>Ships offer very limited moving space >Combat either means

>>50903400
>Ships offer very limited moving space
use a bigger boat
>Combat either means enemies climb aboard, meaning you effectively get normal combat on a much smaller playing field than usual
bigger boat means bigger playing field
>Or you fight huge monsters like krakens, which pretty much means a boss fight where you're standing on a platform and the boss doesn't really move away
boss has to move around bigger boat
>Or you have to use/think up an entirely different system to navigate and fire from the ship
You should kill yourself for using rules to navigate and fire from a boat

More like you are running D&D wrong, in which 12x12 square rooms are already an impossibly large size.

>>50903400
>Is moving a campaign to the seas the biggest rookie GM mistake?
It's perfect for railroading. Especially if captain is DMPC rather than one of the PCs.

>>50903400
Have you considered flying enemies and having your players fall off the boat? When I ran a pirates campaign our party Druid enjoyed turning into a dolphin in order to sneak up close to boats, then using an augar and some gunpowder to cause them major difficulty.

Then they had to deal with the counter measures other boats employed, such as Sahuaguin body guards and we went from typical pirates shooting cannons at each other and boarding to a nautical star wars style scenario

File: 1450579729701.jpg (168KB, 772x900px) Image search: [Google]

168KB, 772x900px

>>50903400
Are you fishing for tips? I have had some really fun shipboard games.
>Two maps, one is the ship on the sea, the other is of the character locations upon the ship.
> Widen the map out, add details, like railing and rigging.
> For large enemies (e.g. Kraken) have tentacles and other extremities neter the battlefield for the melee doers to attack.
> If your playing a game with a shitty system for shipboard combat (looking at you pathfinder), elect to ignore it.
>Most importantly, ensure there is something for all the party members to do during combat. Even the melee fighter, give them npcs to handle the roles they don't want.

>>50903400
Why is any of that bad/a problem?
Fights in close quarters can be challenging, the right system can make the dramatic movement aboard ship interesting and the deck of a ship can be a very dynamic place.
Everyone loves a huge boss fight, and frankly most players love the "smash big target for 9999 damage" fight too.
Besides, does having a skill challenge or three set up for a ship encounter grind your dm gears so much?

I just came off a year-long campaign on the high seas and the players liked it, even taking their merchant vessel into deadly sea combat more than once.

>>50903400
Ships are hardly smaller than average buildings on the inside