One area of Dungeon and Dragons adventuring that I must admit I never fully embraced are the rules around sailing and maritime adventures. I guess I felt Dungeons and Dragons was meant to be more traditional and held in towns, castles, ruins, and dungeons. For my latest Middle Earth campaign I really wanted to use the maritime rules initially published in the “Ghosts of Saltmarsh” book and expand on them.

With my new Middle-Earth campaign, the maritime rules definitely needed an upgrade as a major part of the quest will be a journey to a remote island that isn’t part of the traditional Middle Earth map. (Let the screaming begin now) One problem I had with the “Ghosts of Saltmarsh” rules off the hop were the speed of the ships. It just seemed wrong that ships did not move drastically faster than humans and horses. As a consequence, I have greatly increased the speed of sailing vessels – especially those powered by wind.

I have chosen the Keelboats as a vessel to use for river travel and Sailing Ships to be used for larger bodies of water. I have excluded smaller ships like rowboats from these rules, but I still plan on using them apart from these maritime rules. These rules were intended for longer term usage of sailing vessels.

As I never have truly run a marine campaign, please take these homebrew rules with a grain of salt as I am sure I will modify them as we start using them.

I have also added some additional rules as it relates to ship movement as I felt they needed some complexity and friction. I am anxious to see how these rules will evolve in nautical travel and combat.

At first review, I think these rules could make nautical travelling and combat more interesting and impactful and new adventure and challenge all their own.

Middle Earth Marine Homebrew rules

Maximum Daily Distance covered

Pace	On foot	On Horse or Sailing Ship with oars (4X)	On Sailing Ship with wind (12X)
Careful	16 miles	64 miles	192 miles
Normal	20 miles	80 miles	240 miles
Rushed	24 miles	96 miles	288 miles

• Use Keelboats on rivers and Sailing Ships on lakes and oceans
• Ships can be bought for:
  • Keelboat – $3,000 gp
  • Sailing ship – $10,000 gp +1,000 gp/month for crew
• Every ship movement requires a Crew Dexterity movement check
• Sailing Ship actions
  • fire Balistas
  • move 120/360 ft straight
  • move 60/180 ft 45 degree turn
  • move 30/60 ft 90 degree turn
• Keelboat actions
  • fire Balistas
  • move 60/180 ft straight
  • move 40/120 ft 45 degree turn
  • move 20/60 ft 90 degree turn
• Sailing Ship Crew (12)
  • one captain
  • four officers
  • first mate
  • bosun
  • quartermaster
  • cook
  • three sailors
• Keelboat goes half as fast as Sailing Ship
• Crew Quality
  • starts at +10
  • -1 or +1 for events
  • below zero will cause attacks and movement checks at disadvantage
  • failed movement check will cause speed reduced by half
    • Movement check is Dexterity DC 12 plus negative crew quality
• Sailing Ship Hull upgrades
  • churning hull – 1,000 gp – difficult terrain for attackers
  • frost locked hull – 2,000 gp – immune to cold damage
  • reinforced hull – 3,000 gp – doubles ship’s hit points
  • vigilant orbs – 5,000 gp – senses invisible creatures or hazards
• Sailing Ship movement upgrades
  • clockwork oars – 2,000 gp – autonomous oars
  • everfull sails – 2,000 gp – always moves with wind
  • defiant sails – 4,000 gp – all attacks made with disadvantage
  • dragon sails – 6,000 gp – +3 and damage resistance (Cold/fire/acid/lightning)
• Sailing Ship weapon upgrades
  • arcane artillary – 1,000 gp – +2 attacks and damage
  • Concussive rounds – 2,000 gp – opponent has no movement next round
  • Explosive rounds – 3,000 gp – extra 2d6 fire damage
• Known Hazards
  • Fog – DC 15 – Wisdom
    • failure – 1/2 speed – crew quality -1
    • total failure – random direction – crew quality -2
  • Storm – DC 10/15 Wisdom
    • failure – ship takes 4d10 damage – crew quality -1
    • total failure – ship takes 8d10 damage – crew quality -2 – lose two crew
  • Sinkhole
    • sea hag – CR 2 and 4 merrows – CR 2
    • giant octopus – CR 1
    • 5 chuuls – CR 4
  • Eldritch Mist
    • Ghost Fog – DC 15 Wisdom – 2d4 spectres – crew quality -1
      • DC 15 INT to navigate out
    • Shadowfell Fog – DC 15 Wisdom – 2d4 shades – crew quality -1
      • DC 15  INT to navigate out
    • Wild Magic Fog – DC 15 Wisdom – Sea Hag – crew quality -1
      • DC 15 INT to navigate out
  • Lure Lights
    • DC 14 wisdom or follow the lights for 4 hours taking off course
  • Magical Storms
    • Abjuration – ship transported 5d20 miles away
    • Conjuration – 2d4  air elementals – CR 5
    • Divination – crew quality – 2
    • Enchantment – DC 15 Wisdom check or captain turns back to illusion of open skies
    • Evocation – 1d10 fire/acid/cold/lightning
    • illusion – terrifying illusions – crew quality -2
    • Necromancy – 1d4 spectres/1d4 ghouls/1d4 zombies – CR 1
    • Transmutation – ocean attacks – 4d10 bludgeoning
  • Shipwrecks
    • 2d6 merrow – CR 2
    • 4d10 giant crabs – CR 1
    • young bronze dragon – CR 8
    • 4 giant octopus – CR 1
    • treasure
  • Whirlpool
    • DC 15 intelligence
    • failure – transported 5 miles away
    • total failure – transported to 20 miles away
• Known Open Water Encounters
  • giant octopus – CR 1
  • giant crabs – CR 1
  • sea hags – CR 2
  • harpies CR 1 with Harpy Matriach CR 5
  • Merrow – CR 4
  • bronze dragon – CR 8/15/22
  • Plesiosaurus – CR 2
  • Chuuls – CR 4
  • water elementals – CR 5
  • Storm Gian Quintessent – CR 16
  • Marid – CR 11
  • Hydra – CR 8
  • dragon turtle – CR 17
  • Pirate ship
    • Pirate Captain – CR 2
    • Pirate Bosun – CR 1
    • Pirate Deck Wizard – CR 1
    • Pirate First Mate – CR 1
    • Rip Tide Priest – CR 2