Re: SJ Ship Construction

This is more a general reply to the Art thread (which
has wandered into construction ;).

Deck Height: I say just go with 10' for standard
ships; for large races (bigger than 9' tall), go with
15' or 20'.  This makes math easier, and, as Dave
pointed out, if the ship crashes on its side, it makes
designing a battlemap/deckplan/map all that much
easier.  


Tradesman: Steve, IIRC, there really isn't anything
"wrong" with your tradesman; indeed, one thing I
touched upon in Hackjammer was that ships DON'T come
in standard, manufactured sizes; the deckplans may be
similar, but there's always some fault-tolerance built
in (two ships of the same class may vary by several
feet in length & width).  Personally, I see tradesmen
varying from as small as 20 tons or so to 50 tons or
more, all with reasonably similiar deckplans &
external appearance.  So yours would just be a really
big tradesman :)


Tonnage: If I were a shipbuilder, I sure the heck
would NOT build a ship right at the 50-ton mark.  The
reason being that if a mistake in calculations were
made, I could very well end up with a ship slightly
too big, therefore utterly useless to my client (who
only owns a Minor Helm).  I'm out the 50k gp to build
it.  Designing a ship to be say 5 tons undersized is
actually a good practice, as it gives the builder a
little wiggleroom for mistakes.  

Also, by not going full-sized, it leaves open the
option of towing ships.  Something not seen yet, but
could very well work, is hooking up one 25-tradesman
with a minor helm, then tow a helmless tradesman
behind that one, doubling cargo, crew, and weapons. 
If necessary, a captain could cut loose one tradesman
if faced with pirates, and escape.  A hammership with
a major helm leaves plenty of wiggle room to tow most
smaller ships behind it, maybe even two ships (two eel
ships, for example, or a tradesman and a dragonfly).  


Anyways, just some thoughts :)

Adam

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