First Time DM and a Nautical Campaign

[DangerDanger]

This will be my first time DMing a campaign.
The theme is naval combat, treasure hunting, and politics.

I wanted the characters to seem human/restricted but powerful enough to be more awesome than most so I decided we'd start at ECL 5 and probably chill at 6-7 for a while, maybe get to 8. Then I stumbled upon e6 fan rules.

This campaign will meet roughly once every 2 weeks (we're all college seniors/grad school) so the campaign will move relatively slowly. I doubt going to level 7/8 will make that big of a difference, but would you cap us off at 6 and dole out bonus feats?

Also, any cool online resources you could point me towards in running a naval/treasure hunting/politics based campaign? I already have all most the books via pdf (including Stormwrack).

I plan on most battles being against other ships/boarding against characters I've made (there will be some sea monster shenanigans though). As the game goes on, if they get a bigger ship (and as a result a crew) I figured each person would be able to hire/rent weak NPCs to control for their expeditions. I have no idea how to base challenge ratings though ^^;

TL;DR

1. Just learning about e6 this week, should I do an e6 campaign or should I allow us to go up to 8? (I get it's my choice/preference but I also have no solid opinion on this)

2. What online resources could help me run a naval based/treasure hunting campaign?

3. How do I challenge rating?

[Tevesh]

3. http://www.d20srd.org/extras/d20encountercalculator/

Pump in the party's stats, pump in the monster's stats and see if its a fair fight.

Essentially, equal CR should use 20% of a group's resources. They should be allowed up to 4 fights before resting or they'll take massive casualties. CR +1 uses a bit more and CR +2 is 50% IIRC. Basically, I do 10 fights a level at CR, two and CR +1 for midbosses and CR +2 for final boss of the level. As the PCs gain levels, you'll need to throw CR +3 as a final boss.

2. I can't really recommend any online resources for naval but I'd heavily recommend a map. One for where the PCs think they are, one for where they really are. Also, as they explore more and more, they get a more detailed map.

I don't do much wilderness in my games but when I do, I know to quickly get back into a city. Its a problem saying "You go Northbound for three days when you encounter a Kraken" or whatever. Not as descriptive.

1. I haven't played E6 and just discovered it as well. I think E6 would be better for a Sinbad feel, while ECL 8 lets them fight bigger and nastier things. Depends on how much you them to grow as PCs.

[hirojinbrodie]

Try looking at the Stormwrack book. There are several class variations, race variations, and many other goodies that directly relate to your style of campaign.

[Calimehter]

One handy thing about going with E6 is that characters are a lot more likely to stay with the boat. At 6th level, barring odd tricks, most of the movement boosts like flight are tactical in distance/duration rather than strategic, so they tend to stay on the boat.

The last naval game I played in started at 6th level. We made it to 14th, but well before the end we had basically left the boat behind. We came back to visit it once in a great while but around level 10 or so you are often just flying and/or teleporting everywhere much faster than the boat can travel, and the boat simply became a friendly little village that moved around a bit more than a standard village.

When or whether that sort of thing happens varies from group to group, but it is something to keep in mind when planning things out.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Calimehter
...and the boat simply became a friendly little village that moved around a bit more than a standard village.

This is relevant to another point, which is that your ship will be a compact community in its own right, and a microcosm of the nation that it represents. Be sure to develop the people who make up that community, and keep in mind the opportunities for roleplaying and plotlines that naturally arise from its daily operations.

.

[Broken Crown]

One thing I've noticed about D&D is that, in general, the writers of the source material don't know anything about ships, and apparently don't care. Stormwrack is better than most in this regard, but is still filled with glaring flaws. If you're at all interested in the actual naval side of things (as opposed to a ship just being a convenient background device for moving the characters from one place to another), I recommend doing some independent research.

If you haven't already, I'd strongly recommend reading the "Hornblower" series of novels by C. S. Forester, and the later "Aubrey-Maturin" novels by Patrick O'Brian. Both deal with naval life in the Age of Sail (specifically, Napoleonic War) and have an immense amount of detail about all aspects of shipboard life and combat. Some changes will have to be made for a fantasy setting, but it's an excellent starting point.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Broken Crown
One thing I've noticed about D&D is that, in general, the writers of the source material don't know anything about ships, and apparently don't care.

Absolutely true, and a genuine shame, since naval history has an amazing amount to offer. But the guys at Wizards really tend not to think outside the cubicle.


Originally Posted by Broken Crown
If you haven't already, I'd strongly recommend reading the "Hornblower" series of novels by C. S. Forester, and the later "Aubrey-Maturin" novels by Patrick O'Brian.

The O'Brian novels were the prime inspiration for my seafaring campaign. :smallsmile:

And I'd strongly second the idea of doing your own independent research. When I was running that campaign, I had my library card maxed out with books on ship design, naval history, colonial exploration, the works.

At the very least, I'd recommend watching Master and Commander for the mood and tone of shipboard life. You might also look at Patrick O'Brian's Navy (http://www.amazon.com/Patrick-OBrians-Navy-Illustrated-Companion/dp/0762415401/), which is a good introductory overview to the Royal Navy in the Napoleonic period.

If you do look at the O'Brian novels, I'd suggest H.M.S. Surprise as a good starting point, or maybe The Thirteen-Gun Salute, and if you like those then go back and start from the beginning. Be sure to have A Sea of Words (http://www.amazon.com/Sea-Words-Third-Companion-Seafaring/dp/0805066152/) with you to help decipher the nautical vocabulary, and to add some salty flavor when the captain calls one of your characters a bloody scrub and a Dutch-built slab-sided cove.

:smalltongue:

[Calimehter]

If you can find it, "Of Ships and the Sea" from AD&D 2e was one of my favorite sourcebooks from that edition, and one of the very few books (along with the Planescape stuff) that I still have from those days.

A lot of the crunch regarding underwater adventuring and such is badly outdated, but the charts related to ship movement, wind and weather (which based themselves on past results, so storms "made sense" moreso than just being randomly rolled), random encounters, and such worked out really well, and would probably still work great in a 3.x campaign.

[hemming]

If your not using it already, I recommend checking out Arms and Equipment as well (its 3.0 but works fine w/ 3.5)

I personally hate the narrative naval combat rules from Stormwrack and much prefer to do grid based combat using maneuverability ratings and movement speed. I find the wind speed and direction a much bigger factor in battles w/ grid based.

I think it is also easier for me to manage conceptually when the battle involves more than two ships.

I actually made a few each cardboard cutouts to a 20' scale of the most common ship sizes I was using so I could easily move them around on the grid.

The one thing I really like keeping from narrative combat is the special maneuvers.