Game Design and Project Resources: The Workshops Quarter > Tabletop Design - The Senet House

Warhammer: Tides Of The Old World

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DeepCandle Games:
Hello everyone, welcome to a little project I've been moth-balling and unmoth-balling for some time now!
WTOTOW is an expansion to the WFRP 2nd Edition rules for bringing adventure and ability to the high seas!

It's designed with three main goals in mind, firstly to give GMs various material to populate the oceans so they can create seafaring adventures - secondly, to allow players to explore the world that's not easily accessible without long campaigns from the central Old World that you're likely familiar with!
 Thirdly, for players to be able to have adventures where crossing the sea no longer remains as a situation of "You lose this many coins and are at this place now"; Let's face it, losing gold and resources can sometimes feel pretty stinging when you mechanically just teleport to your next location, kind of like a progression toll.

The main inspiration for this project was when I looked at the Old World, the existing supplements, and vast amount of narrative loose ends (such as Karak Zorn, Pig-Barter, and many other similar such locations); A vast amount of the world in WFRP was not simply unwritten, but worse, inaccessible. If someone wanted to write a campaign into the south-lands, or to Ind, Cathay, or the Dragon Isles, it might be do-able with an ambitious home-brew campaign. However it creates a big problem for justifying anyone wanting to go out there in an existing campaign.

So a quick look at the mechanical features that Tides Of The Old World brings to the table and how they are inspired;

Ships and vessels: Tides will feature one or two ships and vessels for each major race, (barring lizardmen if nothing comes to mind) that attempt to bring some of that races general character and nature into the design of their ships. Factions that already have established navies from Man O War and other previous Warhammer games will have those adapted into the system, so expect what's familiar to remain familiar. An example of new additions will be Ogres captaining a trireme style of ship that is dedicated to ramming and boarding actions. Vicious and surprisingly fast it will reflect their nature well!

Crews and captains: Tides will also feature new careers to reflect the seafaring aspect of the Old World, with some being fairly unique to a specific race, and many more being generally accessible by the players. Ships will be crewed by NPCs with these careers and trappings under their belts, and additionally some equipment which will be unique to their role on a ship.

Naval battles: This is perhaps the point I am most proud of and it's hard for me to hide that! There will feature the ability to engage in naval conflict with cannons, rams, wizards, and all sorts of fair and foul elements at play! Players will be able to experience the thundering hot-blooded seaborne skirmishes that make heroes into legends! Featuring profiles for deck-side artillery and the ability to board and savage an enemy ship at quarters; This will be a key-part of the expansion and will also feature sea-monsters after the main project is completed.

Fleets & Flotillas: Another element of the expansion will be allowing players to employ NPCs to set sail under the same flag - while this won't be restricted in scope, there will obviously be some problems if you employ chaos marauders and empire wolf-ships to sail together. There will also be the option for each player to captain a ship of their own mechanically (although whether or not you want to give them so much agency will be up to the GM), allowing players to buy, outfit, arm, crew and sail a small armada of ships. Ships that aren't available directly due to race or current player location could easily be supplied through an intermediary NPC so don't stress too much about that.

NPCs and economics: As well as the rest, you'll have the ability to encounter NPC representatives in ports all over the Old World; while large trading companies and naval fleets won't be able to be found in smaller ports and village jetties players might be able to purchase small craft or commission them, but of course this will be impacted by the wealth of the region and quality of the work. I may also add in leisure activities such as using ships to go fishing and the ability to sell those at various vendors, but the main focus is having people on-shore to provide services to your ships such as maintenance and resupplying.

 Generally speaking, I felt it would be easier to break this down into key sections - the core rules document explaining how to make artillery tests, the rules of engagement, and much of the rules and pieces that are applied through-out the expansion as a whole; in addition to this are Seafarer Supplements, which include a faction focused breakdown of all the ships, their crew, their armament and their narrative presence on the tides of the old world, as well as any legendary characters attributed to that faction.

Here are the rules!
https://exilian.co.uk/projects/TidesOfTheOldWorldv3.pdf

Jubal:
Lovely! Regarding Man 'O War, I think the lizardmen got a giant turtle in that? Which I'm full in favour of.

How available is WFRP 2nd? I played what I think must have been first ed once at high school but I've not played much of the game.

I think the overall plan looks sensible too. Are you planning to do much by way of general sea monsters etc as well as ship to ship combat?

DeepCandle Games:
Ship to ship has a few elements, I'll break down the brief version since I'm not sure how to share the PDF as it's too big to attach here

[ 1 Preparation ] Draw up a map to approximately 2x2cm grid squares; It's really recommended to use grid paper if it's available or print it out - I recommend numbering the X and Y axis to help keep track of movements

[ 2 Deployment ] The order of ships deployment is determined by their Standard Movement value in knots (not yards), with the fastest ships deploying first through to lowest; if two ships are equal speeds and opposing factions roll 1d10 and concede to the lower roll - Deploy by rolling for the deployment table supplied; two ships can't deploy from the same direction, if this happens the player with the first ship to deploy in that area is determined to have the faster fleet and you must re-deploy

[ 3 Command Phase ] Your commander may issue 1 order per turn, per each Command Point they have during the command phase - Also use this phase to determine saves regarding devastating effects

[ 4 Manoeuvre Phase ] Once all captains have issued their orders ships may begin further manoeuvres; Various manoeuvre orders are available according to crew and ship profiles however some ships must rely on luck alone

[ 5 Artillery Phase ] Attacks and damages are attempted and resolved & Devastation is determined

[ 6 Magic Phase ] Mages may cast a spell for every mage on board until all casters have either cast a spell or skipped their casting phase - a mage that has cast a spell may not use magic if they are engaged in a boarding action in the same turn

[ 7 Assault Phase ] During this phase any ships with a distance equal to half of their standard speed (in yards) or less may attempt a ramming action if a ram is available; if the target ship is within 5 yards of your vessel you can only attempt a boarding action - ships with an assault ram however may attempt to board following a successful ramming action - Rams don't need an Artillery Test to succeed, however they must roll to determine Devastation

[ 8 Boarding Phase ] After the assault phase you may begin the boarding phase; During this phase any boarding actions must be resolved as a standard combat encounter between the crews & captains of two or more vessels depending on how many ships have engaged the same target in a boarding action. Generally it is recommended that boarding actions occur on the top deck to keep things simple how-ever as you please you may use lower decks as well, if you are interested in providing those battle maps. Templates for each ship will be provided with dimensions. Some ships will only have one deck.

Jubal:
If you email me any PDFs you want to be here (james at wavcott dot org dot uk) I can upload them properly and pass you the link, we've definitely got server space for that sort of thing just the forum's inbuilt system is a bit restrictive. :)

DeepCandle Games:
Excellent stuff, you'll probably be able to identify my email since it's attached to the account here when I send it off!

Currently at the work terminal though so I'll need to address it later I'm afraid :tusky:

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