Boatyard - shipwright needed

WHO?
You, because I don't think that I have the will to finish this portion of the the article! If I upload notes does someone wish to take the job on?

WHAT?
Before you commit, I should add that it's a load of options for customising your river barge, or river boat in some cases.

HOW?
Your Hero visits the Boatyard in the post battle sequence. You pay a load of gold and get the work done.

WHY?
I haven't been inspired to add any more to my existing notes on this entry. Somebody(-ies) with passion for playing Mordheim using watercraft could lend their expertise to this topic and really make something of it.

WHERE?
Marienburg! Shipwrights are skilled at fixing damage to all types of vehicles. Van der Decken's Boatyard, in the Craftsmarket has a long established reputation.

At a cost of 5 gold crowns the shipwright may repair any previously damaged wheels, rudders and any other features of watercraft and land transport. The shipwright can be paid to customise a watercraft by adding one new feature from the list of options. Any ammunition can be supplied from here.

Any volunteers?

Regards,

Werekin

I'd love to lend a hand, we've been using boats pretty extensively in our By The Bay campaign, with custom race specific boats we wrote including slave ships which have man powered versions of applying the lash, 2 separate ghost ships that can float on land and go through terrain respectively (requires intense concerntration from the necromancer). As well as simpler ones like Elf interceptors that are small but have higher speeds and increased turning power or Norse longships with battering Rams. These are all extreme versions but playing a campaign with them has taught a bit about nautical battling and balance, I'd be stoked to have some input Into your project!

Excellent. Like the way you are employing (captured models as) slaves to help run your ships. A simple system for harnessing models on this could fit in with one of the warband objectives so we'll discuss this further. If I send you over my notes then you can embellish upon this subject.

I hadn't considered a boatwright would be able to a build a ghost ship but I think you'll get the gist from what we've been up to. Can you PM me your email details?

Cheers Dic,

Werekin

werekin wrote:

I hadn't considered a boatwright would be able to a build a ghost ship

That would seem to me more of necromancer's thing...'

Repairing ships between battles? Seems like a bit too much detail. Of course I play with the world's worst record keepers.   
Do you have a cartwright too?

Von Kurst wrote:

That would seem to me more of necromancer's thing...'

There is necromancy afoot in Marienburg but not in the Marketplace!

Von Kurst wrote:

Repairing ships between battles? Seems like a bit too much detail. Of course I play with the world's worst record keepers.

I would be tempted to agree. It's easier to reset damage automatically between battles. But then the Academic skill for mending damaged wagons in BTB becomes redundant.

With boats I would be looking to classify different sections of watercraft, depending upon their size. This would be reflected in the advanced rules for setting boats on fire, sinking ships and customising said sections of ships in different ways.

Dic Lombardi has gone silent on this topic, having received a copy of my ideas for upgrading boats.

Von Kurst wrote:

Do you have a cartwright too?

Sort of the same thing, except on land, and the shipwright works on land too, near to a dock of course. At the moment we don't have a carpenter willing to master the craft of vehicle enhancement! Perhaps I should post the discussion onto our forum and let the public take over this topic?

werekin wrote:

Von Kurst wrote:

Repairing ships between battles? Seems like a bit too much detail. Of course I play with the world's worst record keepers.

I would be tempted to agree. It's easier to reset damage automatically between battles. But then the Academic skill for mending damaged wagons in BTB becomes redundant.

Yes, the 'Handyman' and 'Rigger' skills seem to be rather underpowered. I don't know whether keeping damage between battles is the solution though as this would seem to make vehicles worse than they already are.

Could you do something simple for the Shipwright (and Wainwright/Cartwright) rather than needing to keep track of damage, etc? The locations I thought of below were written to be similar to the other Marketplace locations that you have created.

Shipwright
Roll a D6 to see what is available for purchase at full price (or discounted price perhaps) but without any rarity roll...
1) Rowboat
2) Riverboat
3) Barge
4) (Some special type of enhancement for existing boats)
5) (Some special type of boat OR a hero may pay 50 gold crowns to learn the 'Rigger' skill. Blah, blah, blah... (as per Instructor location in Marketplace article))
6) 'Tune Up' - Boats (or vehicles) in the warband can be fixed up for a fee of 5 gold crowns per boat (vehicle). These boats (vehicles) in the warband will only be lost on a roll of 1 if taken OOA due to improvements in their structure and maintenance. (Note that this probably depends on a house rule that boats and vehicles belong to a warband rather than to a hero so may not be appropriate as an option.)

Wainwright
Roll a D6 to see what is available for purchase at full price but without any rarity roll...
1 Wheelbarrow
2 Wagon
3 Trade Wagon
4 Opulant Coach
5 (Some special type of wagon or a hero may pay 50 gold crowns to learn the 'Handyman' skill. Blah, blah, blah... (as per Instructor location in Marketplace article))
6 'Tune Up' (as per Shipwright)

Edited to add ability to learn skill and to change 'Cartwright' to 'Wainwright' which maybe more correct.

My bad guys, I accidentally gave Werekin the incorrect email address   

Tut, tut, tut.

I like Lemming's idea, seems easy to keep track of and don't over complicate things.

I like these ideas too. Also there is appeal in the notion of improving your results if the Hero has the appropriate Academic skill, to represent his hands on approach to helping the shipwright in rigging your vessel.

I've forwarded my again notes to Capt Lombardi (apparently the messenger bird was directed to the wrong waystation!) and look forwards to widening the scope with help from this council of old sea-dog captains and merchant-princes!

I like that skilled workers could help improve the boats and wagons. Gives more of an incentive to getting those skills.

I like the idea of using Rigger or Handyman (both are Strength skills not Academic skills) to improve the results of visiting a Shipwright or Wainwright. It improves those weaker skills subtly.

I see these locations as a chance to greatly improve the ability to use vehicles and boats as these are expensive and easy to lose in the current rules. If the locations can make it easier and/or cheaper to buy the equipment and/or decreases the risk of using the equipment in battles then I think that will make the locations very useful indeed.

werekin wrote:

But then the Academic skill for mending damaged wagons in BTB becomes redundant.

I must admit I have no problem with that. Since there were no rules requiring such a skill in EiF, it seems kind of moot already.

Von Kurst wrote:

werekin wrote:

But then the Academic skill for mending damaged wagons in BTB becomes redundant.

I must admit I have no problem with that. Since there were no rules requiring such a skill in EiF, it seems kind of moot already.  

I agree with this. The skills sound cool but in reality are pointless in Mordheim. One could possibly combine the effects of Rigger into Handyman (although I really like the *name* of the "Rigger" skill). I think that the skills work well on hired swords but are not worthwhile for heroes.

RL wrote:

One could possibly combine the effects of Rigger into Handyman (although I really like the *name* of the "Rigger" skill).

Where do these skills appear? Could we quote them here?

Thanks RL.

Hmmm.  I'm not seeing how not requiring repairs to vehicles between games would affect these skills.  Both of them seem to be written to repair 'in game' damage.  Indeed the Rigger skill would be quite useful.

I do have an issue with making them Academic skills or Strength skills for that matter.  Making them a special skill available to all heroes would be more to my liking (and more useful too).

They are Strength skill not Academic. Sorry, that was written by mistake in one of my posts. These skills are available to any Heroes with the requisite skill lists.

The idea was to offer an additional bonus between battles. Hence Dic Lombardi and I are looking at a Chart for the Shipwright entry for the Marketplace.

Regards,

Werekin

We've been experimenting with a possible add-on for greenskin sailors.

Squig Cage--All squigs on the ship may be confined to the cage until released. While confided the squigs do not move and may not be targeted by missile fire. Once released the squigs move as normal.
The cage counts as an obstacle and cover for models around it. Models may climb the sides of the cage or be placed on the top.
To release the squigs an orc or goblin must be in base-to-base with the cage.

Cost:We don't bother with any costs or rarities for ship upgrades (although this may change).

Best to keep animals caged then is what you're saying there Noah.

Damn it if I don't have internet up at home now. Might be time to fire up the old PC and work through some drafts!

Quote :

Best to keep animals caged then is what you're saying there Noah.

We've always had problems with the squigs movement when on ships. Having them bounce around while on board is really inconvenient and fiddly. The cage seems like a good solution and has so far been entertaining.

I think that the 'Squig Cage' is a brilliant idea. Simple. Effective. It makes sense. It fixes a very real issue.

It is a shame that we don't have the Devil's Den challenge on this forum (I don't really understand why it was rejected) as this thread would have been perfect as a Devil's Den challenge back in its hey day.

Devil's Den?

The Devil's Den challenge was on the old, GW forum for Mordheim before it was closed and all content lost (I'm still miffed about that). The idea was that each week/month? there would be a new theme/topic/guideline and anyone could contribute rules that met the given criteria. The winner of each round would make up the idea for the next round. The Letters of the Damned started a series on Devil's Den to list the best rules for the wider community.

Eliazar reposted all of the challenges on the Specialist Arms forum:
http://www.forum.specialist-arms.com/index.php?board=19.0

After everyone moved to TBMF they tried to start it up again but it was quashed by Admin Tom. :-(