When the Players' Ship Goes Down, Down, Down

[Palanan]

This is a DM-only thread, so my players need to wash out now.



Okay: I could use advice on designing an encounter for my seafaring campaign.

I'm about to add a new player to the group, and I want to give him a short solo session to help integrate him into the campaign--and also so I can see how he handles his character. He's built a basic Cleric 2/Sorcerer 4, with an emphasis on blasting from a comfortable distance.

My plan is to start him on a merchant galleon, which will be overcome by some disaster, leaving him adrift to be picked up by the other PCs in their own vessel. The question is, what would be a good solo encounter for this situation?

I want the player to feel like he's barely survived something horrific, which will wipe out the rest of the crew, destroy the ship, and leave him floating in the midst of the great wide ocean. However, the sorcerer only has 24 hit points, and I don't want to kill him outright before he even joins the campaign. So, what could work here?

[Amnestic]

so my players need to wash out now.
[...]
seafaring campaign.

...:smallamused:



My plan is to start him on a merchant galleon, which will be overcome by some disaster, leaving him adrift to be picked up by the other PCs in their own vessel. The question is, what would be a good solo encounter for this situation?

I want the player to feel like he's barely survived something horrific, which will wipe out the rest of the crew, destroy the ship, and leave him floating in the midst of the great wide ocean. However, the sorcerer only has 24 hit points, and I don't want to kill him outright before he even joins the campaign. So, what could work here?

My general idea for "danger at sea" is generally the same as "danger on land": either something enormous (Kraken!) or something less enormous but many of them. Pirates are always a good one, but if you're going for a seafaring campaign then maybe look up the Sahuagin? Having the character be the only survivor of a Sahuagin raiding party would work well enough I think.

Each Sahuagin, as written, is CR2, but if there's a patrol of them (11-20, plus 1 3rd level lieutenant and 1-2 sharks) then combined with the crew of the ship it should make for a decent enough encounter, I would've thought?

[ArcturusV]

Well, ideally you'd want three encounters as I could see to kind of give your player a feel for the sort of things he may run into.

First "Encounter" is more of a skill based one. A storm front, or something similar, moves up on the ship rapidly. This lets him get creative, figure out things like how to use his spells to help out his ship outside of combat, or use skills, etc. Or at the very least learning that if all else fails he can chip in for "Aid Another" or the like. It can point out to the guy that he might want to include something in his build to deal with a problem that can't be solved by a Melf's Acid Arrow to the face, etc.

Second encounter is with the raiders who in fact stirred up the storm. Something like Sea Elves are usually good for this. Pirates in general can work. Pirates give a more interesting situation as another ship being involved opens up options. Environment Destruction (Ripping down rigging, masts, etc), boarding actions, helping his ship get superior positioning, etc.

Third encounter can be a more 'Social' encounter to stress the third sort of encounter that most PCs will find themselves in. In this case if the Pirates torch their ship, or otherwise end up sinking it (lucky hit to the powder magazine/alchemist's fire stockpile, etc), he ends up in a situation where he's stuck and has to deal with some aquatic race like Darfellans or Sea Elves, and try to talk his way out of his problem. If he's successful they leave him on a small island nearby or something. If he fails then he's gonna be clutching some flotsam and praying for a ship to find him out there...

[avr]

If HP are low, hit him somewhere other than in the HP. Swarms of poisonous spiders blown on to the ship by a strong wind, perhaps.

Alternately, go for property damage like Amnestic's kraken ripping the ship in half. Mae him make plans or rolls to grab some wreckage to hang on to and then have rough seas separate him from any other survivors.

[ksbsnowowl]

Make use of the spirit animal template from Frostburn. All the damage they deal is nonlethal, so you don't have to worry about killing him.

[Slipperychicken]

Flying monsters destroy the sails.

If he's new to RP in general, one might advertise the solo as a "tutorial" session for the new player. Have some RP at the beginning with crew members, then some opportunities to use skills or heal people (crewman gets injured?).

Seconding the Kraken. Especially if the Cleric gets a personal vendetta against it, and the PCs have to defend their ship from it later on.

[TroubleBrewing]

Plague ship, anyone? Nothing like some good ol' fashioned zombies in the brig. They're not much of a threat, vulnerable to TU, and can still be hurt if he needs to resort to slinging spells.

[Octopusapult]

Plague ship, anyone? Nothing like some good ol' fashioned zombies in the brig. They're not much of a threat, vulnerable to TU, and can still be hurt if he needs to resort to slinging spells.

I like this idea. Like the old triremes which were designed for ramming other ships.

You've got a small "ship of the damned" come in out of the horizon. Storms following the accursed thing as it's practically a blasphemy against any kind of sea-gods. The precursor storm would eat some of your player's and the NPC's resources before the zombie trireme rolls up, rams the ship, and unleashes various undeads.

Plague Spewers are the first thing to come to mind, but any undead would do.

Then you've got another zombie ship. The one your "lone survivor" was riding on. Perhaps he sees it later down the road, and it becomes a minor story arch.

[Palanan]

Okay, thanks to everyone for the suggestions so far.


Originally Posted by Slipperychicken
If he's new to RP in general, one might advertise the solo as a "tutorial" session for the new player.

Indeed, indeed. He says he's played a lot already, but I noticed early on that he seems a little wobbly on the rules--so I really do want to use this as a tutorial, to be sure we're on the same page when his character goes into combat. Hopefully this will save us some trouble, confusion and general awkwardness once he joins the rest of the party.

(What's that quote about the best-laid plans of mice and men?)


Originally Posted by TroubleBrewing
Plague ship, anyone? Nothing like some good ol' fashioned zombies in the brig. They're not much of a threat, vulnerable to TU, and can still be hurt if he needs to resort to slinging spells.

A capital idea, which I used several sessions ago with the main party.

:smalltongue:


Originally Posted by ArcturusV
First "Encounter" is more of a skill based one. A storm front, or something similar, moves up on the ship rapidly. This lets him get creative, figure out things like how to use his spells to help out his ship outside of combat, or use skills, etc.

I like this idea quite a bit. Any suggestions on how to detail this encounter? Ideas for skill checks? He's a very basic cleric/sorcerer, so pretty much zilch for skills, and the character isn't a natural mariner in the slightest.




Originally Posted by Amnestic
...:smallamused:

:smallbiggrin:

[ArcturusV]

Well, it depends in part on his spell list. And it's trying to figure out how to make spells work outside of direct combat or "nullify an encounter" level results. So things like using Control Water to help bail out a flooding section of the ship. Augury to help divine out the best course, able to use Enlarge Person on a few sailors during a hard bit of sailing so they can more easily brace some rigging lines, etc.

You'd probably want to break it out into 3 Segments or so. One is the prelude to the Storm. Second is height of the storm. Third is immediate aftermath.

There's no real hard and fast mechanics for a segment like this. Not that I remember, so most of it will have to be adapted on the fly. And part of it is getting the player to think outside the box. Give him enough time during each of these segments to try say, two plans to help out. So during the Prelude to the Storm he might throw out a quick Augury spell to check their route or something. Mid Storm you have 1 plan he can do to help out, and this should be related to maintaining the integrity of the ship and/or saving or helping the sailors at their tasks to keep it afloat somehow. Third segment should be damage control, things like Control Water to bilge pump the ship, Mending to fix torn sails and ropes, etc, and should allow 1 more plan before the Pirate Encounter (If you use it) since the Pirates were trying to ride up close behind the storm to catch people while they were still floundering afterwards.

Give a simple point value system for how well the guy did, which impacts how well the NPC crew behaves during the fight. Something like 1 point for each Pre-Storm success, 2 for Mid Storm, 2 for Damage Control. If they have a result of 2 or less, basically the crew is helpless. Ship is dead in the water, the crew is too busy trying to keep the ship afloat to help in combat in any meaningful way. 3-4, allow something like 20% of the crew to be on "marine" duty to repel boarders and fight with the Cleric/Sorcerer. 5-6 the ship is in good enough shape he has the 20% crew to help him out, and the crew can sail the ship about and help control the range of engagement and positioning.