High Seas Help

[Dravvan]

Greetings one and all,

Hope I'm in the right part of the forum for this (many apologies to Woody if I'm not), but I'm running a 3E D&D campaign and my group will soon be entering into ocean-going adventures. I've found one or two source books relating to this, but I'm turning to the forum for any suggestions/help.

So, if anyone has any suggestions for sources for ship design, seagoing adventures, that sort of thing, either reply here or hit the ol' 'email' button and send it off to me. I'll consider all. *grin*

Thanks! We now return you to your regularly scheduled forum.

[Tadashya]

http://www.mysticseaport.org/discover/index.htm

this is just down the road from me so I thought of it.

google (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=history+seafaring&btnG=Google+Search) is also your friend

[EvilIguana966]

I've been there Tad, my aunt works there! Well, technically shes retired and is volunteering there. Mystic is a nice place.

The ships they keep there are 17th and 18th century style vessels. I'd imagine in D&D you'd be doing 11th-15th century style vessels with a medieval campaign. I don't know of any source material for seafaring adventures, but you could always check out www.wizards.com and their forums for some ideas.

It's really up to you whether you want the vessels to be more traditional medieval, or more whimsical and fantastic. I've always thought of humans as having the more traditional vessels, wheras the elves have fancy, elegant, sleeker designs geared less towards effeciency and more towards style.

[Kat]

This link http://www.svgames.com/tsr9133esd.html will take you to a site where you can buy D&D Modules. Your post made me think of this adventure immediately. You may not want to make a Dragonlance Campaign, but the rules and ideas in the module could help.

Here is a link to the main page of Dragonlance Modules.

http://www.svgames.com/downloads-wotc-adnddglnc.html

[Velenka]

Patrick O'Brian! Patricl O'Brian! (http://www.wwnorton.com/pob/pobhome.htm) Good, good high-seas historical fiction. I'm pretty sure his stuff is also as close to historically accurate as can be.

[Erling E.]

The ships they keep there are 17th and 18th century style vessels. I'd imagine in D&D you'd be doing 11th-15th century style vessels with a medieval campaign. I don't know of any source material for seafaring adventures, but you could always check out www.wizards.com and their forums for some ideas

I'd say the difference between a 17th century ship and a 15th century ship is marginal. Sail vessels didn't actually revolutionize over those centuries. :-)

[ancarett]

Err, ahem, there are major differences between a medieval cog and a seventeenth century merchantman. Things get even more different if you're using a Mediterranean galley as your model in contrast to the sail-driven ships of the north (or trans-Atlantic voyages). Check out Prof. Pennington's lecture (http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/maxpages/classes/His311/Lecture%20Three/TechnologyShipBuilding.htm) for an illustrated, brief discussion of medieval ship technology. The most exhaustive site I know of covering the history of maritime technology is History and Archaeology of the Ship (http://cma.soton.ac.uk/HistShip/shlecmen.htm) which does include Viking era and earlier ships. You can also take a peek into life on board a sixteenth century ship at the Golden Hinde (http://www.goldenhinde.co.uk/) living history website.

Sounds like a cool idea for a module. Hope you have fun!

[Grey_Bishop]

Remember that slashing weapons should be penalized if used unerwater, unless free action is taken into account. Crushing weapons are useless.

Monster summoning in an ocean enviroment should summon HUGE creatures, especially for native summoners.

Fireball is very impressive on a ship that's only 40 feet long.

Sea Trolls will bring any party into line, especially when attacking underwater.

I've had some good adventures in 3E. Just remember that you can really make grand monsters and vast underwater cities, huge flying creatures that kidnap people to rocky islands.

Islands that wind up being giant turtles (always a favorite with me)...

[Trastero]

/nod

Patric O'Brian

Also, believe it or not, Pirates of the Carribian: Curse of the Black Pearl, gives a pretty good fantasy feel of ships at sea.

Douglas Reeman (http://www.mcbooks.com/Historical/ReemanPage/reeman.html) is great for WW2 Royal Naval historical fiction. Highly reccommended.

[Dravvan]

[golllum expression]

Ooooo, my precioussss, this is alllll so tasssty, my prrecioussss *gollum*

[/gollum expression]

Wow, this is all good stuff, my friends. Thanks! I'll check out those links when I get a chance at work.

I didn't even realize that 'Master & Commander' was based on a book. D'oh! But thanks for the new reading material. *grins happily*

Hmmm....giant turtles.....hehehehe

*gets out pen and paper and begins to jot down notes*

[Caliber]

If you're looking for actual DnD 3e supplements, theres no better resource than www.enworld.org . They're one of the biggest 3e communities on the web.

Otherwise, the suggestions already in this thread are pretty awesome. (never knew GU had a 3e following)