Surviving A Hurricane At Sea

[Palanan]

There are all sorts of skill challenges I could throw at PCs trying to save their ship in a catastrophic gale, but simply rolling a series of checks doesn't always convey the terror and uncertainty of a storm-lashed vessel on the verge of going down.

How can I turn a mid-ocean hurricane into a compelling and memorable encounter?

[AvatarVecna]

Beyond whatever is happening mechanically, it helps if you've set up some really relatable NPCs as members of the crew, only for them to be killed by the storm's attack.

As for what happens mechanically...well, once some crew members are lost to the initial waves, it's up to the PCs to make sure the ship holds together long enough that the rest aren't similarly lost; that same series of skill checks now has much more personal consequences for the PCs, if you've got them nice and invested in the remaining NPCs. If that goal fails, you can always have the PCs wash up on some sort of deserted island...separately, of course. Once they fight of the indigenous inhabitants, figure out a way off the island, and escape before the volcano erupts (which is just how these things seem to work out), they can get back to whatever they were doing.

[MysticMonkey]

First I gotta ask, why are you putting them in a hurricane?

[Nibbens]

A lantern falls over igniting the bow of the ship, now they're fighting wind water and fire... Now if we can find a way to put earth in the mix... :) lol.

Anyway, I'd use vivid description. Come up with a round by round itinerary and make it last for like 30 someodd rounds.

For example - round 1 the sails rip, round 3 a huge wave crashes into the side of the boat forcing balance checks (worse for people in crows nest or fixing the sails), round 4 a lantern falls over and rolls near the gunpowder storage (PCs don't see/hear this yet unless they have some extraordinary senses). Also on round four several planks rip off the bow - not a problem yet, but if not resolved soon, water will begin flooding the ship. Round 5, PCs make perception checks (massively decreased because of the rainy conditions) or profession sailor checks to detect the huge wave that will land in 3 rounds. Round 7 the wheel is threatening to snap off due to strain (str checks or profession sailor needed), round 8 huge wave hits (balance checks for all above deck), round 9 smoke coming up from the below-quarters. Spend a few rounds allowing them to find the source and hopefully put it out. Round 11 the sails lashing come undone and unfurl - probably the worst thing that could happen in a hurricane - now PCs are scrambling to save the sails, wrap them up, battling wind, rain etc, captain or helmsman is making profession sailor checks to keep the ship from tearing itself apart (because the wind in the sails will be forcing the masts to bend to the breaking point). Another perception check to see the big wave heading right at you again.

Fort checks to avoid super-seasickness (imposing negatives to all skill checks). The DC gets worse every few rounds.
Balance to avoid slipping and falling.
Balance or climb to avoid falling overboard - if this happens give them a low DC reflex check to catch on the siding to avoid going in the water.


... if this doesn't have your PCs scrambling for their lives - nothing will. The idea here is to make all the checks they fail makes them take more time (+1 round or more) to fix - taking away valuable time from other problems that keep springing up.

If the PCs aren't worried about losing the ship then you're doing it wrong - this will make it memorable. Hurricanes on the water are nothing to blink at, especially on wooden ships.

The point here is to make sure that the number of events are suitable for the number of PCs. This may take some tinkering, but it could be fun.

[Venger]

First I gotta ask, why are you putting them in a hurricane?

to wreck their ship without a save and put them on an island for their next encounter, obviously

if you want to make this more active rather than just an HP tax, treat the hurricane as another ship and check out stormwrack's ship to ship combat rules. depending on your PCs specific superpowers, allow them to affect the hurricane to weaken, divert, or mitigate its effects as thought it were an enemy they could kill. once they do a predetermined amount of stuff, say it breaks up or moves past them.

[jiriku]

To continue in the general vein of some of the previous posters, run the hurricane as a monster. You may prefer to use minutes or combat rounds as your unit of time, but each time the hurricane gets a turn, it does something bad to the ship -- starting a fire or sweeping a wave across the bow as mentioned, or snapping a line that causes a sail to start flapping loose, or lifting the ship up and slapping it down hard enough to damage the hull. Give the ship a turn as well, and once the ship has taken enough damage, it starts "attacking" as well -- spars break and crash down, flooding begins or accelerates, a mast cracks and threatens to fall and wreak havoc across the deck, the flapping sail tears to shreds and becomes useless.

Each of these events forces a response from the players: put out the fire, make a Balance check, try to rescue crew swept overboard, climb the rigging and tie down or furl the sail before it tears itself to shreds, bail out the water belowdecks or cast a spell to reinforce the hull. Perhaps they can wrestle with the helm as well to keep the ship clear of the worst of the waves, but I think I might stay away from that as well -- it's not dramatic to say "I stay at the helm and make a profession (sailor) check again, just like I did for the last five rounds".

Ultimately you're tracking the players' ability to protect hit points, but instead of (or in addition to) their own, they're trying to protect the hit points of the hull, sails, rigging, and crew.

[DrMotives]

I like Jiriku's idea. Also, once you run the ship and the storm as monsters under the hood, so to speak, that means you can peg them with appropriate CRs. Maybe rating ECL as a series of traps makes more sense than CRing them as two big monsters though.

[jiriku]

And after a little though, I think running this in one-minute increments is probably better than round-by-round. Bailing out water for six seconds isn't meaningful, but with one minute of frenzied bailing and a big enough bucket and high enough Strength score, you could probably clear a bathtub-sized volume of water. This does raise the issue of adjudicating how much stuff each player can conceivably do in a minute, but that shouldn't be extremely difficult. More challenging, I think, will be framing the PC's options in each situation, deciding in advance what the game effect of the most common actions will be, and making on-the-fly rulings when they inevitably attempt something you didn't think of ahead of time. Also, modeling the worst part of the storm with 10-30 one-minute increments is much more appropriate for an encounter than modeling it with 100+ combat rounds.