Pirates! Ships and The Seas - Nautical Setting

We take a look at nautical campaigns, what to expect, what has been established, and sources that can be used to make an epic nautical setting.

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[gmscott]

2:45 "If you're not doing ship-to-ship battles... all you've done is make it a very moist adventure."

[EpherosAldor]

Why are you so concerned about video length? You are part of a D&D community where your audience is perfectly content with watching a 2 - 5 hr long D&D session. Making a video that starts skirting 40 mins should not end up killing anyone. Your content is always so informative and enjoyable, so you should know that it's quite alright to take your time and just have fun with this. Keep up the great work!

[AracneMusic]

Me: Starts a document for a future nautical campaing.

Great GM: Well, do I have a video for you...

[Jrobtheking]

Been watching dnd sea/ship combat/ nautical adventure videos all day…. I don’t think I’ve found a single dnd channel that has so much, knowledge, enthusiasm, and Constant flow of information and actual good humor without wacky edits anywhere else.
I can tell you genuinely care so much about your content and listening to this has honestly gotten me so inspired for my saltmarsh campaign.

[SeanicalMan]

The people count as magic items, you say?

“Hey crewman. What’s your name?”
“Healing Potion.”

[angrytheclown]

Idea: Your chef is an alchemist that's been putting potions into the food so if one of the crew goes flying off the ship they actually don't drown horribly before they can be saved.

[owentillotson]

Perfect timing! I’m starting a nautical campaign this Saturday

[sunboltblast]

In a real settings “monsters” can be replaced with exotic sea creatures narwhals, great white sharks, giant octopus, etc.

[kpny]

In 5e, my players had been hired onto a merchant's ship to quickly get out of the country as well as head down the coastline with little effort. They got to a few small islands where they picked up some cargo and set out. A few days into it they noticed that they were being trailed by a pirate ship. It took a day and a half for it to catch up to them. As they were talking about what to do as it was getting closing, I had a speaker at the other end of the room start playing "Medieval War Drums 2 (youtube)", which sounded like taiko drums, which at first was quiet, then as the ship gained, grew louder. As one of the players looked through a spyglass I told them that "You see a ship of dark red wood, with a black deck and black sails, and up in the sails you can see many kolbalds banging drums as well as many other crewmen running about on deck.". I then had another speaker set and played a "Dark, Ambient Viking War horn sound (youtube)" as combat started. After three volleys of cannon fire that nearly took everyone out, the kolbalds starting swinging over, in waves of 10 over five rounds, which were taken out for the most part with ease by the players. Then as the ship got closer, the pirate crew boarded and began the real fight. The players were going to all die, so the merchant captain called everyone to stop on his side, and to surrender. The pirates were taking everything off of the ship, and that would have been that, but one of the players decided to attack a pirate crewmen, and after a brief combat, were all taken aboard the pirate ship. Not sure what's going to happen next, but it'll be fun to see. My players are all level 3, a druid, alchemist, fighter, rogue, monk, and a wizard.

[CODEFORTYTWO]

These videos and your kickstarter couldn't be more perfectly timed, the campaign I recently started is pirate themed and I wasn't entirely sure how I'd work out everything like trade and other ordeals so your book is gonna be a great help, I'm glad I helped fund the kickstarter

[MegaMawileTheNommer]

I often run into a similar problem of skilled NPCs with feats like Leadership. What I did is "Leadership lets you attract followers, but you can also turn them away by your own actions" So they might request pay, a share of the loot, some of your holdings, etc as time goes on due to them having their own lives to worry about. If you refuse to much, they become disillusioned and the feat no longer works on them. Then you are at the mercy of my Job board from then on of who might be a follower.

[ADayintheLifeoftheTw]

Last time? Nonsense. I designed my whole campaign around an archipeligo. Keep these advice videos comming 😄

[gnarthdarkanen]

Great video, Guy! I can see where and how (more or less) I can stand to step up my oceanic adventures with it... as opposed to "mostly I just wing it"... (lolz)
AND you can stand "Corrected"... in regards to a ship ever being run "democratically"...
There's sufficient evidence that actual Pirates in their "hey-day" were a mostly democratic system of ship-running. It might be suggested as a "hybrid system" since they were still technically "Captained" ships, BUT the Captains were put into said positions by their crews, essentially "voted"... Most of the ship's operations (however nefarious) were decided also by crew majority. It was therefore only in the daily duties, and under the varieties of immediate leadership requirements that the Captains actually acted as "Rank" Captains over the crews. The "profits" were often also split relatively fairly among the crew so long as the ship's needs were covered and some agreed upon sum was added to the ship's treasury "for incidentals" along the next route(s).


Okay, so you can come back at me with the essential argument that this is more of a "republic" archetype, and I'll not complain. However, I think the point stands... Pirates were over romanticized on a lot of accounts, but to get a roughian crew of murderers and thieves together and working under a single authority, there's really no better "leadership system" than a legitimized vote.
Remember, start an outright brawl among them, to decide who's going to lead, and you chance killing most of them off before you even set sail...


AND I'll grant you, NOT all Pirate vessels were necessarily run this way. But the likelihood is that a majority were... Faced with imminent demise at sea by incompetence, even the most stalwart killer and thief would rather put the most qualified man on the job... I should think.


OTHER than that tiny point... (which I hope I covered)... I agree wholeheartedly. I'll even agree that you (GM) probably don't want to let every decision run on the democratic system, and certainly not by the anarchy that seems to consistently arouse around my Table. ;o)

[MasterGalleta]

I was watching this then you mentioned Captain Blood... 2 and a half hours later i´m back here and I have a new favorite movie of all time. Thanks

[jaxx]

I'm running my first session of a homebrewed seafaring campaign this weekend. I'm watching vids like this as a refresher for why I put all this work in in the first place and it's making me really excited.
Thanks for keeping me on track, chief.

[johnsonheatup]

I am recent dm, been dm just a year, and first time running a nautical one shot and had no idea how to tackle it, so if you read this, thank you! this is the best thing I have seen, informative and useful! thank you!

[andresarancio]

Man, I have been running a pirate sandbox game for about six months now and then I get Ghost of Saltmarsh and now I get this. Woo

[Jetwolf]

This is great, as the theme crosses over to almost all settings from ancient to the age of sail, and often beyond. Sooner or later the PCs are going to use a ship to get from A to B and across the C. A treasure trove of info on this vid, thank you.

[mcgoo]

Quick tip if you're going to do an underwater encounter, give the players a swim speed somehow. I had them go into a sahuagin temple with underwater breathing devices thinking it would be a cool one night deal. Holy cow. The movement and combat restrictions turned it into a 3 night dredge. The players liked it overall but it got a bit tedious near the end.

[GreasyBeasty]

I can't under state how much I love the intros of your videos and the content.