under the sea

[pukunui]

Hi folks,

I've always been interested in running an underwater campaign, but I've never gotten around to it because it's always seemed like too much work. It's a pity neither TSR nor WotC ever gave us an actual underwater campaign setting. It's always just been bits and pieces tacked onto the existing land-based settings ~ stats for sea elves and the submerged lairs of sahuagin and the like.

I was thinking it would be fun to run a game on a world that was almost entirely covered by water. Perhaps there were big landmasses once upon a time, but some kind of cataclysm drowned the world. Some races would've died off, while others would've adapted to living underwater. There would be ruins from the ancient land-based civilizations as well as buildings made of coral and what-have-you. Perhaps a few land-based cities managed to use magic to maintain air bubbles or something too.

Instead of (or in addition to) having the PCs go down into the depths of the earth, you could have them go down into the lightless depths of the sea ~ where they'd have to contend with the crushing pressure and cold and that.

Are there any good third-party resources for running a wholly undersea campaign (as opposed to one where land-based PCs use magic to survive underwater for a single adventure)? Anyone got any leads?

Thanks,
Jonathan

 

[Ezequielramone]

Cerulean seas iswhat you need. It is for pathfinder rpg and it is the best for this purpose.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

(snip) It's a pity neither TSR nor WotC ever gave us an actual underwater campaign setting. It's always just been bits and pieces tacked onto the existing land-based settings ~ stats for sea elves and the submerged lairs of sahuagin and the like. (snip)

Sea of Fallen Stars.

It was a 2E product for Forgotten Realms and it was set entirely underwater in an underwater city. I love what it did for morkoth civilisations.

 

[the Jester]

Does [MENTION=2072]Aeolius[/MENTION] still post here? He ran a longstanding undersea campaign.

My own setting is ocean-based, though pcs are usually set on land. But I've run underwater games many times. One wonderful resource is the 2e blue book Of Ships and the Sea. It's one of the densest D&D supplements ever, for its page count, just crammed with information on aquatic adventures of all kinds.

Also, there's the 3e book Stormwrack.

 

[Bluenose]

The Sea People from the Creature Crucible series for Basic D&D is an undersea campaign setting, set in the seas to the south of the "Known World." Minrothad Guilds from the Gazeteer series also had some material, mostly concerning a land-based society that interacted a lot with the undersea territories.

 

[gamerprinter]

Not a setting, but if you make your own maps, I created a set of 50 photorealistic Undersea life map icon set, which consist mostly of 3D created objects for assorted fish, corals, invertibrates and sea plants available on DTRPG. Over the last several years, I created several photorealistic undersea maps and not being able to find appropriate undersea icons, I've had to create them all for myself. Since I am currently writing a series of map tutorials guides, creating map sets, map tiles and map icon sets, I decided to comb through all my own undersea maps and pull the various custom map icons I've done, double the amount with newly created content and release it as a set.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

You might be able to find some useful stuff following the Aquatic database link in my sig.

 

[pukunui]

Thanks for all the responses, everybody! I've looked at Cerulean Seas, and it does look like it could be useful. I think I'll check out Sea of Fallen Stars and The Sea People next.

 

[Aeolius]

Does Aeolius still post here? He ran a longstanding undersea campaign.

Still here! Seven kids coupled with the end of the school year have addled my brain accordingly.

I still run my undersea adventure "Heirs of Turucambi" (3.5e, mid-level) via IRC every Sunday night and am now gearing up to run an entry level Pathfinder/Cerulean Seas campaign, "The Witching Waves" this summer via Roll20!

All of the supplements mentioned are good to know, but I also find it helpful to immerse oneself in a bit of marine biology.

Try looking through this book: Ocean: The World's Last Wilderness Revealed

and the BBC/Discovery Blue Planet series

 

[pukunui]

Thanks! I'm liking the look of the Sea of Fallen Stars. It's an actual undersea setting with specific realms and interesting locations and all that! I had no idea there was an actual TSR/WotC product. Yes, it's part of FR rather than a standalone setting, but it's better than nothing. I'm going to see if I can get myself a hard copy.

Now for some undersea adventure content!