Ships need certain bits of gear to function at full effectiveness.

At a minumum you need a crew of 5: a captain, a helmsman, and 3 people manning your weapon (assuming a ballista). There is a magic device or two that can replace one or more of the weapon folk, but that's another topic.

You'll want an Orrery or navigator's tools. Both wouldn't hurt.

Food, lots of food. A crew of 5 goes through 10 pounds a day, 300 pounds a month of dried rations. And you'd probably prefer something fresher for the early days of the trip. A ton of food is a 6 month round trip.

Water: you'll need a gallon a day per person, at 8 pounds per gallon (or about 40 pounds per day). Plus the weight of the barrels. That's one barrel with Create Water. Purify food and drink will keep it fresh, and Create Water will reduce your needed cargo space.

Ammo for your weapons.

Light. From the Asteroids out it's Dim or Dark, and even in the Inner System ships don't have portholes for light. Fire burns air, so torches are out, and Light only lasts an hour. That leaves Continual Flame. At 50 gp per casting, plus the object being cast on, one for each room can be a little expensive, but it's a one time expense. The spell is cast on a variety of standard objects starting with Pitons for small room or pocket candles, to full sized lamps, lanterns, and torches for lightling bigger rooms, or even the deck in the Outer System. Lanterns can be shuttered.

There are kits sold at supply stations consisting of a foot locker, some rope, a grapple hook, and a boarding pike. Boarding pikes are just halberds, but they're useful to cut boarding lines and push other ships away. Assuming you have enough of them, of course, and the people to use them.

You may want a cartography kit if you're making new charts. Usually this only matters if you're in a new system.

A scribe kit and a log book are essential if you want to keep a ship's log. You probably do.

For cooking without fire, you'll want a Hot Plate (tm) or Mercane Oven (tm). A flat piece of iron enchanted with Heat Metal by an artificer or druid, and capable of acting like a griddle, stove top, or heat source for a brick over. A Mercane Oven is just an iron pot with the same enchantment (a dutch over, where there are dutch). It's good for the cook's Chowder Pot.

Fishing gear if you want some fresh meat after stores are used or spoiled.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:59, Thu 26 Sept.