Maritime Sandbox

[nameurl]

So I started DMing a maritime campaign, and I'm not really sure how to work the travel. An ocean is a pretty big sandbox, and I'm not sure whether I should just roll for random encounters or say, "After 2 weeks, you arrive at your destination." My players are all used to very kick-in-the-door gaming, so I'd like to keep it moving quickly.

[Squirrel_Dude]

You will absolutely have encounters in the open sea! Half the point of running a game on the ocean is getting to pull out all of those random monsters (Kraken, Sea Drakes, Lacedons, Pirates) that never see the light of day in most campaigns.

- Take treasure-laden shipwrecks and turn them into dungeons, haunted by the undead crew.
- Random magical islands filled with fey, reclusive wizards, Tucker's Kobolds, etc.
- Merchant ships that draw alongside the party's boat, only to raise their pirate colors and attack.
- Darkshapes in the water that reveal themselves to be oozes, that attach themselves, and eat through the ships hull in an attempt to get to the crew
- Aquatic Dinosaurs
- Giant Sharks

Random encounters and plot diversions are the entire reason to get a party on a boat.

[Saintheart]

Stormwrack is awesome for both flavour and interesting crunch when it comes to sea-based environments.

[BowStreetRunner]

Age of Sail maritime voyages are, IMHO, superior to terrestrial or aerial voyages in that you can much more easily justify travel at the 'speed of plot'. With other modes of travel, including modern maritime travel, there are simple ways to calculate the shortest route and travel time. Travelling in a sail-powered vessel is an entirely different phenomenon however. There are variations of wind speed and direction, tide and currents that can completely change the length of a voyage between one trip and the next - even though you attempt the same route each time.

I'm a big fan of maritime fiction (I have all of Patrick O'Brian's books) and have often noted how easy it is for an author to justify a delay here, a speedy voyage there, and an encounter or two wherever he sees fit.

Here are a couple ideas you can use to justify the voyage taking whatever duration you want it to take.

The incoming/outgoing tides near the mouth of a large river or estuary is often enough to counteract the propulsion provided by sails and/or oars. Entering and exiting ports in such locations requires proper timing, and a ship may have to wait hours for the right tide.
Ships that are powered by sail can adjust their direction of sail to go anywhere except directly toward the oncoming wind. Square rigged ships are better sailing with the wind, while triangular sailed ships are better sailing across the wind, but none can sail into the wind. Instead, they have to follow a zigzag pattern at an angle to the wind if they need to move that direction. This can increase their travel time immensely.
In fact, if you look at the closest angle to the wind a particular ship can achieve and try to plot a course past some obstacle, it is possible at times that you won't be able to go where you want at all - at least until the wind changes. Many ships have had to wait out a change of a wind in order to get past some headland or strait, or sail out of a bay.
Sailing vessels are at the mercy of wind speed as well. If the wind is too light, or nonexistent, they may have to augment their speed with sweeps (oars). If the wind is too powerful they may have to reduce sail to avoid damage to the ship. Just as every ship has a best point of sailing direction-wise, every ship has a best wind speed as well.
There are powerful currents in the oceans that can counteract the movement of surface vessels. A ship's speed across the surface of moving water may actually not match its speed relative to land for exactly this reason. If you go with the current, your speed increases, against the current, it decreases. Many of these currents vary with the seasons as well.

So let your maritime journeys travel at the speed of plot and if your players point out that the journey should have taken more or less time, just vaguely mention one of these points to them and move on. I doubt even one of your players is a master mariner IRL. :smallbiggrin: