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View Full Version : 3.5 Naval/Pirate Campaign Advice



Coidzor
2009-06-04, 08:03 PM
So I was thinking about trying my hand at DMing this summer and a couple of my friends had expressed curiosity/interest in trying out a pirate/privateering game sometime in the future.

Right now I'm wondering what setting might be best to look at for where to start off/base it off of for starters... I mean, I understand I can designate some things by fiat and power of plot, but a little bit of flair is always nice, right? Currently I haven't really used any books beyond perusing the Complete series and things like Dungeonscape, Frostburn, Magic Item Compendium, and the Spell Compendium in addition to some research into Eberron due to trying out an artificer in a sandal-punk homebrew world.

And of course any general advice about how to run ship-ship combat/a crew/ships in general or what books within 3.5 to look at would be greatly appreciated.

A couple of related questions: Since this is inspired by the events within another campaign, I was thinking of it maybe as being an alt future for a campaign that's been put on standby/hiatus due to the fact that the original players aren't around due to the summer... Do you think it'd be better to just port 'em over (they were either level 3 or 4) or bump 'em up to some better baseline level (6, maybe?) for the sort of adventures that take place on the high seas? And any input as to whether I should kill off the PCs whose players would no longer be with us or just regulate them into NPCs which are more attached to the ship than to the party?

Or is dealing with the old campaign at all, even as an alt timeline sort of thing just a bad idea?

...I feel like this is making the post really awkward and laundry listy, but uh... I was sort of considering something along the lines of E6 or E8/E10, basically freezing level progression after a certain point but allowing for some methods of increasing power beyond simple wealth to magic metrics, but I'm not sure where I first read about the idea or where to look for additional study on the concept...

As far as starting off the campaign, I was thinking of basically starting them off in media res, working out with the players before hand what their position on the ship would be and telling them about the first few uneventful bits of their journey before having them come upon something interesting/their first trial combat. If they decide they're comfortable with coming from the Old Campaign, I'll think of something to add to that about how they got there, and come up with some idea of their NPC crew. (Need to figure out what kind of ship they'll be on and how many crew they need for one...)

I think even if they had a Bard with a fairly good charisma having a crew entirely from the leadership feat would be difficult so at least some of the crew would be hirelings...

OH! and I remember hearing about some kind of Armor Class rule variant that's fairly popular for this sort of ship-based thing due to how deadly heavy armor can become to the wearer due to its weight... anyone able to point me in the right direction with that?

Nohwl
2009-06-04, 08:12 PM
i think stormwrack has stuff about ship to ship combat. i don't have the book, but its the one about an aquatic setting.

Tsotha-lanti
2009-06-04, 08:16 PM
Defence and Armor (http://www.systemreferencedocuments.org/35/sovelior_sage/unearthedDefence.html)

Choco
2009-06-04, 08:50 PM
I asked a similar question like 2 weeks ago, and was directed to the Seas of Blood book (and its additions). I gotta say, if you want to do a seafaring campaign, GET THESE BOOKS!

They are dirt cheap on Amazon marketplace, and have the best naval rules I have ever seen in my life.

Seriously.

HP McLuvin
2009-06-04, 09:02 PM
Have you considered Freeport?
Its pretty popular, and designed specifically with piracy and privateering in mind.
http://www.greenronin.com/freeport/

wadledo
2009-06-04, 09:03 PM
Also, construct a tub filled with water and train ducks to sit perfectly still while the mice on their backs use magic to battle each others in exact interpretations of your players character actions.
Totally.

Pharaoh's Fist
2009-06-04, 09:09 PM
Take levels in Dread Pirate.

Do this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3gfFVmw0kA).

Coidzor
2009-06-04, 09:12 PM
Stormwrack and Seas of Blood, eh? Thankies. And for the SRD link. ...I really need to just remember/get better at poking around at that site. haha!

Hmm, if I ended up with say 2-3 players, would giving them Leadership for free be too bad of an idea? Since cohorts are limited by level-2 and leadership score....hmm...

....
....
.... And now one of the players has gotten it into his head that he wants to make a kobold into an animal companion. :smallconfused: *wishes he had a convenient psyduck emote*


Also, construct a tub filled with water and train ducks to sit perfectly still while the mice on their backs use magic to battle each others in exact interpretations of your players character actions.
Totally.
...:smallconfused: um... I can't...quite tell if you're mocking me or not... I mean, it doesn't seem in character for you to do so, but I am confused by your suggestion, as if I'm missing out on some kind of meme... like dnd 3.5 and naval adventures are a joke or something...

hmm... that reminds me of the need for a ship's carpenter Expert (Craft: Carpentry/Woodworking/Construction) due to the inevitability of ship-damage and collisions.

Emy
2009-06-04, 09:43 PM
sandal-punk

Okay, appending -punk to other words has gotten completely ridiculous.

I'd like to second Stormwrack. It includes basically everything that you want for a 3.5 naval campaign.

You may also find Complete Adventurer useful, for the Dread Pirate prestige class. It's not as vital though.

At higher levels, the old 3.0 Stronghold Builder's Guidebook is nice for adding rooms, weapons, planar travel capabilities, or whatever else you like to your ship. If the ship is a stronghold, the Landlord feat could also generate quite a bit of wealth that would be spent only on the ship.


*wishes he had a convenient psyduck emote*

Let's see if this works. Haven't used imageshack in a while.

Psyyyyyyyyyy.
\
http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/9012/emotpsyducko.gif

Pharaoh's Fist
2009-06-04, 09:45 PM
Take levels in Dread Pirate.

Do this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3gfFVmw0kA).



You may also find Complete Adventurer useful, for the Dread Pirate prestige class. It's not as vital though.

Ahem.

Also, tis vital. Verily, tis vital. Vitally vital, if I may say so.

wadledo
2009-06-04, 09:48 PM
...:smallconfused: um... I can't...quite tell if you're mocking me or not... I mean, it doesn't seem in character for you to do so, but I am confused by your suggestion, as if I'm missing out on some kind of meme... like dnd 3.5 and naval adventures are a joke or something...

hmm... that reminds me of the need for a ship's carpenter Expert (Craft: Carpentry/Woodworking/Construction) due to the inevitability of ship-damage and collisions.

The naval rules for D&D are nearly as complicated and ridiculus as the grappling rules.
They make up for it, however, by being far harder to find.

Surfing HalfOrc
2009-06-04, 09:54 PM
You might also want to consider "The Savage Tide" adventure path. Pirates, dinosaurs, Old Skool adventure combined with 3.5 goodness, and all that.

Coidzor
2009-06-05, 01:25 AM
Ahem.

Also, tis vital. Verily, tis vital. Vitally vital, if I may say so.

Good news! As I do have Complete Adventurer! In hard copy! In my personal possession rather than having it at my disposal on a temporary/lending basis. Along with PHBII and the out of date 3.0 core set. I'm pretty sure I have the ability to refer to most of the MMs at least if I really need to look up the stats for a critter I can't approximate using the SRD's critters.

So basically you're saying I should either give up on naval combat and basically have it be island hopping or make up my own mind about some kind of gross simplification?

kirbsys
2009-06-05, 01:30 AM
Well here's the thing. The slower and more bogged down combat gets, the less fun it is. Since DnD is supposed to be fun, unless the rule that will be slowing combat down makes combat a lot more fun, it's generally not worth it. So I'd second either simplifying the naval combat rules to island hopping with slightly moving islands. A suggestion: if you are going to have moving ships, make them out of laminated grid-paper (you can make it by hand with a ruler and a marker) in the correct shapes. It will save you head-aches later.

Alleine
2009-06-05, 01:44 AM
I believe Stormwrack suggested that you don't move the ships, but rather you move everything relative to one ship. Much less work.

AslanCross
2009-06-05, 05:41 AM
Unless the PCs themselves are the ones controlling the ships, don't bother so much with specifics. Simply treat them as large, mobile portions of the terrain that move at the speed of plot. I did this once in a campaign where the PCs were on a ship that was attacked by pirates. Instead of thinking in terms of "Ship X moves at Y feet per round," I just settled for "Ship X is faster than Ship Z and will catch up in N rounds; if either ship's sails get destroyed, the situation changes."

Take note that there are a lot of really interesting terrain features on ships: weapon batteries, rigging, masts, and railings. You have lots of potential tools for the characters on both sides to use during an actual naval battle.

Coidzor
2009-06-05, 05:17 PM
Good point Aslancross, I think that's what I was probably going to be aiming for anyway...

I figured treating approaching a ship sort of like rounds until they're within weapon range,which depending upon what I find may actually do something, rounds until within bowshot, and then rounds until impact/ship grappling/boarding would be the way to go about it...

And that's a good suggestion, thank you Kirbsys. I don't think I'd be able to get anything laminated for awhile, but I think I can get something ready for laminating either before or after the first session.

kirbsys
2009-06-05, 09:59 PM
They can be used without lamination, but once you've laminated them you get the distinct advantage of being able to use dry-erase or over-head markers on it and still be able to erase. When I play we use a big 30x30 grid for combat, so far we haven't needed a room larger than that.

Coidzor
2009-06-05, 10:23 PM
That is true... a couple of my friends own actual battlemaps/battlegrids/whatever their name is... The roll-up variety with hex on one side and squares on the other. So I'm going to be attempting to borrow at least one of those since I think one of the players has one.

Haven
2009-06-05, 11:51 PM
Watch Pirates Of Dark Water to get in the right mood.