Naval Random Events

Most random event tables work only for land travel. Let's brainstorm some random events that could happen while sailing.

Other urls found in this thread:

dndspeak.com/2017/12/100-sea-travel-events/
annarchive.com/files/Dungeon Magazine #046.pdf
twitter.com/SFWRedditVideos

To seed the thread:

>Land ho! An island that is not on your charts is spotted ahead.
>A stowaway is discovered in the hold.
>A sailor is found dead, apparently murdered. Was it the first mate, with the boarding axe, on the forecastle?

>The wind dies, leaving you adrift!
>Carelessness on the part of the cook allows much of your provisions to rot, starvation is close at hand!
>FIRE! FIRE! The panicked calls of the crew curdle your stomach as awake you in the night.

How are these?

Is there any situation where the party's response to 2 isn't going to be "eat the cook"?

Sahuagin Pirates are boarding the ship, breaking holes in the hull and attaching anchors to the sides of the ship to drag it down.

I have little to add, but I'll bump the thread with the dubiously interesting fact that, presuming that is an English Caravel from the 16th century, the Port side should be referred to as larboard, as Port didn't become the term for that side of the boat until the 19th century.

For orders at the helm port&starboard were used, to avoid confusion, but in all other cases that would have been referred to as the larboard side.

> Siren songs start to be heard through the ship. Roll your will saves and stop the crew from stearing into the reefs.

dndspeak.com/2017/12/100-sea-travel-events/

I guess not user, good point.

>There's a red sky this morning, but you're already out to sea and there's no time to take warning.
>The Gods favor your voyage! Wind and tide have cooperated to shorten your journey considerably!
>A flash of green flares out in the night, St. Elmo's fire!
>Holes are appearing in the bottom of the ship, so far the carpenter has been able to plug them but you'll need to get to the bottom of this before he runs out of supplies!
>A pod of dolphins seems to have taken a liking to the ship, but for how long will they stay?
>Disaster! In a drunken rage the Bosun has slain an Albatross!

> Saint Elmos fire manifests on the ship.

Suddenly... tentacles

Swordsaged.

NO! FUCK YOU BOSUN!
YOU HAVE DOOMED US AAAAAALL!

Castaway in a lifeboat is spotted.
Abandoned cargo is spotted.
Encounter a neutral ship going the opposite way.
Encounter a neutral ship going the opposite way with pirates in pursuit.
Encounter an enemy ship going the opposite way.
Encounter an enemy ship going the same way.
Encounter an enemy ship with their sails destroyed.
Innumerable uncharted islands.
Miniature hurricane.
Small volcanic eruption.
A seal is pulled up in the nets.
A treasure chest is pulled up in the nets and the crew is arguing over who gets it.
A corpse is pulled up in the nets.
A school of fish passes close by.
A pod of dolphins passes close by.
A whale rams the ship.
Man overboard.
Crewmember accuses another of stealing.
Crewmember fight breaks out.
Crewmember invents a new song.
Crewmember goes crazy.
Crewmember gains or loses a religion.
Crewmember swears he hears a voice coming from the water.
Captain loses something and cancels dinner until it is found.
Weapon misfires during cleaning.
Crewman falls from the mast.
Crewmen are faking illness to avoid work.
Ship's doctor makes mistake and crewman dies.
Crew forms impromptu tournament for darts/cards/wrestling.
Dip a sail into the ocean for the monthly crew bath.
Rough waves gives crew seasickness.
Piece of the wheel/flag/figurehead falls off, a terrible omen.
Crew finds cat/seagull/owl hidden in ship.
Crew finds corpse of stranger hidden in ship, murdered.
Crew discovers hidden compartment in ship.
First mate is extorting crewmembers without captain knowledge.
Ship's musician violin breaks.
Storm coming from in front. Batten down the hatches.
Storm coming from behind. Outrun it.
Distant typhoon spotted. Avoid it for safety or get closer for wind speed.
Uncharted reef.
Crew fishes up unidentified sea creature.
Crew fishes up enormous shark/swordfish/clam.
Crew forms a new superstition.

>A Mischievous spirit has taken up abode aboard, its antics have resulted in flaring tempers and a host of small injuries but it protects its playground against others of its kind.
>A Malevolent spirit has taken up abode aboard, inviting ruin unless you can convince to to leave!
>A benevolent spirit has taken up abode aboard, good fortune will be yours if you can convince it to stay!

Why is this ship so ridiculously short and fat? It's not going to make any speed at all with a hull like that. Inefficient as heck.

...

The front falls off.

but who will cook the cook?

hmmm, but in what enviroment?

bump for sailing.

any good rpg about life at sea?

The cook probably knows how to make cannibalism taste good

Huh! Today I learned something new.

I know there's 7th Sea, but the rules take a lot of getting used to.

I'm going to be running a D&D game, but with these naval rules tacked on.

I am running a One Piece rpg. Thanks for the ideas.

Heard good things about Poison'd, but havnt had a chance to flip through it. PDF related

These are great.

General age of sail thread?

kek

>Party sees an Albatross flying alongside the ship
>the next day a fog descends, throwing your ability to navigate off
>The only thing you can see is an Albatross
>this goes on for days

I'm strongly leaning toward a high seas setting next campaign, and already know that "Oh look! A previously unmentioned island!" is going to see quite a bit of use.

Some things I had in mind:

>You stumble across signs of treasure by chance, mere moments before another ship arrives seeking the very same haul.

>You are marooned on a dismal rock of an isle, and if you hope to leave you must please its sole resident, the surly ghost of a black-hearted sailor that drank himself to death.

>Fabled ancient ruins turn out to be the remains of a lich's experiment facility, forgotten by all save its lone resident who toils away in his master's absence.

Here are all ones that I have used in my game. We had an arc that needed 2 weeks of sea travel to complete.

>During a bad storm one night, the ship begins to rock to and fro violently. A deckhand informs you that the main sail has come unfurled and the hurricane-like winds threaten to shiver the mast unless something is done quickly.

>The next morning after the storm, you spot a woman clinging to debris floating in the ocean. (The woman is actually a sea nymph who has magically disguised herself as a beautiful human woman. A favorite past time of hers is to be taken aboard sailing ships and flirt/carouse with all of the men on board. She has an involuntary charm effect that triggers whenever any male looks at her. After a few days of fun, the nymph blesses any people who showed her a good time with good luck before revealing her true nature and diving back into the ocean. And if anyone was mean to her, she curses them with bad luck.)

The above works really well if you have any female PCs (or players).

>You spot a small vessel that barely looks seaworthy. Its sail is a sewn together patchwork of different colors. The hull is shoddily repaired and has obvious planks that have been nailed to the outside. The crew of this ship, 7 goblins, look haggard and hungry. Two of them can be spotted with buckets tossing water back into the ocean due to a slow leak in the bottom of their ship. Another one, obviously the captain, wears a colorful boot on his head and wields a small saber. He waves his sword away, as if telling you to stay away from his ship....You spot a small chest sitting beneath a bench on the goblin vessel.


There was also a cool bugbear encounter I saw in an old Dungeon magazine article. I never got to run it because my players got way too invested in the nymph encounter. I'll try to find it and post it here as well.

Found the Bugbear naval encounter one.

annarchive.com/files/Dungeon Magazine #046.pdf

It starts on pg 24. (pg 26 of the PDF)

Some mad bastard has nicked the main steering gear!

>Ctrl+F 'kraken'
>0 results
Good work boys