Every group of PCs tends to treat all the NPCs on the ships differently. What are some of the different things that have taken place during your campaigns w/ PCs listed in the AP.
For instance:
Conchobar; I had added to his back story etc. prior to the game starting, which proved to be interesting with how the group reacted/treated him.
Made into a villan/arch-enemy.
The Human brawler in my games group decided to pick on the gnome and even went so far as to throw his foppish hat into the ocean from the crows nest. The "Fish Elf" bard in the group "woo'd" Rosie and humiliated Conchobar in the process.
After the Mutiny, Conchobar was traded to Rickety Squibbs "For Ransom" along with Plugg, Scourge, & Aretta Banson. Rickety Hake sold them into slavery in Blood Cove instead.
A few months later Conchobar returned to Rickety Squibbs with his own Ship and Crew and slaughtered Hake and his men, burning the buildings to their frames. (I would explain how, but this would give away some things if one of my PCs were to stumble upon this)
It turns out that the 2 day period that I had chosen in advance for this to take place, the group decided to leave the "Dominator" for Squibbing guarded by merely "Red Shirts." With intent on returning in a week or so to pick it up.
Conchobar left his old ship with a foppish hat hanging on the wheel to mock them as they now realize their ship has been stolen after the squibbing by the annoying gnome they used to pick on in the fisrt AP.
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The players botchered the diplomacy check on Conchobar horribly despite a large bonus I granted them for providing him with the instrument (so HE could give it to Rosie), causing him to never quite like the PCs. He occasionally even started to rally the crew against them after their mutiny (like when they decided not to sell plunder until the cargo was almost full so they would have to share less with the crew).
As he was their only NPC spellcaster for a large part of the AP they still valued him too much to get rid of him. Eventually he started to cooperate when he realized they were starting to build a fleet, as he hoped to become a commodore of his own ship or fleet (which never happened).
The reason he was the only NPC spellcaster was of course that Sandara didn't survive the first dungeon. This was disastrous for one of the PCs who fell in love with her, so he spend the next few books finding a way to revive her. He could get the clerics of besmaras throne to do so after becoming a pirate lord and the diplomatic efforts taken on that path were the main reason the clerics provided support when the PCs gathered their allies to build a fleet.
Shivikah recieved a good chunk of screentime, after she became best friends with the good aligned PC catfolk lady. Said lady was only in the shackles to free her enslaved brother and despised slavery, but still grew fond of Shivikah - a former slave trader who never hid she only stopped because she couldn't compete with the steep competition on the sea (she only operated in the jungles before). She became the most important advisor of the PCs, usually offering a very pragmatic view and kind of taking Kroops spot in the AP (who became more of a background character after the mutiny).
Another NPC with a lot of screentime was good old Owlbear. The first contact wasn't all that promising, as the PC that had to fight him didn't stop when he begged for mery (fearing to be punished by Plugg), so Owlbear is still a bit afraid of that guy. On the bright side this caused the cat lady to feel pity and she did spend a lot of time earning his trust and even more to make him her lover. I kind of steered away from that last part as I played him a bit too childlike to be comfortable with him engaging in anything, but maybe there is hope if she fixes his condition first.
One interesting case was Plugg. He survived the PCs mutiny and became a prisoner, because the cat lady refused to have him killed and she repeatedly tried to redeem him. She wasn't all that successful and eventually they sold him to his parents for some gold, but her effort kind of paid off as he made a short reappearance when they gathered their allies against Harrigan. Plugg knew he wouldn't be safe as long as Harrigan was alive and he reasoned it would be for the best to team up with the guys that kept him prisoner for several weeks to get rid of the captain he betrayed. His ship survived the battle and he fled the shackles the moment he was informed that cheliax was heading there, but it was still fun to see the PCs reacting to their former tormentor fighting at their side.
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A bit late to the party, but I happened upon your thread this morning while researching my own S&S conundrum and couldn't help but weigh in. I've been running S&S as a mod into another system and setting, and so was prepared for all sorts of NPC modifications. Nothing major, but obviously the cities of origin need to be changed, etc. For the most part, I just used it as an opportunity to flesh out the Wormwood crew, since most of the NPCs have very scant background information.
The first interesting thing was that one of my players really fixated on Cog from day one, after finding out about his faith. That rapidly changed him from being a probably ally of Plugg to a firm friend of the PCs. Amusingly, it's going to require a lot of character decisions in future sessions, as they now want to put him through anger management therapy (more or less).
The other amusing change is Owlbear. My players love him. They are even going so far as to seek magical help and/or wondrous items to see if they can restore him to sapience. It is incredibly amusing.
The interesting change was Plugg. So long as I was modifying the AP, I decided to change around Plugg's class levels a bit to make him match the party's anticipated captain. It was a minor change, but really bothered the player, and made him turn towards Plugg as a sort of personal rival. Considering my own S&S game had featured the party unaware the Plugg was a villain (or even a separate entity from Mr Scourge) until the final showdown, I considered it a positive change. That lasted right up until he faced off with the PCs. Goaded by the party paladin, the rival PC decided he couldn't bring himself to kill Plugg and instead rescued him. They took him captive and, as in Lintecarka's game, insisted on trying to redeem him. I was a bit sceptical at first but, wanting to be fair and allow the players to write their own story, I told them they could make their attempts according to the rules for redeeming villains in the Book of Exalted Deeds. Privately, I thought they'd tire of so many high DC diplomacy checks, and eventually release their prisoner either to custody or to the wilds.
Countless high DC diplomacy checks, over several designated sessions, and over a month of in-game time...I was in a pickle. I decided fair was fair, and slid Plugg up to Neutral alignment. Eventually, this resulted in the players inviting him to stay on as a member of their crew, which was accompanied by yet more high diplomacy checks. I didn't see the harm. Then the players offered him the position of first mate. I fell out of my chair. But their argument was sound: they pandered to the character and convinced him that he would be safest from Harrigan if they stuck together, and that his best shot at getting his own ship was to help the idiots who were dumb enough to spare him and help them gain a second ship in their fleet. After much debate, I decided: why not? And thus I have now obtained the world's weirdest S&S party. >.<
WOW, my deepest respect for allowing your players to influence Plugg. Unfortunately, I was less fortunate.
I did manage to capture Plugg alive and keep him as a prisoner, but I didn't have the backup of my GM. He told me that Plugg was hostile and would remain hostile after I was part of the crew that stole his ship.
In return, my action of keeping Plugg and not killing him made Sandara hostile towards me.
At the end of the campaign, the GM wanted feedback and I told him that I didn't think it was okay that I was allowed to affect every damn NPC except Plugg.
He just told me that Plugg is the enemy according to the book and that he only played according to the rules. I was lucky Sandara and Cog didn't try to stab me at night, he said.
But our Conchobar has had an interesting career.
In the storm at the beginning of the adventure he went overboard and all attempts to save him failed.
We then threw a few empty crates and barrels overboard, hoping he would reach one so we could pick him up again after the storm.
He did reach one barrel, but he sailed it all the way to Tidewaterrock, and became the new steward there. When we got there, we got a nice bonus because he put in a good word for us.
Jack Scrimshaw is an asexual art bro. That is the best way I can describe him.
Rosie Cusswell is a complete badass after, being the second prisoner at the end of book 1, managed to burst her shackles while sinking, swim to the surface, and kill steal the Whale with an unarmed strike, all while on 1 hp.
Lynn Beckwith is an archaeologist interested in cyclopian ruins. She left the crew after the mutiny, but we've run into her subsequently.
Badger Medlar is a swab who is perfectly happy being a swab and has no career goals beyond being a swab. One of the PCs put great effort into winning her over because he found her amusing and is now sleeping with her for deific obedience to Calistria.
The Lady of the Rock is Agasta Smythee's daughter, Cassandra, because all of the PCs are fairly young and the GM felt creeped out about having a 50 year old woman hit on 22 year olds.
Pierce Jerrell is now Pierre Jerrell, because the GM misread his name and then went, "I guess he's French now." He has deviated from his book stated personality into basically Han Solo who goes on drunken benders, but somehow has been amazingly competent in combat despite his utterly garbage build. We've decided he has a long suffering first mate who actually handles things like payroll.
We don't actually interact much with Sandara, but yet we completely believe she is the most responsible member of our crew and is the most likely candidate to become captain of our second ship.