Honor + Intrigue ship combat

[mrm1138]

Hi there!

I searched the forums to see if I could find anything on this, but I wasn't able to find what I was looking for. I recently begged one of my friends to run a superhero game for me—BASH!, naturally—and I wanted to return the favor by running a pirate game for him. I'd been looking at various systems such as 7th Sea and Savage Worlds, and Honor + Intrigue was one of the titles that popped up. I hadn't really thought of it as being used for a pirate game since the logo made me think of Three Musketeers, but I liked the idea of going with another Basic Action Games product. (Also, I was pleased to hear there were rules for putting light fantasy elements into the game. I can't resist having some reanimated skeletons or sea monsters! )

To finally get to the point, I was wondering if someone could please give me a brief overview of how ship-to-ship combat works in H+I. I feel that will pretty much be an indispensable part of a pirate game, so I want to make sure that it feels like an organic component of the rules as well as being fast and furious so as not to bog down the play.

[BASHMAN]

Ships have their own stats: Sails, Hull, Guns, and Crew. Each is useful for different parts of Ship to Ship combat.

Ships also have another stat called "Size" which increases how much cargo they can carry as well as how many guns they can bring to bear on a target. So a big Galleon will generally destroy a little Sloop in a ship to ship fight. Generally a bigger ship can dish out and take more damage but is slower at turning, tacking, and other feats of maneuverability.

Instead of "Lifeblood" ships have "Timber", and when the ship takes a hit, usually it loses Timber. When this happens, some of the crew may be injured or killed as well (there is a special roll for that).

Sometimes you might fire a special shot, like Chain Shot for instance, that targets the enemies Sails instead, or Grape Shot which targets the enemies Crew (because the range is so short, you might likely use this just prior to boarding).

Speaking of Boarding, the ship's First Mate makes rolls for Boarding enemy vessels using their ship's Crew rating. When defending against a Boarding Action, the ship's Captain rolls using Crew to drive them off. If the ship remains occupied by the enemy for so many turns, the crew needs to make morale checks or surrender.

In addition to stats, Ships have their own Boons and Flaws. This might mean having an extra tough hull or oarsmen to move against the wind, a cursed reputation, or various other peculiarities to make the ship unique.

Aside from the combat part, there are also rules for carrying cargo, trading, sailing through storms, dealing with low morale or supplies, navigating through reefs, etc.

[BASHMAN]

I forgot to mention that there is a list of more than a dozen pre-built sample ships so you can just copy those from the book, or use them as templates to give your crew (or some noteworthy NPC) a unique ship.

[The_GIT]

Supporting everything that BASHMAN has said I can honestly say that H+I is one of the best swashbuckling games out there (whether you want to run musketeers or pirates). If I'm not mistaken, the published adventures for the game are pirate based as well.

[BASHMAN]

The two that are out now are. There is a third on the way that is an urban adventure that takes place in Spain and is more involving a mystery and rival duelists.

[mrm1138]

Thanks for the info! I've purchased the book, and I can't wait to run this!