Ships of Cerilia

[Whalejudge@aol.co]

Dromond, Galleas, and Greatship were introduced in Dragon 232

[Gary V. Foss]

The Olesens wrote:

> I was looking over Sindre's write up of Gary Foss's ships of cerilia chart. What I'd
> really like to know is what the hell is a Dromond, Galleass, and Greatship?

These ship types came from Rich Baker's article "Weapons of the Waves" in Dragon #232, which
also had information about "hellpowder" and other nautical weapons.

> My other
> question is: Can ships have a MC better than A? Are Zebecs/Coasters/Dhows the most
> manuverable and quickest sailing ships concieveible?

Barring magic an such I think A is the best possible maneuverability for "ships." Smaller
vessels would be more maneuverable, though. A rowboat can turn around a lot quicker than even
the smallest ship noted in that chart. A small catamaran is also quite maneuverable.
Perhaps, the MC system isn't the best way of describing seacraft....

> How fast would you say MC A would be
> in good, strong winds? In knots, of course. Finally, if steam power is invented, should
> it be counted like oar power? What would be a good idea for a steam ship's "rowing" rate?
> 3 or 4? Which leads me to another question: wouldn't oarsmen get tired after rowing like
> crazy for half an hour? Or is the rowing rate a maintainible thing? Then could you push
> them harder for a while at the cost of no oar power later?

There is information on the movement rates of ships in the DMG p170. There is also stuff in
there regarding traveling at "emergency" movement rates.

As to the movement rates of steamships.... Well, you really got me there. I suppose that
would depend a lot on how powerful the steamship is, wouldn't it? I mean, an early steamship
might not be any faster than a rowed ship due to the inefficiency of the engine, gears, etc.
It probably wouldn't be until later versions came along after decades of research that
movement rates would advance much past rowing speeds....

Gary

[Pieter Sleijpen]

I would advise to buy the blue book: "Of ships and the sea" by Keith
Francis Strohm. This book gives some very good rules and answers to the
questions you asked. It uses an other way then MC for manouvrebility and
off coarse no war cards, but I find the rules presented for naval combat
a lot better then the war cards. Also not all ships of Cerilia are
treated in the book, most notably the zebec and roundship. The dhow is
called a sohar and from that it is not difficult to design the zebec,
not in the least because I found the ship in my encyclopedia.

And as an extra bonus rules for underwater campaigns are also included.


The Olesens wrote:
>
> I was looking over Sindre's write up of Gary Foss's ships of cerilia
> chart. What I'd really like to know is what the hell is a Dromond,
> Galleass, and Greatship? My other question is: Can ships have a MC
> better than A? Are Zebecs/Coasters/Dhows the most manuverable and
> quickest sailing ships concieveible? How fast would you say MC A
> would be in good, strong winds? In knots, of course.
> Finally, if steam power is invented, should it be counted like oar
> power? What would be a good idea for a steam ship's "rowing" rate? 3
> or 4? Which leads me to another question: wouldn't oarsmen get tired
> after rowing like crazy for half an hour? Or is the rowing rate a
> maintainible thing? Then could you push them harder for a while at
> the cost of no oar power later?
>
> -Andrew