About sailing ships, historical naval technology and anachronism

About sailing ships, historical naval technology and anachronism

How can you have a pirate-themed campaign without sailing ships? Sure, some of the action is bound to take place in port, but at some point you’ve got to take to the high seas, and that poses significant and important questions about the types of ships involved. It’s inextricably linked to the fantasy world that you’re playing in, and the base level of technology available in that fantasy world. For example, when most folks think about pirates, they imagine them wielding not only cutlasses, rapiers and boarding axes, but also a variety of black-powder firearms, from pistols to muskets and, of course, shipboard canons. However, firearms are not always a part of the fantasy worlds we play in, and the types of ships available in a pre-firearm world are not the same as those typically seen in a pirate-themed setting.

Of course, our fantasy worlds also have a healthy dose of anachronism mixed in, and we often see stone-age technologies existing side-by side with early medieval, late medieval, renaissance and even early modern elements. So you, as game master, will need to make important decisions concerning the types and availability of naval technology that you want to feature in your game world. Will you include firearms, both personal and ship-based? Will you have caravels and galleons mounting ballistae and catapults instead of canons? If your fantasy world doesn’t include firearms as a generally available technology, will you also restrict ship types to those historically available in pre-gunpowder periods? What degree of anachronism do you feel comfortable with?

Let’s take one example of naval technology: the ship’s wheel. Before beginning my own research into the subject, I didn’t realize that the ship’s wheel is a relatively late invention, and historical evidence is spotty. It is known that a number of ships used a ship’s wheel by the beginning of the 18^th century, and some speculate that they were invented some years prior to that. Before the invention of the ship’s wheel, a straight tiller directly connected to the rudder was used, often one or more decks below the aft deck, sometimes linked to the upper deck by a lever called a whipstaff as early as the 16^th century. Otherwise, steering commands had to be relayed from the captain or pilot down one or more decks to the crewman or men manning the tiller directly. Earlier ships, such as Viking longships and knars, used a side rudder or rudders, with a horizontal control beam. The earliest stern-mounted rudder is dated to the 12^th century, and widespread use to the 14^th century.

Cannons are attested in Europe as early as the 12^th century, and shipboard use dates from the hundred-years war in the 14^th century, predating the use of the ship’s wheel by four centuries. Initially, ship’s cannon capable of damaging an enemy ship could only be used in fore and aft-firing positions, until the introduction of gunports in lower decks in the late 15^th century. Prior to that, smaller cannons were used in broadsides only as an anti-personnel weapon, usually mounted on fore and aft-castles. The use of pre-gunpowder naval artillery such as catapults and ballistae dates back to Roman times, but appears to have been little used by European ships.

What does this mean for our fantasy-medieval worlds? If your fantasy world is resolutely pre-gunpowder, then it fits our fantasy to use ballistae and catapults in place of cannons. Anachronistic liberties might allow for larger sailing ships like caravels and galleons to mount such artillery, and to allow later inventions such as the stern-mounted rudder and the ship’s wheel despite the absence of black-powder artillery.

In Paizo’s official setting, Golarion, Paizo seems to be trying to straddle a variety of historical periods. Black-powder firearms are treated as rare and expensive commodities, only commonly available in certain regions, thus restricting their use in naval combat. As a result, you’re likely to see mostly pre-gunpowder vessels, with magic filling the role of anti-ship artillery. As of this writing (November 2019), Pathfinder Second Edition has not yet introduced rules for firearms and cannons, although they are assumed to be present in the same conditions as in the first edition of the Pathfinder roleplaying game, and we have seen some artwork in PF2 depicting not only black-powder firearms but even such relatively late inventions as sixguns and other breech-loading firearms. Such is the nature of the anachronistic elements we see in our fantasy. How indeed is the individual game master supposed to present his game setting to players, especially in a pirate-themed campaign? If firearms are common, what are we to make of other technological elements like full plate armor, which ceases to be widely used with the introduction of firearms?

The only possible conclusion that I can reach as a game master is that our fantasy world is unavoidably anachronistic. Most characters and locations around the game world are still using bows, crossbows, swords, axes and a variety of pre-gunpowder types of armor, from leather armor to chain shirts to full plate armor, as presented in the Pathfinder Second Edition setting of Golarion. Individual firearms are rare, and primarily linked to a restricted set of peripheral regions. Most ships do not carry cannons, but those that do, hailing from specific particularly advanced regions, are especially feared. And ship types are typically from an earlier period, such as longships, knars and cogs, while more advanced ships like caravels and galleons are only available in advanced nations. It’s up to the game master to define what those advanced regions are, and determine to what extent more advanced ship types are available.