So we're planning to do a game set in the Dreaming Sea (like most people, it seems!), with the intention of a very ship-focused adventure. Thing is, I suspect we'll be spending a lot of time on naval matters, possibly facing down various weird and wonderful vessels on the high seas, etc, but the rules in the Ex3 core are currently quite limited. Nothing wrong with that - they only had limited space, after all - but it soon came to my mind to start writing up some more ship stats for our game and to generally expand the quick list available.
Then as I wrote them, various ideas for new rules and stratagems and so forth began to coalesce, so I started to write those up too. And the number of ships I had ideas for or wanted to cover extended, so it all grew even longer, and added new ideas for rules, and before I knew it I was writing something growing into a proper little expansion. Anyway, I haven't finished it all yet but I figured I'd start posting it up for people to take a gander at or use as a quick-reference list of ship stats to pull from as and when needed.
Obviously this is just my personal take on the ships of the Dreaming Sea, not a claim as to how they Must Be (tm) or anything of the like.
As of the moment of typing this, things still missing: Ysyr warships, more than one Volivat warship, a few random extra ships based on ideas I haven't thought through yet and the remaining sea monsters. I'm also considering a 'quick boarding' resolution system to avoid having to pull out into the regular combat system during boarding actions.
Comments, feedback, ideas for amendments and additions are all much welcome!
So without further ado...
Upon this Dreaming Sea
Welcome! Upon this Dreaming Sea is an expansion on the sailing rules given in Exalted 3rd Edition, focusing on the ships and waters of the Dreaming Sea in the far south-east of Creation. It includes new stratagems for vessels, details on new ship-to-ship weaponry and the threat of fire, rules for sea monsters and unusual ship qualities, and a roster of craft that ply the Dreaming Sea.
Sailing the Dreaming Sea
New Stratagems
The following new stratagems work with the additional rules given in Upon this Dreaming Sea for naval combat. Douse Flame, Escort Vessel and Signal Orders are available to any ship, but Submerge can only be used by vessels with the Sea Monster or Submersible traits.
Douse Flame (Roll Wits + Sail – fire level; Cost: None)
As fires rage on board, the crew of the ship scrambles to stop the blaze. As long as any successes are achieved on the stratagem's roll, the fires aboard are successfully doused – even if the ship loses the Naval Manoeuvre roll against another ship.
Escort Vessel (Roll Wits + Sail + Manoeuvrability; Cost: None)
The ship attempts to shield another vessel with its own bulk, interposing itself in the way of danger. Successfully executing this stratagem prevents the target vessel from being subject to the Broadside, Ram or Boarding stratagems for one round.
Signal Orders (Roll Intelligence + War; Cost: None)
Through flags, mirrors or other methods of signalling, the vessel transmits the orders of a strategist on board. This stratagem does not need to use the captain's abilities and attributes; any character on board with the time to observe and plan can serve as the strategist. Successfully executing this stratagem adds the number of successes to the Momentum of one friendly vessel that can see the ship, up to a maximum of the strategist's War. A vessel can only benefit from a single Signal Orders each round.
Submerge (Roll Wits + Sail + Manoeuvrability; Cost: None)
The vessel attempts to dive and escape from sight. For each success For each success with which the vessel beats its opponent's Naval Manoeuvre roll, it gains one point of Momentum. If it wins the Naval Manoeuvre roll, the vessel cannot be attacked until it takes its next stratagem unless the weapon used is capable of hitting submerged targets.
Fire
Despite the abundance of water all around, fire is one of the greatest threats that a vessel on the Dreaming Sea can face. A raging blaze can easily lay waste to a ship if allowed to run out of control. Fire is represented by levels that can be inflicted by weapons, sorcery or the heroic actions of individuals.
At the beginning of each round of naval combat, roll a dice pool equal to the current level of fire on the vessel. Each success increases the fire level by one. For every full five levels of fire that the ship has after this roll, it takes one level of hull damage. Sea monsters suffer fire damage as normal but making a Submerge stratagem immediately douses all fire on such a beast, even if the stratagem is not successful.
The chief causes of fire on a vessel are the use of vicious ship-to-ship weapons such as firedrakes or the incendiary venom of horrors like the falak. However, actions such as sabotage or the purposeful use of small-scale flame weapons to set blazes can also begin a conflagration. Such actions will usually inflict one to three levels of fire; setting a ship's firedust cache alight inflicts five.
New Ship Rules
The ship roster in Upon this Dreaming Sea adds details for armaments, crew complements and certain special rules listed below.
Armaments
The Armaments entry lists any ship-to-ship weaponry that the vessel may be equipped with. First Age weapons such as implosion bows are extremely rare on the Dreaming Sea but a wide range of offensive and inventive armaments are used by navies, corsairs and desperate civilians. When using a Broadside stratagem, a ship that is equipped with more than one type of armament must choose which one it is using; a ship with the Bristing with Weapons special quality may use different armaments on each of its rolls.
Ballista: One of the more common shipboard weapons for those vessels large enough to mount them, the ballista simply hurls a large spear of sufficient weight with enough power to tear through a hull. A ship armed with a ballista can use the Broadside stratagem. Due to the threat of marauding Fair Folk, ships in the eastern reaches of the Dreaming Sea often use iron-tipped bolts rather than the stronger steel used elsewhere.
Ballista, Harpoon: Harpoon ballistae were originally designed to wound and tether large sea creatures such as whales or bahamut fish. The ballista hurls a bolt leashed to a coil of chain or cable of stout rope – a poor weapon for ship-to-ship combat, but one that has been adapted by some raiders and ship-catchers to snare vessels as needed. If a harpoon ballista successfully Broadsides a sea creature, that creature can no longer use the Submerge stratagem unless it has more hull levels remaining than the tethering vessel. The harpoon adds an additional automatic success to further Broadsides against the sea creature for each round the harpoon remains attached, to a maximum number of successes equal to the captain's Survival. If used to Broadside another vessel, the stratagem costs 10 Momentum rather than 5. Any target struck, creature or ship, has the Momentum cost for Escape stratagems increased to 20 until the harpoon is removed or the tether is cut.
Firedrake: A firedrake is a large firewand of cast metal, too bulky and heavy for a human to carry but small enough to be mounted on even a light vessel – and larger ships can carry entire banks of this devastating device on their flanks. It vomits a great tongue of fire out to scour enemy vessels and set them alight – highly destructive but also very limited in range, forcing the ship to close to shorter engagement distances than a ballista. Firedrakes are more common in the western reaches of the Dreaming Sea where it is easier to acquire firedust from Ember. A ship armed with firedrakes can use the Broadside stratagem, but it costs 8 Momentum rather than 5 unless the target vessel attempted a Ram or Boarding stratagem against the ship in the last round. As well as dealing one level of hull damage to the target as normal, a firedrake also inflicts two levels of fire damage.
Firedrake, Caustic: A fiendish product of the alchemical workshops of Volivat, the caustic firedrake looks similar to a more conventional heavy firedust weapon but projects a blast of corrosive chemicals instead. Caustic firedrakes are mercifully rare even in Volivat fleets; armour is little use against the bubbling, seething concoction. A Broadside with a caustic firedrake ignores -0 health levels on target ships, inflicting damage straight to -1 health levels or worse. However, it does not inflict fire levels on the target.
Firedrake, Heavenly Roaring: An extremely rare weapon of ancient design, the colossal Heavenly Roaring Firedrake is part of the legendary Iron Snapping Turtle hull. Broadside stratagems made with a Heavenly Roaring Firedrake have the same effect as those of a firedrake except that they deal two levels of hull damage rather than one. The weapon also serves as a ram and can be fired as part of a Ram stratagem, doubling 9s on the roll.
Ram: All manner of ram sees use on the Dreaming Sea; some vessels use large, reinforced wooden plates depicting snarling faces, or slender spear-like protrusions, or jutting and metal-covered fangs that rip and tear as hull meets hull. Any ship with a ram may use the Ram stratagem without suffering damage from the stratagem itself.
Ram, Claw: Some ships are designed for aggressive boarding actions, slamming into prey to unleash bladed or spiked boarding planks that hammer down and embed themselves into the deck of the enemy vessel. Even with the shaking and splintering from the impact, the claw planks should keep their grip to disgorge the awaiting attackers. A claw ram allows the ship to combine the Ram and the Shock and Board stratagems together as one, costing only the usual 12 Momentum of Shock and Board.
Seething Cask: Another alchemical marvel from Volivat, the seething cask is a heavy barrel of firedust and chemicals used to drive off, wound or force afloat terrors of the deep. Using a clever watertight compartment for the fuse and a volatile explosive mixture, the cask sinks like a stone once pitched overboard until it detonates. A ship with seething casks is able to use the Broadside stratagem against targets that have submerged.
Max Crew Complement
The Max Crew Complement entry indicates the largest battlegroup Size that a ship can carry. Not every ship will have a full crew complement, or have a crew capable of fighting; some vessels might effectively carry several small battlegroups of specialists rather than a single large one. A vessel may not carry more than one battlegroup of the maximum size.
Special Qualities
Many ships on the Dreaming Sea possess unusual craftsmanship, hulls designed for specific purposes or strange and supernatural natures. Some of the more common special qualities are listed here for reference.
Bristling with Weapons: The vessel is a floating weapons platform and carries large numbers of ballistae, firedrakes or other devastating armaments. When making a Broadside manoeuvre, the ship may choose a secondary target to attack. The ship makes a single Naval Manoeuvre roll and compares the result against each target separately. The secondary target must have equal or less Momentum gathered against a target than the broadsiding ship has gathered against its primary target.
Covers: The ship has sturdy covers over and around the deck, providing the crew with excellent protection from missile fire. The covers also make boarding actions very tricky, obstructing anyone attempting to get on the vessel, but such a watertight defence equally has no room for boarding planks or the like. Crew aboard a covered vessel benefit from heavy cover against enemy fire, while any Boarding action by or against the vessel requires an additional 5 Momentum.
High Deck / Towering Deck: The ship has tall flanks and a high deck that makes boarding it a tricky proposition. Boarding stratagems against a ship with a high deck require an additional 3 Momentum unless made by another ship with a high deck or a towering deck. Boarding stratagems against a ship with a towering deck require an additional 5 Momentum unless made by another ship with a towering deck, or an additional 3 Momentum if made by a ship with a high deck.
Flameproof: The vessel has been caulked with fireproof alchemical mixtures, armoured with falak-scales, has no wood in its structure or otherwise made as hard to ignite as possible. A fireproof vessel cannot suffer levels of fire.
Floating Platform: The vessel is a huge floating platform, immobile sea rig or other immense structure more akin to a settlement or fortification than a ship. It may be able to move or it may be entirely immobile. While immobile, the vessel cannot attempt to make Positioning, Escape, Ram or Boarding stratagems, but may use the Broadside stratagem at no cost in Momentum against a vessel that targets it with any stratagem other than Escape.
Forest of Flags: The ship has a complex array of signalling flags, advanced mirrors or other excellent communications tools that let it serve as an effective flagship. In addition to its normal stratagem, the vessel may also use the Signal Orders stratagem (this may allow it to use two Signal Orders stratagems at one time). The vessel rolls separately for each stratagem.
Harrier: The vessel is designed for swiftness in pursuit and escape. It doubles 8s in Escape stratagems and in pursuits, whether it is the pursuer or the quarry.
Massive: The sheer weight and bulk of the vessel makes it devastating. The vessel deals an additional point of hull damage during a Ram stratagem, whether the initiator or the victim. This point of damage is inflicted even if the vessel is the victim and the attacker has a ram. The vessel also gains an automatic success in Sailing rolls made to deal with rough weather or ferocious currents at sea.
Regenerate: Whether through enchantment, monstrous resilience or supernatural repair crews, the vessel recovers from damage extremely quickly. It naturally heals one level of hull damage every three hours.
Sea Monster: The vessel is a huge sea creature, although not necessarily alive. It cannot be boarded, counts as having a ram affixed and can use the Submerge stratagem.
Shroud: Whether through magic, wreathing smoke or the smog-fumes of an alchemical engine, the vessel is shrouded and hard to target with pinpoint accuracy. The vessel gains +2 to Naval Manoeuvre rolls when contesting another ship's Broadside stratagem.
Submersible: A few rare and exotic ships are capable of diving underwater. The vessel can use the Submerge stratagem as long as it has not lost any -1 health levels.
Terrifying Beauty: The very sight of the vessel overwhelms the foe. The Seize the Initiative boarding stratagem costs only 8 Momentum for a ship with this quality.
Then as I wrote them, various ideas for new rules and stratagems and so forth began to coalesce, so I started to write those up too. And the number of ships I had ideas for or wanted to cover extended, so it all grew even longer, and added new ideas for rules, and before I knew it I was writing something growing into a proper little expansion. Anyway, I haven't finished it all yet but I figured I'd start posting it up for people to take a gander at or use as a quick-reference list of ship stats to pull from as and when needed.
Obviously this is just my personal take on the ships of the Dreaming Sea, not a claim as to how they Must Be (tm) or anything of the like.
As of the moment of typing this, things still missing: Ysyr warships, more than one Volivat warship, a few random extra ships based on ideas I haven't thought through yet and the remaining sea monsters. I'm also considering a 'quick boarding' resolution system to avoid having to pull out into the regular combat system during boarding actions.
Comments, feedback, ideas for amendments and additions are all much welcome!
So without further ado...
Upon this Dreaming Sea
Welcome! Upon this Dreaming Sea is an expansion on the sailing rules given in Exalted 3rd Edition, focusing on the ships and waters of the Dreaming Sea in the far south-east of Creation. It includes new stratagems for vessels, details on new ship-to-ship weaponry and the threat of fire, rules for sea monsters and unusual ship qualities, and a roster of craft that ply the Dreaming Sea.
Sailing the Dreaming Sea
New Stratagems
The following new stratagems work with the additional rules given in Upon this Dreaming Sea for naval combat. Douse Flame, Escort Vessel and Signal Orders are available to any ship, but Submerge can only be used by vessels with the Sea Monster or Submersible traits.
Douse Flame (Roll Wits + Sail – fire level; Cost: None)
As fires rage on board, the crew of the ship scrambles to stop the blaze. As long as any successes are achieved on the stratagem's roll, the fires aboard are successfully doused – even if the ship loses the Naval Manoeuvre roll against another ship.
Escort Vessel (Roll Wits + Sail + Manoeuvrability; Cost: None)
The ship attempts to shield another vessel with its own bulk, interposing itself in the way of danger. Successfully executing this stratagem prevents the target vessel from being subject to the Broadside, Ram or Boarding stratagems for one round.
Signal Orders (Roll Intelligence + War; Cost: None)
Through flags, mirrors or other methods of signalling, the vessel transmits the orders of a strategist on board. This stratagem does not need to use the captain's abilities and attributes; any character on board with the time to observe and plan can serve as the strategist. Successfully executing this stratagem adds the number of successes to the Momentum of one friendly vessel that can see the ship, up to a maximum of the strategist's War. A vessel can only benefit from a single Signal Orders each round.
Submerge (Roll Wits + Sail + Manoeuvrability; Cost: None)
The vessel attempts to dive and escape from sight. For each success For each success with which the vessel beats its opponent's Naval Manoeuvre roll, it gains one point of Momentum. If it wins the Naval Manoeuvre roll, the vessel cannot be attacked until it takes its next stratagem unless the weapon used is capable of hitting submerged targets.
Fire
Despite the abundance of water all around, fire is one of the greatest threats that a vessel on the Dreaming Sea can face. A raging blaze can easily lay waste to a ship if allowed to run out of control. Fire is represented by levels that can be inflicted by weapons, sorcery or the heroic actions of individuals.
At the beginning of each round of naval combat, roll a dice pool equal to the current level of fire on the vessel. Each success increases the fire level by one. For every full five levels of fire that the ship has after this roll, it takes one level of hull damage. Sea monsters suffer fire damage as normal but making a Submerge stratagem immediately douses all fire on such a beast, even if the stratagem is not successful.
The chief causes of fire on a vessel are the use of vicious ship-to-ship weapons such as firedrakes or the incendiary venom of horrors like the falak. However, actions such as sabotage or the purposeful use of small-scale flame weapons to set blazes can also begin a conflagration. Such actions will usually inflict one to three levels of fire; setting a ship's firedust cache alight inflicts five.
New Ship Rules
The ship roster in Upon this Dreaming Sea adds details for armaments, crew complements and certain special rules listed below.
Armaments
The Armaments entry lists any ship-to-ship weaponry that the vessel may be equipped with. First Age weapons such as implosion bows are extremely rare on the Dreaming Sea but a wide range of offensive and inventive armaments are used by navies, corsairs and desperate civilians. When using a Broadside stratagem, a ship that is equipped with more than one type of armament must choose which one it is using; a ship with the Bristing with Weapons special quality may use different armaments on each of its rolls.
Ballista: One of the more common shipboard weapons for those vessels large enough to mount them, the ballista simply hurls a large spear of sufficient weight with enough power to tear through a hull. A ship armed with a ballista can use the Broadside stratagem. Due to the threat of marauding Fair Folk, ships in the eastern reaches of the Dreaming Sea often use iron-tipped bolts rather than the stronger steel used elsewhere.
Ballista, Harpoon: Harpoon ballistae were originally designed to wound and tether large sea creatures such as whales or bahamut fish. The ballista hurls a bolt leashed to a coil of chain or cable of stout rope – a poor weapon for ship-to-ship combat, but one that has been adapted by some raiders and ship-catchers to snare vessels as needed. If a harpoon ballista successfully Broadsides a sea creature, that creature can no longer use the Submerge stratagem unless it has more hull levels remaining than the tethering vessel. The harpoon adds an additional automatic success to further Broadsides against the sea creature for each round the harpoon remains attached, to a maximum number of successes equal to the captain's Survival. If used to Broadside another vessel, the stratagem costs 10 Momentum rather than 5. Any target struck, creature or ship, has the Momentum cost for Escape stratagems increased to 20 until the harpoon is removed or the tether is cut.
Firedrake: A firedrake is a large firewand of cast metal, too bulky and heavy for a human to carry but small enough to be mounted on even a light vessel – and larger ships can carry entire banks of this devastating device on their flanks. It vomits a great tongue of fire out to scour enemy vessels and set them alight – highly destructive but also very limited in range, forcing the ship to close to shorter engagement distances than a ballista. Firedrakes are more common in the western reaches of the Dreaming Sea where it is easier to acquire firedust from Ember. A ship armed with firedrakes can use the Broadside stratagem, but it costs 8 Momentum rather than 5 unless the target vessel attempted a Ram or Boarding stratagem against the ship in the last round. As well as dealing one level of hull damage to the target as normal, a firedrake also inflicts two levels of fire damage.
Firedrake, Caustic: A fiendish product of the alchemical workshops of Volivat, the caustic firedrake looks similar to a more conventional heavy firedust weapon but projects a blast of corrosive chemicals instead. Caustic firedrakes are mercifully rare even in Volivat fleets; armour is little use against the bubbling, seething concoction. A Broadside with a caustic firedrake ignores -0 health levels on target ships, inflicting damage straight to -1 health levels or worse. However, it does not inflict fire levels on the target.
Firedrake, Heavenly Roaring: An extremely rare weapon of ancient design, the colossal Heavenly Roaring Firedrake is part of the legendary Iron Snapping Turtle hull. Broadside stratagems made with a Heavenly Roaring Firedrake have the same effect as those of a firedrake except that they deal two levels of hull damage rather than one. The weapon also serves as a ram and can be fired as part of a Ram stratagem, doubling 9s on the roll.
Ram: All manner of ram sees use on the Dreaming Sea; some vessels use large, reinforced wooden plates depicting snarling faces, or slender spear-like protrusions, or jutting and metal-covered fangs that rip and tear as hull meets hull. Any ship with a ram may use the Ram stratagem without suffering damage from the stratagem itself.
Ram, Claw: Some ships are designed for aggressive boarding actions, slamming into prey to unleash bladed or spiked boarding planks that hammer down and embed themselves into the deck of the enemy vessel. Even with the shaking and splintering from the impact, the claw planks should keep their grip to disgorge the awaiting attackers. A claw ram allows the ship to combine the Ram and the Shock and Board stratagems together as one, costing only the usual 12 Momentum of Shock and Board.
Seething Cask: Another alchemical marvel from Volivat, the seething cask is a heavy barrel of firedust and chemicals used to drive off, wound or force afloat terrors of the deep. Using a clever watertight compartment for the fuse and a volatile explosive mixture, the cask sinks like a stone once pitched overboard until it detonates. A ship with seething casks is able to use the Broadside stratagem against targets that have submerged.
Max Crew Complement
The Max Crew Complement entry indicates the largest battlegroup Size that a ship can carry. Not every ship will have a full crew complement, or have a crew capable of fighting; some vessels might effectively carry several small battlegroups of specialists rather than a single large one. A vessel may not carry more than one battlegroup of the maximum size.
Special Qualities
Many ships on the Dreaming Sea possess unusual craftsmanship, hulls designed for specific purposes or strange and supernatural natures. Some of the more common special qualities are listed here for reference.
Bristling with Weapons: The vessel is a floating weapons platform and carries large numbers of ballistae, firedrakes or other devastating armaments. When making a Broadside manoeuvre, the ship may choose a secondary target to attack. The ship makes a single Naval Manoeuvre roll and compares the result against each target separately. The secondary target must have equal or less Momentum gathered against a target than the broadsiding ship has gathered against its primary target.
Covers: The ship has sturdy covers over and around the deck, providing the crew with excellent protection from missile fire. The covers also make boarding actions very tricky, obstructing anyone attempting to get on the vessel, but such a watertight defence equally has no room for boarding planks or the like. Crew aboard a covered vessel benefit from heavy cover against enemy fire, while any Boarding action by or against the vessel requires an additional 5 Momentum.
High Deck / Towering Deck: The ship has tall flanks and a high deck that makes boarding it a tricky proposition. Boarding stratagems against a ship with a high deck require an additional 3 Momentum unless made by another ship with a high deck or a towering deck. Boarding stratagems against a ship with a towering deck require an additional 5 Momentum unless made by another ship with a towering deck, or an additional 3 Momentum if made by a ship with a high deck.
Flameproof: The vessel has been caulked with fireproof alchemical mixtures, armoured with falak-scales, has no wood in its structure or otherwise made as hard to ignite as possible. A fireproof vessel cannot suffer levels of fire.
Floating Platform: The vessel is a huge floating platform, immobile sea rig or other immense structure more akin to a settlement or fortification than a ship. It may be able to move or it may be entirely immobile. While immobile, the vessel cannot attempt to make Positioning, Escape, Ram or Boarding stratagems, but may use the Broadside stratagem at no cost in Momentum against a vessel that targets it with any stratagem other than Escape.
Forest of Flags: The ship has a complex array of signalling flags, advanced mirrors or other excellent communications tools that let it serve as an effective flagship. In addition to its normal stratagem, the vessel may also use the Signal Orders stratagem (this may allow it to use two Signal Orders stratagems at one time). The vessel rolls separately for each stratagem.
Harrier: The vessel is designed for swiftness in pursuit and escape. It doubles 8s in Escape stratagems and in pursuits, whether it is the pursuer or the quarry.
Massive: The sheer weight and bulk of the vessel makes it devastating. The vessel deals an additional point of hull damage during a Ram stratagem, whether the initiator or the victim. This point of damage is inflicted even if the vessel is the victim and the attacker has a ram. The vessel also gains an automatic success in Sailing rolls made to deal with rough weather or ferocious currents at sea.
Regenerate: Whether through enchantment, monstrous resilience or supernatural repair crews, the vessel recovers from damage extremely quickly. It naturally heals one level of hull damage every three hours.
Sea Monster: The vessel is a huge sea creature, although not necessarily alive. It cannot be boarded, counts as having a ram affixed and can use the Submerge stratagem.
Shroud: Whether through magic, wreathing smoke or the smog-fumes of an alchemical engine, the vessel is shrouded and hard to target with pinpoint accuracy. The vessel gains +2 to Naval Manoeuvre rolls when contesting another ship's Broadside stratagem.
Submersible: A few rare and exotic ships are capable of diving underwater. The vessel can use the Submerge stratagem as long as it has not lost any -1 health levels.
Terrifying Beauty: The very sight of the vessel overwhelms the foe. The Seize the Initiative boarding stratagem costs only 8 Momentum for a ship with this quality.
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