Maelstrom Rules - Downtime: Ship Guide

Ships
If you control a ship then you can submit a downtime for your vessel. Each Maelstrom month has thirty days in it, and your vessel will receive ninety days of downtime which will run from the last day of the preceding event to the first day of the next event. For example, the downtime from Ideenlehre runs from the 1st of April to the 30th of June 1655.

The information provided for your vessel will tell you the vessel's cargo capacity, its speed and seaworthiness. It will also tell you how much money is owed on your vessel and who has a prior claim to the ship in the event of your character's demise. If you are using the website to submit your downtime actions then you will be able to find out where your ship is at any point and you can see what cargo is onboard by viewing your inventory.

Some actions are always available to ships. For instance, you can always sail your ship from one port in the New World to another, or to the waters claimed by a colony just off the adjacent coast. Some actions can only be taken in certain locations. For instance, if your ship reaches a Known World port then you may sell cargo which is on board or purchase food. You cannot sail to or from the Known World without a navigator at the helm.

Embarking on a ship
Any character or unit of men-at-arms can choose to board a ship. To do so they need to select the "act at location" action and then pick a deep water port that they know. When they do this it will submit an action to board the vessel that takes all the remaining time for that character or unit that downtime. This prevents the unit or character taking further actions before the ship-owner rejects or accept the request.

To accept the request you must sail the ship to whatever port the character has attempted to embark at if the vessel is not already there. Once you are at the right port then you can accept the embarkation action and allow the character to come aboard. When you do this the character's action will automatically adjust to the correct date to complete his boarding action.

The character will then remain on the ship and will travel with the ship wherever it goes until they disembark. Characters require one ton of cargo space for them and their food, units of men-at-arms require one ton of cargo space for every man in the unit.

Navigators And Telescopes
If you give permission to use your ship to a character who has boarded the vessel then they can sail the ship themselves in downtime. If the character is a navigator then they will be able to navigate the ship taking advantage of their skills and any suitable equipment, such as a telescope to make the ship sail faster. They can also use their skills to navigate the ship through the Maelstrom to the Known World (or back). Only a navigator can do this, otherwise the ship can only sail anywhere in the New World by keeping the coast in sight.

Ports
You cannot enter a port unless you have permission from the port authorities. All ports in the New World are controlled by the characters who attend events. If they give your ship permission to enter their port then it will appear on your list of potential destinations. All ports in the Known World are controlled by the Known World authorities, but they respond to requests from the authorities who run the colonies in the New World. For instance, if the governor of the Freiboden colony requests that Ship ID: 32 - The Silver Hind be allowed to dock at Saren, then a navigator onboard that ship will have the opportunity to sail the vessel to Freiboden.

Ports are the safest place to embark or disembark freight, character men-at-arms. It is possible to load or unload people or freight by running a vessel aground on a beach but this is very dangerous and likely to damage the ship.

Freight and men-at-arms can move freely within the boundaries of a colony, but it is impossible to move freight overland between colonies. This means that the only way to move freight between colonies is by ship. Every colony has at least one port to help them receive aid and supplies from the Known World.

Time And Orders
One you have submitted sufficient actions that take you up to or beyond the last day of downtime then you will be unable to submit any further actions. If you submit your orders by paper, then you must indicate the order in which your actions are to be undertaken. We will only submit orders for your vessel that begin before the downtime ends. Any other orders will be ignored, so make sure that you submit your actions in the correct order. The website automatically appends your actions in date order, so you do not need to worry about this if you are submitting your downtime online.

If you are using the website to submit your downtimes then you will be able to submit an order and then change your mind and delete the action. Unlike character actions, ship actions must be deleted in the reverse order of which they were entered. For instance, you cannot sail to the Known World, take on board a cargo, then delete the action that had you sailing to the Known World. You must delete the actions according to the order that they were entered, deleting the last action first.

Some actions can not be deleted. For instance, if you disembark ten men-at-arms from your vessel then you cannot delete that action. Only the person who controls the men-at-arms can delete the action. Neither of you can delete the action unless disembarking is the last action in your list for both you and the men-at-arms.

Money
There are several costs that you can incur in running a vessel. All vessels bought with starting character points begin with a very large debt outstanding, on which interest must be paid. In addition to this, you need to pay wages to the crew of the vessel. If you can afford to pay the wages of your crew from your income then the money will be taken from your income. If you cannot afford to pay the wages from your income then you will need to borrow money from your New World creditors to pay their wages. If you cannot afford their wages and have no funds to call on, then you will be unable to sail the vessel.

You can also incur large debts very easily and if your ship is damaged by pirates or other vessels then you may have to pay a hefty sum to have it repaired. The costs involved in operating a large ship can be very significant but there are large rewards to be made from running a ship, if you manage it correctly.

And so it began......

Dawn breaks, war looms, the evil Lord is gathering his armies to wage a campaign of destruction upon the free peoples of the world. It is up to I, Sir Maximilan Pegasus to stop him, with my trusted band of adventurers we must gather the enchanted sword of Tek, the Shield of Way-Lem and the amulet of Subsidence and together we shall slay this abomination! “TIME FREEZE” And bam, the fantasy world fades away, the enchanted sword of Tek in my hand is a rubber sword smothered in coloured ribbons with a laminated card cable tied to the hilt, I look down and I’m wearing plastic armour and unflattering heropants, and the magical world of my imagination washes away to reveal a field in Wigan, but you know what? It’s larp and I’m a larper, it’s what I do.
I started larping when I was 17, I’d never role-played before, I’d never played D&D or Warhammer, never played WoW or any form of online game, I’d never even read Lord of the Rings, I feel somewhat privileged that I hadn’t done any of those things, I think it gave me an untainted attitude towards what larp could be, I had no preconceptions about saving the maiden fair, slaying the dragon or smiting the liche, to me it was just a new thing to try.
It was cold, really cold, 10am on a September morning, the rain was battering down and I’d been given a faux fur tunic, a mouldy old sword and been pointed towards a man and told, “You’re monstering, there’s the ref he’ll tell you what to do.” I obeyed, I played wave after wave of zombies, orcs and various line monsters and to be honest, was cold, bored and hungry. That is, until lunchtime, the teams switched sides, I got into the kit I’d scrounged up, as with most first timers, a black trenchcoat. I took the mouldy old sword, stood with my fellow adventurers and it hit me, I’m a god damn hero!
Pow, there it was, a new larper was born.