Draw Sails: Ship To Ship Combat

[static pier]

Hey gang! I threw together some ship to ship mechanics for a nautical campaign im running in Draw Steel soon. My goals for these mechanics were to make it as close to regular combat as possible, just with all the heroes playing different parts of one whole, like the megazord or a pacific rim jager.

I plan to add rules for building your own ships and the like. The mechanics of which are sort of shown across the example hero ships. It has yet to be playtested so I'll keep this post updated with the later versions of it, I would appreciate any thoughts or ideas to expand it!

[old comet]

Im about to start a voyage across the ocean so I’ll be taking a peak at these!

Half way through reading and this is SO COOL

I’d love to see a solo, though I guess I could use the monster book rules to turn the leader into a solo

[static pier]

Thank you! And yes I think a man o war could easily be a solo

I was heavily inspired by assassins creed black flag and there are many solo fight ships

[static pier]

Current checklist of chapters to add in the later versions:

1. Non-ship monsters (krakens, dragon turtles, giant crabs)

2. Space/airship variant rules

3. Building/upgrading your own ship

4. Multiples levels of officer stations (multiclassing stations?)

5. Traps, obstacles, and weather

[old comet]

Non ship monsters would be epic

[hexed gale]

This looks pretty good. Reminds me of the aetherial expanse rules.

[static pier]

thanks! aetherial expanse was one of my inspirations! a little of pirate borg as well- okay a lot of pirate borg but anyway

1st echelon kraken solo monster with malice features!

[old comet]

Do you imagine the targets of these abilities being the heroes, their ship, or both?

[static pier]

targets was my way of condensing "one creature or object" or "one creature or ship" because, ships are objects

this boss is meant to be fought with the ship though!

i imagine with some modifications you could fight it on land or in a melee combat, but i think the idea of the party's ship firing weapons and cannons off as they fight a kraken in the middle of a storm is a cooler visual than the heroes jumping off the ship to wail on this thing

[static pier]

Maybe once the kraken is winded the party can attempt a boarding action though? Using the ships grappling hooks to pin it to the deck to fight it on their terms 🤔

[old comet]

I was picturing like the kraken grabbing sailors and throwing them overboard etc

So a “boarding actions” like idea could be really cool

Like the kraken grabs the boat and wraps its tentacles around it and you have to fight it Mano a mano

I’m going to use this subsystem in a few sessions time and report back!

[static pier]

Awesome, can’t wait to hear how it goes!

[solemn moss]

@static pier Are there officer stations that must be filled for the sub system to work if you only have a few heroes? Also am I understanding correctly that the helmsman is in charge of movement no matter which heroes turn it is?

[static pier]

Typically you’d need at least a Captain and a Helmsman, Helmsman at the bare minimum to actually get the ship to move

And yes, the helmsman decides when the ship moves and turns, and can do so on any players turn, but still only up to the ships max speed per round. It’s to make sure the players coordinate and plan their moves since they’re all (literally) in the same boat rather than independently fighting like in normal combat

To follow up on having a small amount of players, if you have less than 4, im not sure the system will work

At least in its current form, I might be able to add some rules for that in a later version, I’d maybe look into letting players “multi class” officer roles and grab an ability or two from a different one

[drowsy notch]

I am a little confused on how taking turns works. Does the entire party get to take a main action, maneuver, etc or does the ship only get one each round?

[static pier]

It plays like normal combat! Each hero gets their own turn where they tell the ship what to do

The only limit is that the ship can’t move more than its speed allows in a single round, but the helmsman can split that speed up from turn to turn to help certain actions

[drowsy notch]

Ohhh okay I gotcha

[static pier]

Forgot to post this here as I’ve been tweaking it here and there, but this doc has some math balance updates, but nothing new other than that

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dEwH_GiKQzLfLdj5lvzsol20Tiqcq5mi8UYTnmYzZ8M/edit?usp=drivesdk