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INTRODUCTION
The PCs are living boats; no one knows how or why they are boats. They just are. Some are happy as boats and go about boat life happily. Others are saddened by this existence, forever swaying at the whim of the sea.
There are not humans on the boats, except on the mystic boat (and there, humans are dealt with as traits and tools, not as characters). The boats are propelled by whatever it is that made them boats. PCs are free to imagine their boats from any era; for example, there may be a longboat, a steam powered paddleboat and a jet ski in the same party. There is no need for any realistic approach to creating and building the boat: a Viking drakkar might ram a modern cruiser warship, and still win the battle. 
In other words, follow your taste and inspiration while building your boat, that’s all. 
It’s like playing Cars, or Planes (you know, the Pixar movies), but with boats.

There is land in this world. The fleet spends most of the time at sea but comes in for repairs, upgrades etc. When coming back to land, they can encounter environmental hazards such as icebergs or coral reefs.
Magic is limited in this world; boats can get magic through traits and upgrades.

ABOUT THE WORLD
The ocean has become overran with sea monsters; the PCs must find ways to return balance to the water: kill the cruelest and savage monsters, but especially drive away from the coast – where they pose a threat to cities and ports – the most dangerous and wild ones. 
The best missions, though, will be also about stopping whatever is driving the ocean crazy: pollution, industrial fishing, drilling for oil, and so on.
The boats may encounter such monsters as squid, sirens, whirlpools, creatures not unlike the Loch Ness monster, pirates, etc. There are also ancient treasures to be found or prizes to be collected, other boats in danger to be rescued, ancient boats at the bottom of the sea… but the most valuable prize, is to return the ocean to a natural and balanced state.
Don’t concern yourself with technicalities such as “how do you load the dead giant squid on the deck to bring it to port?” or “how do you get to the treasure in the cave of the sea dragon?” You’re a boat, you have no human crew, but when the camera fades to the next scene, such trivial matters have been dealt with, somehow. The best approach is never to mention this sort of stuff; the GM will not bug you when you say things like “and then we head back to the port, the three of us with the deck covered in gold and silver from the treasure.” 

CHARACTER CREATION
Boats start at 10’ length and 110HP with a speed of 90’ per round. If you have the possibility, play with miniatures: you can build your boats with Lego, use miniature boats that you buy as souvenirs while traveling, build small boats with cardboard and paper, and with every material you can think of.
When I was a child I often used erasers to build airplanes: I would color them with a pen, stick plastic into the soft rubber of the eraser as wings, or tape something like a small ruler to it… You can do similar experiments to build boats.
The purpose is not to depict a precise picture of the battle field, but rather to give players the possibility to put their hands on something, to build… and this is especially true if you play with kids.
Ten foot boats (Level 1 boats) select four starting traits from the available lists, to create their boat. Boats can be randomly generated by assigning numbers to the traits and rolling a die until four different traits are picked, or selecting some traits and picking other traits randomly.
If a PC chooses three traits from the same class, they get the class bonus, which is listed at the top of each list. ***Need more traits in the lists***
As a character sheet, a simple sheet of paper will do. Write the name of the boat and a short description – keep it short and centered on the boat concept, because your boat will evolve and improve. Together with name and description, write Level 1 somewhere at the top, with size, 110 HP and speed 90’ per round.
The rest of the sheet is for traits and upgrades. My favorite arrangement is to draw the boat towards the center of the paper, and then draw accessories and implements, when acquired, and write the text of the various traits next to it.

BALLISTA BOAT
Class bonus
When you have at least three ballista traits on your boat, gain also:
Hazard Pay: if you enter melee, you receive 50% more gold than you would have otherwise. This gold isn’t from the pool and other players’ gold isn’t affected, it’s just a bonus.

Regular traits
Ranged Attack: You have two ballista, port and starboard. It takes one round to fire and one round to reload. They can fire independently, at alternative rounds. Damage (each): 1D6+Level.
Alchemist fire: You may load the ballista with fireballs that burn also underwater. Damage: 1D4+Level x 3 rounds.
Hellacious hull: While things appear normal above, there is a surprise below the water surface. When your boat is rammed (by another boat or a monster), you inflict 1d4+Level damage to the enemy. When you ram another or a monster, you deal Damage 1d6+Level.
Silence: The ballista boat can advance unnoticed and avoid attacks, until they attack first.
Defensive ballista: If targeted by a ranged attack, you can use one ballista to intercept the enemy’s attack. Roll 1D10: on a 6+ you intercept the attack and reduce its damage of the same value. You need to reload to attack.

BARD BOAT
Class bonus
When you have at least three bard traits on your boat, gain also:
Sonar: as monsters or enemy boats approach, the Bard receives a ping to alert them of activity in the area. A bard boat cannot be attacked by surprise. At the beginning of combat, they may position themselves in a safe position or instead may strike first.

Regular traits
Boastful Masthead: In a social encounter with humans or reasonable monsters or creatures, they can roll 1D10 x Level. For each D10 showing 6+, they can ask a question and obtain a truthful answer or ask for a favor or benevolent disposition.
Perceptive Crow’s Nest: You are less susceptible to environmental dangers, you take 1d10 less damage.
Sonic attack: Once per round, a loud sonic boom resonates from the ship’s hull causing 1D6+Level damage to all enemies within 1 boat length. Allies are immune and find the sound comforting.
Deceptive decoys: The boat projects an illusion; it must be smaller than the boat and makes no noise. The illusion lasts until it’s interacted with.
Faster: move 10’ faster per round than same-size boats.

MYSTIC BOAT
Class bonus
When you have at least three mystic traits on your boat, gain also:
Blessing of the Sea: This class can heal 1D6+ Level per round, to itself or other nearby boats.

Regular traits
Fire clerics: whenever the boat is engaged, the human clerics crew throws fireballs at the enemy, dealing 1D6+Level damage
Healing touch: when rammed, the damage to this boat is reduced by the boat’s Level, as the human crew collects the pieces in an effort to fix their master.
Deep Helm: When your course would be altered (ramming, rogue wave, etc), you stay true to your path.
Curse of the Albatross: Anytime this boat is rammed, lots of sea birds pester the enemy for 1D6 rounds. Attacks against this enemy will deal +1D6 damage as long as the birds are around.

BERSERKER BOAT
Class bonus
When you have at least three berserker traits on your boat, gain also:
Bull Rush: in combat you’re always the first in initiative order, regardless of the size and sped.

Regular traits
Eye of the storm: the boat may hold its action for one round in order to build up rage, ramming damage dealt the next turn is 2D10 + 2xLevel.
Death blow: you gain 50% more gold for having dealt the final strike (similar to hazard pay).
Ramming Speed: When ramming, you may push the target to the right or left and continue moving forward. 
Overflow: when damage kills an enemy, all leftover damage may be transferred to an adjacent target. 

REGULAR ACTIONS
To deal with regular actions, use the following formula: the player states the objective of its action(s), and rolls 1D10 for each desired target – at most two or three for each single action.
Every roll of 6+ is considered a success; every roll of 5- it’s a failure that the GM can hold against the player (i.e. to inflict damage, complications, and so on).
To perfectly accomplish a complex action or multiple targets, therefore, a player needs to roll all and every D10 with a result of 6+. 
If this doesn’t happen, then it’s the GM deciding which part of the action succeeds and which fails. 
GM: give precedence to interesting developments and do not frustrate players! Give the best results to important targets, and use the worst rolls for complications, rather than for utter failure.
Example:
“I move to the front of the line moving fast between the other boats, and I scream at the sea dragon to let go of the prisoner!”
These are two targets: moving fast without incidents between the boats and convincing the sea dragon. The player rolls 2D10, a 7 (a success), and a 2 (a failure).
The GM can narrate a fast and clean approach (7) and then the sea dragon laughing at the piteous attempt of the little boat to threaten him (2), or the other way around: the boat approaches fast but scratching other boats and causing damage and resentment (2), but then the sea dragon is convinced to let go of the prisoner (7).

How to decide
Decide for what’s interesting in the story: if this is the final boss and a fight is due, then let the dragon be unconvinced. 
If this is just a minor step within a longer adventure, let the dragon give up the broken boat, and then see how the player will deal with the resentment for the fast ride between other boats.
It’s OK to say that something is impossible: there are evil monsters, for example, that will refuse to negotiate, or annoying humans that will not offer support and a place in their ports to the boats, even though the boats are there to help, etc…

Gain a bonus
When a boat attempts an action related to its class, roll 1D10 more.
The lowest result is discarded, so the boat has a better chance of obtaining a success when dealing with class-related actions.
Class-related actions are for example:
•	Fast and agile movement, for the ballista boat
•	Negotiation and interaction, for the bard boat
•	Healing and supernatural actions, for the mystic boat
•	Strength and resistance actions, for the berserker boat

Getting help
If one boat is trying to help another, they put themselves in the path of danger by doing so.
Whatever failure the GM will hold at the end, can afflict the original boat and the helping boat, together. 
If the action is simple (one die) and fails, the GM holds one failure. The GM for example can spend this failure to inflict a complication on the original acting boat and to inflict some appropriate damage to the helping boat.
When a boat receives help, it can roll 1D10 more. If the boat offering to help is helping in a class-related action, both bonuses will apply.

Difficulty
The GM can state that an action is easier than normal. Instead of asking to roll for a lower target number, just say that the action is accomplished.
If the action, on the other hand, is really much harder, instead of counting a 6+ as a success, count an 8+ as a success.

UPGRADES AND LEVEL UP
***To expand/check; numbers are clearly random***
When they return to a port, the boats can transform gold and other collected prizes into upgrades and improvements.
Every 100 gold allows to repair the boat back to full HP.
Every 1000 gold allows to buy an upgrade:
•	Add a new Trait from your class
•	Pay double (2000) to add a trait of another class
•	Upgrade a trait (i.e. step up one die size damage or similar)
•	Become better at whatever action (i.e. succeed with 5 or more on 1D10)
•	Increase size by 5’

Increase boat size
Every increase of the boat size by 5’ will:
•	Grant additional 5 HP
•	Reduce speed by 5’
In other words: given Length X, the boat has 100+X HP, and 100-X speed.
Highest speed also determines initiative in combat and other actions.

COMBAT
The boats base attack is to ram, but traits give ranged attacks.
The basic ramming damage is: 1D6 against the target, 1D4 against the rammer itself.

When a boat reaches 0 HP, it is considered sinking. 
The boat will sink at a rate of 5’ per each round. Other boats may come to help and drag the boat to safety and healing.

Ranged attacks 
***

Monsters and Adversaries
***Monsters and their attacks/HP needed***