Players handbook says sailing ships move at 2mph. Ghosts of Saltmarsh and the vehicles database says sailing ships move at 5mph. Which one is correct?
Side note: would be helpful to include costs of vehicles in vehicle database. I see cost for spelljammer ships in database but not any other vehicle even tho cost is provided in players handbook at least for standard vehicles.
Technically they’re both right, but most people I know use the Saltmarsh stats for ships. But since Saltmarsh didn’t include prices they won’t add them here. See, when they wrote the PHB they just put down stuff without much research or thought behind it. The stuff in Saltmarsh is a kindasorta soft reboot for those vehicles, hence the conflicting stats.
The other problem is that depending on types of ships and situations rowed/sail vehicles could have very different speeds. Because of coordination problems fleets were typically slower than individual ships. Under the worst conditions ( that still allowed sailing) speeds could be as slow as 1-2 knots. For essentially all sail based ancient and mideveal sail based ships the best they could do under ideal circumstances was probably 8-10 knots. Rowed ships like triremes might be able to hit short bursts of 10-12 knots. “Modern” clippers and yachts have maximum sustained speeds of around 15 knots and might exceed that briefly under ideal conditions. Realistically a speed of 3-5 knots is a good average unless you somehow have a fairly modern design (1800’s to today) where a speed of 5-8 knots is probably better. It was only steam power that allowed for speeds in excess of 15 knots and even modern propulsion systems ( with the exception of modern hydroplane and cigar boats) speeds never really exceed 35-40 knots.
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Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
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Players handbook says sailing ships move at 2mph. Ghosts of Saltmarsh and the vehicles database says sailing ships move at 5mph. Which one is correct?
Side note: would be helpful to include costs of vehicles in vehicle database. I see cost for spelljammer ships in database but not any other vehicle even tho cost is provided in players handbook at least for standard vehicles.
I've played every edition since 1980.
I’m old. 😂
Technically they’re both right, but most people I know use the Saltmarsh stats for ships. But since Saltmarsh didn’t include prices they won’t add them here. See, when they wrote the PHB they just put down stuff without much research or thought behind it. The stuff in Saltmarsh is a kindasorta soft reboot for those vehicles, hence the conflicting stats.
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The other problem is that depending on types of ships and situations rowed/sail vehicles could have very different speeds. Because of coordination problems fleets were typically slower than individual ships. Under the worst conditions ( that still allowed sailing) speeds could be as slow as 1-2 knots. For essentially all sail based ancient and mideveal sail based ships the best they could do under ideal circumstances was probably 8-10 knots. Rowed ships like triremes might be able to hit short bursts of 10-12 knots. “Modern” clippers and yachts have maximum sustained speeds of around 15 knots and might exceed that briefly under ideal conditions. Realistically a speed of 3-5 knots is a good average unless you somehow have a fairly modern design (1800’s to today) where a speed of 5-8 knots is probably better. It was only steam power that allowed for speeds in excess of 15 knots and even modern propulsion systems ( with the exception of modern hydroplane and cigar boats) speeds never really exceed 35-40 knots.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.