The world is 99% ocean

[Myris]

Wow, just_al, that's a really good idea! I've never been much into the ocean-type stuff, but it sounds like it would be interesting...not sure of any titles, but I'm sure you can find some Atlantis-type supplements and books (both RPG and non-RPG) that could give you some good ideas...

 

[just__al]

I am surprised that not more people have mentioned Earthsea. The novels for the setting are good with some great ideas to borrow from.

RPG books should definately include the Deep by Mystic Eye Games.

Goodman Games monster book, Boundless Blue, also has some good critter choices.

Seas of Blood and Seafarer's Handbook both offer some good tidbits.

Salt and Sea Dogs by Kenzer also has some good material.

The whole aerial aspect is one to think heavily about. For example, an airborn society that has resources pretty much duplicates a standard one then if they can mine cloud mountains and such. Airships by Bastion has some great rules for making air ships and other goods. I am looking forward to the Aerial Guide revised for 3.5 from Goodman as I felt the original was lacking something in it's first form of three seperate books.

One of my questions is will this be a surface world game or will it focus on the water? There is a difference between the two. If it's underwater, it really doesn't matter how much of the surface is covered by water.

Definately a surface world (and by surface, I mean the water's surface) although occasionally the campaign will head to the underwater regions. I'm figuring that the land dwellers will be very protective of their land and space and I can see people trying to set foot on land without permission being killed for the presumption.

People in general have been coming up with some really cool ideas, thanks everybody!

 

[just__al]

Here's what I've come up with so far...

Obviously we're going to have a lot of aquatic races coming into play, mermen, shaughain, aquatic elves etc.. Some will be friendly to the land dwellers and those land dwellers that have taken to live on the sea due to overpopulation.

There will of course be some NASTY sea dwelling races that may even enslave the land people and keep them on small islands.

I've decided that predistigation will be able to make the salt drop to the bottom of a vessel of sea water and you'll have to pour it out before it redisolves. This isn't the same as purifying it so I'm willing to let it work.

Everybody is going to have swim as a class skill. Metal armor is going to be extremely rare as minerals will be hard to come by. However, people have learned to make hide and leather from sharks and other sea animals and a few will make harder armor from the exoskeletons of giant sea creatures and scale armor can be made by treating the scales of some bigger fish too...

I'm still thinking about currency, pearls sound like a really cool idea, maybe some other similiar things like coral. Spices should be very valuable except salt which can be gotten in a number of ways.

A lot of people have suggested having the ocean water not be salty, but I think I'll keep it salty. The average gnome can deal with it and there's usually a few spell casters around to cast cantrips and osirons and plenty of mundane ways to get water like catching rain.

I'm gonna pick up The Deep at some point soon, it looks really good.

I'm also stealing the Aqua Dragon, it looks cool and it makes sense and my players will be surprised which is always cool.

Anybody else got good ideas? You guys rock!

 

[Liolel]

And Here I have a monster for you to throw at your players. Players in this game should stay out.



It is not from older editions of D&D but from classic greek myth. I'm not so sure on the beasts cr though. For on one hand it is a very very nasty in melee. On the other hand it has no defense against spells. When your party gets highlevel you can throw this at their ship.


Sea Serpent

A classic monster the sea serpent is a ravenous beast shaped like a huge aquatic snake that feeds on the sailors of ships.

Sea Serpent

Gargantuan Animal (Aquatic)

Hitpoints: 24d8+168 (276)

Initiative: +4

Speed: Swim 40 ft (8 squares)

AC: 32 (+26 natural, -4 size) Flatfooted 32, Touch 6

Base Attack/Grapple: +18/+43

Attack: Bite +28 (4d6+19/ 19-20 x2) melee

Full Attack: Bite +28 (4d6+19/ 19-20 x2) melee

Face/Reach: 20 ft/15 ft

Special Attacks: Lunge, Frightful Presence

Special Qualities: Darkvison 60ft, Lowlight Vision

Saves: Fort +22, Reflex +15, Will +10

Abilities: Str 37, Dex 10, Con 24, Int 1, Wis 10, Cha 10,

Skills: Spot +14, Listen +14

Feats: Power Attack. Cleave, Great Cleave, Weapon Focus Bite, Improved Critical Bite, Improve Initiative, Iron Will, Lighting Reflexes, Great Fortitude

________________________________________________________________________

Climate: Any aquatic

Organization: Solitary or Pair

Challenge Rating: 14

Treasure: None

Alignment: Always neutral

Advancement: 25-32(Gargantuan), 33-72(Colossal)



Sea Serpents are ravenous beasts the solely exist to hunt for food, and prey on the sailors out of ships.

A sea serpent appears as a very large blue scaled snake the lives in the water. It often is seen with portions of the middle of its body underwater and the tail is almost always under the surface. Most ocean animals avoid the sea serpent or they get eaten.



Combat: A sea serpent starts combat by lunging up to the ships deck and attacking the nearest person. It will continue to repeat attacking this same person until that person goes out of reach or it is driven to low hit points. Once a target dies it will start on the next.

Lunge (ex): On the first round of combat a Sea Serpent may lunge out of the water and attack any one on the deck of a ship for a extra damaging bite attack. This bite attack does 4d8+26 do to the quick motion.

Frightful Presence(ex): Upon witnessing a lunge attack all creatures within 60 ft much make a will save dc:22 or become frightened as the state described on page 301 of the Dmg. On a successful save that creature is immune to the Frightful presence of that particular Sea Serpent for 24 hours.

 

[Liolel]

Also in my bag of tricks for my campaign I have my complete detailed money chart. If players of the cithens islands campaign are reading read no futher. Any reference to Cithen is the name of my campaing world

Standard Pearls



Standard currency unit-Cithen unit-description



Copper-Tan Pearl TP-A small tan colored pearl. Gotten from a pearl taken prematurely.
Silver- White Pearl WP-A normal white pearl
Gold-Blue Pearl BP-A blue pearl, Rarer then white ones

Other Pearls

Night Pearl- a black pearl, it is much more rare then the common three pearls. It is just common enough to be worth only 5 blue pearls.

Metal pearl- despite the name this pearl is not made of metal. It is a normal type of pearl that is silver in color. It is worth 25 blue pearls.

Sun Pearl- a brilliant golden colored pearl. It is worth 100 blue pearls.

Moon Pearl – A pale white pearl it glows under the moon. It is worth 250 blue pearls.

Mirror Pearl – This Pearl is shiny and works as a small mirror. If you find one it is worth 1000 blue pearls.

Light Pearl – This pearl glows a bright white illuminating everything near it. It is worth 2,500 blue pearls.

Rainbow Pearl – A brilliant multicolored pearl it shines and reflects a dazzling display of colors. When wet a small rainbow shoots out of it. This pearl, which you might find once in a blue moon, is worth 5,000 blue pearls.

Special shapes and sizes

Sometimes pearls are found or crafted into special shapes. Apply the following multipliers to cost.

Rectangular Prism: x2

Cube: x3

Pyramid: x4


What I did myself with this chart was I made a second chart with scetchy values (ranges starting lower then the real value and ending higher) for the high valued pearls to keep some mystery and that was what I gave the players.

 

[grodog]

1) it's sci-fi but check out Blue Planet. The guy who wrote it was big into geology and earth science so you'll find some kick-butt world building. I don't really like the mechanics (at least the version one rules) but the world and ecology is excellent.

BG, it's good to know that there are still BP fans out there I appreciate it, and I'm sure Jeff and Greg still do too!

 

[River]

OK, some cool details that will make your world believeable.

1. Someone mentioned mining? Well the underseas races can mine underwater... Not a big deal. I imagine in a lot of ways it would be EASIER to mine underwater... What the underseas races don't have is FIRE. they can't smelt ore. So your surface races are going to be doing a good trade smelting ore and forging metal for the underseas races.

Worked glass is going to be another big trade good.

I can see the underseas empires trying to take over land masses for the soul purpose of setting up refineries and forges.

Also spices? if you live underwater it would be hard to "spice" your food with anything available on the surface, although I imagine any number of seaweeds and aquatic plants would be valuable as spices to the surface dwellers.

2. The sea provides a lot of food, arable land shouldn't be a huge problem, except for trees. In a world where everyone either lives on or uses a boat on a regular basis wood is going to be a valuable resource. Think about the natives on Easter Island. They cut down all their trees and essencially doomed themselves. This is going to be doubly true if you're economy is based on application of fire to raw materials purchased from races below the waves.. You'll need wood, dried seaweed, or something else you can burn.

3. It is pathetically easy for an aquatic creature with an axe to sink a ship. If you've got your aquatic orc version think about the tactics they'd use... Attacking land based creatures at sea, an envirmoent they can't survive in... Harpoon the hull of a passing ship, pull yourself up to it, drill/chop holes, and wait for it to sink... No need to risk your life fighting the crew if the sea will kill them. Ships in such a world are going to need to metal-plate their hullls below the water line...

River

 

[Aeolius]

For more inspiration, I recommend the Discovery Channel: Blue Planet series.

 

[Ahrimon]

One idea for building material. One of the Rifts supplements, Wormwood, was based on a living world. As in a living organism. Anyway, they built alot of things from a resin that flowed from cirtain places on the planet.

You could have something along the same lines. Have some large sea plant or creature that can be milked/harvested for a sap/resin that when dried properly would be similar to wood in weight and hardness. And when specially prepared could be as hard as steel. This should help eliminate the problems of the rarity of tree's and mining.

Ahrimon