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