Questions re: Ship to ship combat in Pirate Isles

[MightyCthulhu]

First off, let me say that I have not finished reading the Pirate Isles book. I skipped ahead to the ship-to-ship combat chapter since that is what I am most interested in. There are a few things that are confusing me about ship to ship combat in general and narrative combat in particular.

First question: How do Pirates board? Assuming a "regular Pirate" is 1st-3rd level and has a moderate Strength (say 12 or 13) I do not think this guy will qualify to board the prey ship. I'm considering ruling this a long action (taking 1d6 rounds) which provokes AoO, but I'm not sure I have not missed something.

Second Question: How does the "ship alignment" affect combat? It seams like you could align between 25-100% of the attackers ship to the prey ship, but I do not see where this affects the combat. I would rule that for every 5 ft of alignment 1 crew can attempt to board per combat round, but again I'm afraid I've missed something, and this does not seem right in respect to "Narrative Combat."

Third Question: Crew size does not seem to effect combat at all. Neither in terms of % casualties inflicted or suffered. Is this right?

 

[skalvar]

First off, let me say that I have not finished reading the Pirate Isles book. I skipped ahead to the ship-to-ship combat chapter since that is what I am most interested in. There are a few things that are confusing me about ship to ship combat in general and narrative combat in particular.

First question: How do Pirates board? Assuming a "regular Pirate" is 1st-3rd level and has a moderate Strength (say 12 or 13) I do not think this guy will qualify to board the prey ship. I'm considering ruling this a long action (taking 1d6 rounds) which provokes AoO, but I'm not sure I have not missed something.

Second Question: How does the "ship alignment" affect combat? It seams like you could align between 25-100% of the attackers ship to the prey ship, but I do not see where this affects the combat. I would rule that for every 5 ft of alignment 1 crew can attempt to board per combat round, but again I'm afraid I've missed something, and this does not seem right in respect to "Narrative Combat."

Third Question: Crew size does not seem to effect combat at all. Neither in terms of % casualties inflicted or suffered. Is this right?

Well, it's been a while since Pirate Isles left my desk. Yet if'n I recall correctly:

1) Low level pirates do not get to use narrative actions to board the ship. If you have low-level PCs trying it let them plunge to their deaths. Non-player characters without names (anyone less important than the crew captain or a target on the ship) gets to die a bloody death in the background.

2) Ship alignment has to do with facing in the OMCS. In one iteration of the book we had gridded out ship deck plans. Each 'token' takes up a single space. Tokens are, if'n I recall, 5 crew members? Yes, they are packed in there. Artefact of OMCS.

3) Crew size caps the damage you can do. So if you have a crew of 12 and inflict 20% damage to a crew of 120 (24 theoritical casualties) you can only inflict 12.

Shannon
Mongoose
Current Status: Pondering.

 

[MightyCthulhu]

Well, it's been a while since Pirate Isles left my desk. Yet if'n I recall correctly:

Thanks for your quick reply Shannon and for all the work on the book. I'm really enjoying it!

1) Low level pirates do not get to use narrative actions to board the ship. If you have low-level PCs trying it let them plunge to their deaths. Non-player characters without names (anyone less important than the crew captain or a target on the ship) gets to die a bloody death in the background.

If they can't use narrative actions to board, how do they board? If they can not board, I don't see how they can inflict or suffer loses in combat.

Do you just assume that as soon as the attacker declares the boarding action, the scene background is full of pirates leaping/swinging and or climbing onto the other deck? In effect they get across "for free" ?

2) Ship alignment has to do with facing in the OMCS. In one iteration of the book we had gridded out ship deck plans. Each 'token' takes up a single space. Tokens are, if'n I recall, 5 crew members? Yes, they are packed in there. Artefact of OMCS.

So in other words, there is no effect?
By the way what is the OMCS?

3) Crew size caps the damage you can do. So if you have a crew of 12 and inflict 20% damage to a crew of 120 (24 theoritical casualties) you can only inflict 12.

So if 20 crew are attacking 10 crew, neither side has an advantage right? A crew has to outnumber the enemy 5:1 to see a benefit. But the benefit is in fewer losses, not in the die roll to determine which side wins the round. Correct?

Also, do you assume that all crew join the fray or do you assume that the "minimum crew" stay at their posts?

 

[skalvar]

Thanks for the compliment. I know the narrative system will throw folks for a loop now and then.

RE: Crew Boardings
In the narrative system they start across for 'free', though some boarding casualties are assumed in the damage numbers, as soon you slip from closing rounds to combat/narrative rounds.

In the OMCS they have to 'surge' into the opponent's squares. That's where the skill checks listed in the Boarding Maneouvers come in.

The 'key' to understanding the narrative system is this: it really doesn't matter what the faceless masses do other than fall. You do not even find out if they died or not until resolution. They are there for colour and for your characters to save using narrative maneouvers if they want to. Or not. Their call.

RE: Facing
No effect (other than on the description of the bloodbath) unless you use the OMCS (Open Mass Combat System, avaiable for download over in the Conan section of the website).

When using the OMCS the number of facing squares becomes important, because that's the maximum number of tokens that touch...limiting attack rolls and damage.

RE: Crews
About that, yes. I wanted to give pirates a good reason for their historical tendency to overstaff at a 5:1 ratio. Nice catch.

For simplicity's sake all of the crew join the fray. You could (and probably should) write your own maneouvers allowing a named character to rally his crew and break free of a boarding, thereby returning to closing rounds. I did not include such maneuvers simply because I thought the system almost too radical as it stood. More complexity would not serve the reader.

The opportunity for additional complexity exists and I urge those who want to really get down and dirty with it to have fun.

Shannon
Mongoose
Current Status: Two hours of screaming down. Now, back to writing.

 

[skalvar]

RE: Benefit
Sounds right. Shipboard fights are intended to be bloody, brutal, short affairs.

Shannon

 

[MightyCthulhu]

This is just awesome stuff. I'd really like Narrative combat!

Yeah, rallying the crew to "cut free" of a boarding action or repel the invaders sounds like a great idea!

I'm not really that familiarly with pirates or naval combat, so I'm not sure how I would narrate a boarding action. I assume the attackers throw grappling lines, use some winches to pull the ships together and then leap or climb across.

I'd like to use it for land based skirmishes also. Is there anything in the design that would preclude that?

 

[skalvar]

RE: Boarding
You have the general gist of it, though ships at this tech level like to ram as well. A greek trireme 'boarded' by broadsiding the other ship at 7 to 10 mph. Use the Boarding Maneouvers chart for inspiration.

RE: Land-based battles
No reason not to and plenty of reasons to. Let me see if I can make a case for you about something I'm not allowed to talk about publically.

To give you an idea of what this sparked for me, let me ask you the same question I asked myself:

Does it have to stop at sea and land based combat?

Shannon
Mongoose
Current Status: Preparing for the day