Aquatic Campaigns

[Whimsical]

Ooh! I third the motion for magically altered aquatic plants/animals that are actually potions and are small enough to swallow in one gulp. That is very thematically apporpriate.

I would also allow regular potions to work if they are "breathed" in by water-breathing beings.

Also, I have a house clarafication in my games that scrolls and spellbooks are normally waterproof. After all, if they cost so much gp for the best inks and papers, why not have those inks and papers be the best that they can possibly be?

 

[Brimshack]

I've been looking a lot at Reefs as a kind of Sylvan setting. Made up a few things for that kind of location, but I do think it would be a nice equivalent to the really special wood with Feys and Druids protecting it. It might also be an interesting sort of middle ground where the aquatic races can meet and deal with land-lubbers (lots of potential for interesting tension there). Protection of the coral reefs could also be an interesting theme in the campaign.

Don't know if you use them, but if you're looking for undersea type miniatures, you might check out Eastern Front Studios. They have the largest selection of such minis that I can think of, at least for a smaller company. Might also give you some ideas for creatures, and I believe Mick was working on game rules for the undersea stuff too. Don't know how far he got. We've got a few of sea creatures on our own agenda, but nothing quite in metal form yet.

 

[GreatLemur]

Speaking of miniatures, I'd love to know how people handle three-dimensional movement on a battle mat. Stacking Legos undeneath flying/swimming miniatures?

 

[Brimshack]

We usually just put a dice beside it with the number on the dice representing the number of 5' increments up in the air, off the sea floor, etc.

 

[Aeolius]

...Lots of great 3-D places to explore. Savage currents, schools of fish, and plenty of coral reefs. I would want adventures around old wrecks, and ship graveyards.

Shipwrecks are about the only source of metal coinage and weapons undersea races can rely upon, without resorting to barter. As for reefs, they are a constant source of inspiration. Take a gander at http://www.cnn.com/2006/TRAVEL/11/25/midway.tourism.ap/index.html

...floating reefs used to farm alchemically important slugs and shellfish....

I did something similar with locathah in a floatweed (sargasso) "jungle".

There are lots of undersea races that don't get used much: locathah, mermen, tritons et al. Also, aboleth, ixitxachitl, morkoths.... plus wrecked ships, coral cities, deep trenches full of weird ruins. There was a big d20 book called The Deep that might help although it had mixed reviews I think...

Sounds like you have a yearning for undersea adventuring. I have 3 copies of "The Deep"... okay, two... just gave one away, awhile back, as a player incentive. The content was great, but the editing left a lot to be desired.

Giant shrimp are a must...Maybe there'd be some alternate item types to compensate for the lack of scrolls (glass tablets)...

I have small humanoid shrimp, known as shrimpies, inspired by Pepe the prawn. As for scrolls, some undersea races use a "Sand to Stone" spell to make tablets and unusual architecture (drip castles...)

I normally have fly propel you through water as it does through air, but at half speed.

I have a psionic ability involving a biocurrent, that has a similar effect.

...Instead of smoke bombs, squid-ink bombs would be the item for concealment. ... really smart races would figure out ways to deliver those at range- perhaps high-pressure water jets or chemical "rockets."

..."Scrolls" might actually make more sense if they were something that didn't even have writing on them... small trinkets made of shell or bone or stone... Maybe big kelp scrolls with text scratched into them?

Unearthed Arcana detailed a few alternate spellbook ideas which would work, underwater. the "small trinkets" idea works, for me.

Imagine...mutant seaslugs or sea cucumbers bred to create potions...delivered by squeezing the critters so they jet the solution into your mouth...

Hrmm... sea squirts!! http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=1150&N=0

...any inclusion of sea slugs or sea cucumbers would be a great idea, because they are awesome.

To qualify for the envenomed PrC I devised, one must eat various sorts of poisonous/venomour sea creatures. The sea cucumber came to mind, as that was references in "The Sea Devils", but a sea apple would be much nastier.

Ooh! I third the motion for magically altered aquatic plants/animals that are actually potions and are small enough to swallow in one gulp.

Gilliweed, eh? "Masters of the Wild" detailed infusions, which work quite well in an undersea setting. A bit of kelp, algae, or perhaps a soft coral/polyp and there you go.

I've been looking a lot at Reefs as a kind of Sylvan setting... a nice equivalent to the really special wood with Feys and Druids protecting it.

Agreed. I even developed a few lesser fey to help with such protection.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

How about a race built along the lines of one of the poisonous fish species, like lionfish? It could be a variant of one of the extant races, like Sahaugin or Locathah.

Again with the aquamining, alchemy, and wizards...

Imagine another wizard who creates corals that leech metals (as opposed to calcium carbonates) from the sea to create their reefs- gold that he then harvests for currency, or iron that he "plants" around his stronghold as a barrier to intruders...especially of the supernatural variety! These could even be intermixed with other mutated (templated) corals that may have elemental heritage. IOW, a coral that uses electrical charges to kill its prey instead of nematocysts.

And, of course...Babelfish!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Some other things I had considered for an as-yet-unrealized future campaign was a PrCl for aquatic races that was a variant unarmed combatant.

The PrCl concept was based upon the nudibranchs that feed upon hydroids and harvest their nematocysts for their own bodies. This martial artist would thus be able to deliver painful, even paralytic touch attacks.

Another concept was marine Thri-Kreen based upon the mantis shrimps- two species, one each for stabbers and smashers- constantly at war.

Something I had tossed around until I saw it on Farscape was massive bioengeneered (or arcanoengineered) creatures that serve as cities or warships for some race. (I may still use it, but I hate being accused of unoriginality.) Imagine colossal "whales" or "kraken" that live in symbiosis for an aggressive, nomadic race...they could even be big enough to have adventures within their bodies.

You could have a race of Cnidarians (jellyfish) that are intelligent. Unlike regular Cnidarians, the intelligent ones could be an emergent consciousness...that is, having a hive mind distributed among its various individuals, but only actively conscious when the group reaches a certain critical mass. Perhaps they would have 1/2 an Int point per individual in the swarm (apart from their own animal intelligence) over a certain radius...

Of course, Coral could fill this role as well- a brain coral that was actually brainy, hmmmm?

Actually, coral and their relatives could fill any number of roles of D&D surface critters- a coral in its mobile stage could create a form of zombie, like the yellow musk mold does on land, for instance.

One thing that occurs to me is that in a predominantly aquatic campaign, psionics and incarnum would be the easiest "magic systems" to use, followed by core divine and arcane. Psionics definitely fits in with certain archetypes, like Aquaman. The above-mentioned Cnidarians or Brain Coral would especially benefit from an emphasis on psionics.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

It's easy to rework magic items so that they function underwater. Remember that there's no reason a single-use spell-delivery item needs to be a fluid in a bottle that's drank by the user. It could just as easily by a box full of magical energy that's opened, or a tiny carved symbol that's snapped in half, or, hell, a bottle of fluid that's released into the water.

One of the DCCs has wax balls full of potions that users bite to release the magical fluid.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Another way to get around problems with potions or scrolls is to slightly alter the magic item creation feats.

Brew Potion or Scribe Scroll could become Craft Minor Single Use Item and Craft Minor Multiple Use Item. The potion becomes a bit of enruned seashell, perhaps, snapped in two to release the spell's energies. The scroll is a variant on the same idea, but instead of breaking the shell in two, it is scored in such a way as to be broken in increments, each part releasing its power when broken.

 

[Kahuna Burger]

when I was considering an aquatic campaign, I went with the idea that undersea "writing" would be more three dimensional to begin with - different shapes and substances beaded in strings for instance. So a spellbook would be a bunch of strings you ran your fingers over to study, while a scroll would be activated by snapping the "thread" and running all the beads out through your fingers.