Sailing through a storm

roguerouge · Sep 19, 2008

I'd like to do an encounter in which the PC's ship goes through a heavy storm, but I'm uncertain how to make that work mechanically and dramatically. Anyone have any help? The PCs are the captain and the navigator.

LostSoul · Sep 19, 2008

Treat the storm as a character with a will of its own.

Which edition are you running?

In 4e, use a skill challenge, and describe it threatening to capsize the boat, rend the sails, break the mast, etc. unless the PCs succeed on their skill checks.

In 3e, I'd think about statting it up as a monster... not sure how that would work.

Mark · Sep 19, 2008

Pick up a novel or two so that the descriptions can be more vivid -

The World of Patrick O'Brian: Home Page

Mathew_Freeman · Sep 19, 2008

Skill challenge seems like an obvious choice for a 4e game.

Perception - reading the storm, successes give a bonus to another roll
Diplomacy / Intimidate - get the crew to work properly, or better

Not sure what skill would relate exactly to sea-faring, though...

roguerouge · Sep 19, 2008

It's 3e, but I don't see why a skill challenge system wouldn't work here. How would it work in 3e?

Radiating Gnome · Sep 19, 2008

The skill choice for sailing the ship that I've found closes in 4e is Nature. In 3e you can require profession(sailor) rather than knowledge(nature).

The Skill challenge system drops into 3e pretty easily, actually. It requires a number of successes before 3 failures. Set the DC yourself, based on how hard you want it to be.

Remember that a failure in a skill challenge shouldn't break your game, just make life more difficult, so don't sink the ship if they fail, just make them late getting to where they need to go, etc.

roguerouge · Sep 19, 2008

So, we've got Intimidate/Diplomacy for captain to control the crew, Profession (sailor) for the crew tasks, knowledge (nature) for identifying the severity of the storm, and I actually use Knowledge (geography) for piloting.

What other skills should be in play?

What events should occur?

Henry · Sep 19, 2008

roguerouge said:
So, we've got Intimidate/Diplomacy for captain to control the crew, Profession (sailor) for the crew tasks, knowledge (nature) for identifying the severity of the storm, and I actually use Knowledge (geography) for piloting.

What other skills should be in play?

What events should occur?

The only thing to watch out for if using skill challenges in 3e is that skill scores can be VERY swingy between different party members. What is an impossible score for one PC is an average challenge to another. Some maxed out 4th level bard might have a +30 to control the crew, while the less maxed out druid 4 might have only a +10 or so to do what's needed. In groups that are roughly equivalently maxed in the needed skills, it's a good challenge; in others, it might be doomed to fail before it begins.

roguerouge · Sep 19, 2008

Henry said:
The only thing to watch out for if using skill challenges in 3e is that skill scores can be VERY swingy between different party members. What is an impossible score for one PC is an average challenge to another. Some maxed out 4th level bard might have a +30 to control the crew, while the less maxed out druid 4 might have only a +10 or so to do what's needed. In groups that are roughly equivalently maxed in the needed skills, it's a good challenge; in others, it might be doomed to fail before it begins.

In that case, it's relevant for me to post the character I DM in my 1 PC game: Bard 6/Rogue 1 is the PC with two cohorts Fighter 5 and Sorcerer 4/Expert 1.

Notable (remotely relevant) skills for these characters:

The Fighter's got Climb +9, Jump +6, Swim +7.
Sorcerer/Expert: K (geography) +12, Bluff +9.
The PC: Bluff +14, Diplomacy +16, Intimidate +7, P (sailor) +6; She also has Daredevil Athlete as a feat, allowing her 3/day to get a +5 to a skill check that's physical in nature (e.g. climb, swim, escape artist, etc.)

LostSoul · Sep 19, 2008

roguerouge said:
It's 3e, but I don't see why a skill challenge system wouldn't work here. How would it work in 3e?

Here's a simple system, using opposed rolls.

Describe how the storm attacks. Have the player describe how she's dealing with the attack. Select a skill for her to use. If she can describe her cohorts helping her out, let them give her Aid Another actions.

Roll the dice, the PC making a skill check, the storm making an attack roll. Give the storm something like +15 to attacks. I have no idea how many hp the ship has, but set the storm's damage to something dangerous.

If the PC wins, the ship takes no damage. If she fails, the ship takes some damage and whatever secondary effects you described in your attack (breaking the mast, breaking the rudder, sending sailors overboard, whatever).

Once the PC has won enough rolls (decide this beforehand), she sails through the storm with whatever damage you've done to the ship. If the ship has 0 hp, then it capsizes or sinks.