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I have always had a particularly weakness for supplements dealing with sailing and sea adventures. Few game systems have produced nautical supplements with easy to use mechanics or provided a broad overview of ship types. Look no further. "Sailing on the Seas of Fate," for the Elric fantasy roleplaying game, provides workable mechanics for a wide range of ships and uses a percentile based system that can be easily converted to other game systems.

In the "Seas of Fate," all ships are classified by hull-type as either warships, merchants, or barges. The other crucial descriptors are hull quality, seaworthiness, and structure points. Hull quality measures how well-built a ship is and acts as armor to minimize the loss of structure points. Seaworthiness measures how well maintained a ship is and how ready it is to withstand the rigors of ocean travel. For instance, sailing rolls need only be made when the wind strength exceeds a ship¹s seaworthiness: for a small trader that would be a moderate wind, for a Tarkesh (i.e. Viking) merchant that would be a strong wind, and for a schooner that would be a fresh gale. Structure points measure how much damage a ship can take before becoming useless.

Rules are provided for sailing and rowing movement, vessel damage and repair (including magical repair), storms, sea monsters, fire, naval combat, collisions, and for roleplaying shipboard events such as boarding another ship, ship-to-ship missile fire, swimming in armor, and swinging on ropes. All of the rules can be used with or easily transferred to other roleplaying systems. Five sea creatures are described: dolphin, kraken, shark, whale, and sea serpent.

Descriptions are provided for sixteen common types of vessels of the Young Kingdoms, from biremes to Melnibonean battle barges, and for six individual vessels and crews. A chapter on seafaring in the Young Kingdoms describes sea routes, average sailing times between ports, and typical encounters at sea. Also included are a full-page and a brief quarter-page ship record sheets. A six page gazetter of Young Kingdom ports as written by a Purple Town sea captain is provided in a manner suitable for photocopying and distribution to players. There is even a one-page annotated list of descriptions of ships and sea battles from the Elric Saga.

And if you still haven't gotten your $13 out of this supplement, "The Seas of Fate" is rounded out with eleven brief scenario descriptions, a chapter on the dark ship featured in book one of "The Sailor on the Seas of Fate," and a 25-page scenario that features a sorcerous Melnibonean battle barge and six new chaos demons.

"The Seas of Fate" is a great nautical supplement for any game, and it provides an excellent example of how to uses ships and the sea in a high fantasy campaign.

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 5 (Excellent!)

Sailing on the Seas of Fate: Ships, Seafaring, Sailors
Author: Mark Morrison et al. Category: game Company/Publisher: Chaosium Line: Elric Cost: $13.00 Page count: 78 ISBN: 1-56882-022-4 SKU: 2906 Playtest Review by Jeb Boyt on 10/31/99. Genre tags: Fantasy Horror	I have always had a particularly weakness for supplements dealing with sailing and sea adventures. Few game systems have produced nautical supplements with easy to use mechanics or provided a broad overview of ship types. Look no further. "Sailing on the Seas of Fate," for the Elric fantasy roleplaying game, provides workable mechanics for a wide range of ships and uses a percentile based system that can be easily converted to other game systems. In the "Seas of Fate," all ships are classified by hull-type as either warships, merchants, or barges. The other crucial descriptors are hull quality, seaworthiness, and structure points. Hull quality measures how well-built a ship is and acts as armor to minimize the loss of structure points. Seaworthiness measures how well maintained a ship is and how ready it is to withstand the rigors of ocean travel. For instance, sailing rolls need only be made when the wind strength exceeds a ship¹s seaworthiness: for a small trader that would be a moderate wind, for a Tarkesh (i.e. Viking) merchant that would be a strong wind, and for a schooner that would be a fresh gale. Structure points measure how much damage a ship can take before becoming useless. Rules are provided for sailing and rowing movement, vessel damage and repair (including magical repair), storms, sea monsters, fire, naval combat, collisions, and for roleplaying shipboard events such as boarding another ship, ship-to-ship missile fire, swimming in armor, and swinging on ropes. All of the rules can be used with or easily transferred to other roleplaying systems. Five sea creatures are described: dolphin, kraken, shark, whale, and sea serpent. Descriptions are provided for sixteen common types of vessels of the Young Kingdoms, from biremes to Melnibonean battle barges, and for six individual vessels and crews. A chapter on seafaring in the Young Kingdoms describes sea routes, average sailing times between ports, and typical encounters at sea. Also included are a full-page and a brief quarter-page ship record sheets. A six page gazetter of Young Kingdom ports as written by a Purple Town sea captain is provided in a manner suitable for photocopying and distribution to players. There is even a one-page annotated list of descriptions of ships and sea battles from the Elric Saga. And if you still haven't gotten your $13 out of this supplement, "The Seas of Fate" is rounded out with eleven brief scenario descriptions, a chapter on the dark ship featured in book one of "The Sailor on the Seas of Fate," and a 25-page scenario that features a sorcerous Melnibonean battle barge and six new chaos demons. "The Seas of Fate" is a great nautical supplement for any game, and it provides an excellent example of how to uses ships and the sea in a high fantasy campaign. Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 5 (Excellent!)

Sailing on the Seas of Fate: Ships, Seafaring, Sailors