How do you represent the various ships visually?


Skull & Shackles

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I expect to run into a bit of a problem with representing and explaining the various shiptypes in our game, due to simple language barriers (we've got 2 germans, 1 dane and 3 english people playing).

In order to alleviate the problem, I figured that pictures of the various ship types would be handy, but everything I've found so far isn't very good.

Has anyone come across any books or websites where you can easily see the various ship types (From Sloop and Barque to Dromonds and Man O' Wars)?

Thanks for the help folks. :)

Liberty's Edge

http://www.thepirateking.com/ships/ship_types.htm

Liberty's Edge

Ship Types

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 32

normanak wrote:
Ship Types

Thanks for the link, but the website doesn't appear to be working as none of the images are loading.


If you can get a hold on it, we used (some years back, current group is "all-maritim" ) this book, and/or copies from it for players

http://www.amazon.de/Unter-Segeln-Vom-Einbaum-Hightech-Segler/dp/3768813800 /ref=sr_1_23?ie=UTF8&qid=1340127772&sr=8-23

but it might be a problem to get a hold on. Probably the best collection of ships in drawing I know off, though.

Also the ships featured in the AP so far are ... ahem... very... "landlubberized", and basically have nearly nothing to do with real-world ships. Masts, riggings, setup of bulkheads, decks, implements like the windlass, storage for ropes, sailcloth, main cargo area... all pretty far off what would be done/built at sea and for naval use. So, sticking to those, you would actually need nothing in the way of "real rigging" to show.

But try checking through Wikipedia for the "Batavia" (located in Amsterdam, very nice Dutch East-Indiaman), "Golden Hind", "Lady Washington", "Phoenix", "Rose" and rebuilds of the Naos and carracks used by Columubs and Magellan ("Santa Maria", "Pinta" "Nina" ), as well as the "Reale" (Spanish galley, 16th century) . Same goes for google + pics. Any older "Seamanship" (local or the english version, the book has various titles ) will show most riggings and denote by specific differences and advantages.

Osprey/Vanguard also has a rather cheap series of books on pirates with good illustrations and many other facets of pirate life, which might be worth the 6-8 euro investment.

The above site, while actually functionally working for me, should also be watched with some... "intense" care, since the author freely admixes (and mis-types) rigs and hulls, employing completely mistaken pictures and drawings for certain builds (fluyt, brig, brigantine, nao, nave, pinnace, snow, frigate... just to name a few ), same goes for descriptions of types.
Looks like at least 30%+ of the information on ships is utterly wrong or misleading, which might cause confusion if one of your players cares. It also makes me very careful about the rest of the information provided - while it might make a good story, it need not be correct.


If you are fluent in German, you might, as an online resource also have a look at the (badly designed^^) ESYS site

http://www.esys.org/

http://www.esys.org/bigship/Barkentine.html

there is also a reasonable list of types via wikipedia.org

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Sailing_ships

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vikingson wrote:

If you are fluent in German, you might, as an online resource also have a look at the (badly designed^^) ESYS site

http://www.esys.org/

http://www.esys.org/bigship/Barkentine.html

there is also a reasonable list of types via wikipedia.org

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Sailing_ships

Thanks Vikingson, that was the sort of thing I was looking for. While I'm not fluent in german, two of the others are and I can make do ;-)

I don't know what's up with the original website, as I tried in both Firefox and Internet Explorer with no luck, but if there are as many flaws as you mention then I would be a bit wary as well.

I do know that it doesn't quite follow the exact layouts of the individual ships from what I've seen in the 2 parts of the adventure path, and while I'm no expert, I can't say that I readily recognize the ship types if I was going from the maps alone. I just wanted some visual references for those of my players who aren't as invested in the Age of Sail :)

Thanks to both of you :)


Curtisin wrote:


I don't know what's up with the original website, as I tried in both Firefox and Internet Explorer with no luck, but if there are as many flaws as you mention then I would be a bit wary as well.

I do know that it doesn't quite follow the exact layouts of the individual ships from what I've seen in the 2 parts of the adventure path, and while I'm no expert, I can't say that I readily recognize the ship types if I was going from the maps alone. I just wanted some visual references for those of my players who aren't as invested in the Age of Sail :)

Thanks to both of you :)

Pirate King's site worked if you started from the core-site, at least for me. Had to activate the flash-module though.

I may be a bit critical on the shipping part of the whole AP (given that it is a life-long hobby of mine), but I really hate "unchecked information" like it being posted on the net, especially if put-up as a sort of referential site.

Then again FRPG is a thing of imagination first and foremost, and probably we all have our individual takes on the "Wormwood", "Man's Promise" and whatever is creeping up thoughout the path.

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