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

[Emperor Valerian]

Well, I just finished DMing my second campaign, and my players made several requests for the next campaign. Most of them I have experience with and/or can handle relatively well, but there's one sticker: They want a "sea-based campaign" of some kind.

All my previous stuff has been decidedly landbased... the closest they've ever come to the sea has been "You see the ocean, over there. Now turning back to the angry gnomes..." I guess my question is how many people here have run campaigns that revolve around the sea, what kinds of baddies could/should the players run into, and what kind of changes to tactics should I employ as a DM? Any particular creatures that have caused your sea based characters much grief and or fun? How do you handle pirating (I have a distinct feeling at some points the players will want to ge pirates)?

Help,
A Landlubber.

 

[GlassJaw]

I guess my question is how many people here have run campaigns that revolve around the sea

I'm currently playing in a pirate/sea-based campaign (although we're not technically pirates...yet) run by EN World's resident pirate himself: CarlZog. We primarily use Green Ronin's Skull & Bones with a few classes from the 7th Sea book and some other house rules (like Drama Doubloons).

Last session was absolutely awesome. We're very lucky because Carl is an expert sailor and all things maritime. The game is all-out cinematic pirate/swashbuckling action but we actually learn too!! For example, last session we discovered that another ship was heading right for us. Unfortunately, we were heading into the wind. Carl took a few minutes to explain the physics of how ships actually maneuver while sailing into the wind.

Since I'm not a sailor by any means, the best advice I can give is to stick to the stereotypes at first. Go rent some pirate movies.

Also, are you planning to run a historical-type game (like the one I'm playing in) or keep it standard D&D? That makes a big difference.

 

[Kunimatyu]

Stay AWAY from underwater combat, at least per the RAW. Nothing ups the difficulty of a combat like adding another dimension to it, especially one that every participant is using, unlike a lot of flying combats. If you still want to have fights versus underwater monsters(and you do), fighting in waist-deep water(the surf zone, shallow underwater caverns, etc) is ideal -- your players still have new penalties and new tactics to deal with, but the painful numbers factor is mitigated somewhat.

Another decent way to handle underwater combat somewhat effectively is to have your water breathing-type spells require the players to walk on the bottom instead of swimming.

I'd definitely recommend sticking with ship/abovewater "sea-based" combat as much as possible, with the other stuff worked in occasionally. Besides, sea monster fights are more fun when the players are on a ship desperately trying to avoid being knocked into the water/certain death.

 

[yennico]

Wereshark Pirates
Kraken spellcaster

 

[Tonguez]

Sahuagin are my campaigns Orcs (my campaign is island based)

also there is a free adventure at the WOTC site called Sharkbait that involves a coastal village, sahuagin and sharks.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

You're going to hate my advice: Hold the sea-based game on land.

The problem with the sea based games that I've run is that there is an inherient "Save or Die" condition to all sea-based combat. If you fall in the water, you're in big, big trouble. If you fall in the water at 0 hp, you're in even bigger trouble.

That said, you just have to look at Glass Jaw's post to see that there are plenty of ways to make a sea-based game fun. I personally just wasn't able to hit on it.

 

[yennico]

Another decent way to handle underwater combat somewhat effectively is to have your water breathing-type spells require the players to walk on the bottom instead of swimming.

But the water breathing spell can be dispelled by a dispel magic from an enemy spellcaster. So the PCs are always in danger.

 

[GlassJaw]

Well all the posts so far are assuming a "standard" D&D ruleset. None of the posts apply to the game I'm playing in. There is no magic. At least none that we know of. Skull & Bones has a couple of caster-type classes but they weren't available as starting classes for us. So it's not a low-magic campaign - it's a NO-magic campaign.

you just have to look at Glass Jaw's post to see that there are plenty of ways to make a sea-based game fun.

Even without magic and using a very loose interpretation of the d20 ruleset, the game so far is a blast. What's really cool about it is that even though everyone at the table is running a PC, we aren't really an actual "party".

Basically, we were all hired rather hastily one way or another to fill the ranks of a merchant ship. We've "met" each other but there's many more crew members than just the 5 of us. It's really given the campaign a feel of an ensemble cast. Our PC's also each have their own motivations, which haven't necessarily coincided with each other all the time. It's made for some awesome role-playing.

For example, last session, we found out that some of the other crew members (all NPC's) were planning a mutiny. Each of our PC's heard bits and pieces here and there and we each formed our own opinion on who we would side with. Some of the PC's wanted to wait and see who came out on top.

In the middle of a storm with a fast schooner pirate ship on our tail (commanded by the beautiful but ruthless Ariana Fallacci), the crew members in question decided to attempt their mutiny. Pistols were brandished and shots were fired but it was actually resolved without violence (definitely a first for our group!). So now we are heading into the wind with Ariana hot on our tail and the cold chill of mutiny still in the air.

Damn, I need to write a story hour for this campaign. I didn't even get to the wench who the captain snuck on board and the gold necklace he stole from the governor of Puerto Rico....

 

[Celebrim]

I played for 5 years in a 'Great Age of Sail' inspired campaign set (at least while I was in it) in Faerun's Sea of Fallen Stars.

It was however a high magic, high level, campaign (it's the FR), with alot of mass combat that was ran under the 1st edition/Battlesystem rules set, and it eventually bordered on Eberon style magical-tech, so beyond hints about ship's combat, ship construction, and so forth I'm not sure how much I can help you. Maybe if you'd be more specific about what you want to know, I could dig out some old notes?

 

[Elwood]

Check out the Pirate Isles book for Mongoose's Conan campaign. It's OGL/D20 material and it has lots of information about pirate culture, feats, mutiny checks, weather, navigation, etc. Although it's written for Conan it could easily be used in a D20 game. And Conan is a very low/no magic setting.