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I also like this concept, but what would happen if no one defends the vessel? I think it should sink and everyone onboard should die along with it. There could be some formulas for calculating the necessary damage done in order to defeat the monster.

the ship could stay intact but the captain will be angry because now he has to repair the ship. he will call all the passengers lazy wimps but it won't have any more consequences for them.

Rotonen wrote:I think it should sink and everyone onboard should die along with it. There could be some formulas for calculating the necessary damage done in order to defeat the monster.

That would really suck.
It's hard to calculate the health of the monster because there will be lots of different level players on board. It should be challenging for most of them.
So I think the monster shouldn't deal too much damage. The main purpuse of the monster should be to keep the players busy during their travels. Not to kill them and have them start over at the last town.

What we could do is that players who got killed on the ship are taken to the first-aid on the ship and stay there until the ship arrives at the harbour. Then they get off the ship like they'd just respawned there.

Maybe a better solution would be to have monsters (lobsters, drowned corpses, crabpeople, and giant starfish) crawl over the edge of the upper deck in varying numbers? Also evil birds could attack the players on the upper deck.

Maybe the captain asks every player before hetakes off if they'd help him with
that bad ugly tentacle creature that's haunting the lake.
And the monsters strength(better HP) is based on the ability of
the passengers to deal damage.
So actually it would be more a time issue... The players need to be fast to
kill it and if they all do good damage they kill it just before it flees or
before the ship comes close to the destination.

And not only the HP of the monster is based on the "defenders" also
the type of monster.
So if there are just 3 guys that decide to take a ferry (every 15 minutes is fast maybe)
then there shouldn't be a huge tentacle monster (maybe it wants a challenge
and a target with only 3 players is not interesting or disturbing/dangerous
for the big one,
so there are only some smaller minions - not too easy but also not too hard to get rid of.

If the boat is packed full with aggressive adventurers the big one's sensitive senses tell it,
that there's a danger and so it attacks the boat with all it's meight.
Let's say the big one is killed - sea boss is gone.
But as there is no more big chief, the smaller (children?) versions
don't have an enemy any more and some start to grow and one manages
to become the alpha-tentacler. So we have a new threat to the lake.
( And that giant kills off all who are a threat to him -> gets experienced;
there can only be one in the lake - the stongest and toughest)
And the next adventurers have their boss-fight.

By the way, in my system the monsters wouldn't appear every trip. They'd appear relatively uncommonly to cheer up the bored travellers. I think having a battle every trip would be kinda.. boring.

The cost of the trip should vary upon the succesfulness of the defending: more damage done to ships -> higher ticket prices to keep the transportation companies up and running.

Yes, you're right... have a chance some monsters appear...
btw: I hope this thread isn't forgotten....

I'd really like to see this kind of transportation one day...
Like by boat with players defending and sometimes big sea boss
with some kind of backstory.

Back on the subject of instant teleportation mechanisms for players, if gateways are implemented around major commercial hubs, it'd be great seeing them being used as such by NPCs. Merchants (with caravans in tow) and couriers walking through the gateways, for example. Something that shows them actually being used as more than just conveniences for players.

Yeah, the world should live on without the players too.