Description of your ship:
The ship has three masts, the center one of which is the tallest. There is the stereotypical plethora of rigging attached to each. The crow's nest is about 90% up the central mast.
There are two half-castles on top of the ship. The interior of one is the captains cabin while the other is for miscellaneous storage. The ship's surgeon, sail mender, or other specialists might do their work in this area. On top of the captain's cabin lies the helm of the ship. On top of the forward half-castle lies much of nothing, kept fairly clear (this is normal). There appear to be skid marks on the deck of the ship as if this level had been used for a makeshift cannon platform for forward-firing weapons at least once.
The captain's cabin has two rooms. The first looks to be a dining area as well as a meeting area. The second one, with windows looking out of the left, right, and rear of the ship (look! real directions for once!), contains a large bed and is the captain's personal living space.
On the upper deck of the ship between the two half-castles there is a large set of double doors that open upward that are set into the middle of the deck of the ship. They are, together, 20' wide and 20' long. A small-sized but sturdy looking crane is attached to one of the masts that could easily swing around and lift things from the docks into this cargo portal.
Entrance into the lower decks is possible through the central cargo portal, a stairwell in the fore of the ship, or an access ladder near the aft of the ship.
There are three decks beneath. The first is the cannon deck. There are six cannons that can be swiveled to point to either the port or starboard side of the ship. In the front of the ship on the same level appears to be some crew quarters. In the aft of the ship on the same level you find the brig which doubles as storage for the cannon deck (ammunition, fuses, stuff that goes boom, etc) The middle of the cannon deck also has a large hole that is covered by a thick rope net. It looks as if winches can be released to move this net to allow the crane to lower something to the deck below. There are also wooden boards that are fastened securely against the aft wall that look like something could be lowered onto them if they were placed spanning the central hole--something like a cannon.
The next level is the cargo hold. The aft of the ship appears to contain the galley. There is a small room sectioned off at the front of the ship but it is empty.
The final level is all crew quarters. A myriad of hammocks and cots lie everywhere.
Your ship, the MARY.
Keep in mind it looks way too long because of the dimensions of the characters in this post. It is 35' wide and 110' long.
Top Decks:
The aft top deck has the helm. The fore top deck is clear. There is a skinny walkway to the very front of the ship.
Upper Deck:
The fore of the ship contains the empty space to facilitate any sort of specialist's work. ZEIG and DAI have set up their alchemy set in this room. There is another room behind the large one at the very front of the ship. This is currently empty.
The aft of the ship contains the captain's quarters. The first room is a dining hall and meeting room. It contains a map of the southern continents and a large table. Directly after that is a quite spacey room for a ship, containing the captain's bed and personal effects and storage. It is roughly 9' by 15'
Cannon Deck:
The compartment at the front of this deck is for officer's quarters. The aft room is used as the brig and munitions storage.
The cargo deck doors open into this deck onto a hole in the floor. There is a heavy net winched across the hole, and planks that can be stretched over it that will support moving a cannon of them.
Cargo Deck:
This compartment is for hauling stuff. It's rather plain at the moment. The back of this deck contains the galley. The room at the front of the ship is empty. It looks like it was used as a sort of "cold" room. There are places to keep blocks of ice and places to hang moisture-collecting material.
Hold:
General quarters are located here. Complicated and jumbled network of misc. storage, hammocks, cots, and support structure. In the rear of the deck lies a temporary wall with a blanket for a door. Behind it is a small room of about 12' by 15' for the ten marines and their possessions.
| = walls
- = walls
. = decking, has a waist-high guard rail along the edge of it
[ ] = cargo hold doors. 10' wide. (You can stand on the doors when they are closed with no issue. When they are open, the ']' and '[' squares can be stood upon, but you are considered balancing (DC 10).
= = cargo hold doors (center).
# = doorway
% = stairwell to top of half-castle or down to the lower deck. using a stairwell requires 10' of movement. (You must first move into the square with the stairwell, and then spend 10' of movement to change floors.) This movement cost can be reduced to 5' with a successful DC 10 Balance check. Failing this check means you do not move at all, and failing by more than 5 means you fall prone in the stairwell. The DC of this check can increase based on ship conditions.
X = mast. The central mast is a foot thicker than the other two, which are four feet thick. The masts all have a rope ladder that hangs down. The central mast has a fold-able crane attached to it for lowering/raising the cargo deck's contents. These have "soft" corners.
H = helm. This is where the stereo-typical ship's wheel is located
o = deck holes, can be covered by small, fitted wooden doors. have rope ladders that lead down to the lower deck. You can stand on them without dropping through with a DC 5 Balance check. Moving through them requires the same DC 5 balance check.
c = cannon port. Currently the ship only has six cannons, which can be used from any of these points.
^ = semi-permanent ladders to an upper deck
A = alchemist's lab. Can occupy this space, but actions here might risk damaging it.
Top Decks: Upper Deck: Cannon Deck: Cargo Deck: Hold:
| _ |
. | | . | | . | |
... | | ... | | ... | | . | |
..... | | --#-- | | ..... | | ... | | . |
..o.. | | ....A | | #---# | | ---#- | | ... |
..... | | ..... | c.....c | ..o.. | | . |
..X.. | | ..X.. | | ..X.. | | ..X.. | | ... |
%---% | | %#-#% | | %...% | | %...% | | ... |
...o... c.....c |.....| |...|
....... c.....c |.....| |...|
..[=].. c.[=].c |.....| |...|
..[=].. c.[=].c |..o..| |.^.|
...X... |.oXo.| |..X..| |...|
...o... c.....c |..o..| |.^.|
....... c.....c |.....| |...|
....... c.....c |.....| |...|
%-X-% | | %#X#% | | %.X.% | | %-X-% | | -#- |
..H.. | | ..... | c.....c | ..... | | ... | | |
..... | | ..... | | --#-- | | ..... | | ... |
..... | | --#-- | | ..... | | ... | --- | |
... | | ... | | ... | --- | | | |
--- --- ---
A note on walls of the ship:
The internal walls on the MARY are very obviously not the entire 5'x5' thick. As such, like on any usual and regular D&D map, they lie on the borders of squares. This means that you can stand on the same tile as internal walls. Internal walls always "face" the center of the ship. This means that in basically all cases, standing on the same square of a wall (or door) puts you inside of the room that it is separating from the rest of the ship.
Exterior walls, IE: the hull,
ARE "thick" and as such you cannot occupy their squares.
A note on the stairwells:
Stairwells ( $ on the map ) are a little special as well. They are a 5x5 area that is a tight pathway that lead both up and down a deck. Moving into the square with a stairwell requires 5' of movement as normal. Going up or down a floor requires 20' of movement, but this can be reduced to 10' with a successful DC 10 Balance check. This basically represents your character's ability to nimbly jump up the stairs, skipping some, etc. Idealy, it would have also been a Jump check to do this but I didn't care to make you or myself roll forty-five checks every time you wanted to use the damn stairs. Stairwells can only be entered from one direction. The stairwells on the front of the ship face toward the back and the stairwells on the back of the ship face forward. Due to this, you cannot use them from inside of any rooms. However, you CAN go at the cannon deck's stairwells down from any angle. The stairwells on the cannon deck leading up can only be used as normal.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:30, Thu 26 Apr 2012.