Whether you’re using Seas of Vodari and Tribality’s Naval Combat supplement, Ghosts of Saltmarsh, or just sending the characters on a sea voyage, you can add more interaction and texture by focusing on individual crew members. You can’t give time to every sailor on a larger ship, sure, but even a few go a long way toward making a memorable encounter.
The characters described below are, of course, all just starting points. Stat blocks found here come from the Monster Manual and Seas of Vodari. Each character has a Quest or a Loyalty; a Quest is something larger that carries its own rewards, while a Loyalty might be resolved in a scene or two, or as part of a downtime activity. Completing a Loyalty means that character will never betray you, even if the rest of the crew mutinies. It might also merit a boost to that character’s stats – even something as simple as +5 maximum hit points.
| d20 | Crewmate |
| 1 | Cawyth, half-elf guard. She tells fanciful stories of a journey under the waves, but can’t ever seem to remember the way back. Quest: Improbably, she’s telling the truth. Repair her damaged memory and she shows you the way. |
| 2 | Petey, halfling corsair. He spends a worrying amount of time sharpening his blades, but can be distracted with conversations about halfling history and famous halflings of the past. Loyalty: Secure his loyalty with a side trek to a long-abandoned halfling village. |
| 3 | Yotra Mina, human scoundrel. Quick-witted, hard-drinking, and knowledgeable, she’s not above a mutiny bid if crew morale falls. Loyalty: Gain her loyalty by occasionally seeking her advice, or by rescuing her younger brother Harstow, taken prisoner on a royal frigate. |
| 4 | Vendell, dwarf acolyte. Dedicated to a god of exiles and the sky, he is most comfortable in the crow’s nest. Quest: He needs help to find Strothar, an exiled member of his clan who was falsely accused, and whose banishment has been legally overruled. |
| 5 | Antyke, gnome sailor. She’s unusually good with the astrolabe, sextant, and other navigational tools, and she loves bits of odd machinery. Quest: Find a ruined machine in a dungeon or shipwreck. If she has time and materials to repair it, gain a Small construct as a crew member. |
| 6 | Long Tobb, cursed soul dwarf buccaneer. His curse is carried in chains that drape his body, held on with indestructible locks. He is a grim and taciturn but able companion. Quest: Set Long Tobb to rest by finding the surviving members of his family and showing him that they don’t need his quest for vengeance to continue. Gain a supernatural blessing as he fades from the world. |
| 7 | Marn, elf thug. Her crass manner and reliance on muscle got her ostracized from elven society, which she deeply resents. Loyalty: Gain her loyalty by accepting her rough sense of humor and standing up for her to other elves. |
| 8 | Roxelle, half-orc spy. She is on the payroll of a royal navy and leaves reports at dead drops in each port of call. Her cover identity is a scrounger, giving her reasons to be in contact with many people in each port. Loyalty: Convince her to become a double agent by revealing the corruption and cruelty of the royal navy. |
| 9 | Zeke the Tamer, human cultist. He earned his moniker, and his peg-leg, when his leg was bitten off at the knee by a shark. He cursed the shark, and ever since, sharks of all kinds won’t attack him, even under magical compulsion. Loyalty: Help him find a better prosthetic, or make one for him. |
| 10 | Zook (short for Enzoukilous), dragonborn berserker. He makes a big show of relaxing and, in ports of call, being a tourist. A fruity drink is near at hand when he’s not on-duty. He’s on the run from the consequences of his short temper. Loyalty: Help him make amends in the relationships he ruined, or to mend the things he has broken. |
| 11 | Fable, voda shanty bard. Her songs and tales always end with strong, but not heavy-handed, moral lessons. She sees it as her duty to educate surface-dwellers on the hubris and destructiveness of their choices. Quest: Defend her home village from the aggression of nearby surface settlements. |
| 12 | Big Fish, gnome commoner. He is named for his encyclopedic and obsessive knowledge of marine life, as well as his interest in catching it (no matter its size) with his fishing pole. Quest: Big Fish is eventually pulled overboard when something far too large is on the hook. Recover him alive and he’ll write a useful scholarly work on sea monsters. |
| 13 | Topgallant Sid, half-elf sea captain. He tells tales of a ship he captained and how a feckless band of adventurers led to its wreck. Now he prefers to serve as a first mate or bosun. Quest: Slay the monster that killed those adventurers and wrecked Sid’s ship. |
| 14 | Pashkin, goblin pirate. She cheats at cards more often than other crew members think about rum, but people have a hard time figuring out how she’s doing it. Loyalty: She has a minor talent for magic, and becomes steadfastly loyal to anyone who takes her on as an apprentice. |
| 15 | Kreina, dwarf noble. She’s on the run from bounty hunters and tries – with mixed success, depending on the tone you’re going for – to hide her noble upbringing. She is, at least, dwarven enough to have no fear of hard work. Quest: Handle the bounty hunters that come after her, then resolve the curse that the bounty hunters want to take her back into. The reward includes a book of powerful spells. |
| 16 | Dowlee, human cult fanatic. Her spells come from a complex set of tattoos that she received while captured, and she fears what may happen if the cult retakes her. Quest: Defeat the dark power behind the cult. Dowlee’s tattoos gain more power; she leaves the crew but becomes a potent ally. |
| 17 | Gunny Grath, half-orc sailor. He is a legendarily foul-mouthed artillerist, equally skilled with ballistas and cannons. It’s rare that he leaves a port of call without trouble finding him. Loyalty: Gain his grudging respect with non-profane but devastating insults, aimed at Grath during an argument, or someone Grath hates any other time. |
| 18 | Judge, dragonborn scout. Her accuracy with a crossbow or musket and her acid breath weapon make her one of the most dangerous crew members, and she’ll challenge anyone who needs to get taken down a peg to prove it. Loyalty: After a battle in which she has done especially well, give her the recognition she deserves for it. Embarrassing her, on the other hand, leads her to leave the crew at the next port and join your rival. |
| 19 | Nashlin, human pirate. Untrustworthy to his core and forever taking someone else’s share of food, grog, or plunder, Nashlin also knows the weaknesses of every ship, prison, and sea fortification you might care to attack. Loyalty: Nashlin finally stops making trouble with the rest of the crew when he learns that his father walked the plank for doing the same kinds of things. |
| 20 | Red Molly, cursed soul human ghoul. Though she has lost much of her humanity and dresses in bloody rags, Red Molly has enough self-control to serve on a ship’s crew safely. Quest: Red Molly can lead you to the Seas Beyond and the edge of the afterlife. While you’re in the Seas Beyond, she gains significant power and mental clarity, becoming an excellent guide and ally. She wants to speak to her father one last time. |
This is another “make up a weirdo” post, and I hope you’ll find that these loosely-sketched characters inspire scenes, quests, and B-plots for your Seas of Vodari or Ghosts of Saltmarsh games. If you’re wondering about any of the species or stat blocks that come from Seas of Vodari, well, I’ve linked its DriveThruRPG page at the top of the post!
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Under the Seas of Vodari is a 300-page book that provides 5E/Fifth Edition material for both gamemasters and players to dive into a world full of action and adventure set beneath the waves of Vodari or your own campaign world. This book is a follow-up to The Seas of Vodari, a setting book filled with swashbuckling action and magical adventure. Dive into your first adventure today!
There are some fantastic ideas here. My players are starting to look for potential additional crew mates for their airship and with a little reskinning, a lot of these will be nice additions to the list.
I also really like the idea of the loyalty/quest mechanic. Reminds me strongly of Mass Effect 2 in a very good way. Additional max hp is also a pretty decent generic reward when something specific isn’t forthcoming.
The idea is 100% ripped off from Mass Effect, yep. I’m not even sorry. 😉
I am delighted that these will be useful to you!
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