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Saturday, May 9, 2020

2020 - The Year of Blackmoor - 50th Anniversary - Day One Hundred and Thirty

Celebrating 2020 - The Year of Blackmoor - 50th Anniversary of Blackmoor and of Role-Playing!

Today is Part 73 (Part A) of my series on OD&D, with The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures Vol. 3.

**For those coming in, in the middle of this series I am giving you my take on OD&D during my first exposure starting in Sept of 1975. For this first part it is just the first three books of the original woodgrain box set and prior to obtaining the Greyhawk, Blackmoor and later Supplements.**

If you have not tried running a naval based adventure in your Campaign, I highly recommend it. You the juxtaposition of the very limited confines of the ship and the virtually unlimited area of the ocean. While the ship travels the ocean, in another sense the ship is stationary and everything comes to it. Because the ocean is so large, the players can travel for years with stops here and there along the way and the variety of what they can encounter it endless. Although the rules are focused on combat, there is so much more you can do.


The players can also design and build there own ship, somewhat like building a castle and a very expensive undertaking.


If you run a nautical campaign, it is well worth your time to research and brush up on the nautical terms and use them in the game.


If you are using oared movement, it is very important to track fatigue, which is a major factor in this type of travel.  


Gaining speed in an oared ship is slow and painful, while slowing down can be quicker. The effect of rough seas and strong currents should not be ignored either.


Speaking of calm, the ocean going adventure IMC lasted for over two years real time and IIRC about 5 years of ship time. During that there were times when the ship was becalmed, once for over two weeks. They also found living masses in the ocean that were sometimes aggressive.


This is good to remember if you have a stronghold located on a navigable river where the width, depth and current are all important. Is it navigable the entire year or only at times.


Playing out a powerful storm or even a hurricane at sea is a blast, you should try it. Or as I mentioned, becoming becalmed.


And you do not want to sink! ;)


I have a die marked with these eight direction, it makes it really easy as you do not need to memorize or look at a table either.


Turning is not done quickly and trying to turn too quickly is not going to work out well.


You always wonder why no one else ever developed the Viking longship design, especially after they had seen the Viking longships.


While you can spend the time making everything to scale, you can also run it rough and dirty without problems with just a rough sketch, updated as you go.


Do not forget to include things like Greek Fire. I usually increased the total damage possible considerably with large ships after around 200-250 damage points.


I also considered the relative sizes of the ship doing the ramming and the ship being rammed and adjusted damage up or down accordingly.

Tomorrow we will continue on with Shearing oars off.

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