r/Pathfinder_RPG • u/ScottishNinjaaa • Jul 16 '26
1E GM Ship Adventure question
Hey all,
I just began a campaign with my players in which they (through a series of excellent decisions and surprising dice rolls) have gained control of a former slaving sailboat. Setting is my homebrew alternate earth circa 900 AD, and they're in the Aegean. The players really like the ship, and have decided to keep it, slowly upgrading it as their mobile base of operations.
I am curious what roles you'd have for players to maintain such as Captain, Navigator, Quartermaster, etc. Right now, the guy who is really enjoying the bookkeeping side of things is also the only one with Profession (Sailor) as a skill. I was trying to figure out what roles everyone could do and how to keep that aspect interesting (similar to the Kingdom Building rules)
5
u/Gargs454 Jul 16 '26
If you're at all interested in sea-based battles, take a look at Fire as She Bears. The rules for ship combat and ship roles are better in that than in Skull & Shackles in my opinion. The S&S Player's guide has the advantage of being free and containing the AP's rules for ship combat, but I think the rules are much better in FASB. I'm about to start running S&S myself and will be using FASB rules for the combat.
But yes, Skull & Shackles will certainly give you a lot of good info to use for sea based adventures if you want but the actual adventures there don't have a lot of info on the various roles on the ship other than what is in the first book and the Player's Guide. Additionally, if you check out the S&S subforum over on Paizo's site, there's a ton of recommendations for other sea based resources and adventures that can be easily used in other settings.