Wormwood Death Toll Rising...


Skull & Shackles


A group I'm in, 5 players and 1 GM, are currently playing the first book of Shackles and we keep running into a problem, everyone keeps dying!

15 deaths so far and we just started exploring the isle we wrecked on... My first death was the session before last (almost died last session to frogs [gnome waves oracle kept getting swallowed] and drowning), but some people are up to 4 or 5 deaths. Bad die rolls, poor decsion making, not having a certain skill, and the fact that our GM loves roleplaying as ruthless pirates all seem to be our main causes of grief.

I just want to know if anyone else has had this many deaths or if there is a way to lower our deaths per session?


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15 deaths in the first booklet would lead me to have a discussion with my DM about being realistic in the expectations for the game, and what a fun night of rpg'ing is supposed to feel like. (That is unless this is a pro tournament or something)


Something's not right here.

I'm gming it with 3 and have had plenty of near misses and 1 death but 15 seems really excessive to me.

Same as Hanez I think, talk to the GM before it gets worse he seems a little heavy handed to me


had a couple of deaths in the first book, but mostly very late and on the isle.

try having a look on the obituary thread for average tpks on the isle


That's 15 death in 20 days. No ship could afford to lose that much crew and still be sailing! The entire crew of the Wormwood, including the PCs and officers, is 35 souls. (And one NPC is executed on the first day.)

You need a new GM.

President, SmiteWorks

You should remind your GM that there are other ways to build hatred to your pirate masters than killing off player characters. Sometimes picking on NPCs that are friendly with the players can work just as well or even better. Player deaths are not fun for players and are disruptive to the flow of the game. Near misses are fun and deaths should only occur rarely so that the players know that the near miss could have ended up differently.

Hasn't your GM seen movies where the bad guy has the obvious ability and desire to kill off the good guy but something comes up and distracts them or calls their attention elsewhere? They may leave with a warning that next time the player's character may not be so lucky.


Steven Dunham wrote:

A group I'm in, 5 players and 1 GM, are currently playing the first book of Shackles and we keep running into a problem, everyone keeps dying!

15 deaths so far and we just started exploring the isle we wrecked on... My first death was the session before last (almost died last session to frogs [gnome waves oracle kept getting swallowed] and drowning), but some people are up to 4 or 5 deaths. Bad die rolls, poor decsion making, not having a certain skill, and the fact that our GM loves roleplaying as ruthless pirates all seem to be our main causes of grief.

I just want to know if anyone else has had this many deaths or if there is a way to lower our deaths per session?

This has been the most challenging and rewarding AP I've ever played, but we haven't had a single death yet. We have a four man group with the NPC's Sandara and to a lesser degree Rosie helping out... there have been some close calls, but no deaths yet. I'd say that in part that's due to stellar play (buffs knuckle) but just as much, our GM's goal is to make the game challenging and rewarding, not rachet up the body count as high as he can.

In his defense though, the first book as written can be particularly deadly. We dropped the botfly swarms, the rum ration and Bloody Hour though obviously there were plenty of lashings to go around. We also had a few tricks up our sleeves...


We just tpk'd last night against the mosquitoes, bringing the count to 20...

We just stopped playing it, we'll come back to it at a later date.


Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Steven Dunham wrote:

We just tpk'd last night against the mosquitoes, bringing the count to 20...

We just stopped playing it, we'll come back to it at a later date.

Wow . . . I have been finding the AP to be somewhat difficult, and definitely lethal. My druid only survived to get to the island thanks to a lucky crit (she was a 1 HP when she took the enemy from full HP to unconscious), and while on the island we have already almost had 2 deaths. One where the gunslinger was unconscious and would have been dragged away to his doom if my druid hadn't won a tug-o-war with his body, and another where the DM forgot to total up the damage properly, thus allowing the rogue to survive.

But 20 deaths seems pretty steep. I mean, I could definitely see it happening, especially with an unoptimized party, and if you lost a few people on the ship due to DM strictness on the rum and bloody hours, or just were doing things that could get you keelhauled.

Best of luck on whatever other campaign you embark on.


That's a real shame, its a really good AP IMHO, although it does make me think that if you have the same GM you will run in to the same problems on the next AP he runs. I think its his play style more than the adventure, will be interseting to see I think....


I'm a little surprised you had a TPK vs a Mosquito Swarm. It could be an unwinnable fight if you have no AOE spells or splash weapons in the group, but it's a single entity. Just, you know, run away!


Steven Dunham wrote:

We just tpk'd last night against the mosquitoes, bringing the count to 20...

We just stopped playing it, we'll come back to it at a later date.

Really sounds to me like the GM dropped the ball, running everything straight as-is rather than doing a little customizing for the party. we play to have fun, and TPK's are rarely fun, multiple TPK's in particular.

Silver Crusade

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Blueluck wrote:
I'm a little surprised you had a TPK vs a Mosquito Swarm. It could be an unwinnable fight if you have no AOE spells or splash weapons in the group, but it's a single entity. Just, you know, run away!

The Mosquitos are encountered outdoors, can fly and have a better speed than the PCs. There is a good chance PCs won't have any alchemist's fire, and all it takes is the wrong spell prep. The only way my players won was by throwing and sparking bottles of oil, and house-ruling swinging burning branches/torches deal the fire damage to the swarm.

That said 20 deaths is way too high.


DM_aka_Dudemeister wrote:
Blueluck wrote:
I'm a little surprised you had a TPK vs a Mosquito Swarm. It could be an unwinnable fight if you have no AOE spells or splash weapons in the group, but it's a single entity. Just, you know, run away!

The Mosquitos are encountered outdoors, can fly and have a better speed than the PCs. There is a good chance PCs won't have any alchemist's fire, and all it takes is the wrong spell prep. The only way my players won was by throwing and sparking bottles of oil, and house-ruling swinging burning branches/torches deal the fire damage to the swarm.

That said 20 deaths is way too high.

We did away with the misquito swarms entirely and didn't miss them in the slightest. GM figured they'd be too challenging at that level with no real reward for the effort - sometimes you gotta focus on the forest rather than the trees, you know?


I judgement called it and had them encounter the swarm on the outskirts of the swamp near to the sea so they had a fighting chance, also they found the ghoul lair and the fire flasks so that helped. Having said that the 2 red jersey sailors they took with them died and one of the PC's went to minus HP. They had the good sense to run off the cliff face and dive into the sea to escape in the end.


DM_aka_Dudemeister wrote:
Blueluck wrote:
I'm a little surprised you had a TPK vs a Mosquito Swarm. It could be an unwinnable fight if you have no AOE spells or splash weapons in the group, but it's a single entity. Just, you know, run away!
The Mosquitos are encountered outdoors, can fly and have a better speed than the PCs. There is a good chance PCs won't have any alchemist's fire, and all it takes is the wrong spell prep.

TPK in an outdoor setting against a single enemy means that each PC was chased down. Now that I think about it though, since they decided to stop playing the AP after that battle, I don't imagine the last two living PCs tried very hard to eke out an escape.


small characters didn't have a chance at running away, me being one, we were already down to low hp/spells due to running into the ghouls, crabs, and the frogs (gave me a rough time) earlier.

the three of us that did escape the flying swarm of death, died to one of our friends turnning into a ghoul and eating us in our sleep...


I suppose there's a possibility of trying to do too much in on eday, especially with the limited resources of such low level characters...

How we did it:

Spoiler:
First day we ran aground, found Sandara and another crewman missing and thought them gone for good. We had already mutinied, so the four PC's went ashore with two other crew leaving Kroop, Rosie and the rest of the crew to try and patch the ship up as best they could. We put in at the abandoned fishing village and left the two crewmen with the boat, explored the village then followed the trail through the bog, eventually encountering the giant frogs which we fought and killed. Continuing up the trail we came across the whore's boudoir and fought the ghouls there. Finally we emerged near the crab beach and saw the stockade in the distance - figuring that any settlement would be near a fresh water source we returned to the fishing village and camped for the night.

The second day we sailed around the fist and put in at crab beach, facing and defeating the giant crabs. Then we made our way up to the stockade where we encountered Aron Ivey - in our game he was very much alive though half-crazed and desperate to get off the island. We packed him and his stuff up noticed the spyglass that showed the grindylows cahvorting on the beach with Sandara's hat. Aron was able to tell us a little about the sea devils whom he avoided as well as a lot of the Infernus backstory. It was decided that after filling our water barrels and returning to the ship we'd go after Sandara on the off chance she was alive. Aron told us that there should be some potions of water breathing aboard the wreck of the Infernus and led us to it where we fought the moray eel and recovered five bottles, returning to the ship that evening to await low tide in the morning.

With Aron - a ship's carpenter - better able to direct repairs we four and Rosie went to the sea caves on the third day to find Sandara and after some very tough fights we did.

If we had tried to do more between rests, had tried to drive through without recovering I doubt we would have all made it out alive either.FWIW, the group is made of an Human Knife Master Rogue, a Human Urban Barbarian, a Human Sea Singer Bard and a Half-Elven Master Summoner. We were all 3rd level when we hit the island and 4th level when we left it.


Couldn't you avoid the mosquito swarms by going underwater in the swamp? If you have to roll swim to move in it anyway as a small character, it stands to reason you can just stay under if you can't run away.

Also, unless someone has really low ability scores and/or the losses are maximum each time, you are supposed to only have two days on the island before the Man's Promise sails away, which shouldn't normally be enough time for the Ghoul Fever to turn someone into a ghoul.

No deaths so far in my game, but they've missed a good chunk of the island due to the 2 day time limit. I went easy on them with the swarm, since it could TPK easily with 2nd level characters.


we encountered the swarms in a field with scarecrows made of peoples, the reason his ghoul fever set in was because only 3 people "survived" the swarm, albeit 2 were at negative hp and had to rest several days before they could fully recover then rest an additional 8 hours to regain spells, but by that time our friend had turned and began to eat our faces


Orcboy wrote:

Also, unless someone has really low ability scores and/or the losses are maximum each time, you are supposed to only have two days on the island before the Man's Promise sails away, which shouldn't normally be enough time for the Ghoul Fever to turn someone into a ghoul.

No deaths so far in my game, but they've missed a good chunk of the island due to the 2 day time limit. I went easy on them with the swarm, since it could TPK easily with 2nd level characters.

Since we mutinied well before running aground, we had all the time we needed on the island...


Ouch, that island doesn't like you Steven. Out of curiosity, how did your GM justify finding all the replacement PCs?

I had forgotten that you could mutiny earlier and take as long as you want, that would make a significant difference with the ghoul fever.


the first people to die were replaced as prisoners on the rahadoumi ship, after that anyone else was simply marooned on the island and had not been there long enough to make it on the grindylows'/ghouls' radar...


If you do play again, depending on where you start get some changes to make things easier.

1.Fast-forwards the Wormwood section. Just have the players make rolls for each day and do the highlights(Since they know the ayout of the ship now just do influence)

2.If you start at the island, have everyone 3-3rd level and gear appropriate. Make a roll of each NPC on the Wormwood/Man's Promise to influence them.


We're actually going to give it another shot with a new GM, we're starting over at the beginning of the island at 3rd level. The new party is a cleric of besmara, a twf ranger, a gunslinger/rogue, an evoker, and my magus.


Blueluck wrote:
I'm a little surprised you had a TPK vs a Mosquito Swarm. It could be an unwinnable fight if you have no AOE spells or splash weapons in the group, but it's a single entity. Just, you know, run away!

Mosquito swarm : fly 40' (good) means it will zap through cane fields or forested hills. Can strike 4 victims at once, Distract DC 13, 2D6 damage + bleed (!) for 1D6 on the following rounds.

Running in the same direction = more victims to strike

Running in different directions = fair chance to bleed out, fall unconscious and die. Or run into another swarm/obstacle etc.

An acquaintance's party wiped twice on the swarms (canefield and hut) , before calling it quits.

Just saying


vikingson wrote:
Blueluck wrote:
I'm a little surprised you had a TPK vs a Mosquito Swarm. It could be an unwinnable fight if you have no AOE spells or splash weapons in the group, but it's a single entity. Just, you know, run away!

Mosquito swarm : fly 40' (good) means it will zap through cane fields or forested hills. Can strike 4 victims at once, Distract DC 13, 2D6 damage + bleed (!) for 1D6 on the following rounds.

Running in the same direction = more victims to strike

Running in different directions = fair chance to bleed out, fall unconscious and die. Or run into another swarm/obstacle etc.

An acquaintance's party wiped twice on the swarms (canefield and hut) , before calling it quits.

Just saying

10ft reach, not sure how it can strike 4 pc's at once. takes up a 10ft block (4squares) it covers its victims so the victims need to be in the same square.

Therefore the only way it can affect 4 victims at a time is if the party is stupid enough to all be in a 10ft radius. Outside I don't really see this happening.

Why would the Pc's be daft enough to run in the same direction? Scatter...easy it can then only go after 1 victim.


ferrinwulf wrote:
vikingson wrote:
Blueluck wrote:
I'm a little surprised you had a TPK vs a Mosquito Swarm. It could be an unwinnable fight if you have no AOE spells or splash weapons in the group, but it's a single entity. Just, you know, run away!

Mosquito swarm : fly 40' (good) means it will zap through cane fields or forested hills. Can strike 4 victims at once, Distract DC 13, 2D6 damage + bleed (!) for 1D6 on the following rounds.

Running in the same direction = more victims to strike

Running in different directions = fair chance to bleed out, fall unconscious and die. Or run into another swarm/obstacle etc.

An acquaintance's party wiped twice on the swarms (canefield and hut) , before calling it quits.

Just saying

10ft reach, not sure how it can strike 4 pc's at once. takes up a 10ft block (4squares) it covers its victims so the victims need to be in the same square.

Yes, that happens,people staying together losely say especially if crouching around the entrance of a hut (it struck 3 chars there). Or perhaps when sticking together to share a "touch one target/level spell" )... Or if running down a narrrow mountain path - how wide do you estimate the trail to Ivy's hut would be in dense jungle ? Plus swarms can actually reshape themselves as long as their squares stay in contact with each other, they are not tied to a square 2x2 block.

Do 2D6 (+ another D6) to any mage or CON-weak cleric at 3rd level ?

Also : especially unfunny if you run blindly through a field of man-height canes, into scarecrows - hard to pick out in the dense cover - and scare up another swarm to add to the fun

ferrinwulf wrote:


Therefore the only way it can affect 4 victims at a time is if the party is stupid enough to all be in a 10ft radius. Outside I don't really see this happening.

Why would the Pc's be daft enough to run in the same direction? Scatter...easy it can then only go after 1 victim.

they will a) run in one direction if there is only one direction to flee (say, except by jumping down cliffs or into other danger ), or b) to say close to the cleric who might care to channel some positive energy if they care to be in range and line of effect before dropping from blood loss ?

I don't know - how did you handle the steep hills of Bonewrack island ?.. gently sloping meadows to stroll down or cragged rocks dotted with dense jungle ?


vikingson wrote:
Blueluck wrote:
I'm a little surprised you had a TPK vs a Mosquito Swarm. It could be an unwinnable fight if you have no AOE spells or splash weapons in the group, but it's a single entity. Just, you know, run away!

Mosquito swarm : fly 40' (good) means it will zap through cane fields or forested hills. Can strike 4 victims at once, Distract DC 13, 2D6 damage + bleed (!) for 1D6 on the following rounds.

Running in the same direction = more victims to strike

Running in different directions = fair chance to bleed out, fall unconscious and die. Or run into another swarm/obstacle etc.

An acquaintance's party wiped twice on the swarms (canefield and hut) , before calling it quits.

Just saying

Bottom line: a good GM will know if its a challenge that his party is equipped to handle, and if they aren't, he won't include it in his game. The point of playing is to have fun and repeated TPK's for no other reason than 'that's how its written' is fun for no one.


Damocles Guile wrote:


Bottom line: a good GM will know if its a challenge that his party is equipped to handle, and if they aren't, he won't include it in his game. The point of playing is to have fun and repeated TPK's for no other reason than 'that's how its written' is fun for no one.

Or go easy as the and reward/add some realism to the rules... smoke or heavy rains stop flying swarms pretty well.

Then again, the rest of the island is still "death trappy" (Moray *cough*, Stirges...) enough to provide individual bloodshed


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Bottom line: a good GM will know if its a challenge that his party is equipped to handle, and if they aren't, he won't include it in his game. The point of playing is to have fun and repeated TPK's for no other reason than 'that's how its written' is fun for no one.

I feel the same, what's the point in paying out for a whole AP with the maps and the campaign material which is not cheap, getting the players to make up PC's which they have spent a lot of time and effort doing then to turn around and kill them all off because the encounter is too tough as written? Its not fun for anybody and a waste of money and time.

Change it to fit the group, if you don't think they can handle it. I have had 1 death (the player was stupid) and plenty of - Hp near deaths.

The island as written is a nightmare if players are not savvy enough (luckley mine are). They use their heads not their swords. Corn field on an island with no visable sign of humanoid life = odd = trap = death, they skirted it and were not daft enough to go through it. The swarm they encounterd was random and at the edge of the swamp before the crab beach so I had them encounter it in the bog whislt coming out of it and in to the clearing. They suffered 2 crewman deaths and they were smart enough to scatter when it was occupied. it took one down to - hp leaving the other 2 party members to take it out. In the end they decided enough was enough and ran for the cliffs to jump off in to the sea carrying the uncouncoius pc. Yes I may have been a tad leniant but as I said whats the point of killing them off when they have not even finished book 1 pointless I think.

I also read the books and decided early on that I really liked the AP and wanted to keep playing it, due to its lethality and we only have 3 players we use a modifed hero point system. Instead of only having 3 overall they have 3 per session. If they die they have the option of spending a permant point to come back from the dead (ie 3 strikes and you are out). But there will always be a heavy penalty, I have 1 pc who is under a major geas (tied in to the ap). So far it has worked fanatstically and my players love it, it gives them a slightly swashbuckle edge, if they didn't have them I think the fun and edge would have gone.


I'm having a REALLY hard time figuring out how you lose that many people in that time span, particularly before islandfall. It sounds almost like noone was lvl 2 by the time you hit the island, whereas you should be part way into it. If you built *pirates* of any salt, the events leading up to island shouldn't present too much of a hazard (barring poorly written rum-ration rules).


Perhaps the GM had people actually fall and crash out of the rigging on poor climb checks ?
Or some poor rolls on Fort-checks with the Reefclaws making everyone drown ?


yeah it would be interesting if the op posted the details on the deaths, briefly anyway.

Sczarni

Let's hope that this is a learning experience for the GM. I think you and the other players should talk to him, and tell him that he should feel free to dial down encounters so that the PCs can have a chance. And let him know that it's a lot more fun to have long-term characters that you can get invested in playing, rather than a whole bunch of disposable nobodies who die in one or two fights.

He sounds like a very inexperienced GM to me. Hopefully he'll get better with time. Maybe you could encourage him to go read some advice from experienced GMs, or listen to some Actual Play podcasts of highly-skilled GMs.


One of the problems that a lot of GMs run into when their starting out is forgetting that the GM needs to pull punches sometimes to ensure the adventure can actually move forward. In otherwords, the GM needs to know when it's ok to fudge die rolls or bypass a puzzle/trap, and this is definately one of those situations. That's one of the many reasons to utilize a screen.

When I first read Mutiny, I knew going in that the island was going to do a number on my only somewhat experienced group. Their creative thinking on how to deal with encounters helped them survive more than a few fudged rolls, but if I hadn't dialed back the Whale and a few other encounters a bit, I could have dealt out a TPK easily.

Of course, fudging rolls can work the other way too. Especially useful for characters and players that have gotten too cocky.


Why would a mosquito swarm leave a dying character. I feel for swarms like the warm bag of blood in the hand is worth two in the swamp.


roguerouge wrote:
Why would a mosquito swarm leave a dying character. I feel for swarms like the warm bag of blood in the hand is worth two in the swamp.

People running in opposite directions after having been hit ?

Since they are bleeding, they are still likely to die (the amount of healing potions in "Wormwood Mutiny" is not all that high) from bleeding to below "0" and falling unconscious^^

the problem of the Mosquito Swarms is not really the (hefty and automatic ) Direct Damage, the problem is the DoT, which most characters will find impossible to heal (staunch) at 2nd to 3rd level.


It all comes back to the same thing, why kill a PC off for no reason?

So a mosie swarm attcks a pc and gets him down to minus HP. What do you do? Either keep going until he's dead or give the damn PC a chance and let him live to fight another day! (we use hero points so if you go down to minus hp you can use 1 up to stabilize, as I have said before our house rule is 3 per session that re-fresh each time and we ALL like it).

Come on people for pitys sake have some fun. Yes kill him off at the BBEG or if he makes a really silly mistake but where is the fun in indsirimantly killing PC's off for no other reason other than realism. Its a game, its not real, the PC's are kind of wannbe hero's so give them a chance.

If you want to be an all encompassing God and kill players off whenever you want for the heck of it and the sake of realism and the rules say so(and more than likley annoy the players at the same time) then go ahead if that's the way you play and the players are happy with it nothing wrong with that at all if everyone is happy.

If they are not happy they may hate you for it and get annoyed so don't, fudge the roll and let them live another day and see the players enjoy themselves as thier charcaters grow through the game (players do get attached to PC's and there is nothing more satisfing then hearing months or years down the line how they remember thier swashbuckling rouge from the damn excellent pirate game all adds to the GM ego you know).

There's always a choice....its just a game and games are meant to be fun


ferrinwulf wrote:

It all comes back to the same thing, why kill a PC off for no reason?

So a mosie swarm attcks a pc and gets him down to minus HP. What do you do? Either keep going until he's dead or give the damn PC a chance and let him live to fight another day! (we use hero points so if you go down to minus hp you can use 1 up to stabilize, as I have said before our house rule is 3 per session that re-fresh each time and we ALL like it).

Come on people for pitys sake have some fun. Yes kill him off at the BBEG or if he makes a really silly mistake but where is the fun in indsirimantly killing PC's off for no other reason other than realism. Its a game, its not real, the PC's are kind of wannbe hero's so give them a chance.

If you want to be an all encompassing God and kill players off whenever you want for the heck of it and the sake of realism and the rules say so(and more than likley annoy the players at the same time) then go ahead if that's the way you play and the players are happy with it nothing wrong with that at all if everyone is happy.

If they are not happy they may hate you for it and get annoyed so don't, fudge the roll and let them live another day and see the players enjoy themselves as thier charcaters grow through the game (players do get attached to PC's and there is nothing more satisfing then hearing months or years down the line how they remember thier swashbuckling rouge from the damn excellent pirate game all adds to the GM ego you know).

There's always a choice....its just a game and games are meant to be fun

You misunderstand me.

I am quoting the rules for what the Mosquito swarms, implemented by Nicolas Logue, actually do (which, honestly, I find slightly overpowered for a CR-3 opponent ). Because someone presented the opinion that a single swarm could not really be a death trap on Bonewrack island. I heartily disagree with that take on the situation, especially if you have a GM who "plays by the rules as set", including the limit on available time.

They can, given the setup for the island, easily kill entire piratical groups, or even the entire remaining crew of the Wormwood if lured out to the ship. Swarms, especially flying and with special powers like an automatic bleed or very high nauseating DC, are massive death traps.

For my own campaign, I had the island, in the aftermath of the tropical storm be inudated by rain, which mostly prevented the swarms from being a factor. And still, the island cost my group a couple of characters.

And yes the "Wormwood Mutiny" is a fun adventure, but.... very deadly for the characters' level given (starting with the rum, the Reefclaws, some traps and later the island itself).


My group hasn't gotten to the Mosquito swarms yet. But if any group should be able to deal with them, mine should.

I think swarms jumping low level PCs without a chance to just run away can be very dangerous for most groups and is a pretty d*ck move by a GM.

With a cleric and an alchimist in the group, I'm slightly worried. But I do know the group has two classes that can really help out with a swarm with bleed damage.


vikingson wrote:


You misunderstand me.

Sorry did'nt mean you it was more a case of all the previous posts and more importantly the GM from the OP's post.

He kind of reminds me of one of those fighter pilots from WW2 that have the kill tally on the side of the plane. OOO look at how many PC's I killed off last week.

I think what I'm trying to say is that GM's need to make instant judegment calls at the table. You can prepare as much as you like but when it gets down to it until the situation presents itself you don't really know how its going to pan out. If reading through you think the party can handle it run it as is, if you think you need to change it, change it.
But when the PC's get themselves in a pickle due to an overpowered thing like a swarm and you see they may not survive make that judgement call if you think you need to. Nobody wants their PC to die over a really stupid thing like a swarm. Punish them yes, get them down to negative (help them if needed, so they get hit and bleed every round, if you think they may die do away with the bleed damage and let the swarm pick on someone else).

Its a delicate balance as you don't want them to think its a cake walk. The devilfish, the whale and the brine queen are for the death moment if needs be not the swarms.

The first part of the AP is a major challenge for PC's and Gm's as well I think and if handled poorly can result in TPK's. The AP is not really for a beginning or inexperianced GM. You just have to make those instant decisions on the spot to stop them happening as they are not fun imho.

Remember the golden rule is that everyone should be having fun, party deaths might be fun for the GM but they are not fun for the players.


Right on not good for inexperienced GMs. Besides the usual PbP pitfalls, S&S seems to be one of those that has a higher amount of games just ending due to the need to keep track of relationships, actions around the ship, rum rations and punishments. One almost needs a spreadsheet to keep track of the crew.


PCs shouldn't be dying that much.

The book says:
That the captain realizes he's already got a thin crew. The only rules that usually earn a death/keelhaulin' are deaths of other crew members (which he makes really clear) and theft from the stores (which is also made really clear with an example). Everything else, more or less, is dealt in less lethal ways to keep his labor force alive and hummin.'

As far as keepin' track of the NPCs...I just cut and paste the list of them into a word document, and updated their relationship status as each PC made diplomacy checks with them and what not. Now, Jade Regent...THAT one required a pretty spreadsheet :)


Another thought has occured to me.

15 deaths in total on the Wormwood...

Pc's are asked to make new Pc's to replace the lost ones...

Where are they actually coming from? Did they just pop up from no-where. Hi, iv'e been hiding in the hold all this time...

If the GM is playing as written the Wormwood makes no stops anywhere in ports etc this would suggest the replacement PC's would be taken from the ships crew.

So if this is the case then the crew of the ship would be down by 15 and unsailable

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