Pirate game session: need advice

[Foxdie13]

So here is the deal: I'm GM for a gestalt campaign and my players just got level 5. The next goal of my players are to find a famous pirate and kill him (they need his weapon). So they are ready to take a boat and go hunting. Now for the fight itself between the 2 crew, I got it covered already and its gonna be epic.

The prob is How can I complete this next game with something else than 1 big fight. I hate when my game are just fights after fights but I have some imagination problem for a game on the ocean.

Suggestion?

[galahad2112]

Storms are good choices, as are sea monsters snagging a crewmember to the briny depths. Perhaps a good old-fashioned mutiny after a rum shortage, or even navigation problems can give some good RP options.

[DM_aka_Dudemeister]

The ocean's a big place with plenty of seeds for adventure. In this case you have an end point: PCs fight the pirate in ship to ship combat.

It would help if I knew what levels/classes your PCs are, but I'll just throw a bunch of stuff into the ring.

At it's heart this adventure is about the hunt. About following the pirate's wake (pun intended). So here's a quick three part structure.

1) The victims: The PCs get word the port town of Gull's Nest is often raided by the Evil Pirate. On arrival the PCs find the townsfolk rebuilding after a raid the week before. The people of Gull's Nest are mistrustful of the PCs (assuming they are also pirates) and the PCs will need to earn the citizen's trust with Diplomacy checks. They'll discover a traitor who mans the lookout tower, on the take of the Evil Pirate. If they can catch him in an exciting chase across the shattered harbor (think cranes, crates and materials as obstacles/hazards) he'll tell them that the Evil Pirate spends his I'll-gotten wealth at the port town of Deep Narrow.

2) Armed with information the PCs can head to Deep Narrows, on the way though they are caught in a Sargasso (no wind to pull the sails). A sea hag Druid or Witch has created the Sargasso in order to plunder ships that cross her waters. The PCs will need to either negotiate or defeat the Sea Hag to continue.

3) The port town of Deep Narrow is on the horizon, but so is the Evil Pirate's ship. You can throw in an exciting ship chase with the PCs trying to keep on their foe's tail. Perhaps even using the Sargasso Pearl they won from the Sea Hag in order to end the chase once and for all.

[galahad2112]

Cool scenario.

[neodreamweaver]

since you've already set up the players with the whole chase the pirate thing there are alot of ways it could go.

I would likely go with the whole chase the bad guy style, always one step behind until the final confrontation.

Said famous pirate is after some special treasure and has been interrogating, torturing and pillaging or whatever in order to find its location.
This part would involve investigating on where the hell this guy is headed and dealing with plenty of victims or even other powerful pissed off npcs, (that wizard he just robbed is non to happy)

Next part is the closing the gap and heading towards the deserted island, forsaken temple, whatever suits following the footsteps of the captain and his crew through whatever nasties await, traps, creatures,recently used campsites, wounded/dying crewmen left behind with a missing arm that was used as a sacrifice to open the temple, ect.

finally catching up with the captain and his surviving crew as he claims the cursed treasure or is crushed by the final guardian, follow through as suits your ideas.

either way this allows for smaller fights or a selection of interesting encounters that eventually build up to the final confrontation which may be against the famous pirate or something even nastier.

[CalebTGordan]

Watch movies like, "Master and Comander," where the focus is on real naval war. There are plenty of events in that film that you could use in your own game.

Use the vehicle combat rules in Ultimate Combat and the chase rules in the Gamemastery Guide. You could also use the rules for naval encounters in 3.5 Stormwrack, which is more narrative and roleplay then roll play. Chasing after, or trying to run from, other ships is just as fun as fighting them.

Have some crew members do something that calls for punishment. This doesn't have to be mutiny. It could be that they stole rum or treasure some another crew member, or they killed an albatross. They could have also struck an officer, or refused to do their duty on the ship.

Accidents do happen, like ropes snapping or people falling over board. Maybe someone was hurt or the party has to rescue a passenger from the sea. Having something happen where there is more roleplay of how the PCs handle it will break up the roll play and combat.

[Foxdie13]

first: thanks A LOT for all these comments, its giving me some great idea (its gonna take more than one game session for sure, and thats perfect)

second: here is my team (gestalt like i said + they are all lvl 5)
divine hunter paladin/summoner (pet is serpentine focus on grapple, pally is one of the best DPR of the team)

ninja/monk (If i can find something special for him to do that would be perfect cause last game was pretty standard for him compared to the others)

ranger(natural weapon)/alchemist

cleric/wizard (wizard side is based on control, cleric domains is made vs undead with channel energy)

General info I got so far:
-the pirate is an anti paladin (yes its gonna be a duel vs the paladin)
-in the final showdown the pirate will summon undead to let my cleric have some fun
-I was planing to have a big fatty guy on the ennemy ship (giving orders the the crew, like a butcher diablo 1 style)
-an ennemy cleric (summoning the undead)
-I want to give some utility to my ninja/monk player (like I said before because I know he wont have traps to disarm or stuff like that. I have to look what a lvl 5 monk can do with accrobatic stuff like jump or anything like that.)

[Foxdie13]

CalebTGordan wrote:

Watch movies like, "Master and Comander," where the focus is on real naval war. There are plenty of events in that film that you could use in your own game.

Use the vehicle combat rules in Ultimate Combat and the chase rules in the Gamemastery Guide. You could also use the rules for naval encounters in 3.5 Stormwrack, which is more narrative and roleplay then roll play. Chasing after, or trying to run from, other ships is just as fun as fighting them.

Have some crew members do something that calls for punishment. This doesn't have to be mutiny. It could be that they stole rum or treasure some another crew member, or they killed an albatross. They could have also struck an officer, or refused to do their duty on the ship.

Accidents do happen, like ropes snapping or people falling over board. Maybe someone was hurt or the party has to rescue a passenger from the sea. Having something happen where there is more roleplay of how the PCs handle it will break up the roll play and combat.

I won't use the rules from ultimate combat because my players are pretty new so I don't want to add any fency rules.

The idea of the crew members having problems or doing bad stuff is an interesting idea.

[blackbloodtroll]

Steal stuff from published APs, no will be the wiser, and the encounter is tried and true.

[Brambleman]

Ships are perfect places to climb. In fact, i think its a rule that any ship based battle must have at least 1 instance of climbing or swinging per fight.

To favor the monk, the tactic of having an undead grapple and then throw themselves into the water may be useful. The undead would not drown, but those fighting them would be unable to breathe. A lightly armoured monk would do well.