Campaign Notes: Some Pirate Campaign Rules

    A while back, I ran a small pirate campaign. The campaign ended up not going very far, but I have some incomplete notes on ships and sea-faring that have been kicking around in my head ever since. So, lets share them with the world!

Ship Stats

    The most fun part of this, of course, is looking at all the cool ships you can get. In order to simplify things, I made several classes of ships with fairly generic stats. Additionally, borrowing from Ultraviolet Grasslands and the Black City (UVG), I created the concept of the "chest" unit of weight. This is approximately one chest of treasure, one person, enough supplies (including water) for a person for a week, and the minimum amount of crew member needs on a ship. Its mostly weight, but has a space component too. A cannon, with balls and powder, takes up 20 chests, which by my math was about 1 ton. Generally, a single crew member is assumed to take 10 chests of capacity, through their weight, equipment, and required space. Additionally, even though these stats list cannons, that is just a maximum number and most ships would have much fewer (0 in my setting, but yours may vary).

    I make no guarantees about the accuracy of these, there is a lot of random information out there when I did my search, but at the very least the ships should be gameable and probably in the right ballpark.

So, without further ado, lets make some ships, starting from the smallest and getting bigger as we go:

Pinnace

The smallest class of ships, this one is barely bigger than a lifeboat.

Stat	Measurement
Depth	Shallow
Speed Modifiers	Maneuverable
Crew	6-60
Cannons	8
Total Capacity	620 chests
Masts	1

Sloop

This incredibly popular ship was the most common pirate ship. It was also known as a Cutter when it had 2 masts.

Stat	Measurement
Depth	Shallow
Speed Modifiers	Fast, Maneuverable
Crew	10-100
Cannons	14
Total Capacity	1,000-2,000 chests
Masts	1-2

Brigantine

Another popular ship type, this one is larger than the sloop.

Stat	Measurement
Depth	Deep
Speed Modifiers	Fast
Crew	12-125
Cannons	20
Total Capacity	1,000-4000 chests
Masts	2

Fluyt

A smaller ship intended to be used as a "prey" ship.

Stat	Measurement
Depth	Deep
Speed Modifiers	Slow, Wide turns
Crew	up to 50
Cannons	12
Total Capacity	2,000-5,000 chests
Masts	2-3

Brig

Another larger ship than the sloop, but more as an alternative to the Brigantine (despite the similar name).

Stat	Measurement
Depth	Deep
Speed Modifiers	Fast, Rough in High Wind
Crew	14-150
Cannons	24
Total Capacity	2,000-5,000 chests
Masts	2

Merchantman

Quintessential merchant ship, another "prey" ship

Stat	Measurement
Depth	Deep
Speed Modifiers	Wide Turns
Crew	16-125
Cannons	20
Total Capacity	~2,400 chests
Masts	2-3

Galleon

Now we are getting to our big ships, with this being the one people probably know best.

Stat	Measurement
Depth	Deep
Speed Modifiers	Wide Turns
Crew	200-400
Cannons	70-100 (2 decks)
Total Capacity	4,000-10,000+ chests
Masts	3

Frigate

The largest category, things kind of got silly at this level. Warships and Man O' Wars all fit in here.

Stat	Measurement
Depth	Deep
Speed Modifiers	Slow
Crew	200-500
Cannons	40-124 (3 decks)
Total Capacity	6,000+ chests
Masts	3+

Real Life Ships

Now, I'm not a sailor so may have done some bad conversions, but I do have some notes on real ships that I used to help scale things. Do note that the following ships were unusually large for the ships that most pirates used historically.

Queen Anne's Revenge was a 3 mast former slave ship that was 103 ft. long with 200 tons of burthen.  

Adventure Galley was a purpose built privateering ship, which was 124 ft. long with 287 tons of burthen.

Wydah Gally, another captured slave ship, was 101 ft. long with 300 tons of burthen.

More than half of all pirate ships were sloops, usually single masted and only 60-70 ft long (slightly deceptive because of the number of levels the larger ships had), with a 100 ton weight (different than burthen? Who knows).

Rules for Sailing

    As I mentioned previously, I re-used a lot of the rules from UVG for handling the sailing lifestyle because of how similar caravan treks across a desert resemble sailing the open ocean. Additionally, I generally think sailing styles games benefit from a point-crawl structure. Because of that, I'm not going to reproduce those rules because you should go check out UVG (its over here on DriveThru).

Starvation

    When characters are forced to go a week without food, they must Save against Maiming (in case they have a specific bonus to that). I used a target 20 system (roll, add level and other bonuses, you succeed if you get at least 20). For half rations you get +12, for quarter rations +7, and for no food +2.

    On a Success, take 1d6 points of damage to physical stats (Strength, Dexterity, Constitution) and the character will have disadvantage on physical checks. This cannot reduce a stat below 3.

    On a Failure, the character begins to starve. Take 1d6+3 points of damage to physical stats (Str, Dex, Con) and 1d6 points of damage to mental stats (Arcane, Acuity, and Charisma). Additionally, the character will have disadvantage on all checks and all movement they make is slowed. If any stat is reduced to 0, the character dies. 

If the crew lacks fresh water, these checks are daily and represent dehydration instead.

Checking for Misfortune

    One part of the UVG procedure is checking for misfortune. Characters roll 1d20+Charisma, and consult the following table (this occurs weekly and cycles all PCs).

d20+Cha	Result
1-	Horribly lost, lose a week of progress.
2	Contracted a debilitating disease, take 3 points of stat damage.
3	Animals have caught something. Each must save or die. Eat their meat at your own risk.
4	Food poisoning at the most recent meal! Everyone must save vs maiming or have their max HP reduced by 1d6 (min 1)
5	Strange winds have blown us off course, lose 1d4 days
6	Contracted a loud, attention grabbing cough, it requires medicine to cure.
7	Someone wasn’t careful during a storm, lose 1 item.
8	Rats have gotten into things, lose 1d4 chests of supplies.
9	Someone fell overboard! Lose a crewmember or lose a day as you find them in the sea.
10-11	A piece of equipment becomes worn from the sea-breeze.
12	Ocean is dull. Boredom grows.
13	Something in the ocean? Might be a bit risky, but it could be some much-needed supplies!
14-19	Seas are a bit choppy, but the ship is holding steady.
20+	Your understanding of the seas grows, gain 100 xp.

Generally, the results of this check apply to everyone, but a few of them are singular (like the bonus XP one). For illnesses and such, everyone is allowed to save against them.

Swimming and Drowning

    I borrowed quite a bit a few sources, Original Edition Delta (OED) the most if memory serves. I ended up making this pretty simple, but it was important that I get it ready quickly because it came up near instantly.

    Swimming is done by making a Sink or Swim check. If you swim, you do so at half speed. This is another target 20 check, which is d20 + level + strength + 10. The general idea is you make the check, and it will stay until something changes. If you fail, you can drop something to get another chance.

    Characters who stripped get +5, medium armor is -7, and heavy armor is -15. Calm water gives +5, waves nothing, choppy water -7, and storms -15. If one hand is holding something, take -2. If you have a chest worth of gear on you, -7, and for two -15. 

    For drowning, everyone has 6 + Con air. Every minute underwater deals 1d6 damage to the air, double if you were surprised about it. Alternatively, 50% chance to take 1 point per round, 1d3 if you were surprised. When air runs out, this damage is straight to HP. However, air and this HP damage both recover at the same rate (1 point a round, healing air first).

Ship Combat

    I have rules of this, but I'm not sure I didn't just lift them straight out of OD&D, so I'm going to hold off on posting them. If they had original bits, I will probably make a second post with it, since it is pretty involved.