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The Ironclad Raider
🕑 Added 2025-02-25 21:03:16 +0000 UTCThe ironclad raider is probably a ship best suited for one of four things:
The big bad guy in a naval campaign, who you want the party to have to run away from (because if they roll well and sink him in session five, what then?)
Gnomes
Dwarves, if your dwarves are into boats
That one kingdom in your setting that's way more technologically advanced than everyone else
When I drew this, I tried to capture a bit of that "brought to you by the designers of the cybertruck" look that early ironclads had, but a touch less derpy-looking. And let's be honest: early ironclads were super derpy. The mid-to-late 1800s truly were the awkward teenage years of naval warfare.
I made a few alternate versions of this map for patrons, including ballista-armed and unarmed versions, as well as a version of the ship sailing on lava. This map came from a Cartographic Congress proposal and the original idea was for a ship that sailed on the elemental sea of fire. I think the water version will probably be more useful to most people, but hey, if patrons vote for a lava ship, I'm gonna deliver a lava ship.
Speaking of patrons voting on ships, I posted a vote to decide on the next spelljammer map and patrons chose the Living Ship. This is from the new 5e Spelljammer book and it basically looks like a sailing ship with a treant growing out of it. I'm drawing that next and I'll make a seafaring version as well for DMs running monoplanetary campaigns.
Anyway, that's it for the moment. If you've got any questions or thoughts about the ironclad, let me know!
Comments
HMSDingbat
Honestly one of my favorite ship designs because you can see the flaws on its face. Like what engineer showed that to a person with money who then agreed "yes, this will operate and is worth the investment" Naval history is fascinating
Milby's Maps
If I drew the USS Monitor, people would complain that it was unrealistic because a ship that rides so low in the water would get flooded and sink. And I couldn't blame them, because that's what happened to it, but still.
HMSDingbat
Bro hit the Merrimack. But when is the Monitor's awkward "Flat sheet of metal with a hot boxing cylinder on top" coming? Great map!
