Specialized boats built to carry vehicles such as chariots, wagons, or caravans and their pulling animals determined by DMs discretion.
*At the DMs discretion the flat roof can in safety give a freight or passenger boat an extra 500lbs worth of external storage space. A roof load of more than 500lbs gives a slight change of overturning the boat during stormy weather.
Narrow boats have an AC of 30 and 40 damage will penetrate the walls. You should double AC and damage threshold numbers to penetrate if the boat is made of metal. For double hulled boats, an enemy must have two successful attacks on the same area to break through both hulls.
Freight canal boats have a large cargo hold, with a common room for the crew. Passenger canal boats provide 6 cramped, yet comfortable cabins for character parties. A cabin can be made to be a small workshop. Access to the cabins is a narrow hallway on one side of the boat. Canal boats give the party members the comforts of home, out in the unforgiving wilderness.
Passenger canal boat cabins have 2 bunk beds, chair and table, a chest and 2 pull out drawers under the bottom bunk bed for personal storage space*, as well as a three gallon barrel, with a spigot, for safe to drink water, or alcoholic drinks, kept fresh and cold by a preservation spell. There is also a wall-mounted lantern for light, while bolted to the floor is a wood, coal, or dried peat burning stove, or a magically heated stove - for heating and cooking. A bed roll can be rolled out on the floor to accommodate a second guest.
In the common language, one drawer has a brass nameplate label “upper”, while the other is labeled “lower”.
Before the internal combustion engine, moving freight and passengers by water was far less expensive than moving the same freight and passengers by draft animals, wagons, and seldom paved rural roads. For example, a typical Conestoga wagon is four feet wide and 18 feet long. These wagons needed two draft animals to transport about six tons of cargo. On the other hand, the United Kingdom’s narrow-boats are seven feet wide and 70 feet long. These need one draft animal to pull a boat that can carry about 30 tons of cargo.
By using canal boats you save a significant amount of money by using one draft animal, while transporting five times the cargo. A narrow boat can also tow a second narrow boat without a loss of travel speed. This is why the Industrial Revolution started on canal boats and ships.
Narrow boats move at the walking pace of the average draft animal. However, some parties have installed steam engines fueled by wood, coal, or other combustible materials. Some higher skilled parties create magically powered engines for their narrow boats. Because narrow boats were pulled by draft animals, few narrow boats used folding masts. Yet, some narrow boats used sails to cross rivers and lakes.
In my home campaign, my players usually use one freight boat to move their equipment and one passenger boat as their mobile bastion. They have in storage a boat designed to transport their passenger caravan and freight wagon. My player characters have also installed on their boats two bullseye lanterns in front, and two additional lanterns in the rear that are lit during night or stormy weather.
Canal Narrow boats are pretty unique to England (similar to gondolas being hard to find outside of Venice). They were made practical because of how thoroughly England filled itself with canals just before railroads became popular. Between 1757 and 1830 they made over 4,000 miles of narrow canals. The narrow boats are just narrow enough to pass each other on the standard sized narrow canals. Few other places were wet enough, densely populated enough, close enough, flat enough, and industrial enough to make the canal networks until after 1840s, and by then railroads were cheaper to make and faster.
Navigable rivers are almost always wide enough that you do not need a narrow boat for them.
That said, I could see a small, flat island nation having canals and narrow boats on them. Interesting to do some pirate adventures on them as it would be practically impossible to prevent boarding actions.
“The first metal-hulled vessel which we know about in detail was the Trial, launched in 1787 in Shropshire, England. She was a 21-metre long river barge capable of carrying 32 tons of cargo.”
But, remember that D&D worlds, such as Toril of the Forgotten Realms, are fictional worlds. For example, in the 2023 movie Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, there is a hot air balloon over the skies of the city of Neverwinter. There is even a wiki page about balloons in the Forgotten Realms.
According to Wikipedia, “The first balloon flight with humans aboard, a tethered flight, performed on or around October 15, 1783, by Jean-Francois Pilatre de Rozier, who made at least one tethered flight from the yard of the Reveillon workshop in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine.”
Getting several tons of refined iron for iron hulled narrow boats would be difficult, but not impossible. There already are structures, such as the iron golem, that use much iron in their construction. Obtaining a sufficient amount of iron for an iron hulled narrow boat would make for a challenging party quest.
In summary, science and technology in a fictional world are not the same as the real medieval era. As such, it is up to each game master to determine how difficult it will be for their player characters to design and then to construct specific structures within their home campaign.
On the other hand, the presence of things like iron golems might make the development of iron-hulled boats more difficult, because there's already lots of demand for iron, meaning that there's less surplus to go around.
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
In your campaign, imagine iron or another natural resource where demand surpasses supply creating price inflation. That happened in the real Roman Empire and can happen in our imaginary worlds. As a Game Master, all you need to do is double the price your PCs pay for all items made of iron and steel.
While some people would switch building items from iron and steel to brass, bronze, and copper; your PCs could earn money and fame finding unknown and undeveloped sources of iron, or take over lands that have known iron ore deposits.
Imagine a far away city where all the structures are made of iron. Quest your PCs to find “Iron City” and then find ways to take to pieces those structures, to haul them back to their home nation.
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Cost freight boat: 200gp
Cost passenger, modest basic accommodations boat: 250gp
Cost passenger, middle-range accommodations boat: 300gp
Cost passenger, luxury accommodations creating a positive impression with most visiting, non-player characters boat: 350gp
These numbers are for wooden hulled boats. Add an additional 100gp for metal hulled boats. Add an additional 100gp for double hulled boats.
Weight: 6600lbs
Freight boat carrying capacity: 66000 / 66500lbs*
Passenger boat, freight carrying capacity: 6000 / 6500lbs*
Specialized boats built to carry vehicles such as chariots, wagons, or caravans and their pulling animals determined by DMs discretion.
*At the DMs discretion the flat roof can in safety give a freight or passenger boat an extra 500lbs worth of external storage space. A roof load of more than 500lbs gives a slight change of overturning the boat during stormy weather.
Narrow boats have an AC of 30 and 40 damage will penetrate the walls. You should double AC and damage threshold numbers to penetrate if the boat is made of metal. For double hulled boats, an enemy must have two successful attacks on the same area to break through both hulls.
Freight canal boats have a large cargo hold, with a common room for the crew. Passenger canal boats provide 6 cramped, yet comfortable cabins for character parties. A cabin can be made to be a small workshop. Access to the cabins is a narrow hallway on one side of the boat. Canal boats give the party members the comforts of home, out in the unforgiving wilderness.
Passenger canal boat cabins have 2 bunk beds, chair and table, a chest and 2 pull out drawers under the bottom bunk bed for personal storage space*, as well as a three gallon barrel, with a spigot, for safe to drink water, or alcoholic drinks, kept fresh and cold by a preservation spell. There is also a wall-mounted lantern for light, while bolted to the floor is a wood, coal, or dried peat burning stove, or a magically heated stove - for heating and cooking. A bed roll can be rolled out on the floor to accommodate a second guest.
In the common language, one drawer has a brass nameplate label “upper”, while the other is labeled “lower”.
Before the internal combustion engine, moving freight and passengers by water was far less expensive than moving the same freight and passengers by draft animals, wagons, and seldom paved rural roads. For example, a typical Conestoga wagon is four feet wide and 18 feet long. These wagons needed two draft animals to transport about six tons of cargo. On the other hand, the United Kingdom’s narrow-boats are seven feet wide and 70 feet long. These need one draft animal to pull a boat that can carry about 30 tons of cargo.
By using canal boats you save a significant amount of money by using one draft animal, while transporting five times the cargo. A narrow boat can also tow a second narrow boat without a loss of travel speed. This is why the Industrial Revolution started on canal boats and ships.
Narrow boats move at the walking pace of the average draft animal. However, some parties have installed steam engines fueled by wood, coal, or other combustible materials. Some higher skilled parties create magically powered engines for their narrow boats. Because narrow boats were pulled by draft animals, few narrow boats used folding masts. Yet, some narrow boats used sails to cross rivers and lakes.
In my home campaign, my players usually use one freight boat to move their equipment and one passenger boat as their mobile bastion. They have in storage a boat designed to transport their passenger caravan and freight wagon. My player characters have also installed on their boats two bullseye lanterns in front, and two additional lanterns in the rear that are lit during night or stormy weather.
Were metal-hulled boats even a thing prior to the industrial revolution?
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Canal Narrow boats are pretty unique to England (similar to gondolas being hard to find outside of Venice). They were made practical because of how thoroughly England filled itself with canals just before railroads became popular. Between 1757 and 1830 they made over 4,000 miles of narrow canals. The narrow boats are just narrow enough to pass each other on the standard sized narrow canals. Few other places were wet enough, densely populated enough, close enough, flat enough, and industrial enough to make the canal networks until after 1840s, and by then railroads were cheaper to make and faster.
Navigable rivers are almost always wide enough that you do not need a narrow boat for them.
That said, I could see a small, flat island nation having canals and narrow boats on them. Interesting to do some pirate adventures on them as it would be practically impossible to prevent boarding actions.
“The first metal-hulled vessel which we know about in detail was the Trial, launched in 1787 in Shropshire, England. She was a 21-metre long river barge capable of carrying 32 tons of cargo.”
But, remember that D&D worlds, such as Toril of the Forgotten Realms, are fictional worlds. For example, in the 2023 movie Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, there is a hot air balloon over the skies of the city of Neverwinter. There is even a wiki page about balloons in the Forgotten Realms.
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Hot-air_balloon
According to Wikipedia, “The first balloon flight with humans aboard, a tethered flight, performed on or around October 15, 1783, by Jean-Francois Pilatre de Rozier, who made at least one tethered flight from the yard of the Reveillon workshop in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine.”
Getting several tons of refined iron for iron hulled narrow boats would be difficult, but not impossible. There already are structures, such as the iron golem, that use much iron in their construction. Obtaining a sufficient amount of iron for an iron hulled narrow boat would make for a challenging party quest.
In summary, science and technology in a fictional world are not the same as the real medieval era. As such, it is up to each game master to determine how difficult it will be for their player characters to design and then to construct specific structures within their home campaign.
On the other hand, the presence of things like iron golems might make the development of iron-hulled boats more difficult, because there's already lots of demand for iron, meaning that there's less surplus to go around.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
In your campaign, imagine iron or another natural resource where demand surpasses supply creating price inflation. That happened in the real Roman Empire and can happen in our imaginary worlds. As a Game Master, all you need to do is double the price your PCs pay for all items made of iron and steel.
While some people would switch building items from iron and steel to brass, bronze, and copper; your PCs could earn money and fame finding unknown and undeveloped sources of iron, or take over lands that have known iron ore deposits.
Imagine a far away city where all the structures are made of iron. Quest your PCs to find “Iron City” and then find ways to take to pieces those structures, to haul them back to their home nation.