I'm a fairly new DM running a campaign for all new players. In our last session, they stole a boat from some pirates and are setting sail on a week-long journey to a large port city. My players are are looking forward to role playing the journey so I don't want to just time jump to them arriving. So, I need a fun encounter or two to throw at them on their voyage. They're only level 3 so nothing too crazy. Also I don't want to bog them down with a lot of new mechanics for using the boat in battle either. It'd be boring if nothing happened but I don't want it to feel like the encounters happening just to keep it from being boring.
Ghosts of saltmarsh has some sea encounters. XGtE also has some random encounter charts for coast and underwater that can probably be adapted into a sea encounter.
The Dungeon Master's Guide (DMG) already has a couple tables for encounters at sea and underwater as well as rules for swimming, visibility, rowing, and navigating.
The Player's Handbook (PHB) has just a few rules that you'll need to implement for being underwater.
DMG - Ch 5: Adventure Environments - Unusual Environments - Underwater AND The Sea These two subsections contain the Encounter Tables that'll give you something to have the players do. It also lists some rules as to what the players will need to do while piloting the boat.
If the players get into the water themselves (there is stuff to be had there... maybe shipwrecked treasure or needing to take the fight to Sahuagin that are damaging the ship.
PHB - Ch 8: Adventuring - Movement - Special Types of Movement - Climbing, Swimming, and Crawling This will let you know how fast the players are swimming. You might add a rule about trying to swim (or sink) in heavy armor or just ignore it. I could not find a rule about heavy armor while quickly breezing through the rules, but it does mention using Athletics checks for moving in rough water. Perhaps people in heavy armor (who would already have decent Strength) can make those checks.
PHB - Ch 8: Adventuring - The Environment - Suffocating This section gives you a rule for seeing how long they can hold their breath.
PHB - Ch 9: Combat - Underwater Combat In here are three very brief rules that change combat up only slightly. It alters attacks with some weapons and gives fire resistance. Its really brief.
One final section that'll give you more options to work with for encounters.
DMG - Appendix B: Monster List - Monsters by Environment In these lists are monsters that players encounter while in different environments and shows the CR rating of each. The two that you'd probably look at are the Coastal and the Underwater lists.
I hope these help give you some guidelines as to what to use or prepare for in the next session.
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Good luck and may you roll 20's when you need them and 1's when you need a laugh. - myself
A random ghost ship for them to explore is always fun.
Saughin attacks at night, are kind of a staple for a lot of sea adventures.
If they are heavy into role-playing have them interact with the crew. Maybe a grumpy old sea dog takes a dislike to one of them, and they need to settle it with some bare knuckle boxing. Some late night gambling where you can drop some rumors the crew heard about the pcs destination.
What if your players came across a ship like the Mary Celeste, where the ship is adrift and creepily abandoned. The players explore it and find warm meals, open journals with the last sentence half finished, and other creepy things. Maybe the crew got shifted into the ethereal plane by some crazy monster and are trying to send messages, like words traced in the spray of seawater, and the players have to find this monster hidden in the ship that can jump from one plane to the other.
Or, a ship controlled by an elder oblex, where all the crew are just extensions of the ooze and random fragments from the characters past keep popping up.
Or, the players find that the crew are doing some illegal gambling or pit fighting, and the characters can decide whether to join in, tell on them and lose the favor of the crew but gain the captains trust. They might cause a fight that needs to be resolved. Lots of role play could be used there. In Mr. Midshipman Hornblower, the crew of one ship get in pits and wrestle with rats with their hands tied behind their backs. They had to kill the rats with their teeth. This was not allowed and kind of horrifying to witness, but the players may fear telling on them.
Research Sinbad the sailor. He had a lot of sea adventures.
Have Sirens lure the crew into the water.
Have a signs that a stowaway is on board show up and they have to find them. The might fight them and the stowaway would have to be judged by the captain and could provide some role play. Maybe the stowaway is a criminal hiding on the boat. Maybe they snuck on board to seek revenge on one of the crew members, players, or captain. Were rats make great stowaways.
Have a murderer kill one person each night and the characters have a mystery to solve. Who is doing this and why?
Hello all,
I'm a fairly new DM running a campaign for all new players. In our last session, they stole a boat from some pirates and are setting sail on a week-long journey to a large port city. My players are are looking forward to role playing the journey so I don't want to just time jump to them arriving. So, I need a fun encounter or two to throw at them on their voyage. They're only level 3 so nothing too crazy. Also I don't want to bog them down with a lot of new mechanics for using the boat in battle either. It'd be boring if nothing happened but I don't want it to feel like the encounters happening just to keep it from being boring.
Thanks!
Ghosts of saltmarsh has some sea encounters. XGtE also has some random encounter charts for coast and underwater that can probably be adapted into a sea encounter.
[Edit]Un-auto corrected.
The Dungeon Master's Guide (DMG) already has a couple tables for encounters at sea and underwater as well as rules for swimming, visibility, rowing, and navigating.
The Player's Handbook (PHB) has just a few rules that you'll need to implement for being underwater.
DMG - Ch 5: Adventure Environments - Unusual Environments - Underwater AND The Sea
These two subsections contain the Encounter Tables that'll give you something to have the players do. It also lists some rules as to what the players will need to do while piloting the boat.
If the players get into the water themselves (there is stuff to be had there... maybe shipwrecked treasure or needing to take the fight to Sahuagin that are damaging the ship.
PHB - Ch 8: Adventuring - Movement - Special Types of Movement - Climbing, Swimming, and Crawling
This will let you know how fast the players are swimming. You might add a rule about trying to swim (or sink) in heavy armor or just ignore it. I could not find a rule about heavy armor while quickly breezing through the rules, but it does mention using Athletics checks for moving in rough water. Perhaps people in heavy armor (who would already have decent Strength) can make those checks.
PHB - Ch 8: Adventuring - The Environment - Suffocating
This section gives you a rule for seeing how long they can hold their breath.
PHB - Ch 9: Combat - Underwater Combat
In here are three very brief rules that change combat up only slightly. It alters attacks with some weapons and gives fire resistance. Its really brief.
One final section that'll give you more options to work with for encounters.
DMG - Appendix B: Monster List - Monsters by Environment
In these lists are monsters that players encounter while in different environments and shows the CR rating of each. The two that you'd probably look at are the Coastal and the Underwater lists.
I hope these help give you some guidelines as to what to use or prepare for in the next session.
Good luck and may you roll 20's when you need them and 1's when you need a laugh. - myself
I found this helpful for my campaign: http://www****ine-tabletop.com/world-building/sea-adventure-ideas/
Gives some good non-combat encounters.
I just came across this yesterday: http://dndspeak.com/2017/12/100-sea-travel-events/
100 sea travel events. Some are very simple and basic. Some are more complex. Lots of stuff to mine for ideas.
"Not all those who wander are lost"
A random ghost ship for them to explore is always fun.
Saughin attacks at night, are kind of a staple for a lot of sea adventures.
If they are heavy into role-playing have them interact with the crew. Maybe a grumpy old sea dog takes a dislike to one of them, and they need to settle it with some bare knuckle boxing. Some late night gambling where you can drop some rumors the crew heard about the pcs destination.
What if your players came across a ship like the Mary Celeste, where the ship is adrift and creepily abandoned. The players explore it and find warm meals, open journals with the last sentence half finished, and other creepy things. Maybe the crew got shifted into the ethereal plane by some crazy monster and are trying to send messages, like words traced in the spray of seawater, and the players have to find this monster hidden in the ship that can jump from one plane to the other.
Or, a ship controlled by an elder oblex, where all the crew are just extensions of the ooze and random fragments from the characters past keep popping up.
Or, the players find that the crew are doing some illegal gambling or pit fighting, and the characters can decide whether to join in, tell on them and lose the favor of the crew but gain the captains trust. They might cause a fight that needs to be resolved. Lots of role play could be used there. In Mr. Midshipman Hornblower, the crew of one ship get in pits and wrestle with rats with their hands tied behind their backs. They had to kill the rats with their teeth. This was not allowed and kind of horrifying to witness, but the players may fear telling on them.
Research Sinbad the sailor. He had a lot of sea adventures.
Have Sirens lure the crew into the water.
Have a signs that a stowaway is on board show up and they have to find them. The might fight them and the stowaway would have to be judged by the captain and could provide some role play. Maybe the stowaway is a criminal hiding on the boat. Maybe they snuck on board to seek revenge on one of the crew members, players, or captain. Were rats make great stowaways.
Have a murderer kill one person each night and the characters have a mystery to solve. Who is doing this and why?