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Man-O'-War-Class Spelljammer - Patrons' Edition
🕑 Added 2022-02-16 19:38:58 +0000 UTCThere's a time in every Spelljammer campaign when the party has finally committed enough crimes and looted enough corpses to afford a new ship. Maybe not the Doomlord-Class Planetary Sterilizer they've always wanted, but something better. They've been cruising around in a stylish, but poorly-armed bugboat for about eight levels now. They used to love it, but now... well, the decks are stained with blood, they've got three NPCs sleeping on the floor, and there isn't a square inch of the ship that the wizard's familiar hasn't peed on. So they head down to the shipyard to buy themselves a big boy spelljammer.
The Man-O'-War is an elven-designed light warship with lots of cargo space, seven officers' cabins, and enough firepower to hold its own against most of what the old ship had to run away from. The four ballistas are fairly standard, but the catapult is a little more interesting. Instead of using rope and wood to launch a projectile, this catapult uses a high-pressure boiler that builds up steam, which can be released to fire the weapon.
But the best thing about the Man-O'-War is, arguably, the rear cargo doors. They can be used to load or unload cargo or passengers, either on land, or *ahem* mid-flight. An excellent way to prevent overcrowding in the brig.
Earlier, I said I was planning to draw another spelljammer later this year, but I think I'm going to make it at least two, with the next one coming in three months or so. It'll be a bigger ship than the Man-O'-War, something beefy to use as a late-game vessel. I'll probably hold a vote on which ship to draw when I'm ready to get started on it. I know there aren't a lot of maps out there for Spelljammer and I want to draw a few more for those of you running games in the setting. With the Dragonfly, the Man-O'-War and the next one, that'll give you an early-game, mid-game and a late-game ship, which at least covers the fundamentals. After that, I'll see where you want me to go from there.
Next, I'll be making some things for the Black Loch. Since a campaign in the loch would probably be a naval campaign, a water map and some ship tokens would be helpful for a lot of people. Someone pointed this out to me recently and I'm going to go ahead and make them now. It'll take a day or two at most and, afterwards, I'll probably get started on another Black Loch map.
Okay, that's it. Let me know what you think!
Download from Google Drive here (under NEWEST PATRON CONTENT).
Comments
Milby's Maps
Haha, it's more likely to be a sea creature. There aren't too many insectoid ships among the larger spelljammer classes, but there are a ton of sea creatures: turtle ship, whaleship, battle dolphin, triops, octopus. The chance of the next one having fins seems very high.
Alfred Salmon
With the red and green insect-like ships so far, I'm pre-picturing the third as a bright blue carpenter bee for now
Milby's Maps
They're windows that open to allow the ballistas to fire. The original deck plans for the Man-O'-War describe them as "retractable domes," but they don't explain any more than that about how they work. I think I like your "jelly forcefield" idea better, anyway.
Alfred Salmon
I honestly spent hours staring at the first ship, and this one is absolutely fantastic too. Are the forward battlestation windows some sort of jelly forcefield to allow ballista bolts through, or is there a hand crank on one wall so a particularly excitable midshipman can wind them down like car windows?
