Hey all,
I am trying to make ship boarding encounters more interesting. We are playing Skull and Shackles and I am challenged by a few key points
- the deck floor plans are relatively small 20-30 feet wide but long. There is the opportunity for rigging fights but haven't come of up with a way of fitting this in yet. It has been a very log since I have ran a fight in a 20 ft space.
- the majority of 'enemies' are sailors lvl 2-3 and I would prefer to abstract the majority of them engaged with the PCs own crew. Who else can I throw in there to spice things up?
- PCs are dominating the fights because it is relatively easy to control a 20 ft wide ship filled with low level NPCs. (I appreciate that I could just make ships larger, but that is only practical up to a point as I am trying to keep the game realistic). What other challenges could make it more of a fight.
We are using the excellent Fire as She Bears rules for the ship to ship bit and firearms are fine - it's just the boarding action that I'm interested in. Any ideas or thoughts
Edit: I should say I'm playing with a TWF human ranger 5; a human Magus 5; a human sorceress 5 (storm born) and a lizardman cleric 5.
Hey all,
I am trying to make ship boarding encounters more interesting. We are playing Skull and Shackles and I am challenged by a few key points
- the deck floor plans are relatively small 20-30 feet wide but long. There is the opportunity for rigging fights but haven't come of up with a way of fitting this in yet. It has been a very log since I have ran a fight in a 20 ft space.
- the majority of 'enemies' are sailors lvl 2-3 and I would prefer to abstract the majority of them engaged with the PCs own crew. Who else can I throw in there to spice things up?
- PCs are dominating the fights because it is relatively easy to control a 20 ft wide ship filled with low level NPCs. (I appreciate that I could just make ships larger, but that is only practical up to a point as I am trying to keep the game realistic). What other challenges could make it more of a fight.
We are using the excellent Fire as She Bears rules for the ship to ship bit and firearms are fine - it's just the boarding action that I'm interested in. Any ideas or thoughts
Edit: I should say I'm playing with a TWF human ranger 5; a human Magus 5; a human sorceress 5 (storm born) and a lizardman cleric 5.
My players pretty much crushed through that section. We abstracted out the fights against the sailors, considered the entire ship to be difficult terrain, increased the ship size, and added in a few officers to the fights.
The difficult terrain idea is interesting. Also I think plenty of officers is key.
While I don't know what sort of ship you're looking at, you'd need ... hm. Captain, at least two standard officers (1st and 2nd officer, adding at least another for a military ship), 3-5 midshipmen, a handful of other 'standard' ship's officers (quartermaster, sailing master, navigator, boatswain, master carpenter, ship's doctor / surgeon, master gunner, and in a magical world, ship's mage), riggers, seamen ... at least 40-50 men for a two-masted cargo ship like a brig or brigantine, I'd say. Double that for one turned to piracy, triple or quadruple that for a warship. Add in a platoon or two of marines for the military ship.
Make the captain a level or two above theirs, and the officers/mates equal to their class level; the standard officers (QM, etc.) a level or two below theirs. Marines become a 1st-level fighting class, while experienced sailors (perhaps 1/4 to 1/3 the crew) 1st-level rogue classes. The rest become commoners or, probably, experts. Don't forget that ship's mage, because having a sorcerer or wizard on their side means it can't be a walkover. A boarding action is a SERIOUS fight.
Hey all,
I am trying to make ship boarding encounters more interesting. We are playing Skull and Shackles and I am challenged by a few key points
- the deck floor plans are relatively small 20-30 feet wide but long. There is the opportunity for rigging fights but haven't come of up with a way of fitting this in yet. It has been a very log since I have ran a fight in a 20 ft space.
- the majority of 'enemies' are sailors lvl 2-3 and I would prefer to abstract the majority of them engaged with the PCs own crew. Who else can I throw in there to spice things up?
- PCs are dominating the fights because it is relatively easy to control a 20 ft wide ship filled with low level NPCs. (I appreciate that I could just make ships larger, but that is only practical up to a point as I am trying to keep the game realistic). What other challenges could make it more of a fight.
We are using the excellent Fire as She Bears rules for the ship to ship bit and firearms are fine - it's just the boarding action that I'm interested in. Any ideas or thoughts
Edit: I should say I'm playing with a TWF human ranger 5; a human Magus 5; a human sorceress 5 (storm born) and a lizardman cleric 5.
Just looking at ship stats, I'm not going to use gunpowder in my game for this AP until the 6th book, where only Kerdak Bonefist has it at all. I don't like firearms in fantasy, that's why. ;->
But the sizes of the ships bothers me, too; what I did for the Wormwood and the Man's Promise was: expanded the width of the Upper Decks and the Main Deck to 40 feet across; then the first two Lower Decks (cargo, crew bunks/hammocks area) each 30' across, then like 20' for the bilges. Seems like a lot until you realize that's only 4 squares; if there's combat down there, that gets pretty full pretty fast. ;-> I also extended the lengths of the ships, to go with the increased width up top, to try to keep the ratios sane.
LB
So the way S&S handled mass combat fights was that the party was fighting the other officers, not low level NPCs. Make the Pirate Officers same level/APL as the party, and you'll probably see less difference. As for the rigging, I seem to remember a swing over attack that you use in book 1.
As for Gunpowder/firearms - we used it in S&S And also in Reign of Winter, and while it fit both of those campaigns, we've decided it's just too broken for general use.