Re: Waterjammers

>From: Ariel Sibal <asibal_2000@?????.com>
>
>I was thinking about all the response to my post and I
>thank all of you that responded.
>
>The waterjammers question was answered as follow:
>
>1) Water adds to the total ship tonnage, water
>pressure, weird gravity plane.
>
>2) Water does not add to ship tonnage, no water
>pressure, regular gravity plane.
>
>3) Airy Water type water envelope.
>
>I think more hammering and finding a medium between
>the three would put us in the black. Thank goodness
>you are all here to help. =)

My answer would be that the tonnage is unaffected because the ship still has
the same volume regardless of its atmosphere's composition.  Since the water
is much more massive, the ship and its envelope of water would have a lot
more inertia which would decrease its maneuverability.  I would say that
waterjammers would have to use either a special waterjamming helm or a
standard helm with an added magic item which allowed the envelope to hold
water instead of air.  I imagine something like a large magical pearl which
is mounted on the top of the throneback of the helm and alters the envelope
of the ship.  Water should stick to the ship the same way that air does.
You don't need a fancy scientific explanation for it.  This is fantasy,
after all.  There's no real explanation for why the air sticks to the ship.
It is enough to know that it does.

>Someone here did pointed to a major problem,
>waterjammers in my campaign can't use siege weapons.

Divers in the real world use spearguns to great effect.  A speargun is
basically just a crossbow that uses stretchy cord (like surgical tubing)
instead of a flexible bow and a rigid string.  Underwater races could devise
siege engine sized versions using ligaments from large undersea creatures or
similar stretchy materials from their domain.  Underwater races might also
be much more proficient with the construction and use of rams than
terrestrial races:  just think of the combat tactics of dolphins
(bludgeoning rams), narwhales and swordfish (piercing rams), and sharks
(boarding rams that clasp firmly on other ships like a giant mancatcher).
Plus, the use of graceful fin-like shearing rams would make their ships
looking more like sleek aquatic creatures and less cumbersome.

The water envelope would also provide the waterjamming ship with a cushion
against the attacks of other ships, especially bludgeoning attacks.  Have
you ever smacked your hand against water or done a "belly flop" into a pool?
  Water is much more viscous than air and being aerodynamic is much more
important when moving through water.  You have a couple of options for
representing this resistance in the game.  First, and simplest, is to say
that the water envelope provides the ship with an automatic damage reduction
rating against bludgeoning attacks or reduce the damage of such attacks by
half.  The second and slightly more complicated method is to treat each yard
of water as many more yards of air for the purposes of range penalties for
weapons that try to strike the ship from the outside (to represent how much
momentum the projectile loses from the water's drag).  Maybe 10 yards of
range for each yard of water for piercing attacks (i.e. ballistae) and 30 to
50 yards for blunt attacks (i.e. catapults).

The limitations of siege weaponry might also lead such underwater races to
develop specialized spells for attacking other ships through their water
envelope.  Battling air breathers would give aquatic mages a perfect reason
to learn fireball and similar spells which are useless in their native
environment.  Plus, they might develop an equivalent of the "free action"
spell for use on siege equipment to allow them to use weapons like catapults
without suffering from drag.

>Back to the drawing board...
>
>A.Sibal

Go for it, and good luck.

>PS I just came from the movies and one of movie
>trailer for the summer includes "The League Of
>Extraordinary Gentlemen". I think it was set in the
>Victorian era with fantastic monsters, cool ships and
>cool actions. When I saw it, spelljammer pop into my
>mind. I did a quick search and found it was a comic
>book story before the movie. Something to keep an eye
>on in the summer time.

The League of Extraordinary Gentleman was originally a comic book.  It is,
in fact, set in Victorian times.  It features the exploits of such Victorian
"superheroes" as Captain Nemo, the Invisible Man, Dr. Jekyll (the original
Bruce Banner), and Mina Harker (the wife of Jonathan Harker from "Dracula").
  It's kind of a Justice League for Victorian times.  The comic was quite
cool and I'm really looking forward to seeing the movie, especially with
Sean Connery as Captain Nemo.

Keep sailing,
Brian

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