Ship battles, boarding, attacks from below, and so much more

Questions and discussion about AD&D rules, classes, races, monsters, magic, etc.
Post Reply
User avatar
AxeMental
Uber-Grognard
Posts: 15108
Joined: Mon Sep 12, 2005 7:38 am
Location: Florida

Ship battles, boarding, attacks from below, and so much more

Post by AxeMental »

Image


I've been contemplating a sea adventure (sort of a Golden Voyage of Sinbad meets Hurratio Horneblower). With multiple dungeons spread out on land, underwater etc. This will involve some needed rules related to boat on boat battles.

Curious what can be gleaned as BTB regarding combat related to sailing and oared vessels, and what rules DMs have come up with to make combat somewhat consistant as it relates to sea adventuring. Has anyone brought in outside sea battle rules from other games to 1E?

For instance, 1. what AC do you give a ships hull typically and why (lets say a medium sized merchant ship)?
2. when you assign HPs is that for each general area or spread out over the entire length?

3. How do you handle speed factors, balistas and catapults (what sort of damage would a boulder hitting the deck do exactly to the integrity of a ship? etc.

What sorts of things have you experimented with (greek fire, ramming etc.)
"I prefer dangerous freedom over peaceful slavery."
Thomas Jefferson in letter to Madison

Back in the days when a leopard could grab and break your Australopithecus (gracile or robust) nek and drag you into the tree as a snack, mankind has never had a break"
** Stone Giant

User avatar
BlackBat242
Grognard
Posts: 929
Joined: Mon Jul 09, 2007 12:41 am
Location: Prime Material

Re: Ship battles, boarding, attacks from below, and so much

Post by BlackBat242 »

Mostly I've just dealt with what is in Dragon #116 (Dec 1986), crews provided by Dragon #107 (Mar 1986).

I haven't worried about getting all Traveller-level gearhead detail-obssessed.
“A subtle thought that is in error may yet give rise to fruitful inquiry that can establish truths of great value.”
Isaac Asimov

User avatar
Wheggi
Sly Pimp
Posts: 7963
Joined: Mon Dec 05, 2005 10:39 pm
Location: Land of Cheese and Snow

Re: Ship battles, boarding, attacks from below, and so much

Post by Wheggi »

I'd love to have a copy of that movie poster.

- Wheggi
The Twisting Stair
An old school role-playing game periodical with a focus on adventure design

Stephen Colbert: “What would you do, when coming up with your character you roll six rolls of three six-sided dice to come up with your character”

Joe Magliano: “There’s a new way now where you roll 4d6 and you take away the lowest.”

Stephen Colbert: “Really? That’s for children!”

User avatar
sepulchre
Uber-Grognard
Posts: 1188
Joined: Fri Mar 02, 2007 3:15 pm
Location: Baltimore, Maryland

Re: Ship battles, boarding, attacks from below, and so much

Post by sepulchre »

Blackbat242 wrote:
Dragon 116
Blackbat is spot on, a brilliant article.
I think over again my small adventures. My fears, those small ones that seemed so big, for all the vital things I had to get and to reach, and yet, there is only one great thing, the only thing, to live to see the great day that dawns, and the light that fills the world. - Old Inuit Song

“Superstitions are religious forms surviving the loss of ideas. Some truth no longer known or a truth which has changed its aspect is the origin and explanation of all. The name from the Latin, superstes, signfies that which survives, they are the dead remnants of old knowledge or opinion” - Eliphas Levi (138 The History of Magic).

“Let no one wake a man brusquely for it is a matter difficult of cure if the soul find not its way back to him”, the Upanishads of ancient India ( 58 Our Oriental Heritage, Durant).

"Life is intrinsically, well, boring and dangerous at the same time. At any given moment the floor may open up. Of course, it almost never does; that's what makes it so boring" – Edward Gorey.

"The bright day is done and we are for the dark" - Shakespeare

"No lamp burns till morning" - Persian proverb.

“The living close the eyes of the dead, but it is the dead that open the eyes of the living”— Old Slavic saying.

'The best place to hide a light is in the sun' – old Arab proverb.

'To thee, thou wedding-guest!
He prayeth well who loveth well
Both man and bird and beast.
He prayeth best who loveth best,
All things both great and small:
For the dear God, who loveth us,
He made and loveth all' - Samuel Taylor Coleridge (VII Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner).

vikingv
Member
Posts: 56
Joined: Wed Sep 01, 2010 1:12 pm

Re: Ship battles, boarding, attacks from below, and so much

Post by vikingv »

This link may be of some value

http://backtothekeep.blogspot.com/

User avatar
AxeMental
Uber-Grognard
Posts: 15108
Joined: Mon Sep 12, 2005 7:38 am
Location: Florida

Re: Ship battles, boarding, attacks from below, and so much

Post by AxeMental »

Wheggi wrote:I'd love to have a copy of that movie poster.

- Wheggi
No kidding. I'd never seen it before.
"I prefer dangerous freedom over peaceful slavery."
Thomas Jefferson in letter to Madison

Back in the days when a leopard could grab and break your Australopithecus (gracile or robust) nek and drag you into the tree as a snack, mankind has never had a break"
** Stone Giant

User avatar
rredmond
Uber-Grognard
Posts: 3525
Joined: Fri Dec 19, 2008 4:03 pm
Location: Southern New Jersey

Re: Ship battles, boarding, attacks from below, and so much

Post by rredmond »

vikingv wrote:This link may be of some value

http://backtothekeep.blogspot.com/
I don't see a ships battling post or info. Is it buried somewhere in that blog? Thanks!
Kramer OSRIC Benefit Fanzine
Welleran is the 80s!
AxeMental wrote:I don't have my books in front of me...

User avatar
Kellri
Uber-Grognard
Posts: 5512
Joined: Sun Sep 11, 2005 10:05 pm
Location: HCMC, Vietnam
Contact:

Re: Ship battles, boarding, attacks from below, and so much

Post by Kellri »

The Thieves Guild rpg has a good hardcore old-school system which inspired the ship record sheet in CDD4. I also quite like the GDW Manowar mechanic where rolling dice into the box top doubles as a hit location chart.
KELLRI
All Killer No Filler

Wrestling bears is not easy. It's almost impossible to get them to sell for you. - Superstar Billy Graham

Post Reply