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BonJoviJones
Any one running/has ran a cyberpirate campaign? What did the players float in? Boat or ship? (In a technical sense, ie, boats have body/armor, ships have hull/bulwark) What model?

Most boats are pretty small, but ships seem embarrassingly large.

Any ideas?
Kagetenshi
Boat or boats. Only really big-time pirates will have ships, and those will probably be bases of operation for their boats.

~J
CircuitBoyBlue
Ok, I know nothing about this. What's the difference between a ship and a boat? And by that, I mean

a) what's the difference between body/armor and hull/bulwark?

and

b) what's the difference between ships and boats in real life? I've heard people make the differentiation before, and I've always nodded my head like I knew what they were talking about.
Frag-o Delux
After a boat wieghs so much it becomes a ship.

In SR the Hull/Bullwark are the ships Body/Armor just on a grander scale. Like your Great Dragon ATGM has about as much chance of hurting a ship, as a BB gun will tak don a jumbo jet. I forget the exact converstion to give you diffenet numbers.

Easier way to get the picture. If the light Naval gun will turn a APC to dust, that should show how strong the Bulwark is on a ship, since a light naval gun is a Light wound base damage on a ship scale.
Kagetenshi
Put it this way. Can you hit it with an anti-ship missile and still have sizable chunks left?

If the answer's yes, it's probably naval-scale.

~J
Cain
QUOTE
what's the difference between ships and boats in real life? I've heard people make the differentiation before, and I've always nodded my head like I knew what they were talking about.

Size. Boats are small things. Ships are the great big trans-oceanic cruisers. It might help to picture the extreme ends of the scale-- a little rowboat is a boat. An aircraft carrier is a ship.

Now, exactly where the line between them is drawn, I don't know. Some of the larger yachts straddle the line neatly.
Arethusa
It should be noted that boat is not an explicitly technical term, and there are times where very large things are referred to as boats. eg skippers on subs are occasionally referred to as boat drivers.
Slamm-O
i may be talking out of my ass here, but here it goes.

i always thought that a boat could not (reasonably, maybe?) be out at sea for long, whereas a ship could. Thats why i thought the early subs earned the moniker of boat, and that it stuck with them even after they gained long haul capabilities.
cykotek
Something to keep in mind when talking about "ship vs boat" is that a submarine, no matter how big, is (at least in the American Navy) always referred to as a boat. I believe it has something to do with the first sub really being just a rowboat.

I also jokingly differentiate between ships and boats as the following: "A ship has a captain; a boat sails by mutual consent." Usually when I mention that, my father (a longtime US Navy vet) frowns and doesn't find it nearly as funny as I do.
RedmondLarry
Standard distinction between a ship and a boat: A boat is small enough to be loaded onto a ship. When a sailing captain calls "Away all boats" he means that all the boats on board should be lowered into the water. Boats are the traditional way to get ashore when a harbor has no dock, and the ship anchors offshore. Life boats are boats. The captains gig is a boat.

A vessel too big to be loaded onto a ship is a ship.
Da9iel
I've also heard sub crewmen say something to the effect that, "This is a boat. Ships are targets." wink.gif
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