Sailing

Back in ‘92, I published a long, involved article about long-distance sailing in the Twilight world. I can’t reprint it - partly for copyright reasons, but mostly ‘cuz I can’t find the article, either in print or online.

But the system was good, and it worked.

There were really two basic building blocks: Navigating and Seamanship.

Navigation

Twice a day (Noon and Midnight), the crew’s navigator rolls against his/her Navigation skill. It’s an Average roll with the right instruments (sextant, chronometer, current charts). It’s one level more difficult without any of these items - - in other words, with no navigational equipment at all, it’s Impossible: Navigation.

The referee keeps a record of the group’s actual position. If the navigator fails the roll against Navigation, the gamemaster rolls deviation as with artillery. The referee rolls D10, and multiplies the result by the vessel’s travel speed. This is the group’s indicated position - where they think they are. The discrepancy may pass unnoticed - or, if the group sails into a reef at night while thinking they’re elsewhere, could be disastrous.

If the group makes further navigational errors, the deviation is calculated from the indicated position. Clearly, an inadequate navigator with poor equipment on a long voyage could become very, very lost...

Seamanship, Travel and Bad Weather

The key to sailing is the wind, of course. Every half day, the boat travels a multiple of its travel movement rate. (This is more efficient than handling movement every period.

Movement Rates

If the wind is

From the side: Move Travel Movement rate x 4.5
From the rear: Move Travel Movement rate x 3
From the front: Move Travel Movement Rate x 2

It’s up to the referee to determine the wind direction. This usually depends on the degree of latitude and the time of year.

In addition, there’s Weather. Weather at sea is measured using the Beaufort scale. This scale rates weather on a scale of 1 (flat calm) to 7 (hurricane).

So - here’s what you do.

Twice a day, the referee rolls 1D20 against the Seamanship or Small Watercraft ratings of the vessel’s leader (or, alternatively, the average ratings of all working crew people).

Sea State is:	2-3	4-5	6-7
Roll is:	Average	Difficult	Formidable

Note that vessels won’t move at all in Sea State 1 - no wind.

Success: The vessel moves at the rate listed above.

Outstanding Success: The vessel moves at 1.5 times the rate listed above.

Failure: The vessel moves at .75 times the rate listed above

Catastrophic Failure: In sea states 1-3, same as failure. In sea states 4-5, the vessel sustains some minor damage - ripped sail, minor flooding from broaching into the waves. In sea states 6-7, the boat undergoes a major emergency.

Short Sails

If the party takes precautions against serious weather (running with fewer and smaller sails, streaming a sea anchor to keep the bow into the wind) movement is cut by 1/2, but the difficulty level is reduced by one.

Crowding Sail

The characters can also opt to pack on all the sail they can. This makes the roll one level more difficult, but increases speed by 25%, on top of all previous modifications.

Example

Bart has a Small Watercraft rating of 11 and a Navigation rating of 7. He is sailing in a boat with a travel movement of 8, with the wind to his right side. The sea state is 4.

At noon, he tries his navigation. He has a sextant and charts, but only a wristwatch - no chronometer. It’s a Difficult roll. The referee rolls 8 - he makes a mistake. The referee rolls deviation of 1 - north - and distance 3 (3x travel movement) = 24km. Bart thinks he is 24km north of where he really is.

Then he rolls for his progress. He opts to crowd sail, to hopefully make better progress, but at some risk. The sea state is 4 - difficult. He rolls a 4 - success. He moves a total of 45 km for the turn:

8 km is the base movement rate
Multiplied by 4.5 (wind is generally from the side) = 36 km
Successfully crowded sail, add 25% = 45 km


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