Campaign at sea

[Pikashell]

A while back I asked here for help for a campaign I started running where my players got into another universe/time and they are prisoners on a pirate ship. Since then I didnt have any time to finish the campagin so what to now I wonder. Ive never ran a sea campaign and I have no idea about npcs(the crew), how to handle random encounters, what should i do to not make my players die of boredom, etc. Every help will be appriciated thanks in advance!

[TheYell]

Why is it at sea? Will they have ship to ship combat or will the boat just be a conveyance to land encounters?

[Pikashell]

Why is it at sea? Will they have ship to ship combat or will the boat just be a conveyance to land encounters?

They are prisoners (for now) on a pirate ship who will be used for both. They will steal gold from other ships at sea and sometimes explore islands in search of tresure or something along those lines. This is my idea. And my players got on the ship when they encountered a mage. He teleported them there after the party attacked him thinking he was an enemy.

[Eradis]

I'd go with the idea in mind that this is a "traveling" adventure. You might get good plot hooks that you can adapt to your campaign from anything related to caravan, airships, ships and the likes.

I know I would have difficulty coming up with interesting adventures by keeping the PCs shackled as prisoners. If it's some kind of magic keeping them with the pirate crew, then it's a different matter. You could force the PCs to do the Captain's bidding by sending them to scout or retrieve treasures from caves or monasteries. The important focus would probably be the crew's goal. Why are they venturing forth on sea? Simple raids and pillages might become tedious, but if they travel to get pieces of a lost artifact that will let the mage summons a Bigger Badder Evil, and then you could meet recurring crusaders that are trying to stop them and even befriend the entrapped PCs to enlist them in their cause. Making the PCs for once reverse the situation once liberated and playing the game for a while.

Once you get a inch of that arch-story you can get things started and will only slow down if you let it. Listening to your players comments during the games can also sparks things up. "As long as we don't stumble on a prehistoric island we should be just fine" Well couple of games later, why not use dinosaurs? And if once you set free your PCs they decide to flee from the continual conflict between their captors and their enemies, well follow their leads, they will let you know where they want to go. Hell, they might even decide willingly to join the captors and betrays the good guys and set the tone for an all out evil campaign.

[Tiadoppler]

A while back I asked here for help for a campaign I started running where my players got into another universe/time and they are prisoners on a pirate ship. Since then I didnt have any time to finish the campagin so what to now I wonder. Ive never ran a sea campaign and I have no idea about npcs(the crew), how to handle random encounters, what should i do to not make my players die of boredom, etc. Every help will be appriciated thanks in advance!


They are prisoners (for now) on a pirate ship who will be used for both. They will steal gold from other ships at sea and sometimes explore islands in search of tresure or something along those lines. This is my idea. And my players got on the ship when they encountered a mage. He teleported them there after the party attacked him thinking he was an enemy.

What's the political structure of the area? Are there friendly/neutral towns on some islands? Is there a reason for the PCs to stay on their ship? A specific goal they have in mind (a quest or powerful item)?

Did you play Pillars of Eternity II? Did you enjoy the ship-to-ship combat in that game? If not, focus on boarding parties and standard party combat. Players like to use their characters' abilities.

NPCs: My suggestion would be to figure out how big your ship is. If you want a big ship with lots of crewmembers, but the plot should focus on the PCs first and foremost, go watch some old Star Trek episodes. Each member of the ensemble (PC) has a specific role on the ship, their own area of expertise, etc. but there's always crew in the background, assisting with day-to-day operations and maintenance, but only a few of them need to be fleshed out.

Random encounters: Make a table based on your campaign setting. Dragon turtles? Enemy pirates? Merfolk raiders? Airship in distress? Lost were-dolphin child? A village on a nearby island has been set ablaze. A man dying of thirst, hanging onto a single wood plank. A volcanic eruption. Treat each one as a potential quest hook. Unlike traveling on land, you're not going to meet 3-5 bandits (in a rowboat) who will try to rob you. You have a ship, weapons (cannons? catapults? ballistae?), crew. Even a small random encounter should be pretty large scale.

Boredom: Let your players do stuff. Draw a deck plan for your ship and let them modify it with more weapons, thicker armor, alchemy labs and a doctor's office (etc!). If your player really want to regularly have a small-scale random encounter combat away from the ship, set it up so they land on an island looking for something (fresh water, fresh fruit, rare spices, treasure, a specific friendly dragon) every day, so they have the opportunity to be away from the ship.

Piracy: You're assuming that the players will take over the ship, and then immediately turn to piracy and exploration. That's fine, but is there an overarching purpose that they have? Some reason they are all staying together, not selling the ship and retiring. Are all the PCs okay with theft?

[Vogie]

Some ideas:

a "West Marches" style campaign - the PCs are (or will eventually be) actual pirates that can do actual pirating. Downside is there is a lot of work beforehand, and no single linear storyline.
a caravan or "Stargate: Destiny" style campaign - the ship is alive, or part of a trade caravan - and therefore doing it's own thing, effectively on rails. The PCs are tasked to defend the ship as it travels and finishes its task. Downside is there is very little player agency on where the ship goes - however, you can introduce mechanics to "catch up" to the ship, or jump ahead, using the ship as both a mobile base as well as a time clock.
a "Heart of Gold" ship - Not only does the Artifact ship travel through the ocean, it can navigate through various dimensions and planes as well. The PCs will gain more and more control over the drive of the ship as the campaign continues, but they'll run into the capability at improbable times. For example - They'll be out to sea, then find themselves in a spirit realm dungeon, or an abstract/surrealist dimension, or pulling up to a castle in a cloud. In this manner, it acting less like a ship and more like a permanent McGuffin.
a "guildhall" ship - they're part of a floating city that functions independently of the stuff around it. As a part of the campaign, returning to the ship allows them to upgrade the capabilities of the city-ship, similar to the guildhalls from MMOs. Completing those quests and arcs expands the capabilities of their home-city-craft-thing, unlocking more and more crafting potential and pseudo-kingdom-building potential as part of the city-ship
Racially-diverse types of ships - Instead of each race and kingdom using effectively the same sea-tech, differentiate between them. Have Dwarves sail in forged submarines, elves rock living rootships with a ironwood tree as the mast, Orcs rocking massive catamaran-like vessels with raiding parties mounted on Sharks.
Mix it up!

For noncombat encounters - you can have the characters use the 4e Skill Challenge Mechanic. Set a DC, They have to get X number of successes before they get Y number of fails, to decide whether they weather (ha!) the storm, make it through a long voyage without killing each other, et cetera.


If you don't want to stat out the individual crew, make a character sheet for the boat/crew as a whole - I saw this mechanic while listening to a Skies Of Glass real play podcast. Basically, you have a single PC-esque character sheet that represents the boat and crew.

You pick up some real meatheads, and your crew will have high strength (for boarding and cargo), but low everything else. You pick up a couple professional sailors, and that may increase the ships dexterity (AC and ability to maneuver) and wisdom (increased perception). A Good captain boosts wisdom and charisma (morale) while a bad one may actually decrease it; a good shipwright will keep the constitution (HP of ship & crew, endurance of the ship and ease of repair) and intelligence high, or increase the AC of the ship, et cetera. Investing XP and gold in the boat also allows your party to shore up their weaknesses - a party with no wisdom casters may dump funds into hiring a medic for the boat, giving bonuses to Medicine checks while onboard. Rescuing an old wizard and having him "join the crew" may give bonuses to Arcana checks and give your "crew" the ability to cast things like Identify for the party

That'll also be a great way to keep all of the communal stuff that is on the ship in one spot rather than split across a myriad of character sheets.

Ideas for making individual classes synergize:

Give the Paladins' water-based Find Steed, either having them ride on celestial sharks, or fey giant fishing spiders or Fey Basilisk Lizards (aka Jesus lizards).
Perhaps give the Barbarian one of those poles from Mad Max Fury Road, so (s)he can quickly jump onto the top of an enemy ship and start disabling it... maybe build it as a sort of Trebuchet to launch him to opposing ships at range. Or, of course, you can start having him/her use their strength to maneuver a single cannon around the deck.
Give the Bards a nautical Animate Objects variant that allows them to take control of the entire ship by themselves.