As the title suggests, I am running a nautical campaign and after losing combat with another ship, my party's vessel has begun to sink after the hull took a lot of damage and they refused to try and fix it! Poor planning on my part, but I genuinely did not think they would be as stupid as this and therefore have not really planned for what to do now that their ship is sinking in the middle of the open ocean.
Has anyone had any experience with running something similar? Any advice would be very kindly received.
What level are they? That can be the difference between a tpk and a minor distraction.
But I’d say the classic remedies include, being saved by another ship (depending on how much you want to side track things, they can just give the party a ride to the nearest port, or be pirates, or slavers, or ghost pirates, or a hedonistic pleasure cruise, or a traveling carnival, or part of a military fleet about to invade someplace, or whatever else you can think of.)
A deserted island - which is home to pirates, or ghosts, ghost pirates, or an entrance to the underdark they can use to get to a bigger land mass.
Or some friendly (or unfriendly) tritons or sea elves or something can come up from underneath and help them.
Or some kua-toa or sahughin or something can take them prisoner for the Aboleth they serve.
Let the ship sink, let their be floating wreckage so they can get onto it. But as "punishment" and to make the party more compliant to be a part of the carnival, they lose everything. That would include all weapons as the weight of them will not allow them to stay afloat. Of course any armor needs to be ditched, scrolls ink is waterlogged and unreadable, etc. Give them a choice, food and water or weapons. If they choose food and drink they are quickly saved, if they choose weapons, bring the exhaustion.
The carnival can then easily capture the waterlogged depleted party.
As the title suggests, I am running a nautical campaign and after losing combat with another ship, my party's vessel has begun to sink after the hull took a lot of damage and they refused to try and fix it! Poor planning on my part, but I genuinely did not think they would be as stupid as this and therefore have not really planned for what to do now that their ship is sinking in the middle of the open ocean.
Traditionally what happens here is that the ship breaks apart and people cling to bits of the wreckage until they are eventually washed ashore somewhere, exhausted and with minimal possessions and possibly scattered over a moderate area, at which point you have a salvage operation and then overland adventures until they get somewhere that allows for a new ship. To be fair, most shipwreck scenarios are triggered by a storm (possibly with monster attacks) rather than ship to ship combat, mostly because it's inordinately difficult to actually sink a wooden ship with pre-19th century weapons, but this is D&D.
You could go down the whole epic /gritty open boat survival route, they arn't rescued, they are in an open boat in the middle of nowhere and have to get themselves out of it by navigating and surviving to somewhere, maybe the can encounter islands which offer some modest recourses or even have people but maybe not friendly people, sea monsters might assail them and being so along in the open abyss at night they might even meet a god or see some very strange things on the ocean. Could even throw in a mirage for good measure and maybe a ghost ship.
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Afternoon all,
As the title suggests, I am running a nautical campaign and after losing combat with another ship, my party's vessel has begun to sink after the hull took a lot of damage and they refused to try and fix it! Poor planning on my part, but I genuinely did not think they would be as stupid as this and therefore have not really planned for what to do now that their ship is sinking in the middle of the open ocean.
Has anyone had any experience with running something similar? Any advice would be very kindly received.
What level are they? That can be the difference between a tpk and a minor distraction.
But I’d say the classic remedies include, being saved by another ship (depending on how much you want to side track things, they can just give the party a ride to the nearest port, or be pirates, or slavers, or ghost pirates, or a hedonistic pleasure cruise, or a traveling carnival, or part of a military fleet about to invade someplace, or whatever else you can think of.)
A deserted island - which is home to pirates, or ghosts, ghost pirates, or an entrance to the underdark they can use to get to a bigger land mass.
Or some friendly (or unfriendly) tritons or sea elves or something can come up from underneath and help them.
Or some kua-toa or sahughin or something can take them prisoner for the Aboleth they serve.
They are level 3 and 4.
I love the idea about them being rescued and ending up as part of a travelling carnival. That sounds fantastic!
Let the ship sink, let their be floating wreckage so they can get onto it. But as "punishment" and to make the party more compliant to be a part of the carnival, they lose everything. That would include all weapons as the weight of them will not allow them to stay afloat. Of course any armor needs to be ditched, scrolls ink is waterlogged and unreadable, etc. Give them a choice, food and water or weapons. If they choose food and drink they are quickly saved, if they choose weapons, bring the exhaustion.
The carnival can then easily capture the waterlogged depleted party.
Traditionally what happens here is that the ship breaks apart and people cling to bits of the wreckage until they are eventually washed ashore somewhere, exhausted and with minimal possessions and possibly scattered over a moderate area, at which point you have a salvage operation and then overland adventures until they get somewhere that allows for a new ship. To be fair, most shipwreck scenarios are triggered by a storm (possibly with monster attacks) rather than ship to ship combat, mostly because it's inordinately difficult to actually sink a wooden ship with pre-19th century weapons, but this is D&D.
You could go down the whole epic /gritty open boat survival route, they arn't rescued, they are in an open boat in the middle of nowhere and have to get themselves out of it by navigating and surviving to somewhere, maybe the can encounter islands which offer some modest recourses or even have people but maybe not friendly people, sea monsters might assail them and being so along in the open abyss at night they might even meet a god or see some very strange things on the ocean. Could even throw in a mirage for good measure and maybe a ghost ship.