Running a Naval Campaign

[Lord Dusk]

Hello out there!

I recently started to play DnD 4e, and have been DMing whenever we get a chance to play. One of the scenarios I was considering was letting them all start of at level eleven, as a band of pirates/githyanki on the astral sea. If I were to do that, how would I run the naval aspect of it? My main plan was to use the cavernous map generator from donjon, making the tiled areas the 'sea' and the wall areas the 'land', using their ship as their character marker. They'd have to make navigational checks periodically, and navel combat would involve ship fighting (Cannons and the like, with one person always at the helm) and boarding parties.
Can anyone give me some advice on this? Or is it a futile idea?

Thanks!

[Deathkeeper]

A few setting have done this. Although assuming your PCs aren't pirates it might be easier to have an npc navigate for them.
Pathfinder has a bunch of rules about this sort of thing, so I'm sure you could find some 3.5 content and translate it to your version.

[Lord Dusk]

Thanks, I'll give that a try!

[Slipperychicken]

I was expecting a campaign which takes place inside a God's belly button. I am sorely disappointed.

[The Glyphstone]

I was expecting a campaign which takes place inside a God's belly button. I am sorely disappointed.

With stats for Lint Elementals and Dire Mites.

[ghost_warlock]

You should look into an old campaign setting called Spelljammer. Lots of really awesome stuff for running a space-faring naval campaign. I'm actually playing in a 4e Spelljammer campaign - just had our first session last Wednesday. The DM ran another Spelljammer campaign last winter and it was pretty awesome; although we only made it up to level 11 (the campaign ended because two of our players moved away ).

Some 4e information on the setting here and here.

Gratuitous images

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[OzzyKP]

I was expecting a campaign which takes place inside a God's belly button. I am sorely disappointed.

With stats for Lint Elementals and Dire Mites.

I clicked on this thread expecting some good belly button jokes.

[Siosilvar]

I clicked on this thread expecting some good belly button jokes.

With any luck, we could turn this into a naval navel. The dreaded Left Knee Pirates cast their lures wide, hoping to catch unarmed merchants who traveled from off the coast of Right Thumb.

[Lord Dusk]

Ah, misspelling. So much potential humor.

So the left knee is the home of pirates, the right thumb is mercantile, and the navel is the naval cross-roads... I take it then that the Ears are scholarly facilities, and the feet farming communities?

[Kol Korran]

I've started running a sea faring campaign (on normal seas, not the astral), in 3.5. I've tried to research a lot about rules. I found three 3.5/ PF sources that can help. I know you're playing 4E, but I believe some of the key concepts could be easily used or slightly altered to fit your desires.

The first is the Stromwrack book. A whole book dedicated to the subject. Find what suits you.
The second is the Skulls and Shackles adventure path for path finder. The free player's guide to the adventure path has many easy to use rules for naval campaigns, including ship markers and the like.
The last is a 3rd party book called Pirates! which has more simplified rules, but is especially great about describing a pirates life and not that obvious complications of such a life.

I hope this helps!

[Brother Oni]

Ah, misspelling. So much potential humor.

So the left knee is the home of pirates, the right thumb is mercantile, and the navel is the naval cross-roads... I take it then that the Ears are scholarly facilities, and the feet farming communities?

Depends on the size of the body you're crawling over.

The setting of Xenoblade Chronicles on the Wii was based on two massive giants, although you didn't really get a chance to go to the navel.