Hey all
I will be resurrecting and DMing a seafaring campaign of mine, and what I seem to be in need of are Seafaring rules which everyone can be happy with.
I gave the PC/Crew a ship and they have gone the realistic route of hiring on a crew, then hiring on ex-naval officers, hiring carpenters and outfitting the ship for combat. The captain(PC) has set up crew rotations and times am/pm when people would be on posts based on the brief blurbs I said about them. Stat wise they are mostly level 3 experts and some level 3 warriors with the helms man being a level 7 rogue/warrior. The 4 PCs are about level 11. Druid, Bard, Ranger, PsiWarrior
I don’t have a problem with any of this, I love it when my PCs really get into things or get attached to things! What I AM having a problem with is how to handle, how they are handling things. When EVER an issue arose on deck (Like a random encounter or storm) the FIRST words out of the Captains mouth is “Well where is helmsman/naval office/Profession-we-hired and what is he doing about this/handling it/why hasn’t it been taken care of? And I am left with a strong feeling of that the PCs are saying that they shouldn’t be doing anything at all, and that the NPCS should handle whatever seafaring encounter they come across while the PCs kick back and do nothing.
On the flip side of that coin the same player(s) also drill me for “What good are all these ranks in profession sailor that I have!?” And I’m just about to strangle said player shouting at him “Why do you need ranks in Sailor at all when you specifically hired NPCs to null-and-void your ranks!?”
I’m frustrated, because I’d like the PCs to do as they please but the reason they are the heroes of the story is because they are above human and are able to take on things NPCs can’t. Before anyone suggests it, I have spoken to my players about it, three times over the last twoish years. They reasonable listen to me, and we make changes but things always seem to come around again, so now I’m looking for outside help.
If you’ve listened to my rant this far: What I am really looking for is a set of Rules for Sea Faring sailing, ship combat, and handling grid map combat on their ship, which incorporates all of these people and modification the PCs have hired, but rely (mostly) on the PCs character sheets when it comes rolling.
Ship combat and sea faring already has rules, several of them actually. But I find them a bit too complicated. Also, as written, ship combat takes ages because each ballista only does 3d8 damage and ships have well over 900 hitpoints. So, I developed the following houserules:
1) Each ship is a unit that can move up to its speed in a straight line or half the speed if turned.
2) Each naval round equates to 2 rounds
3) Each naval round, a ship can fire each of its siege weapons once assuming the necessary amount of crew members are manning it. Indirect fire weapons can only fire once every two rounds and work more like thrown splash weapons. They do not use the game's complicated rules for aiming.
4) Combat goes through initiative order with the party. On each PC's turn, the player must declare what they're doing for that round. These can include:
a) Manning the Helm: The helmsman makes an opposed Profession (sailor) check against the enemy helmsman. For every 5 the succeeding helmsman makes above his enemy's, the ship automatically dodges one attack from the enemy ship.
b) Manning a Siege Weapon: The weapon's primary gunner makes an attack using the siege weapon.
c) Spellcasting: A character can cast one standard action spell per naval round. Additional spellcasting (up to two rounds worth of actions) requires a concentration check if the ship took damage in the past naval round.
d) Other Actions: A PC can perform up to two normal rounds of actions, which can include attacking with conventional weapons or performing a specific activity.
5) The captain can make a Profession (sailor) check to accomplish any miscellaneous task regarding sailing and naval combat. This includes giving complicated instructions to NPC crewmembers or analyzing an enemy ship for its combat capabilities.
6) NPC crewmembers are assumed to be manning their post while PCs make the decisions and do the heroics. Crewmembers will not leave their post unless instructed or placed in serious danger. Each crewmember that leaves their post grants a -2 penalty to all Profession (sailor) checks the captain and other crewmembers make. If too many leave their post, the ship may not be able to attack or move at all.
As for seafaring, I just follow hexcrawl rules. For any hex not explored, the captain has to make a sailing check to ensure he's navigating the right way. The captain also has to sail for hexes that have hazards and bad weather conditions.
My favorite Pathfinder rules on seagoing campaigns ships of sale is from Frog God Games Razor Coast supplement Fire As She Bears by Luis Agresta and John Ling. Note ship speed differs in this product versus Paizo's own ship rules. So use one set of rules or other, as neither are very compatible.
Fire As She Bears uses 20' x 20' cubes to define areas of a ship, with all ship designs using 1 or more stacked and adjacent cubes to define the entire ship, along with specific damage rules relying on those cubes.
Also unlike most ship combat rules, FASB, requires all PCs to take a role in defending a ship with each PC's turn in initiative to include steps in accomodating the bringing of ammo and gunpowder (or non-gunpowder weapon ammo), fire the weapons, controlling the tack and sails for proper aiming and position versus enemy ships, the captain, and a ship's doctor. Ship combat becomes a group activity rather than GM vs. one player as is found in most other ship combat rules.
I don't even use the Razor Coast setting, but I do use the FASB rules for ships of sail in all my PF gaming.
Ship combat and sea faring already has rules, several of them actually. But I find them a bit too complicated. Also, as written, ship combat takes ages because each ballista only does 3d8 damage and ships have well over 900 hitpoints. So, I developed the following houserules:
For the sake of being concise (which I am terrible at) I left that out. Yes I know there has been many different rules for sailing. We've tried the D&D 3.0 one, the D&D 3.5 ones, the D&D Storm wreck ones, some rules we found on sand skimmers, the Campaign's custom ones, some D&D 2ed ones, ofcourse pathfinder's, I even got half-way through some Starjammer rules before I realized they just simply wouldn't work.
Universally they all tend to share the same issues: Most everything relies on one or specific characters, certain "transitions" between Grid and Ship combat are non-existent. And I've yet to see a system that handles overcrewed ships and bonuses, only ever under crewed. And that perhaps sounds like We've tired alot of different systems, but in reality they all ended up being extremely similar.I've pretty much the same opinion of them as you thou. They are rather clunky and take way too long.
I like the 1 ships rounds = 2 normal rounds. In my head I see that solving a few issues right there.
requires all PCs to take a role in defending a ship with each PC's turn in initiative to ...
This interests me greatly, I will certainly look into it this weekend.
Something we did in our last seafaring campaign, and this has nothing to do with combat, but we every time we docked and gave the crew Libo we had a percent of some of the crew getting drunk or arrested for something. To help mitigate this, we gave our crew a "Libo Safety brief" and formation every time before we docked.
I know it doesn't sound like much, but it was a nice touch adding a feeling of realism- as Marines, we sure don't get to go do anything nice without a good Libo Safety Brief telling us to not be dumb yoo-hoos.