The Real Warships of Wildspace The warships presented in the Spelljammer set are not real warships, they are not even near being maximized in terms of armor and armament. The rules provide a lot of leeway and I'm really suprised that the warships that serve in the fleets are just sitting duck. A possible answer may be that lighter armament makes for longer battles. Another possibility might be that the deadliness of the game is balanced by giving the ships such light weapons. This article is for those who either want fast battles or just more realism and deadliness. The idea for doing this actually came from my players who were planning on upgrading their squidship "Octopussy". I allowed them some space for creativity and they turned their squid ship in to a Ship basher. When I threw in a Neogi death spider they were frightened at first, but when that ship turned into debris slowly, they planned on boarding the vessel. They had already hamburgered some Umberhulks, but the ship held another suprise: An Undead Old Master. The PCs fled and continued to shoot the Deathspider. They eventually scrapped the ship and looted it. Although their own ship was severally damaged ( the Spelljamming mage had suffered a shock, they were low on Hullpoints and they lost their ram and 2 of their heavy catapults) the party still managed to reach the Rock of Bral and cash in on the Neogi artefacts. They stripped and scrapped their Squid ship and bought a brand new Hammership and a Wasp to land on planets. They also wanted to upgrade these ships, but quickly drained their coffers. The last fact was due to my "brilliant" bargaining: I didn't need another Octopussy ruining my perfectly good adventures. They now have a Hammership that closely resembled my Forehammership and they lovingly rever to their own ship as "the Hedgehog" because of the vast array of weapons mounted on their ship. The plots in this campaign now center less on combat........ To give you an idea of how I upgraded the ships and created some new ones, I will summarize the rules on this topic below: -A normal weapon requires 1 ton of space to be mounted. -The heavy weapons use up 2 tons of space. -A turret adds another ton of space to the space required for the weapons.( for those number crunchers: this not an official rule but I used it anyway) -Better armor by thickness(+1 AR) takes up 20% of the cargo space. this will be applied before anyother modifications are made. -Plating (+1 AR) reduces the MC by 1 -Stronger materials can also be used but the do not change the ship very much, it only costs gold. -Netting: see Stronger materials. -Rigging: (MC +1) requires more crew. -Stripping is not an option -Someone who reviews the below statistics might discover my use of medium catapults. I use them because they're the best weapon available. List of avebbriations: T=Turreted,L=light,M=medium,H=heavy,B=ballista,C=catapult,Bo=Bombard,G=greek fire projector,Cn=Cannon,Hw=howitzer,Mo=mortar,Hc=handcannon, GB=great bombard,PR=piercing ram,BR=blunt ram,GR=grappling ram,RC=ram claw,CoR=conical ram,J=jettison. Elvish Giant-O-War; this ship will turn into the best ship you've ever seen. Maximized the vessel certainly will appeal to even the most conservative elven fleet admiral. If used they make up the core of the Elven fleets, acting as the flagships of expeditions. All the Man-O-Wars are sheduled for this upgrade. Giant-O-War: Users Tons hullp crew land MC AR Save Armaments cargo keel beam elves 60 60 10/60 none C 6 ceram 2 TMB, 5 TMC,PR 10 200' 20' Thick hull (AR +1) Cost:120,400 1 THC, 1 THB Human Forehammership; The hammership made a great warship after the extensive modifications some realistic warlords did. This ship will overcome most others in combat. Since these ships are very expensive, pirates will usually not use them. his ship might make a good flagship. Forehammership: Users Tons Hullp Crew Land MC AR Save Armaments Cargo Keel Beam Humans 60 60 24/60 Water C 5 Twood 2 THC, 1 THB, BR 4 250' 25' Rigging (+1 MC),Thick Hull (+1 AR) cost:103,200 4 TMC, 4 TMB, 2Bo Dinotherum: Another ship that definitly needed a weapons upgrade is the Ogre-mammoth, This ship will be changed from a slaver to a slayer. Even my 14th-level party was not up this ship!!! This ship is actually the Dinotherum, with a few changes. Dinotherum: Users Tons Hullp Crew Land MC AR Save Armaments Cargo Keel Beam Ogres 99 99 36/99 land E 2 metal 2 PR, 6 THC, 4THB 2 150' 50' Cost: ??? Thick hull (AR+1) 8 TMC, 2 TBo 1 TCn, 2 THw, 1HJ Dragonking: Small fish become big and this goes for the groundling nations as well. Given the great resources the Shou Lung empire possesses it is only logical that they will protect their space assets. For this they have designed the Dragonking, a Man-o-War class vessel totally build for space travel. Besides being the a beautiful vessel, it is also quite deadly. As one can see Dragonking: Users Tons Hullp Crew Land MC AR Save Armaments Cargo Keel Beam Human 65 65 12/65 Water C 5 Twood PR, 4 THC, 1 HB 12 200' 30' cost: say a nice 100,000, unarmed. 4 TMC, 2 TMo, 2THw 1 HJ Warthog: This all metal ship is build by humans to serve a big market. This ship is a multi-purpose vessel, it is a good warship, but also serves as a trader, exploration vessel, planetary lander, base defense ship or pirate ship. The Warthog is constructed of metal and is structuraly sound. The configuration given below is the warship setup, but chop off the cannon and all the heavy weapons and free up a total of 15 extra tons of cargospace. This way it will serve well in all the other purposes. Warthog: Users Tons Hullp Crew Land MC AR Save Armaments Cargo Keel Beam Human 50 50 5/50 land D 4 metal BR, 2THC, 2THB 15 160' 40' 4TMC, 2TMB, 1TCn Needle: The Elves have build some very nice ships in their days, but they only constructed warships. This is not bad, but slightly single-minded. Many of the Elves are tired of their centuries long watch and have begun building leisure ships. Much to their suprise they appeared to have unearthed a huge market as even Fleet admirals have spare time and liked to just cruise along. The Needle is the pinnacle of freedom, offering all that the Flitter was unable to provide. The Needle is a fast ship because of it's elegant but brilliant design and it adds +1 SR to the tactical speed of the spelljammer. If the ship is unpowered the SR is, of course, just one. Since this article centers on warships; I will provide you with the statistics of the armed version of the needle. If no cannons are used by your campaign simply change the handcannon to a Light weapon. Needle: Users Tons Hullp Crew Land MC AR Save Armaments Cargo Keel Beam Elves 3 3 1/3 land B 5 Metal PR, 2Hc 2 60' 5' Arrow: Another succes in the cruise series of Elven design. The arrow is the big version of the Needle and provides for either large families or parties of adventurers. The stats I provided is the special forces version. The ship is very fast and also provides a +1 SR bonus. The ship is capable of landing on the ground and as such is a useful addition to any fleet. One other use is that of messenger vessel. Arrow: Users Tons Hullp Crew Land MC AR Save Armaments Cargo Keel Beam Elves 15 15 2/15 land B 4 metal 3TMC 5 140' 15' Racer: the Racer is the successor of the flitter. Since growing ships takes a lot of time and thus even the Elves have stooped to building metal ships. The Racer is the epitome of speedy design and provides a +2 SR. Racers have no military purpose and are usually no more than leisure vessels. Races are being held by elves using Racers and hence their name. Racers also deliver messages and act as patrol vessels. If armed a racer usually travels through dangerous area or is on some dangerous quest. Racer: Users Tons Hullp Crew Land MC AR Save Armaments Cargo Keel Beam Elves 1 1 1 land A 6 metal 1 Hc 1/2 20' 5' Quetzalquatl: This is the first, but good attempt of the Hadozee to conquer space. The ship is large and well armed and when the other races can get their hands on the design, they will surely copy and use it. The Hadozee use the ship to defend their territory and expand it. The ship has many uses and include: trading, escorting fleets, transportation and colonization. The war vessel has overlapping plates of armor and it is of course this design that is featured below. Although the Hadozee still prefer to work on the ships of non-hadozee races, duty aboard a Quetzalquatl is honourary and often hereditary. The ship has no rigging, but this can be implemented if the individual captain wishes. All in all the Hadozee have enriched wildspace with a new and useful ship, destined to stay for the next decades. Quetzalquatl: Users Tons Hullp Crew Land MC AR Save Armaments Cargo Keel Beam Hadoz.80 80 10/80 land C 6 Twood GR, 4THC, 4TMC 30 290' 15' 4 TMB Nebulus: A strange race of hamunoids, called the Fardim have managed to domesticate a creature called the Nebulus. A Nebulus is a monster consisting of negative material. The creature is essentially a formless creature but can maintain simple forms easily. A Nebulus' touch destroys all unliving matter as the Disintegrate spell and repels living matter. A domesticated Nebulus forms a large bubble inside and maintains the bubble permanently. The inside of a Nebulus is filled with plants forming pods that will support the crew and their equipment. Farim look like physically degenerated humans with oversized heads. Farim are fortunatly rare in wildspace and no one knows anything about them. Farim are beyond looting, but will attack any ship they encounter. An attack simply is a ramming attempt and will disintegrate the targetship. The statistics of a Nebulus appear below and the Spelljammer stats are also featured. In order to damage a Nebulus one must hope to defy the saving throw. Nebulus: Int: low, Mor: fanatic, Move 300(SR 2), AC 3, HD: 15+10, Thac0: 14, #Att:1, Dmg: None, Special: All nonliving material must save vs Disintegration or disolve, XP:10,000 Nebulus: Users Tons Hullp Crew Land MC AR Save Armaments Cargo Keel Beam Farim 50 50 1/50 not A 3 W10 none 25 50' 50' Hive ship: This ship might be an explanation for the ancient space Leviathans. These ancient ships are extremely rare and the inhabitants of the known spheres are glad for this fact. Hive ships are huge and defy all the laws of physics and spelljamming. The Hive ship is 400 tons and houses a complete hive of the dreaded Terrogh (wait for the Brood articles, soon featured on this site), including the Tyrant. The propulsion of this ship is the Blood furnace. This helm is capable of spelljamming a ship of upto 400 tons and uses the blood of sacrificed humanoids for power. This ship is slow (SR 1), but will literally hamburger any ship within the range of the weaponery. Hive ships constantly seek humanoids to power the vessel or feed the inhabitants. The deckplans of these vessels are intricate and very extensive. They will be left up to the DM. Hive ships are about a mile long and resemble an octopus. The ship is constructed of a strange crystal and metal alloy and this creates the strength to support this kind of hull. The tactics used to capture prey is to just destroy the prey's ship and then retrieve the survivors. Hive ship: Users Tons Hullp Crew Land MC AR Save Armaments Cargo Keel Beam Terrog 400 400 1/400 none F 1 Cryst PR, 10THC, 10THB 200 4000' 75' 10TBo, 4THw, 2Cn ________________________________________________________________________________ This article was written by J.S. Timmerman to improve and elaborate upon the AD&D 2nd EDITION RPG featured by TSR inc. and all rights are reserved by the author. Permission is granted to distribute this material in it's original form only and signed by the author. The only changes may be errata called for by the author. None may also gain profit from this document, except in terms of enjoying the RPG. Anyone who presents this material as his own will be persecuted with all the legal means at the author's disposal. All the other rights preserved, 1996 ________________________________________________________________________________ Mail address: HTTP//cam031313.student.utwente.nl/~commando. ________________________________________________________________________________