Ships Ships of various sorts have been vitally important on the mostly-oceanic world of Tsuunahgo. Sailing vessels have existed since before antecessoroid speciation, while powered ships arose during the First Alacrian Era. The Nucleonic War saw the invention of submarines and liftgas airships, while perhaps the most impressive vessels of all - the Golden Age's gravnet airships - dominated the skies of Lur-Asko until the Fall. Although heavily automated in later years, Alacrian navies were never rendered predominantly robotic like their reanimator armies and Exsomnis air forces. Then as now, ships have become famous due to the skills and heroics of their crews - perhaps never more so than now, in the Adventuring Age. Although ships obviously cannot follow adventurers into ancient ruins, they often become the centers of their own quests of exploration, piracy, or mercenary work. Still others - especially airships - become mobile bases for talented parties, enabling long expeditions that would otherwise be much more dangerous.
Although ships, airships, and submarines would fit the definition of the word "vehicle" and have relevant Abilities from the Study of Vehicles, for the purpose of Legends rules, vehicle refers to smaller craft. As defined in the rules, vehicles and ships follow much different rules for combat, damage, and other situations.
Unless otherwise contextualized to refer only to surface vessels, ship refers generally to airships and submarines as well.
See Ship Combat for rules relevant to battles involving ships, and Ship Damage & Failures for details on failure factor. For general rules regarding other ship stats, read on.
Travel Speed, Ceiling, & Other Ship Limitations A ship's travel speed (as opposed to the SPD stat used in combat) is the speed used in the Travel rules. This is the speed the ship can safely maintain for lengthy travel.
Liftgas airships have ceilings quantified as low, medium, or high. High ceiling for an airship is equivalent to low ceiling for aircraft. Better ceilings enable an airship to access more of Lur-Asko; a high-ceiling airship cannot cross the tallest mountains, a medium-ceiling airship cannot cross any mountainous terrain, and a low-ceiling airship cannot cross even hilly terrain.
Gravnet airships do not have absolute ceilings, as they fly via pseudogravitic coupling to the ground, not atmospheric density. However, they cannot ascend higher than around 1,000 feet above the ground in their vicinity. They are slowed to 50% travel speed in hilly terrain and 25% travel speed in mountainous terrain, as they must use part of their energy to climb. At the GM's discretion, certain extreme TE0 environments may be impassible for gravnet airships (such as thousand-foot sheer cliffs).
Airships can only land in TE4 or better terrain, but can always hover low enough to drop ladders for characters to disembark.
Insendite & Mileage Powered ships run on insendite crystals, which are used up one at a time. Each ship lists the number of crystals it uses per hour at travel speed. Insendite crystals are sold for 20 coins apiece in all major cities. Engine crew will automatically reload the ship's insendite supply as it is used, therefore the exact crystal capacity of the powerplant is not specified.
For many ships, voluntarily traveling more slowly than the ship's listed travel speed will proportionally decrease the energy expended. The ship will still spend the same energy to travel a given number of miles. Gravnet airships list a minimum insendite usage, as they require constant power use to remain in the air; they must land in order to fully power down. Other types of ship will not use power when stopped.
Overseers & Crew All ships require certain overseers, which are covered in more detail in Vehicle Combat. For non-combat purposes, a ship requires at least a helmsman with competency via Overseer Competency (Vehicles). Powered ships with an engineering station require a competent engineering overseer, or their travel speed is reduced to 2/3. If a powered ship has tech competency requirements for its engines, it cannot travel at all without an engineering overseer that meets the requirements. If the ship has multiple engineering stations, multiple overseers may combine their tech competencies to satisfy the requirements. Their degrees of competency do not stack, but a device's requirements can be met by multiple overseers. For example, two overseers with Diagnostics: 1 will not meet a requirement of Diagnostics: 2. But if one of them has a competency of Mechanical: 1 and the other has Diagnostics: 1, they will satisfy the requirements of engines that require both Mechanical: 1 and Diagnostics: 1. Some ships have stations listed as Variable. These stations can be changed to function as either Gunnery, Engineering, or Technical. The station can only be set to 1 type at a time, and changing the station's type renders it inoperative for 4 hours while the relevant crew reconfigures the ship's systems.
Ships also require a certain number of engine crew. If a ship's current engine crew is less than its engine crew requirement, its travel speed is proportionally decreased. For example, a ship that is down to 40% of its engine crew is reduced to 40% of its normal travel speed. A character with any degree of Perception, Core, or Hand/Arm Injury cannot function as engine crew, nor can a character with 3 or more degrees of encumbrance.
If a ship is propelled by sails, this crew mans the sails. They can be referred to as sail crew, but follow all rules for engine crew for simplicity's sake.
Engine crew constantly perform maintenance on board a ship even while underway, thus a ship does not have maintenance shutdown needs like advanced vehicles do.
A ship can travel around the clock if there are enough engine crew for two shifts. Crewmembers cannot function as engine crew for more than 12 hours a day.
Cargo, Crew Quarters, & Vehicle Bays Ships are so large that it is not normally necessary to track weight or carry slots for their cargo. Only extremely heavy cargo, such as a vehicle, is tracked against a ship's excess cargo limit, and only if such vehicles are not supported by a matching vehicle bay (see Ship Devices). Aircraft cannot safely land or take off from a ship without a compatible vehicle bay, nor can land vehicles or watercraft be quickly loaded or unloaded (typically, they must be lifted out with a crane at a city dock).
All ships list crew quarters capacity; the total population of the ship (including engine and weapons crew) must not be greater than this amount. At the GM's discretion, the limit may be temporarily exceeded if the ship is carrying little excess cargo. If the GM deems the ship overloaded but not excessively so, they may allow the ship to move at half speed.
Unless on an extraordinarily long expedition, ships are functionally equivalent to cities for purposes of food; adventurers can restock their rations from the ship's supply, and food weight on the ship does not need to be tracked.
Heat and cold hazards have no effect on characters inside a ship.
Legality Although adventurers can legally bear weapons in every realm of Lur-Asko, armed ships tend to come under special regulation due to their extreme power and capacity to cause panic and worry the authorities. Ownership of such vessels by private citizens is only legal within realms that adhere to the Declaration of Methods. In other words, it is illegal to bring an armed airship over Cevelky or Macska or dock an armed ship in cities there. Special dispensation from a daimyo or Vampire Lord can waive this restriction.
In other realms, armed ships are usually allowed to dock after prior arrangements with the docking authorities. Particularly heavily-armed ships may be escorted to the docks. Unless the ship has a bounty, there are usually no difficulties.
Communication Due to Lur-Asko naval law and tradition, all ships are sold with an included Communication Stone and Illusionary Communicator (see Adamantology Devices). The naval versions of these devices are quite heavy and have antennas built into the ship's hull, allowing practically unlimited reach for little cost (at least compared to the rest of the ship's cost). By default, these devices constantly transmit and receive the necessary codes to establish contact with any nearby ship. This function can be toggled off, but is a necessary part of city docking procedures. Because of the high power and efficiency of a ship's communicators, they are not entirely shut down by commjammers when operating ship-to-ship; if 20 miles or less from each other, two ships can always communicate.
The ship's communication devices are traditionally operated from the Command station, but control can be easily transferred to any other overseer station without a delay. If desired, they can also be made available to other characters via a separate terminal usually found on or near the bridge. Although no Abilities assist with the communication devices, some captains choose to designate a "comms overseer" to man the terminal when extensive coordination with other ships is necessary.
Some land-based communication devices also follow the rules for ship communicators (such as unlimited reach, resistance to jamming, and auto-broadcasting). At least one such device is found at the docking authority of every city, and others are operated by messenger guilds or military centers. These devices are never man-portable.
Custom Rooms Most ships are sold with a certain number of custom rooms. Although ships are pre-designed with all the engines, propulsion, and weapons they need for normal operation, some rooms are left empty for buyers to customize to their liking. While commercial operators often leave them empty to use as cargo bays, adventurers frequently stock them with conveniences to extend their quests away from civilization, or advanced devices to give them the edge against dangerous foes. See Ship Devices & Custom Rooms for details.
Ship's Spirit A ship's Spirit (SPR) describes the morale of the crew and the degree to which the design of the ship is conducive to it. SPR does not directly affect the stats of characters, but impacts their ability to function together as an effective crew. Spirit is useful in ship combat where it is analogous to a character's Willpower, but its decay over long voyages can jeopardize an entire quest.
For every 10 days that a ship remains underway, its SPR receives a penalty of -1. When docked in cities, this penalty is removed at a rate of 1 per day. If a ship is due to take another -1 penalty but is already at 1 SPR, it begins losing SPD, DCN, MBL, and PDL at a rate of 1 per day instead to a minimum of 50% for each stat. Travel speed is decreased proportionally with SPD. Penalties to all stats except SPR are immediately removed after 1 day of being docked in a city.