I, being a great boat lover, have always felt that RL inner waterways are sadly underdeveloped (for seas we have QOTR9). There is the great Musarde river, Arden, Vuchar... lots and lots of miles to explore. And all we have is River Dancer and Nathan Timothy's Virago.
What about river harbors, encounters on a river trip? Life on a boat? River could be "safe" and fast route from one side of the Mistlands to the other.
So I want to make a writeup about RL inner waterways, harbours, boats, trade routes, challenges and perils.
So if anyone has any ideas/characers concerning the matter, if somebody already has some writeup or adventure hook, I would be very grateful for input!
Ravenloft waterways poject
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Kessler
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Ravenloft waterways poject
P((hρ (A)- ρ/<έ) →n-∞1 (∑>0)
P(x=k)=(n/k)ρk(ˇ1-ρ)n-k
P(x≥1)=(10/1)•(1/6)•1(1-1/6)10-1+…1
+(10/10) : (1/6)10(1-1/6)0
=0,8385
P(x=k)=(n/k)ρk(ˇ1-ρ)n-k
P(x≥1)=(10/1)•(1/6)•1(1-1/6)10-1+…1
+(10/10) : (1/6)10(1-1/6)0
=0,8385
Re: Ravenloft waterways poject
I agree! The rivers and lakes of Ravenloft would be very fun to expand on. I've been using the rivers a lot in my current campaign for travel, as I've greatly increased the size of all the domains and it takes about ten days to walk through any of them. It's been very fun, but does have its own challenges.
One thing the players became interested in right away was e direction all the rivers are flowing in, and the exact mechanics of how the boats work and who is sailing/rowing/shoveling coal/etc. I didn't expect that at all so I had to improv a lot of river knowledge on the spot, lol. Playing with detail oriented-oriented characters is a lot of fun.
One thing about the rivers is they are a Great place to do stories about smuggling. I put in a few secret ports here and there for the ship's captain to make occasional mysterious and dangerous stops at. There is a secret port above Neufurchtenburg where goods can be snuck in for the oppressed peoples of Falkovnia, or weapons for the rebels.
One thing the players became interested in right away was e direction all the rivers are flowing in, and the exact mechanics of how the boats work and who is sailing/rowing/shoveling coal/etc. I didn't expect that at all so I had to improv a lot of river knowledge on the spot, lol. Playing with detail oriented-oriented characters is a lot of fun.
One thing about the rivers is they are a Great place to do stories about smuggling. I put in a few secret ports here and there for the ship's captain to make occasional mysterious and dangerous stops at. There is a secret port above Neufurchtenburg where goods can be snuck in for the oppressed peoples of Falkovnia, or weapons for the rebels.
Re: Ravenloft waterways poject
I would love to see something like this! Nathan Timothy is one of the staple NPCs in my game, and I love utilizing the rivers for the opportunities they provide. Something that is related, although maybe not exactly what you are looking for, is a trade map. 3rd edition Forgotten Realms included a trade map showing commodities and trade routes, which is something I think would be really beneficial for Ravenloft, especially if someone were to illustrate overland versus waterway trade routes.
You don't see a whole bunch of military action in Ravenloft, so you kind of lose out on the tactical aspects of the rivers (although you don't have to, of course!).
Still, in one of the games I used to play in, rivers were always considered the most deadly place in the world by us players. The DM had a special encounter chart for if we camped near a river, so rather than face the puddings, oozes, skum, troglodytes, merrow, lizardfolk, scrags, lacedons, sahuagin, and giant crocodiles (to name but a few) we would force-march through the darkness another roll so we could be back on the normal charts!
You don't see a whole bunch of military action in Ravenloft, so you kind of lose out on the tactical aspects of the rivers (although you don't have to, of course!).
Still, in one of the games I used to play in, rivers were always considered the most deadly place in the world by us players. The DM had a special encounter chart for if we camped near a river, so rather than face the puddings, oozes, skum, troglodytes, merrow, lizardfolk, scrags, lacedons, sahuagin, and giant crocodiles (to name but a few) we would force-march through the darkness another roll so we could be back on the normal charts!
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MichaelTumey
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Re: Ravenloft waterways poject
While not, Ravenloft or rivers, per se, Frog God Games just released several PDFs for Razor Coast, one of them is Fire as She Bears - which are rules for creating Age of Sail ships, navigation and movement, dynamic sea combat rules where every player is involved, not just the one PC shooting the cannon. I'm definitely going to pick this one up.
Steve Russell of Rite Publishing, the guy I publish Kaidan under has a weekly-ish video blog called the Demiplane of Gaming, where he and cohost, Owen K.C. Stevens of Super Genius Games, and sometimes guest 3PP publisher discuss the in's, out's and calamities of game publication (it targets wannabe 3PPs and publishers, rather than most gamers.) His last posted episode (last night) has Louis Agresta, primary writer/organizer/developer (since Nick Logue) of Razor Coast. At one point he talks about that release (towards the end of the video cast). He describes how ship combat, damage, AC is applied - kind of cool.
I thought this was on topic and could be helpful.
Steve Russell of Rite Publishing, the guy I publish Kaidan under has a weekly-ish video blog called the Demiplane of Gaming, where he and cohost, Owen K.C. Stevens of Super Genius Games, and sometimes guest 3PP publisher discuss the in's, out's and calamities of game publication (it targets wannabe 3PPs and publishers, rather than most gamers.) His last posted episode (last night) has Louis Agresta, primary writer/organizer/developer (since Nick Logue) of Razor Coast. At one point he talks about that release (towards the end of the video cast). He describes how ship combat, damage, AC is applied - kind of cool.
I thought this was on topic and could be helpful.