MicroSea Brainstorming Thread

[Zahru II]

So, as the title says, we do elevated discussion about how to create a good and not too complex set of rules for microfleets battling on the seven seas.

I have a few ideas already:

- wind that would blew in 8 random directions (N-NE-E-SE-S-SW-W-NW), and would affect ship movement. It would be determined at the start of each round by rolling with 1d8.

- ships would have 3 stats: hull, sails, and crew. There would be size classes like, small, medium, big.

- special ability would come from equipment the ship has (oars, cannons, ramming front)

aaaand that's about it right now from me. Contributing/elaborating ideas are welcome.

[501stCadians]

Greekfire- Deals 1d6 damage each turn
Bilge Pumps/Repair Crew- Repairs a system/hp on a system

Grapeshot: Deals damage to crew system
Chain Shot: Deals damage to sail system

Boarding Plank: Ship must be beside target ship, deals damage to crew. Enemy ship can attack boarding ship's crew.

[OneEye589]

I would have a more precise system for the wind direction. I don't know much about sea travel, but going straight from a north wind to a south wind in a matter of seconds seems a bit quick. Maybe a coin flip, heads makes the wind go clockwise around the compass, tails makes it go counterclockwise? It would be more of a gradual change.

Also, it seems as though for just quick battles, as this would be, wind shouldn't be as much of a factor. It's just another mechanic to add on to make things complicated.

I don't know if you've ever played the collectible game Pirates of the Spanish Main (or one of its many expansions), but you might get some ideas from that: http://www.wk-pirates.be/index.php?opti ... Itemid=100

[Pwnerade]

I agree with OneEye, the wind probably won't flip from North to South. In addition to direction, wind speed is also an issue. Also, whether the ship has square or triangular sails will affect how it sails based on wind direction. Oars will let the ship go wherever it wants. And then there's currents and tides. But you don't have to make things that complicated.

[stubby]

I've given this very issue a lot of thought over the years.  My feeling is that the best way is to have some kind of Wind Plate.

Get a square plate anywhere from 4x4 to 10x10 studs, depending on the maximum wind strength you want, and put a peg on it to show where the wind's at.  The direction and distance from the center of the plate show the distance and strength of the wind.  Roll a stumble die to move the peg, limiting the number of studs per turn or per round according to how quickly you want to see wind changes.

I don't know if you've ever played the collectible game Pirates of the Spanish Main (or one of its many expansions), but you might get some ideas from that: http://www.wk-pirates.be/index.php?opti ... Itemid=100

I don't know this for a fact, but I've heard it said that PotSM was actually a straight theft of what was originally a Lego game, Evil Stevie's Pirate Game.  They just replaced the Lego parts with card cutouts instead.

[OneEye589]

Eh, just glancing over it now, there's not much similarity. I guess if you really wanted to push it, you could say it was a watered-down ripoff of it, but that's a stretch. The pirates game was all based on masts and just a number on a d6.

You could fire cannons a number of times equivalent to the number of masts you had, and each mast had a number. To hit another ship, you had to roll that number on a d6 (or maybe you had to beat their number). If you hit them, they lost a mast.

I thought that would be easy, as it's Lego and just removing a mast would be an easy way of tracking damage.

[Arkbrik]

The effect of the wind could simply be extra movement; if the wind blows with a strength of 3 then you move all of your ships 3" in the wind direction at the start of your turn. That way you will be going faster if you are travelling with the wind, and vice versa.

[stubby]

That way you will be going faster if you are travelling with the wind, and vice versa.

Vice versa, the wind will be going faster if it's traveling with you?  This is some relativistic shit right here.

[MicVash]

Many years ago WizKids Games created a miniature constructable pirate ship game.  Here is a link to PDFs of the rules.  The game is no longer in production.  The basic rules set is the link to "Pirates of the Spanish Main."  The more interesting re-vamp of the game is the "Quest for Davy Jones Gold" set.  It includes concepts such as random encounters (storms, monsters, etc).

http://www.wk-pirates.be/index.php?opti ... Itemid=100

I believe you could essentially base all of your rules off of this game and simplify them how you please, since the rules cover construction of your ship and fleet as well as gameplay.  

The next link includes PDFs of the game's ship construction.  They are great silhouettes to base your own ships off of.  

http://www.wk-pirates.be/index.php?opti ... Itemid=104

Next are just two examples of micro sail ships.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/workfromth ... 821017702/
Simple and interesting sail construction on this one.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/newright/5513819354/
Nice detail even though it's still a micro ship, including cannon smoke, netting, the overall shape of the ship, and the sails.

[FISH!!!]

The ships would have to have a turning circle, since you can't flip a ship round on a piont. Larger ships would have a bigger turning circle, due to size, and smaller ship would have a much smaller turning circle. Smaller ship would probably be much faster too, since they're lighter, this would probaly change if the ship had many oars. There also could be a no wind option, making sailing ships very slow. If the crew of ships with oars were depleted then they'd become slower having lost rowers. If a ship lost all it's crew but is still in servicable condition, then you could detach part of your crew to take over the empty ship. (Remove some crew piont from a ship along side the empty one and give it to the empty ship and it's yours.

[Zahru II]

Hm, yeah you guys may be right with the wind idea, I might as well ditch that. However, your suggestions with the other pirate games are very nice, and give me a general direction, thank you. Although I ain't sure I like the masts=attack dice=hp idea.

I really like cadians' suggestions, as I was thinking of similar ideas as well.

What I'm aiming for is a quick and easy to learn system, with some strategic depth.

Will tune back when I'll actually have some useful material and not only blabbering around

[*CRAZYHORSE*]

A ship should have a number of crew slots depending on it's size and/or hull.

[Arkbrik]

How about this: A ship gets hull points and crew points equal to its size.

When a ranged attack overcomes the ship's armor, it loses a hull point, and has a 50% chance of losing a crew point.

In close combat, ramming attacks only damage the hull, while boarding only damages the crew.

If a ship loses all hull points, it sinks.

If a ship loses all crew points, another ship in contact with it can move crew points to it, thereby taking over it.

[OneEye589]

Many years ago WizKids Games created a miniature constructable pirate ship game.  Here is a link to PDFs of the rules.  The game is no longer in production.  The basic rules set is the link to "Pirates of the Spanish Main."  The more interesting re-vamp of the game is the "Quest for Davy Jones Gold" set.  It includes concepts such as random encounters (storms, monsters, etc).

That's what I just said

[MicVash]

That's what I just said

Sorry, OneEye, lol I only read the first post.