Hello fellow storytellers, I'm hear asking for some help and insperation. Right now im running a campaign for some first time players. When asked what kind of campaign they wanted to do they decided that they wanted to be Pirates. So they rolled lvl 5 characters and and ended up with a Halfling Rogue, a Half Sea Orc Druid and a Half Sea elf Paladin of Deep Sashelas. now we are 2 sessions in and so far the two half sea raced characters have been discovered to be stowaways on the ship of a moderately successful tiefling pirate captain named Captain Bloodhorn. The halfling discovered them and then soon tried to assimilate them into the crew for a fee. The captain discovered them and tried to make them walk the plank for the crime of stowing away but before he could the ship was attacked by a mad max at sea style raiding party and in that battle most of the crew died and the captain was accidentally killed by the druid during an aoe attack. now the remaining crew and the pcs are in control of the ship. I intend to lead them to trading the ship which is quite large in so that they can buy a Sloop type ship for the smaller crew.
Now here are my questions. Any good place to get 5e rules for stats on sloops, caravels, galleons ect..? Any fun adventure ideas that you can give me that are specifically nautical in theme. and other then the obvious inspirations like Black sails and Pirates of the Caribbean do you guys have suggestions for media to consume to inspire me and my players?
For some suggestions about the rules at sea, you can check the DMG. Don't remember the page but somewhere between the Wilderness Areas and the Traps section there is some things about various types of ships and at random encounters table.
For roleplaying inspiration, I'd suggest the Druidhome Trilogy.
There was a whole Unearthed Arcana about Waterborne adventuring, and a lot of material from that made its way into the Sword Coast AG.
I guess your Rogue would have already chosen his Archetype at level 5, but there was a swashbuckler archetype in both the UA and the SCAG. The College of Blades from Unearthed Arcana also seems pretty swashbuckly, if the party adds a Bard at some point.
Finally, since I have a DMG handy, the sea rules filcat mentioned are between pages 116 and 119.
Don't let them trade the ship, have a villain sink it and leave them shipwrecked. Story hook, buy a sloop to go after the big bad who sunk their ship, and eventually take that ship for themselves.
They're really not going to want to trade that ship, the sooner you sink it the less attached they'll be to it.
I recently ran a maritime adventure since I'm reading Voyage of the Dawn Treader to my kids which really got me in the mood. I had a lot of fun with a pirate captain who was obsessed with gun powder and had kegs of the stuff aboard his (wooden) ship which the party successfully took over (and naturally blew to high hell). As for other influences, when I think of sea adventures I always think of Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea books that I read as a kid and one of my favorite inspirations for mutiny hijinks is Crimson Tide.
Also, I know you said pirates of the Caribbean as an influence, but have you considered making magic items based off what they have. Blackbeard's sword that controls rigging and wind meaning a sailor possessing it needs no crew to sail. And a bottle that shrinks down your ship and stores it if you need to go in land. The black pearl is followed by fog masking it from enemies.
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Hello fellow storytellers, I'm hear asking for some help and insperation. Right now im running a campaign for some first time players. When asked what kind of campaign they wanted to do they decided that they wanted to be Pirates. So they rolled lvl 5 characters and and ended up with a Halfling Rogue, a Half Sea Orc Druid and a Half Sea elf Paladin of Deep Sashelas. now we are 2 sessions in and so far the two half sea raced characters have been discovered to be stowaways on the ship of a moderately successful tiefling pirate captain named Captain Bloodhorn. The halfling discovered them and then soon tried to assimilate them into the crew for a fee. The captain discovered them and tried to make them walk the plank for the crime of stowing away but before he could the ship was attacked by a mad max at sea style raiding party and in that battle most of the crew died and the captain was accidentally killed by the druid during an aoe attack. now the remaining crew and the pcs are in control of the ship. I intend to lead them to trading the ship which is quite large in so that they can buy a Sloop type ship for the smaller crew.
Now here are my questions. Any good place to get 5e rules for stats on sloops, caravels, galleons ect..? Any fun adventure ideas that you can give me that are specifically nautical in theme. and other then the obvious inspirations like Black sails and Pirates of the Caribbean do you guys have suggestions for media to consume to inspire me and my players?
For some suggestions about the rules at sea, you can check the DMG. Don't remember the page but somewhere between the Wilderness Areas and the Traps section there is some things about various types of ships and at random encounters table.
For roleplaying inspiration, I'd suggest the Druidhome Trilogy.
There was a whole Unearthed Arcana about Waterborne adventuring, and a lot of material from that made its way into the Sword Coast AG.
I guess your Rogue would have already chosen his Archetype at level 5, but there was a swashbuckler archetype in both the UA and the SCAG. The College of Blades from Unearthed Arcana also seems pretty swashbuckly, if the party adds a Bard at some point.
Finally, since I have a DMG handy, the sea rules filcat mentioned are between pages 116 and 119.
Don't let them trade the ship, have a villain sink it and leave them shipwrecked. Story hook, buy a sloop to go after the big bad who sunk their ship, and eventually take that ship for themselves.
They're really not going to want to trade that ship, the sooner you sink it the less attached they'll be to it.
I recently ran a maritime adventure since I'm reading Voyage of the Dawn Treader to my kids which really got me in the mood. I had a lot of fun with a pirate captain who was obsessed with gun powder and had kegs of the stuff aboard his (wooden) ship which the party successfully took over (and naturally blew to high hell). As for other influences, when I think of sea adventures I always think of Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea books that I read as a kid and one of my favorite inspirations for mutiny hijinks is Crimson Tide.
Also, I know you said pirates of the Caribbean as an influence, but have you considered making magic items based off what they have. Blackbeard's sword that controls rigging and wind meaning a sailor possessing it needs no crew to sail. And a bottle that shrinks down your ship and stores it if you need to go in land. The black pearl is followed by fog masking it from enemies.