I was wondering if anyone else makes use of the material in "The Mystic Seas" in 5th Edition.
My current group uses "Chapter 2, Ships and Sailing" especially the "Creating a Ship" section (tweaked to fit 5th). We use the Trade and Cargo rules to expand what is available in City & Guild. Finally we use the mundane part of the bestiary to expand what is available in 5th.
Isn't this part of ship mechanics covered by Hermetic Projects?
I am very aware of the 4ed supplement, but in practice, I do not have time to assemble all the rules I need for a properly tactical game, so I end up winging it. When I have time to work out tactical rules, I would certainly correlate the scattered 5ed rules with the more systematic 4ed rules. Maybe when I retire.
Hermetic Projects does not really provide much in the way of rules for building a ship. Mostly it only provides Size and Damage Capacity based on quality. While we do use this, we add in all the stuff from The Mystic Seas for designing speed, cabin space, maneuverability, and things like fore and aft castles, crows nest, and such.
Given that our saga's covenant is basically a merchant family, we make heavy use of The Mythic Seas, though more for the fluff than the crunch. While the ship rules are fine, we more or less have enough with what's in City & Guild. But the background stuff is really useful for us, tbh.
The fluff is very nice and since our Covenant is hidden behind a trade consortium it is useful to us for much the same reasons as it is useful to you.
It is one of the books I really wish an updated version of was made for 5th edition.
I expect to, but that saga isn't there yet.
If you don't mind my asking, which parts of it? If it is the crunch I might be able to provide some actual "used in game" insights. It was one of the things I cut from the House Rules thread because that was already so big and I did not think many people would be interested in.
One player convinced the others of doing a "Pirates of the Mediterranean" covenant. So probably a lot of ship-usage, including combat. I'm not sure that the saga will survive though, as it has lost a lot of players already.
That is an interesting concept, I like it. If the game survives the rules in The Mystic Seas would be very useful. My Saga uses them for the opposite side of the coin, since we have taken to hunting down pirates to make our area safer and trade more profitable.
My thoughts exactly.
Our flagship is the "Gelkin". It is a three masted large Nef (Size +6 in TMS and AM5) of Excellent (+3) quality treated as Supernatural since its hull is laminated wood, metal, and stone by magic. It has Soak +13 and 15 damage levels which makes if very tough compared to other ships (a comparable standard ship would have Soak +7 and 6 damage levels).
It has 200 tons of cargo capacity. Minimum crew of 18, though standard is 30 sailors and 20 marines. To match that it has Normal Cabins for all Crew and Marines, as well as 10 Ample Cabins for passengers and 4 Luxurious Cabins for the Captain, Marine Commander (a Hero Cult Redcap), and VIPs (Magi or other Redcaps mostly). It also has two ships boats.
Its speed under sail is 5 normal and 7 with magic, while its speed under oar is 3 normal and 4 with magic (1 purely magic without oar). For handling rolls it has +3 (+4 steering) normally, increasing to +5 (+6 steering) with magic. Magic items control the rigging, the wind, and the current which is where its speed and maneuverability comes from. They also allow it to do things other ships cannot like side slip and spin in place, as well as sail at full speed regardless of the wind direction (roughly 8~10 miles per hour regardless of wind and weather).
For fighting it has a light bulwark (which is actually one with the hull), an aft castle, crows nest, and five springals (1 fore, 2 mid-fore, and 2 mid-aft). Augmenting that is an enchanted item which deflects siege weapons and many charged items (including "special" ammo for the springals). Its marines are our most skilled and magically augmented troops, modeled after the Myrmidons of legend and lead by that Hero Cult Redcap (who portrays himself as Achilles reborn). Add to that the possibility of having up to two elder Magi in residence during important missions.
Other enchanted items it has include barrels that purify water, an "Anchor Stone", three communication slates (one to the Covenant, one to each of the other large warships in our fleet), protection from rot & dampness in the hold, magic lanterns, a flameless hearth (a stone that heats for cooking, within a ward that keeps flame/heat within it), unseen arm "handles", a magic crane, several enchanted tools for repairing the hull/sails, fish traps that create illusionary bait (with sight and smell), and it has an arcane connection which lets the Covenant track its location on a map of the Med. There is also an arcane connection that lets the Covenant read the ships log. There are also many wards against varies things scattered about the ship.
The Mystic Seas allowed us to build it to a much higher level of detail then anything in 5th would allow.