RangerWickett
Legend
I'm writing a ruleset for 5e D&D naval combat, trying to take what I like best from the FFG Star Wars and Rogue Trader ship combat rules, adapted to be compatible with 5e, and share the same design conceits. Before I try to get them published, though, I was curious how people would want to use naval encounters in their games.
I want to make sure not to miss anything people would like. For example, back in 4e I wrote Admiral o' the High Seas, which got some negative comments because I tried to make things too abstract. Now, with 5e I'm looking to keep the mechanics fast to play, so I'm not trying to emulate, for instance, Fire As She Bears which treats every 20-ft. cube of the ship as a separate object with its own stats. But it is tricky to make it possible to, say, handle firing 20 cannons without the game slowing down.
Likewise, I want to make sure I don't color things too much with my own desires. I want cannons to be available for ship combat (especially because I hope these rules can be used for the ZEITGEIST adventure path in 5e), but to still be at least a little useful if you prefer not to have gunpowder. And while I personally love high fantasy and think the game ought to have enchanted ships with magic figureheads that protect the crew from fireballs, I know not everyone does.
So first, here's the basics. Then, if you could, please tell me what you'd want in a naval combat system for 5e.
Naval Rounds are One Minute
I considered briefly making things run on the same scale as PC combat, but it's just too tedious to resolve minutes of maneuvering in ship combat that way. So each round is 1 minute, and movement comes in 100-ft. chunks, on a map with a 1 square = 100 ft. scale. Conveniently, 5e has no spells as far as I can tell that can attack beyond 150 feet, so we don't have to worry about flinging fireballs from a thousand feet away like in 3rd edition. Now when ships end their turn adjacent, we switch to normal 6-second-round tactical combat.
As for archery (which can go up to 600 feet in 5e), I kind of make it generally infeasible - wind and heaving seas make hitting a target with a single arrow unlikely, so you have to use your whole 1-minute round to wait for the perfect moment to make one attack action. I haven't quite worked out the details for archery volleys between crews, but I want to make them to be easy to resolve but not too strong, because honestly it's more fun to have a boarding action.
Four Stages Each Round
There's the Orders stage where the captain rolls initiative for the round and the officers decide what they're going to do; the Piloting stage where (in initiative order) each ship's pilot determines how well he steers the ship and then moves across the map; the Gunnery stage where (initiative order) each vessel fires its weapons; and the Damage stage where the effects of damage are resolved. You handle all ships in each stage before moving onto the next stage, so winning initiative lets you decide your actions after you see what your opponent is doing, but you don't get to sink their ship before they get a chance to fire back.
PCs Take Officer Actions to Aid the Crew
Throughout the round one PC acts as pilot, and each other PC can take an officer action from a list that involve Command, Engineering, Gunnery, and Spotting. Depending on what you're trying to do, the characters might focus on helping the pilot pull off sharp turns to avoid getting hit, or to aid the gun crew's aiming, or to try to trick the opposing captain into making a mistake next round.
Damage is Streamlined, but You Can Destroy Specific Components
Rather than tracking damage to different areas of the ship, the vessel just has one set of HP that represents its hull integrity. (And following the rules for ships in the DMG, you have to at least match a damage threshold or else your attack does nothing to the ship.) However, certain officer actions will let you try to aim at least a few shots at specific components, so you can try to target their sails, or destroy the divinely-blessed shield on their prow that increases the ship's AC.
Ships and Scenarios Should be Fantastic
Much like how I'm long-since bored with 10-ft. rooms and empty hallways in my D&D, I don't see the need to have naval encounters always be between 'realistic' ships in 'realistic' environments. While I'll include stats for normal ships, I also want Eberron style airships armed with arcane fusils that unleash blasts of lightning, druidic ships grown from a treant that steers itself, submarines that are just undead whales filled with a crew of ghouls, and teleporting schooners with a fey queen for a figurehead. And they should be battling not just on open seas, but between knife-toothed outcroppings, through the canopy of a flooded forest, at the intersection of two demiplanes with different laws of physics, and at the waterfall cascade along the edge of the world.
Do people like these sorts of grand fantasy ideas, or would that turn you off from the system? I want to encourage ship-to-ship battles to not just be an exercise in dice-rolling, but sort of like solving a puzzle. Every foe has some trick that either makes them hard to hurt or makes them extra dangerous, and you've got to figure out how to overcome it. Just sailing up close and firing broadsides ain't enough.
So, is anyone intrigued?
I want to make sure not to miss anything people would like. For example, back in 4e I wrote Admiral o' the High Seas, which got some negative comments because I tried to make things too abstract. Now, with 5e I'm looking to keep the mechanics fast to play, so I'm not trying to emulate, for instance, Fire As She Bears which treats every 20-ft. cube of the ship as a separate object with its own stats. But it is tricky to make it possible to, say, handle firing 20 cannons without the game slowing down.
Likewise, I want to make sure I don't color things too much with my own desires. I want cannons to be available for ship combat (especially because I hope these rules can be used for the ZEITGEIST adventure path in 5e), but to still be at least a little useful if you prefer not to have gunpowder. And while I personally love high fantasy and think the game ought to have enchanted ships with magic figureheads that protect the crew from fireballs, I know not everyone does.
So first, here's the basics. Then, if you could, please tell me what you'd want in a naval combat system for 5e.
Naval Rounds are One Minute
I considered briefly making things run on the same scale as PC combat, but it's just too tedious to resolve minutes of maneuvering in ship combat that way. So each round is 1 minute, and movement comes in 100-ft. chunks, on a map with a 1 square = 100 ft. scale. Conveniently, 5e has no spells as far as I can tell that can attack beyond 150 feet, so we don't have to worry about flinging fireballs from a thousand feet away like in 3rd edition. Now when ships end their turn adjacent, we switch to normal 6-second-round tactical combat.
As for archery (which can go up to 600 feet in 5e), I kind of make it generally infeasible - wind and heaving seas make hitting a target with a single arrow unlikely, so you have to use your whole 1-minute round to wait for the perfect moment to make one attack action. I haven't quite worked out the details for archery volleys between crews, but I want to make them to be easy to resolve but not too strong, because honestly it's more fun to have a boarding action.
Four Stages Each Round
There's the Orders stage where the captain rolls initiative for the round and the officers decide what they're going to do; the Piloting stage where (in initiative order) each ship's pilot determines how well he steers the ship and then moves across the map; the Gunnery stage where (initiative order) each vessel fires its weapons; and the Damage stage where the effects of damage are resolved. You handle all ships in each stage before moving onto the next stage, so winning initiative lets you decide your actions after you see what your opponent is doing, but you don't get to sink their ship before they get a chance to fire back.
PCs Take Officer Actions to Aid the Crew
Throughout the round one PC acts as pilot, and each other PC can take an officer action from a list that involve Command, Engineering, Gunnery, and Spotting. Depending on what you're trying to do, the characters might focus on helping the pilot pull off sharp turns to avoid getting hit, or to aid the gun crew's aiming, or to try to trick the opposing captain into making a mistake next round.
Damage is Streamlined, but You Can Destroy Specific Components
Rather than tracking damage to different areas of the ship, the vessel just has one set of HP that represents its hull integrity. (And following the rules for ships in the DMG, you have to at least match a damage threshold or else your attack does nothing to the ship.) However, certain officer actions will let you try to aim at least a few shots at specific components, so you can try to target their sails, or destroy the divinely-blessed shield on their prow that increases the ship's AC.
Ships and Scenarios Should be Fantastic
Much like how I'm long-since bored with 10-ft. rooms and empty hallways in my D&D, I don't see the need to have naval encounters always be between 'realistic' ships in 'realistic' environments. While I'll include stats for normal ships, I also want Eberron style airships armed with arcane fusils that unleash blasts of lightning, druidic ships grown from a treant that steers itself, submarines that are just undead whales filled with a crew of ghouls, and teleporting schooners with a fey queen for a figurehead. And they should be battling not just on open seas, but between knife-toothed outcroppings, through the canopy of a flooded forest, at the intersection of two demiplanes with different laws of physics, and at the waterfall cascade along the edge of the world.
Do people like these sorts of grand fantasy ideas, or would that turn you off from the system? I want to encourage ship-to-ship battles to not just be an exercise in dice-rolling, but sort of like solving a puzzle. Every foe has some trick that either makes them hard to hurt or makes them extra dangerous, and you've got to figure out how to overcome it. Just sailing up close and firing broadsides ain't enough.
So, is anyone intrigued?
