Help me design a 16th Century-style fantasy warship.

[onehitwanda]

For me, all that remains is John Williams' score.

They're going to bury me to the Force theme.

though that music from Luke and Vader's final battle still gives me chills.

 

[Bamagan]

They're going to bury me to the Force theme.

though that music from Luke and Vader's final battle still gives me chills.

Aquatic burial, I presume? When you've joined the shadows of the deep, you've become that which you feared!

 

[StillStunned]

They're going to bury me to the Force theme.

though that music from Luke and Vader's final battle still gives me chills.

My ex, if we ever got married, wanted to walk down the aisle to the Imperial March.

 

[onehitwanda]

Aquatic burial, I presume

No - Katabatic. They load my box on a catapult, aim it out into the wide blue yonder at sunset, and see if they can clobber a passing bat with me.

They get a bottle of rum per bat they brain. Because I'm broken that way.

 

[StillStunned]

No - Katabatic. They load my box on a catapult, aim it out into the wide blue yonder at sunset, and see if they can clobber a passing bat with me.

They get a bottle of rum per bat they brain. Because I'm broken that way.

They should have a decent chance of hitting a couple if they aim you at a cricket ground.

 

[onehitwanda]

They should have a decent chance of hitting a couple if they aim you at a cricket ground.

There will be no cricket grounds. Part of my dead-girls-switch system includes the generation of a mass-driver swarm that will smite every cricket pitch from Scilly to John o'Scrotes with nickel-iron meteors and crates full of tungsten my-little-pony dolls.

I am committed to going out with a bang.

 

[ElectricBlue]

No - Katabatic. They load my box on a catapult, aim it out into the wide blue yonder at sunset, and see if they can clobber a passing bat with me.

They get a bottle of rum per bat they brain. Because I'm broken that way.

Do what Keith Richards did with his dad's ashes - put them in a firework and light the fuse, go off with a bang.

 

[StillStunned]

every cricket pitch from Scilly to John o'Scrotes

According to Danny Bhoy, they don't have cricket in Scotland. "In Glasgow, if you see a fellow with a cricket bat, chances are he isn't headed for the village green."

 

[AndersonsBiographer]

Reminds me of "The Red Scholar's Wake", where a woman captured by pirates enters into an arranged marriage with their ship. It gets quite steamy in places.

(Nominally, space pirates and spaceship, but it feels more like a sail-fantasy story transplanted to space than hard SF.)

Shades of the Honorverse/Honor Harrington? (which I've admittedly never read... maybe I should...)

Those of you on the "keep it simple" side would not be fans of David Weber. But I do have vague ideas for another story inspired by the General/Raj Whitehall Series.

 

[MrHereWriting]

Shades of the Honorverse/Honor Harrington? (which I've admittedly never read... maybe I should...)

Those of you on the "keep it simple" side would not be fans of David Weber. But I do have vague ideas for another story inspired by the General/Raj Whitehall Series.

Keeping it simple is a philosophy, not a measure of someone's talent.

 

[AndersonsBiographer]

Keeping it simple is a philosophy, not a measure of someone's talent.

It can be a either/or, really. I dated a literature teacher who absolutely refused to do anything with Melville because of how "overwritten" she considered his works to be. Whereas I considered his descriptions of the ships rigging to be fascinating and almost wish that I had the skill and patience to do something like that.

Though I do think that, 9 times out of 10, you should really do your best not to waste your reader's time. You have to really know what you're doing before you can do a Herman Melville, or a Tom Clancy, or I suppose a David Weber.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Shades of the Honorverse/Honor Harrington? (which I've admittedly never read... maybe I should...)

Not familiar with them, alas.

 

[Bramblethorn]

There will be no cricket grounds. Part of my dead-girls-switch system includes the generation of a mass-driver swarm that will smite every cricket pitch from Scilly to John o'Scrotes with nickel-iron meteors and crates full of tungsten my-little-pony dolls.

I am committed to going out with a bang.

"She died as she lived."

 

[MrHereWriting]

It can be a either/or, really. I dated a literature teacher who absolutely refused to do anything with Melville because of how "overwritten" she considered his works to be. Whereas I considered his descriptions of the ships rigging to be fascinating and almost wish that I had the skill and patience to do something like that.

Though I do think that, 9 times out of 10, you should really do your best not to waste your reader's time. You have to really know what you're doing before you can do a Herman Melville, or a Tom Clancy, or I suppose a David Weber.

Providing details and over-thinking something aren't the same either.

 

[Bramblethorn]

There is another approach, called "Soft rules of magic" (Lord of the Rings can be an example of this approach) where the focus is on the story and characters and the world itself, but readers don't exactly know where the magic and power come from and what their limitations are. This approach is much less restricting for the author and it's also easier to write in my opinion.

This style is easier if the protagonists aren't wielding magic themselves. If Gandalf were the protagonist of a story, it'd probably be necessary to define his abilities a bit more tightly than is done in LotR.

The rules of magic in Tolkien's world are defined most clearly where they touch on the protagonists. We know there's only one way for the One Ring to be destroyed; if Sam got fed up and just smashed it with a very large hammer, we'd consider that "cheating". Likewise we know that some swords light up when Orcs are near, that the Black Breath requires athelas in the hands of a king, etc.

Even for the more softly-defined powers, Tolkien does give some sense of how they work. The magic of the wood-elves is mostly in subtle things - food that's extremely nourishing, ropes that come unknotted just when you want them to, cloaks that blend in really well. Gandalf's magic is primarily fire and light. It's not at the level of "Gandalf can cast Fireball three times a day and then he has to rest for eight hours to recharge his spells" but it's enough to help set expectations about what he can and can't do, which avoids deflating tension with that feeling of "well the author can just make up a spell to get them out of this situation".

 

[Bamagan]

"well the author can just make up a spell to get them out of this situation".

No need for spells when you've got the eagles on speed-dial.

 

[Bramblethorn]

No need for spells when you've got the eagles on speed-dial.

http://oglaf.com/ornithology/