SoB House Rule: Rocks, Sandbars or Other Ground (Page 29)

By Fizz, in Descent: Journeys in the Dark

Posted at

Ok, would like your opinion on this house rule, and let me know what you think.

As it is written, any ship that has collided with a Rock, Sandbar or Other Ground is immediately sunk. Personally, I think it's a tish extreme so I propose the following:

If a ship collides with Rocks, Sandbars, or Other Ground, the ship rolls one Red Die for each raised sail. If any "misses" are rolled, the ship immediately sinks, otherwise the ship suffers the rolled damage for each space that the ship passes thru the "obstacle". The larger the obstacle, or the more excessive collision will lead to more serious damage (will most likely sink the ship anyway), but it does give the ship some chance to escape "minor" collisions, such as clipping the corner of the ship.

Example: The Revenge starts it's turn adjacent to a Rock that is one square big and moves two spaces "into" it. The Revenge has 2 raised sails and rolls 2 red dice, scoring 6 wounds. Since the Revenge moved 2 squares "into" the obstacle, it would take 12 wounds.

Thoughts?

Posted at

Fizz said:

Ok, would like your opinion on this house rule, and let me know what you think.

As it is written, any ship that has collided with a Rock, Sandbar or Other Ground is immediately sunk. Personally, I think it's a tish extreme so I propose the following:

If a ship collides with Rocks, Sandbars, or Other Ground, the ship rolls one Red Die for each raised sail. If any "misses" are rolled, the ship immediately sinks, otherwise the ship suffers the rolled damage for each space that the ship passes thru the "obstacle". The larger the obstacle, or the more excessive collision will lead to more serious damage (will most likely sink the ship anyway), but it does give the ship some chance to escape "minor" collisions, such as clipping the corner of the ship.

Example: The Revenge starts it's turn adjacent to a Rock that is one square big and moves two spaces "into" it. The Revenge has 2 raised sails and rolls 2 red dice, scoring 6 wounds. Since the Revenge moved 2 squares "into" the obstacle, it would take 12 wounds.

Thoughts?

Disagree, I like the RAW.

1) The RAW, while maybe not thematically accurate, is much easier to deal with rules wise. Also thematically, you can go with the tip of the iceberg argument and say that the 1 space rubble token reflects a massive rock formation just under the water line.

2) You just nerfed one of the OL encounter victory conditions for the ship sinking immediately if it hits a rock and made it easier for the heroes to escape from encounters by basically being able to take the wounds and sail right over obstacles.

3) This will also change the strategy of outdoor encounters as its now a lot less worry about dodging rocks when trying to kill the enemy. So now you might not even bother having anyone manning the wheel or the sails and just have them all shooting cannons or boarding the enemy ship.

4) Depending on the relative hit points of the heroes versus enemy ships, this might give the heroes a distinct advantage in terms of the terrain of the location. If there are rocks around, the heroes can choose to ignore it if they have enough hit points on their ship while the enemy won't have that luxury and therefore won't be able to position themselves for attack. RAW, that isn't a factor so things are even.