How do you make a nautical adventure exciting?

[the David]

I'm about to start a campaign that mostly takes place on an island. Now the party will have to travel to the island and that leaves me with a bit of a problem. In my experience, if the party has to travel by boat you've got two options. The first is that nothing happens. The players step on board, and the next scene they arrive wherever they have to be. The other one is that they get a random encounter every day. Neither are very exciting, and the latter is a boring railroad with little player agency. There's a third option that I've never seen in play, one encounter for the entire trip. It's predictable, but it's not that disruptive to the game.

Now based on my experience with my fellow players, we'll do a single encounter per session anyway. (We play 2-3 hour sessions through roll20 and the other players take a long time to decide which actions they take.) I think one session of adventure on the high seas is enough so I'm inclined to go for the one encounter for the entire trip idea. This means that I have to come up with some encounters that would work for me. When I say encounters, I don't necessarily mean combat encounters. So, not every encounter has to be pirates and sea monsters. So, now that that's all out of the way, I'd love to hear suggestions for some interesting encounters. If you've got some experience running or playing a nautical campaign I'd love to hear all your opinions.

For those interested in what we're going to play. We're playing Hot Springs Island. The trip will take 14 days with one stop on another island. The other island isn't very detailed. The only thing I know about it is that it has a trade camp that is run by the trade company the players will work for.

Here are some encounters I came up with on my own.
- Pirates
- Seamonster
- A Siren is luring the ship towards the cliff with her song.
- A mutiny
- One of the sailors has stolen something from the PCs.

[Loxsis Bale]

If you want encounters that doesn't necessarily involve creatures:

-A storm blows in on the way to the island, and it's all hands on deck
-You stumble upon an island that isn't on any maps, possibly prompting a slight detour
-Fog forms around you, giving either prophecies or hallucinations

[the David]

Can't believe I forgot to add a storm. The other two are good too, though I think that I've got more than enough material to keep them busy on one island. Adding another island is probably not a good idea.
I guess I'll have to add a ghost ship too.

[Scrapper]

The boat sinks! Rescue by Pirate Sea Elves! Feed the survivors to the Kraken! The party wakes up from the nightmare of the bad storm to a peaceful landing on the island the next day...

[Heather 540]

The game I'm currently playing in had us go on a boat trip once. The way he ran it was this: he'd roll a d6 and the result would determine what would happen that 'day.' If he rolled a 4, we'd have good winds and travel faster than normal. A 5 meant poor winds and we'd travel a little slower. A 6 meant a storm and a one meant monster attack. I forget what 2 was and I think 3 meant nothing happened.

We got attacked by monsters twice during the trip - a megalodon and a giant kraken. We still mention it every now and then because during the megalodon attack, our bearkin fighter picked up one of the ship's cannons and shot it at the mega. (I'm just going to write mega from now on as it's shorter.) The GM had him roll a Ref Save after and he failed. Which resulted in both the cannon and him going overboard. And the mega swallowed him whole. Luckily, we managed to kill the mega before he suffocated and pulled him out.

It's even funnier because a few months later, we were on a boat again and he fell overboard and swallowed by another giant sea monster. The character now has a fear of boats and the ocean.

[Meirril]

Quarantine ship: Your ship is overtaking a 2 masted merchant vessel. The ship is flying yellow quarantine flags on all of its rigging. Not a single soul can be seen above decks.

-The crew succumbed to Bubonic Plague a week ago. Most of the corpses have been dumped over the side but as the last of the survivors weaken two corpses below deck, and one in the crow's nest have been left to rot. The smell from the one in the crows nest is particularly foul which not only infects anyone that boards the ship but has also drawn sharks to follow the ship.

In the captain's cabin are the last few survivors. The cabin boy is comatose, the First Mate is bedridden, and the Captain is trying to take care of them despite being disabled himself.

The cargo is mostly salted pork, pig iron, and grain. Large amounts of the grain have been infested with dead rats...killed by the bubonic plague they brought on board. Among the hammocks hanging in the hold are a few pouches of coins and some cheap jewelry. Each of the officers have their own strongboxes that contain their earthly wealth.

The ship itself is a carrier for the plague until 8 hours is spent cleaning (DC 10 heal check) to get rid of any filth that could spread the plague. Divide the 8 hours by the number of people cleaning. +2 circumstance bonus if some kind of cleaner or disinfectant is used (like soap, or alcohol).

[Syries]

If you want some inspiration, read through Plunder and Peril, it's a fun adventure that involves a chase scene, ship encounters, pirate curses, all the good stuff. I feel it's written pretty well.

[Mark Hoover 330]

A ship is a small, enclosed space not conducive to a dungeon encounter. Or is it? Perhaps there are extra-dimensional spaces on board the rest of the crew isn't privy to?

Also, depending on the level of the PCs while aboard, consider some of the skill challenges needed to man the vessel. If a sea serpent attacks the ship it might not be everyone hurling harpoons. Consider if the creature flung a rogue wave at them, or used a breath weapon to damage the sails, what skills from the PCs that'd bring to bear.

You could take the concept of the Alien movie franchise to a new level. Put an aberrant creature, capable of infesting hosts on board. The bulk of the adventure for the PCs is figuring out who's infected and protecting themselves from it.

Again, depending on the level of the party while on board supplies might be an issue. Throw in a monster attack or two, a terrible storm or some other disasters and the PCs might have to help gather materials from somewhere. Never underestimate the value of an excursion from the cruise ship!

Such an excursion could mean evil islanders, monsters in the wilderness, demons and dinosaurs... or something as mundane as skill challenges to gather timber before the tide comes in. Once on land you've got your "Teratypical" game back for a short period.

With enough magic to aid them the party might have an undersea adventure. Plumbing the caves of a massive coral reef for treasure to help free a mermaid princess from the clutches of the evil sahuagin high priest. Some players really dig on a game like that; high magic, epic adventure and a completely new environment.

Finally never discount the influence of other planes. Being on a ship on open waters is all about travel, and what typifies travel in a fantasy game more than the interaction of the planes.

1. a mysterious storm blows in out of nowhere - a skill challenge ensues
2. in the midst of the storm strange outsider-type creatures attack
3. after surviving the assault the ship makes its way into calmer waters, only to find an alien horizon before them

I myself favor the fey in my games, so I'd dump them into the First World. Other destinations could be the elemental plane of water, some leg of the River Styx or perhaps a grey, nameless sea in the Ether. The possibilities are literally endless.

A note on magic: pitting the entire ship against a potent spellcaster is a good way to establish a main villain while also putting the entire vessel in peril all at once. For example, if you went with the "other plane" scenario, perhaps the evil storm was the villain's doing, and they're using the power of the tempest to boost their own Plane Shift spell to send the entire ship into a demi-plane or something?

On the other hand, just having a powerful, evil druid between the PCs and their final destination might be enough. Just leaf through some of the more permanent, landscape-changing spells and figure out how they could be used against a ship at sea.

[Tim Emrick]

I've run three campaigns in Green Ronin's Freeport: The City of Adventure setting. The first two (in 3.0 and 3.5) were mostly centered on the city itself, but the third one (started in 3.5, converted to PF halfway through) was deliberately designed as a nautical game, with the PCs seizing a small pirate ship early on, and later "trading up" (the violent, bloody way) once they had sufficient experience and followers to do so.

There was a fair amount of travel back and forth between various islands during the campaign. Sometimes I'd just give them one encounter along the way. Other times, I might throw a few of them in for a longer trip. It also largely depending on how much prep time I had for a given session. My players didn't mind the occasional session devoted to a "random" encounter--sometimes they just needed to blow off steam on some hapless monster after a long week, and earn some XP doing it.

The last part of that campaign took place all on one island, with the PCs occasionally returning to the ship to 1. make sure the NPCs left to guard it were still OK, and 2. to sail around the island for easier access to the next place they wanted to explore. For each part of the island, I prepared some encounters tied to various locations (a vanaran village, a drake's lair, an aboleth's slave pens, an ancient shrine or two) as well as a few other encounters that I could toss in to spice up exploration and travel between the set pieces.

My wiki archive for "Winds of Freeport" is here. My GM Notes about the final "Gorilla Island" adventure start here.

[blahpers]

Is this a small boat with only the party or a ship with a full crew, NPC passengers? The former is tricky and pretty much requires some kind of external event to spice things up, similar to overland travel. The latter is rife with potential for social interactions or even entire adventures that can occur without ever leaving the craft. ("Murder on the Wormwood", anyone?)

[Asmodeus' Advocate]

I’m with Blaphers. Rather than have random monsters and pirates attacking the boat, I’d put a side quest on the boat itself.

Once the PCs board a ship, they’re stuck on it until they make it to their destination. So stick something on the boat with them.

Add some intrigue; maybe there’s a doppelgänger on board. (Add levels of Wizard until you have a threat of the appropriate CR.)

Or add some dungeon crawling; perhaps the Captain and much of the crew are cultists, planning to sail the boat into a whirlpool as a mass humanoid sacrifice, and the party has to fight their way through a two story minidungeon from where they were imprisoned in the brig to the ship’s tiller, where the lead cultist is steering the vessel.

But the best idea, I’d think, would be to tie the side quest in to the main plot in some way, and advance the story some.

And then, in the middle of the side quest? That’s when the boat’s attacked by a sea monster. Random encounters work best when they aren’t expected!

[the David]

blahpers wrote:

Is this a small boat with only the party or a ship with a full crew, NPC passengers? The former is tricky and pretty much requires some kind of external event to spice things up, similar to overland travel. The latter is rife with potential for social interactions or even entire adventures that can occur without ever leaving the craft. ("Murder on the Wormwood", anyone?)

It'll likely be a ship with a full crew. The party will work for a trade company and they won't be able to afford a small boat at first. The trade company recruits adventurers to retrieve as much loot as they can find. Ofcourse, the trade company does take their fair share of the loot. In fact, most adventurers are indebted to the company.

I really like Mark's suggestion of ripping off the plot of Alien. I'm definitely going to try that.

As for tying it in with the main plot of the campaign, that's just very unlikely. It's a sandbox, so there isn't one main plot. There's a bunch of factions and an ongoing power struggle between some of them. None of the major (or minor) NPCs have to be the main antagonist and any one of them could be. As the campaign goes on, the players will have to choose who they side with, so they'll likely end up with at least on antagonist. But the NPCs have no incentive to move beyond the island.