A seafaring campaign is a setting many Dungeons & Dragons players dream about playing through. Though we have published campaign settings for the jungle, dark horror, the Underdark, space, and even the multiverse, you might be surprised to learn that there's no official campaign that focuses on seafaring.
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PostsOf course, there is Ghosts of Saltmarsh. However, that campaign largely focuses on a single portside town and protecting it from incurring outside threats. A true seafaring campaign would be much more of a sandbox where player characters sail from island to island coming across dastardly foes and daring discoveries along the way. Let's look at how to make one.
Underwater Combat And Variant Rules
Dragon Turtle by Dan ScottThe first thing you'll want to do is familiarize yourself and your players with the rules for underwater combat in chapter nine of the Player's Handbook. Firstly, all melee weapon attacks made by creatures that don't have a swimming speed suffer disadvantage unless the attack is made with a dagger, shortsword, javelin, spear, or trident.
Second, ranged weapon attacks also suffer disadvantages inside their normal range unless the weapon is a crossbow, net, or thrown weapon. Ranged attacks made with a weapon's long-distance range automatically miss. Finally, all creatures and objects completely submerged in water have resistance to fire damage.
These rules make character creation a bit more challenging as many of the usual spells and weapons you would pick up, such as fireball or a greataxe, are quite a bit weaker underwater.
Not all combats should be underwater in a seafaring campaign, but many combats should feature underwater areas and some are bound to be entirely underwater.
Aside from underwater combat, you may also want to come up with a handful of variant rules (house rules) for a seafaring campaign. For example, you may want to make drowning a much more likely and deadly scenario as the Rules As Written (RAW) for suffocation make it nearly impossible to die in such a manner.
Other ideas include modifying renown into a morale score for the crew that commands your player characters' ship, reworking the net so that attacks with it don't always have disadvantage, and assigning crew roles to various player characters such as captain, first mate, bosun, cook, etc. as well as responsibilities that come along with these roles.
Use Aquatic Monsters
Ghosts of Saltmarsh Cover Art via Wizards of the CoastNo true seafaring campaign is complete without a menagerie of aquatic monsters. There are tons of great options to choose from too, from simple beasts like sharks, octopi, eels, and more to more exotic monsters such as the sahuagin, kuo-toa, sea hag, marid, and kraken.
You can filter for underwater monsters in the environment section of D&D Beyond.
All of these creatures have a swim speed and can very easily take advantage of this trait when your players find themselves traveling across the open seas. The kraken is a classic BBEG (Big Bad Evil Guy) for any ocean-themed campaign, but a sahuagin king, pirate captain, kuo-toan god, or your own homebrew creation can be just as awe-inspiring.
If you do decide to use a kraken, make sure to give it three uses of legendary resistance. Otherwise, the final fight will be far less than climactic.
Create Island Locations
Island by Sarah FinniganWhile a lot of the campaign might take place on the open ocean, just as much of it should be spent exploring island locales. Each island the PCs (Player Characters) visit can serve as an adventure of its very own and all of them should provide different challenges.
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PostsConsider drawing inspiration from other media sources. For example, the anime, One Piece, is a great place for inspiration regarding island locales, as the protagonists of the show visit volcanic islands, frozen islands, desert islands, haunted islands, and every environment in between.
An island's environment should also greatly influence the kinds of creatures that live there.
For example, a desert island might house temples where mummies from ancient civilizations were long ago buried.
One part of varying islands is making certain that some contain friendly NPCs (Non-Player Characters) and ports or towns where the PCs can meet with regular folk and rest their sea legs. The roleplaying moments these locations provide are great for quest hooks, backstory development, and carrying forward the campaign's overarching plot.
Involve Ship-to-Ship Combat
Ghosts of Saltmarsh by Sidharth ChaturvediWhile Ghosts of Saltmarsh might not involve many seafaring adventures in the module, it does provide some very good ship-to-ship combat rules and stat blocks. These rules found in Appendix A provide stat blocks for different kinds of ships, special actions for ship officers, ship upgrades like dragon sails and explosive rounds, crew morale options, crashing rules, travel rules, and more.
This very same appendix also has tables for random encounters at sea, random ship encounters, and generating islands. On top of that, there are a handful of underwater locations and short underwater adventures you can plug and play in any game.
Ship-to-ship combat can involve as many or as few of the crew as you like. That being said, the rules presented here make for a great starting point if you really want to give the players the feel of being a part of a larger crew inside and outside of combat. Arguably, working together with the ship's crew to overcome a rival ship is the coolest part of running a seafaring campaign.
Venture Into The Depths
Aboleth Spawn by Sam BurleySpeaking of underwater adventures, sallying forth and diving beneath the waves should definitely be a part of any worthwhile seafaring campaign. From shipwrecks to coral reefs to underwater caverns, there's a myriad of options that you can choose from when designing underwater environments.
If you're ever suffering from writer's block when coming up with a fantastic location, open up the Monster Manual and go from there. The creatures that inhabit the ocean often lead to a spark of inspiration despite their rather wet nature.
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PostsBeing near water during combat may be one thing, but being completely submerged in it is a different challenge entirely. This kind of environment allows for thematic spells like water breathing, control water, whirlpool, shape water, and more to shine. Plus,it rewards players who built their characters for the theme of the campaign.
Players love it when their choices during character creation end up mattering in a big way, especially when the choices they've made are rather niche.
Go Overboard With Pirates
Imoen, Mystic Trickster by Alix BranwynA seafaring campaign and the presence of pirates are pretty much synonymous. It's impossible to think of one without thinking of the other. Consequently, we recommend loading any campaign that takes place mostly on the water chock full of pirate crews. The best thing about pirates is that anyone can be one.
What this means as far as game design is that you've got every humanoid stat block in the book to work with and maybe even some beyond humanoids.Lizardfolk, yuan-ti, drow, duergar, kobolds, orcs, and beyond are all perfect pirate crews. The giff in particular, a species of space-faring hippopotamus people, can be super easily ported over to the pirate's life.
Experienced dungeon masters might create crews made up of entirely different species of humanoids. While this can lead to using a lot of different stat blocks simultaneously, it's especially flavorful for a crew of pirates.
The goals of different pirate crews can vary just as much as the species that they're made up of. One crew might be seeking a hidden treasure on a mysterious map. Another crew could have run out of supplies and require a helping hand. Yet another might feign friendship only to backstab the PCs as soon as their guard is down. Differing crew goals keep the pirate experience fresh.
When creating a pirate crew, don't forget to give their ship a colorful name, memorable jolly roger, and unique attributes (like a flamethrower figurehead). Just don't be surprised when your players abandon their own ship to take charge of the ship that formerly belonged to your pirate crew. As they say, imitation is the highest form of flattery.
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