Salt Dog – Ship Build from the Module Voyage to Storm Isle

[milojaggerson]

Actually, the I picked up the module Voyage to Storm Isle for cheap at a local book resale shop with a bunch of other "filler" and "one-shot" adventures. I wanted to run this particular adventure to acclimate the fledgling adventures to the mechanics of combat and movement - A ship seemed like an ideal venue for such a training exercise. That said, the Salt Dog will be making multiple appearances not only in the campaign with the children, but also with a veteran group with whom I adventure.  

I plan to run Ravenloft for both groups, and will be able to work the ship in easily enough.  A merchant vessel like the Salt Dog should not be too difficult to work into the story line, regardless of whether it is used as that ship or not (I am not above renaming the ship or re-purposing my builds). Using a ship to ferry the party from adventure to adventure is actually a very cunning application of the prop.  There are just too many possibilities that can be thought of, but that idea is a wonderfully dynamic addition to the GM's repertoire.   

When the neophyte group reaches the ship's destination of Storm Isle, they will find their way to Barovia in short order.  It is my intention to build a couple of more ships and a few boats to fill out the fleet for ship-to-ship purposes eventually, but their time aboard ship will cease to be a necessity after our next game session.   However, I have no plan to one-shot the ship build; the Salt Dog will be seen again.

[sgtslag]

The idea of using a ship as the PC's base of operations is extremely exciting to me, as a DM. Characters cannot wear heavy, metal armor aboard ship, but neither can anyone else! They can don their heavy, magical armor for land-based ventures, but at sea, everyone has the same Armor Class Hit-Me issue. It would allow sea-based adventures, the PC's can travel across the world map I've made, visiting many different cities, cultures, and peoples...

For the Players, it offers a safe, mobile base, where they can safely store their treasures, with an armed crew to guard it (this would force the PC's to treat their crews well, to maintain their loyalty). They could sail off if/when things get too exciting in any one port of call...

To me, it is a win-win for everyone. It is also very exciting, with innumerable possibilities for everyone. Cheers!

[tauster]

Using a ship as a base makes for awesome campaigns. That's one of the reasons I love the Spelljammer campaign setting so much.

[DnDPaladin]

i never could get off a campaign on the high sea... there is just not enough goodness fr me to work on. i mean the monsters always seems to come back to the same and the adventures also seems to comeback to the same all the time. but i must agree on that one though, really love the boat and i really dig the idea of an adventure with it.

[milojaggerson]

Jun 6, 2016 21:35:05 GMT DnDPaladin said:

i never could get off a campaign on the high sea... there is just not enough goodness fr me to work on. i mean the monsters always seems to come back to the same and the adventures also seems to comeback to the same all the time. but i must agree on that one though, really love the boat and i really dig the idea of an adventure with it.

Even if only used as a story device to ferry the players from one local to the next while keeping any of the water borne hazards out of the plot, this idea of using a ship to move the players around seems like a great shtick.  Thinking about the real-world location of the islands off of the Greek Peloponnese or Macedonian coasts, the Florida Keys, or Polynesia I can easily imagine a campaign set in a regional archipelagos.  Atlantian cities, long-submerged and forgotten could easily be added when interest above the briny blue has subsided.  What abysmal terrors await in the forgotten city of R'lyeh, or lay dormant lodged deep within some forsaken crag occupied by the Kua-toa?




A ship may also serve as a familiar "dungeon" as well: Though it may seem that there isn't much to explore on a ship, the size and shape constraints emphasize design efficiency as well as lends a sense of security to the players (a sense which every GM recognizes can be utilized to great advantage in the story he or she is trying to tell).  From the first time the characters step aboard the vessel, searching out every nook and cranny - because, hey, that's what adventurers do, to the time they find themselves fighting against the giant dragon turtle that wants to sun itself on deck, to the time the party makes a mad dash for the safety of the vessel to seek refuge from the howling aboriginals enraged at the desecration of their village idol, to the port of call inviting with a tavern replete with brawls, intrigue, secret missions, and another grand expedition, a sailing vessel may provide the ideal story transport.

I am inclined to agree with you DnDPaladin, in that I am pretty much a land-lubber as much in reality as in fantasy, but my mind is brewing up some pretty exciting stories that can come from playing in such an alien world, a world that lurks just beneath the gently lapping waters cradling the ship of intrepid explorers.  Whew!  I need a third group to play with so that all these scenarios can get out of my head and told.

[DnDPaladin]

Don't take me wrong, i did create a 3 story high small boat. meaning there was about 5-6 rooms.
small boat really, about 1/4th of yours.
it was fun having it around. i really loved the idea of having them search the boat for many treasures or things like that. so i can truly imagine a way bigger boat. hence why i said i really dig your boat. i would definitely use it for an adventure. but as movies told us, as games told us... underwater adventures are pretty darn hard to get by and not getting the same feeling you'd get from land adventures. you could say put caverns to explore at the bottom of the ocean, but then that would becomes just another regular cavern like the surface ones. travelling on boat... considering the stage not changing because, boat... you end up with the same background for any encounters you would throw at them.

so i think boats are great, but for single adventures. not entire campaign...
i did try a pirate game with friends on saturdays after our friday games. it ended up having 20% on sea, and 80% on lands searching treasures,womens and alccol... get what i mean. we've all seen what a tv show could do with underwater stories by watching Seaquest DSV which was a great show... but seriously plot lines involved rarely employed underwater activities. it was mostly on land (bottom of the sea) or in the boat itself. no wonder they were out of ideas after the first season.

this is all i was saying, not that boat weren't great.
i totally dig the ideas of boat for an adventure. its totally worth it.

i really hope you will do another boat too and just make a sea war between the two of them and then take pictures of the game to show it off. that would also be really awesome !