Sea Voyage Procedure

Sea Voyage Procedure

ACKS II Judges Journal has three exploration procedures to make gameplay smoother and/or serve as checklists to the referees (you know, I find myself use "referee" instead of "GM" more and more often nowadays). Since I've already adapted wilderness and dungeon exploration procedures, let's adapt the one for sea voyages - something that, I believe, never came up in my games before. I'm a landlubber.

1. Determine Weather. Determine the weather for the day (use Random Weather Generation with an additional +2 to wind rolls or p. DF16-30 or any other weather table). Weather will determine temperature effects (Cold, p. B430 and Heat, p. B434 OR Harsh Climates, p. DF16-30), Vision and Hearing penalties (GURPS Tactical Shooting: Extreme Conditions, pp. 6-7), Survival and Tracking modifiers, and travel speed (Nasty Weather, p. DF16-30).

2. Make Navigation and Skill Rolls. Make daily skill rolls for movement (Boating or Seamanship, etc) and Navigation (Sea) or Area Knowledge rolls per p. DF16-22. 

3. Determine Activities. Ask the party what they would like to do during the day. Determine marching order.

4. Check for Daily Encounters. If the vessel is under anchor or the crew will be fishing, roll to see if any random encounters will occur that day. If a random encounter will occur, roll 1d12 to determine the hour of its occurence.

5. Check if the Vessel Gets Lost. If the vessel is traveling that day, check if it gets lost (Getting Lost, p. DF16-26).

6. Adjudicate Each Hour: For each of the 12 adventuring hours in the day, follow the steps below.

    a. Determine Direction of Sail: Ask the captain of the vessel what direction the vessel is sailing.

   b. Determine Hourly Movement Rate. Calculate the base hourly movement rate per p. DF16-23. Chosen direction of sail, wind direction, and wind strength also affect the vessel speed.

    c. Determine Actual Movement Rate: Ask the captain of the vessel the actual speed. (Sometimes the captain might want to sail at less than maximum speed so as not to overshoot a destination.)

    d. Adjudicate Special Activities: If the party is undertaking any activities this hour, adjudicate them now.

    e. Adjudicate Travel and Encounters: If the vessel is traveling, adjust its position on your sea map based on one hour of travel in the appropriate direction. If this causes the party to enter a new hex, roll to see if a random encounter occurs. If an encounter occurs, follow the encounter procedure.

    f. Resolve Fishing: If any adventurers or crew have been fishing at that hour, roll to see if they caught fish. If so, add the fish to their available supplies of rations. See p. DF16-42 for details.

    g. Adjudicate Weather Effects. If weather conditions are dire enough to enforce HT roll, make these rolls.

7. Consume Rations: Mark off rations and water according to the party's requirements. In case of lack of food or water, subtract FP or HP as per Starvation and Dehydration (p. B426).

8. Adjudicate Disease Effects: If the area harbors diseases, make rolls to resist them. In frigid areas, a disease resistance roll may be appropriate if an adventurer lost FP due to cold that day (p. DF16-34).

9. Adjudicate Healing: If anycharacters rested, they may recover HP as per Natural Recovery (p. B424).

10. Check for Nighttime Encounters: If the vessel is anchoring at night, roll to see if any random encounters will occur that night. If a random encounter will occur, roll 1d12 to determine the hour of its occurrence and resolve it at that time. If under sail or oar, revert to step 1 and run 12 hours of nighttime travel.

11. Advance Calendar: Mark off 1 day of game time.