Tips for battles on a ship? · Game Master's Laboratory

Sep 19 in Advice

Tips for battles on a ship?

I'm planning this wicked fight for tomorrow, where my party stole a pirate ship holding poached giant eagles.

I partially want to show off this cardboard cutout I made, which is super cool, but also ask for advice with combat on a ship.

They're going to try and set them free, meanwhile the pirates onboard have woken up.

Planning three groups of enemies:

Group of minions with the captain, topside, want to keelhaul the players for stealing their ship. Fight to the death.
Group of minions with the first mate, lower decks with the eagles, want to prevent the players from freeing them, but could be bought.
The rest of the pirates that were out drinking pursuing behind. Mainly, they want to be reunited with their crew, and potentially seize the ship if both parties are wounded. Would flee if the players are obviously winning.

As far as combat devices and environment:

Sails falling on players
People getting tied up in ropes
Fish jumping out of the sea
Storms and Lightning
All the cannons have been removed to fit the eagles, and instead the top deck was retrofitted with two ballistas. One fore and the other aft. They were expecting more giant eagles to come and attack.
On that note, more giant eagles could show up

I don't do minis very often, and have never done a physical 3d thing before. I also have not ran any combat in fantasy ships before. Any suggestions for how to run this massively complex thing? Any other suggestions to add to my NPC goals and environmental challenges?

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