The ship is an important part of a game of Wildsea. Weather owned by the players, or one they are simply the crew on, the ship is their main way of traversing the Wildsea. To build a ship, you need a resource called Stakes. At the start of the game, you get six Stakes plus 3 per PC. Since I just have the one character, I'll only have 9. Let's get at it.
Stakes are interesting. The book describes it as a way to give each player a way to get invested in the ship, since those are Their Stakes. They each have some say about what the ship looks, feels, and operates like, as well as making communal decisions.
So, 9 Stakes. Most options cost 1, but some cost more. I need to handle the following categories.
Design (At least 1 from each)
- Size - How many people can be carried easily
- Frame - Basic profile and appearance
- Hull - Main material in construction
- Bite - The mechanism used to traverse and cut through the wildsea
- Engine - The motivating force behind the Bite.
Fittings (Fully optional)
- Motifs - General themes to gain basic equipment and alterations to fit the theme
- Additions - Parts, resources, gathering options and other oddities
- Rooms - Quarters and workrooms
- Armaments - Deck weapons used for defense of the ship
- Outriders - Smaller vessels that can be deployed
Undercrew (Optional)
- Officers - Named NPCs with specialties
- Gangs - Groups of unnamed NPCs to complete basic tasks
- Packs - Creatures trained to aid, defend or assist the ship
So those are the components of our ship. We combine these Aspects with our ship's attributes to get, mechanically, our overall design. The attributes are...
- Armour - Protection of the ship
- Seals - How well your ship keeps the wildsea out, such as avoid spores, swarms and other invasive occurances.
- Speed - How fast your ship is when the engines are running, usually rolled to outrun something
- Saws - How good your ship is at cutting through the thicker parts of the wildsea
- Stealth - Your ship's ability to run undetected.
- Tilt - Measure of maneuverability and how well it can handle sharp dips and rises in the Wildsea.
The way I like to work is pick some options that speak to me, and then flesh it out more. I don't like having a super specific concept that I then find out is unsupported, so I'll start with a few basics. What sort of ship do I see Chatotze in? I think he's in a small to average size boat. I think I'm going to have to spend some Stake on crew because I don't think he can manage a whole-ass ship on his own. And I think he'd want it fast, so he could chase down the Migrating Wreckyard. Let's get to it.
Design
- Size - Small (1 Stake, +1 Speed) - I thought about Nano, which is sized for one person and maybe one or two other people, designed for stealth, but I feel like that might be a bit too small. Small is suited for 2-4 people and could fit twice that uncomfortably. This feels good for what I want, and the bonus to Speed is great for my idea.
- Frame - Moulded (1 Stake, +1 Seals) - This makes the ship made of a single piece of material. I thought about Sturdy for the armor bonus, and Flexibile for the Tilt, but I like the thought of a single piece of material making up my ship. Didn't quite want to go Light for the speed bonus, even though it'd fit to theme. I didn't vibe with Light as a ship frame.
- Hull - Chitinous (1 Stake, +1 Speed) - There were some interesting 2 Stake things but I wanted to save some Stake for optional stuff for some fun stuff. Fast, and made from the shell of some bug that's been repurposed into a ship. This works really nice with Moulded.
- Bite - Sluicejets (1 Stake, +1 Seals) - These are interesting prow options. They determine what type of damage you do when ramming another ship, and what kind of wake you leave, which might make you easier or harder to track. I almost went with Underscales, which help you wriggle and worm your ship through the sea, giving a bonus to Stealth, but the Sluicejets just sound cool. They're jets of acid that carve through the waves, which should leave a pretty distinct wake. Sails are cool, because I wouldn't need an engine, but they're also incredibly risky, because they need proper conditions to work.
- Engine - Chemical Compressor (1 Stake, +1 Speed) - This one actually works really well with my character's ability to produce a fruit during a montage. Engines work fine under normal conditions, but having an engine I can power when shit hits the fan or if I need more juice seems great. Other options included a hand crank engine, one powered by rats, one powered by a dream-enhancing-and-eating cocoon and even a Rope Golem.
Five Stake spent of the nine total. I'm starting to get a really interesting feel for thsi ship. Linking things up, I think I'll the Sluicejets will be repurposed parts of the giant bug that comprises my hull. It's not the insect's native toxin or venim, but the shape of the ducts work well when supplied with a man-made component. Now we get onto some optional features with the four remaining Stakes.
Motifs
First pass though, the Motifs seem cool, and give me some gear and narrative permissions, but it's also 2 Stakes. I'll come back to these after looking ahead.
Additions
- Anchor - (Free) - It does anchor things.
Rooms
We start with a Pilot's Cabin, a Main Deck, Crew Quarters, an Engine Room, and a Cargo Bay.
- Galley - (1 Stake) - I wanted a place to act like a meeting room, as well as a safe place to prepare and eat meals.
Armaments
- Spearing Prow - (1 Stake) - I felt like a close ranged reinforcement of my prow was the way to go. This ship is small and lean, and I think arming it with a spear gun or something would be a bit too much.
Crew
I originally thought about going with 2 officers, but I think a gang of regular workers works better. The Officers give me more flexibility, but I feel a Gang feels more thematically appropriate.
- Magnet-Fishers - (2 Stakes) - With this crew, I can acquire a piece of normal salvage when I drop anchor, which is helpful in the long run. I can use salvage to power effects and abilities.
Final stats!
Armor 1, Seals 3, Speed 4, Saws 1, Stealth 1, Tilt 1.
... I made a fuckin' drag race boat. This thing is just designed for one thing. This ship is fast and skims across the wildsea, but if it hits any patch of roughness, I am in trouble. A future upgrade might be the looking glass station, so I can more easily avoid hazardous weather and terrain. I will be running away from all sorts of situations.
I can flesh out some more detail later, but we know that we have a ship where the hull is made of of a dead giant insect, whose own defense mechanism has been repurposed to help me clear the sea in front of me. I think it's this pearlescent dark brown, kind of like a reflective beetle shell, with a hole cut in the back for the engine.
I like this little skiff. Just zippin' along the wildsea with a handful of people as we look for whispers about the Migrating Wreckyard, trading the salvage we fish up.