# The Shipwrights Handbook

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Made for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game
See http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG for more

##### A rulebook for shipcrafting and combat ##### on the High Seas and the sky above it
Written by:
Critterfluffy
Co-Written by:
TO BE ADDED LATER IF NEEDED

Special thanks to:
reddit, r/DnD, and r/Pathfinder_RPG
u/shichiaikan
u/Craios125
and any others I may have missed

Playtested by:

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##### Table Of Contents - **[1 The Shipwrights Handbook](#p1)** - [1.1 ](#p1) - [1.1.1 ](#p1) - [1.1.2
Made for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game
Published by Paizo Publishing, LLC
See http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG for more
](#p1) - **[2 Table of Contents](#p2)**

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# Introduction This book has been created to allow players more freedom when it comes to travel in the world. Rather than having to travel on horses, or on foot, they are now free to travel the world in luxury.
    I have never been happy with the cookie cutter or generic ships listed in the craft sections of any pen and paper RPG system to include Pathfinder. With this ruleset/expansion, players and DMs are free to explore what they can build given enough gold and creative use of components.
     The goal of this book has been to add a new set of rules on top fo the already successful Pathfinder ruleset. Pathfinder rules should remain unaltered for the most part throughout this book while a new set of actions and choices related to transports and large weapons of war. The only exception is the rules for vehicle combat. This book will be tacling the complex and unweilding combat system applied to ship to ship combat in an attempt to make it more familiar to players. The hope is that players and DMs will no longer avoid vehicle combat with a new yet familiar combat dynamic.
## Three Dimensions      A common problem with players and DMs is how to track things in space. The rules within this book will not seek to answer these problems on the character scale but will be adding a new scale of combat layered ontop of the traditional scale of personal combat.
    The rules set in this book will answer question about position in three dimensional space and how to navigate this space. In three dimensions, being above or below your enemy can make the difference of a combat victory or loss. Through abstracting this concept we will be able to avoid having to manage the minutiae of tracking your position by only tracking relative altitude to other objects on the battle field rather than keeping exact coordinates.
     In the end, by removing the need to track exact altitude, we enable the battle field to again be simulated in a two-dimensional format similar to how players are already familiar. There will, however, be exceptions to this standard of tracking where the ground should be added as a relative position in the event that combat is taking place close to the ground. ## Ships
     The ships that will be created using this book are as detailed and personal as any character. As such, they will likely be cared for by the players and become integral parts of adventures and major events. NPC ships could become the topic of historical events and PC ships could become just as important to the history of the world.
     The double edged sword of this is players will likely try to include their ships in most events and guard them carefully. Try to consider this, and the investment the players are making, before including this option to a compaign. Even if player wealth would deny players the option to build one, players will likely find a way. Whether it is piracy, theft, or some other shinanigan, a savy DM should expect this. ## Ships and Adventuring      Ships will enable a new extreme in mobility. The easiest will be costly to fuel but the speed by which your players will travel will alter the scale of the worlds you build by opening up new locations that would normally have been inaccessible. Take this into consideration as this could create difficulties in guiding any story you may have created.
     This is not a bad thing as players enjoy having freedom and the cost of a ship is great so they are unlikely to be willing to risk loss. That being said, if a player puts their ship at risk, they should be made aware that they could lose it. Adventuring is dangerous and everything is fair game to a devious DM. ## Using a ship      The rules in this book are used to enable the design, contruction, and use of ships in your world. As such, keeping their use accessible has been an important design process. The rules of how to design one will be as similar to character creation as can be done but their use in combat will likely be quite different though, I hope, an enjoyable addition to the battlefield.

Ship Mechanics:
Ships rely on a dice system just like standard D20. When you attempt to perform a maneuver the pilot will be required to roll for success/failure. Some maneuvers are more involved and will require additional crew members to roll as well.
     The crew is the brains of the ship and each crew has stats independant of each other that allow them to serve the ship and its captain. Gunners all fire based on their related stats and their assigned weapon. Engineers control the throttle under orders of their captain but their ability to do the job is independant. This means that in combat, every character, PC or NPC, has a role to play and will get to participate using their own skillsets.

What is needed:
Nothing extra is needed to enable players to engage in ship combat though the addition of miniatures brings the battlefield to life just like it does with character scale combat.
     If using the advanced version of ship to ship combat though it is recommended to have some way of secretly documenting the ships maneuver as this will be important. A small whiteboard or custom cards/tiles are likely the easiest method available.

\page ## What can a ship do     The ships that are built for the players can be used for anything a player has designed them to do. They can carry goods, troops, siege a kingdom, attack other ships, fly to unknown lands, and many other things. The limit is what you are willing to let them get away with.     More specifically though a ship can perform tasks that are enabled by their design. These abilities rely on the tools and utilities they have been equipped with. Several design concepts are used to create these options.

Ship Kits:
A ships kit is the mandatory equipment needed to allow a ship to operate. The bare minimum is usually some sort of power/propulsion system and a method of steering.
    For a ship used to travel over the ocean this is likely a sail that does double duty of power and propulsion as well as the helm consisting of a captain's wheel connected to the rudder. For a more advanced ship, designed to travel through the sky, this could simply be the same design but with large lifting balloons attached to the sides to enable the ship to be sent skyward.
    The system used to manage the kits is similar to how skills work. As a player, when you level you receive skill points based on class and level. For a ship, no level system exists so this is substituted with the power generation system aboard. Better systems produce more power enabling more systems to operate with higher bonuses.
    This system is dynamic, enabling bonuses to be shifted around using a Tune Action. A Tune action allows a crew member, with the appropriate skill trained, to free up power from one device and transfer that power to another. Adjusting the power setting of any one device is a full round action and doesn't normally require a check. If the action is complicated by coordinating efforts or a crew member is attempting to perform the action faster then a check become required. ## Combat     As always, combat in Pathfinder is often inevitable. It is half the fun of the experience. In the past, ship to ship combat has been a complicated endeavor requiring players to target specific hull section to create breaches or steering using difficult to understand limitations on how a ship can move. This book is seeking to solve this and make large scale ship combat interesting and something players and DMs seek out.
    The first issue with ship to ship combat is that usually only one player is actively participating in controlling the ship. With this sytem, if a player desires to, they can set themself up as a member of the engineering section, lift control room, or even post themselves at a weapon and actively contribute to the success of the ship during combat. Their sucesses become the success of the pilot and so do their failures. If they don't enjoy that then the section on hiring crew will alleviate the need for players and allow them to fire spells at enemy ships and crew. Rules for boarding allow players to shift themselves out of the ship scale battle and onto the player scale battle and engage enemy sailors on the decks and in corridors of the enemy ship. If done right, they may even be able to capture an enemy vessel and expand the fleet.

How Combat Works:
There are two variations of combat. One is simple and tries to take as little from the player scale combat as possible. The second is more complex but is likely to add to the enjoyment of ship comat.

Simple Combat:
Simple combat is where two ships jockey for positioning and set their crew up for an advantage. This combat altnerates between two rounds: Maneuvering and Combat. At the start of combat, initiative is determined as normal. Each pilot rolls a D20 and the highest claims initiative.
    Once pilot initiative is known, maneuvers can begin. This works by the pilots secretly deciding on a goal and a counter. > ##### Goal and Counter choices > The available goals and counters are determined by the ships designs and standard maneuvers. Some maneuvers are not in > counter decks as they are non-standard and kept secret. These can only be countered after they become known. This will > usually occur after the first time a maneuver is used. A goal is the position they would like to move the ship into, a pilot can in desperation use a counter as a goal. The counter is the goal they are attempting to prevent the other from acheiving. Once the goal and counter are decided each pilot decides who they are maneuvering against and then the maneuvers are revealed.
    If a pilot with lower initiative successfully counters their opponent's maneuver then one of two things happen. 1. If they have previously been out maneuvered, their opponent loses a maneuver token. 2. If their opponent doesn't have a manuever token then they swap initiative with their opponent. If the player with higher initiative is not countered then they: 1. Attempt to roll to succeed at their maneuver. This maneuver roll is an opposed check using Profession(Pilot) and is modified by several things. 1. How many times they have out maneuvered their opponent 2. Their ship design. Ship design can have significant impact on a ship's ability to maneuver 3. Any effects on the pilot that would directly effect this skill 4. The difficulty of the given maneuver. Applies when special maneuvers are being used. Once the maneuver round is complete, other actions can be taken like firing guns, boarding the enemy ship, casting spells, ramming, etc. If no specific maneuver has succeeded then ships end positioned a distance apart determined by the size of the smallest ship. This is listed in the chapter detailing combat.

Advanced Combat:
Advanced combat is played out with miniatures. It is similar to above in that it alternates between two rounds: Maneuvers and Combat. The major difference is the ships are represented on a battle grid similar to normal combat. Movement is still limited to the maneuvers available to the ships designs involved in the combat. Additionally, ships may raise or lower their altitude relative to each other to control \page

speed and gain advantage.
    As before, combat begins by all pilots rolling for initiative. This time, however, the pilots make decisions in secret and perform them relative to initiative order.
    The first round to be resolved is the manuever round. During this round, pilots secretly select a maneuver they would like to perform. These are placed face down in front of the pilots until everyone has decided. Once all pilots have completed their decision on their maneuvers the players begin to reveal and perform their actions. This starts with the player with the LOWEST initiative and works towards the player with the HIGHEST initiative. Once all ships have been moved, the pilots move into the combat round.
    During the combat round, the player with the HIGHEST initiative takes the first action. Actions can be anything from attacking

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