Marine

Note: Encounters while traveling on a ship or boat can be very exciting but also potentially very dangerous. If a monster were to pull a heavily armored fighter into the water he would be in dire danger of dying a very unheroic death. PC’s traveling on-board a ship or boat should plan their spells and equipment carefully before beginning such a journey in order to be able to respond most effectively to encounters sure to come.

Description: The following events are applicable if the PC’s are traveling on a ship or boat for an extended duration.

Recommended Frequency: One time every two hours, whenever PC’s travel more than 10 minutes, or whenever the GM desires.

Weather or Terrain Event

As always, if a particular roll does not make sense or apply in your scenario, reroll or choose a better or more interesting one.

Event	Effect
01-15
16-30	Coldsnap
31-32
–
33-47	Fog bank
–
–	Fire on board
48-62	Heatwave
63-72
73-74	Hurricane
75-83
–
–
–
–
–	Snow/thunderstorm
84-98
–
99-00	Underwater volcanic eruption

Marine Encounters Roll on the “close” column when the shore is visible. Otherwise, roll on the Deep Sea column.

Close	Deep Sea	# Appearing	Result
01-11	01	1-8	Merchant ship, small
12-20	02-05	1-4	Merchant ship, medium
21-26	06-25	1-2	Merchant ship, large
27-31	26-45	varies	Merchant fleet (2-8 medium ships with an escort of 1 small warship per two merchant vessels)
32-38	46-49	1	Pirates (10% chance a fleet of 1d4 vessels)
39-45	50-53	1	Privateer (15% chance a fleet of 1d4 vessels)
46-56	54	1-6	Fishermen (in fishing boats)
57-61	55-58	1	Refugees (in a small cargo ship)
62-68	59-78	1-6	Small warship
69-72	79-82	1-3	Medium warship
73-74	83	1-2	Large warship
75	84	varies	War Fleet (2d4 small, 1d6 medium, and 1d3 large warships)
76	85	1	Plagueship (roll again to determine vessel type; victims on board are all dead or dying of plague, and will have a plague flag run up the mast 90% of the time)
77	86	1	Ghost ship (roll again to determine type; 01-40 = unoccupied, 41-80 = skeleton or zombie crew, 81-00 = draug crew)
78	87-90	1	Aquatic trade group (roll on table x to determine race; they seek trade with surface ships, and will not instigate an attack)
79	91	1	Adventurers (1d8 members rolled on the NPC adventurer tables 8-x, running a small warship with a seasoned crew)
80-84	92-95	1	Slave ship (currently has 2d20 slaves on board; 25% likely to have an escort of 1-2 small warships)
85-95	96-99	1-6	Cargo/supply ship (90% protected by 1-2 small warships per cargo ship)
96-00	00	1	Pleasure yacht (owned by an aristocrat who enjoys sailing; deep sea yachts will always be escorted by 1-2 small warships)