Personally, I'd just say:
Sea Sickness: Nausiated
Sea Legs: Slowed Movement/Single Actions/Shaken (your call)
try Stormwracked though, it may have details there...
Don't recall Stormwracked discussing seasickness. There are some feats that make it easier to do balance, jump, etc. onboard a rolling ship, but no rules I am aware of for a new sailor getting his sealegs.
Here's what I'd do:
Seasickness. Characters must make a DC 15 constitution check when the ship first leaves calm waters (i.e. leaves the harbor). Add the ship's seaworthiness modifier, a +4 modifier for the endurance feat, and a +2 modifier for the great fortitude feat. You take a -2 penalty on this check if you are confined belowdecks or otherwise unable to see the horizon. If you fail, you are nauseated for 24 hours and must make another check the next day. For each successive seasickness save subtract 2 from the DC as the new sailor acclimates to the motion. If you make the save, you are sickened for 24 hours, but then adjust to the motion for the rest of the voyage.
A new seasickness check must be made if the weather takes a turn for the worse or the ship begins rolling severely. The DC of the check increases by 2 for every wind category above light, and by an additional 5 for taking wash or an additional 10 for taking rolls (as a result of the captain failing his profession (sailor) check to avoid foundering). Characters sickened or nauseated by worse conditions recover 1 hour after the conditions improve.
Special: On the character's first ever constitution check, if he rolls a natural 1 he is congenitally prone to seasickness. He can get over being nauseated, but is always at least sickened when on shipboard unless the water is utterly calm. If the character rolls a natural 20 on this constitution check, he is completely immune to seasickness and never has to make another seasickness check.
Sealegs: For your first week at sea, you take a -2 penalty on all balance, jump, tumble, and climb checks while getting your sealegs. If you have made an ocean voyage of more than 90 days, you gain your sea legs after 24 hours on subsequent voyages. This penalty is cumulative with penalties for being sickened and nauseated.
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I like those suggestions, but would also add that there should be a synergy bonus from Profession (Sailor), due to the fact that old salts get used to it and would not tend to get seasick. Really anybody with several ranks in it shouldn't even have to test anymore. It would apply to landlubbers only - DM discretion.
I like those suggestions, but would also add that there should be a synergy bonus from Profession (Sailor), due to the fact that old salts get used to it and would not tend to get seasick. Really anybody with several ranks in it shouldn't even have to test anymore. It would apply to landlubbers only - DM discretion.
Who says "old salts" get used to it ? Horatio Nelson, Of 18th/19th century Royal Navy fame, used to get seasick, violently so, for the first couple of days of each command, even after twenty or more years spend at sea. Same goes for a number of whalers etc that I have read of, men who spend years at a time at sea, yet, after having been ashore for a few weeks had to regain their sea-legs.
From my own observations ( been sailing - coastal and high seas - for 30+ years ), the only thing being afflicted by sea-sickness really relates to is a) the sense of balance of an individual b) personal well-being/stress. The higher you score on both counts (yes better balance = more likely to become sea-sick ), the more likely you are to be afflicted.draw your own conclusions, but basically, sea-sickness is something that IMHO should not really affect (semi-) Heroic roleplaying, much like cramps, the common cold or PMS. Just my 2 cents worth.
better balance = more likely to become sea-sick
I can personally attest to this one. When I first went out on the open sea (while I was in the Navy), it took me three days to get over the expected nausea. I discovered a trick to it: whenever I was on my feet, I walked around. Since I hadn't grown accustomed to the ship's motion yet, whenever I tried to move I had to watch my footing.
As a result, my brain was focused more on where my feet were going and quit paying attention to my stomach.
(Granted, it didn't help when someone in my division took a length of twine, tied it to a pipe in the ceiling of the mess-hall, and tied a heavy bolt to the other end. Though it was funny watching other newcomers sit there and stare at that bolt, hypnotized, before their guts gave up.)
probably the suggestions I posted above are way too much dice-rolling for what should be window dressing. But some people (like me) are pretty much immune to seasickness except in the worst seas when confined belowdecks. Others (like my dad) are just pukey dogs whenever they get in slightly choppy water--unless they wear what we used to refer to in the Navy as a p***y patch, they could be seasick for an entire trip across the ocean.