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So, I'm facing a quandary of my own making. Spoilers for The Wormwood Mutiny, so prospective players begone.
I am in the midst of running recruitment for a Skull and Shackles game in a PbP, and inspired by a friend of mine, decided that I was going to make the first module more interesting. Instead of selecting four PCs (the typical number for any adventure path), I decided I was going to go with eight initial candidates, and whittle down the characters until only four or five of them are left. Part of the reason for my doing this is because of the play-by-post format in general; weeding out players with great applications but no follow-through on games is important, and I figure I'll have at least one or two flake out. But I also want to be up front with the players that the Wormwood is a brutal place, and right from the get-go, their lives will usually be in danger of some sort.
Now, I'm faced with the challenge of increasing the difficulty of The Wormwood Mutiny to accommodate for double the amount of players. One idea I had right off of the bat was to remove and shuffle some of the NPCs around, so that all eight PCs are the new hires from Port Peril. Some of the other original presses will be hardened members of the crew now, and harder to influence. Mr. Plugg and Master Scourge will have a bit more sway over the crew to start (and both villains have been upgraded). I'm also toying with the idea of removing Sandara Quinn entirely, with Fishguts and possibly Grok the closest thing the PCs will have for allies until they get the popular support for a mutiny later on.
Does anybody have any other ideas for interesting ways to shake up the first module? I'm probably going to revamp Owlbear to make him a Brawler who is seriously a threat to a PC in a fight, and to roll randomly to have one of the PCs go overboard in the major storm on the Wormwood's eight day. Any and all other suggestions would be more than welcome.
Well the book is brutal as it is.
1-Don't soften the grog ration and the lingering effects. Lots of people note how brutal the grog can be over time and so make it easier to deal with. Let it run as intended and use it to show the distinction between roguish Pirates of the Caribbean pirates and tyrannical black-hearted reavers.
2-Drop the miss chance for the Owlbear fight and redo Owlbear as a solid pugilist savant. Looks like you are already hitting on that.
3-Use the other crew NPCs as active foils not just fellow workers waiting to be convinced. Those whom the party defeats in the fight or fail to get in the good side are active not passive. They too should be wising up to the fact that this new clique is trying to get allies and form alliances have the NPCs diplomacy, seduce, intimidate others against the party. It gets scary for the PCs when their allies are pushed down stairs, efforts are sabotaged and start becoming targets because of association. The AP addresses this but I encourage playing it up. Slippery Sil became such a thorn in the party's side that she outshined Scourge. Just plan the actions of the entire crew not just track the PCs. When the PCs act against anyone on the ship the smart NPC figures how it can turn the action into something the party can be punished for. Again this was Slippery Soil in our campaign but when the party learned she was bad mouthing them to the rest of the crew they figured they would try and subdue her and beat her up to show her not to mess with them. Their plan was reckless but they figured fist fights were common enough. When Sil realized she was outmatched she pulled out a dagger stabbed another sailor who hadn't woken then stabbed herself in the thigh all the while yelling that the PCs were trying to kill people in the middle of the night. Sure the officers knew Sil was lying but it created pretext for the officers to punish the PCs. Man they hated her.
4-Improvised weapons. Give the pirates a but of edge allowing them the use of ships rope or buckets as weapons. Getting beaten by a baton was common.
5- Remember this AP predates the Advanced Class Guide. This leaves room for more Slayers than fighters or rogues.
Once you reach Bonewrack Isle keep track of all the dangers like the fact that the insects have a disease. Its tedious but don't skip the environment as the enemy.
Watch out for the grog death spiral though. Too much damage and addiction can make the party all be forced to sleep just to survive and then the big point of making allies and scouting is too unfeasible and the fatigue penalties start piling up which leads to whippings and damage and so on
Update and reply: I'm on the sixth day of the Wormwood's voyage, and am one PC down from the start of the game. The player sort of lost interest, and so I had *someone* (the PCs haven't figured out who) shank him in his sleep and throw him overboard. Funnily enough, I also planned on this being Slippery Syl Lonegan, one of the hostile NPCs that the players haven't really been paying attention to. I'm definitely trying to portray some of the NPCs aboard the ship as having their own agendas, although I'm allowing the players quicker than usual progress on influencing the
The rum ration has proven to be brutal, with most PCs either trying to Stealth or Sleight of Hand their ration away, or just taking the six lashes. I'm glad I didn't cut down on the difficulty in that area, as I am fully counting the continued Con damage killing off at least one more character (probably the cook's mate, who has rolled for the 'double rum ration' twice already and is down to 6 Con from a starting 14). We'll see how much longer they survive.
Up next, I've made the Owlbear a 3rd level Brawler who is absolutely deadly in combat, Plugg's tidewater cutlass will knock a PC overboard (and make it look like an accident) during the 'Storm' event, and I fully plan on playing Bonewrack Isle to its full, deadly potential. Thanks for all the advice so far! I'll keep you all posted as to how my game goes. One down, two more to go...