Its no secret that Dave Arneson was a big fan of Naval War Games and included such elements into Blackmoor too. Have you used Naval Adventures in your medieval fantasy games? What are some ideas for such games? How do you make sure everyone has fun in this type of adventures?

-Havard

I've been playing in a Greyhawk game for the past two years, and while we haven't had any full-scale naval warfare, our party has needed to travel by ship and boat on a number of occasions. This has led to quite a few fun and interesting encounters and challenges, and Blackmoor's many lakes and waterways would provide many opportunities for similar experiences.

The most eventful occurence was when we were traveling by sea off the Wild Coast, and we came under attack by another ship. In an ill-fated effort to take out a number of the invaders, one of the PCs casted fireball, caught the ship on fire, and we all had to abandon ship and struggle to survive. We lost a fair bit of equipment in the process, and we later instituted a new rule: no fire aboard ships! :P

Later, we had to build a large raft out of downed trees near a ruined city, so we could travel down river to our next destination and escape trouble. We managed to get the raft afloat with some skill checks, but during our trip, we saw a dragon strafing the mainland with lightning in the distance and seemingly searching for us. We had to abandon the raft, take cover in the brush, and flee overland. We were simply too visible and too vulnerable out on the river.

We've also had encounters with river monsters, and we've had to make some potentially dangerous travel across a massive lake to get to crucial next step in our search for a lich and its phylactery. Thankfully, we were able to hire a ship with a large crew of mercenaries to accompany us.

These are the sorts of thing that should be fairly common in Blackmoor. There are many more lakes and rivers there, so it seems inevitable that PCs will need to travel frequently by boat, and that creates many potential hazards.

Also, some of the published materials hint at potential water-based adventures. For example, there is a mysterious aquatic lycanthrope living in the channel and river at Dirk's Cove. Travelers are warned to be wary of boatmen offering unsolicited assistance in this area." If PCs investigate, they may encounter the wererats that are said to infest the point jutting out into the cove from the mainland noth of Jackport.

Obviously, the waters near the Realm of Coot must be dangerous. Ships have a hard time passing around the Breakers during the stormy season, but then you have the threat of the Egg's forces or thralls. And the Skandaharians raid the eastern shores of Blackmoor quite frequently, so that would offer many opportunities for naval adventures to defend the shores, make preemptive strikes, or track the raiders back to their homeland.

Protecting or attacking river barges to defend trade, keep goods from flowing to the Afridhi, or defeat thieves and criminals could also be good fodder for adventures.

I recall adventures where we traveled by ship and the trip was the adventure sometimes. Bob Meyer had a character that was a ship captain. I remember adventures on the rivers around Blackmoor with his ship. Privateering wasn't unheard of. Sea battles with the Skandaharians or a naval element for countering their raids (or being one of their raiders).

Nt sure if this viewtopic.php?f=75&t=8647 can be qualified as a naval adventure, as it is on canoes...