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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Janx" data-source="post: 1528708" data-attributes="member: 8835">I've been running a naval campaign for 6 months now.I originally bought the SeaFarer's Handbook.  It was decent, but after seeing Master and Commander, I had to alter things.  I did a bunch of research on real ships from all periods just to get a feel for it.Namely, ships have more guns than most D&D books say they do.  I built a funky spreadsheet to calculate all that.  You enter the length and width, it figures out how many weapon points, HP, crew, sails, etc.I've got a 3 page document I wrote on running a simple but tactical level naval combat (includes wind direction, but not speed or current effects).We ran a 3 hour, 7 ship combat a few months back.  Biggest point to make is make sure both sides have access to similar weapon technologies.  Cannons are way better than Catapults and Ballistas.  Unless you want to illustrate a slaughter, don't mix them, unless you change the weapon stats.For game play purposes, there's several choices on how to run combats:tactical: players control the weapons and steering of their ship (regardless of the PCs actual roles on the ship) and the DM controls the enemy)Fleet: each player controls a ship, and the DM controls the enemy fleetRP: the DM describes what happens on the ship, as the players only control their PCs (which may not control the ship).For my campaign, I've tried all three modes.  My players are Lieutenants on the ship, so they do not control the ship normally.  Thus, I can give them missions (aka Adventures) and they'll most likely do them.  Works out well for low level characters.  They get XP, they do what they're told.  Until they hit a conflict of interest.  As the players advance, I'll want to get them their own command (for one player, the rest as sub-ordinants), or they'll likely retire from the navy and go freelance.Let me know if you want a copy of my notes,Janx</blockquote>

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