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.
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10 Interesting Fight Settings
While considering ideas for my Battlegrounds series, I brainstormed a pretty long list. A lot of these ideas aren’t likely to sustain an entire post, though. They’re too limited in one way or another — often, just too reliant on a single, fairly obvious element. However, they still make for memorable fights. Here’s a selection of ten that might provide some inspiration .
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Battlegrounds: Clock Tower
Last time around, I took a look at the alchemist’s lab, a fairly common genre trope, as a potential fight setting. This time, the setting’s not quite as common in fantasy, but it poses some intriguing possibilities. Namely: the clock tower.
If you’ve ever played Castlevania or watched Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro, you probably have an inkling of where this is headed: a standoff between the party and their opponents that takes place amid the mechanism of a very large clock. Or any large mechanism, really. Gears and chains and pendulums; pistons and pulleys and chimes — it’s all good.
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Battlegrounds: Alchemist’s Lab
Interesting locations are important in fourth edition D&D. The rules are such that movement in combat is emphasized — and movement in a large empty room or a flat open field can get repetitive pretty quickly. It beats standing still and swinging away, but it’s the terrain that shapes a fight and helps make it memorable.
My goal with the battlegrounds series is to present set pieces that can be adapted to serve as battle settings in any campaign whose gamemaster feels it’s appropriate to include such a location.
As I’m envisioning it currently, a given location does not present a full-blown encounter. The GM will need to map the area to his satisfaction and stock it with monsters or NPCs. My purpose here is to consider things that could be done with the setting itself in order to make a fight in the location more interesting.
My question to readers who’d care to comment: Is this more useful, or less useful, than a designated pregenerated encounter? I could easily do it the other way…
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