I’m currently reading Resolute
It requires a quick setup. A mid-19th Century American whaler has discovered an abandoned British naval ship in the Arctic, and he decides to sail it home. The British vessel is enormous, meant to be crewed by 60-70 people, and the whaler can only muster 13.
“Battered by at least one storm every single day of his two-month voyage, he was continually blown off course. More than once a sudden blizzard, with its accompanying mountainous seas, threatened to destroy the undermanned ship. ‘I frequently had no sleep for more than sixty hours at a time,’ the captain would later tell friends.”
From a GMing standpoint, this raises several questions.
• Given how impossible the basic scenario sounds — 13 men crewing a ship designed to be crewed by 60-plus, and sailing it through the Arctic — would you allow the party to try?
• Would your players assume they could do it “because they’re the PCs”?
• With sixty straight days of dangerous storms, would you have the PCs roll to keep the ship afloat every day? And when they had to go for days without sleep, would there be penalties for fatigue?
• If you condensed things down to a couple of very important rolls, would it be exciting?
• In a nutshell, could this happen in an RPG — and if it did, would it be any fun?
From a GMing standpoint, this raises several questions.
• Given how impossible the basic scenario sounds — 13 men crewing a ship designed to be crewed by 60-plus, and sailing it through the Arctic — would you allow the party to try?
Yes. What you were reading, I assume, was a true story. True stories abound about people doing incredible things, in fact it’s doing incredible things that makes them known to the world, and that’s how I think of PC’s in most games. They’re the ones who go do the impossible incredible things. Sure it’s more than might really be possible, but that’s the nature of a story. Greater than possible.
• Would your players assume they could do it “because they’re the PCs�
I would make it harder if they weren’t skilled in the area, maybe even make them fail if they screw it up. Nothing in my game says they are going to make it just because they set out to make it happen, but they have a chance at it, and a better chance than joe unskilled schmoe, because they are the PCs.
• With sixty straight days of dangerous storms, would you have the PCs roll to keep the ship afloat every day? And when they had to go for days without sleep, would there be penalties for fatigue?
This is the kind of thing I prefer to roleplay. Taking the whole trip as a Microcosm, and zooming into test the individuals and make them do a roll for individual tasks. I would try to set it up like a journal “Day 20, the storm bashes about the ship fiercer than the last day. You roll this to hold the sails in place, you roll a strength to work the bilge, etc.” If all was successful then I’d jump a few days and make different challenges.
• If you condensed things down to a couple of very important rolls, would it be exciting?
I don’t think so.
• In a nutshell, could this happen in an RPG — and if it did, would it be any fun?
Sure, this is just the kind of adventure without pure combat that I enjoy to throw at the players. I like to reserve combat for actual combat scenarios, while still adding in the adventure and action inherent in a story like this. It’s fun if you take the time to make it fun, but it’s not easy to do. You’ve got to be dedicated to preserving the feel of the situation, try to challenge the players by the game system (so they feel accomplishment at succeeding), and prevent it from being repetitive so that it doesn’t kill any mood that might build up at the struggle of the PC group.
oops, when I said Microcosm I meant Macrocosm. Big little difference there.
• Given how impossible the basic scenario sounds — 13 men crewing a ship designed to be crewed by 60-plus, and sailing it through the Arctic — would you allow the party to try?
Oh, definitely.
• Would your players assume they could do it “because they’re the PCs�
Yes, but that has more to do with my players than anything. 😉
• With sixty straight days of dangerous storms, would you have the PCs roll to keep the ship afloat every day? And when they had to go for days without sleep, would there be penalties for fatigue?
It depends on who the PCs are. For example, Elan, Warforged, and Horizon Walkers in a D&D game are immune to fatigue, so definitely not them. A seasoned sailor in any form would have much less trouble with the ship, and spellcasters (and perhaps ertificers or inventors, if we’re steampunk here) would probably be able to do it with their magic. In fact, I wouldn’t ask them to roll at all if they found a suitable way for their class abilities to contribute.
• If you condensed things down to a couple of very important rolls, would it be exciting?
Nnnnnno, gut says no.
• In a nutshell, could this happen in an RPG — and if it did, would it be any fun?
Yes and totally! Imagine the RP, and how good the PCs’d feel if they did it!
T
My group recently had a session where we stole a pirate ship. There were six of us, none with any sailing experience and one of the pirates, as our prisoner, who didn’t speak any language we did.
We played out the two day trip, very few rolls. Was a lot of fun.
Hence, yes, let them try and play as much out, including details of the weather and the ocean and as much else as possible.
Don’t reduce something with so much potential to a couple of anti-climatic rolls.
It’d be hard to get to work right– to give them a fair chance, make it as difficult as it should be, and keep tension over 60 game days.
If the PCs weren’t setup to do it (not sailors or similarly experienced), I’d tell them that they think it’s impossible. Then I’d listen when they come up with their work arounds.
For sailors and experienced people, I’d let them know how difficult the feat was, so they’d know to expect high target numbers and the like. Then I’d play out “sample days”– the first one to set the mood, the sixth or seventh to give them a feel for how relentless the storms are, and another three or four, dealing with the consequences of the earliest rolls.
If they failed badly on any day, they wouldn’t make it back to port with the ship, though they’d probably be rescued by the ship they sailed out on.
I’m with Scott — this would be hard to get right. But I think everyone has the right of it: play out some days, but not all of them, and definitely let it go forward.
It’d be tough to make it feel like it must have felt for the real-life captain and crew, but that isn’t really the heart of the issue.
Incidentally, I finished the book this morning, and it was enjoyable to the end. The folks who explored the arctic in the 1800s were nuts — balls of brass, but definitely nuts. 😉
Some thoughts on this:
First: Trying to play out a specific scenario like this will never work. Why? Because randomness won’t produce the exact same sequence of events.
Second: I think playing out a battle with the elements doesn’t work very well. The problem is they themselves do not really create an interesting story. What’s interesting is what is happening to the characters, and most especially, what is happening between characters.
Third: One big problem with this particular scenario is that in general, a set of RPG rules are either going to prevent the scenario from working (the rules specifically address what crew is necessary, and what happens if you don’t have that crew), or can’t create suspense (because the rules either don’t address the situation at all, leaving entirely up to GM fiat, or they specifically specify that heroic PCs should be able to do this kind of thing). A third possibility is that the rules might allow the scenario to play out, but would, just like real life, depend on a specific sequence of luck.
So in the end, I just don’t see a way to actually turn this into an exciting RPG experience, other than to use the scenario as the backdrop for an interpersonal experience. The scenario is going to play out as specified, but the question is what happens between the characters?
Frank