I’m on a Boat! Running Sea-Faring, Space-Faring and Other Ship-Based RPG Campaigns

3 Wise DMs

When you take your RPG campaign to the high seas (or under the seas, outer space or anywhere else they need a ship to survive), all bets are off. Sure, you could run it like any land-based campaign using the ship for fast travel, but is that really what a ship-based campaign is all about? Or are they about ship-to-ship combat, unlimited freedom, and unimaginable treasure?

The lure of the sea is about more than hopping from adventure to adventure. The captain is king of the vessel, whether that captain is one of your PCs or the guy enslaving them as shanghaied deckhands. So, what can you do to play up what’s different about nautical campaigns, make sure your players are happy on the high seas, and come up with cool new ideas to keep them adventuring? That’s what listener Eric asked when he sent us a note with the message “Yo, ho, a pirate’s life for me.”

Here’s what Thorin, Tony and Dave think nautical gaming is all about and how they bring it to life for their players.

2:00 Ship-based campaigns we’ve run and what we did with them

4:00 What elements make a ship-based campaign different from normal land-based games?

10:00 A ship is freedom … or a hostage situation

14:00 There has to be a reason you get on the boat — extreme freedom, extreme danger, extreme opportunities, etc. — because it would be easier to just stay on land

17:00 Don’t be afraid to let the party off the boat to have land adventures

19:00 An aside about loving Spelljammer

22:00 What do you do if your players aren’t that into a ship-based game?

24:00 The ship should be like a floating lair

29:00 Terrors of the deep: What to challenge your players with in a nautical campaign

40:00 Answering Eric’s question: How would we build a nautical pirate campaign from level 1? Contracts, letters of mark, and real pirate missions

47:00 Nautical campaigns don’t necessarily have to be pirates, they can be explorers, traders, treasure hunters, etc.

50:00 Final thoughts