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A number of d20 supplements dealing with seafaring have been released over the last couple of months. The supplement that caught my interest the most was the Seafarer?s Handbook published by Fantasy Flight Games. I enjoyed the previous two hardbacks published by FFG so I decided to forego purchasing any d20 seafaring supplement until the Seafarer?s Handbook was released. I picked up a copy of the book today during my lunch hour and have decided to share my thoughts on it.

The Seafarer?s Handbook is a hardbound book that is 176 pages in length. The overall design of the book is the same as the previous two FFG releases, Traps and Treachery and Mythic Races. That means that the cover graphics are tome-like and the interior art is black and white. Some of the interior art was a little dark (in color, not subject matter) but I found most of it very appealing. One of the pages is taken up by the d20 license, one page is taken up by a FFG advertisement, and one page is taken up by a Green Ronin (?!) advertisement.

The first chapter contains many sections pertaining to PC information. I will describe the sections below.

The first chapter details player character races that might find their way into a campaign that is based on, under, or near the sea. The races presented are the merfolk, the half-merrow and aquatic elves. Merfolk, as presented, are derived from the Monster Manual description. They are broken down into three racial subtypes of shore merfolk, shelf merfolk, and deep merfolk. Half-merrow characters are the result of the mating of aquatic ogres with merfolk. This race is roughly equivalent to the surface-dwelling half-orc found in the PH. The aquatic elf entry is split into coral elf and kelp elf subraces. Both of these subraces share the same racial traits with the exception of favored class. The races are well done and meld well with the core rules.

Up next is a description of the reef warrior prestige class. I am not a big fan of the multitude of prestige classes offered by most d20 publishers. I was thankful to see that this was the only prestige class presented and that it was meant as a class for NPCs. Since the class calls for the character to enter a symbiotic relationship with a coral reef I really didn?t see how a player character could grow and flourish as a member of this class. Then again, I?m not an expert on coral reefs.

Approximately three and a half pages are used to describe skills in an aquatic campaign. This section focuses on how existing skills are affected by underwater use. A variant skill, underwater alchemy, is also presented. I liked the way this section expanded on the core rules by adding sensible variations on the existing skill set.

Roughly seven pages are taken up by the feats section. This section describes how existing feats work in an undersea environment and introduces 31 new feats. I found the new feats to be very entertaining. This is especially true of the barroom brawler (good for all those trips into port), scurvy dog (the character is resistant to disease), and the swing-by attack (for swashbucklers) feats.

Undersea equipment is up next. Approximately 4 pages are devoted to equipment with a good portion of that space describing undersea armor such as soft kelp, stiffened kelp, scale armor, bone armor, and shell armor.

The chapter continues with a section on spells and magic. This section introduces the undersea domain and new spells for bards, clerics, druids, rangers, sorcerers and wizards. I found the spells to be pretty interesting. For example: Air breathing is used for aquatic creatures that need to adventure on the surface. Ink cloud produces a cloud of ink in a fashion similar to the defense mechanism of the octopus. Message in a bottle takes the tried and true cliché and turns it into an unerring message delivery system provided that the recipient can be reached by traveling the body of water from which the message in the bottle originates. This section closes out with the introduction of a new special ability, waterbane, and several new magic items.

The remainder of chapter deals with underwater combat. This section is fairly detailed. Rules are given for movement, pressure, hypothermia, weapon use, and maneuvering. Three examples of etermining a character?s buoyancy are given here. I get the feeling that the new rules will be a little cumbersome until a couple of combats are run. Nonetheless, I really liked what I saw here. It seems that this section covers all bases (or at least all the bases that I could think of) when it comes to underwater combat.

Chapter 2 deals with Seafaring Campaigns. Information on ships, crewmembers, sea hazards (icebergs and the like), weather, and ports is given here. The chapter ends with an eight-page description of the port city of Kaaluntor. The DM can look to this description as a source for inspiration or simply drop the city "as is" into an existing campaign world.

Chapter 3 covers adventuring under the sea. This chapter gives the DM tips on designing an undersea adventure. The DM may need to account for the lack of light due to depth, the chance of hypothermia, and other challenges presented by the undersea environment. Geography, dungeons (defined as any undersea structure inhabited by creatures that did not create it), and undersea civilizations are covered here. This chapter also includes a section of ready-made adventure locations with hooks to get the adventuring party started. These locations are designed to drop into a campaign as the DM sees fit. The chapter concludes with four new monsters and the "aquatic" template.

Chapter 4 covers the rules for ship construction. This chapter gives rules for determining the classification for a hull size from small to colossal. Construction materials for a ship (wood, iron, mithral, and admantite) are listed here. Several propulsion systems are described. Even the steam engine is included as a system for propulsion. The propulsion slot mechanic prevents a small ship from being propelled by a huge steam engine. Rules for shipboard weapons are covered here as well. The most unique part of this chapter is the section describing ship qualities. Qualities are to a ship as feats are to a PC. Each ship starts with one quality and more can be bought. Examples of ship qualities are "ice queen" (resists cold) and "tough old girl" (hardness of the deck and hull are increased). The chapter ends with a brief section on hiring a crew for a ship. After perusing this chapter I felt that I had enough information to construct any type of ship that I might need for my campaign. Note: I?m basically landlocked. Those of you reading this with a more nautical background may disagree with my last statement.

Chapter 5 presents 20 ready-made ship designs. This chapter can be used as a jumping off point for the DM to create her own ships or the ships presented in the text can be used "as is" in a campaign. This section covered every type of ship that I would consider using in a fantasy campaign. There was even a submarine here. I would?ve never considered including a submarine so I found this to be a neat idea. The overall layout of this chapter reminded me of the Traps and Treachery book. I really liked that book and I also really liked how this chapter was laid out. The only complaint that I have is that I wish the ship drawings were not in black silhouette but that is a minor gripe.

The final chapter deals with naval combat. Detailed rules are given for ship speed, turning, and maneuvering. A mechanic for maintaining command of a ship is presented in this chapter. Command affects how a ship moves in the water. Poor command rolls lead to slower movement. The section containing rules that explain damage to a ship is well done. Damage to sails, the deck, and the hull are covered here. Rules for ramming, broadsiding, and swashbuckling are found in this chapter as well. Given the amount of rules presented here the authors made a wise decision to include many examples of the concepts covered in the chapter. I think that it will take a few combats to get everyone comfortable with the rules. I haven?t run a naval combat in my game yet but I am planning one for the near future and the examples should be a great help.

I thought this book was great. The players in my game are about to embark on a sea voyage and this book will greatly add to the adventure. I think that this is one of the best supplements that I have bought and I recommend it to anyone interested in adding a nautical flavor to their campaign.

Seafarer's Handbook
Seafarer's Handbook Capsule Review by Higabold Garious on 30/01/02 Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 5 (Excellent!) A good resource for those wanting to add a nautical theme to their campaign. Product: Seafarer's Handbook Author: Kurt Brown, Mark Chance, Lizard, David Lyons, James Maliszewski, Mike Mearls, Brian Patterson Category: RPG Company/Publisher: Fantasy Flight Games Line: d20 Cost: 24.95 Page count: 176 Year published: 2001 ISBN: 158994055 SKU: Comp copy?: no Capsule Review by Higabold Garious on 30/01/02 Genre tags: Fantasy	A number of d20 supplements dealing with seafaring have been released over the last couple of months. The supplement that caught my interest the most was the Seafarer?s Handbook published by Fantasy Flight Games. I enjoyed the previous two hardbacks published by FFG so I decided to forego purchasing any d20 seafaring supplement until the Seafarer?s Handbook was released. I picked up a copy of the book today during my lunch hour and have decided to share my thoughts on it. The Seafarer?s Handbook is a hardbound book that is 176 pages in length. The overall design of the book is the same as the previous two FFG releases, Traps and Treachery and Mythic Races. That means that the cover graphics are tome-like and the interior art is black and white. Some of the interior art was a little dark (in color, not subject matter) but I found most of it very appealing. One of the pages is taken up by the d20 license, one page is taken up by a FFG advertisement, and one page is taken up by a Green Ronin (?!) advertisement. The first chapter contains many sections pertaining to PC information. I will describe the sections below. The first chapter details player character races that might find their way into a campaign that is based on, under, or near the sea. The races presented are the merfolk, the half-merrow and aquatic elves. Merfolk, as presented, are derived from the Monster Manual description. They are broken down into three racial subtypes of shore merfolk, shelf merfolk, and deep merfolk. Half-merrow characters are the result of the mating of aquatic ogres with merfolk. This race is roughly equivalent to the surface-dwelling half-orc found in the PH. The aquatic elf entry is split into coral elf and kelp elf subraces. Both of these subraces share the same racial traits with the exception of favored class. The races are well done and meld well with the core rules. Up next is a description of the reef warrior prestige class. I am not a big fan of the multitude of prestige classes offered by most d20 publishers. I was thankful to see that this was the only prestige class presented and that it was meant as a class for NPCs. Since the class calls for the character to enter a symbiotic relationship with a coral reef I really didn?t see how a player character could grow and flourish as a member of this class. Then again, I?m not an expert on coral reefs. Approximately three and a half pages are used to describe skills in an aquatic campaign. This section focuses on how existing skills are affected by underwater use. A variant skill, underwater alchemy, is also presented. I liked the way this section expanded on the core rules by adding sensible variations on the existing skill set. Roughly seven pages are taken up by the feats section. This section describes how existing feats work in an undersea environment and introduces 31 new feats. I found the new feats to be very entertaining. This is especially true of the barroom brawler (good for all those trips into port), scurvy dog (the character is resistant to disease), and the swing-by attack (for swashbucklers) feats. Undersea equipment is up next. Approximately 4 pages are devoted to equipment with a good portion of that space describing undersea armor such as soft kelp, stiffened kelp, scale armor, bone armor, and shell armor. The chapter continues with a section on spells and magic. This section introduces the undersea domain and new spells for bards, clerics, druids, rangers, sorcerers and wizards. I found the spells to be pretty interesting. For example: Air breathing is used for aquatic creatures that need to adventure on the surface. Ink cloud produces a cloud of ink in a fashion similar to the defense mechanism of the octopus. Message in a bottle takes the tried and true cliché and turns it into an unerring message delivery system provided that the recipient can be reached by traveling the body of water from which the message in the bottle originates. This section closes out with the introduction of a new special ability, waterbane, and several new magic items. The remainder of chapter deals with underwater combat. This section is fairly detailed. Rules are given for movement, pressure, hypothermia, weapon use, and maneuvering. Three examples of etermining a character?s buoyancy are given here. I get the feeling that the new rules will be a little cumbersome until a couple of combats are run. Nonetheless, I really liked what I saw here. It seems that this section covers all bases (or at least all the bases that I could think of) when it comes to underwater combat. Chapter 2 deals with Seafaring Campaigns. Information on ships, crewmembers, sea hazards (icebergs and the like), weather, and ports is given here. The chapter ends with an eight-page description of the port city of Kaaluntor. The DM can look to this description as a source for inspiration or simply drop the city "as is" into an existing campaign world. Chapter 3 covers adventuring under the sea. This chapter gives the DM tips on designing an undersea adventure. The DM may need to account for the lack of light due to depth, the chance of hypothermia, and other challenges presented by the undersea environment. Geography, dungeons (defined as any undersea structure inhabited by creatures that did not create it), and undersea civilizations are covered here. This chapter also includes a section of ready-made adventure locations with hooks to get the adventuring party started. These locations are designed to drop into a campaign as the DM sees fit. The chapter concludes with four new monsters and the "aquatic" template. Chapter 4 covers the rules for ship construction. This chapter gives rules for determining the classification for a hull size from small to colossal. Construction materials for a ship (wood, iron, mithral, and admantite) are listed here. Several propulsion systems are described. Even the steam engine is included as a system for propulsion. The propulsion slot mechanic prevents a small ship from being propelled by a huge steam engine. Rules for shipboard weapons are covered here as well. The most unique part of this chapter is the section describing ship qualities. Qualities are to a ship as feats are to a PC. Each ship starts with one quality and more can be bought. Examples of ship qualities are "ice queen" (resists cold) and "tough old girl" (hardness of the deck and hull are increased). The chapter ends with a brief section on hiring a crew for a ship. After perusing this chapter I felt that I had enough information to construct any type of ship that I might need for my campaign. Note: I?m basically landlocked. Those of you reading this with a more nautical background may disagree with my last statement. Chapter 5 presents 20 ready-made ship designs. This chapter can be used as a jumping off point for the DM to create her own ships or the ships presented in the text can be used "as is" in a campaign. This section covered every type of ship that I would consider using in a fantasy campaign. There was even a submarine here. I would?ve never considered including a submarine so I found this to be a neat idea. The overall layout of this chapter reminded me of the Traps and Treachery book. I really liked that book and I also really liked how this chapter was laid out. The only complaint that I have is that I wish the ship drawings were not in black silhouette but that is a minor gripe. The final chapter deals with naval combat. Detailed rules are given for ship speed, turning, and maneuvering. A mechanic for maintaining command of a ship is presented in this chapter. Command affects how a ship moves in the water. Poor command rolls lead to slower movement. The section containing rules that explain damage to a ship is well done. Damage to sails, the deck, and the hull are covered here. Rules for ramming, broadsiding, and swashbuckling are found in this chapter as well. Given the amount of rules presented here the authors made a wise decision to include many examples of the concepts covered in the chapter. I think that it will take a few combats to get everyone comfortable with the rules. I haven?t run a naval combat in my game yet but I am planning one for the near future and the examples should be a great help. I thought this book was great. The players in my game are about to embark on a sea voyage and this book will greatly add to the adventure. I think that this is one of the best supplements that I have bought and I recommend it to anyone interested in adding a nautical flavor to their campaign.

Seafarer's Handbook