Ok, I admit I just watched both "Master and Commander" as well as "Pirates of the Carib". So just had one question for anyone that knows anything about cannons.
I know that the notes say that the Sea Wyvern can be fitted with either Catapults or Baliista, but has anyone fitted her with cannons?
I would assume they would have to be small, does anyone have a suggestion on this? I am currently using Iron Kingdoms rules, and I was just curious if anyone has come up with a number, the damage (how big could the cannons be?), and where they could be placed according to the wonderful color fold out of the Sea Wyvern.
Any help is appreciated :-)
Thanks,
Will
I did. Since I'm allowing renaissance firearms in my campaign, it seemed to make sense. A ballista is essentially a huge heavy crossbow, so I made my cannons huge rifles. IIRC, they did 4d6 damage, had a range increment of 150', needed a crew of 2, and otherwise used the rules for a normal rifle (including reload time, non-proficiency penalty, etc).
I figure the Sea Wyvern can handle a single cannon (which cost my party 5,000 gp) and the cannon, balls, and powder took up 10 tons of cargo space.
I'm not sure where they put guns on caravels, which really coincided historically with the beginning of the gunpowder age. On later sailing ships, typically cannon were mounted in one of two places. Light cannon (carronades) might be mounted on a swivel mount on deck, usually on the forecastle. Larger cannon were mounted lower to avoid making the ship topheavy. Smaller ships sometimes had them on an open deck amidships, larger ships generally put them on the next deck down, which was usually called the gundeck.
If you're just mounting one or two guns, I'd put them topside on the Sea Wyvern. If you want to carry four or more, you'll need to convert the level below the main deck into a gun deck, removing the cargo and putting in gun ports. This would seriously reduce the cargo capacity of the vessel, though, and since the Wyvern's main mission is to carry supplies to Farshore, it seems better to mount a couple of topside carronades instead.
If you have access to Stormwrack, you can find rules for Bombards, which should be pretty functional cannons.
~ Bryon ~
If you have access to Stormwrack, you can find rules for Bombards, which should be pretty functional cannons...
If you have access to the Players Handbook, you can find rules for fireball, which should also be a pretty functional cannon.
Just joking -- I'm not doing gunpowder IMC, though handheld firearms have been tempting with the pirate them :)
Though, now that I'm thinking about it, I might point out that a wand of fireball can cost as little as 11,500 gp, requires a crew of 1, weighs about an ounce, and displaces no cargo space.
A fireball will take out most (or all) of a crew in one or two shots, leaving a ship intact enough to allow a boarding party to put out fires and plunder it.
Seems a no-brainer to me.
Thanks everyone for your input, I will probably put one or two small cannons on the deck. I didn't want to go over board (no pun intended). I know spells and like would work just as well, but most of my campaigns have gunpowder and steam powered objects (using both Iron Kingdoms and the sourcebook "Sorcery and Steam"). Not using Iron Jacks or Steam ships yet, just so small devices powered by steam, usually created by gnomes (mostly patterned after those in the Dragonlance books, so many mishap explosions to worry about :-) ).
I do have Stormwrack so I will look up the rules on Bombards as well.
My players haven't even started the Path yet so that gives me plenty of time to get my act together.
Thanks again,
Will
I'm not sure where they put guns on caravels, which really coincided historically with the beginning of the gunpowder age.
Since the caravel was primarily a merchant ship, they didn't usuall mount canons at all. Especially in the early gunpowder age, true canons were used only to sink ships or to bomb the shore.
Most merchant ships of this early gunpowder era carried swivel guns. These were smaller weapons than canons and were used as anti-personel weapons. These swivel guns would be used by the caravel to prevent boarding by pirate crews.
These weapons were mounted on metal swivels that could be removed and stored away from the salt spray of the waves when not in use. Later caravels would have multiple locations where the guns could be mounted - I'm not sure if this is true about early caravels as well.
Both the Nina and the Pinta of Columbus's fleet were caravels. There is a note in the "The Libro de Armadas" in the "Archivo Generale de Indias in Seville that mentions that the Nina carried 10 bombardas (a type of breech-loading swivel guns).
Though, now that I'm thinking about it, I might point out that a wand of fireball can cost as little as 11,500 gp, requires a crew of 1, weighs about an ounce, and displaces no cargo space.
A fireball will take out most (or all) of a crew in one or two shots, leaving a ship intact enough to allow a boarding party to put out fires and plunder it.
Seems a no-brainer to me.
I feel slightly zinged. I do feel the need to point out that the standard wand of fireball will launch a 5d6 fireball. You could purchase one great bombard and two light bombards for 500 gold pieces more than the Wand of Fireball. The greats do signifciantly more damage (6d10) while the lights do a still rather impressive 3d10. Attempting to hit an enemy ship is also not that tricky, since they typically have an armor class in the negatives. This would also fill all the possible mountable slots on the Sea Wyvern.
The Great Bombard alone does a point more minimum damage and does twice the maximum potential damage. Also, the bombards cannot be stopped via things such as targeted dispel magics or the like. I'm also a bit fuzzy about the rules for such, but I'd think spells via wand can be counterspelled?
Just my two cents.
~ Bryon ~
I feel slightly zinged. I do feel the need to point out that the standard wand of fireball will launch a 5d6 fireball. You could purchase one great bombard and two light bombards for 500 gold pieces more than the Wand of Fireball. The greats do signifciantly more damage (6d10) while the lights do a still rather impressive 3d10...
Sorry, didn't mean to zing :)
I don't have Stormwrack, and I didn't have the stats you quoted. Admittedly, that's cheaper and likely makes more sense than my idea. More importantly (and to zing myself a bit), the point isn't what makes sense or is most efficient -- the point is to have a campaign that the players and DM enjoy.
I'm still considering pistols when we start STAP, which I've never before liked in D&D.
Regards all,
Jack
I feel slightly zinged. I do feel the need to point out that the standard wand of fireball will launch a 5d6 fireball. You could purchase one great bombard and two light bombards for 500 gold pieces more than the Wand of Fireball. The greats do signifciantly more damage (6d10) while the lights do a still rather impressive 3d10. Attempting to hit an enemy ship is also not that tricky, since they typically have an armor class in the negatives. This would also fill all the possible mountable slots on the Sea Wyvern.
The Great Bombard alone does a point more minimum damage and does twice the maximum potential damage. Also, the bombards cannot be stopped via things such as targeted dispel magics or the like. I'm also a bit fuzzy about the rules for such, but I'd think spells via wand can be counterspelled?
Just my two cents.
~ Bryon ~
I do feel the need to point out that the Light Bombards will do that damage once every six rounds and the Great Bombard will fire once every ten rounds, whereas the wand of fireball can be used every round.
For best effect, buy a wand of energy-substituted fireball substituted to either acid or sonic, and the damage won't even be halved before being applied to the hull sections as it is from normal fireballs.
On the other hand, unless you're running with the Smokepowder rules, ammunition for bombards doesn't even appear to be tracked in the Stormwrack rules, whereas a wand is expended after fifty charges.
EDIT: Rules error
I have been in many games with fireballs and not too many with cannons.
If my players want it when they get the wyvern I will entertain it.
I alway make gun powder a little bit different in each game I DM.
I think for this they if the want cannons they will need to talk to a crazy gnome from cauldron.
I am a ways from having the ships But I know they will want cannons. My players always want gun powder for some reason.
And cannons are so cool.