Nautical Campaign?

[kato13]

Raellus 07-02-2008, 05:50 PM Has anyone run a sea-based campaign before? How'd it go? I'd love to hear about it.


It just sounds like it would be fun. I run a boat-based campaign but the poor PCs are pretty much stuck on a river, making it terribly linear at times. I think a sea-based campaign would give the PCs a whole lot of freedom while providing lots of interesting campaign scenarios. And by sea-based, I mean just a coast-hopping type deal in a converted motor-yacht or something.


Pirates, smugglers, struggling shoreside communities to help (or plunder), derelict offshore oil rigs, storms, ghost ships...


The possibilities are almost endless.


Anything to add?


Note: I know that there are a couple of sea-based adventure modules out there already but none of them really resonate with me.

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Law0369 07-02-2008, 07:32 PM Star of India with Marines and navy out 0f the special warfare area in coronado. make the game Rae

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Hangfire7 07-02-2008, 11:20 PM That would be sweet! To use the Star or any of the smiliar original or replica sailing or even paddlewheel ships that are out there.


I had one a few years back in 03 I beleive. But it was based in 1700 and the PCs were privateers bent on looting the ships plying the Spanish Colonies in the New World. Twilight 1700? But the premis was basicaly the idea you were thinking of, a group of adventurers who were going to attack badguys ships in the main sailing routes, and hitting the settlements and colonies up and down the coast.

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Law0369 07-03-2008, 05:24 AM The star is great metal hull ,sail and around Marines and sailors of an elite level. going up and down the pacific coast raiding Mexican strongholds. or far flug adventures to the west or east.

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simonmark6 07-03-2008, 12:43 PM I played through the Pirates of the Caribbean module and it was gret fun. The campaign centred around liberating Grenada from the Cubans and trying to quell the pirates on the other islands.


Given the vulnerability of the USS Constitution to weapons the pirates carried, we avoided sea engagements and tried to take out the bases. It was a really fun game with lots of opportunities for large and small scale adventures. I'd reccomend the scenario to anyone.

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Raellus 07-03-2008, 09:45 PM Star of India...


Been aboard her. That would be a very interesting PC vehicle!

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Law0369 07-04-2008, 07:50 AM When I was at pendleton went abord a couple of times great craft.

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Hangfire7 07-04-2008, 01:32 PM Back in 92 I beleive I had a portion of my campaign where my PCs returned from Europe they had some nautical adventures until they got to Texas and we started the campaign Lne Star/Red Star.


The PCs missed the boat, they did manage to book passage on a steam ship converted to coal that was following the convoy carrying personal items that were contraband as well as other unauthorized goods, basicaly they joined a ship of smugglers. The ship however off the SW US encountered a sailboat loaded with a few antitank missiles and some auto cannons and proceeded to blow their vessel apart.


The PCs did three things, DIE, some manned their vessels weapons, lower quality anti tank weapons and medium machineguns they did not man the main gun mount basicaly a turret from a T-72 mounted on their vessel. That was blown to pieces in the initial salvo.


A couple of the PCs tried to board the vessle one of the two zodiaks the smugglers sent to board their attackers. 1 was peppered with machingun fire and was left awash with airpockets and many wounded and a few unwounded clinging to the sections of raft that remained inflated. They were fighting one another, even killing one another to survive.


The PCs took ALOT of fire too and barely made it, one of their number did manage to board the sailboat and he took out one crewman then another two who were manning a machinegun racking the men in the water. The PCs stripped most of their gear and a few other crewmen too for NPCs, and managed to swim to the sail boat. They with the help of their man aboard gained the ship and a brief fight ensured but the party took the sailboat. Their origianl vessel was totaly aflame so they had no where to return to.


The PCs now had a new sailboat with only a few bullet holes. They did damage control as best they cook, surveyed their stores and began to make for land.


They landed at a small island off the US coast and found a sheltered cove where they anchored. They then took shelter in the ruins of an abandoned Spanish fort while they waited out a storm.


They then refitted their boat as best they could, reprovishioned with what little they could find on the island, but they did get fresh water. And then they decied where to go.


From there, the PCs sailed around Fla <where we played the campaign that took place in Fla against New America, I forgot the name of the module> It was the PCs first encounter with New America. They made freinds with the seminoles who after helping them fight the New American forces they resupplied them. Then the PCs sailed to the gulf of mexico and on to Texas and Red Star Lone Star where one of their number is lost at sea. Another is lost but rescued. The PCs then encounter assorted badguys in a bar, a ship comes in with one of their lost members who rejoins them. They then begin getting involved in the meat of the campaign and that was pretty much the end of their sailing with the exception of using it to hit the oil rig. And after that, the campaign pretty much came to a close.


We had made plans to have the PCs from their go on to the Satelight Down campaign, again using their sail boat to make for mexico.


However, I did do plans for a lighthouse assault in another campaign that would have been geared for PCs with naval backgrounds.

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Gen.Lee 07-06-2008, 06:46 PM I can't say that I have. I ran the Vistula River and Grenada modules, of course.


While reading these, though, maybe we are overlooking the Great Lakes of North America as a place to play. Even without US-Canada fighting, you could do a lot.


Lake trade would be pretty important, and thus open to piracy. Marauders in a few sailboats could become Lake-Vikings, terrorizing lakeside farming communities. New America might open a cell in Upper Peninsula Michigan, since that's pretty isolated. There are a few cities that might not be too nuked-- Chicago, Cleveland, Toledo, Detroit, Erie, Buffalo for some. If so, that's place that would need a lot of food shipped in, and that would need protection.

Re-opening the St. Lawrence Seaway might be a big deal, as would running the Niagara Falls hydroelectic generating stations. Civgov, Milgov and the Canadians would all want control over that! Not to mention NA and some state governments.

OH, and that leaves out the French! Don't they still have working ships and oil access? Will they send feelers to Quebec, and offer them a chance to rejoin the new Empire?



Just beware the gales of November on Superior!

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thefusilier 07-06-2008, 10:10 PM I was putting together a Eastern Canadian collection of guides before I had to take a break (it was growing way too big for me to keep up with). DeaconR was helping me out and it had a strong maritime operations feel to it. This included some aspects Gen.Lee mentioned about the St.Lawrence as well.


Some day I'll complete it and hope to put it to the test. A non-linear nautical campaign is very interesting to me.

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Matt Wiser 07-07-2008, 04:54 PM Not exactly a completely nautical campaign, but our group's trip from Germany to Israel on a pair of hijacked (or commandeered, depending on your POV) Frosch-class LSTs was done pretty well. Made the trip thru the Channel at night to avoid the French, and tried to skirt the English Coast. The trip thru the Atlantic past the Bay of Biscay and around Spain and Portugal was largely uneventful, but was livened up by having a land-lubber for a ship's cook attack the German Master Chief with a meat cleaver after the later reprimanded him for dumping garbage overboad during the Channel run. (the cook, really an assistant cook, was hanged from the yardarm)


Going into the Med was a little hairy: the locals on the Moroccan and Algerian side have rediscovered the joys of Barbary-style Piracy, and a few of the pirates/fishermen had to be sunk. The trip between Tunisia and Sicily was also exciting-some of the Sicilians have also discovered the joys of piracy, and a couple more sinkings resulted. Past Libya and Egypt, not much, though some captured pirates were fed to the sharks after proper court-martials. An IDF patrol boat found us west of Tel Aviv, and we put in at Ashkelon, south of Tel Aviv, told the Israelis we were on our way from Europe to join CENTCOM, and the crews of the LSTs, with no way back to Germany, were pleased at settling down in a country with little direct war damage. IMI refitted and repaired our vehicles, and then it was a road trip thru Jordan and Iraq to Iran.

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firewalker 07-08-2008, 11:58 PM Anther good place for this kind of deal would be the Chesapeake. Plenty of water….lot’s and lot’s of little creaks/coves/inlets/irascible water men and what not.

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Headquarters 07-21-2008, 01:45 PM currently running a high seas campaign with our group.


party is on a quest you might say to blow up MilGov Command ship thusly thwarting the upcoming invasion of their little sescessionist dictatorship.on the way rthey have dodged milgov ships in the pacific ,gotten into scraps with the french and polynesians ,being hunted by a special USN detachment with a few guys that would be tried for war crimes if they had not been so valuable when hunting targets,gotten on the bad side of the aussies and are currently posing as a traveling whorehouse on a boat in manila-just hundred miles away from their quarry after 15000 km of travel.


GM experiences: huge need for pre made npcs,and settlement/gov stats ,maps etc .google earth is invaluable.imagine having to come up with dodgy npcs,the info on every place they visit and all sorts of encounters etc .


the tables in the books come in handy again and stockpiles of pre written stuff too.


on the other hand -having a motley crew travelling around on a ship all alone against everyone ,pursued by powerful enemies,trying to scrape up means to repair and upgrade,rstock etc ,doing odd jobs and small missions on the side on the way towards the ultimate goal...or is it..?


A lot of freedom-abandonded ships,oilrigs,islands, pirates,pirate hunters,all the dodgies of a slimy port -smuggling -run ins with authorities.."dont worry -this ship is the fastest on this side of the 38 parallell.."

hehe..


loads of fun


and oh yeah - there are a few little tidbits that might help on our site under ships and npcs..

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General Pain 07-28-2008, 03:37 AM currently running a high seas campaign with our group.


party is on a quest you might say to blow up MilGov Command ship thusly thwarting the upcoming invasion of their little sescessionist dictatorship.on the way rthey have dodged milgov ships in the pacific ,gotten into scraps with the french and polynesians ,being hunted by a special USN detachment with a few guys that would be tried for war crimes if they had not been so valuable when hunting targets,gotten on the bad side of the aussies and are currently posing as a traveling whorehouse on a boat in manila-just hundred miles away from their quarry after 15000 km of travel.


GM experiences: huge need for pre made npcs,and settlement/gov stats ,maps etc .google earth is invaluable.imagine having to come up with dodgy npcs,the info on every place they visit and all sorts of encounters etc .


the tables in the books come in handy again and stockpiles of pre written stuff too.


on the other hand -having a motley crew travelling around on a ship all alone against everyone ,pursued by powerful enemies,trying to scrape up means to repair and upgrade,rstock etc ,doing odd jobs and small missions on the side on the way towards the ultimate goal...or is it..?


A lot of freedom-abandonded ships,oilrigs,islands, pirates,pirate hunters,all the dodgies of a slimy port -smuggling -run ins with authorities.."dont worry -this ship is the fastest on this side of the 38 parallell.."

hehe..


loads of fun


and oh yeah - there are a few little tidbits that might help on our site under ships and npcs..


Apart from beeing called a dictator I agree with everything u just wrote...... In my belief General Pain is like Germany - Ambitious and Misunderstood.

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SongofWar 08-03-2008, 03:19 AM I've always thought that the cyclone-class "patrol combatant" would make a good base of operations for a PC group.


http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ship/pc-1.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclone_class_patrol_ship


Also, a pretty good photo tour of one here:


http://www.specialoperations.com/Nav.../Tour_Main.htm



Obviously, it depends if you want to give the party such a vessel, but it'd be great in a coastal campaign, raiding settlements along the coast, hunting pirates, whatever.


Thoughts?

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Targan 08-03-2008, 05:48 AM I've always thought that the cyclone-class "patrol combatant" would make a good base of operations for a PC group.I agree and so do two of my players whose characters are USN SEALs. I haven't been so kind as the GM to give them access to one though.

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DeaconR 08-03-2008, 06:52 PM Hangfire, that sounds like a really exciting game!


A phase of my campaign was maritime when my pcs were working for the CDC. Basically they were assigned to reestablish the labs on Plum Island and so they had to take an armed NOAA ship with scientists and researchers with them. The first adventure mostly involved them dealing with pirates around New York.


Gen. Lee a Great Lakes campaign could be so awesome--we'd have to do a lot of our own work like Fusilier's to make it happen since so little was published about the area.


"hanged from a yardarm" Matt? Makes you think of Horatio Hornblower. Sounds like it was a good campaign though.


I like the pics btw.

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Matt Wiser 08-03-2008, 09:33 PM He'd better be glad he was just hung for attempted murder. The alternative punishment would have had the guilty party shot in the leg and then tossed over the side. As you all well know, blood attracts sharks....It was a good campaign, and we never touched land the whole cruise.

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