GM Rednal's Skull & Shackles (Inactive)

Game Master Rednal

The Wormwood

Theme Song


1 to 50 of 488 << first < prev | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | next > last >>

And here's a discussion thread for ya.


Thanks! I'll send Felix the link too.

Here's the skinny on the substitution. A forum friend of mine, DMRaven, had to drop his games due to the nasty combo of new baby and graduate school. Earlier this summer, DMRaven briefly reappeared to apply to one of your games. While sadly not selected, this tells me that, if he's still lurking, he might have time for one game, and I know he's a fan of your content. I've PMed him to offer him the game as a thank you from me for running what has (so far) been the best game I've ever had the honor of playing in. That game is also where I met Felix, my potential Duo partner. I'm holding out for about another week to see if Raven does show up and accept the offer. If not, then you're stuck with Felix and me :D

So, like I said, the current ideas that Felix and I are looking at are Skull & Shackles, Mummy's Mask, Serpent's Skull, or an Alkenstar homebrew. He and I both love pulp action adventure. How do you feel about Pirates of the Caribbean, The Mummy, and Indiana Jones?

Also, if you have any ideas you'd like to pitch, we're happy to hear them too.


I've seen all three of those franchises, and could run any of them just as easily. If I had to pick... *Rubs chin* I'd probably go for Skull and Shackles. I've heard that Serpent's Skull was a bit "meh" overall, and while I have no problems with Mummy's Mask, I'm just wrapping up a long desert exploration in another game. I've done enough pyramids for a little while. XD Also, creating an NPC crew for your pirate ship would probably be fun.

Of course, that's just my personal preference. o wo/ I promised to be very flexible on what game I ran, and I keep my promises. The ultimate decision on what sort of game you want is yours.


In that case, it's probably a good thing that my original idea didn't pan out :P

Felix has expressed interest in going "fighty-skilly", and I do have a soft spot for casters, so I'd likely go "casty-fighty". We both love DSP's material, especially Path of War. Have you used the DSP Psionics/PoW material?

It sounds like Skull & Shackles might just be the winner, then. I'm glad you're excited about the NPC crew; the sizable supporting cast was something I was worried about for your sake. If we do end up going with S&S, I've got some requests about how some things get played.

I've also just remembered that I had an idea some time ago that I never did anything with. Hey Felix, what do you think about a paladin/samurai duo? I called the original concept 'A Paladin in Goka/A Samurai in Oppara'. East-meets-West, men of honor, culture clash, mass combat, political intrigues...


I've used both. XD You're free to draw from either book, as well as PoW's new Expanded tome.


Hi there! Felix checking in. DPH summed up our situation to a T, indeed, all I can do little more than stand behind him, nod, and try not to look foolish. :)

You seem predisposed to S&S of the lot of off-the-shelf material that was discussed, and that's more than fine with me (I've never played it, so it's all fresh snow to me). Like Tom said, we're also open to pitches from you, if you've got something homebrewed in mind that hits those sorts of beats.

Gotta wrap up here at work, so I'll check back in tonight some time, likely on the later side (like 10ish Eastern time).

Felix
aka Ghorrin Redblade

EDIT!

TDPH wrote:
Hey Felix, what do you think about a paladin/samurai duo? I called the original concept 'A Paladin in Goka/A Samurai in Oppara'. East-meets-West, men of honor, culture clash, mass combat, political intrigues...

That... is interesting as hell. I don't quite have a solid concept down for either end of that, but I'd be willing to beat my head against the wall to see if something shakes loose!


Well, it's not like we're in a hurry. XD Take the time you need, yeah?

Aside from those things, I have a lot of Frog God Games' material. They've got hex exploration, city exploration, recreating a powerful artifact to stop a risen death priest, and even a trip to the Dungeon of Graves or down into the darker depths of the world...


Don't beat your head too hard, Felix :P Skulls & Shackles is a clear front-runner at the moment. Do you think our bash brothers dynamic would still work if we played characters with as much superficial similarity as a paladin and a samurai?

I'm looking through the FGG material online. I generally prefer the Pathfinder campaign setting, but I'm sure a lot of the material can be adapted for Golarion without much trouble. I know you're already running the Northlands Saga here on the forums. Razor Coast material could easily be worked into S&S. I prefer character-driven story games, so things like Rappan Athuk don't really pique my interest; RA doesn't care who or what your character is, it's just there to chew you up and spit you out.


Very true. XD One of their big things as a company is that they want to make adventures that are good for different sorts of groups. The upshot of this is that they generally have something any given group will enjoy. And hey, their stuff is pretty easy to drag-and-drop in case I ever need it. It's all good either way, really.

For story-driven games, though... yeah, Adventure Paths are generally the best route for that.


The Dread Pirate Hurley wrote:
Don't beat your head too hard, Felix :P Skulls & Shackles is a clear front-runner at the moment. Do you think our bash brothers dynamic would still work if we played characters with as much superficial similarity as a paladin and a samurai?

Well, it might, but it would have to lean much more on personal/cultural differences. However, the starting concept behind a S&S character is starting to take shape in my head, so if it's all the same with you, I'd be good with calling it as Skulls & Shackles, unless a great idea comes down on us like a late-Cretaceous meteor.

Said concept is a POW Stalker, Vigilante archetype (not to be confused with an Ultimate Intrigue Vigilante, Stalker specialization*). He'd play out as a Dex/Int skill-monkey/type. Think like an actual Investigator, but more swordy.

*I forget which came first but sheesh, really DSP? Can't give the Paizo material >< that much breathing room?


*Snickers*

Yeah, that comes up, occasionally. Radiance House actually ended up changing their 'Occultist', which they've been using for quite a few years now, into the 'Pactmaker'. Speaking of, maybe I'll do a binder as one of your NPCs...

Speaking of, did you want another class? For a two player game, I'm definitely willing to go gestalt to help you cover the bases. (I do, however, generally discourage using that to min-max - doing one thing really well is ultimately not as useful as being able to do two or three things quite competently.)


Wizard/Swashbuckler 2 (HP 22/22) | AC: 12 (16) | T: 12 | FF: 10 | CMB +3 | CMD: 15| Fort: +0 | Ref: +4 | Wil: +4 | Init: +2 | Appraise +8 | Bluff: +3 | Diplomacy: +10 | Kn(Arcana, Geography): +9 | Kn(Planes): +12 | Kn(others): +4 | Prof. (Sailor): +7 | Perception: +6 | Sense Motive: +6 | Sleight of Hand +6 | Spellcraft: +9 | Stealth +5 | Swim +5 | Panache 5/5

This is Hurley's character. He may need a new alias; after all this time I'm starting to get annoyed with the whole 'Lieutenant' thing, but we'll see. Full disclosure, I've played through the first book and I have awareness of the major plot points. It shouldn't really change anything for me; I play to enjoy the story, but I don't need to be surprised at every turn.

Ambrose is a tiefling Acadamae-trained conjurer, which is to say he's a devil-blooded devil summoner of a devil. I might take another look at Summoner and see if there's anything in there that I like better, but if not he'll be a conjuration-focused wizard with the Devil Binder subschool specialization.

I wouldn't mind gestalt. A slightly higher starting level would help as well, especially as it improves the plausibility of my concept (which nobody else has cared about before, but it's important to me dammit!) If gestalting, I'll pick up melee on the other side. I think there's an Int-based Swashbuckler archetype that could work well for that.

There's always the option of doing player-controlled NPCs as well, but I'd hate to take that fun away from the GM. There are some great ones in this AP.


Well, levels should probably be kept to what the adventure expects. XD I mean, let's face it, most ideas aren't really complete at the start of the game. I won't be dragging my feet on getting you higher, though. ...I played the first bit of Wrath of the Righteous several times, with the GM's vanishing basically as soon as we hit second level each time, so I know what it feels like to want to get past what you've already done. *Coughs awkwardly*


GM Rednal wrote:
Speaking of, did you want another class? For a two player game, I'm definitely willing to go gestalt to help you cover the bases. (I do, however, generally discourage using that to min-max - doing one thing really well is ultimately not as useful as being able to do two or three things quite competently.)

I'd be willing to give gestalt a try if Tom's game for it.

Rednal, what do you consider "too much" as far as gestalting? My first thought for something to gestalt a Stalker Vigilante (no, the other kind) with would be something like Fighter, to make him a bit stabbier.

Actually, thinking about this reminds me of a completely different gestalt idea I'd had. Something something + psion (nomad) = one hell of an elocator. ("How do you board a ship, with a rope?" <snicker>)


Wizard/Swashbuckler 2 (HP 22/22) | AC: 12 (16) | T: 12 | FF: 10 | CMB +3 | CMD: 15| Fort: +0 | Ref: +4 | Wil: +4 | Init: +2 | Appraise +8 | Bluff: +3 | Diplomacy: +10 | Kn(Arcana, Geography): +9 | Kn(Planes): +12 | Kn(others): +4 | Prof. (Sailor): +7 | Perception: +6 | Sense Motive: +6 | Sleight of Hand +6 | Spellcraft: +9 | Stealth +5 | Swim +5 | Panache 5/5

The adventure also expects there to be a full complement of 4 PCs (with some occasional back-up besides) and there are definitely some encounters in the first book that could go very badly with just two PCs at the expected level. I'm totally cool with replaying Book 1 (it's a roleplay sandbox, which always works out differently), I'd just like to actually, y'know, survive it :P


@Redblade: Any Path of War class plus a Fighter is exactly what you shouldn't do. XD It's true that it would make you stabbier. However, PoW classes are already pretty stabby to begin with. As a two-player party, you're low on two things - action economy and diversity of abilities. The four 'classic' positions are martial, skill, aggressive magic (damage/control/debuffs), and supporting magic (buffs/healing). Path of War classes are pretty much all martials to begin with, so adding more martial onto that offers limited returns, and does not help you solve any of the other problems you'll face, particularly outside of combat.

The Stalker in particular is basically a Martial/Skill character, so for balance, you'd probably want to gestalt with something that's primarily focused elsewhere. Don't think about getting "stronger" with gestalt - think about solving more types of problems.

@Hurley: Don't worry, I'm pretty familiar with gestalt games, and modding games for a lower number of players. ^^ I'll make adjustments when I think they're necessary.


'Kay, that makes sense.

I'm late for a 1pm meeting, so I'll be quick, does Fighter/Investigator (questioner archetype) work as a combo?

EDIT: I mulled this over in my head as I was sitting in my 1pm meeting (so boring), the one thing that might be a concern is the stacking of Weapon Training and Studied Target. You tell me, does that look like too much? I'd happily pull back on one of those.


It probably could.


Has anybody else seen Black Sails on Starz?


No, we don't have the Starz channels. And besides, time spent watching other shows is time I don't get to finish catching up on Person of Interest. :)

EDIT: but it looks like it's on Amazon, so maybe I can catch up with it there.


Neither do I *shifty eyes*

It's like Game of Thrones with pirates. If you've ever read Treasure Island, it's the story behind Captain Flint and Long John Silver, where the treasure came from, etc. They even work in some historical pirates like Calico Jack Rackham and Anne Bonny, Charles Vane, and Edward Teach.

I've got to say, it's some of the best television I've ever seen. Production values are excellent, the writing is tight, the acting is great. It debuted the same year that John Malkovich's 'Blackbeard' premiered. Blackbeard flopped, Game of Thrones is currently shooting its fourth season.


I read the children's illustrated version of Treasure Island with my son this spring. If I ever read the full version, I don't recall. I'll check it out; it'll follow Archer as "the show I watch after the missus goes to bed".


I have not seen that show. Actually, I don't watch much television in general. XD


Hey there,

So after (over)thinking it a bit last night, my first thought on the Ftr/Inv gestalt (assuming you think it's a go at all, Rednal) is that Studied Target should be scaled down, probably to half of its normal value (1/4 level instead of 1/2). That would still let it provide a bonus, but not let it get out of control on account of its move from a 3/4 BAB chassis to a full BAB.

Tom, I'm torn between a base investigator or the questioner archetype. For me it comes down to choosing between extracts from the alchemist's lists, or spells from the bard's. Any thoughts on which provides more bang for the buck in this AP?

Felix


I generally don't object to anything that makes a character weaker. XD


LOL, sure, but you see what I'm getting at, right? Full-strength Investigator's Studied Target on a full-BAB character is a little much, right?


Yup. XD Let's go ahead and make that cut.


From my perspective, both lists are useful. They're both large, and like most spell lists, full of useless situational crap. They both get cure spells, and there's enough gold on both lists to make them worthwhile.

An important thing to note is that alchemist extracts are going to be self-only until at least level 3, and then you'd have to burn an investigator talent on the Infusion alchemist discovery, which will let you share extracts with others. We will have an NPC cleric, so don't feel that you need to be the healer. If your intention is to mostly use your spells on yourself, alchemist extracts are just as good as bard spells. If you mostly want to buff or attack others with your spells, bard spells are what you want.

Keep in mind, I'll be playing a primary caster with a focus on summoning/battlefield control. I'll try to pick up some buffs to throw down on myself or others, but it's definitely a god wizard approach I'm taking.


Speaking of, what's going to be your character's motivation for being, and remaining, a pirate? This campaign has very, very obvious themes of piracy and plunder, after all. XD I don't think it would be wrong to say it's a fundamentally Chaotic Neutral campaign.

I suppose there's always the 'Privateer' approach, if we can find a good way to work that in...

Also, which of you's gonna be the Captain? It's probably easier to have a LN first mate who enforces the captain's rules. Of course, that's not the only way of doing it - just an option. XD


The fellow taking shape in my mind, he's setting out to be an "Explorer of the Unknown" type kinda guy. His being shanghaied and entry into piracy sort of makes him a "slash career" kind of fellow.

Plausible?


Yeah, that could work. ^^ He gets unwillingly dragged into piracy, finds the life suits him, starts getting better at it, his desire for exploration pushes him forward into the plot... definitely plausible.


Tom, just curious: how would Ambrose relate to another tiefling? Relatively well, badly, or makes no difference?


Background: Ambrose is an heir to (part of) the Korvosan Jeggare merchant empire. due to bad behavior, his father temporarily disinherited him and pressed him into service aboard one of the family's vessels as a merchant marine officer to work out his attitude problems.

Present day: Two years later he gets shipwrecked in a battle with a certain cannon-laden pirate ship and winds up in Port Peril, where he gets pressganged again.

Near future: Initial forays into piracy will be solely for survival. He'll need some time to figure out how to get back home, all while avoiding

Spoiler:
Harrigan's
revenge. Having been one of the ringleaders of
Spoiler:
the mutiny
he feels responsible for the rest of the crew that got dragged into the mess with him and can't bring himself to abandon them while he flees back to the safety of Korvosa.

Long term: Piracy gives Ambrose the opportunity to have his own merchant empire without needing to stoop to accepting only what his father will give him. Using his position, he might also be able to reduce losses to the Jeggare fleet as they travel through the Shackles to Sargava. As an added bonus he gets to be a thorn in Cheliax's side (he freakin' hates Cheliax). By now, he'll have discovered who it was that blew his ship to smithereens and started him on this whole business in the first place, and has every intention of returning the favor. Also, depending on how much you play up deity influences, he owes Besmara big time for saving his life.

TL;DR: Spoiled rich kid shipwrecked and pressganged into Pirate Odyssey, fueled by daddy issues, the chains of commanding, sympathy for the devil, and revenge.

EDIT: Felix, another tiefling could be cool. Ultimately I'd say he'd be "complicated indifferent". He'd be a lot more friendly to a tiefling than an aasimar, at least. Ambrose was born human and transformed via puberty while he was a student at the Acadamae. On some level he still considers himself human and rejects the notion that he "belongs" with the tiefling underclass. So while he'd sense a kindred spirit who has likely suffered the same or worse treatment from society for being a tiefling, the presence of another tiefling would also force him to wrestle with underlying insecurities about his identity, especially if that tiefling was not an aristocrat like Ambrose. Matters would be further complicated if the other tiefling was not devilish.


He sounds like he'd forcefully insist that he bear the duties of command, am I right? :) Which suits Daanith (working name) fine, lets him focus on... other things.

If I go tiefling, I think it'd be "heritage NOS". I'm not really sure about that, though. I have to figure out more about who he is; tiefling just jumped out as an obvious race choice owing to the ability score spreads. Other thoughts were human, one of the half-guys, or maybe even changeling. I have to see what makes an adequately compelling backstory.


Oh snap, does my profile currently say LN? Either Ambrose is going to start as LE and stay that way, or he'll start out LN and descend to LE over the course of the campaign. I definitely intend to sacrifice my thrush familiar for an imp at level 7, and play up brutal cut-throat efficiency as personality traits that he'll grow into.

Ambrose was originally built to be a captain, but he can pull first mate or quartermaster if the captain he serves under is good for the crew. He's supposed to be a navigator and ship's mage as well. Forceful insistence would only be necessary if 1) there were other candidates and 2) they were unfit for the job. In the last go around (a F2F game with friends) the other candidate was a dim half-orc with no sense of self-preservation or regard for the safety of the crew, so forceful insistence was necessary :P

Daanith is an explorer, eh? I'm getting an Aubrey/Maturin vibe here. Also, I'm not sure what you mean by "heritage NOS". Not specified as in the racial default? That's technically what Ambrose is. He merely assumes it's infernal.


*Rubs chin* From a thematic standpoint, and looking at the content of the AP, I feel like the guy who wants to be an explorer would ultimately be a better captain. Among other things, it'll make your interactions with NPCs easier. XD The exploring captain and his rules-enforcing first mate is also a dynamic that works pretty well, and probably easier than the other way around, where we'd have to explain why this guy who wants to look around and kind of do what he wants is letting himself get bossed around by a devil-summoner...


Heritage Not Otherwise Specified, i.e. the "base" version of tiefling. Sorry. :)


@Felix Gotcha, that's what I figured.

@GM Rednal I can roll with it either way. That said, it may be a bit early to decide on that; Felix is still figuring out who his character is and neither has seen the light of play yet. It won't even affect anything until the very end of book 1, and there's a whole lot of RP between here and there to help that decision along. I'm interested to see how the dynamic between our characters works out this time.

Alternatively, I could scrap Ambrose and go with Jolly Roger, the bird-brained tengu bard :P


Yes, it'll also help once I actually figure out what drove me to come to the Shackles. The Player's Guide mentions the ruins of Ghol-Gan, which is great, but I need to decide why I'm looking for them. Besides, y'know, tourism. :)


Treasure is always popular. He could also be seeking them in order to say he did it - buffing up his resume, as it were. XD Or maybe he just had a childhood interest after reading about them somewhere.


True, true. Many was the time my Grammy Tina said how nice it would be if I was known as "The Man Who Looted Ghol-Gan". Course, this is back when I was about seven, so I had no idea what she was talking about.

And yes, Tom, I am very green, I recycle all my jokes. :D


@Felix I'll take your word for it, but I don't recall having heard that one before.

@GM Rednal DMRaven has responded. He's not interested in taking a solo game, but he'd love to slide into this one if you're willing to run for a trio. I'm totally willing to step down from gestalt to a single class in order to facilitate this, as we'll be that much closer to a normal party.


I can definitely run a trio - though I usually try to avoid having games be any bigger than that. XD They often slow down once you hit four players, unless you know all four are able to post reliably. Three is technically the point where gestalt starts being suggested, but if you want to do it with fairly normal, single-class characters instead, it's also workable.

As promised, I'm willing to be flexible on that sort of thing. XD I want to do what's fun for you.


I solemnly swear that I am up to no good the party will not get any bigger than the three of us.

Ambrose was initially going to go Eldritch Knight. If you're willing to allow gestalt, I'm willing to take it, but I'll take it or leave it depending on Felix and Raven's preferences.


I'm still quite okay with gestalt.

If Raven (waves hi) doesn't do someone Charismatic, I might shift gears and do that. It'd basically mean replacing Investigator with UnRogue. It'd be fine with me, the basic char concept would be the same, just different means of achieving it.


Honestly, I think Gestalt is one of the more fun ways of playing, given the complexity of ideas you can manage with it. XD It often allows you to take options that don't make for a good character all by themselves, but work out quite nicely when you have something else to supplement it.


Hello! I'm fine with or without gestalt, either way. With a wizard and an investigator, I'd be fine going with a more charisma-ish build if you'd like. Someone to smooth over relations when Jeggare demands increased profits.

I had been eyeing harbringer, but that's Int-based. I adore the Path of War classes so will probably pick one of those. Warder seems more..leader-y than I'd like (definitely do not want to be the captain!). Maybe a Zealot and if we go gestalt, one of the divine magic classes. Either shaman or oracle or something...not sure what else there is at this point. I haven't kept up to date on anything released since Vigilante.


Raven, if you wanna go Harbinger, go ahead. I can rejigger the classes on my character without wrecking the concept, I swear.

Also, but hot damn it's good to see you again. :-)


Nah, I am fine going chariamatic! Zealot could make a fun paladin. I'll need to brainstorm some backstory.


Well, if the game's Skull and Shackles, I'd... uh... discourage anything Paladin-y. XD

1 to 50 of 488 << first < prev | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | next > last >>
Community / Forums / Online Campaigns / Play-by-Post Discussion / GM Rednal's Mysterious Campaign Discussion All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.