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<blockquote data-quote="Hussar" data-source="post: 9776722" data-attributes="member: 22779">Heh.&nbsp; Just to echo a few of the problems I've had with this sort of campaign:1.&nbsp;&nbsp; The players will NOT be willing to help you here.&nbsp; While you might think the day to day running of a ship is interesting and fun, they will do everything in their power to not engage in it.&nbsp; Trade?&nbsp; Nope.&nbsp; Counting barrels of salted pork to ship?&nbsp; Nope.&nbsp; All that stuff that is the day to day running of a ship?&nbsp; Nope.&nbsp; Good luck with that.2.&nbsp; As [USER=4937]@Celebrim[/USER] rightly pointed out, D&amp;D does not do this scale of combat.&nbsp; it just doesn't.&nbsp; It's FAR too fiddly when you have fifteen or twenty combatants to a side, let alone 30 or 40.&nbsp; It just does not work.3.&nbsp; The cinematic rules for ship combat are fine, so long as you make it abundantly clear to the players that they are not going to get any advantages (or disadvantages) for running things this way.&nbsp; You narrate that the ships come together and you start boarding action.&nbsp; You don't bother with anything remotely resembling ship combat because it just doesn't work.4.&nbsp; Roles on ships do not work.&nbsp; Players sit down to play their character.&nbsp; They aren't interested in being the Quartermaster or the Bosun.&nbsp; They want to be Father Generic the cleric or Erac's Cousin.&nbsp; I've tried it repeatedly with multiple groups and it does not work.Playing a nautical (or spelljammer) campaign is my white whale of D&amp;D gaming.&nbsp; I've tried making it work since 2nd edition, many, many groups, many, many campaigns, and my honest to goodness advice is to not do it.&nbsp; It will be endlessly frustrating and zero fun.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Hussar, post: 9776722, member: 22779"] Heh. Just to echo a few of the problems I've had with this sort of campaign: 1. The players will NOT be willing to help you here. While you might think the day to day running of a ship is interesting and fun, they will do everything in their power to not engage in it. Trade? Nope. Counting barrels of salted pork to ship? Nope. All that stuff that is the day to day running of a ship? Nope. Good luck with that. 2. As [USER=4937]@Celebrim[/USER] rightly pointed out, D&D does not do this scale of combat. it just doesn't. It's FAR too fiddly when you have fifteen or twenty combatants to a side, let alone 30 or 40. It just does not work. 3. The cinematic rules for ship combat are fine, so long as you make it abundantly clear to the players that they are not going to get any advantages (or disadvantages) for running things this way. You narrate that the ships come together and you start boarding action. You don't bother with anything remotely resembling ship combat because it just doesn't work. 4. Roles on ships do not work. Players sit down to play their character. They aren't interested in being the Quartermaster or the Bosun. They want to be Father Generic the cleric or Erac's Cousin. I've tried it repeatedly with multiple groups and it does not work. Playing a nautical (or spelljammer) campaign is my white whale of D&D gaming. I've tried making it work since 2nd edition, many, many groups, many, many campaigns, and my honest to goodness advice is to not do it. It will be endlessly frustrating and zero fun. [/QUOTE]

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