The sea under your keel

A ship rides the swell. She rises and falls, rolls and pitches with the waves under her, heels away from the wind when her sail is set, and leans outward in a hard turn. A long swell lifts a big ship most; short chop barely stirs a Carrack but rocks a Cog, and a sea on her beam rolls her hardest. Rough weather brings a heavier sea: under a storm the waves stand nearly twice as high.

Everyone aboard rides the deck with her, and walking it is no harder. Every player sees the same sea, so a sailor at the rail is where everyone sees him.

A crew at a deck ballista or catapult holds it on their aim while the ship moves under them: the shot flies where they look.

Wake and spray

Under way a ship leaves her mark on the water: a white bow wave along her sides, two lines of broken water fanning out behind her, and a churned trail along the course she sailed that fades over half a minute. Spray flies from her bow, and when she drives into a crest the sea bursts over it. The faster she goes, the more she throws up; at rest she leaves nothing.

Your view aboard

Options → Ship motion sets how much your camera follows the deck: Full, Reduced, or Steady, which keeps your view level while the ship and everyone on her still move. The view never tilts with the deck.