Apparently, Atlantis is boring. This suddenly explains why all of those special entries in the Summon Monster tables that insist on aquatic environments always feel so useless.
However, I want to run a campaign arc set with a lot of action happening underwater in between Sharn and Stormreach. I am looking for anyone to talk about successful sessions, adventures, or campaigns that they have run that have happened mostly underwater so that I can mine them for ideas.
Thanks!
Not in D&D, but I've had some extensive experience with aquatic games, mostly successful. I suggest getting ahold of the Blue Planet RPG and reading up its section on underwater adventuring. Roughly 40% or more of every BP game takes place underwater, so there are a lot of good tips there.
The main thing to keep in mind is to provide terrain, and don't worry too much about oceanographical conceits like light and currents unless the adventure depends on them or there's an unusual character who is designed around mastering them.
As an example, in one Blue Planet game we had to escape from an inescapable island prison, and ended up playing red-light-green-light with the patrol submersibles among a field of seafloor debris. This lasted about half a session, and counts for one of the more memorable experiences I've had in gaming.
I posted a response to this thread this morning, but apparently the "submit post" button is actually a link to my profile.
I had a DM run a campaign that took place almost entirely on the sea. What made it stand out in memory was that there were numerous factions involved. Two rival nations fighting with navys, pirates stirring up trouble between them, an island nation of elves smack in the middle. But as the game went on, singular encounters with aquatic races and monsters revealed that there was just as much going on beneath the waves as there was on the surface. The sahuagin and the tritons had been at war for decades, and the aquatic elves were supplying both sides with surface made weapons and equipment. Of course, the sahuagin were raiding merchant ships to pay for the arms, while the triton prefered to pay by recovering ancient relics from a previous and now submerged empire. The aquatic elven source of the goods? The "neutral" surface elves, of course.
So my first piece of advice is to take what TVtropes says about underwater adventures and correct it: make sure there is as much to see and do underwater as there would be elsewhere. There are plenty of options for factions that dwell below water. Next, take your map of the Straits of Shargon and fill in the blue parts of the map with interesting and unique terrain. Just as you would place mountains, forests, rivers, settlements, temples, and dungeons on a regular campaign map put rises and canyons, areas of thick sea-growth, strong currents, settlements, temples, and dungeons on your campaign map. Fill in the blue.
Last, make sure you control the cop-out methods. If you want the PCs to explore underwater, you can't make it easier to do it other ways. Spells (or rituals) are plenty when it comes to water breathing, water walking, and otherwise skipping the adventure. Depending on how much of that you want, you may need to come up with feasible reasons why the PCs don't resort to them all the time. For example, you can't find underwater landmarks from the surface.
Are you thinking submarines and breath water spells or are the PCs aquatic races?
In another thread, I talked to you about origin Marks. Maybe the Mark of Strom lies in the bottom of the Thunder Sea? Maybe Half-elves aren't the only race with the mark. Aquatic elves might have developepd it?
As for playing it out: Submarines, rituals, magic item sets, breathing potions, polymorph, allies. Or even makes them create new pcs from aquatic races, which are allies to them or mercenary that they hire to do the job for them since they have an obvious advantage. Play out a few sessions, than switch back to their main characters.
Rekko
You can use aquatic creatures as terrain, too. Imagine a fight with sahuagin taking place in the middle of a sardine migration, or a chase sequence that uses the backs of whales instead of roof tops. There's also the cliche of island-sized turtles with villages on their back, but what about one that spends more of its time below the surface than at it? It could be a mobile reef, home to a weird group of nomads who supplement their barnacle farming with the occasional shipwreck.
Sorry-- just brainstorming out loud. Sadly, in two decades of gaming, I don't think any of my groups have had an actual aquatic adventure. I'd love to see one now, though.
Which reminds me - Finding Nemo is a good source of ideas for underwater terrain. Just blow everything up to giant size (giant anemones are a great hazard to replace fire pits) and you're golden.
Perhaps somewhere in the darkest depths (Mariana Trench ) lies an entirely unknown and unimaginable evil. Perhaps a gate to other planes - blah blah- In any event I can see quite a few awesome adventures underwater, and thanks for getting my gears turning toward the subject!
How would the PC communicate with random NPCs they encounter underwater? I guess telepathic races/classes/magical items could come in handy in an aquatic campaign (even the gnome's racial Ghost Sound could be helpful).
Its an interesting topic, just keeping the brainstorming going...
How would the PC communicate with random NPCs they encounter underwater? I guess telepathic races/classes/magical items could come in handy in an aquatic campaign (even the gnome's racial Ghost Sound could be helpful).
Its an interesting topic, just keeping the brainstorming going...
The easiest route for a DM to take would be to make an aquatic creature's default language something the PCs already know. Elven for sea elves, Draconic for scaly creatures, Abyssal for sahuagin, Primordial or Deepspeech for the really benthic creatures. Creatures that regularly deal with surfacers, such as the sahuagin in Dargon's Teeth, have a plausible reason to also speak Common or Giant.
But, that's just for the sake of expediency. If a group really wants to get into it at the table, there's also whalesong...
How would the PC communicate with random NPCs they encounter underwater? I guess telepathic races/classes/magical items could come in handy in an aquatic campaign (even the gnome's racial Ghost Sound could be helpful).
Its an interesting topic, just keeping the brainstorming going...
The easiest route for a DM to take would be to make an aquatic creature's default language something the PCs already know. Elven for sea elves, Draconic for scaly creatures, Abyssal for sahuagin, Primordial or Deepspeech for the really benthic creatures. Creatures that regularly deal with surfacers, such as the sahuagin in Dargon's Teeth, have a plausible reason to also speak Common or Giant.But, that's just for the sake of expediency. If a group really wants to get into it at the table, there's also whalesong...
good suggestions, tho I was more concerned with the *physical* ability to speak while traveling in a water environment.
good suggestions, tho I was more concerned with the *physical* ability to speak while traveling in a water environment.
It's reasonable to assume that any effect that allows a character to breathe underwater would also allow meaningful oral communication. For characters using air-breathing means to get around, some form of divers' sign language might be needed. (Or, as you said, telepathy.)
Sound travels pretty well underwater, after all.
Don't forget manifest zones - they're all over the surface, why wouldn't they be all throughout the ocean, too?
There might be a zone of Syrania that makes the water breathable to surface races and produce a region of interest for everyone. A zone to Irian creates an undersea globe of light, not burning, but bright, effectively a sun in the sea, casting light for a hundred miles. Where Lammania cross into Eberron's oceans, vast forests of kelp swarm with endless life, hunted by weresharks. Where Baator's influence is felt, the sahuagin imperial capital floats.
I like the idea of a zone of Syrania. An area about the size of England, at the bottom of the ocean where everyone can breath freely and swim in the "air" would be a very weird and interesting idea. Which Nation wouldn't want a colony down there especially if Kybershards are as plentiful around the area as Eberonshards are in the Marches.
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Don't forget manifest zones - they're all over the surface, why wouldn't they be all throughout the ocean, too?
There might be a zone of Syrania that makes the water breathable to surface races and produce a region of interest for everyone. A zone to Irian creates an undersea globe of light, not burning, but bright, effectively a sun in the sea, casting light for a hundred miles. Where Lammania cross into Eberron's oceans, vast forests of kelp swarm with endless life, hunted by weresharks. Where Baator's influence is felt, the sahuagin imperial capital floats.
Super. Awesome.
This idea makes any underwater campaign twice as cool.
There is another thread with a similar theme you might find interesting here: http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19557726/Underwater_Campaign