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Basic Information

A Ship is a manned watercraft which carries its own tender(s)1. This defintion is about as close to substantive as you can get but is not foolproof as tradition denies "ship" status to various other vessels as well - and not everything classed as a ship will necessarily have an onboard tender when in commission. In general, however, a ship is larger than a boat.

To complicate things further, in the age of sail a ship was specifically a vessel with three square-rigged masts and a bowsprit, anything else that floated being classified by its sail plan.


1. full source reference

Game and Story Use

  • If PCs are going to go any distance by water, they will probably need a ship. If they need to take a lot of luggage with them, they definitely will.
  • A ship is also quite capable of being a location (or even a setting) in its own right.
  • And, of course, a base - there's plenty of scope for a campaign based around a ship sailing from one adventure to another.
    • And, if in the tramp cargo business, there is plenty of scope for Fedex quests