Ship Building

Faction Flags

Ships and Ship Building

Requires: Carpenter’s Tools Proficiency

A ship is the most essential aspect of a pirate crew. You cannot be seafaring on your dinghy forever, of course. As such a crucial part of your life on the seas as a ship is, you may want to avoid the Ship Docks that sell used boats of all sorts to you, and rather begin work on your own. Your very own. With a blueprint, carpentry tools in hand, some Berri to spend, you can begin to work on your own seafaring ship.

Ship building is a lengthy process, but provides a bounty of benefits to the crew who will eventually drive it along the sea. Ships comes in many different shapes and sizes, and in various tiers that will affect what you can add and build upon your ship when it is finally finished.

Make a copy of this spreadsheet to use for your ship:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1zu256-lIUrYtXS47jtAWtfYUTTO9tc9TOsKGd8iGxkc/edit?usp=sharing

Understanding Seaships

The ships you find in this section will give you every detail you need in regards to the ship itself, both in regards to combat and ship building.

Name and Tier: This is the designation of the ship and its power level. Ships of different tiers vary to a great degree in terms of how powerful they are and what you can do with them. The tier of a ship you build is dependent on the type of blueprint you receive. Finding a ship in a shipyard for sale will tell you its tier as part of its sheet.
Size Category and Frame: This describes the overall size of the vessel. A ship’s size provides a modifier to its Armor Class. This entry also notes the base frame of the ship.
Speed: This is the number of hexes the ship can move using most ship actions.
Maneuverability: A ship’s maneuverability is rated clumsy, poor, average, good, or perfect. This is generally tied to the mass and size of the ship, and it both indicates how agile the ship is on the sea and determines the minimum number of hexes the ship must move before it can turn.
Armor Class (AC): This value is used when determining whether ship-weapons hit a ship. Each ship carries a base AC, but it can gain bonuses from various properties and even the crew that helms it.
Hull Points (HP): This is the total amount of damage a ship can take before it becomes inoperative. A ship with 0 Hull Points is destroyed. In a base frame stat block, the Hull Points entry also lists the HP increment, which is the number of Hull Points a ship with that frame automatically gains when its tier increases.
Damage Threshold (DT): If an attack deals less damage than this value, that damage isn’t counted against the ship’s total Hull Points. Only Huge or larger ships have a Damage Threshold, unless given by an ability or an additional property.
Critical Threshold (CT): When the Hull Points of a ship reaches this value, it begins taking on water and starts to sink. This value is always one-fifth of the ship’s maximum number of Hull Points.
Weapons: This entry lists the amount of weapons a ship can carry, as well as the location of the weapon for use in ship combat. Fore means that the mount can only be placed on the front of the ship, aft back. Port refers to either side of the ship, the total amount of mounts can be split between both sides of the ship.
Expansions: This entry lists any expansion spaces that that the ship can hold for upgrades.
Minimum and Maximum Crew: In a base frame stat block, these entries note the minimum and maximum number of characters who can take actions on that vessel during ship combat. A ship without its minimum crew can’t be operated.
Special Abilities: Any unique actions or qualities a ship has are listed here. Members of the crew or properties of the ship may offer additional unique actions. Those can be listed in the Ship Information sheet you create upon completing the ship.
Cost The cost of the ship without any additional properties or expansions.
Crafting Goal (CG) The total goal you must pass in order to complete building the ship without any expansions or properties. It comes with an increment, which is what is added to the CG if you are building the ship at a Tier higher than 1.

Building Your Ship

There is a step by step process to ship-building, that involves searching, researching and contemplation on what you are going to build before even starting.

Step One - Acquiring and Researching a Blueprint:

First you must purchase, find, or come across a blueprint to the ship frame you hope to make. Some features and feats allow you to craft your own blueprint from careful observation and studying of other ship frames. In any case, once you acquire the blueprint, you must perform the “Research” DT in order to fully understand the ship you hope to create. The Research threshold you must pass in order to be able to start building the ship is equal to 100 x the Tier of the Ship (which is specified on the Blueprint that you pick up) with Carpenter’s tools proficiency.

Step Two - Determining Build Points of the Ship.

A ship tiers’ total build points (BP) determine the properties you can add to the ship. If you have any of the Ship Building feats (located in Crafting Feats), you can add the specified amount of Build Points to the ship you’re building. Each tier has different BP, which are specified in the in the table below. When you upgrade your ship, the Build Points of the ship increases. You can find the list of Properties later in this segment.

Step 3 - Selecting Properties.

Properties are integral to keeping your ship upgraded and on par with other pirates on the sea. They include everything from weapons, propulsion methods, additional armor, and even technology that improves your ship. You do not need to expend all of your Build Points during the process of building your ship, unless the ship requires it to complete. As long as you have unexpended Build Points on your ship, you can add them at any time.

Step 4 - Selecting Expansions.

Now that the important stuff is out of the way, there are a multitude of other investments you can make and build into your ship. Expansions are quarters and cabins within the ship that will help you and your crew facilitate your various downtime activities, or grant some role-play benefit to you within the game. Some also may help you make money, depending on what you do with them. Expansions add to the total cost of the ship as well as building it. Each expansion also comes with its own DT when adding to a ship. Like properties, you do not have to build the expansions as part of building the ship, unless the ship requires it to complete. As long as you have an additional Expansions, you can add them at any time.

Step 5. Begin Building your Ship.

Now for the time-consuming part. Building your ship requires you to spend 2DT per day and make a series of Carpenter’s Tools checks in order to meet or pass a crafting goal, known as a Crafting Goal (CG). The crafting goal you must pass in order to build your ship is located on the ship’s statblock in the “Ship Frames” section of this segment. There is also a cost associated with building the ship, which is equal to half its total cost.

Step 6. Add Details and Submit your Ship.

Be sure to give your ship a name, and a physical description if you desire, and submit it to the #ship-information channels as a private thread. Be sure to mention staff when you do so. The #ship-information channel is there so that DMs can pull up your ship stats should a ship battle take place.

Ship Frames

Ships comes in many different shapes and sizes, and in various tiers that will affect what you can add and build upon your ship when it is finally finished. Below you can find a list of various ships and their unique abilities that set them apart from the others.

Ship Frames

Expansions

Most ships have room within their hull for one or more expansions, each of which can be converted to function in a wide variety of roles. Unfilled, these cabins or bays are simply storage space (and count as cargo holds). If a ships bays are instead used for guest quarters, the ship can serve as a transport vessel for soldiers, travelers, or refugees. For instance, if you make a large or huge ship with plenty of mess halls, a kitchen, and a bar, you can make your own sailing restaurant. A ship with many guest rooms a sick bay, and a laboratory could act as a sailing hospital, etc. The following options are available for most ships that have available expansions. If an option requires multiple bays, this is noted in its description. An entire expansion must be used for a single purpose, even if it gives you multiple instances of that option. Expansions cost a set amount of Berri to create.

Ship Expansions

Cargo Hold

Unconverted expansion bays count as cargo holds. A cargo hold can contain approximately 10 tons of goods, with no item being larger than Large. A ship with multiple cargo holds can hold larger objects; usually 4 contiguous cargo holds are required to hold Huge objects and 8 for Gargantuan objects. Of course, the size of an object that a ship can carry also depends on the ship’s size as well. A Small or Medium ship cannot carry a gargantuan object, try as it might. Only a ship larger than Large could.

Crew Cabin

Most ships larger than Tiny have places where their crew can sleep and bathe during long journeys on the ocean. These quarters can range from hammocks strung between cargo containers to cozy chambers with custom furnishings and private bathrooms.

Common

Common crew cabins are the most basic type. They consist of simple hammocks or bunks (sometimes folding out from the side of a hallway) or other similarly austere places to rest. Crew members who sleep in common quarters usually keep their personal possessions in a footlocker. Common crew quarters also include a communal bathroom (which includes a simple bath). Ships with crews numbering in the dozens or hundreds often have massive barracks where crew members sleep in shifts. Ships come with a common crew cabin as part of constructions.

Good

Good crew cabins are a bit more upscale than common crew quarters. They consist of dormitory-style rooms that can hold one or two small beds (larger ships usually require lower-ranking crew members to share these quarters) and sometimes a personal closet or drawer space for each occupant. Good crew quarters also include one or two shared bathrooms with multiple baths and sinks. Good crew quarters offer an additional 1d6 to travel and ship action skill checks for a crew after they long rest.

Luxurious

Luxurious crew cabins are the pinnacle of comfort. They consist of private rooms for each crew member, with personal bathrooms and baths as well as furnishings that match the resident’s tastes. Some luxurious crew quarters also feature a gaming areas. Luxurious cabins can only be built into Large or larger ships, and offer a 1d8 to travel and ship action skill checks for a crew after they long rest.

Crew Cabin

Type Cost CG

Common Free Free

Good 100,000B 50

Luxurious 200,000B 150

Sick Bay

A full sick lab contains beds, diagnostic equipment, and tools, and even a small surgical theater. It allows a Doctor to treat up to three patients at once, and they can use the “Check-Up” feature (if they have reached Rank II in the Doctor Crew Role) once per day on each patient, without requiring a short rest. Additionally, if the Doctor fails the DC for the desired “Check-Up” bonus, they can roll again. It otherwise functions as a medical kit with infinite charges. You gain access to the Cybernetics Medical downtime if you have a Sick Bay and a Laboratory.

Kitchen

A kitchen has everything a chef needs to prepare meals and feed their crew. When performing the Cooking DTA, the DC for desired meal’s success is reduced by a number equal to the tier of the ship. Additionally, if you desire to cook a certain star meal but do not have all the ingredients to do so, you can pull up to 5 ingredients from the kitchen of the same tier as the ship. These additional ingredients do not have meal bonuses.

Smuggler Compartment

Some things are against the law of the World Government to carry. Such contraband needs to be hidden away securely in case you are stopped for any unprompted inspection by the Marines. Or if you are a Marine, all the more reason to keep it out of sight of your superiors and comrades. A smuggler compartment is perfect for you, then. Taking a cargo hold, a smuggler’s compartment is a room with a series of false planks, walls and crates to set up the illusion of a by the book delivery of goods. However, the compartment is only as good as the lock and key you keep it under. Paired with a lock of any tier when you build this into your ship, a creature with an Intelligence score higher than 5 must pass an Intelligence (Investigation) skill check that beats the DC of the lock you used to create the compartment. You can switch out the locks at anytime, improving the DC of the compartment whenever you see fit.

Guest Cabin

Guest cabins follow what you had spent on your Crew Cabin, and are private rooms reserved for, well, guests of the ship. When a guest spends a long rest in the cabin, they gain a bonus to a single skill check of their choice that they are proficient in depending on the type of Crew Cabin you set up for the ship. (Good = +2 | Luxurious = +3)

Forge

The forge allows the crew to have access to the crafting downtime activity on your ship. Furthermore, you lower the total goal for all weapon or armor crafting rolls by 5.

Laboratory

A laboratory is room for scientific development on the ship. Filled with various chemistry sets and technology, the laboratory is one such expansion that requires an Engine to work properly. When performing the Alchemy downtime, you can make medicine and drugs at half the cost. This effect stacks with the “Pharmacist” feat, turning the cost into 3/4ths the original crafting cost of the drug. Additionally, when paired with a sick bay, the Laboratory gives you access to the Cybernetics downtime.

Requires an Engine

Recreation Cabin

The recreation cabin is an open space outfitted for sparring, training, and other activities to pass the time. With a Recreation Cabin attached to a ship, its crew members and guests of the crew can spend downtime training Weapon and Armor proficiency, ASIs, and Feats more easily. The Downtime cost of training any of these is reduced by a number equal to the tier of the ship.

Life Boats

The life boat expansion attaches two tiny boats of your choice to the sides of the ship’s deck, meant for when your ship is within it’s Critical Threshold and begins to sink. Any 2 Tiny ships can fit here. Rowboats are free additions, included in the berri cost. Wavers must be crafted. Speedboats can be built in, but double the Berri and Crafting Goal.

Additional Gun Bay

An additional gun bay doubles the ship’s port mounts. The additional mounts must be of the same type as those already allowed by the ship (Light or Heavy). For example, if built into a Caravel, the additional gun bay grants 2 more port (light) mounts. If built into a Dreadnought, you gain 10 additional port (heavy) mounts. You still require crew members to operate these weapons. Additionally, you may add up to 2 extra gun bays to any side of the ship except the port side (starboard, bow, or stern), but each side is limited to 2 additional gun bays.

Garden

Having a garden built into the ship helps aspiring Botanists to continue their studies and collect rare plants for use in the Botany downtime activity. Having a garden attached to your ship allows you to work on a number of planter (the size depends on the tier of your ship Tier 1 being small and Tier 4 being extra large) pots equal to your Wisdom modifier at the same time as part of your DTA. The planters must be started at the exact same time, and you must work on planters of the same size.

Engine Room

In order to add an engine to a Medium or larger ship, you must also build an Engine room into it. An Engine room is made specifically to carry and protect the Engine that powers your ship. Once both an Engine Room and Engine have been implemented, you can use a ship requiring one, and add additional properties that require an Engine to be active.

Brig

Sailors of all factions might find use in keeping a Brig on the ship. The brig is where Marines and Bounty Hunters might keep captured pirates, though pirates may also use it to keep prisoners of battle or hostages. The amount of cells a brig has is dependent on it’s size. As explained in the table above for expansions, you must spend the additional Berri and add to the Crafting Goal according to how many cells the Brig has.

Ship Size # of Cells

Small 1

Medium 2

Large 3

Huge 4

Gargantuan 5

Colossal 6

Bar

A bar can store any amount of liquor, beer, or wine that is made on the ship. It is often tied into a mess-hall, if a ship carries one.

You receive a +2 to persuasion or intimidation checks made while inside the Bar.
This bonus can be used when influencing islands.

Brewery

This system of copper basins and piping assists in the process of brewing.

Reduce the the downtime cost for researching recipes by 1/2.
Each member of the crew proficient with brewing tools gains 1 additional recipe for each tier they qualify for.

Mess Hall

The purpose of the Mess Hall is to feed crew and guests. You can have multiple Mess Halls in a ship, and they can be furnished as lavishly or as simply as you see fit. With each Mess Hall, meals cooked by a chef on the ship can feed 5 additional creatures.

Docking Bay

A huge or larger ship can have a docking bay built into it’s hull that allows for up to 4 tiny ships, 3 small ships, 2 medium or 1 large ship docked beside it, per docking bay. A docking bay can only be opened when the ship is anchored.

Boat Port

A boat port can hold a single ship 2 sizes smaller than the ship it is built into. This ship is concealed within the boat and protected from damage. You gain a new ship action with a boat port installed, called “Discharge.” This ship action takes all of a ships actions, opens the fore of the ship like splitting doors, and shoots the boat up to its full speed out of the port safely. Best used when the ship reaches it’s critical threshold.

Requires an Engine

Aquarium

An aquarium can be built into any of the following expansions as part of that expansion (Kitchen, Library, Mess Hall, Garden). With an Aquarium built into a ship, you can hold 5 fish inside it that are of the same tier as the ship. At the start of each in-game week, you gain 1d4 of each type of fish you placed in the aquarium as ingredients. You only gain more fish from the main 5 fish you placed inside, not any additional fish you gain in the aquarium each week.

Library

A library is furnished with all kinds of books, and a cozy reading area in the center. Crew members can use the library to read up on skills and tools and how to use them. When training a Downtime skill or tool proficiency, you can reduce the DT cost by the tier of the ship.

Properties

Ship properties are like upgrades that buff your ships abilities. Properties are separated into four sections: Armor, Mounts, Propulsion, and Special. They allow you to modify your ship to a desired build for naval combat and travel for the price of BP. Some properties may require additional materials found throughout the world in order to build, while others require an Engine, a property found in the “Special” section. When adding a property to your ship, you spend 2 DT to add the property. You do not need to reach a CG in order to complete it.

Armor

A ships armor can be what kind of wood the ship is made from, or any additional layers of materials applied overtop the hull. Different armors effect either the ships Armor Class, total Hull Points, or increase the ship’s Damage Threshold, or all of the above.

In HP Bonuses, when an armor mentions intervals, it means that you add the number specified to the Hull Points per the tier of the ship.

Adam Wood

Adam Wood is the rarest type of wood in all the world. The reason being that it comes from only one tree, the only tree of its type found in the New World. This tree is known simply as the Adam tree, claimed to be the oldest tree in the world. As armor on a ship, Adam Wood is unsurpassable, even to known metals. It is acquired as lumber through a long and arduous process known only to Giants.

Weapons

In the frame statblocks, you will find what types of weapons your ship can carry and how many. They are separated by Light and Heavy. Light weapons do less damage and often have a shorter range. Heavy weapons often have long range and deal heftier damage as well.

Weapons have three ranges, Short, Medium, and Long. In naval combat, weapons with Short ranges can hit up targets up to 2 hexes (100 feet) away. Weapons with medium ranges can hit targets up to 4 hexes (200 feet) away. Weapons with long ranges can hit targets up 6 hexes (300 feet) away.

Some weapons may require an Engine to operate.

Propulsion

Propulsion methods include upgraded sails, oars, and even turbines attached to the ship. Turbines mainly increase the speed of a ship, but can also increase the Armor Class. In the table below, some propulsions are unaffected by Wind, the last column specifies which propulsion methods are still affected by wind.

Special

Special properties are unique additions to your ship. They grant unique benefits and abilities to the ship that other sailors could not even dream of. Most special properties require an Engine to operate, which is found in this section.

Special Properties

Engine

An engine is somewhat essential for the upgrades you may want on your ship. Remember, you must have already built in an Engine Room into your ship if it is size Small or Larger. For tiny ships, your engine appears as a small motor built onto the back of the vehicle. Once an engine is built into your ship, all properties or abilities that require an engine become eligible for you to use.

Seastone Hull

In order to pass over the Calm Belt, your ship requires a hull of seastone. To Sea Kings, seastone is percieved to be exactly like the ocean, giving you camouflage against the colossal beasts of the ocean, allowing your ship to safely cross the Calm Belt without trouble. In order to create a hull plating of sea stone onto your ship, you must first find seastone.

Coup de Burst

The Coup de Burst is designed for a quick escape, a turbine built into the back of your ship is filled with pressurized air, and you gain the “Coup de Burst” ship action. When you use this action, your ship begins to store wind and pressurize it for 2 rounds. After the second round of ship battle has concluded, the pressurized air releases and the ship is thrust up to triple its movement into the air in a straight line (which ever direction it was facing). You can use this ship action once per day.

Frame Modifier

If you are interested in giving your ship a new passive ability, the Frame modifier is what you need. Costing BP, it allows you to change the main ability of the ship with another (excluding Submersible and Air Ship).

Coating

There is a special coating made from the resin of huge mangroves in Sabaody Archipelago. This coating allows the ship to sink like a submarine into the ocean and travel safely under the water. A large air bubble forms around the the ship as it submerses, protecting all of the crew on the ship, even Devil Fruit users. This is the only method (other than owning a Submarine) that one can use to get to Fishman Kingdom, and is one such passage to the New World.

Chicken Run

Another mechanical invention made to assist with ship mobility during naval combat. Having a Chicken Run installed into your ship gives you access to the “Chicken Run” ship action. As an action, you can activate a small set of turbines attached to the front of your ship, allowing your ship to move backwards in a straight line up to half of your ship’s full speed. You can use this ship action once per day.

Crew Recruitment

In order to reach the minimum requirement in order to properly work and sail your ship, you may find yourself lacking in crew members. With crew recruitment, you gain a number of basic creatures of any humanoid race of your choice to help you sail your ship throughout the world.

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse