Ahoy Ahoy! Ship Miniatures and Maps for D&D

I love some ship-on-ship combat. When I was running Out of the Abyss, I ended up running a whole ship-based combat on the Darklake, using Pirates of the Spanish Main miniatures, and having each player as the “captain” of a ship. Essentially, the game scaled, so they were just playing the ships as themselves, so there was no actual ship-based rules. It was just reflavoring the combat.

However, with Ghosts of Saltmarsh coming out, now is the perfect time to begin stocking up on ships to run sea-based adventures. Here’s a collection of options for you.

Buy and Build

Clever Paper: Clever Paper has multiple options for ships. They have a Russian Longboat, a Chinese Junk, an Arabian Dhow, a Galleon, and a Caravel. Unfortunately, I’m not sure on the scale for any of this, but some of it looks like it should be close enough.

D&D Icons of the Realms Falling Star: The official D&D ship from WizKids. It looks nice, but the cardboard tiles look a bit flimsy.

Melissa & Doug: This is a pretty decent looking ship and castle combo, and should work just fine for D&D. The side of the ship is open, so you can move pieces around inside.

Amber’s Secret Cove: The fabulous Jolly Blackburn of Knights of the Dinner Table fame has a few different ships. His largest ship was just released, and it’s a beast! He has a sailing ship, a whole fleet of ships, a modular dock, and a bunch of other really great things.

Laser Dream Works: Laser Dream Works has a really large variety of wood laser-cut ships, in a big selection of sizes and prices. I know EnriqueEnrique of NewbieDM has one of the ships, and he seems to like it.

Firelock Games: Firelock has a huge variety of ships, ready to play, from their Blood and Plunder wargame.

Paper Models

WorldWorksGames: The Maiden of the High Seas is a model I’ve had the files for for a long time, and haven’t gotten the chance to build. I may have to now. It’s a huge ship with multiple decks, and even gives you the ability to print onto transparent sheets for the rigging to make it look more realistic. Really cool stuff.

Dave Graffam: I’ve built his rowboat and his patrol boat, but his marauder ship is also really nice. definitely stuff worth checking out. The rowboats alone are really great. I’ve built about six of them so far.

Fat Dragon Games: Besides doing 3d printed files, FDG started with papercraft. They have a sailing ship available, and a dragon ship as well.

2D Maps

SkeletonKey Games: If you want 2d ships, SkeletonKey has couple of really great ships: Their High Seas Warship is good, as is their Dragon Ship. They also have a nice wharf set.

Pathfinder Map Packs: The Pathfinder Map Packs are fantastic, providing lots of options. The Ship Flip-Mat Classic, the Ship’s Cabins provides for lower decks, the Boats & Ships are good smaller ships, the Pirate Ship provides a variant, and the Bigger Ship gives you a hefty ship perfect for plunder. Pathfinder flip mats are always really highly detailed, and are fairly inexpensive, so you can get all the ship maps you need for a low price.

3D Printing

ShipWorks: Oh, these are absolutely beautiful. There’s a huge variety of pieces, and I’ve seen some of these constructed in photos. They look fantastic, and I’ll be speaking with the designer of them soon to get more details on them.

Dragonbite: This little kit is kind of bulky, but it’s made to be compatible with Dragonlock stuff by Fat Dragon, so if you want your stuff to match that, this is the way to go.

Printable Scenery: I’ve been looking at these ships for a while. This may cause me to pull the trigger. I’ve previously printed one of their buildings, and these ships look like they’ll be perfect. The great thing about 3d printed files, is once you’ve got them, you can print as many as you want, so a single file can turn into dozens of ships. Simply painting them differently and giving different rigging and sails will make them look dramatically different.

–

Is there anything I’m missing? Any ships I should add to the list? Let me know!