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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Primitive Screwhead" data-source="post: 6484133" data-attributes="member: 20805">I would go back to the 'Heroes of Battle' concept of creating the battle {in this case a storm} as a dungeon and make it the focus of a single game session. You would have a series of 'room's {individual skill challenges} connected by pathways {choices or results from the last room}Then I would review Stalker0's material on skill challeges {see link in signature} and my own material on 'Lethal Obsideon' {a variant I used for replacing combats where failures resulted in damage to the PCs}Pacing wise, look at a good storm movie. There are distinct phases of the storm that should give the PCs multiple possible choices of various pro/cons {your pathways}Phase 1: Thar's a storm coming!    Clouds build on the horizen and the winds pick up. Quick, do you turn and run ahead of the storm to seek safe harbor {delaying arrival at your destination and potential side-trek}, try to skirt the storm, or forge straight in}Phase 2: The Storm Hits    Key focus on handling the ship, staying on board, etc. Perhaps navigation to get the right tack on a close port and preparing the vessel for the fray.Phase 3: Storm Peak    More ship handling, but harder.. alot of hanging on and hoping!Phase 4: picking up the peices    Figure out where the ship is, which way to head now, do you have enough supplies {did your drinkable store of water get smashed?}Color: This is going to depend alot on your players and what sort of game they like. I would love to dig into the details of running a ship and get the PCs directly involved in handling the lines, deciding which sails are furled or pitched. My group would be more inclined to leave that to the sailors and just make major decisions.  Either way, I would want to emphasis that this storm isn't just a side-note in the adventure.. its something the sailors will be talking about for years over pints of ale. To get the players talking about it for years means making their actions *matter*. {which, given DnD mechanics, usually means hit point/healing surge losses on failures... <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f641.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":(" title="Frown    :("  data-smilie="3"data-shortname=":(" />}    I would pull out my 'sailors slang' book {free kindle book!} for nautical terms to toss into the conversations, describe the storm based on my experience with south-western monsoons and typhoons.. and avoid pulling punches. Wind kicking at over 60 miles per hour is no joke.</blockquote>

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