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View Full Version : [3.5/Pathfinder] Adventure on the High Seas!



TheMinxTail
2010-11-18, 04:57 PM
I'm working on ideas for an island-hopping nautical adventure for DnD, and I'd like to hear teh thought sof those of you more experienced, rather than working for my Chemisty text tomorrow.

So I recently picked up Green Ronin's 'Pathfinder Compatible' Freeport Companion. A couple negative things to say about it, such as isn't fully converted, still using terms like Hide and Spot checks instead of the streamlines Perception and Stealth, and it didn't contain any real rules for Seaborne Adventures and campaigns as I had hoped, but overall it is a very interesting read. In fact I found the perfect class for one of my players (and I'll know its underpowered as all hell without munchkin-sploitation of the early access to Leadership at LV1), the 'Noble', and the 'Assassin' base clas is pretty interesting. Haven't read all of it yet since it's kind of up in the air who'll be DMing the pirate campaigns we're doing and I don't want to read too much DM text if I'm a player, but that's neither here nor there, point is the whole thing inspired me more than ever to run a few pirate games with the Pathfinder system. The Supplement seems more than enough for a first session or two, having something of a premade adventure packed in the latter part, but that brings us to our first problem when teh party highjacks its first ship and sets out to sea:

What rules for ships to use? There have been a lot of supplements for sea-based adventures that I've seen at the shop and around the web, but I don't have much of a budget and don't own any of them - I can scrounge up the cash for one, at most two supplements by the time it becomes significant, so let's here it chaps. For prelonged nautical adventures, what is the best sourcebook? 3.5 and I suppose 3rd Edition are of course allowed, not least since I don't know of a lot of such Pathfinder products at this time. We'll (probably me, I ALWAYS get stuck being DM) putting the monster manual/beastiary to good use since the various islands and continents have a huge spectrum of environments and thus badies to fight, but the party can expect some action on the high tide too and there aren't that many water-based monsters in the core beastiary at this time, so supplments that provide aquatic races, water-based beasts and nautical combat are very preferable.

Thanks!

Loren
2010-11-18, 05:39 PM
Stormwrack would be the pretty obvious book from 3.5 (I can't speak too much to the effectiveness of the sailing combat- I tried it once, but flubbed the DMing).

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edit
Living Imagination Inc put out a book call Broadsides for D20, I've yet to read it. But it seems to go into more detail than Stormwrack.

edit 2, looking at their web site, they also have a book about pirates.

TheMinxTail
2010-11-18, 05:48 PM
Stormwrack would be the pretty obvious book from 3.5 (I can't speak too much to the effectiveness of the sailing combat- I tried it once, but flubbed the DMing).

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edit
Living Imagination Inc put out a book call Broadsides for D20, I've yet to read it. But it seems to go into more detail than Stormwrack.

"Flubbed"? Do you mean you caused the DM a migraine or something? I don't know, that's just the first thing taht comes to mind I guess.

Anyway, thank's for the recommendation, I'll look into Broadsides if I find it. Does it have any good monsters? I can't be unleashing the kraken on them every time they go out to sea after all, even when they do hit high levels!

Loren
2010-11-18, 05:49 PM
I was the DM and I wasn't on my game... things didn't go well.

edit
Only 6 creatures, and 9 sample encouters. It's $20 on their website

edit 2, storm wrack has about 40 entries under monsters

TheMinxTail
2010-11-18, 05:54 PM
I was the DM and I wasn't on my game... things didn't go well.

Ah, the remorse of a DM. So little a stretch of time have I played, and yet already I know that sting all to well, engraved in my mind as if a scar upon my flesh. For some reason I thought it would be a swell idea to, instead of your standard goblin, throw out something more interesting in teh form of a giant frog for teh player's find combat encounter in the 3.5 rules. I also screwed up remembering how its tongue attack worked and one of the player's got swallowed on the first turn. It turned out pretty epic though, when the other PC threw their off-hand weapon down the thing's throat so the victim could slice their way out - a badass moment that made up for me screwing up so bad, or at least almost.

TheMinxTail
2010-11-18, 05:55 PM
I was the DM and I wasn't on my game... things didn't go well.

edit
Only 6 creatures, and 9 sample encouters. It's $20 on their website

edit 2, storm wrack has about 40 entries under monsters

Oh, jsut caught the edits. I guess just from an econimic perspective of me not having to get a monster supplement, Stormwrack is looking better.

Loren
2010-11-18, 06:08 PM
Aye, Stromwrack would do you well.

Another thought is if you to this site http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Qadim and scroll to the bottom you can download the "Corsairs of the Great Sea." I realize that it is AD&D be there are some fun adventure that could be up dated an adjusted. It has real Sinbad feel to it, if that at all appeals to you.

Greenish
2010-11-18, 06:23 PM
Stormwrack is a nice splat.

Now, something mostly unrelated, but are you familiar with the defence bonus variant rules (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/adventuring/defenseBonus.htm)? Full plate just doesn't shout "pirate" to me.

TheMinxTail
2010-11-18, 06:29 PM
Stormwrack is a nice splat.

Now, something mostly unrelated, but are you familiar with the defence bonus variant rules (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/adventuring/defenseBonus.htm)? Full plate just doesn't shout "pirate" to me.

Oh yeah, I glanced that section of Unearthed Arcana. It seemed pretty decent, but the party I'm drawing up doesn't have a heavy user between it. I dunno, maybe I'll use it later on, but the party usually uses light armour for the first level or so in my campaign due to budget restraints - damned Tories. British Political joke that's barely coherent for the win!

TheMinxTail
2010-11-18, 06:34 PM
Aye, Stromwrack would do you well.

Another thought is if you to this site http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Qadim and scroll to the bottom you can download the "Corsairs of the Great Sea." I realize that it is AD&D be there are some fun adventure that could be up dated an adjusted. It has real Sinbad feel to it, if that at all appeals to you.

Huh, damnit, I forgot I was running a torrent so teh download lagged like all hell - gimme a minute to peruse. Didn't watch the Sinbad series - it may surprise you to know that was before my time, but I did see teh subpar children's movie. Decent action though, and I remember the villains being really awesomely animated for the time - but it didn't offer much beyond some high-class swashbuckling.. wait a minute, that makes it awesome in retrospect.

TheMinxTail
2010-11-18, 06:43 PM
Aye, Stromwrack would do you well.

Another thought is if you to this site http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Qadim and scroll to the bottom you can download the "Corsairs of the Great Sea." I realize that it is AD&D be there are some fun adventure that could be up dated an adjusted. It has real Sinbad feel to it, if that at all appeals to you.

Ah, here we go. I was thinking of trying Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, but I already spent this much time and money learning Pathfinder...

By the way, I suggest you check out the Freeport companion if you can find it - its got some interesting base classes like the Corsair and the Survivor, the latter of whom is basically just inferior to a monk in just about every concievable way. It also has a lot of nifty feats - in fact if I am only allowed to use one supllmenet outside core rules for a campaign, it would probably be this one. It even has a section on Chthulhu-like insanity. I only hope that makes sense when I read more of teh book why they included and Insanity system, but it certainly looks appropriately terrifying.

fireinakasha
2010-11-18, 07:46 PM
Stormwrack is a nice splat.

Now, something mostly unrelated, but are you familiar with the defence bonus variant rules (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/adventuring/defenseBonus.htm)? Full plate just doesn't shout "pirate" to me.

Having played in a nautical campaign before, I can atest to the vital nature of the class defense bonus variant for high seas adventuring. With the way armor check penalties apply to swim checks, the very first storm could turn into a TPK without your even trying. As happened in the aforementioned campaign... only time I've ever heard a DM say "okay guys, let's reload the autosave."

TheMinxTail
2010-11-19, 03:19 AM
Having played in a nautical campaign before, I can atest to the vital nature of the class defense bonus variant for high seas adventuring. With the way armor check penalties apply to swim checks, the very first storm could turn into a TPK without your even trying. As happened in the aforementioned campaign... only time I've ever heard a DM say "okay guys, let's reload the autosave."

Geez, he didn't really say 'autosave' did he? I may or may not be having to retcon something in the second session of the campaign I was running; it was supposed to be a horror-mystery campaign across a continent that's entirely overcome with post-apocalyptic wasteland save for teh giant metropolis, their first adventure an investigation in the gruesome deaths of a nun and all those that follow after, but I had them utterly ruin the emotional setting when they jumped down the sewers and th floor buckled under one of them. After a character rolls a 20 on a constitution check and drifts through ungodly sewer water for several minutes before being depositted, it was extremely hard to bring any seriousness back to the table. God, I suck.

Badgerish
2010-11-19, 08:21 AM
I asked about a pirate/anti-pirate campaign on another forum and there was very strong support for "salt and sea dogs" (kingdoms of kalamar).

Can't remember if it is 3.0 or 3.5 but it certainly has lots and lots of info; stuff on ships and the pirate/maritime life.

Certainly worth a look.