Ships of Blackmoor

[Havard]

Earlier this year, Jon Peterson posted an article on his blog where he examines Dave Arneson's illustrations of various Naval Vessels. Given his love for boats and naval war gaming, would it not be likely that he put quite a bit of thought to what the ships of Blackmoor would look like?

What ships make their way across the seas and rivers of the North? The FFC mentions at least two sea battles. DA4 features a sea voyage. What other adventures might be constructed around the waterways of Blackmoor?

-Havard

[gsvenson]

Use your imagination. Merchant ship operations, piracy, Skandaharian raiders, ferry operations, just about anything that can be done using sea or river travel. Cruise lines might be limited, though.

[Havard]

Use your imagination. Merchant ship operations, piracy, Skandaharian raiders, ferry operations, just about anything that can be done using sea or river travel.

Great ideas there! I always pictured the typical Blackmoor adventuring party as wading through the swamps near the Temple of the Frog, or spelunking in the Dungeons of Castle Blackmoor. However, there is no reason why they could not be fighting the good fight on board one of Blackmoor's finest sea vessels!

Going back to Arneson's Naval illustrations, I could easily see Blackmoor relying on some of the old Esneccas, while the fleet at Archlis would have been updated with more modern Carracks?

I am still thinking that Arneson's character Captain Harchar should be ported over to Blackmoor. I keep wondering if he could have been the inspiration for Captain Hieronymus Castagere, the Captain of the Blossom, the ship that is feated in DA4 - The Duchy of Ten.

Cruise lines might be limited, though.

Hehe, that would be a tad out of place, even for Blackmoor. :lol:

-Havard

[gsvenson]

I remember some interesting ship borne adventures with Robert the Bald back in the day.

[Havard]

I remember some interesting ship borne adventures with Robert the Bald back in the day.

Ah, thanks for reminding me! Are you referring to the adventures with Bob Meyer and Kurt Krey along the rivers of Blackmoor? Robert the Bald also went along with a Skandaharian crew as well. (Both are mentioned in the quotes here).

-Havard

[Havard]

Oh, and one more thing.

Question for Greg, or anyone else: Have you played Don't Give Up The Ship? If so, does that game come with scenarios? Anything that could be adapted to a Blackmoor D&D game?

-Havard

[gsvenson]

Sure, I still have my DGUTS rules and a box of ships in the closet. The last time I actually played it was at Hurricon 2007 in Orlando, FL. That was just a few months before Dave A's cancer turned up.

DGUTS is really specific to the Napoleonic wars. It could be used for the AWI, SYW and other conflicts in the century before. It would be hard to transition it into the age of steam ships. You could maybe use the sailing and galley movement rules in earlier times.

We actually used a set of rules called Trireme for ancient to renaissance era naval battles.

[Havard]

Sorry for taking a while to respond to this. I have been travelling for the last week and writing from my tablet was really not working out too well...

Sure, I still have my DGUTS rules and a box of ships in the closet. The last time I actually played it was at Hurricon 2007 in Orlando, FL. That was just a few months before Dave A's cancer turned up.

DGUTS is really specific to the Napoleonic wars. It could be used for the AWI, SYW and other conflicts in the century before. It would be hard to transition it into the age of steam ships. You could maybe use the sailing and galley movement rules in earlier times.

We actually used a set of rules called Trireme for ancient to renaissance era naval battles.

Very interesting. I wonder if something could be pulled from either DGUTS or Trireme and used in a Blackmoor environment!

-Havard

[chirine ba kal]

Sorry for taking a while to respond to this. I have been travelling for the last week and writing from my tablet was really not working out too well...

Sure, I still have my DGUTS rules and a box of ships in the closet. The last time I actually played it was at Hurricon 2007 in Orlando, FL. That was just a few months before Dave A's cancer turned up.

DGUTS is really specific to the Napoleonic wars. It could be used for the AWI, SYW and other conflicts in the century before. It would be hard to transition it into the age of steam ships. You could maybe use the sailing and galley movement rules in earlier times.

We actually used a set of rules called Trireme for ancient to renaissance era naval battles.

Very interesting. I wonder if something could be pulled from either DGUTS or Trireme and used in a Blackmoor environment!

-Havard

Yes, it could - a cutting out raid is a cutting out raid, no matter what you are floating around in. If I recall, neither set of ruls has specific scenarios - Dave used incidents from the Hornblower novels a lot, at least with us...

yours, chirine

[chirine ba kal]

Very interesting. I wonder if something could be pulled from either DGUTS or Trireme and used in a Blackmoor environment!

-Havard

Havard, I tried doing a better reply for you yesterday, but I did something wrong and it didn't 'take'. You asked a quite reasonable question, and I'm afraid that I came across as a classic grumpy old man in my reply to you. So, here's what I hope is a better reply...

"The past is a different place, they do things differently there..."

Back in those days, rules sets didn't come with scenarios; one could get 'army lists', which gave guides as to what forces one could reasonably expect to see in a campaign setting. The campaign referree, or the person hosting the game, would set the forces available to the players and their objectives for the game and we'd have at it. Campaign gaming gave lots of opportunities to run battles, and these very often were very 'asymmetrical' games as the players on both sides would bring to the table what forces happened to have encountered each other. The map movements gave way to the on-table movements and combat, usually with unforeseen results for everyone concerned. As examples of this, may I suggest Tony Bath's book "How To Run A Wargames Campaign", which gives examples from his Hyborean campaign.

We all used this book; normally, the game host would announce a game or somebody would start a campaign, and people would build the forces needed to run the thing. I got into the habit of supplying all of the sides in a particular game myself, which made it easier on people as I tended to like the more obscure historical periods (Pike and Shot, for example) or Tekumel. We'd all devise fun games that challenged the players, and this is also where Dave Wesley's 'Braunsteins' come from. And Dave Arneson slipping Dave Megarry's Druid a phaser to liven up a Romans vs. Britons game - "How about barbequed elephant tonight, Emperor Claudius?"

yours, chirine