Lovely looking ship, but when you think about it's stats, when designing one out, you realize it's almost useless.
Ok it should be a light trading vessel.
1) So 10 crew needed is rubbish. It doesn't have the SPACE for 10 crew, and why the heck would you want or NEED 10 crew on a *trading ship*?
Waste of resources and it's too small to need that many folk.
2) Needs large cargo space and hatches to stow cargo, Although spelljamers may often carry exotic, small, expensive goods, that's stilla comparative thing. Logs of exotic wood, bales of fine furs etc are still bulky. This doesnt mean it needs a huge hull size but 25 tons is too light, more like 35 or 40 tons. It's not a warship so wouldn't have as thick a hull etc.
3) It *HAS* to be able to land on water, because it has to be able to trade, so, making it unable to land on water/land cripples it, and it's design screams aquatic, doesn't it? ;) So it should be water capable (which doesn't really need many changes)
Hm, anyway mostly finished the model, will post pics when I have let you see what I mean. The ship is designed as a light merchantman, so is somewhat bigger than original illustrations, more hatches, redesigned a bit but still recognizable as a "tradesman".
I can work out illustrations of it's deck layout if folk want so can compare?
Opinions?
Originally posted by Silverblade The Enchanter
1) So 10 crew needed is rubbish. It doesn't have the SPACE for 10 crew, and why the heck would you want or NEED 10 crew on a *trading ship*?
Sure it does; the problem lies with the fact that the Tradesman isn't designed quite like real-world ships. Its the use of 5' squares for deckplans makes it simple, but doesn't capture the crammed feeling of ships. Hallways might be only 2' to 3' wide, not 5'. Rooms squeezed in where they can. Crew sleep on deck in calm weather. Etc. Afterall, the coaster is smaller, and has a crew of 20 or so. Besides, you need a fair number of men on board to keep pirates at bay.
2) Needs large cargo space and hatches to stow cargo, Although spelljamers may often carry exotic, small, expensive goods, that's stilla comparative thing. Logs of exotic wood, bales of fine furs etc are still bulky. This doesnt mean it needs a huge hull size but 25 tons is too light, more like 35 or 40 tons. It's not a warship so wouldn't have as thick a hull etc.
I'd say any trade ship would be a poor choice to haul lumber around; most real-world ships just don't have the hatches to accomindate that type of stuff. Instead, they'll use barges, or in rare cases, build a ship around the cargo being hauled (such as when they hauled an obolisk from Egypt to England). In the vast majority of situations, cargo can be packed into barrels, crates, or even pottery (a common practice in ancient times). Stuff on the scale of lumber or large stones were shipped by barge and rarely shipped overseas. Such stuff is generally "locally produced".
3) It *HAS* to be able to land on water, because it has to be able to trade, so, making it unable to land on water/land cripples it, and it's design screams aquatic, doesn't it? ;) So it should be water capable (which doesn't really need many changes)
I chalk it up to a typo. Nothing about the design says that it can't land on water, so its likely just a typo somewhere in the pike (there have been a few).