Shipboard Tasks
During the uneventful part of a voyage, the captain of a spelljamming ship can put crew members to work in several ways. If a character is looking for a job to do, or if a captain wants to keep a character busy, roll on the Shipboard Tasks table to determine what needs to be done. The time it takes to complete a task is at least 1 hour, and certain tasks might take longer at your discretion.
| d12 | Task |
|---|---|
| 1 | Scrape barnacles off the hull. |
| 2 | Scrub pots and dishes in the galley. |
| 3 | Chop vegetables in the galley. |
| 4 | Swab the deck or sweep the cargo hold. |
| 5 | Update the ship's navigational charts, which requires cartographer's tools. |
| 6 | Repair the captain's favorite pair of boots, which requires cobbler's tools. (A mending spell also does the trick.) |
| 7 | Repair superficial damage to the ship, which requires carpenter's tools or woodcarver's tools. (A mending spell also does the trick.) |
| 8 | Compose a new chantey, which requires a musical instrument. |
| 9 | Entertain the crew with tall tales or gossip. |
| 10 | Fix the captain's broken spyglass, which requires jeweler's tools or tinker's tools. (A mending spell also does the trick.) |
| 11 | Teach the captain the basics of a language they don't already know. |
| 12 | Prepare a tasty dinner for the captain's table, which requires cook's utensils. |
Ship Quirks
Roll on the Ship Quirks table if you want to add a bit of "personality" to a ship.
| d10 | Quirk |
|---|---|
| 1 | A chatty but harmless spirit haunts the cargo hold. |
| 2 | The excessive creaking of the hull echoes throughout the ship. |
| 3 | Any creature that removes itself from the ship's spelljamming helm receives a startling but harmless magical shock. |
| 4 | The ship's companionways are smaller than those found in most other similar vessels. |
| 5 | The ship makes a groaning sound in what seems like defiance whenever it comes to a stop. |
| 6 | The floor of the main deck is adorned with a stylized rendering of a mysterious star chart that pulsates occasionally with scintillating colors. |
| 7 | The ship's air envelope has a salty, briny smell. |
| 8 | Bulkheads throughout the ship have lines of poetry scrawled on them. |
| 9 | Unattended tools often go missing, only to reappear 1d4 hours later in another part of the ship. |
| 10 | A creature seated in the ship's spelljamming helm hears faint spacefaring chanteys in its mind except when the ship is under attack. |
Ship Cargo
To randomly determine what's in the cargo hold of a spelljamming ship, roll 1d6 times on the Cheap Cargo table and 1d4–1 times on the Expensive Cargo table. A duplicate result indicates that the ship has more of the same cargo.
If a cargo container is locked, at least one crew member (typically the captain) has the key to it. A character can try to unlock a container using thieves' tools, doing so with a successful DC 20 Dexterity check.
| d12 | Cargo |
|---|---|
| 1 | Trunk containing ten outfits of traveler's clothes (2 gp each) |
| 2 | Crate containing one hundred bars of soap (2 cp each) |
| 3 | Twenty ballista bolts (5 gp each) |
| 4 | Coop containing fifty live chickens (2 cp each) |
| 5 | Crate containing twenty wheels of cheese (5 sp each) |
| 6 | Locked cage containing one friendly Beast of your choice |
| 7 | Ten 40-gallon barrels of fresh water |
| 8 | Ten crates, each containing fifty days of rations (25 gp per crate) |
| 9 | Locked cage containing one hostile Beast of your choice |
| 10 | Chest containing fifty vials of perfume (2 gp each) |
| 11 | Crate containing fifty loaves of bread (2 cp each) |
| 12 | Ten 40-gallon barrels of ale (4 gp each) |
| d12 | Cargo |
|---|---|
| 1 | Crate containing fifty blank spellbooks (50 gp each) |
| 2 | Crate containing one hundred 1-ounce bottles of ink (10 gp each) and one thousand sheets of parchment (1 sp each) |
| 3 | Crate containing twenty potions of healing, flasks of alchemist's fire, or vials of antitoxin (50 gp each) |
| 4 | Crate containing one hundred bottles of exquisite wine (25 gp each) |
| 5 | Set of exquisitely crafted furniture (2,500 gp) |
| 6 | Locked trunk containing five unloaded pistols (250 gp each) and a box of 100 bullets |
| 7 | Locked case containing an exquisite Dragonchess set made of crystal or ivory (2,500 gp) |
| 8 | Locked trunk containing ten bombs (150 gp each; see "9" in the Dungeon Master's Guide) |
| 9 | Crate containing one hundred fireworks (25 gp each) |
| 10 | Crate containing five unloaded muskets (500 gp each) and a box of 100 bullets |
| 11 | Locked case containing five spyglasses (1,000 gp each) |
| 12 | Ten 20-pound kegs of gunpowder (250 gp each; see "9" in the Dungeon Master's Guide) |