Never thought I'd be interested in running a pirate campaign...but I seem to be changing my mind and we're between fantasy campaigns at the moment. My players, however, have more than a few bad experiences with the whole "you've been captured and all of your gear stripped away" thing from past jerky GMs.
So. I was hoping for some advice from folks that have read the first issue more thoroughly than I: would there be any major upset to recruiting the PCs rather than having them get slipped a mickey and waking up in the hold?
The PCs all, theoretically, want to be pirates anyway. What about having a silver-tongued recruiter from Wormwood working the bars to grab up the most promising new swabs? Maybe he does some over-promising, so they're properly resentful and will follow the mutiny hook by the end of book one.
Most of their stuff could still be taken away when they come on board, I guess. "If you need a weapon, the captain will give you a weapon. Until then, here's a mop. Get swabbing!"
Any thoughts appreciated.
M
Ahm...hrm...well, you could have it sound a lot better the night before, as well. You know, cheerfully drunk in the pub, overly romantical notions of piracy...next day, perhaps they're regretting their lack of discretion.
OR - though I don't know how this will affect the long run - they could have some means to suspect the captain of his Chelish associations whilst under his command, and mutiny just to get away from such a dubious two-faced sod of a so-called 'Free Captain.' Perhaps then their entire goal of gathering power from then on is with the purposeful intention of countering him. Oddly, this seems to allow for more lawful characters, as well - upholding the Pirate's Code / defending the pirate's way.
OR - they're hired by another agency entirely (Cheliax or Rahadoum would be obvious choices) in order to gather information about his doings, and they must play the part of accidental draftees in order to sign on without suspicion. The whole mutiny, then, is Plugg's doing - and your PCs are stuck in it. The only way to gain a measure of control is to turn Plugg's mutiny against him and take off - cause Harrigan obviously won't believe that you whelps took out his loyal man for his own good. Not sure where that one would go, though, either...
Those are my first impressions, anyroad - hope they're useful-ish.
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I'm going to be a player in this so I'm trying to avoid details and apologize if tho has already been mentioned, but I'd let them "sign on" or already be a member of another ship but still get press ganged onto this one. I get the sense that it's supposed to be an unpleasant experience for the PCs. If they willingly signed on, they may wonder why they're not getting treated better.
Thanks for the advice guys. Looks like the second issue is on the way soon so I'll read both and the players' guide fully and see if I think I can pull it off.
M
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How attached to their gear can they be at Level 1, Adventure 1, Session 1?
Not so very attached...it's just the usual d*ck maneuver used by a former DM of theirs to start games. Don't want to induce trauma if possible to avoid it.
M
I would say you could do it; you may have to tweak several things in the beginning. It's not out of the question--and I'm sure often happened in reality--that folks got talked into doing something they thought would be fun but then realized they'd walked into a trap.
And once you're out in the middle of sea and nowhere to go, with a bunch of tough strong pirates ready to whip you into submission, you're still going to have to deal with what you've gotten yourself into.
Also--talk to your players. If they're all on board with the scenario as written there may be no need to make changes, as long as you yourself would be happy with that.
And I hear you. I'm pretty sure "you wake up in a cell without your equipment" is the overused RPG cliche I hate most, and generally speaking if it never appeared in any adventure, ttrpg or crpg, I think the world of gaming would be a better place. Well, because I was planning to run a seafaring campaign for my next game, and I needed pirate and ship stats, rules for ship to ship combat, and some general plot ideas to crib from. Which this AP has.
And I was even going to start my campaign with the party being attacked by press gangers--but in this case, they would be actually attacked and have a good chance of fighting them off (if they didn't, they could be captured, sure, but that was going to be the more unlikely outcome--more like, I expect the PCs to win/get away but if things go horribly awry, then this is plan B. But then at least the AP outlines what might happen for plan B without my having to write it up).
I don't see any problems with it.
They may have signed up but that doesn't mean anyone will like them and after a few days under the "I'll never be satisfied" Plugg and Co, the desire to follow the "rest of the adventure" [players reading this] should be easy to achieve.
The only difference would be if they have their equipment. That equipment will really play a relatively minor role in the whole thing, since if they followed the usual path of schmoozing it up with the NPCs they'll get their equipment back anyway.
Just an odd note - I haven't personally started any game with the wake-up-in-a-cell-with-none-of-your-stuff trope in a long time. It feels very classic, and that amuses me. I'm going to have to open with a reference to Morrowind...
Our GM just told us straight out during a character creation session that we should put together a list of gear but write it on a separate sheet of paper. He explained we'd have opportunities to get it back, and everyone was cool with it, even the more hard-nosed player. That said, we're an established group and trust our GM. YMMV, but this may be one instance in which it's okay for the GM to give some meta game knowledge beforehand so the players don't feel they also got shanghaied (in addition to the PCs).
I think there's a big difference between a GM taking players gear out of spite or on a whim vs. as part of in-game play or as an integral part of the story. The setup for this AP is the latter, and at the beginning of a campaign, player attachment should be minimal - especially if the GM sets the stage up-front.
Frankly, when I hear "it won't sit well with this player/that player" or words to that effect, it sounds an awful lot like player-entitlement issues. I've seen it first-hand a few times and it's almost always due to a player who defines his PC by his gear or a lack of maturity (or both).
There are times when a PC shouldn't or can't have access to their gear, and candidly, cries of "you're spoiling my fun" ring hollow. For example, if the Captain of the Guard insists that no one other than the King's guardsmen may bear weapons in his presence, that's a story element, not the GM being a jerk.
A game where the PCs never fail (or don't have the chance of failure) is boring. Failure shouldn't be limited to a failed skill check (at the low extreme) or a TPK/character death (at the high extreme). Captured PCs is a valid game-trope, a genre-trope, and at certain times or with certain PCs - internally consistent & thematically appropriate. Just like being press-ganged by pirates.
Obviously, a GM can - and should - modify an adventure to tailor it to his/her campaign and players. However, if the set-up at the start of this AP is a red-flag, that suggests to me as a GM that a big red flag lies down the road with a particular player/group.
YMMV. In any case, to the OP, best of luck with the AP!
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In fact, I'm convinced this adventure could be run with a mix of press-ganged PCs and established crewmember PCs (at least dating back to the recent battle with Cheliax ships which lead to the Captain needing to press gang new sailors in the first place).
Nothing will be broken, per se, by letting the PCs have a sword on day 2 rather than day 20, but there are some story and mechanical things you'll have to adapt to.
There are three purposes to stripping the PCs, though, I think.
1) Getting their gear back gives the players something to do while the Wormwood is just floating around.
2) Provides a source of XPs for succeeding in getting stuff back.
3) Gives a reason to befriend that priestess NPC who slips the PCs a couple pieces of important gear at the start.
If you can fill their time with other encounters (1), provide other sources of xp to make up the difference (2), and find another reason for PCs to become friends with a handy source of healing magic (3), you should be fine with established crew members, press-ganged crew, or even a mix of both.