Equipment
Candles
Candles are available at TL2 and above. At TL4 and 5 they are available in two styles (taper and pillar) and two qualities (tallow and wax). Tapers are 1” or less in diameter and weigh !/4 pound for a 12” length. Pillars are 3 or more inches in diameter. They weigh 10 times as much as a taper of equivalent length, and cost 30 times as much. (They are more expensive to make since they have to be molded rather than dipped.) Wax candles cost 10 times as much as tallow. Tallow candles produce more smoke than wax and they stink and sputter loudly as they burn. The sputtering of a tallow candle is audible within 10 yards with a Hearing roll; the smell at 20 with a Smelling roll. Wax candles are -3 to either roll unless perfumed. Either smell or sound can be overwhelmed by ambient noise or odor, of course. One candle produces enough light to read a map or document, or to light a 3-yard by 3-yard room well enough to distinguish colors. The burning rate of candles varies. In still air, a wax taper burns one inch in 3 hours. A pillar candle burns one inch in 6 hours. Tallow burns twice as fast as wax. A candle-lantern allows still-air burning rates even in the wind. At TL4, a 6” tallow taper costs $1. At TL5, six similar candles
cost $1.
Surveying Instruments
A set typically includes compass, transit, chains, flags, plotting boards and drawing instruments. Cost is $300; weight is 300 lbs. (most of this is the weight of the surveying chains). A surveying crew is usually three or four men. Starting from a known point, in one day, a crew can locate any point within 5 miles to an accuracy of 1”. Surveyors are in constant demand for road, bridge and fortress construction. In the new empires they are needed to survey land grants. Surveying parties are an excellent cover for espionage. On the other hand, one of a spy’s jobs is frequently surveying. The best course of action is to make the cover and the mission the same, by surveying for the enemy!
Navigating Instruments
These include compass, sextant (or its precursors, cross-staff and astrolabe), dividers, lead line, log (to toss overboard to figure speed), and sand-glass (to measure time). An attempt to navigate without proper instruments is at a -4; you can do without everything except lead-line and log, and those can be improvised.
The cost of a set of ordinary navigating instruments, without telescope (see below) is $100; weight is 30 lbs., including chart books. $500 will buy a set of fine, extra-precise instruments, suitable for wide-ranging nautical survey. These give +1
to any Navigation roll.
Telescope
A typical telescope weighs 5 pounds, and is 3 feet long when extended. Magnification is 8 power – it increases the apparent size of objects by eight. It costs $100. It can be used as a light club, and is fairly well balanced as a weapon, but will never again be useful as a telescope. A telescope is a symbol of authority for military officers; portraits of officers of the period, especially naval officers, usually
show the “spyglass.”
Surgical Kit
Lancets, bone saw, scalpels, arrowhead/bullet remover, cautery, needles and gut, tooth-drawing pincers, all in a leather case. Cost is $100; weight is 2 lbs., +1 to a Surgery/TL4 roll or a First Aid roll if simple surgery is required.
Logarithmic Table
Napier developed the first “log tables” in the mid-17th century; they were on sale by the end of the century. Use of such tables halves the time required to perform complex arithmetical procedures. A book of logarithms might cost $50 in 1700 (far
more than an ordinary book), and weigh half a pound.
Slide Rule
An early version of the slide rule was available in the first part of the 18th century. A good slide rule can speed arithmetical operations by a factor of 10! Cost is $50 and up. Weight ranged from negligible for a small one to a couple of pounds for a large one. A big one, made of hardwood, could be used as a baton if the mathematician found himself in dire straits. It would probably not be accurate thereafter.
Equipment
Cavalry often wear breastplates of scale or plate; some wear leather, most wear a pot helm. Many cavalry also wear metal armor on the off-hand (the hand holding the reins) that covers the whole arm and back of the hand (cost equals armor for one arm and one hand). This is so they won’t lose control of the reins if attacked on the off-hand side – they don’t bother to dodge such a blow, as the horse would interpret it as a command! Generals and other important figures usually wear plate armor into battle. King Gustavus Adolphus was killed on a day he decided not to wear his plate armor, as it irritated a minor wound he had received earlier.
The Spanish wear corselets (or sometimes breastplates) and pot helms, as do many of the palace guards throughout Europe. The arms and legs will have leather or no armor.
Pirates tend to go without armor at all – indeed, without shirts at all. It is sweltering in the Caribbean and very damp. Armor requires a lot of care in moist climates. Some pirates wear leather; a very few wear captured Spanish breastplates.
Many will put on a pot helm during a battle. No pirate ever wears armor between battles – it is simply too uncomfortable.
See Improved Armor and Shields (sidebar, p. 31) for armor and relevant GURPS statistics.
Last edited by CaptainHellrazor, December 12 2023 07:36:49. Open game article. You can edit it once you log in.