How to Handle a Ship ride?

[WarrentheHero]

I'm running a 5e campaign at my LGS and the next part of the adventure is set to take the PCs by boat to the nation's capitall.
For context, the PCs are level 3 (point buy, 30 points) and are delivering information about a renegage war god to a coalition set up against him. The last 2 sessions have had combat, and this will be the fourth session of the campaign.
Back to the point: I plan on putting the PCs on a ship that will go into the ocean temporarily and then travel by river to the capital. I don't know exactly what I want to do with that, though. They've had combat the last 2 sessions and so I'm not sure I want to force them into another. At the same time the next best thing, ship-based skill checks, is trite and boring.

Any suggestions? I could bypass the entire shipride with a sentence or two, but timing is important to this campaign and I want them to feel that pressure. That also means I'd have to articulate the next 'big thing,' of the campaign, which I haven't finished just yet.

I'd greatly appreciate some advice, and more importantly discussion, on how best to handle the old cliche of "You're on a boat now! Adventure happens!"

[gullveig]

http://goblinpunch.blogspot.com.br/2013/11/encounters-on-sea-of-fish.html

http://goblinpunch.blogspot.com.br/2014/05/encounters-on-sea-of-suloi.html

http://aeonsnaugauries.blogspot.com.br/2011/02/sea-encounters-and-hazards.html

You can use the OSR search (http://osrsearch.blogspot.com.br/) for thinks like "sea encounters".

It you give you a hand full of ideas. Lets take one...

On the third link: "Reefs- without caution a vessel can be driven onto a reef. Perhaps becoming trapped or even worse floundering and sinking. This will likely doom the crew to drowning or being battered against the reef if the seas are rough enough. Fishing will often be good near a reef."

An giant coral reef is spotted, players can choose between turn around or pass through.

Turn around takes time... The biggest coral reef IRL (Great Barrier Reef (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Barrier_Reef)) is 2300km (1400mi) wide so yours could be even larger. It is a good option to have if your players don't want trouble at the sea.

Passing through is risky... Make a skill check to not become stranded in coral reef.
- Success: The ship does not suffer anything.
- Fail: The ship is stranded, they can repair the ship before the high tide and continue the seafaring. Maybe they need resources from the nearby islands to repair...
- Anyway: They can make a stop to replenish food supplies with fish and fruit (coconut? pineapple? whatever?) from the islands nearby.

[ruy343]

A shipwreck is an excellent skill encounter, which can easily be followed up with a combat or stealth encounter (when they arrive on shore to find a giant biting off the heads of some of the crew).

Alternately, a quick swashbuckling encounter with an enemy raider ship can be different enough to add some flavor. Be sure to include enemies who grapple the opponents and throw enemies off of the ships into the water. (Also, consider destroying the players' boat, forcing them to take over the enemy boat!)

Some other ideas I've used include...


Merfolk traders approach the ship and ask them if they're interested in their wares - magical relics from ships that sank long ago. Maybe they'll give them to the players if they perform a quest (or the players can attempt to steal them, leading to repercussions of your choosing later in the story).
A curious copper dragon flies right toward the ship; if the players attack it, it will attack back, but otherwise, it just wants to hear about what you're up to!
You come across a water elemental (or water weird - more level appropriate)pursuing someone who has done something terrible to upset the balance of the cosmos, and who will communicate with you if you speak aquan (or primordial, which is the parent dialect). Otherwise, they might attack.

[JoeJ]

Storms are always fun. At 3rd level, PCs won't have any way to guarantee the ship won't sink, but probably will have some abilities that can be used to help keep it afloat and/or reduce the loss of life if it does sink.

[JellyPooga]

Doldrums.

If you want the Players to start getting edgy over time-pressure without throwing a cliche'd sea-based combat at them, have their ship get stuck in some doldrums. This is predicated on the notion that the ship doesn't have oars, of course.

There's nothing they can do about it, but you can ramp up the tension a lot.
- When you ask them "what do you want to do?" for the fifth time, with an expectant look on your face as if there's something they could possibly do about the weather, the frustration will start to set it.
- When everything the players try comes to naught and days are going by, time fleeting, the deadline approaching...tick-tock, tick-tock...*what do you want to do now?*...tick tick tick. Tick. Tick...Tock...
- Rumours and prejudice start circulating around the crew; "the passengers are cursed", "it's bad luck to have a wizard on board", "it's that Elf, I don't trust Elfs"...whenever the PC's try to confront someone about it, they just get stone-walled and dodgy looks. If they talk to the Captain, he apologises profusely "but there's nothing I can do". Eventually, the PC's begin to suspect the Captain believes it too. Start handing out notes "You think you saw [Player 1] whispering to the Bosun last night. They were both throwing you sidelong glances". Is it true? Or is it cabin fever setting in? Ask for a few Wisdom Saves to see who's succumbing to the tedium fastest. Sow dissension and paranoia among both PC and NPC alike.

- Just as things are coming to a head...a breeze picks up and the voyage continues. What about all those suspicions and rumours though? If you've done your job right, your players should have a little less trust in one another by the time they make land. How will this affect them as a group? Will it affect the mission? Will anyone ever act on their paranoia? Reinforce their fears every now and then and you should be able to foster an...interesting group dynamic.

[gullveig]

Doldrums.

(...)

Sorry, but my players would be bored and offended as hell with this blatant loss of agency...

[JellyPooga]

Sorry, but my players would be bored and offended as hell with this blatant loss of agency...

...that's kind of the point.

Asking "what do you do?" when there's nothing for them to do to advance the plot forces them to look inward, to ask that question of their characters. When there's a ship-load of crew on hand, there's more than enough personalities to create some excellent roleplaying opportunities.
- Playing on the themes of cabin-fever and paranoia are just where I'd go with it, but there's no reason you couldn't create opportunities for a love interest, a lasting friendship/contact or an enmity/feud.
- You can also delve into alignment issues at your option; the food or water is running low; do the Players accept a shorter ration so that the crew can stay well fed? Or do they expect "their due" because that's what they paid for? How do the crew react to their decision?
- What about infestation or disease? How do the Players react when one of the crew members comes down with a pox and they're stuck aboard ship? What are the consequences of theri reaction?

Heck, if your players are really that proactive, maybe they'll come up with an idea that will actually get them out of the doldrums! Perhaps you gave them a minor magic item three adventures ago that turns out to be the perfect thing under the circumstances. Maybe they'll come up with a creative use of a spell you hadn't considered.

If you think that removing options in any way curtails player agency, then either you're not thinking hard enough about the possibilities or your players don't know what agency really is...it's just another scenario, with parameters you, the GM, control. The Players have just as much agency in this one as they do in any dungeon delve or other adventure.