Aquatic Adventures II: Encounters

They came at him from all sides. Not just from front and back, but from above and below as well. Flanked from all angles, Grafton did his best to dodge and parry the myriad blows. A trident easily bypassed his defenses, and pierced through his light armour. A spear followed, tearing a gash across his side that puffed crimson mist into the churning water.

This is the second in a series of blogs on Aquatic Adventures. This article provides some advice and options for underwater encounters.

Encounter Advice

The hardest part of planning underwater encounters is dealing with 3D combat. Characters and monsters are able to swim up and down, attacking from different angles, which is hard to represent on a 2D battlemap. Dungeon masters have a few alternatives.

Tracking Elevation

The first way is to simply run the game on a normal battlemap and track how many squares above the ground the character is. This works best for fights where there is a flat plane, such as the seabed or in an underwater cavern. It gets complicated if characters can move both above and below the battlemap, such as in open water.

Dice are useful for tracking elevation, positioned beside the character’s miniature. However, this can clutter the battlefield. If you plan on running a lengthy underwater game, buying a set of dedicated elevation dice might not be a bad idea. Dice that are smaller than normal work best, as they stand-out and are not mistaken for dice that have just rolled onto the battlemap. If you plan on having a fight with characters both above and below the battlemap, colour-coded dice work well.

Index cards are another alternative. They can be cut to fit under a miniature, with just enough space left to write the elevation. Or the GM could prepare a series of cards with elevations written in advance. This can further clutter an already potentially busy battlemap, and can require much lifting and shifting of miniatures, which can lead to misplacement or toppled minis.

If a wet-erase mat is used, it’s also possible to just write the elevation beside the character. However, the numbers will continually change, cluttering the map with erased elevation.

The problem with just tracking elevation is that it’s possible to have characters atop each other, which is difficult to represent without props. There are a number of products – both intended and improvised – that can be used. These vary from fancy plastic towers, clear-plastic dice boxes, Lego bricks, or even the plastic guards that come with delivered pizza to keep the cheese off the top of the box.

Layered Encounters

An alternative is tracking elevation is having a combat that takes place over multiple tiers of elevation, each with their own map. This works best for fights with a small horizontal area but that can have a greater vertical area, preferably with consistent features that can be used as a frame of reference.

Instead of moving up or down individual squares, characters instead move between layers, with the space in-between being abstracted. Characters are assumed to move up and down on the layer they are on with no mechanical impact or movement cost, only changing layers requires movement.

For example, in a fight in an underwater cave, there could be three layers of combat. The cavern might have pillars that cover all three maps, located in the same squares in each map while the walls of the cave and other features vary. Or the fight could take place in central hall of the castle of a triton king, with matching walls and the ramps in the lowest tier leading up to the balcony of the second tier.

This type of encounter can be a little more map-intense, with more set-up time required. It works best if the DM has the time to draw maps in advance. It can also require a little more table space, with 2-4 small maps instead of one large map.

Rules on layered encounters will be included in the second blog of this series.

Vertical Encounters

A third option for underwater encounters works best as a variation. It flips the battlemap on its side and tip the minis over, making the encounter a vertical fight. Instead of moving north and south the characters instead move up and down.

This can be done a couple of ways. The simplest is to have the battlemap be a cliff face and add minor details, such as outcroppings. The characters might sink a square or two each round based on their weight, adding a dynamic element and touch of forced movement to the fight. Unless they spend time actively treading water they sink farther down, possibly being blocked by rocky ledges.

Another way is to have a vertical dungeon, with no side passages but branches leading up and down. The characters come to shafts and must swim up or down or narrow chambers where they face foes more manoeuvrable than themselves.

Mapless

One final option for underwater combat in 3-Dimensions is to simply dump the battlemap and go abstract with combat.

My personal favourite system for doing so – while retaining much of 4e – is known as SARN-FU, was proposed on theWizards of the Coast community site here. In addition to the main blog there were three follow-ups further detailing this method of mapless combat, which would lend itself well to undersea action. This requires a little more attention from the players, as they cannot take a break or becomes distracted and rely on the battlemap to fill them in on what has happened. And it requires a GM that is skilled enough to track multiple opponents and PCs at once.

Quinn “Gamefiend” Murpy has also written his own system on this very blog, Fluid 4e, which can be found here. Fluid, being a more mechanical version, lends itself well to an underwater conversion, replacing Athletics checks to swim with a modifier on the Move Save: convenient currents give a bonus with opposing currents or waves confer a penalty.

Accessories

As mentioned earlier, there are a few simple accessories that can make 3D combat easier to manage without investing in a complicated frame and stack of maps.

There are a number of gaming aids designed for aerial combat, which are also useful for aquatic combat. These can be an investment and take-up valuable storage space in cramped living quarters. A few examples are a dedicated elevation tracker or a fight stand or a series of stackable and modular platforms.

One cheaper option is Chessex dice boxes, at least if you bought several boxes of dice already and have the cases handy. They’re handy for multiple things, such as using the lids as horses, sticking 4 together as a gelatinous cube miniature, or transporting metal minis to the game. They’re also handy for aquatic combat as you can have one mini on the top and one underneath inside the box.

Dungeon tiles are a final option. The 3D tiles can be used but it’s harder to see minis underneath, but it’s possible to remove a side or two leaving the space underneath accessible. If you have too many tiles, it’s possible to take a craft knife to spare tiles and make your own 3D tiles. Other firm cardstock could also be used, constructed in the same manner as the 3D Dungeon Tiles.

Look for the third blog in this series in a few weeks, which will finally be a crunchier blog covering rules and mechanics of underwater combat, including rules for layered combat, more Athletics skill options, and more rules on the underwater world.

Similar Posts:

•      Aquatic Adventures III: Rules
•      Dungeon Tiles and You: A GM’s primer
•      Aquatic Adventures I: Introduction & Advice