Ship Pricing

Let's talk about pricing ships, as that's the part of the Streetvendor's Guide I'm working on presently.

The idea is to produce a consistent pricing method, so as bigger ships emerge, there's a definable explanation for why they're so expensive.  This involves a demonstration for the player, who can see what's being bought, while at the same time giving a frame of reference for a ship's size and complexity.

Let's start with something very simple:  an oar.  Here's the guide's description for it:

Oar … 3¾ g.p. per item.

Flat-bladed oaken pole used to propel and steer boats through water, with a 12 in. handle shaped for a comfortable grip. Used with the rower facing the stern. Price given is for the 12 ft. long tool used with launches and longboats.  45¾ lb.

Here we have the price of the oar and it's weight.  The initial price of the oar is the cost to have a piece of oak sawn out from the tree as a piece (which itself has a price, but let's not go back that far), which for clarity's sake I define as the wood's "crafted" price ... essentially, wood that's ready to be crafted, rather than after the fact.  "Sawnwood" is easily misunderstood, as wood is sawed for a number of other reasons which, again, we don't have to go into.

The crafted price for oak is 9.21 c.p./lb. ... and this is adjusted for the shipbuilder, as opposed to the furniture maker, the wagonwright, the tool maker and a number of other artisans that also use "crafted" wood.  Ship crafted oak costs 15.91 c.p./lb.  As shown, the oar above weighs 45¾ lb.  Multiply those numbers and we get 726 c.p. and change, which divided into g.p. equals 3¾.

That's the initial pricing structure, but let's take this up a notch and discuss the "cogboat."  Here's how that appears in the Guide:

Cogboat … 167¼ g.p. per vessel.

A lighter cargo boat than the launch, developed in the 12th century, propelled by two oars with a third crewmember at the tiller. 18 ft. long with a 5 ft. beam, the boat requires a draft of just 2½ ft., very suitable for Baltic coastal regions. Provides space for 10 passengers and up to 1¾ tons of cargo. The keel cuts smoothly through the water at a speed of 2 to 3 knots, though it suffers somewhat in harsh weather. 1,350 lb.

Unlike an oar, a cogboat is made of three different materials, each of which has it's own price.  These are the same oak the oar was made of, plus ironmongery pieces (very definitely not steel, but smithed iron), and pitch.  This last is to seal and waterproof the boat, preventing water from seeping into the vessel.  Pitch has a price of 14.24 c.p./lb., which is based upon the cost of cut pine timber; search where you will on how pitch is made, it's very interesting.  Ironmongery has a price of 12.15 c.p./ounce ... meaning that it's much more expensive than wood or pitch.  Once again, the same crafted shipbuilding oak is still 15.91 c.p./lb.

I put these together in an excel table, with a lot of other similar things, that looks like this:

Yes, I know, all our attention is on the "bastarda" above the cogboat, and I promise we'll get there, but one step at a time.

Under "wt.," we see how much crafted oak shipbuilding, pitch and ironmongery we need to build the vessel.  The price for each of these is shown under "material cost" in c.p.  This number is then added together and appears under "combined materials."  The total weight of the cogboat is then again expressed under "wt." on the far right.

Now, most of you will have noticed that the "combined materials" is higher than the actual three items in the "material cost" column.  That is because, as things become complex, several different materials must be worked together to create a general whole.  To reflect the general complexity of the item, the total is accordingly multiplied.  An oar is a very simple item, made of one material, the total is multiplied by "1".  Two materials together would be multiplied by "1.1" and something like the cogboat, shown here, is multiplied by "1.2."  The actual total of material costs is multiplied by 1.2, which gives us the 32,112.11 c.p. shown ... which translates to 167¼ g.p.

There, that gives some idea of what's going on with the bastarda.  Let me put up the Guide's description of that, though some of you have already seen this on my patreon today.

Bastarda … 34,612½ g.p. per vessel.

Formidable galley developed in the late 15th century, measuring 120 ft. in length with a 20 ft. beam, with a shallow draft at approximately 5½ ft. Built primarily for ramming and boarding, the galley is equipped with 60 oars, each requiring multiple rowers; this allows for a combined 200 active and relief rowers. An additional crew for navigation, combat and managing the sails rounds the ship’s full complement to 300.

An upper deck above the “ormes,” or rowing deck, provides space for combat operations, allowing for 10 to 12 catapults and other engines for ranged attacks. Two masts support sails to enhance speed when wind conditions are favourable. At the stern, six private quarters for officers each provide a small bunk, a writing desk, storage compartments and space for one person. The remaining crew sleep in three large communal areas. Cargo capacity beyond ballast, crew and equipment is 152¼ tons. Structural weight, 83 tons; difficult.

That's a bit more than the "galley, large" that's priced at 25,000 g.p. in the original Players Handbook back in 1979.  Nor is the bastarda the largest of galleys, either.  But the reader can see how I got to the price.  It's one heck of a lot of crafted oak ... and for the record, the "crafted cedar" is considered separate because this is the cost of building the decks and internal structures, while the "crafted pinewood" is, as it states, for "fixtures" such as the private staterooms and various pieces all around.  It isn't that the inclusion of two additional woods is the reason for adding "0.2" to the multiplier that also affects the price of the oak, but that the overall complexity of the vessel is reflected in the presence of so many different kinds of aspects that must be accounted for.  The presence of the sails on the table does not itself justify an increase in price, but objects that need rigging and sails are unquestionable more expensive and difficult to build.  So the total of all the various parts of the ship are, in the end, multiplied by 1.6 after being added together (7 materials = ratio 1.6).

And that is how the same costs for each requisite part of anything determines the price of every object in a comprehensible manner.  If there is a drawback, it's that if the price of oak wood changes, that change affects the prices of many, many other objects also.

Now, what is the meaning of that last word, after the structural weight:  "difficult"?  Well, it has a meaning that has nothing to do with the cost of the ship, but I'm not explaining that today.

Incidentally, I went around in a wide circle on the subject of ship's weight ... because "displacement" includes the ship's ballast, crew and many other things that are not actually part of the ship's construction ... and therefore are not part of the ship's price calculation, or how much the ship weighs before adding things into it.  Probably, when a character buys a ship, it already has ballast in it; but it seems to me that the cost of that ballast ought to be separate from the price of the ship, per se.  Clearly, somewhere else in the guide, I'll have to explain what ballast is and how much it costs.

Good enough for now.  Enjoy your week.