Cool. I hate bringing up the issue at all, but I've learned the hard way that simply assuming everyone's on the same page in that regard is a bad idea.
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I'm glad you did Wyn. From my experience DM Barcas is very cognizant of maintaining a PG-13 rating for the game. As a DM myself, and one who is running a pretty involved Way of the Wicked, there is a fine line you have to be careful, in order to provide an ominous overtone while not being offensive to your players. After all, this is a game and it is supposed to be fun.
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I'm glad you did Wyn. From my experience DM Barcas is very cognizant of maintaining a PG-13 rating for the game. As a DM myself, and one who is running a pretty involved Way of the Wicked, there is a fine line you have to be careful, in order to provide an ominous overtone while not being offensive to your players. After all, this is a game and it is supposed to be fun.
Oh and DM Barcas, I hope you don't mind me throwing in the bit about Besmara, but I figured that was pretty common knowledge for anyone with at least one rank in profession (sailor). Plus it hopefully gives me an out.
Actually, it gave me the ability to flesh out of one the NPCs (Peppery) listed but not described in the book. I changed her last name, though. She is a good in-game reason for why we will be avoiding the topic. I think she will be fun to play.
Funny how everyone enjoys picking on poor John. And right after his speech about settling disputes, too.
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Well, I hell.. I'm at a bit of a mental block on how to handle this. John hates pirates, but then again he isen't sucicidal. He wants to make sure that he makes it home to Alima. Then again he has honor of a sort. This is a really tough situation. On the bright side I am glad to see that the letters made an appearance. I had fun writing them.
I just want to give you a reason to hate Plugg and his brother. He is intending to humiliate John, not to injure him. John has to bite down hard and take the humiliation, burning for revenge. Or get killed immediately, his choice.
Happy and safe 4th of July to all my American players!
So, we are going into a skills-heavy section. Did you know that the crew lacks almost all of the Knowledges, with the exception of Arcana (Ollivor, Vrunyar) and Nature (John)? No one has Disable Device, which is trained-only.
I'll be coming up with skill checks. I hope to get a day worth of checks done every few days. We'll dispense with the system as written and I will have special checks for characters to deal with. They will have consequences, some of which will be pretty far-reaching. I hope it'll be more interesting choices than what the book gives. We'll assume that the working is going on in the background.
I have updated the Campaign Info tab with information on the full, current crew of the Wormwood. There are a total of 37 other people on the ship, for a total of 43. (The ship has a full crew complement of 40 crew members plus the captain and five officers, for a total of 46 people - meaning that they are still a touch short.)
I have assigned each NPC an initial attitude and value (and created a spreadsheet). The attitudes are Hostile (-15 to -11), Unfriendly (-10 to -5), Neutral (-4 to 4), Friendly (5 to 10), Ally (11 to 15). This exact value will remain secret for all NPCs. The attitude sets the base Diplomacy DC, as laid out in the Core Rulebook. I've added in their base DC to affect them via Diplomacy.
Everyone can choose one NPC to interact with via Diplomacy per day. A successful check adds 1d3 points to that NPC's attitude value, plus an additional 1d3 points if you beat the DC by 5. Failure by 5 or more reduces it by 1d4 points. (You'll roll along with the Diplomacy check.) The variable amount is to prevent you from simply bumping everyone to a pretty high level pretty quickly. RAW, you could do it in 2-3 days.
Additionally, you may be able to effect the attitude during your skill checks. Every day, at least one or two characters will take part in a special skill challenge. You'll have at least two options to tackle a given challenge, though there may be more options and some may be mutually exclusive. The options will have varying DCs, which I will give you. Depending on your level of success or failure, I will adjudicate any lasting consequences, which can vary from situation to situation. Every one will be slightly different, which I will spell out in the skill challenge.
In an ideal world, I would've loved Wyn to have Knowledge (Local) -- it was really hard for me to choose between the trait that gave her Sense Motive as a class skill and one that gave her Knowledge (local) as the class skill (I really wanted the initiative boost one, as she's someone who'd be used to reacting fast to stop a fight before it started). I went with Sense Motive because it made sense for her at the time to want to learn to read people, learn to figure out who was a real threat and who was just joking around, plus she doesn't trust easily after losing her family fairly early in life. In retrospect, it might have made more sense and been more practical to train get knowledge local instead, to reflect all the rumors she would have overheard in the tavern and on the docks, but... well, hindsight is 20/20 and all that. And it's not like Sense Motive isn't inappropriate or not useful. Perhaps it's something I can train later. No matter what character I make, I always want more skill ranks than I've got to spend, even if I've got something like 12.
(Honestly, I wish I could swap Knowledge local for Knowledge dungeoneering as a class skill, as that'd seem more appropriate for a cad anyway, but unfortunately the game doesn't work that way).
Depending on how things go, I could always have Wyn dip into a level of rogue for a little extra skills and getting that class skill -- I'd do it if it made sense though, not just for mechanical efficiency. But she's basically a mobile, dirty fighter who harrasses and harries as much as pummels things, so taking a level or two in a class that gives her sneak attack (to add to the dirty fighting theme) and some extra reflexes and such wouldn't be entirely out of character. Definitely want to focus on the fighter aspect, but a cad's not a typical fighter type anyway (more, indeed, a rogue-fighter hybrid).
That doesn't help us immediately but something for the future. At least for knowledge checks less than DC 10 we can make untrained though I'm sure that will only be of limited use.
As for disable device, I think Vrunyar and Doran have that as a class skill and we can otherwise cross that bridge when we come to it. The trick with traps of course is more in the finding than the disabling, IMO -- worse comes to worse Wyn can jump on the trap and trigger it while everybody else runs. ;)
One per PC. Only one PC can influence a PC daily unless otherwise noted.
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Well I'm glad I tried to go for the safe diplomacy check on this one. Heck, I'm glad I choose to take diplomacy as a skill period.
Guys, when we hit level 2, I think we need to spread out our skills a bit to cover shortfalls. As DM Barcas said we are missing quite a few knowledge skill and a few others to boot.
Actually, strike the last sentence. More than one PC can influence a PC daily, though I will probably put in some sort of diminishing returns system to discourage "focus firing."
Also, there is no "Take 10" for the specific skill checks. (However, Diplomacy can "Take 10," as only John can positively influence some of the weaker-willed Neutral characters automatically.)
At this point, by the way, the attitudes of the former crew members of the Lighthouse are set, and they can't be influenced.
With a successful Sense Motive at the same DC, you can learn a favored item or habit of the NPC in question (or topics to avoid) and thus gain a permanent +2 to influence that target.
There will be other ways to influence them, or even a large number at once. I have come up with scenarios for the first four days, and have a few more ideas floating in my head.
It looks like you will hit Level 2 in about a week in-game, give or take.
Also, waiting just on Doran before we can move to the next morning. The lucky bastard's at Paizocon, so I will DMPC him on a random NPC and move on if he doesn't pop in by this afternoon.
Anyone who wants an advantage during the Diplomacy during time in the quarters can get drunk on the rum for a 1d6 alchemical Charisma bonus lasting 8 hours. However, this requires a DC 15 Fortitude save or it does 2 point of Constitution damage, which is a poison effect. (Recall that 1 point of ability damage is healed with 8 hours of rest.)
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If I might make a suggestion, all of these failed diplomacy checks hurt us a lot. I think I am the only member of the group with a decent diplomacy, and as luck would have it, John is also a bit of drunk. For the next few days in game, why don't we focus on learning topics that would be a use to helping sway the NPC's aboard the Wormwood Even if we fail rolls against a sense motive, it won't hurt our standing. Then, as we start to find topics that will help our conversations, I will start off the conversation with my +5 in diplomacy, aided by the knowledge gleaned (for a +2) and take 10. That combined with the rum and at least one other PC aiding me, will bring us up to a DC20, enough so that I can fix some of the damage.
The last thing I think we want to do is piss off the crew anymore then we have already.
You can do both. Your idea is good; the one problem is that it is pretty manpower-intensive.
I updated the crew list to reflect the new attitudes. I also pulled the portraits of the crew members that Paizo has illustrated and included them in the crew list on the Campaign Info tab.
I figured it was worth a shot trying it once, but I wasn't planning on doing it much again until we had further advantages. The Paizo die roller is generally unkind to me. :)
Fortunately Wyn has a good Sense Motive (and Bluff and Intimidate, just not Diplomacy).
I hope we will have opportunity to RP out some friend-making as well. I feel better failing if it's because I legitimately put my foot in it.
Well, when Ollivor hits level 2, I'll bump his diplomacy up to trained and that should make a big difference for his efforts. Today ,if allowed, I kind of wimped out and went for 10 check on Bleak who, with a DC of 14, I managed to make. Still, it just makes sense to me that Ollivor would try to befriend the galley crew first then work on.
Yeah, I've some training to do when Doran levels up and will definitely bump some of the social skills. Will have to pick up Disable Device, now that Synthia's gone over to the NPC side of things. I won't get Trapfinding as a Knife Master - which I went with because we had another rogue in the group. Hope that works out okay.
I'll have lots of skill points to spend, so I may have to pick up a Perform skill. Doran talked about it a long while back and it would give me an in with Rosie in the competition with Conchobar for her affections...
@GM Barcas - gotta agree with John about the info tabs - they're awesome.
John - how to kill my chances with the lil' lady! Though perhaps by telling her how piratical I am, you'll actually give me a little boost in her eyes...
With back to back 20s, he can convince her of anything. Looking forward to writing it up.
Remember you don't need trapfinding to find traps (it's a deceptively named ability)... just to disarm magical ones... which we can work around if we're clever enough. The bonuses are nice of course.
The lead-up to Crimson's keelhauling was surprisingly fun to write. Plugg is a real cruel bastard.
All the other PCs are invited to react to the keelhauling. If they haven't influenced anyone today, they can give it a go.
Anyone who hasn't attempted a Sense Motive today can do so on any NPC with a +2 bonus (because they're interested, one way or another, in the keelhaul to hide their emotions as well).
That sounds reasonable.
I hope you guys are enjoying this part as much as I am. Who knew that skill challenges could be so interesting?
@Barcas - as described, Doran will see if he can pick up on a conversation, if there's anyone not on hand to witness the punishment, or at least get to know the layout of a different part of the ship. If he can find a dagger or other small weapon that he could pass on to one of his companions, that would be useful too.
I'm also very open to suggestions for what else he could usefully do with a bit of sneaking about whilst the unsavory masses are distracted.
And I agree with Rawkins - this is a very colorful, fun way to play out a skill challenge!
Yikes. Glad others are having better luck with the dice than I am. Ah well, at least my 'aid' to bluff wasn't a one.
Don't worry man, at least it was an aid another.
Appreciate the attempt at assistance! Could make for a good part of the story at least... if it ends well, I am sure we'll still turn the shark Ollivor didn't actually see into a main part of the story of its recounting. :)
Whoops. I did not see John's post until now. I will work up the final post and wrap the day up when I get home. Taking 7d6 maximum compared to 12d6, Cog still has a chance at survival. I am looking forward to seeing how it turns out with the dice.
Let's see how you influenced the NPCs.
Additionally, I'd like to award a special boon to Wyn and John.
Teamwork: When adjacent to another character with this boon, both may spend an immediate action to Aid Another. This ability may be used once per day, but most be used by both characters simultaneously to gain any benefit.
I agree - great use of a variety of skills in the keelhaul scene, and an excellent rendering of it from the poor victim's point of view. I found myself greatly worried as I read that Cogward might not make it! And the boon is a cool reward for working well together.
As for Doran's exploits - I believe his total haul was: MW thieves tools (yes!), 2 boarding axes, 2 tanglefoot bags, and 3 smokesticks. Was he able to carry all that unnoticed and get it back to the crew quarters? Or did he have to hide some of it somewhere to recover later?
They're all fairly small, concealable items. It's easy enough to imagine the sneaky halfling getting them where he needs to. He may have to hide them in the crew quarters somewhere so that he doesn't have to explain how he got them.
I really enjoyed reading the whole keelhualing experience with Wyn and John. I wish I was in town to post and help Doran but it looks as if he did pretty good on his own. Great posts to all it made for a great read.
...
That was difficult to write.
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Oh... Dam!!! Ugh, Iakob was the best friend that John had out there.
I gotta do a POV from John for this. John is going to go a!@~#%@ crazy and get very drunk tonight. I'll also handle the wrapping of him in canvas with the last stitch though his nose.
A bit of naval history:
Burials at Sea . When sewing the corpse up in an old hammock or piece of canvas it is usual to put the last stitch through the nose of the deceased. I have heard that this is done in order to avoid any chance of launching the body overboard while in a state of catalepsy, the shock of having a stitch passed through the nose being considered sufficient to bring the patient back to life. I can find no regulations in support of the custom, but for very many years it was usual for the man who did the sewing up of the corpse to be paid a guinea a body. On board H.M.S. “CASTOR” after the Battle of Jutland the sum of twenty‑three guineas was paid out from the public funds to the rating who officiated in this respect. This was vouched for by an officer who was present.
Sigz said that he didn't have time to play Iakob anymore, and gave his blessing. It was an opportunity to show how spiteful and vicious Plugg is, as well.
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@Barcas: How do you feel about John picking up the Trophy Hunter archetype at level 2? I want to use it to wield Iakob's pistol as a form of remembrance for his friend. I also plan to get the tattoo's that Iakob had so that he can ensure that he continues to follow, what John imagines his his friends is dying wish: To see that his former shipmates are rescued from Deepmar.
Yikes. But that is a suitable way to send the character off under the circumstances.
Yeah, Doran's little quest was awesome in all this, hadn't really focused on it till our part was over.
Nice Naval history info John.
Brutal outcome for Iakob, but I had been wondering whether we'd see him played again. And it sure makes clear that Plugg isn't a nice fella.
Nice that both of our skill challenges ended up with some positives, rather than just surviving. Some gear from Doran's searching, and a cool boon from the keelhauling challenge.
And I've heard the same about the stitch through the nose - avoids the eternal swim for those not yet dead.
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@Doran: Aye good job capitalizing on the events above! Aye, the stitch was supposed to wake up a someone who was comatose, ensuring they did not wake up in the water.
In other news check out this trailer for Open Water. Its pretty much Johns worst nightmare.
Oh and by the way. I am already planning for John to put a bullet in Pluggs brain with Iakobs pistol.