Seas of Blood and Seafarer?s Handbook

By Elton Robb

From what I understand, there are two kinds of roleplayers when it comes to these two books. Those that like Seas of Blood by Mongoose Publishing , and those that like the Seafarer?s Handbook by Fantasy Flight Games . Hopefully, you will understand that I don?t belong to both camps. However, I am going to do something unprecedented on RPG.net. I am going to present them both in the same review.

Why? Because I like them both. And I use them both together. Lets take a look at the facts of both books and you can see how they can be both used synergistically.

Exhibit A ? Character Options

Both present very useful character options. Seas of Blood shows you how each class can adapt to the life at Sea and presents at least one new character race, and the Seafarer?s Handbook presents us with three new character races. Such races include Merfolk, Aquatic Elves, and Half-Merrow from the Seafarer?s Handbook and the Talorani from Seas of Blood.

Class Options include the Sailor, Bucanneer, Reaver, and Navigator Wizard from the Seas of Blood accessory, while the Aquatic Elves have a racial prestige class ? the Reef Warrior described in the Seafarer?s Handbook. Both provide your character with some good options. The Sailor is an NPC class, and the Bucanneer, Reaver, and Navigator Wizard are prestige classes. They all give good options to expand your character.

Skill Options: Seas of Blood discusses only 2 concentrations for the Knowledge and Profession skills, respectively: They are seamanship and navigator. The Seafarer?s Handbook provides you the rules for using your skills at sea. It also introduces a skill variant: Underwater Alchemy.

FEATS: Ahh! Both books provide us with feats of daring, heroism, and foolishness! The Seas of Blood accessory gives us the following feats, to name a few: Amazing Agility, Improved Underwater Combat, Steady Captain, and Strong Swimmer. The Seafarer?s Handbook provides us with Barroom Brawler, Endurance Swimmer (notice that Strong Swimmer and Endurance Swimmer are the same concept), Naval Heritage, Port Savvy, Sea Brother, and Swing-by Attack. Plus, the Seafarer?s Handbook gives us rules on how certain existing feats may be used underwater.

Exhibit B ? Ship Construction Rules

The Ship Construction rules from both books can be used by Creative Game Masters together. The Seas of Blood book introduces structural points, special qualities for ships, manoeuverability (maneuverability), and Turn Rate as well as where weapons may be found (fore, aft, starboard, port).

The Seafarers handbook provides rules covering the hull of the boat, its hit points, thickness, and propulsion slots. Also artillery slots are covered. The book also covers ship qualities, which is the special construction of the ship in question. Both books cover rules for hull hardness, crew, cargo, and time to build the ship.

But the Seas of Blood accessory provides ship templates. Something that the Seafarer?s Handbook does not have, and I will go into details later below.

Exhibit C ? Monsters

Both books provide us with new monsters to scare and challenge players. The Seafarer?s Handbook provides us with the Aquatic Template, an abyssal shark, the coral golem, drowned dead (a sort of undead sailor), and the Hippocampus. Seas of Blood provides us with the Fideal, the mysterious Grey Lady, the magnificent Leviathan, and the undine. All of which can enrich maritime adventures.

Exhibit D ? Ships of the Sea

Finally, we come to the final exhibit that both books can be used together. Both provide interesting ships onto which we can use in our campaigns. From Mind-Flayer organic submarines (in Seafarer?s Handbook), to the mighty Sovereign-class dreadnought (Seas of Blood). From the lowly and humble rowboat (again, Seas of Blood) to the frightful ghost ships described in the Seafarer?s Handbook, these ships can be used by anyone. Game Masters (and other publishers) would be pleased to know that, even if they are based on completely different stats in both books, all ship construction rules and ships of the sea from both books are Open Game Content!

Seafarer's Handbook image To reiterate what I said above for the benefit of other third party d20 publishers, this means that you can combine rules to create ships using stats from both books. This is basically what I did when I was trying to recreate an American Battleship using the U.S.S. Arizona as a model. Even though I used the Seafarer?s Handbook exclusively to design a version of the Nautilus from Jules Verne?s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, I plan on using both books to produce a few more historical ship stats for my Lords of Atlantis campaign setting.

Conclusions

Although both books set out to design maritime rules for the D20 system, both accomplishes this with different feelings. Where the Seafarer?s Handbook is more fantastic in it?s approach, since it provides a complete setting (called the Underwave), Seas of Blood has a more gritty, realistic feeling. Both provide an excellent resource of spells for your Water Elementalist (or Aquamancer), the spells in Seas of Blood are much more useful above the sea rather than under it. The Seafarer?s Handbook's spells are much more the opposite.

As I were to rate them both individually, I would rate the Seafarer?s Handbook as Substance 4, Style 4; and Seas of Blood Substance 5, Style 3. However, this review considers them both together, so I will have to Rate them together at Substance 5, Style 4.

Seas of Blood and Seafarer's Handbook
Seas of Blood and Seafarer's Handbook Capsule Review by Elton Robb on 13/02/02 Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 5 (Excellent!) This is an unprecedented review, the review of two great D20 products dealing with Maritime Adventures at sea. Product: Seas of Blood and Seafarer's Handbook Author: Kurt Brown, Mark Chance, Lizard, David Lyons, James Maliszewski, Mike Mearls, and Brian Patterson (Seafarer's Handbook); Matthew Sprange (Seas of Blood) Category: RPG Company/Publisher: Mongoose Publishing (Seas of Blood) and Fantasy Flight Games (Seafarer's Handbook) Line: Traveler's Tales and Legends and Lairs, respectively Cost: 44.90 Page count: 302 Year published: 2001-2002 ISBN: SKU: Comp copy?: no Capsule Review by Elton Robb on 13/02/02 Genre tags: Fantasy Science Fiction Modern day Historical Horror Far Future Gothic Asian/Far East	Seas of Blood and Seafarer?s Handbook By Elton Robb From what I understand, there are two kinds of roleplayers when it comes to these two books. Those that like Seas of Blood by Mongoose Publishing , and those that like the Seafarer?s Handbook by Fantasy Flight Games . Hopefully, you will understand that I don?t belong to both camps. However, I am going to do something unprecedented on RPG.net. I am going to present them both in the same review. Why? Because I like them both. And I use them both together. Lets take a look at the facts of both books and you can see how they can be both used synergistically. Exhibit A ? Character Options Both present very useful character options. Seas of Blood shows you how each class can adapt to the life at Sea and presents at least one new character race, and the Seafarer?s Handbook presents us with three new character races. Such races include Merfolk, Aquatic Elves, and Half-Merrow from the Seafarer?s Handbook and the Talorani from Seas of Blood. Class Options include the Sailor, Bucanneer, Reaver, and Navigator Wizard from the Seas of Blood accessory, while the Aquatic Elves have a racial prestige class ? the Reef Warrior described in the Seafarer?s Handbook. Both provide your character with some good options. The Sailor is an NPC class, and the Bucanneer, Reaver, and Navigator Wizard are prestige classes. They all give good options to expand your character. Skill Options: Seas of Blood discusses only 2 concentrations for the Knowledge and Profession skills, respectively: They are seamanship and navigator. The Seafarer?s Handbook provides you the rules for using your skills at sea. It also introduces a skill variant: Underwater Alchemy. FEATS: Ahh! Both books provide us with feats of daring, heroism, and foolishness! The Seas of Blood accessory gives us the following feats, to name a few: Amazing Agility, Improved Underwater Combat, Steady Captain, and Strong Swimmer. The Seafarer?s Handbook provides us with Barroom Brawler, Endurance Swimmer (notice that Strong Swimmer and Endurance Swimmer are the same concept), Naval Heritage, Port Savvy, Sea Brother, and Swing-by Attack. Plus, the Seafarer?s Handbook gives us rules on how certain existing feats may be used underwater. Exhibit B ? Ship Construction Rules The Ship Construction rules from both books can be used by Creative Game Masters together. The Seas of Blood book introduces structural points, special qualities for ships, manoeuverability (maneuverability), and Turn Rate as well as where weapons may be found (fore, aft, starboard, port). The Seafarers handbook provides rules covering the hull of the boat, its hit points, thickness, and propulsion slots. Also artillery slots are covered. The book also covers ship qualities, which is the special construction of the ship in question. Both books cover rules for hull hardness, crew, cargo, and time to build the ship. But the Seas of Blood accessory provides ship templates. Something that the Seafarer?s Handbook does not have, and I will go into details later below. Exhibit C ? Monsters Both books provide us with new monsters to scare and challenge players. The Seafarer?s Handbook provides us with the Aquatic Template, an abyssal shark, the coral golem, drowned dead (a sort of undead sailor), and the Hippocampus. Seas of Blood provides us with the Fideal, the mysterious Grey Lady, the magnificent Leviathan, and the undine. All of which can enrich maritime adventures. Exhibit D ? Ships of the Sea Finally, we come to the final exhibit that both books can be used together. Both provide interesting ships onto which we can use in our campaigns. From Mind-Flayer organic submarines (in Seafarer?s Handbook), to the mighty Sovereign-class dreadnought (Seas of Blood). From the lowly and humble rowboat (again, Seas of Blood) to the frightful ghost ships described in the Seafarer?s Handbook, these ships can be used by anyone. Game Masters (and other publishers) would be pleased to know that, even if they are based on completely different stats in both books, all ship construction rules and ships of the sea from both books are Open Game Content! To reiterate what I said above for the benefit of other third party d20 publishers, this means that you can combine rules to create ships using stats from both books. This is basically what I did when I was trying to recreate an American Battleship using the U.S.S. Arizona as a model. Even though I used the Seafarer?s Handbook exclusively to design a version of the Nautilus from Jules Verne?s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, I plan on using both books to produce a few more historical ship stats for my Lords of Atlantis campaign setting. Conclusions Although both books set out to design maritime rules for the D20 system, both accomplishes this with different feelings. Where the Seafarer?s Handbook is more fantastic in it?s approach, since it provides a complete setting (called the Underwave), Seas of Blood has a more gritty, realistic feeling. Both provide an excellent resource of spells for your Water Elementalist (or Aquamancer), the spells in Seas of Blood are much more useful above the sea rather than under it. The Seafarer?s Handbook's spells are much more the opposite. As I were to rate them both individually, I would rate the Seafarer?s Handbook as Substance 4, Style 4; and Seas of Blood Substance 5, Style 3. However, this review considers them both together, so I will have to Rate them together at Substance 5, Style 4.