Never get on the boat.

[malkav666]

I have DMed a campaign that took place mostly on the open seas (using the Stormwrack supplement, which is still one of my favorite sourcebooks) and DMed another Spelljammer joint using the Dragon mag/Polyhedron write up along with my old materials for fluff, and played in another nautical game as player where the group tried their hardest to be pirates (but we just could not find the easy marks ;; )

Some of my favorite moments included:

1. As a player my group sprang an attack on a fat looking merhcant ship only to find out that it was not a merchant ship at all, but rather a ship full of rakshasa slavers who conveniently had room for our party after they soundly trounced us (but we did execute a break-the-mast, perfect cinema style boarding of their vessel before we got our butts kicked). We ended up getting sold to a real bastard too, after several failed escape attempts from the ship proper (the best of which had one of our players trying to swim away from the ship in the middle of the ocean, with the ship following slowly behind him waiting for him to tire out. It was pretty funny). The escape from out owners floating fortress, was fairly classic.

2. As a DM I ran a naval combat between the players vessels (they had three at the time) and the fleet of the enemy they were chasing (a chosen by god, purify everything with fire, viking flavored BBEG). Monster summoning was employed by both sides, and weather controlling magic was emplyed by both sides, and canonballs were flying to and fro. The fight was epic and ended up with all vessels on the ocean floor and the surviving party members starnded on a starnge island chasing their enemy into the jungle with afew days in green hell followed up with a grand finale in the crater of an active volcano.

3. I ran another game that had PCs exploring (plundering) a sunken (lost civilization, sunk in the sea by the gods type of site) city, in competition with other groups. It was a great run with a few ship to ship skirmishes (complete with Hadozees gliding from ship to ship), a metric crapton of underwater encounters, and even an epic battle between two modified apparatus' of the crab (Kwalish*) in a sunken catacomb deep beneath the ruin.

The sea has come up few other times in other games, but it tends to only be a major theme for an adventure or two at best (in the form of coastal raider or a journey by boat or something of the like).

Love,

malkav

 

[Jan van Leyden]

My best experience was not on the sea, but on a river. I was running the Enemy Within campaign, where the characters may acquire their own river boat. I downplayed the problems of running a boat until they were confronted by a vessel manned by chaos worshipers.

When the characters wanted to flee, I asked them what their characters were doing ... what they were doing exactly. Being a moderately experienced sailor myself, I had loads of fun computing their boat's reaction to their less than inspired actions.

It didn't exactly ease my players' minds that the river was populated by some weired fish-man mutants.

 

[The_Gneech]

I've begun at least two campaigns with shipwrecks, does that count?

I also did the classic "kraken attacks" moment in one campaign, and "waylaid by pirates" moment in another.

I loves me some swashbuckling, indeed!

-The Gneech

 

[The Shaman]

Of course my character boards the boat - he's an adventurer, and the ocean is filled with adventure.

 

[jaerdaph]

For GMs: If the PCs don't get on the boat, Shanghai 'em!

For Players: If you get on the boat, either of your own will or not, make an offering to the Sea God(dess)!

 

[Desdichado]

Always get on the boat. Bad things from a character perspective tend to be good things from a player perspective.

 

[chitzk0i]

One time under 3.5 I had a centaur monk with horseshoes of water walking threaten to sunder the PCs' ship. It almost worked...

 

[Vartan]

2. As a DM I ran a naval combat between the players vessels (they had three at the time) and the fleet of the enemy they were chasing (a chosen by god, purify everything with fire, viking flavored BBEG). Monster summoning was employed by both sides, and weather controlling magic was emplyed by both sides, and canonballs were flying to and fro. The fight was epic and ended up with all vessels on the ocean floor and the surviving party members starnded on a starnge island chasing their enemy into the jungle with afew days in green hell followed up with a grand finale in the crater of an active volcano.

That. Sounds. Awesome.

My favorite nautical event came when I was DM for a 2E game. The characters were members of a highly organized thievi--um, merchant organization sailing ships full of smuggled goods from Lantan to Waterdeep. A mysterious maelstrom swallowed one of their ships. The maelstrom was supposed to be a bad omen--a sign that the characters were involved in something more evil and dangerous than they realized at the time--but the players were more concerned that one of their favorite NPCs (a crusty sea captain) was sucked away with the lost boat. That, and the way the maelstrom played out was pretty tense and creepy. So I changed up my plans: I tossed the simple "bad omen" plan and expanded on the idea of the storm that captured the players' attention.

The maelstrom had heralded the arrival of Mask (God of Thieves) on their plane, where he hoped to hide from The Chaos Hound that was hunting him at the time. A few sessions down the road the sea captain NPC showed up at their warehouse: he was ten years older and he spoke in Planescape jargon. He had been sucked through the planar gate into Sigil, and had returned to warn the characters that they were caught in the crossfire of a battle between Mask and Cyric. They thought he had been driven insane, and the feeling was mutual: he declared them all "Barmy!" and set out to find a way back to Sigil.

It wasn't as eventful as the pirate attack they repelled on the way to Lantan (complete with circling sharks) but the players were really affected by the dark maelstrom, the loss of their beloved Captain, and his unsettling return.

 

[ScorpiusRisk]

In my current campaign the PCs had to defeat a Blue, coastal cave dwelling dragon. The dragon had been attacking local ships. The PCs decided that they didn't want to go into the Dragon's Lair, as it would be too difficult. Instead they borrowed a ship, sailed out near a cave, and waited for the Dragon to attack them.

At least one party member had no ranged attacks.

. . .

Lets just say, the cleric didn't make it, and the warforged came very close to becoming part of the Dargon's hoard.

 

[Stoat]

I ran a Spelljammer campaign from about 1990 to 1993. Much space-based swashbuckling ensued.

More recently, I ran a 4E adventure inspired by the Savage Tide AP module Sea Wyvern's Wake. In short, the PC's were at sea for about 2 months, traveling from civilization into the tropics. Highlights included a stowaway goblin hexer (whose Imp familiar was invisibily terrorizing the crew), an attack by goblin pirates (on their war catamaran!) a lengthy side trek involving a Mayan-ish ruin, and a pitched battle against lizardfolk warriors among the ruins of a looted trading outpost.