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

The Matrix certainly needs an update NMel is still showing a 3 with Cogswell and that should be a 5 as well

Dash it all I want to go to Paizocon...and I live an hour away!

where are you PD? i'll be spending some time in Bellingham as well.

Sorry for the absence, work is killer busy and with the holiday approaching I have been working desperately to get my house ready for my folks coming into town...

The matrix does need to be updated...Wellard and Ajani are right about current estimated scores for Toppins and Cogswell.

Voodoo - I live in Olympia.

Cap- what's with all this ill health? Feel better soon.

It does seem like you've had more than your fair share of bad luck regarding your health lately. Hope everything is hunky-dory again quickly!

I will be away from my PC from tomorrow(Tuesday) until Friday Evening. Taking my Family for a Short Vacation

Doing a lot better. Kidney Stones...don't get those!

I should have an update later today, tomorrow AM at latest.

Glad to hear you're doing better! My wife had a kidney stone one time and it was a terrible experience for her. We didn't know what was going on but she was in terrible pain for a while. Not something I'd wish on a worst enemy!

Yeah I thought I had totally messed up my back somehow and then it just got worse and worse. Later, when I was in a joking mood I mused that I must have looked like something out of a horror movie; I was writhing back and forth on the bed yelling at my wife to get help. I'm hopin I've earned my "health problems" gold star for the year and can maybe not have something happen for a while...

On the way to the emergency room, before we found out it was a kidney stone, my wife was squeezing my hand as hard as she could and looking at me crying saying,"I don't want to die!"

One of the scariest moments of my life.

YEah that totally makes sense, its such a strange sensation, it doesn't make any sense and if you don't know what it is you have no honest sense that it will *end*. My poor wife had to watch the EMTs load me up and stay back at the house with my sleeping son. She can't drive so she had no sense of when she might even get to me or see me...luckily some friends picked her up and took the kid very soon after that but its a pretty intense set of circumstances.

Okay folks...

Its not you....

It...well, its me.

I just don't think I can do this...

And by this I mean the first part of the AP:

So it goes like this: Day after day of checks with a few odds and ends event wise to spice it up so as to establish a history onboard, spice up the natives and set the stage for part 2. Which is all well and good because at a table its a couple of sessions...on a PbP its...well...how many months have we played and we are on day 5 of 20+?

So I'm thinking of skipping to part 2. Basically I'll have you roll your remaining checks and actions, tell you who you butter up, what you learn, montage the hell out of it and then we can get to some adventurin with a capital A? What do y'all think?

I am actually fine to keep us doing what we are doing but I know that it probably feels a little tedious. So...let's chat about it here in OCC while we continue to play and we can figure it out.

I am 100% fine with hand waving our way to the adventure part of the adventure.

While you have done a fantasatic job with this beginning section of the game, and really brought the crew to life for us, I will not be upset if you wish to move forward with the actual adventure.

I have always been an advocate of the ideology that the best way to run a game is the way the GM wants it run. That having been said, one of the main reasons I got into PbP gaming is that I enjoy the slower pace, and I think that it has really brought not only the crew to life, but allowed us to really explore our characters more thoroughly as well. However, I understand your concern. If you want to montage the rest of our little meet and greet with the crew, I'm perfectly fine with that.

I'm all for getting to the 'good parts'. I really don't think I'll miss 20 days of AM action/PM action. It had occurred to me as well that this would go much faster table top.

I'm totally fine with fast-forwarding the remaining days of the "gettin' to know you" part of the AP.

Lets see..it's taken 3 months to do 5 days which is 1/4th off the prologue..yeh I dont fancy spending a year on this.

Mel will spend the remaining 16 days working on the Anti Plugg Members off the crew and Conochbar.I think we can pretty much say that barring any disasters she gets them all on side with her in that time.

Interestingly Sunday will see the second anniversary of my Serpents Skull Game and we are still only 3/4 off the way through book 1..

Allrighty, let me figure out how to best represent the time passage.

Probably what I will do is make certain assumptions based on your actions up until this point as far as what your objectives are so like Wellard why don't the rest of you give me a sense of who or what your focus might be in the next couple of weeks on board, from there I will make some rolls, update the matrix, montage you and get you to the next true event.

Seeing as he hasn't had much luck with fellow small folk, Quillin sticks to humans using galley opportunities to get to know Caulky and humor to get friendly with Tilly.

BTW computer just went down. that may slow my posting for a bit...

Is Caulky open for wooing now? I asked a while back and the Cap'n told me she would be difficult to get to for reasons that would eventually be clear.

Are we getting a hand wave to 2nd level at the same time? I know we are missing some encounters but that should not penalize us.

Nah I wanted to move you forward but keep you level 1...because I am a cruel cruel man.

Yes everyone should level to 2 (and because of all that third may come soon on its heels) But this comment reminds me that I have an AP aware Scotsman running around in my game...I need to shake things up, keep Wellard on his toes...

As to Caulky and the officers:

So here is the deal. When it was first brought up I only had AP1 and it talks a little about how you want to avoid players interacting too much with the higher ups for a variety of reasons related to the scale of the AP (being for lower level characters) and for long term plans with certain characters later in the AP.

Now that I have through AP 5 I can see a little more clearly what the impact would be of befriending or sucking up to the higher ups so allow me to put it this way:

You can try to work on Caulky and the other officer types but it will be harder going (higher DCs so probably more checks) and the tangible rewards won't be felt until a lot later in the AP while crew members will be of immediate use in the near future. I think both have value and it makes sense from a narrative angle but I want to be upfront about the outcomes so players can make good choices for their characters. Hopefully that makes sense.

Rules for HP upon level up? Also, Ajani's general plan of action during the remaining period of time until part 2 is going to be the same as his strategy thus far: continue trying to make friends with the rest of the crew that doesn't care much for Plugg or Scourge.

Ajani will attempt to dump his grog until the current penalty to his Constitution score is totally erased, after a period of The general order that Ajani would follow while attempting to woo the other crewmen is as follows; he will continue trying with each person on the list until he raises them to Helpful or drops them to Unfriendly:

1) Tilly (assuming he hasn't raised her from 4.5 to 5 with Ajani's last attempt, 2/3-rds of the way down page 5 of the thread)
2) Rosie (Start here if Tilly is already at Helpful)
3) Jack Scrimshaw
4) Ratline
5) Cog
6) Giffer

If you need more people than that, Cap'n, please tell me and I'll give you a few more. Is this the kind of thing that you were looking for from us, Devon? Will be updating Ajani to level 2 shortly.

Looks good.

HP is roll and add con OR take average roll and add con. Pick in thread.

Reroll any die less than your Con.

I'll roll for it. Luck be a lady!

1d8 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 1 = 7

That's enough of a lady for me!

Lets see what kind of HP poor old Fjori can get

1d10 + 2 ⇒ (10) + 2 = 12

Woot!!! cannot ask for more then that...all that work in the bilge has paid off...lol

A lady for me and a queen for you. Bah.

Quillin will stay with his plan. he doesn't need friends really. he can just conjure them :)

hp 1d6 + 1 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 1 + 1 = 3
uff-da. and a betch queen for me...

For any actions Hassan might take during the next 3 weeks, he would generally continue to play himself up to the crew at large as a simpering coward who would rather talk than fight, and try to make inroads with any of the officers who might bend a favorable ear towards him. Particularly if he thought it would get him lighter labor (and maybe put that Appraise skill to work).

Let's see how I do for hit points. I'm adding 1 hp for favored class.

1d6 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 2 = 5

Fjori will continue to work with his budding 'relationship' with Quinn, as well as tring to win the trust of the owlbear back. He will generally try to keep the party together and show them as a front opposed to Mister Plugg and his group.

we also need to resolve Mel's Illness..

I did make a DC12 Save in the main thread so here's an attempt to get better..hopefully Mistress Quinn will add something to this with heal checks.

1d20 ⇒ 6 Dex1d3 ⇒ 3 Con1d3 ⇒ 3

1d20 ⇒ 20 thats a pass

1d20 ⇒ 10 and that should be a pass with some healing assistance

which leaves Mel down by 6 dex and 5 con..oooww 11 days to get back to full health

Yeah Quinn will aid no worries but yeah that is a slow recovery. Ouch/

Bart will spend his remaining time keeping his nose down and getting his work done. He knows that after beating the Owlbear, Scourge and Plugg have it out for him, so he does as little as possible to attract undue attention to himself. At night he spends his time drinking and befriending Cog. He sees a commonality between them that if nothing else'll give him someone else to talk to. Either that or if he gets too drunk will go to bed early. Whether that involves him crawling into bed or passing out is anyone's guess.

And here's for how Lady Luck is feeling for Bart:
1d10 + 2 ⇒ (8) + 2 = 10
That'll do, Ole' Girl. That'll do.

Will have the rest updated by this evening.

K.

I should have this hammered out today in the hopes that you can level up this weekend and we can move on.

Woohoo! Ajani is leveled up; just gotta update the header tag with my HP and AC and stuff.

Out of curiosity, I'd like to see what everyone else's opinion is on the number of PbPs it's appropriate to be in simultaneously. For example, I'm in three right now: This one, Wellard's Jade Regent, and a homebrew called "On Abadar's Secret Service."

I was thinking about skipping Shattered Star and waiting for the next one to join another, just because I don't want to see myself as joining too many PbPs and preventing others from having a good time with them. What do you guys think? How many PbPs is too many?

No idea, but I was thinking about running Shattered Star here on the boards, because there's no way I'd have time for it at home. Having said that, anyone interested in Shattered Star?

I'm currently playing in 3 but I found it more had to do with the group and the pace. Wellard's and my game could be going a lot faster than they are and, in fact, many times the game that Voodoo (Quillin) runs that I play in is much faster seeing a larger volume of posts.

I think the right number is the number where you can remember the games, meet the required posting indicated by the DM (usually 1 a day I find) and don't feel like you are drowning.

Personally I don't worry about the issue of "hogging" the spots in APs because I find that games die, players leave and the community has enough flexibility to probably account for a variety of appetites. I have seen a couple of players who are in 30 games but 26 of them die in six months. Besides, in my mind the harder it is to find a game the more likely it is that someone will rise to the challenge of DMing thus broadening the availability of games...maybe I am wrong about that but I guess what I am saying is if you see something that honestly interests you, you should go for it.

My 2 cp anyway .

Bart all leveled up and ready, Dread Captain. Took Dodge as my bonus feat.

Also, I agree with Devon. Don't be afraid to join a game because you think you're preventing others from getting to play. There are lots of DM's here running games, and if someone wants to play, they'll find one to play in. Most sadly tend to die fairly quickly in my experience, so hop on when you can.

I think the main thing to keep in mind is not overextending yourself. Be conscious of how much time you really have available to be a good participant. I'm running 3 and playing 3- 2 of which are fairly slow, but I still feel like i'm probably on-line a bit more than i ought to be.

That said, I'm 2 players short in my Zolurket campaign just as we're about to hit the eponymous haunted mine itself. Anyone interested?

The whole "games die" thing is interesting to me and I seem to have (thus far) avoided that kind of luck. Granted, none of my games are older than a year, but I hear people talk with moderate frequency about games just dying.

I've only had one PbP that I stopped and that was voluntary because I had a difference of opinion with one of the other players about some stuff that I just couldn't get beyond in the actual game; I didn't wanna hold any of the others back, so I dropped out of it.

I'm playing in 5 and running 3..but I have characters in reserve and might be interested in Shattered Star..either as a Dwarf Cleric or a Human Paladin.

I have had quite a lot of games die on me mainly through DM's giving up or in one case just vanishing..oh and the one with a TPK in the second major combat(but that was a zombie apocalypse game in Greyhawk)

As a DM I have only had one game die on me and that was my home brew Wilderlands game using the Dungeon Crawl Classics..that died beause off player turn over and the fact that the ones coming in did not understand the principles behind the scenarios..which were Gygaxian Old School instead they kept try to find nuances that simply were not there and in the end got bored with dungeon crawling.

Mel is almost ready for new challenges..

are we dicing for HP or using the PFS formula.. 1/2 max+1 for each dice after 1st?

HP is roll dice + Con or average roll + Con. Choose in thread. Re-roll any die lower than Con.

I don't get the reroll any dice less than your con and that favours those with con bonuses quite heavily

I'll take the average roll which I presume rounds up as in PFS so 5HP for Mel

Yeah, I took a risk rolling the die with Ajani...his Con bonus being +1, he wouldn't have gotten any re-rolls either. Still, it paid off ultimately.

Cap'n, a question: Are we allowed to choose our HP method every level, or are we locked into whatever we now chose?

oh, i didn't know we had a choice. I'll always go for average as my HD is too small to really reward the risk.

voodoo, is your Zolurket campaign a homebrew or published thing? At what speed is it progressing? What other info can you offer about it? I might be interested in adding just one more to my list and thus far the things I've read about Shattered Star leave me wondering if it's one that I'd really be interested in playing in.

I DEFINITELY wanna play in "Reign of Winter" and I've already got a character in mind for it...a clouded vision oracle of time that prestiges into Harrower. I know it may result in a slightly less powerful character overall, but the idea of the blind fortune-teller is just so appealing as a literary concept that I can't pass it up.

Yeah don't due avg roll + Con, do avg roll+1+con...I knew I was off there but I couldn't put my finger on it.

You are right that my "Con" rule favors the hig of Con and it is a few things really:

1. Most characters with high con are trying to absorb damage which is good for everyone.
2. Most characters with a high con are likely to be of a class that doesn't scale as well as others do (ie Fighters and the like being "less powerful" at higher levels) so this my bone to throw
3. I don't ever employ it outside of multiple options to gain HP: People can go slow and steady but people who have high con get a slight leg up in the "chance" for higher HP...in my mind people with certain stats should never fail certain kinds of rolls...one day when I have tested it thoroughly I will employ that stat wide so certain str feats or kno items simply won't pass certain characters by...