Battlegrounds: On Deck

It’s been a little while since I’ve taken a look at battlegrounds.  This post is long overdue, having been in draft stage for over two months now.  So for the comeback post, I’ll be taking a look at a setting fairly common to fantasy roleplaying games:  aboard a ship.

Shipboard combat is a staple of some genres.  Any pirate-themed or nautical campaign will feature plenty of them.  Standard fantasy characters often have reason for a voyage on the high seas at some point during the campaign, as well.  Even if they’re inclined to stick to land, there’s always the possibility of Viking-style raiders pillaging coastal towns.  For the purposes of this article, I’m going to consider mostly larger seagoing ships, but many of the same considerations could apply to smaller boats.

The first thing to take into account for any shipboard combat is the water.  Deep water is very dangerous terrain to those who swim poorly — and, obviously, to those who weigh themselves down with equipment or armor.  Falling overboard while wearing the more complex metal armor, such as plate, is likely a death sentence, unless the character has access to some form of magic that might save him.  Even lighter armor would need to be shed quickly.  Bulky backpacks and cloaks are not a swimmer’s friend, nor are heavy weapons.  Exposure to water will render bowstrings unusable.

The water poses other hazards too.  In the sea, or a large lake, it may be choppy, calling for balance checks.  A wet deck can be slippery, too, making a bad storm doubly dangerous.  It may be infested with monsters — whether mundane beasts such as sharks or more fantastic threats such as kraken, dragon turtles, or sahaugin.  It may hide mundane dangers such as reefs.  In colder climates, a storm increases the risks of exposure — it’s simply impossible to stay dry and warm while participating in the kinds of shipboard tasks a storm demands of the crew.

Outside of storm conditions or combat, luckily, there’s little chance of a character being thrown overboard.  A ship is quite a big place.  It’s also somewhat crowded in places, though, and that’s what can make for some interesting fights.

Cutaway view of a pirate ship. Not entirely accurate or to scale, but still a decent overview.

To the right is a cutaway view of a pirate ship, apparently designed for use with Atlas Games’ Furry Pirates RPG.  (It’s out of print, but if you can find it, it’s a good resource for shipboard combat and naval campaigns.)  This is a larger, three-post ship; smaller ships might have only two masts, lacking the mizzenmast.

While it’s not entirely accurate, this image gives a decent idea what you might be dealing with on a ship.  There’s not a single flat deck, but a number of decks at different levels.  In the swashbuckling tradition, a fight could range from the main deck up to the quarter deck or forecastle, into the ratlines, and back again.

Elaborate rigging on a three-mast ship

However, that image doesn’t show the sails and rigging, which can be quite elaborate, particularly on a three-mast ship, as seen to the left.

Obviously, there’s a lot of rope around, and this presents great opportunities for adding a new dimension to the fight.  Characters might be clambering among the ropes gripping daggers in their teeth, chasing or running from enemy boarders.  They might slice through a rope and use it to swing into action — or try to entangle an opponent.  If a line snaps, it could swing about the deck, presenting a hazard… and perhaps even bring a sail down, or send a boom swinging about.  And if enough sails are thrown off-kilter, the ship might be in danger of foundering.

Other possible elements for a shipboard fight scene:

The Hatch. It’s a little hard to see in the pirate ship cutaway above, but there’s a hatch on the main deck above the cargo hold.  Many ships feature such hatches, which, with some mechanical assistance, make loading and unloading cargo easier.  They’re typically secured (and in bad weather, may be “battened down” — reinforced with wood strips and caulked to keep out moisture), but if they should come open during a fight, there’s suddenly a large pit in the middle of the main deck, dropping to the deck below (or perhaps all the way to the cargo hold).  Freeing or securing the hatch takes at least one standard action and provokes opportunity attacks.

The Masts. The masts can provide cover, of course, but they can also add an element of threat to an encounter:  a massive creature such as a kraken, or a force such as a siege weapon or certain magical spells, might risk damaging one.  Such damage will cause a reduction in the ship’s speed, at the very least, and may imperil the vessel — perhaps risking capsizing.

The Sails. The sails are also a potential target for adversaries such as pirates.  Made of canvas, they’re very fragile, and can also be prone to catching fire.  If such a thing should happen, sailors would need to climb the lines and cut away the sail, or risk the ship catching fire.  Characters with access to fire-based magic should use it very carefully, so as not to endanger the ship.  Cold can also be a threat, if ice starts to form on the lines.

The sails are controlled by adjusting the various lines.  If some hazard presents itself during combat, the characters could find themselves having to scramble to set the lines as directed, while fending off attacks.

Ships typically carry a store of sail canvas and rope, and can repair damage to the sail and lines to some extent after a fight (or a bad storm).  Of course, such stores are not infinite.  Once a ship’s stores are depleted, it’s left very vulnerable to further damage.  A ship that finds itself without sail is in serious trouble if land is very distant.

The key to an interesting shipboard fight is to keep things in motion.  Two sides lining up to trade blows on a calm sea is no different than those two sides doing the same in an open field.  But if members of those sides are dealing with a heaving deck (balance check each round, or it’s difficult terrain — failure by more than a certain threshold means falling prone) and driving rain (concealment) while leaping from the foredeck to attack an enemy or bull-rushing an opponent over the rail or down the open hatch, things get a lot more interesting.  Likewise if the enemy is launching flaming arrows into the ship’s sails while their boarders try keep the PCs where they are, away from the archers.

As a practical consideration, you need to keep in mind that the PCs and any non-monstrous enemies they face will probably not be as difficult to hit as they normally are, because heavy armor will be rarer at sea.  In good weather, a soldier might still don armor if he can, but in chancier times, anything heavier than leather armor or perhaps a chainmail hauberk is unlikely to be worn on deck.  Shields, however, might still be used, since they’re easily discarded.  If the PCs are relatively unarmored, then it takes a smaller attack bonus to pose a threat to them — or a smaller damage amount, since more hits will be getting through.  You might need to play this by ear.

If a character does choose to wear heavy armor, he might be a prime target for being bull-rushed or otherwise forcibly moved off of the ship.  If the ship’s rails are intact, you might choose to give a bonus to the saving throw to fall prone at the edge.  If conditions are particularly bad (storm), you might give a penalty.  Try not to spring this unexpectedly, though — if there are NPC sailors, they’d most likely warn the character ahead of time about this potential deathtrap.

If facing monsters who can breathe water, it’s likely that a favored tactic will be to drag the characters overboard.  Players (and knowledgeable NPCs) should show caution in such circumstances.

Flying monsters might be an interesting encounter; they provide an excuse for staging a fight among the lines.  Balance or climbing checks would be very important to such a fight, and a fall to the deck would be quite painful — but perhaps preferable to a fall into the ocean.

If the party faces pirates, determine their motivation first.  Many pirates will show quarter to those who surrender, as it makes the looting easier — they’ll take valuable cargo that can be quickly moved, as well as supplies like rope, canvas, food, and alcohol, but they’ll leave enough food and water for the crew to make the nearest port.  Since the crew usually doesn’t own the cargo, they’re often inclined to surrender if they know they’ll be spared.  On the other hand, a particularly bloodthirsty pirate or a privateer might show “no quarter” — meaning that the crew will be slaughtered (or perhaps taken captive to be sold as slaves) and their ship taken or sunk.  These sorts of pirates typically have a fearsome reputation, and might be used to encourage the PCs to step up to protect the crew of the ship, who may well not be trained fighters.

The sailing ship is the backdrop for many a memorable scene in movies and literature.  Give a little thought to the environment, and it can be equally memorable for your game, whether it’s a lighthearted swashbuckling pirate adventure or a grim struggle against monsters in the icy north.

Related posts:

1. Battlegrounds: Alchemist’s Lab
2. Battlegrounds: Clock Tower
3. Hanging in the Balance