through my bookshelf to find my copy of
Lost Ships and checked out both the rams there (cone and claw).
[As an aside I find the detriments listed for the cone ram to be totally
ridiculous.  I mean the biggest detriment is debris flying at the crew.  Simply
place a sturdy door at the cone's entrance.  After the ram attack, open the
door.  No more debris.  I would change the detriment to be the overall
structural stability of the ram itself.]
Anyway, the claw is not quite what I had in mind, but I may be able to use
something from it.  It seems to me that there are two types of rams.  A
"charging" ram (the peircing, and blunt rams - this kind of attack might be
analagous to a bull rush in personal combat), and the "grappling" rams.
Charging rams require a charge of some distance in order to be effective, while
(if I read your rules right) the grappling rams could be initiated at any time
two ships are adjacent.  From my reading of the claw ram it would appear to fit
in the grappling category, but what I really want (and I guess what I will
design) is something that grapples, but fits into the charging category.

Now for the questions:

1) I saw the pricing for "free turrets" in the Ship Combat section, but I can
not find the pricing for a normal turret.  Also does adding a free or normal
turret increase the tonnage usage of a ship?  Is there a tonnage difference
between a turret mounted externally and one mounted internally?  This is the
information I want to know about when designing a ship (so perhaps include it
in Ship Construction).  What I want to know about during combat is how does
having a turret affect weapon usage?  Compare standard weapons, to turreted
weapons, to free turreted weapons.

2) You have a formula for determining internal space of a ship based on the
tonnage.  Do you also have a formula for determing the square footage of a deck
based on tonnage.  It seems only logical that this would be needed since we are
placing a set amount of weapons on the decks, but perhaps this makes things a
bit too complicated.

3) If you have a ship that spans multiple hexes, do you end up having multiple
weapon firing arcs?  This relates somewhat to my question #2 in that if you do
have multiple firing arcs, it becomes important to know where you placed
weapons on deck.

4) Speed.  I've seen the table, but I'm still a little foggy regarding a few
particulars.  Are ship speeds limited by some of the ship stats, and if so,
what are the limiting factors?  - OR - is ship seed limited by some other rules
(helm rules for example)?

5) In the Ship Combat document you provide several examples of rigging crews.
It would also be nice to have some examples of typical weapon crews.

6) Another question regarding rams/grappled ships.  Say I have a 30 ton ship
and a 70 ton ship, and somehow they become grappled together (either through a
ramming attempt, or boarding attempt, or some other means).  Both vessels have
helms that can move up to 100 tons.  How is movement determined?

Ok, that's all for now.  I really do like the system.  Also can't wait to see
what you do with the 3e Helm system you are developing.  Is there a chance we
could get a sneak preview?

-John

=====
Rule #85.
I will not use any plan in which the final step is horribly complicated, e.g. "Align
the 12 Stones of Power on the sacred altar then activate the medallion at the
moment of total eclipse." Instead it will be more along the lines of "Push the
button."

from "A Guide to Becoming an Evil Overlord" by Peter Anspach

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