Pitfalls of a Nautical Campaign?

[Drrakerr]

I will be starting up a new game with some friends soon an I plan on running a nautical (aka pirate) theme. They will start with a boat with a handy little McGuffin that allows for a permanent Servant Horde, but only on the ship (to explain how a crew of 4 can effectively man a full sized vessel). The servants can't fight, aren't intelligent enough do an kind of repairs, and the need to be directed or they will just keep doing the last thing they have been doing in the most literal sense I can imagine (tell them to turn the ship and then walk away, they will spin the ship in circles). It won't be very optimized as the players aren't very experienced and we don't have many source books on hand. Are there any glaring problems with the plan that I'm not seeing? This will be my first nautical game, and I guess I'm mostly concerned that its going to be more difficult than I am imagining.

[bjoern]

There are written rules for the mechanics of ship to ship combat and sailing a ship in general. They are very involved and cumbersome. We did a campaign on a ship a few years ago and tried to implement the rules and it bogged down the game. I would suggest making your own easy to implement rules or just skip the rules altogether and just assume the crew is able to drive the ship. Especially for a new group

[Red Fel]

The thing to remember about nautical campaigns is this:

Your universe is a bounded, circumscribed area. If you leave it, you will most assuredly die.

That's the big part. Until your PCs get higher level, can handle higher-DC Swim checks, can fly, or can breathe in or walk on water, drowning is a very real danger that is ever-present. The biggest target isn't the PCs, it's the boat - if it sinks, they're pretty much all toast. And it's a lot harder to defend a ship than to defend an individual person.

Even once you're at a level where the PCs can safely operate in the water, doing so effectively is still a beast. Certain combat styles suffer from reduced effectiveness. Heavy armor is severely problematic. And again, being able to breathe underwater becomes a pretty major thing, particularly when you consider just how good certain aquatic creatures are at grappling the crap out of you.

Short version? The big pitfall is the water, chief.

As an aside, you say you have limited books on hand; if you don't have Stormwrack, I'd probably advise you against trying it. Stormwrack is pretty much the primary, and in some cases exclusive, source for nautical material; its presence or absence is more or less the defining factor.