Seafarers Handbook

[Messageboard Golem]

FFG is proud to present the third core book in the Legends & Lairs line of d20 System products. Seafarer's Handbook provides players and DMs with all the information they need to adventure on and below the ocean surface, how to survive adventures on remote islands and the dangers of ports of call. Beautifully designed and illustrated in the Legends & Lairs tradition, the Seafarer's Handbook offers a wide variety of exciting rules expansions, including:

*Detailed descriptions and deck plans of all sorts of ships, from longships to war galleons
*Complete d20 System rules for naval combat and boarding actions
*Guidelines for creating undersea adventures and resolving aquatic encounters
*New nautical skills, feats, prestige classes, spells, magic items, equipment, and monsters
*Guides and resources to seaside towns, ports, and dangers therein.

Seafarer's Handbook will be published as a gorgeous hardcover book and is destined to become an essential resource for d20 players yearning for adventure on the high seas! Seafarer's Handbook is available Now!

 

[s4dfish]

I'll say it right now, this isn't Seas of Blood. What Fantasy Flight Games have given us is a quite different book. Where Seas of Blood is 98% about shipbound life and combat, this one is 100% water.

Let me explain. The Seafares Handbook starts with a much wider base than similar books. Rather than focusing on one potential facet of the genre FFG tackles it all. In this 174 page book you will find everything you could ever want to know about the oceans. What happens on the surface ocean, what happens in the midst of the ocean, what happens on the floor. It's all there. It even offers an aquatic Underdark with the Underdeep.

What sells this product is the sheer breadth of it's coverage. You could easily play an entire aquatic campaign using only this book and the WOTC 3. If you're interested in playing a seabound merchant or pirate you can do that as well. Here, however, is where this product runs into competition.

Seas of Blood offers a quick and dirty approach that should satisfy all but the most demanding patrons. SH, on the other hand, offers a much more indepth take. If you're looking to quickly demonstrate combat between a dozen ships, go with Seas of Blood. But if you want a detailed combat between a small number of ships, SH may be more to your liking.

Where this book shines is in all it covers. Other companies may offer more depth in a particular facet, but none can offer the breadth of this book.

D R Anderson -s4difsh-

 

[drnuncheon]

Note: This review is a long comparative review and has been posted for both products.

If you pay attention to what's coming out for d20, you no doubt have noted that there are a lot of naval adventuring rules coming out. The first two offerings so far are both by companies about as well-established as they come in the d20 field: Seas of Blood by Mongoose Publishing and Seafarer's Handbook from Fantasy Flight Games. These two books cover a lot of similar ground, and a lot of people are wondering which one to buy. This review is not so much for the purpose of telling you which is better as it is for telling you the similarities and differences between the two, to let you make up your mind who gets your gaming dollar. As such, it's going to be extremely long.

Before I get into the meat, let me say that this is not a playtest review - all opinions are based on readings of the rules only. I'd also like to say that both Mongoose and FFG have my respect for turning out some great stuff for d20, including these sets of rules. I don't regret 'double-spending' on these naval rules, because large parts of them can be used to complement each other.

Lastly, the organization of this review does not mirror the structure of either of the books. Since they are so vastly different in organization, mine mirrors neither of them.


Physical Appearance

Seas of Blood is a 128-page softbound with a color cover and B&W interior art, and has a cover price of $19.95. Seafarer's Handbook is 176 pages, sporting a tomelike color hardcover reminiscent of the Core Rulebooks (and the other entries in the Legends & Lairs series) and B&W interior art. Both products use fairly standard 2-column text with artsy borders, although Mongoose's seem to take up more of the page. Fonts and layout for both are very clean and easily readable, with Mongoose's being slightly smaller and lighter.


Races and Classes

Seafarer's Handbook provides us with three new races: merfolk (the undersea equivalent of humanity, down to the versatility bonuses that humans get), aquatic elves, and half-merrow (a crossbreed between merrow - aquatic ogres - and merfolk). None of the races have an ECL, and all recieve tremendous bonuses to swim and improved low-light vision (although merfolk have the tiny rules bobble of having 'low-light vision out to 60 feet', which makes no sense given how the ability works.)

There is also a single new prestige class, effectively limited to aquatic elf NPCs, called the Reef Warrior. Members of the class gain abilities that help them protect their home reefs and other aquatic elves, but suffer alienation from them as they become more and more a part of the reef than a part of elven society.

Seas of Blood has no new PC races, but it does have a discussion of the roles of existing character classes in a nautical or undersea campaign, which Seafarer's Handbook leaves out. Rules for an alternate type of druid - the Sea Druid - are presented, along with rules for normal druis learning their abilities. They also include a new 5-level NPC class (the sailor), which I thought was rather pointless when given the inclusion of the Expert in the core rules. (In addition, I disagree with the implication that all sailors are as well-trained in combat as warriors.)

Mongoose gives us three new 10-level prestige classes as well, all of which are far more applicable to PCs than the Reef Warrior. They are the Buccaneer (focused on shipboard swashbuckling and acrobatics), the Reaver (specializing in boarding actions and combat leadership), and the Navigator-Wizard (whose arcane knowledge increases his naval skill).


Skills

Seas of Blood introduces a couple of new skills: Knowledge (Seamanship) and Profession (navigator). I'm not sure why they chose these classifications, especially when Profession (sailor) already exists in the Player's Handbook. There is a brief note discussing the fact that the DM may make them equivalent, but aside from that it seems to be forgotten.

Seafarer's Handbook, on the other hand, sticks a lot closer to the Core Rules, providing one new skill variant: Underwater Alchemy. It also has an excellent discussion of how current skills are changed when used underwater. (I never would have thought of the difficulties inherent in using the Disguise skill underwater, myself.)


Feats

Ahh, the bread and meat of many new books. Most gamers love new toys, and I am no exception. 32 new feats in the Seafarer's Handbook, and 13 in Seas of Blood.

Seafarer's Handbook has a discussion of how existing feats work underwater - another plus. Its feats are also more varied than those in Seas of Blood, with feats for the aquatic races like Tail Slam (an underwater Bull Rush), new magical feats like Create Manikin (the classic 'voodoo doll', allowing the user to create a doll which will transfer the effects of spells cast on it to the person it represents), and of course general sailor's feats like Sea Dog (+2 to Profession (sailor) and Use Rope) and Swing-by Attack (swashbucklers take note!)

Seas of Blood's feats focus on the sailors. Again Mongoose has a tiny rules gaffe - the Amazing Agility feat allows you to Take 20 on any balance check, which doesn't make sense given what Take 20 is. (I would be leery of a feat that gave an average of +10 to a skill anyway!) The rest of the feats are quite good, including Duck & Weave (lets you instinctively gain the benefits of cover while fighting shipboard) and Master Helmsman. Many of the feats (Bargain, Inspire Loyalty) tie very tightly with the rest of the naval rules presented in Seas of Blood, and so are of much less use if you are picking & choosing.


Equipment and Magic Items

More toys! Seas of Blood has a small section on shipboard equipment, including the aquatic crossbow, the navigator's toolkit, and tarred armor. The magic items section is much more interesting, with magic figureheads that provide bonuses to the ships they are attached to, magic shipboard weapons, and even intelligent ships!

Seafarer's Handbook, with its stronger section on undersea adventuring, provides lots more equipment, including new types of aquatic armor (kelp, shell, bone, and scale) and new alchemical devices. The magic items section gives a new weapon enchantment (waterbane, making it much easier to use underwater as well as doing extra damage to creatures of the Water subtype) and several wondrous items. The ship construction section also has a brief paragraph each on magical armor and weaponry for ships. It's good, but compared to the coolness of Mongoose's offering (what's cooler for a naval campaign than an intelligent ship?) it seems a little lacking.


This is such a long review, I'm going to grab some lunch. Mmm...pizza.


Magic Spells

Both books contain a section on new magical spells of use to PCs at - or under - sea. There's also a brief section in each on how to handle other spells cast underwater.

Seafarer's Handbook gives us the new Underwater domain and 27 new spells total, ranging from aquatic form (gives the character the Aquatic template, permanently) to whirlpool (no, it doesn't create a hot tub). Some of the spells are very clever - message in a bottle, for instance, lets you send a brief message to someone near water, while wisdom of the watery grave is a naval version of speak with dead that does not require you to possess the corpse of the target creature. Some are not very nautical at all - iron fists lets you do normal damage and be treated as if you were armed when using unarmed strikes.

Seas of Blood has 22 new spells, from control currents to whirlpool (yes, again! It's a different varient though). The spells are more focused (just like the rest of the book) on sailors and ships, and include the wonderful skyship spell (turns your ship into a flying ship for 1 hour/level) and raise death hulk from their Necromancy: Beyond the Grave supplement. The spells in Seas of Blood seem more powerful, with teleport ship and tsunami among the possibilities.


Brief OGL digression: The beginning text of FFG's whirlpool spell is identical to Mongoose's. I originally thought it was a bit rude of FFG not to credit Mongoose or Matthew Sprange, but then I discovered that they had both nabbed the text from the whirlwind spell in the PHB. I thought I'd point that out so nobody else made the same mistake I did.


Naval Adventuring

Seas of Blood features extensive rules on sea travel and trading - weather, length of travel, what kind and what quantity of goods are available in a particular port, and how much you can sell them for when you reach your destination. If you want to earn your character's fortune through commerce rather than combat, these rules are exactly what you want - and they can be adapted to overland caravans as well. The book also features two pages of detailed rules on fishing (both line and net). I'm not sure I know what to say about that, although they could be useful after you've wrecked your ship and are floating in a lifeboat searching for land.

Oddly, the Seafarer's Handbook doesn't focus nearly as much on the actual seafaring - at least, not in a crunchy rules-sense like the Mongoose book does. Instead it provides an extensive chapter on the atmosphere and feel of seafaring adventures, which is quite welcome. The section on the varied functions of the ship's crew will be especially helpful to DMs. There's also an extensive section on life in a port city, and an example city has been provided.


Underwater Adventuring

Seas of Blood has a brief (~4 pages) section on underwater combat and adventuring, with harsh penalties for the poor surface-dwellers who decide to fight below the waves (-4 to initiative, attack, damage, and Dexterity-based checks!)

Seafarer's Handbook devotes almost twice as many pages to the subject, with simple rules for three-dimensional maneuvering and buoyancy. Penalties for surface dwellers are far less harsh, at least on some weapons, which might make underwater adventuring a little more playable for your PCs.

There's also 19 pages devoted to the undersea envionment, from undersea terrain and environments (kelp forests, coral reefs) to undersea "dungeons" (like shipwrecks and lost cities) to the Underdeep, an aquatic version of the classic Underdark. The Underdeep has a wide variety of interesting things contained within it, including a dwarven version of Atlantis (the Sunken Mountain), the "deep drow", and Silentdark, a trade city and safe haven for all undersea dwellers.


Monsters

Finally - toys for the DM! Both books supply a variety of new beasties to torment one's players with.

Seafarer's Handbook offers only a few: the Abyssal Shark (an outsider with a ranged bite!), Coral Golem, Drowned Dead (sailors who died by accident and hate the living), and Hippocampus (a literal sea-horse. I guess that merfolk knights have to ride sidesaddle?).

Seas of Blood presents almost three times as many creatures: the Fideal (a monstrous humanoid that haunts shorelines and small islands), the fisherman (a giant outsider who fishes for the spirits of the drowned), Sea Giants, Gnarled Eels, Grey Lady (undead spirit of a woman who died pining for a love lost at sea), Jastra Root (carniverous seaweed), Killer Wave (aquatic ooze), Leviathan, Sea Drake (classic sea-serpent), Talorani (humanoid water-dwellers), and Undine (water fey).


Ships

OK, I've left this and Ship Combat to the last, simply because I know that it's what you've really been waiting for.

First off, the Seafarer's Handbook has it all over Seas of Blood in terms of ship construction. That's because it actually contains rules that go beyond "look at the sample ships and make something up". That was probably the most disappointing thing about Seas of Blood. The construction rules are fairly simple (pick a hull, pick propulsion types, pick weaponry, and there you are) but include some nice stuff like 'ship qualities' to individualize your ship - things like Built to Last (more hull hit points), Tough Old Girl (increases the hull's Hardness), and Wave Rider (the ship is faster than others of its size).

As for designs, the Seafarer's Handbook gives us 19 different designs (many with variants) as well as a template for a 'ghost ship' - really an actual ship crewed by the undead. These designs range from the mundane (cogs, caravels and barges) to the esoteric (triton chariot, wizard's towership and the dwarven ironback, an iron-clad warship strongly resembling the USS Monitor of American Civil War fame.) The descriptions are very detailed, with deck plans for all decks of the ships and discussions of how each are used. A 'Ships in Service' section provides names and ideas for famous (or notorious) examples of the ship type.

Seas of Blood has 21 new ships and 4 templates - the cursed ship, the death hulk (akin to FFG's 'ghost ship'), a ghost ship template of their own (the literal ghost of a ship), and skyship (for those who would rather brave air currents than ocean ones). Their designs cover a similar range but focus more on warships than any other kind. The ships are not presented in nearly as much detail - only the top decks are shown on the deck plans, and each ship gets only a paragraph or two.

Both books feature submersible craft created by gnomes. I don't know about the rest of you, but given the apparent invasion of other settings by Krynn's tinker gnomes, I'm not sure I'd want to trust them to build me a ship to go underwater.


Ship Combat

The naval combat system in Seas of Blood is one of the book's strongest points. Using a stripped-down version of their Open Mass Combat System (OMCS), it is both easy to learn (basically treating ships and crew as single creatures) and compatible with the OMCS presented in The Quintessential Fighter. At least one other publisher has also decided to use Mongoose's rules for their games.

Ship combat in the Seafarer's Handbook has slightly more complex maneuvering and control rolls that depart a bit more from the d20 standard - only the captain's Profession (sailor) is directly taken into account, although the quality of his crew as a group is also measured. Maneuvers are handled by spending 'command points' which are based on the captain's skill and Charisma, the crew's quality and numbers, and the conditions at the time. There is a very sketchy squad-level resolution mechanic for boarding actions (which doesn't even take the crew's armament into consideration), but a nice section on swashbuckling actions and swinging from ropes.


Organization

I love books with indices. Without them I am left to flounder - "Um, i think that rule was in the chapter on characters...no, maybe it was in underwater combat." Fortunately, both products seem to have a good index - Mongoose even goes so far as to include the terms from their nautical glossary. The true test will come when I need to looks omething up during play, of course, but both books are logically organized enough that I think I will be fine.

The one problem I have with the organization in Seafarer's Handbook is that there are rules for underwater adventuring scattered all throughout the book. The effect of being underwater on skills is in with the new skills, underwater combat is in a separate section, and discussion of underwater campaigns in a third. I can see the logic behind the organization they chose, but it wouldn't have been my first choice.


Other Stuff that Didn't get Mentioned Before

Seas of Blood has a short naval glossary which can be very helpful to DMs not familiar with oceangoing terminology.

Seas of Blood also has some ongoing support in the form of the Ships of the... series. These include details of the different races as sailors as well as many new ship designs.


Summary/Wrapup:

Seas of Blood (Mongoose):
* trading and travel rules
* ship combat uses Open Mass Combat System - easy to learn,
used in products by Mongoose and others.
* intelligent ships. How cool is that?
* grittier, more realistic feel

Seafarer's Handbook (FFG):
* stronger focus on underwater adventuring
* more detailed ship-to-ship combat (but less detailed crew combat)
* more discussion of campaign settings - port cities, underwater
* detailed ship construction rules
* more fantastic/looser feel overall

Look, these are both great books. Together, they're even better. But what if you only want one? Well, it depends on why you want it.

If you're going to stay above the water, Seas of Blood is probably what you want - especially if the campaign is going to revolve around the ship and sea travel. The travelling and trading rules could be the focus of a campaign or mini-game in themselves.

If you want fantastical adventuring, though, I have to recommend the Seafarer's Handbook. It's much stronger underwater focus opens up whole new vistas to explore, and if you're not going to focus on travel and trading than Mongoose's detailed rules won't be nearly as much use.

 

[Psion]

Seafarer's Handbook

The Seafarer's Handbook, the third hardbound rulebook in Fantasy Flight Games' Legends & Lairs series, is a nautical rulebook for the d20 system. This is not a lonely position, as Mongoose Publishing has already released their Seas of Blood, and other companies have such products in the pipeline. So of course, the intrepid reader would like to know how it stacks up, right?

Read on.

A First Look

The Seafarer's Handbook is a 176-page hardcover book with a price of $24.95. This is actually a fairly good price/page ratio for a product of this size.

The cover is mostly a deep green, and has the "metal bound tome" look commonly used by FFG and modestly reminiscent of the D&D 3e core rulebooks. The front cover has a logo of a sea serpent coiled around a ships helm wheel, against the backdrop of several sketches of ships and ocean maps on a yellow "parchment" color background.

The interior is black and white. As is usually the case with FFG d20 system products, the layout is attractive and easy to read. The interior artwork is good, even better than prior Legends & Lairs books. The most eye catching talent seems to be Andy Brase, whose work was also featured prominently in FFG's Dragonstar Starfarer's Handbook.

The typeface is small and there is less promotional material than prior FFG Legends & Lairs books, but it has a visibly large column spacing, which will cut down on the word count in the book. However, considering the books price, you are receiving a fairly good quantitative value.

A Deeper Look

The Seafarer's Handbooks is organized into six broad chapters.

Chapter One: Seafaring Adventurers

The first chapter is devoted to characters, including races, classes, feats, skills, equipment, and skills. Basically, chapter one covers the type of material that you would find in the D&D 3e Player's Handbook.

The chapter begins by introducing three new races that make their home among the waves: merfolk, half-merrow, and aquatic elves. Merrow, you should recall, are the aquatic equivalent of Ogres. Half-merrow are merrow/merfolk cross breeds. The race statistics look fairly balanced, but some GMs may take umbrage with the large strength bonus the half-merrow has. Further, the half-merrow has a special racial ability that allows it to use its strength modifier for intimidate checks. As the DMG already provides the impetus for using alternate ability scores for skills if the situation warrants, that didn't seem like much of a racial ability to me.

Each of the races have some subraces mentioned, though there are few variations in the mechanics for the races. However, one prestige class is provided for the coral elf variety of the aquatic elf, the reef warrior. The reef warrior enters into a symbiotic relationship with life forms that exist in the coral reef, and eventually learn to merge with it.

There is a short section describing adjustments of existing feats and skills when dealing with an underwater environment. This also introduces an variant version of an existing skill, aquatic alchemy. This is due to the fact that normal alchemical methods wouldn't work underwater. Normally, I disdain the creation of new skills. However, in this case, the new skill seems justified, and easy enough to integrate to the existing classes: you merely allow it as an alternative to alchemy.

The book introduces a variety of new feats. Most of the feats fall into two categories: feats appropriate to seafarers (to include a few feats oriented towards a swashbuckling style of combat) and those appropriate to aquatic races. Examples of the former are barroom brawler (gives better unarmed damage and extra subdual hp), great lungs, parry, and port savvy. Examples of the latter are amphibious endurance (lets aquatic races spend more time out of water), tail slam, and tail walking.

Most of these feats are mechanically suitable, but there are a few curiosities.

Create Manikin is an item creation feat that lets you create a effigy of a person for a cost of 2000 gp times the target's level (plus attendant XP cost.) For this cost, you can cast a spell on the effigy up to 10 times, and it affects the target. These seems a little too convenient to me; this would be the ultimate assassination tool. There needs to be some limit on the spells that you can cast

Fool's Luck also seems a little too convenient as well. It allows the character to replace one failed roll with a success once per day, merely by offering up an explanation of how the character ended up beating the odds. However, if you consider it, this allows a character to beat any odds once per day, regardless of the fact that it may be well beyond their ability. This might work if you limit it to applying to rolls that fail by some margin (say 5 or less.)

In the same vein as the half-merrow's intimidation racial ability mentioned earlier, the feat lookout seems like it gives you an ability that a character would already have. It allows characters in an elevated position to spot things at a greater distance. This should logically apply to all characters.

The equipment section contains new equipment for aquatic characters as well as for characters visiting an underwater realm, such are aquatic armor and waterproof scrolls.

As with the feats and skills, there is a brief section describing how to adjudicate the casting of spells underwater, and a variety of new spells. A new clerical domain, undersea, is introduced with spells predominantly from the new aquatic-themed spells introduced in the book. The spells include those that help deal with underwater conditions (such as sphere of air, improved water breathing, and underwater sense), assist aquatic creatures (such as air breathing), affect ships (like compass curse, sink, and nautomancy, which lets you imbue a ship with spells), and assist in underwater combat (like aquatic acid fog and ink cloud).

Again, there are a few curiosities. The aquatic form spell seems very convenient at first: it gives a character the aquatic template (described later in the book). However, it is permanent and cannot be dispelled. I though that was a little excessive. The polymorph other spell (which is a similar level lower) is more flexible in this regard.

Sea hag's visage is a 3rd level spell that gives the character a gaze attacks that does 2d6 points of strength damage. This seems a little strong for a third level spell.

In addition to the spells, a number of new magic items are introduced that are useful at or under the sea, or are themed after aquatic creatures.

Finally, the chapter covers combat and maneuvering in an underwater environment, including factors such as vision and modifiers for different types of weapons.

Chapter Two: Seafaring Campaigns

The second chapter includes resources and advice for running adventures involved with the sea.

The first section is entitled Adventure and the Sea. It contains advice for constructing seafaring campaigns, ideas for adventure locales like islands and coasts, details of ships and the people who work on them, and rules guidelines for hazards like weather and icebergs.

The second section is entitled Ports of Call. It leads of with some ideas and advice on detailing a port city, including the nature of trading and politics, and cultures. Finally, ideas and advice are given regarding life in a port city, alongside a sample port city, Kaaluntor. There are no maps of the city, but details are provided for such things as the city's markets, quareters, and so forth. At the end of the chapter, complete stats are provided for a number of sample NPCs from the city.

Chapter Three: Undersea Adventures

As chapter two is much concerned with seafaring adventures and environs, chapter three concerns itself with underwater adventures and environs. It includes some general advice for running such adventures, including playing up the alien aspect of such an environment. Rules related aspects of the environment are also addressed. You will find rules for kelp forests and coral reefs, and ideas for undearsea site based adventures like shipwrecks.

After the general advice, a strange example of an undersea campaign environment is presented, the Underdeep. The Underdeep is an underwater setting that is placed in underground oceans. Many unique sites are presented, along with adventure seeds and a few special rules. For example, a new race is presented: the deep drow. The deep drow are essentially aquatic drow elves. As unusual as the underdeep sounds, it just may be worth a try for those players jaded by classical forays into the underdark.

Finally, the chapter introduces a few new underwater creatures. Of the most use is probably the aquatic creature template. The aquatic creature template is provided simply to adapt standard creatures for underwater use. Also provided are the abyssal shark (a gargantuan shark from oceans in a plane of evil), the coral golem, the drowned dead, and the hippocampus (basically an aquatic horse).

Chapter Four: Ship Construction

Chapter four is actually one of the shorter chapter, and provides a set of rules for creating ships. The ship construction is handled by purchasing various elements of the ship from a set of tables. Much like Mongoose's Seas of Blood (and strangely and unfortunately unlike the Dragonstar Starhip system), the categories are used for sizes as for D&D creatures, but the scale is different and specific to ships.

In addition to the basic elements, all ships come with one special quality, but more may be purchased. Special qualities are likened to feats, and provide the ship with some way in which it is exceptional. For example, the ship may be good at ramming, have more hit points, or be resistant to fire.

The last page of the chapter provides some basic material for hiring crew.

The ship system in the Seafarer's Handbook is more formal than that in Seas of Blood, and doesn't invent new systems like hull points to handle ship combat.

Chapter Five: Ship Designs

Chapter five presents a number of sample ships for use in the game. Each ship has statistics as outlined by chapter four, along with deck layouts and detailed descriptions of the ship. The deckplans are nicely illustrated and done from a perspective view. Contrasted with Mongoose's Seas of Blood, the additional detail provided in Seafarer's Handbook is rather nice; Seas of Blood only has deckplans for the weatherdecks and have less detail on each ship. However, a disadvantage of the perspective views is that you cannot make enlarged photocopies of them for use with miniatures like you can with the top-down views Seas of Blood provides.

In addition to classic ship designs like longships, cogs, and traders, there are some rather exotic designs. For example, there is the submersible "Iron Whale", the mind-flayer designed "Deep Crawler", and the mobile arcane sanctuary of the "Wizard's Tower Ship." However, some where a little to strange for me such as the "Sahuagin Corsair" (just why would sahuagin have their own ship design?) and the "Druid Lairship."

Chapter Six: Ship Combat

The last chapter covers the topic of ship combat. It utilizes the groundwork set in chapter four, and like it does not deviate for the existing rules for damaging objects. It has rules for maneuvering ships, taking into account effect of crew manning and experience, fire, and swashbuckling combat.

Whether you prefer this version of the combat system over that in Seas of Blood is largely a matter of taste. Personally, I think I prefer the Seas of Blood ship combat. Though seas of blood does invent a new damage method, it is more manageable since it tries to abstract away some of the detains that the Seafarer's Handbook sweats. Further, the Seas of Blood contains a system for handling mass crew combat that integrates with their ship to ship combat system; the Seafarer's handbook has no equivalent.

Conclusion

The question that is probably on everyone's mind is "should I buy this book or the Seas of Blood book?"

The answer is: that depends. You can really buy both books and the only major overlap would be chapters 4 and 6. Seafarer's Handbook has greater details, especially where underwater adventures are concerned. If you wish to use the underwater environment, or like the more explicit method of ship construction, or need some GM advice and ideas on how to run a game, then Seafarer's Handbook should be considered strongly.

However, as a mechanical book on seafaring, I really have to say that I felt like Seas of Blood was somewhat better rounded and more practical.

-Alan D. Kohler

Edit: Yes, I did tweak the score. I do that from time to time. Get used to it.

 

[drnuncheon]

Just a couple of comments:

"Create Manikin is an item creation feat that lets you create a effigy of a person...you can cast a spell on the effigy up to 10 times, and it affects the target. These seems a little too convenient to me; this would be the ultimate assassination tool. There needs to be some limit on the spells that you can cast."

One note here is that you need something of the victim's (blood, a lock of hair, fingernail clippings) to make the effigy - this is the classic "voodoo doll". That might cut down on casual use. (Me, I'd make 'em of the party and give 'em to the cleric. No worries about him being too far away to heal you!)

"Further, the Seas of Blood contains a system for handling mass crew combat that integrates with their ship to ship combat system; the Seafarer's handbook has no equivalent."

Actually, there is a brief couple of paragraphs in the section on Boarding Actions - I missed it on my first read-through - detailing ways to divide crewmen up into "squads" to handle large numbers of combatants. It's nowhere near as detailed as the Mongoose system and seems kind of thrown in as an afterthought.

J

 

[Psion]

"One note here is that you need something of the victim's (blood, a lock of hair, fingernail clippings) to make the effigy"

As you might guess, I consider that meager compensation.

 

[Morrus]

"Fool's Luck also seems a little too convenient as well. It allows the character to replace one failed roll with a success once per day, merely by offering up an explanation of how the character ended up beating the odds. However, if you consider it, this allows a character to beat any odds once per day, regardless of the fact that it may be well beyond their ability."

Wow.

I can just imagine the fun my players would have with that one.

"What would the DC be for me to [insert impossible task here]?"

"Oh, that'll be a DC of 1496, which you need to beat with a roll of d20+2."

*player rolls*

"14! Bugger - didn't make it. Still I have Fool's Luck! I'll turn this into a success!"

"Err...OK...you successfully extinguish the sun with your arrow by tying a bucket of water to the arrow head and shooting into the sky. Well done."

 

[Lizard]

Greetings!

I am one of the author's of SFH, and I wanted to comment on one thing, the 'permanent' nature of Aquatic Form. My thought was, if I was planning on spending a lot of time underwater, I would not want to be at the mercy of the first person to cast a "Dispel Magic". Surfacers underwater are extremely vulnerable to that spell, and I wanted to provide a way for characters willing to commit to an underwater lifestyle to do so in relative safety.

 

[Psion]

Thanks for commenting Lizard! I see your point. The thing that makes me uncomfortable is the campaign implications of it being nearly impossible to remove. That makes me as a DM uncomfortable with the prospect.

At the very least, I think I would let break enchantment remove it.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

Introduction

Finally I get to do the first review on a product at EnWorld! I have looked forward to this product and
will try to keep this review informative and concise, so hold you breath and prepare to dive into it. Good nautical supplements have not been found
in abundance for the longest time until suddenly last year Age of Exploration, Seas of Blood, Skull and Bones
and now finally the Seafarer's Handbook kicked the genre into gear. FFG have consistently delivered
high quality d20 supplements and this encouraged me to buy the Seafarer's Handbook first (that and the fact
that I'm a succor for Hardcovers).

The Basics

The Seafarer's Handbook is a 176 page perfectly bound hardcover. The design style is reminiscent of
the other Legends and Lairs supplements: Traps and Treachery, Mythic Races and the upcoming
Spells and Spellcraft. The artwork is excellent to say the least. FFG have managed to choose
artists whose artwork is both cool and classical at the same time and I the illustrations in the
Seafarer's Handbook added tremendously to the atmosphere of the book.

Chapter by Chapter Analysis

Chapter 1: Seafaring Adventures

This chapter is basically a miniature PHB for Undersea adventures. It includes:

- Races: 3 new races Merfolk (four subspecies), Half-Merrow (Merrow are aquatic ogres) and
Aquatic Elves (two subspecies). All the races are quite well-done and allow players access to what is basically
aquatic versions of Humans, Elves and Half-orcs. I few more races would have been nice though,
a Merfolk/Elf crossbreed, Sirines, Tritons and similar races would have made nice additions.
The races are well-done, however, continuing FFG strong grasp of the d20 mechanics. The
Half-Merrow might warrant ECL+1 instead of ECL+0 as it is but it would be in the very low end
of the ECL+1 category.

- Prestige Classes: Surprisingly only one Prestige Class made its way into this product. Its a
rather interesting class called the Reef Warrior. As a PC class it is of little value but
as an NPC class it is a good opportunity to introduce the alien nature of the aquatic races.

- Skills: Good practical walkthrough of the existing skills and their usage underwater. The
chapter also introduces one new skill: Alchemy (Underwater), which makes perfect sense.

- Feats: As with skills, we are first given a brief guide to applying existing feats underwater.
What follows is a large selection of really, really good feats. Many of the feats are - refreshingly -
not based around combat and those that are a most welcome addition to the evergrowing list of feats.
My personal favourites include: Barroom Brawler, Child of the Sea, Great Lungs, Naval Heritage,
Polar Bear Skin, Pressure Survival, and Weapons of Opportunity. There are really no bad
feats in here except maybe for Create Manikin. It's a great way to introduce Vodoo style magic to a setting but may be quite a tad overpowered. The two most interesting are Parry and Riposte, though, two feats whose mechanics
would be a very interesting addition to the core mechanics of the game (introducing them
as feats is a fine way to go about it nonetheless). Parry allows you to hold attacks and use
them as parries. You simply roll against a DC equal to your opponents attack roll - this is
the way parry was always supposed to be handled! With Riposte you are also allowed a free
follow-up attack on a succesful parry. (... as a sidenote: This is exactly similar to the
parrying/riposte mechanic of Danish rpg VP. FFG has a Danish Director. Wonder if there's a connection...)

- Equipment: Pretty much the usual stuff you'd expect: Goggles, Waterproof Scrolls and Swimming
Gear. The section includes 8 new aquatic armors, various tools and some weird stuff like
acid bulbs and Jellyfish Paste.

- Spells: Overall good stuff. An Undersea domain and a fair selection of aquatic-themed spells.
No campaign is really complete without Air Breathing, Whirlpool and the thoroughly missed
Tidal Wave (Tsunami from 2E Spells and Magic).

- Magic Items: The usual pretty much. A new weapon quality "Waterbane" and a three pages of
magical items. Some nice keepers here including Lacedon Cloak, Ring of Aquatic Survival, Sharkskin
and the horrible powerful artifact called Ship of the Gods (it fires fireballs - really!).

- Underwater Combat: This had particular interest to me and I was curious how it would add up to
Skip Williams's article Water, Water Everywhere in Dragon 291. The first nice addition is the
-1 penalty you gain to swimming checks underwater for each round you had to hold your breath.
A logical and welcome rule. Unlike Skip Williams, the Seafarer's Handbook applies different modifiers to the different
weapon types when you use them for attack underwater. Bludgeoning weapons suffer -6 while
Slashing suffer a -3 penalty (SW assigned a flat -2 per square swung through). The rules
in this section makes underwater combat a bit harsher but also more realistic. Furthermore, the
the rules for combat are a fair deal more complicated than Skip Williams simplified (but practical)
3 Dimensional grid system. They take factors such as Positional Advantage, Balance and Buoyancy into account
using a longer (but very well done) mechanics.

The first chapter rounds of with a few notes on aquatic creatures ON LAND.

Chapter 2: Seafaring Campaigns

Chapter 2 features detailed descriptions of everything you'll need to run a seafaring campaign.
The chapter is divided into the following sections:

Adventures and the Sea: Elements of Sea Adventure, Coasts and Islands, Ships at Sea (Weather and Hazards), Seagoing Vessels
(Crew and Complement, Motive Power, Draft, and Underwater Vessels).

Ports of Call: Sea Trade, Politics, Mixing Cultures, Life in a Port City (this section includes
a sample city - Kaaluntor - a well-detailed and inspiring setting).

All in all this is a very good chapter. The material is a fairly captivating read and you'll
find most of it instantly useful. The Ports of Call section is probably the easiest to integrate
directly into your existing campaigns. Nothing beats the atmosphere of a harbour city does it?

Chapter 3: Undersea Adventures

I've always had a particular love for alien settings such as the Planes, The Underdark and
Dragonstar and "The Underwave" presented in chapter 3 is a fine addition to any campaign world.
It explores the intriguing world below the waves. You'll find details on Undersea Terrain and Environments,
Aquatic Civilisations. I especially enjoyed reading the sections about Undersea Dungeons. Exploring
a huge shipwreck at the bottom of the sea would be a really original adventure indeed. The section
on Lost Cities immediately brings images of adventurers searching for the lost treasure/knowledge
of an Atlantis civilisation to mind.

What follows is maybe the best single section of the book: The Underdeep. Its basically the Underdark of
the oceans. The Sunken Mountain, The Drowning Pit and the well-thought out trade city of Silentdark are
great places for your PCs to explore. In addition the section includes stats on Deep Drow in case
you want to torment your players further....

The chapter concludes with a small selection of monsters: Aquatic Template (priceless), The Abyssal Shark (nasty - Deep Blue Sea sprung to mind instantly here),
Coral Golem (a logical contruct of the Underwave), Drowned Dead (Aquatic Zombies), and the
return of the Hippocampus (Aquatic Horse basically). All the monsters are very usable and pretty
generic - more would have been nice but spending more space on other details was a good decision overall.
We've got pretty of aquatic critters in d20 already....

Chapter 4: Ship Construction

I imagine that many have been awaiting detailed guidelines for ship construction, so here they are!
This chapter has everything: Detailed information about Hulls, Propulsion, Ship Castles, Weapons, Ship Qualities
(Feats for ships basically) and Hiring a Crew. All highly customisable.

Chapter 5: Ship Designs

This chapter presents 20 sample ship designs ranging from Ahenken-Athi's Floating Palace to the
Ghost Ship. You'll find classical ship types such as the Barbarian Longship, Cog, and Slave Ship, and
much more exotic ones like the Druid Lairship (think "Medieval Jacques Costeau" - this ship
gave me the idea for a great adventure all by itself) and the two submarines: The Deep Crawler and the Iron Whale.
The deck plans are well done and the ships are pretty cool. Looking forward to taking some of these babies
for a test ride....

Chapter 6: Ship Combat

Let is be said immediately: The naval combat system here is fairly complex and may bog down play a bit.
On the other hand the system seems to be a very good portrayal of naval combat and it should provide
just the right "epic" feel to a battle between to good ships and their crews. You'll find detailed
information of the effects damage has to the sails, deck and hull of a ship as well as a lengthy section
dealing with Fire! Finally, Ramming and Broadsiding, Boarding, and Swashbuckling is covered. You'll be wise to
give this a good read-through before you engage your PCs in naval battles and boarding actions. If you do
this book will definitely help you bring such combat situations to life.

Finally, we get 1½ pages of Sea Conditions and their effect on ships. The Weather Effects included
are Light, Moderate, Strong, Severe, Windstorm, Hurricane, and Tornado. Not particularly exciting but
essential nonetheless.

Conclusion

If you want to take your adventures to (or below) the high Seas this book is just right for you.
It's a concise and essential guide that will cut down your workload considerably. I've often
considered running a long adventure in the aquatic realms but the lack of general detail given always put me off.
After buying this book, I am certain that my players will see there fair share of nautical adventures in the
months and years to come. This book will grow on you - trust me.....

-Zarrock