Any advice for running a seaborne/sea-based campaign?

[kigmatzomat]

Whatever you want to do, get a supplement dealing with seafaring and naval combat. Ship rules in the core books are inadequate for a normal campaign, let alone a primarily sea-based campaign.

Seconded most definitely! I ran a series of ship to ship battles as part of my long-running campaign and it was mind-numblingly slow at times. Massed bow fire was messy, especially given the storm the druid had whipped up (amazing how useful those slow to cast spells become when you can see someone coming for several hours). Ship maneuvers were done using some rather crude skill checks. The fact it was two "flotillas" of 5 and 8 ships didn't make it easier.

All in all, it was a painful thing. The players generally didn't mind that much but I think that's simply because they ended up jumping from ship to ship, leaving burning hulks behind. (Flamestrikes are so cruel to a pitch-covered wooden ship) The fighter got to demonstrate why great cleave is so brutal and the druid BBEG had fun with lots of giant squid and kraken. Did you know that "lower water" essentially creates a pit in the ocean and that a pair of giant squid can attack through the "walls" of the pit? Furthermore, those watery walls provide a significant amount of protection from bowfire?

My players didn't know that before, but they do now!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

The last campaign I ran started off at sea, with extradimensional felinoid pirates on a magic/steam powered ship attacking the ship that was taking the PCs (not yet a party) back to the mainland. Though they fought valiantly, they eventually lost, and their ship was raided and scuttled. The survivors were brought back to the pirates' home PMP for a canned hunt on the Emperor's Island. Ever see Surviving the Game and movies like that? Same idea and if you lost, you got eaten...

The campaign lasted many months, and everyone had a blast.

As a DM who is not a sailor but who isn't completely unfamiliar with being on the water, it was both a blast and a challenge. Fortunately for me, nobody in the group was a sailor themselves, so there was no contradiction or correction headed my way...

I will say this though- do your homework. The more you know about the sea, navies, legends, etc., the better the campaign will be. And don't EVER forget the fantasy element- what steps would a navy or merchant fleet take to deal with the problem of magic and/or magical beasties? (Careful- that's a trick question!)

One of the best things about a sea-centered campaign is forcing the party to think in 3 dimensions. One of the worst is it does up the lethality factor of the game somewhat. To alleviate the players' concerns about lethality somewhat (in ANY campaign), I often have the players generate multiple PCs for the campaign, a la DarkSun.

Regardless of what you think of it as a movie, Waterworld provides an interesting campaign setting, with small enclaves living in man-made raft-cities or being out at sea and dry land being rare. You need not drown your world, of course- raft-cities could arise out of a seafaring nation that actually has land. (You see something like that in the Asian seas- huge passenger-liner/tanker sized ships used as fishing boat/communities, returning to port only rarely.)

Another possible setting/plot driver is found in "20,000 Leagues under the Sea." A rogue captain uses his powerful submersible to end war at sea.

Michael Moorcock's Elric books also have a strong sea-faring element to them- only a few nations have a Navy of note- Melniboné, Pan-Tang, and the Purple Kingdoms- and they happen to be the strongest nations as well.

And then there's the legend of Atlantis...both before and after it dissapeared beneath the waves.

 

[Janx]

I'm running a naval based campaign. have been for a year and a half.

My world is mostly water, lots of islands.

The PCs are limited to humans, and each race is a country (main island and colonial islands).

All PCs are in, or work for the navy. Some PCs are officers, some are enlisted.

At 1st level, the PCs are at the bottom ranks. They serve on the same ship, and get sent on missions (you 2 officers, take 2 marines, go do such and such)

As they go up in level, they go up in rank (not direct relationship).

Right now, 1 PC is a commander, and has his own ship (just below rank of captain, not to be confused with Ship's Captain, which is the guy in charge of the ship, not a navy rank).

It works out pretty good, and gives obvious direction for early adventures.

I wrote some revised ship combat rules, for a couple fights we had in the game. I don't do ship battles often. The ship acts as a mobile home. Thus the PCs can travel a lot, but still have a common place to call home and keep their stuff.

Janx

 

[GMSkarka]

If you'll forgive the blatant plug:

CORSAIR: The Definitive D20 Guide to Ships will help you. It's a compilation and expansion of the ship rules that Adamant designed for Green Ronin's SKULL & BONES. The rules were originally based on the Open Content from Mongoose's SEAS OF BLOOD, but expanded with more detail specific to 17th-18th century sailing vessels and cannon. CORSAIR includes sections on using the rules for earlier and later periods, as well as fantasy campaigns.

For that matter, you might want to also take a look at our Buccaneers & Bokor quarterly ezine, which provides supplemental material and adventures for SKULL & BONES, CORSAIR, or any nautical or piratically-based d20 campaign. The most recent issue (linked) has several adventures, for example.

Depending upon the demand, we're considering widening the focus of B&B to include more material for fantasy campaigns, rather than the historical-fantasy that is our primary focus now.

 

[The_Universe]

My advice: don't, during a busy moment, name a non player character "McShippy." They'll never forget.

 

[Emperor Valerian]

Thanks to everyone that has given advice here. I'm definitely going to check out some of the supplements mentioned here... the nice thing about my players is that they've given me a 3 month heads up on this, so I have time to collect things together.

So I've been attempting to avoid papers and other work, so I've worked ahead, created a map, here. In light of the advice that the players eventually will eventually want to sail about on their own, I'm going to spend this time to fill in these locations wth info, etc.

I'm thinking the first session or two I'll have them take orders from someone, just as a vehicle to give them info on the locations, then let them decide.

Though I do have another question. Do any of these supplements contain rules for designing unique ships? I think they'd find it neat, especially if they become involved in high-seas combat (whether they hold letters of marque or are just outright pirates) that at some port they can commission a special ship for themselves...

 

[CarlZog]

I'm thinking the first session or two I'll have them take orders from someone, just as a vehicle to give them info on the locations, then let them decide.

I'm not sure it's necessary that they take orders from someone, but perhaps they need to hire a guide -- a local familiar with the waters and the ways of the sea.

Do any of these supplements contain rules for designing unique ships? I think they'd find it neat, especially if they become involved in high-seas combat (whether they hold letters of marque or are just outright pirates) that at some port they can commission a special ship for themselves...

I'd recommend Seas of Blood. There is a variety of ships, including some fatastical, each with costs and build-times to give you some idea of the complexity. There are a couple pages of deck layouts as well, and templates for ghost ships,etc. There are crew member templates, guides to trade on the seas, monsters, magic etc. It's one of the best all-around fantasy nautical books.

Having said that, I'll add that my personal favorite for ship rules and sea battles is Broadsides! Largely this is because I prefer their mechanics for ship design, sailing and combat. However, the rules are a little more complicated than most of the other ship-to-ship rules. I like the prestige classes in Broadsides! better than most of the similar books as well. The sea magic in Broadsides is partly ritualistic, designed to fit into the publiser's Twin Crowns campaign setting.

By the way, if you need a port town, consider Streets of Silver, also set in the Twin Crowns campaign, but easily usable in other locales. Parma is very much a renaissance-style fantasy city similar to Venice, Italy. It's incredibly detailed, and one of the best and most underrated citybooks in all of d20.

Skull & Bones is a pretty much a separate d20 game. If you want to run a historical "Pirates of the Caribbean" campaign, it's the only way to go. However, it's value is pretty limited as a fantasy supplement. Corsairs is S&B's ship supplement, and provides additional ships and rules for that game. There's not much fantastical in it.

As a source of adventure ideas, I strongly recommend Buccaneers and Bokor, the quarterly pdf 'zine by the publishers of S&B. Although, so far, all the info in it has been focused on the historically based Caribbean of S&B, the material is pretty creative and would be easily transferable. In addition, Skarka, the editor, noted above that B&B may soon include more fantasy material. That would definitely make future issues a must-buy for you. Back issues are available in a discount bundle.

Swashbuckling Adventures is a d20 version of 7th Sea, and is dominated by prestige classes unique to Theah, the 7th Sea campaign world. I've found some of these classes useful in my S&B game as a way to connect Europe with the Caribbean, but if you're running a fantasy game in a home-brew, save your cash.

Ships and Sea Battles is a supplement to Swashbucking Adventures, focusing on nautical affairs. Although most of this is also set in Theah, it is packed with info on passengers, descriptions of seaways, and details on several port towns. There's a lot of good info and ideas, but it would take some work to transfer them to other settings.

For seaborne adventure ideas, you may also want to pick up En Route II: By Land or by Sea. This is a book of miscellaneous adventure ideas published by Atlas Games. A lot of them are short encouters, but others offer the possibility of being developed into more if you wanted.

Carl

 

[Hussar]

Another option for ship to ship combat is d20 Modern's vehicle combat. From what I understand, it treats the ship and crew as basically one creature. I ran a naval campaign for about a year and a half in Scarred Lands. Had a blast with it, but the biggest problem was ship to ship combat. It is SLOW. When you're dealing with possibly two hundred people on each ship, it can really, REALLY grind. Because there are so many people doing this, that and the other thing during combat, the players tend to take a back seat to the action if you're not careful.

I used and older supplement, Living Imagination's Broadsides!! (They've since sunk beneath the waves) which I thought was a pretty good rule set for ship combat. A friend of mine turned me onto the idea of adapting D20 Modern and it seems to work much smoother. Unless, of course, you enjoy spending a few hours running combat.

The other thing to be aware of is ships are worth a great deal of money. It gets a little daunting when you realize the treasure for an adventure runs into the hundreds of thousands of gold. Remember, that money is going to be split with the crew, so, don't worry too much. The actual cash the players see is far less than it seems and a lot of that gets spent on the ship (If they're smart).

That's my 2 cp

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Though I do have another question. Do any of these supplements contain rules for designing unique ships? I think they'd find it neat, especially if they become involved in high-seas combat (whether they hold letters of marque or are just outright pirates) that at some port they can commission a special ship for themselves...

Classic Play Book of the Sea does. And one that I forgot to mention also does - The Seafarer's Handbook by Fantasy Flight. I have it, but get more use out of Seas of Blood abd Book of the Sea. I really recommend them.

Another that I forgot to mention (I do not remember whether it has ship construction rules or not) is Twin Crowns by Living Imagination. I believe that they also have the ship combat rules in a separate book.

The Auld Grump

 

[Hussar]

The ship construction rules for Living Imatgination are in the Pirates book, although there are some rough and ready rules in the Broadsides!! rules. Can you tell I liked the series? Heh.