new to boards, and looking for help on sea adventures and some other stuff.


Advice


Hi all
I have been a dm for a while but somehow never got the hang of sea adventures. my party of 4 7th lvl (brd/ran, rog/ran and 2 fig/ran) are off to a pirate island and I want some filler before getting there rather than just fighting. somehow my sea adventures are always flat so any ideas would be gratefully recieved.

the other main thing is my party have guided the game in a buisness kinda way so im looking for rules on shipping (ship prices conditions etc), goods in large amounts and other such stuff, if anyone can help id be grateful.
many thanks


1 person marked this as a favorite.

here are some ideas for events that might shake up a boring sea voyage:

*Keep track of food -- Then have something befall it neccesitating getting more or the crew will starve. Have the fresh water barrels develop some weird kind of rot or mold which fills the larder with some kind of ooze or similar monster which the party must defeat -- only to discover it contaminated or consumed all the food and water... now they have to fish or find a deserted island to forage and resupply: They have to find a lake of fresh water, chop wood and cooper new barrels -- and find and gather enough fruits,roots,birds,and wild game to refill their stores.

*"Doldrums" : "A place out in the middle of the sea where there ain't no wind -- the sea is like glass in every direction, the sails hang like wilted lettuce in their yard-arms... and the sun is so hot you can hardly breathe." Put simply, naturally or unnaturally -- the weather is ZERO WIND for a prolonged period... perhaps in an area so large even if they ARE drifting they can't be certain the ship is even moving. No waves, no motion to the sails... They could slowly go crazy and the crew turns on each other, or certain types of monsters prey on ships stuck in the doldrums, etc.

*"Euripatid Bloom" : During certain seasons, or conditions (think real-life 'red-tides') Euripatids (poisonous golarion crab monsters) release HUGE amounts of eggs into the open water. Ships passing through these clouds of Euripatid sperm and eggs develop great swathes of foamy barnacles that cannot be removed effectively at sea. Given time, Enormous plagues of these sea-scorpions can hatch on the surface of the ship (mostly below the water-line) and upon hatching, many make their way onto and below deck. Imagine waking up one morning and the deck is a CARPET of tiny poisonous scorpions. Every unworn boot, bowl, nook and cranny on the ship has one or more baby euripatid growing in it -- and as time wears on it settles in that nothing the crew does will get rid of them all. As they mature, more and more go overboard into the sea, but many grow accustomed to catching and eating smaller euripatids, vermin, and whatever else they can find. Perhaps in the days or weeks to come (their life-cycle of this particular species may be very fast) Full-grown euripatids are glimpsed hanging onto the outside of the ship, heard clattering around on the outside of the hull, or perhaps a pack of truly huge ones are hiding in a lair in a dark corner of the ship...

Sargasso Seas: A massive net of deep, impossibly thick seaweed, that the farther the ship travels into, the more mired and stuck the ship becomes. Of course, the sargasso is a an ecosystem of all sorts of creatures -- and some may attempt to invade the ship while it's stuck, or if the party seeks to cut free by going overboard - there are equal or greater dangers in the water.

Those are just a few off the top of my head.


This is off the top of my head here, but I think the reason I don't like seafaring adventures that much is because it just feels like being in a rollercoaster. My character has never had control of the ship. We were always just crossing an ocean to get from continent A to continent B, and we were going to have a seafaring session on a 30x80 shipdeck and my character's only choice in the matter is whether he wants to be on the ship or in the ocean.

I think in my future games, I'm going to give the players control of the ship. I'll make a big wilderness map like in the Kingmaker AP and let them roam around a little and at least direct and command the ship, even if they're not the helmsman. I think that would make the game a lot more fun than what I'd played before.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Ultimate combat has the ship prices and the sort. Also, ultimate equipment might have some stuff as well that is used for the seas, or sure.

As for sea/pirate themed stuff, there are quite a few resources for material:

Inner sea world guide
Inner sea world primer
Skulls and shackles players guide
Magic of the inner sea
Pirates of the inner sea
Knights of the inner sea

These books have some overlapping material, but plenty of other stuff for you to use. It has info for organizations, sea life, sea adventure, obstacles, items, classes, and so forth.
Also, the Faction Guide can also help out.

If you plan on doing a more sea style type of campaign than the are other resources to help you, depending on what you need, but these books have plenty.


Thanks for the help guys its spurring my imagination forwards
I like the ideas above and incorporate at least one in. I really like the mold in the food lol.
I dont really plan on making many sea voyage adventures but its nice to flesh them out a bit

I have Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Campaign on pre order for the buisness but just waiting is a pain.

thanks again


Read a couple of good books on Age of Sail seafaring. A lot of it focuses on the British Navy, but (say) the early chapters of Morison's The European Discovery of America have a lot of great stuff. Pick and choose what you want to inflict on your players, though I strongly agree with the idea of letting them sail where they want. Just make sure they have a good navigator on board, or they may end up where you want.

Also note that fairly simple magics can solve a lot of sea travel issues -- create water, and purify food and drink, between them, obsolete a LOT of historical concerns. Higher level spells can do all sorts of stuff, if the players think of them -- and if they don't, most sailors should know the basics.


There's good advice on the blogosphere about hex crawling, I particularly like the Alexandrian.

Hexcrawling with a ship isn't really any different.

Community / Forums / Pathfinder / Pathfinder First Edition / Advice / new to boards, and looking for help on sea adventures and some other stuff. All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.
Recent threads in Advice