Skallywags and Picaroons: A Skull & Shackles Campaign
Game Master PirateDevon

Ah..I love that short..and the music is a perfect Korngold Pastiche

Sorry, slight delay sick house full of people.

Okay.

So here is the deal in the interest of setting up some expectations so that things go smoothly...

I'm of the opinion that as players its helpful for you to know some of the things that underline the AP so that you can manage decisions accordingly and not feel like you get "trapped".

The overall S&S features a new mechanic based around infamy and the managing of your piratical reputation. This 1st chapter features a subset mechanic which has to do with your relationship/reputation in regards to the rest of the crew.

Like any npc each crew member has a starting disposition towards you. As that disposition changes (up or down) the other crew members will help or hinder your day to day lives on the Wormwood and will have endgame impacts as we reach act 3 of this first chapter. To this end let me give you some info that should be helpful in charting your reactions and intentions.

The Wormwood is designed as a sandbox in that the ship has various encounters that are time based, location based and person based. I want to telegraph very early on that there are some people and places on the Wormwood that are far beyond you abilities and I will do my best as a DM to communicate that when I can. To that end even though assessing levels of people was a 3.5 Sense Motive use of the skill I think it is one worth keeping around.

The AP is built around days on board. Each day each you will get an opportunity to do various actions around the ship (aside from the ones assigned to you) to do things like explore the ships, attempt to influence NPCs or look for gear and treasure to acquire. As we get close to the moment those mechanics kick in I will update you on your options but in essence the objective over time is to enhance your standing on the ship and acquire goods and favors that might assist in your endeavors.

Various things will occur as the captain moves on his own agenda (he took you for a reason right?) so mostly the day by day mechanics help reflect what your relevance is on the Wormwood. Skills like climbing, profession, performance and craft actually have relevance and Diplomacy, Intimidation and Bluff are all social skills that can be used to affect your relationship with the other pirates.

A couple of notes:

While there is a mechanical system I will obviously reward role playing and character actions with equal/greater weight. If you spend twenty posts chatting up another character Im not going to hinge you efforts on the roll.

For the next couple of months I will let you fiddle on the margins with character minutia like skills and feats. This AP actually asks for checks you don't see often which is nice but can throw things off IMHO.

Let me know if you are playing or running this AP elsewhere just so I can get a sense of what other players are doing. Also feel free to try out of the box stuff. I tend to reward player ingenuity and see the rules as a framework not a yoke. However if any of you are more rules focused feel free to let me know if I am missing something you feel is important.

Welcome aboard! Yarggh!

*Insert GM hopes the PC on PC antagonism is all in good fun eyebrow cock here*

; )

It is for me!!! Fjori is not likely to take things beyond what they are now. But being sold out by a gnome... Well even nords have their limits. Lol

Q fits into the realm of enlightened self interest, but I think he has found that brown-nosing is getting him nowhere.

LOOL...I think Q and Fjori might make a very good team...lol

HEEY AABBOOOTT!!

HAAAA I suppose it could be like that...hehe

I hate that guy! Lol

So a slight snag:

To open up the ship actions and let you choose how you spend your day I need to let you know where you can go ie you need a map of the ship. Sadly Paizo's community use policy will get me in hot water if I just post theirs (though it sure would be nice) so it may take me a chunk of my night to get a map up to contextualize everything. Your broadcast will continue soon.

My other campaigns I've GM'd have complemented me on my maps. If you'd like my help, I can get you a good one. It'd be tomorrow night befor I could even get to it, though.

I may take you up on that depending on how far I get today. I have been see-sawing a cold like the rest of my family and last night I was not doing so hot. Dragging ass a bit but we'll see what today brings.

Okay, in the campaign description area maps are up as are descriptions of areas that you all basically have access to as of right now. (The one exception is the cook/quartermaster's quarters but Quillin has access and he can tell you, etc.) As you open up the few blacked out areas I will throw notes up as well. Also keep in mind that there may be other less obvious features of those spaces that you don't know yet. Hector, if you can/want to come up with "prettier" versions I'm sure my gratitude will be worth something at some point ;-)

There is a large volume of NPCs to influence or be influenced by your actions plus a bunch of officers and what not you might not actually see much in the course of a day so I am looking to throw a spreadsheet up soon to help track it all. Luckily the community has been working on things like that so I wont need to do all the leg work on that from scratch.

Sorry that I got my copy so close to start. Ideally I would have had this stuff hammered out before setting sail but we were all pretty eager so you are suffering a bit for the top heavy organization that needs to happen.

Various posts should be coming.

No worries, Devon! It's cool with me. I understand that there's a lot of prep work that goes into this campaign. I'm just glad that you are willing to DM it for us!

One of the "actions" you can take is "Influencing".

This works like the Diplomacy skill to change attitudes but in addition to Diplomacy you can also use Bluff (to seem friendly but not be) and Initimidate (To basically scare them into liking you or at least "supporting" you). People who are moved to "friendly" or "helpful" may provide circumstance bonuses, aid in work and give you valuable information. They may also keep you from getting stabbed or having an "accident". As always sense motive can help you suss out how people feel about you.

Yes this is a game that need a LOT of prepping, something none off us could have realised before recieving the AP itself.

Okay. Had a resurgence of illness and a hard weekend with my rugrat (as far as getting on to post) So sorry for the delay. I'll get to updating, I dont want to lollygag about so long I get the cat!

Hope you an' yours feel better soon. No fun a'tall. I'm noticing that this AP starts out with quite a bit of work for the GM: multiple NPCs and much independent player action.

Funnily enough the set up is almost perfect for a PBP where you get time to react to things..I can't imagine how long things would take in a table top situation or how confusing it could get.

That is the funny thing and, in general, what I have liked about PBP. There is an ability to make the experience richer for an individual player and if the posting can be strung out a bit the pace can be decent too. This sort of situation at a table would certainly run the risk of having players tuning out if the GM didn't bounce the camera around quite a bit.

The advantage I have here along with my RotRL game is some of the players are international and/or spread out across the US. It lets the thread feel alive but rarely logjammed unless I fall behind.

I'm going to be honest, the slow pace is one of the things that really drew me into PBP gaming in the first place. Not only does it allow me continue life as normal while still getting my gaming fix, but it allows for more personal character development.

Question for the GM: What effect, if any, does watering the rum ration down into grog have, either on it's immediate effects or addictive properties?

Hmmm. I would say it halves the ability damage and lessens some of the longer term effects of addiction. That said since its meant to keep youdocile it is safe to assume that any atempt.to adulterate your ration is likely to draw the same penalty as trading it or dumping it.

Probably halves.the.benefits.too...

Well it says explicitly, "The rum is staggeringly strong, and is often watered down to make grog."

So I would imagine that just doing that isn't a punishment worthy offense.

They eant it strong to wear you out. Tired and busy sailors dont do the kind of things Fjori did this morning. It is explicitly being used to subdue the ranks.

To clarify: the.text i gave you on rum rations uses general language about its presence in the world. I would agree that it isnt as bad as throwing it out but i want to signal clearly that if you are caught watering the ration on the Wormwood ot will be trouble

Ah, I see. I was under the impression you were quoting the adventure path in particular. Duly noted.

Wow....three 1s in four dice rolls. Those odds are pretty up there.

Man, that Rum is hell of nasty. 3 Con damage, Another -2 if I don't drink the Rum again tomorrow, and Hassan is addicted so the DC against addiction goes up by +2 every time he drinks it, as long as he is still suffering from the Con damage.

On a purely mechanic basis, though, I'm confused about how the rum works. Because regardless of whether you make your save or not you still take the 1d3 Con damage... so if everyone is drinking this stuff each night, how is the crew not all dead of Con damage within a week or two?

Yeah there is some contention on the boards about the rum ration and its effects, especially on NPCs who don't have access to magical healing and what not.

The Con damage is temp, so when you rest you chew up one. The other option that even the developers seem to support is burning off another point of Con damage during the day as alcohol burns faster when you are moving.

The issue here is they want the PCs to avoid it (unless you need the CHA boost) but it doesn't make sense having pirates avoid drinking which every sailor would have to at some point to avoid basically keeling over.

That said, if you can heal 1 con a day and 1 a night it is rolling three that screws up over but if you roll low or avoid the ration you can get on top of it.

I think we will try it that way: Heal 1 con at day and night (Basically 1 every 8-12 hours) and we will see how it goes. Honestly you have a cleric as a friend so most of you will be okay in the long run but I want to find a balance. How does everyone feel about that?

Sounds reasonable...

That sounds not unreasonable.

Does the AP explicitly say the rum is spiked with ruffies? :/

those effects are just nutso, but when in Port Royal...

i think Bart needed to resolve his arm wrestling bout and the rest of us are ready to move on, no?

Mels's good stealth should let her ditch the rum every night so at least one off us will end up without ill effects.

Think so.

Yah, ill get the bout in sideways and move us on.Sorry betwwrn ongoing health crap and my son weekends tend to be rough for me to post.

Question: Did Mel actually change Grok's attitude as if she did the Matrix wasn't ammended.The post suggested she had.

She has, I was waiting to change the matrix until all nighttime actions were complete. (There is a chance that Bart can change an attitude or two depending on how things go with his wrestling. So I will update after that.)

I'd also like to know if Ajani made the check. I know the normal DC to go from Indifferent to Friendly is 15 + Target's CHA and my roll was 14, so it's basically gonna come down to if Grok has a negative CHA modifier. Fingers crossed!

Mhmm yes you did succeed. Barely ;-)

Hey folks. Cap'n Devon asked me to relay to everyone that he's still fighting the plague of horrible death that's been afflicting him, but that he's going to the doctor today and will post as soon as he is able (e.g. as soon as his fever goes down a bit).

In the meantime...

Sheesh. Must be something pretty bad. Hope you feel better soon, Devon!

seems like he's been sick a while now. Hope the doc has something to fix him up.

He has been sick for quite a while... Hope all is well, Devon.

From what I understand (and I hope I'm not overstepping my bounds here), there is this thing going around and around the town in which Devon and I live, which is some combination of head/chest cold and sinus infection which simply enters into your body and lingers for weeks.

Which is to say that Devon (and his family, all of whom have been suffering this affliction) have been feeling some variety of s~@@ty for days on end, but it is unlikely to be anything more dire than what can reasonably be cured with some variety of pills, potions, and unguents as many be acquired from the local apophacary, coupled with copious amounts of bed rest.

But I will inform him of your well wishes, if he has not at least checked the board himself, already.

Return

I come bearing drugs and treatments...lets party.

Welcome back, Devon! Glad to know the doc's got you drugged up good.