Photo 2 of 2 from Spelljammer Ship Cards

Photo Comments

1. 
   Anghammarand - 06-01-2022, 08:31 PM

   Credits go to Kevin Ward and Shonn Everett, from Dungeon Magazine Issue 28
2. 
   darkseed2012 - 06-02-2022, 01:35 AM

   You should look at the designs for ships in the 15th, 16th centuries, you'd get more crew if you had them in hammocks hung from the rafters. I'm assuming you're using bunks or something which only the ranking officers might have on such a ship. Also the Mizzen Mast totally blocks the hall way. I hope I wasn't to harsh analyzing your ship design.
3. 
   Anghammarand - 06-03-2022, 12:18 AM

   The comments are appreciated! I'll have to take a look at some more realistic ship designs.
   To be fair Spelljammer ships can be a little wild. Obviously my "3-D" sketch lacks realistic sails, there is no jibb, and the netting and ropes are non-existant. Oh well. I think it captures the intent at least.
4. 
   Big Mac - 06-08-2022, 04:20 AM

   The ship can actually already carry more than 40 crew, darkseed2012. You are right there, but the numbers on the card are not quite what they look like.
   
   The "20 / 40" line relates to two rules in the Spelljammer campaign settiing. The first number is about keeping up the "Manouverability" during tactical combat. The second is about long voyages through the vacuum of Wildspace.
   
   Here is what page 25 of Concordance of Arcane Space says:
   
   
   The first is the number of individuals
   needed to run the ship under normal
   circumstances. The second is the
   number of individuals that the ship
   can carry without dangerously overloading
   its atmospheric envelope.
   For example, a ship with a crew rat ing
   of 10/35 requires 10 men to run
   the ship properly but it can carry up
   to 35 without endangering its atmosphere.
   
   So in the case of The Pebble, if space monsters eat a lot of the Whitebeard Dwarves and there are only 9 left, the MC would drop to F during tactical combat. (It can't drop below F. F is the lowest MC.)
   
   The second bit isn't explained so well, but page 12 of CoAS says that the ship's air stays fresh for four months. That's four months if you have 40 crew aboard (with this specific ship).
   
   If you double that and put 80 crew aboard, the air stays fresh for 2 months instead.
   
   If you quadruple that and put 160 crew onboard the air stays fresh for 1 month instead.
   
   If you could cram in 320 crew, the air would stay fresh for 2 weeks instead.
   
   There is a sidebar ("Packiing them in") that covers how many people you can cram onto a ship. The number is (keel length x beam width) / 10.
   
   FYI: The second number comes from the tonnage of the ship. (40 tons of air gives 40 crew 4 months of air.)
   
   The Whitebeard Dwarves actually live in the Tears of Selûne, which orbit around the planet Toril. And they travel to Toril to mine on the surface of the planet. That trip takes a very short amount of time, so they are never going to foul their air flyiing down to the planet.
   
   Also, they wouldn't normally need to sleep on that short a voyage. So, we could work out the numbers for a long trip, if we want to reuse The Pebble somewhere else later, but in the adventure Visitors From Above, they don't matter.