Open Ocean

Open Ocean
---=XEON=---, CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons

Deep blue water far from any coast, with no landmark but the sky. The swell is long and slow, the wind rarely stops, and the air smells of nothing but salt, with no land, weed or smoke in it. Its life comes in bursts: schools of tuna and flying fish, whales, sharks and the albatrosses and petrels that ride the wind for weeks. Ships cross it for weeks, steering by the stars and the sun, and whalers follow its great beasts from one ocean to another. Sailors fear the storm with no harbour to run to, the calm that leaves them without water, and going overboard where nobody will ever find them. The middle of the Pacific, thousands of leagues from any shore, is ocean of this kind.

Hear it

For the table

Ground
At sea: Sailing ship: 77 km a day, Warship: 96 km a day, Galley: 154 km a day, Longship: 115 km a day
Water
scarce
Foraging
poor

Hazards

  • Storm at sea. The wind rises for hours, the sea builds into grey hills and the crew reefs the sails or runs before it. No one sleeps dry; the ship goes where the storm sends it, not where the chart says.
  • Rain squall. A black wall of rain walks across the water and swallows the ship. For an hour the bow cannot be seen from the stern.
  • Becalmed. Not a breath of wind. The sails hang, the sea turns to oil, the sun beats on the deck and the water casks go down while the ship goes nowhere.
  • Rogue wave. Out of an ordinary sea comes one wave twice the height of the rest, a moving wall. It can stave in a hull, carry away boats and men, and lay a ship on her side.
  • Waterspout. A grey funnel drops from a squall cloud to the sea and walks across the water, roaring. It can strip a ship’s rigging in a moment.
  • Water running low. The casks are low, or one has gone foul. Sea water only makes thirst worse; the crew is put on short water and watches the sky for rain.
  • Short rations. Weevils in the biscuit, rats in the stores, a voyage longer than planned. The purser cuts the ration and the crew grumbles.
  • Scurvy. After a month or two on salt meat and biscuit, gums swell and bleed, old wounds open again and the strongest sailors can barely climb. Fresh fruit and greens cure it within days.
  • Man overboard. A green sea sweeps the deck, or a foot slips at the rail, and someone is in the water. By the time the ship comes about, the swimmer is a dot among the waves.
  • The long swim. Far from land the water is cold below the surface and there is nothing to hold on to. Someone left swimming out here tires by the hour.
  • Sea ice and icebergs. In cold seas a white island drifts, nine tenths of it under water, and loose pack ice grinds along the hull. At night or in fog it comes out of nowhere.
  • Frigid water. In cold seas a fall overboard is a race against the cold. The swimmer loses the use of hands, then of legs, long before drowning.
  • Sea fog. A white fog lies on the water. Bells and shouts carry strangely, another ship can loom up a cable away, and the coast is wherever the lead line says it is.
  • Seasickness. Landsmen turn green the first days out, or when the sea gets up. Most find their sea legs in two or three days; a few never do.

D&D 5e

Plays as
waterborne, by the ship pace at most
Checks
forage: Survival DC 15 · find the way: DC 10 · search: DC 15
Creatures are spotted at
6d6 × 10 ft
  • Storm at sea. Strong wind gives Disadvantage on ranged weapon attacks, puts out open flames and scatters fog; a flyer must land at the end of its turn or fall. A ship sailing into a strong wind moves at half speed.
  • Rain squall. Heavy rain makes everything in it Lightly Obscured, gives Disadvantage on all Wisdom (Perception) checks and puts out open flames.
  • Becalmed. In a dead calm a ship cannot move under sail: it must be rowed, or it lies still. A ship that cannot be rowed makes no way that day.
  • Rogue wave. (House rule) House rule: the helmsman makes a DC 15 Wisdom (Survival) check. On a failure the ship takes 6d10 Bludgeoning damage, and each creature on deck makes a DC 15 Strength saving throw or goes overboard.
  • Waterspout. (House rule) House rule: a ship that cannot get out of its path is hit. Everyone on deck makes a DC 15 Strength saving throw or takes 3d8 Bludgeoning damage and is thrown across the deck, or overboard on a d6 roll of 1 to 3. The ship takes 4d10 Bludgeoning damage and moves at half speed until its rigging is repaired.
  • Water running low. A Medium creature needs about 4 litres (1 gallon) of water a day. Drinking less than half of it brings 1 Exhaustion level at the end of the day, which does not go until a full day’s water is drunk.
  • Short rations. A creature that eats less than half its daily food (about 0.5 kg, 1 lb, for a Medium one) makes a DC 10 Constitution save at the end of the day or gains 1 Exhaustion level. Eating nothing at all for 5 days brings 1 level at the end of the fifth day and 1 more each day after. This Exhaustion stays until a full day’s food is eaten.
  • Scurvy. (House rule) House rule: after 30 days without fresh food, each creature makes a DC 10 Constitution save at the end of each week, the DC rising by 2 each week, or gains 1 Exhaustion level. This Exhaustion does not go with rest, only after 3 days of fresh fruit or greens.
  • Man overboard. Swimming costs 1 extra foot of movement for each foot moved (none with a Swim Speed). In rough water the GM may ask a DC 15 Strength (Athletics) check to move at all.
  • The long swim. Over water more than 30 m (100 ft) deep, a creature without a Swim Speed makes a DC 10 Constitution save after each hour of swimming or gains 1 Exhaustion level.
  • Sea ice and icebergs. (House rule) House rule: the lookout makes a Wisdom (Perception) check, DC 12 by day, 18 at night or in fog. On a failure the ship strikes ice and takes 4d10 Bludgeoning damage; on a failure by 5 or more, 8d10.
  • Frigid water. A creature can stay in frigid water for as many minutes as its Constitution score. Each minute after that, it makes a DC 10 Constitution save or gains 1 Exhaustion level. Cold resistance or immunity, or being adapted to icy water, passes automatically.
  • Sea fog. Heavy fog is Heavily Obscured: a creature trying to see something in it has the Blinded condition. Patchy fog is Lightly Obscured: Disadvantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight.
  • Seasickness. (House rule) House rule: a creature new to the sea makes a DC 10 Constitution save at the start of each of its first three days aboard, and on any storm day. On a failure it has the Poisoned condition until the next dawn. A success on two days in a row ends the risk for the voyage, except in storms.

This work includes material from the System Reference Document 5.2.1 ("SRD 5.2.1") by Wizards of the Coast LLC, available at https://www.dndbeyond.com/srd. The SRD 5.2.1 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode.

Adventure hooks

  1. Halfway across the ocean the ship’s water has gone foul, and the captain is rationing what remains. The crew suspect the cook; the cook suspects a passenger whose locked chest sloshes when the ship rolls.
  2. After twelve days becalmed, the crew have started muttering about the passenger who brought bad luck aboard. That passenger hires the party to keep him alive until the wind comes back.
  3. A whaler’s lookout has sighted a whale so old that the barnacles on its back look like a little town. The captain wants to chase it to the edge of the map; half the crew want to turn for home.
  4. An albatross has followed the ship for three weeks, and an old sailor is sure it is his drowned brother. He wants help to ask it one question before landfall, and he has prepared the question very carefully.

Animals

Creatures

This work includes material from the System Reference Document 5.2.1 ("SRD 5.2.1") by Wizards of the Coast LLC, available at https://www.dndbeyond.com/srd. The SRD 5.2.1 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode.

To gather

Atlantic Puffin Egg, Atlantic Puffin Feathers, Atlantic Puffin, Humpback Whale Blubber, Humpback Whale Meat, Killer Whale Blubber, Killer Whale Meat, Narwhal Blubber, Narwhal Sinew, Narwhal Skin, Northern Gannet Oil, Northern Gannet Feathers, Northern Gannet Chick, Sperm Whale Blubber, Wandering Albatross Wing Bone, Wandering Albatross Meat, Sperm Whale Spermaceti, Sperm Whale Tooth, Killer Whale Tympani, Narwhal Tusk

To fish

Cod, Glacier Krill Swarm, Herring Shoal, Kelp Bundle, Wreck Timber Bundle, Lanternfish Swarm, Message Bottle, Sailfin Tuna, Sunken Cargo Crate, Chambered Nautilus, Giant Squid, Reef Shark, Sea Turtle, Ambergris Lump, Sea Serpent Hatchling, Starlight Ray

Nearby biomes

Coastal Shelf, Coral Reef, Kelp Forest, Deep Sea

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