underwater campaign - suggestions?

I am considering running a fantasy campaign in an underwater setting, in the not-too-distant future (i.e. when one or two ongoing projects are over), but I'm only in the information-gathering and general musings stage at the moment.

So, does anyone have some experiences with this kind of campaign (or even adventure) - particularly from 'behind the screen' - that they wouldn't mind sharing?

And is there anything I should definitely do, or definitely not do (IYO), or any other piece of advice that comes to mind?

Aus_Snow said:

I am considering running a fantasy campaign in an underwater setting,

And is there anything I should definitely do, or definitely not do (IYO), or any other piece of advice that comes to mind?

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Figure out how you're going to handle 3-D combat before you start.

The D&D core rules don't cover it well at all.

(I'm not up on all the third party stuff out there, if there is a good resource for this pick it up, you'll need it -> even if it is about aerial combat the ruleset should transfer over whole cloth to underwater.)

kingamy

You need to talk to Aeolius. He's the king of underwater D&D 'round these parts.

When you say 'underwater', do you mean running aquatic races in an underwater campaign or running land-lubbers in an aquatic environment. It makes somewhat of a difference to the answer. I run a campaign for the latter, land-lubbers venturing underwater.

There are numerous sources for good books - Seafarer's Handbook, Seas of Blood, Monster Geographica - Marsh and Aquatic, Corsairs - Ships of the Sea, the upcoming Green Ronin Dead Man's Chest, and numerous others.

Pinotage

Pinotage said:

When you say 'underwater', do you mean running aquatic races in an underwater campaign or running land-lubbers in an aquatic environment. It makes somewhat of a difference to the answer. I run a campaign for the latter, land-lubbers venturing underwater.

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Aquatic races. Sorry, I forgot to specify. In fact, part of the premise is that the PCs will have very little, or even no idea what goes on in the surface world.

Pinotage said:

There are numerous sources for good books - Seafarer's Handbook, Seas of Blood, Monster Geographica - Marsh and Aquatic, Corsairs - Ships of the Sea, the upcoming Green Ronin Dead Man's Chest, and numerous others.

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Could you recommend one or two, and explain why? I've had a look at reviews of about half of those. . . and nothing sounds really promising (for what I have in mind). Are they though?

Aus_Snow said:

Aquatic races. Sorry, I forgot to specify. In fact, part of the premise is that the PCs will have very little, or even no idea what goes on in the surface world.

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In this case, Aeolius runs an Aquatic Campaign. He actually has a decent website devoted to this as well:

Aeolius' Websire

He posts on numerous message boards around the net, so just searching for his name and aquatic in the same search picks up a lot of his contributions to the message boards. This link might be useful:

Undersea Adventures Messageboard Post

Like one one of the earlier posters said, combat is probably the big thing to resolve, given the numerous ways it can change underwater if you don't stick to the core 3.5e rules. It's also 3D combat, so be aware of this.

Aus_Snow said:

Could you recommend one or two, and explain why? I've had a look at reviews of about half of those. . . and nothing sounds really promising (for what I have in mind). Are they though?

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Personally I've used bits and pieces from most of those. The monster collection is great, since the MM isn't really full of aquatic goodness. The Fiend Folio has some nice undersea monsters. Also, if you're looking at specific races, the Slayer's Guides from Mongoose might be useful to you as well. Dead Man's Chest looks good - that's actually Necromancer Games, not Green Ronin. As a comprehensive guide to aquatic adventures, there's nothing that caters to it all out there. You have to use pieces of a lot of material. Hopefully WotC Stormwrack will help in the matter.

Pinotage

a few things to definitely keep in mind:

• spells. make new ones. find new ones. interpret/convert the old ones so they will work.
  
  carrying capacity.
  
  speed of movement.
  
  armor and weaponry
  
  communication and light

You might want to check out Depths of Despair (I think it's from Pinnacle).

I have not gotten to use it yet but read it cover to cover. It looks excellent!

It presents a full D&D setting or "encounter area" based around a water vortex generated by a powerful artifact.

It looks like it could support several times of games, from "Hack & Swim" to something more political (a few political factions are described).

Good luck with your game, it sounds fun!

-Tom

Thanks for the replies, folks.

Do any of the books that were mentioned cover underwater combat? I agree with those who've said it'd be a priority. Definitely the case. And, while I have been thinking about house rules, it's proving to be quite challenging. Perhpas if I float some minis in the fishtank it'll help.

There was a Dragon magazine which covered underwater combat and some spell effects. Pretty good information. Sorry I can not remember the number off hand, but the main topic was Gnomes.

Make sure you throw in a awakened Kraken, make him a druid