Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 alchemyprime Dec 09, 2006 23:06:57	Hey. I love SJ, but I have a problem: I need to know how to do the DMing in full. I've been using published campaign worlds and no ship battles due to the fact that I don't know how to read the stat blocks for ships on Beyond The Moons. Sorry. I look like a noob now. A little help, please?
#2 jaid Dec 10, 2006 10:27:18	what do the stat blocks on beyond the moons have to do with running ship battles? anyways, as far as being able to handle everything, i recommend you drop a few bucks on some PDFs. for $10.00 US you can pick up the original boxed set and war captain's companion. this will also get you some miniatures you could print out and use, as well (and of course, there's more miniatures available online... see this thread for details. those two books cover most of the basics. (personally, i picked up lost ships too, but it's not really all that necessary). if you are only gonna buy one thing, i recommend the war captain's companion... provided you understand the rest of the basics already, that is. the WCC boxed set actually has rules for running spelljammer as a miniatures game, basically. but basically, each book/boxed set will run you about 5 dollars, give or take (i got mine for less, but they are modified so you can't do anything with them, if i'm not mistaken... not a problem to me, but if you like to modify your PDFs it could be a problem to you).
#3 nightdruid Dec 10, 2006 16:15:44	This link should help: http://www.spelljammer.org/rules/fastplay2e.html You can also buy Hackjammer, which is pretty much compatable with Spelljammer, with only a few portions created for the Hackmaster rulesystem. http://www.kenzerco.com/product_info.php?cPath=25_26_39&products_id=144 Now, for a quick rundown of the format: Tonnage - how big a ship is. Roughly is a 10' cube of ship. Each ton means 1 crewman & 1 hull point. Hull Points - A ship's version of hit points. Use siege weapons to cause damage. Crew - min & max crew size. Go below min crew, and the ship becomes unwieldy in combat. Max crew simply means the ship has enough air for a four-month trip with this crew size. Go bigger, and the trip length will decrease due to lack of air. Maneuver Class - how maneuverable a ship is. If you use 3e, MC A corresponds to Perfect, and go down from there. Armor rating - Ship's armor class vs. a siege weapon's attack roll. Save as - more important in 2e due to item saving throws that were dropped with 3e. Just use this to figure out what the ship is made out of (wood, metal, or crystal; change ceramic to wood). Power type/ship's rating - ignore these. These were always dumb because helm type is irrelivant to a ship type, and rating was always determined by power of helm & helmsman. Standard Armament - siege weapons a ship usually carries. Cargo - amount of space a ship has for cargo. Translate 1 ton here into 25 freight tons. Keel/Beam - how long/wide a ship is. Hope that helps.
#4 jaid Dec 10, 2006 20:30:06	power type and ship's rating were occasionally important. first off, some ships use a unique power type, or a specific power type. often, these ships have specific ship's rating as well (for example, locusts pretty much always use rudders of propulsion, and thus have an SR of 6. catamarans from WCC have SR 2, or SR 4 in areas where spelljamming speeds are impossible... and are nonmagically powered. the two headings may not be needed often, but occasionally they do come up)
#5 nightdruid Dec 12, 2006 6:52:34	Power type/ship's rating would be better handled, in the unique cases, in the description of the ship, not the stat block, IMHO. The rest of the time it was a waste of space.