Canonfire! Forums-viewtopic-2 Old Campaign Worlds For 5e To Be Announced JULY 23

Tue May 29, 2018 2:45 pm Ships and the Sea

How have DMs handled ships and naval warfare?

Wed May 30, 2018 8:16 pm

Hi Jason, welcome to the forums. I don't know the what went down, but I was sad to see you delete much of your content from dragonsfoot. And I'm glad to see you now talking shop here and on the FB group! Your name recently came up in the GH fiction thread and I need to add your short stories to the list (http://www.canonfire.com/cf/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=8551). Please let me know if any more stories are unearthed!

Getting on topic, I mostly avoid nautical rules. DM'ing, I focus on the core rules and PC's skills. Stats for units and ships put my nose in the rulebooks more than I like, so I simplify things like sailing, flight, psionics, and mass combat as much as possible. That said, I recently referenced some of the easy sailing rules from Adventures Dark & Deep and assembled the old ship from Dragon Magazine as a prop for a few encounters on a Noteboard. My players liked it.

I was a player in a Greyhawk nautical campaign that lasted a couple years. The DM used rules from Of Ships & Sea and Pirates of the Fallen Stars extensively. We had the "character sheet" from the former with all of our ship stats on it and made many rolls for ship chases, ramming, and maneuvers. We made improvements and tracked damage and repairs. The other players and I were never inspired to learn the rules, we just rolled d6's and 20's as we were told. It was very fun, but definitely changed the dynamic of D&D a bit and added more simulation and board game elements.

Wed May 30, 2018 9:34 pm

As someone who's always been interested in seafaring games, I've made a point of reading a lot of related threads on various forums. It seems to be a general agreement that those two books - Of Ships and the Seas, and Pirates of the Fallen Stars - are the best sources for early edition seafaring games.

Thu May 31, 2018 8:28 am

It is extremely difficult to make a conversion with Naval rules from whichever version of AD&D you are playing. Your best bet is to keep whatever ratios you utilize when using figures or tabletop play, and incorporate basic rules (like ship movement, ship damage, etc.) into your playstyle. Books like Of Ships and the Seas are excellent, but do not convert well for very basic gameplay (especially without a lot of room to game!)

BTW, this will be my 3rd week of using some sea/ship based adventuring with my group. Pics and vids can be found here: www.twitch.tv; channel: LordGosumba. Check it out if your interested, and please feel free to provide me some feedback!
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WOG: Knights of Ulek Campaign DM, Going Strong, Since 1980!

Thu May 31, 2018 10:24 am

Thu May 31, 2018 10:26 am

Thu May 31, 2018 10:30 am

Thu May 31, 2018 12:13 pm

We are 1st/2nd edition hybrid with customized rules.
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WOG: Knights of Ulek Campaign DM, Going Strong, Since 1980!

Fri Jun 01, 2018 4:43 am

Dungeon Magazine #34 has an adventure entitled, La Dama Rosa. It features a ship with some interesting mundane and magical upgrades which may be useful when considering how mariners in the Flanaess deal with sea-going threats.

SirXaris
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Fri Jun 01, 2018 10:57 am

Fri Jun 01, 2018 10:59 am Expert?

1981 Expert rules seem simple to follow. There is a section called "COMBAT AT SEA" on page X64.

Sat Jun 09, 2018 6:30 am

I've dealt with seafaring rules many times in my Sea Princes campaigns. Sometimes I leaned toward crunchy rules (used to have 3.5/1E/Expert) hybrid rules. Then other times I went mostly narrative for sake of speed and story, thus focusing on individuals geographic or seafaring skill sets. In combat, often the goal was to get to melee (I do use black powder weapons in Greyhawk) ASAP by boarding or going ashore. I've only entertained mass naval combat once and after planning the whole thing (I believe Pathfinder has good rules for naval battles) I scrapped it halfway thru for a more narrative climax aboard the enemy flagship.

Sat Jun 09, 2018 8:08 am

The 3e book Stormwrack may be of some use. Its been awhile since I've looked at it since the last naval campaign I was in was 10 years ago.

Sun Jun 10, 2018 1:03 pm

Sun Jun 10, 2018 1:03 pm

Fri Jul 13, 2018 3:58 am

I would think that a lot of details depends on how high/low fantasy the setting is. If there are tons of flying monsters and magic used then I could see at least one wizard per ship on board, as well as all sorts of anti fire magic. There can be something to watch out for underneath. Maybe a warning.

I tend to be a bit more low fantasy, though, and let the fantastical be more exceptional. So, I tend to have ships more like ships were historically on earth.

Sat Jul 21, 2018 7:29 am

Like many others have mentioned, Of Ships and the Seas, and Pirates of the Fallen Stars have some great rules/info on ship to ship warfare. I really like to use the rules of ship combat from the Spelljammer setting (with some modifications as needed if not in space). I also enjoyed the short naval combat section in the 2d ed. module, Slavers (which had slight alterations from Of Ships and the Seas). Your best bet is probably to look at all three sets of rules and make your own hybrid version from those sources.