Need Help with Ship Names, Types

[Emperor Valerian]

Well, I'm doing a campaign this fall that will have the sea as a central theme, (using the ship rules from Corsair, cannons allowed, and creating vessels as needed) as as such, there's going to be quite a few ships around. Human vessels have posed no problem... I'm basing them rouhgly around 16th/17th century ships. The problem has been the ships of the elves, hobgoblins, and orcs (the three other major seafaring races... gnomes appear here and there, but aren't big enough to have their own fleets).

The elves I already have a concept for their ships. The elves in this world are tend to stay to themselves, but react angrily and raid human coasts when provoked. Their ships are small and fast, light in armament and using spellcasters as their main offensive weapon. However, I have no idea what constitutes a good elvish name for a ship. So when my players ask the name of the vessel they just captured, they'll get a blank stare from their DM.

The problems with the orc and hobgoblin ships are not only that I have no ideas for names, but also no ideas for what these vessels would look like. I'd like them to be racially unique from the human or elven designs, but I'm not sure where to go with it... so I thought I'd pick everyone's brains for good ideas.

 

[SidusLupus]

Not to derail but is Corsaire an online suppliment or a printed book? I've always wanted rules for this kind of thing and it sounds like you know where to get them.

On the subject of ships, perhaps consider going with the ebberon approach to half orcs where they are more oriental flavored and make their ships look like chineese ships?

Baring that, perhaps make the hobgoblin ships large with jagged lines and uncessesary spikes that could perhaps be employed in raming manouvers. If you go with the standard militaristic hobgoblin approach that sounds like it might work.

As for names.. are you looking for specific ship names or ship type names?

For specific names i find that i get my best ones from mythological resources with glossaries.
For type names, look up ancient tribal or military division names and go from there?

hope that helps.

 

[Aus_Snow]

I have no idea what constitutes a good elvish name for a ship. So when my players ask the name of the vessel they just captured, they'll get a blank stare from their DM.

As for designs and all that stuff, that's a bit much to contemplate right now.

But names? Yeah, I can throw a few links around. I know they're not 'ship-specific', but they might help.

Best of luck with it.


Name/Stuff Generators
----------------------

http://www.kessels.com/wordgenerator/
http://www.squid.org/
http://www.nbos.com/products/ipad/ipad.htm
http://www.seventhsanctum.com/
http://nine.frenchboys.net/

They're probably the most useful so far (for me) out of my links list.

 

[Steverooo]

If the Elves' are small, light, and fast, the Orc/Hobgoblin should be heavy, well-armored, slow, and heavily-armed. Catapults, trebuchets, ballistae/scorpions, rams, armor plate, etc. They would also be lower tech. Maybe the Orc ships are coastal, oared, and based upon Viking clinker-built raiders.

 

[Steverooo]

Names:

Elven Ships: Alquacir (Swan-ship), Mithalqua (Grey Swan), etc.

Orc Ships: Tog-Suhk (Wave-beater), Nak-Dah (Foe-Hammer), etc.

Hobgoblin Ships: (Similar to Orcish) Jack-Dah (Sea-Hammer), Tog-Krish (Wave-Slicer), etc.

 

[Arkhandus]

I think hobgoblins would build sturdy, fast ships designed for ramming and boarding procedures. So, large, solid caravels, cogs, and other such things, probably. With big rams on the front, and spikes on the sides to help with boarding, but designed somehow to make it reasonably easy for the hobgoblins to separate their ship from their enemy's ship. Hobgoblins would rely on cannon for offense, probably including a cannon positioned on the forecastle or foredeck, to fire upon an enemy ship while rushing towards them at ramming speed. They would have a well-armored/thick hull, and rely on their cannons for a strong broadside to defeat the enemy, while keeping archers around with arrows that can be dipped in pitch and lit, to set enemy sails ablaze. Hobgoblins would probably rush in, firing as they go, try lighting the sails on fire, then get up alongside to board, rush in while using their foredeck cannon to aim at and blast clear a path, force their marines down to the holds, sabers swinging, grab some loot, then return back to their ship while the majority of their marines keep the path clear and the enemies busy.

Orcs would use simpler ships, probably longships like Vikings used, for quick shore-raiding while carrying lots of warriors and a modest amount of treasure back from each raid. They'd bring rope-ladders and climbing spikes to use in climbing onto any larger vessel that they might come across at sea. Or they might use some fast schooners and sloops, likely built as crude copies of some ships the orcs stole long ago, not terribly sturdy or well-armed. They'd swoop in quickly, their ship filled with warriors, sail on past the enemy ship, while the orcs swing from ropelines atop some specially-built high masts, swinging onto the enemy ship and attacking, working to bull rush sailors off the deck. The sloop or schooner would make additional passes as needed, depositing more warriors onto the enemy vessel. They might sometimes only swing out to toss Tanglefoot Bags, Thunderstones, fragile barrels of lard or blood or entrails (would orcs really even mind the stink of entrails on their ship?). Blind, frighten, or slip up the defenders, then toss orc marines down on them to push the poor sods overboard. As the schooner or sloop moves away, the archers can fire at enemy sailors in the water, ensuring they don't climb back up to join the fight on-deck. The orcs would just use archers for pelting the enemy as they close, and wouldn't want to set the enemy ship ablaze. To avoid having to build more ships, they'll try taking over the vessel, leaving a token crew of orcs to sail it back to port, probably with the schooner or sloop as escort.

Names depend on the cultures. Would elves name their ships after bits of poetry lines, or animals, or other concepts? Would they use names like Fury of the Wind or Red Wave or Black Sparrow or Blade of the Mourning Tide? Would they just use words in elven to name their ships that are so obscure that non-elves wouldn't recognize the words? Or name their vessels after elven kings, heroes, and such of yore?

Would orcs just name their vessel something guttural and meaningless, or perhaps something descriptively visceral and threatening? Would orcs even care enough to bother naming their ships, or do they just steal whatever ships they can and call them "my ship" or "Grug's ship"? Maybe orcs would name their ship after the captain they slew to take the ship, like "Asuvial's Doom" or "McBrady's Folly" or "Kazak's Coffin"? Name them after lands metaphors with colorful descriptors tacked on, i.e. "Bloody Mountain," "Storm's Peak," "Black Moon," "the Forest of Charrgath's Warship," or "Gray-Faced Doom." *shrug*

Hobgoblins would probably name their vessels after the captain and some appelation, or after a renowned hobgoblin of the past, such as "Vregar's Blade," "Shasruth's Hammer," "The Ironclad of Hakkar," or "King Forgun's Cutter," or "His Majesty Drastun." Or they'd name them after weapons, tactics, or other military stuff, probably, maybe with some colorful appelation attached, like "Gray Sword of Magdur," or "Iron Spear," or "Bloody Scimitar."

 

[Hand of Evil]

try the following link: http://www.seventhsanctum.com/generate.php?Genname=pirateshipnamer

It is a great site for things like this.

here are 25 from the generator:
Hades' Plague
Night's Lightning
Posideon's Killer
Satan's Hoard
The Dirty Manta
The Disgraceful Killer
The Howling Raider
The Awful Raider
The Black Blade of the East
The Bloody Sadness
The Cursed Cruelty
The Damned Strumpet of the Sea
The Disgrace of Hades
The Evil Lust
The Gold Thunder of the Sea
The Hate of the Wolf
The Hell-born Doom of the Caribbean
The Horrible Servant
The Horrid Jewel
The Horrid Murderer
The Horrid Plunder of the West
The Howling Strumpet
The Poison Howl
The Shameful Cry
The Shameful Fall

 

[Aus_Snow]

try the following link: http://www.seventhsanctum.com/generate.php?Genname=pirateshipnamer

It is a great site for things like this.

Which is why I posted it earlier.

But I can't believe I missed that particular generator there. Doh!

 

[Hand of Evil]

Which is why I posted it earlier.

But I can't believe I missed that particular generator there. Doh!

You do have to look a good bit , another generator is at the site is Ships and Vehicles and allows up to 50.

http://www.seventhsanctum.com/generate.php?Genname=shipnamer

 

[Galethorn]

Elves? Xebecs: http://pirateshold.buccaneersoft.com/images/ships/xebec2.jpg (small, fast, and good in all but the heaviest seas).

Hobgoblins? Triremes and the like: http://pirateshold.buccaneersoft.com/images/ships/xebec2.jpg

Orcs? No idea.