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Arrr me hearties.
I be wondering if any of ye scurvy dogs have tales of the high seas about a problem I foresee on the horizon.
One me press-ganged crew be the meanest, most difficult sea dawg around, and the lash of t’ cats tail will only make him mad with cabin fever. He’ll probably force me to make ‘im walk tha plank rather than submit to his cap’n.
How did the rest of ye run a smooth ship with a swab like this?
Arrrrrrr
I had sort of a similar problem. But it was sorted out rather quickly.
My group is playing all neutral characters with the exception of a chaotic good elf.
But what happened was, the first morning the lone female in the group attempted to seduce Plugg even before jobs where given out. Plugg did not taken kindly to that, used the whip and chained her to the main mast.
She was released at Bloody Hour to see the keel hauling of Jakes Magpie. And was already set on getting revenge for her treatment.
But the other PCs at that point already had started playing it cautious. And so when she started to get serious, they stepped in and settled her down for me.
I was lucky that way.
But I just let her do what she wanted and watched how the other PCs where starting to react towards her wildness. It provided a lot of fun, but they really mellowed her out and provide great opportunity for the group to come together and work out some of her crazy schemes to make them work for all four of them.
I honestly would say let your PC act how they want. IF he wants to test himself against Plugg have Plugg put him in his place. Maybe Plugg stops short of killing him, since he knows Harrigan needs the crew. Try to impress upon him that he is very outmatched, especially if his wild ways are not winning friends within the crew. (The NPCs might be turned off from him and not hang around him during the evenings)
Hopefully if your other PCs can't temper him, then the PC himself will see that he needs to bide his time before he sets out getting revenge.
Lady Irithyl pretty much covers it. If the other PCs can't convince that character to toe the line, you've got an NPC already inclined to be friendly to the PCs (namely, Sandara Quinn) to point out the futility of attempting too much aggression against Plugg and Scourge early on. If the PC isn't getting the point, she can make the connection that Jakes Magpie's fate is what the PC is steering towards.
If that isn't enough, then let things take their course. A keelhauling is going to take the fight out of even the most hostile PC.
Any roleplaying is a contract between the players and the GM. It goes like this: "I'll give you a good time, if you'll let me."
Inform the players straight away, before play starts, that this is not an AP where every challenge will be level appropiate. There will be fights they cannot win, and should thus choose not to take. There will be high level NPC's they should not challenge.
And then let him play as he wants. First step out of line; punishment! Second step; have Plugg display superiority, beat him unconsious, and the punish him some more.
Third step; Kill him off. No matter how hard pressed Harrigan is for crew, he'll not accept obvious troublemakers.
I told my players they could do whatever they wanted, but that the world would react to their actions.
There are a few things that I would say could help with this.
1- As others have said cautious players.
2- Jakes is the narrative clue.
3- A number of people have had Harrigan participate in some of the ship's "fight club." A near fatal "non-lethal" bare handed sneak attack sends a strong message.
4- Remember that Jakes has a history (largely unknown by the PCs) so the reasons given for the keelhauling are as true as you want them and the patience of Harrigan is as long as you want and Pluggs leash is as long as you want. Meaning. If they push things with Harrigan he can beat one or more of them to an inch of their lives drop the antagonist in the box and the rest in the bilges for the night. Plugg and Scourge might have a rougher go than Harrigan but early on the PCs don't have a lot of friends. So the crew can intervene and again put the antagonist in the box and whatever punishment needed.
I've run S&S all the way through and didn't have any problems with PC's being unable to keep their cool.
Have a word with this player, point out that yes you do start out at the bottom of the ladder.
Playing it smart, biding your time and waiting for your chance is the whole point of the module.
Not stomping around with a giant 'Kick me!' stuck to your codpiece.
DBH