D&D 3E/3.5 Seafaring campaign in 3.5
- Thread starter Drake M
- Start date
Ahnehnois
First Post
I recently ran a naval game. I liked it; the big drawback was that to create a believable ship there had to be tons of NPCs, which created a lot of bookwork and took focus off the PCs. I did like the isolation of it, and the focus on weather and supplies and other naturalistic elements I usually overlook.
Stormwrack is a bit of a mixed bag, but I liked the PC stuff (races/classes/feats/spells/gear) and monsters and the narrative naval combat, with a little nudging is good.
It doesn't have any ship-based rules, but Into the Blue is a great monster/environmental book for the seas (and it's 3.5), easily the best such book I've seen.
Seafarers Handbook and Seas of Blood are 3.0; they have their merits but I didn't find either of them nearly as useful as the above books.
Aquatic monsters are otherwise spread loosely throughout most monster books. Likewise, appropriate classes are loosely spread about (Dread Pirate is CAdv for instance, while Seeker of the Misty Isle is CDiv).
I'd also recommend that you have your cartography and weather handled very thoroughly and before starting the game, as these are more important and harder to improvise.
Stormwrack is a bit of a mixed bag, but I liked the PC stuff (races/classes/feats/spells/gear) and monsters and the narrative naval combat, with a little nudging is good.
It doesn't have any ship-based rules, but Into the Blue is a great monster/environmental book for the seas (and it's 3.5), easily the best such book I've seen.
Seafarers Handbook and Seas of Blood are 3.0; they have their merits but I didn't find either of them nearly as useful as the above books.
Aquatic monsters are otherwise spread loosely throughout most monster books. Likewise, appropriate classes are loosely spread about (Dread Pirate is CAdv for instance, while Seeker of the Misty Isle is CDiv).
I'd also recommend that you have your cartography and weather handled very thoroughly and before starting the game, as these are more important and harder to improvise.
Thanks, I'll probably end up gleaning all or most of those for info.
Which one would you say has the best information on ships themselves?
Ahnehnois
First Post
I preferred the Stormwrack ship rules. They were a bit clunky and had some weird things (the way fire was handled for instance), but I found them more intuitive and easier to work with than the 3rd party 3.0 books I mentioned.
None of them has a great deal of info on any particular ship (Seafarer's is prob best in that regard, but I'd still say you'd have to look beyond that for full-scale ship maps and technical details if that's what you need). Stormwrack has stat blocks and a few maps but not a great deal of detail on what separates a caravel from a cog, for instance.
Playing the role of Aeolius, I'll point out the existence of an Aquatic Adventures database, to which a link may be found in my sig.
freyar
Extradimensional Explorer
Not sure if these might be in the thread Danny mentioned, but you might try either of these 3rd party sourcebooks:
Corsair by Adamant Entertainment
Broadsides! by Living Imagination
I thought both of these had some good ideas.
Corsair by Adamant Entertainment
Broadsides! by Living Imagination
I thought both of these had some good ideas.
I'm not sure either- when I get the chance, I'll check, and if they're not there, I'll add them.
Similar Threads
