blackaeon |
Also, for anyone interested, here's the run-down of who's playing this game:
Jaina Swift- F Ifrit Monk (empty hand)- Dragoncat
Randall McNally- M Human (Varisian) Bard (Sea Singer)- Marik Whiterose
Lilly- F Half-Orc Druid (Aquatic Druid)- scranford
Radval Zardill- M Human Sorcerer (Shadow bloodline)- Karl Sarvo
Xiakon the Blade- M Tengu Rogue (Swordmaster)- Critzible
Percival Asploric- M Human (Chelish) Fighter- TheNine
Randall McNally |
Reporting for duty, Captain.
Randall McNally |
Thanks for the invite Blackaeon, oh and should we hit an iceberg arcane casters and children first when it comes to the lifeboats.
On a more serious note:
blackaeon, how do you feel about Randall using his Sea Shanty ability at the end of day to avoid fatigue? I know it's an ability check and not technically a save but I've had other GM's be okay with it before. Also about buying magic items, i.e. a Potion of Cure Light Wounds, with our starting gold.
A sea singer learns to counter seasickness and exhaustion during long sea voyages. Each round of a sea shanty, he makes a Perform skill check. Allies within 30 feet (including the sea singer) may use his Perform check in place of a saving throw against becoming exhausted, fatigued, nauseated, or sickened; if already under such an effect, a new save is allowed each round of the sea shanty, using the bard’s Perform check for the save. A sea shanty has no effect on instantaneous effects or effects that do not allow saves. This ability requires audible components.
This performance replaces countersong.
blackaeon |
If anything, part of me thinks that Harrigan would WANT Randall to perform, especially if it makes things easier on the swabs and riggers. And yeah, I have no problem house-ruling things in as far as that goes. It removes a few complications from the PCs day-to-day lives, but it also replaces countersong, and that's kind of a big deal.
We are still waiting of Xiakon, it seems, but in the meantime, I'll give you all a few ideas as to what you can expect from me and how I operate. First, though, I'm gonna eat breakfast, because I just woke up about twenty minutes ago.
blackaeon |
That's okay, glad to see everyone here! I've written up/compiled a little something that should answer most of your questions before we get started, though I'll be happy to answer any others.
In terms of the implications of stats, I tend to view them as general guidelines, more than concrete definers. I have no particular problem with making allusions, as long as they're in keeping with the general 'feel' of the character: per example, a 7 Cha, no Diplomacy/Bluff PC shouldn't be relating tales of their savoir-faire and charming the pantaloons off of fair pirate maidens or the like. Common sense rules the day.
In terms of interaction flexibility and such, I'm pretty liberal. If there's an NPC, I don't see why they can't be interacted with/influenced through appropriate role-play and occasional rolls. There's no reason that Plugg or Scourge can't take a shine to the PCs, or Cap'n Harrigan for that matter. Could it make sweeping changes to the overarching storyline? Sure. Am I prepared for this? Yes.
In terms of dice rolls and narrative, that's relatively simple. I prefer an assumptive type of posting, with the rolls at the end, so I can collate everything together when I do my DM posts. Thus, something like, "Sir Thomas the True swung his longsword in a glittering arc at the pugnacious hobgoblin, hoping to cleave it in twain" is what I'd like to see when a PC is attempting an action. I factor in the rolls vs the DC or the AC or whateverC is needed, and tell what happened after they tried to do something.
I'll state it out of hand, sometimes I can come off as a bit curt occasionally, but that's because I like to say what I'm thinking. Hopefully that won't be an issue for anyone, I'm just not a fan of blowing smoke. I don't fudge rolls, I don't put PCs in random encounters that have way too high a CR no matter what the dice say, and I try not to have anything wildly random and out-of-sorts happen in the game. I like things to be thematic, cinematic, and kinetic, and that seems to work for all the other PBPs that I've run (my longest one has been going on for seven years and running).
Each PC'll get (eventually) assigned to a position on the ship's crew, and since I don't feel like having to RP out exactly what the day's work will entail each day, I'm gonna get vignette-y on yer scurvy backsides. I'll make the requisite ability/skill checks for your characters and dictate what happened during the course of their duties. The portions that I will RP out with you (which will likely happen independent of one another, unless you end up on the same work detail for some reason) are the ship actions your characters will be able to make, which I'll enumerate below, basically reprinting from the book for the sake of expedience.
Each PC can take a daytime ship action and a nighttime ship action; I'll have you declare your ship actions in the discussion thread at the start of each game day. The daytime threads will be more vignette-y, as I mentioned, while the nighttime ones will be more communal in nature, and allow for more PC-to-PC interaction as well. I'm not just going to pigeonhole you into, say, gambling and not getting to talk to your fellow players.
I'm also handling the rum rations rule a bit different, as I think as they have them in the book are a little ridiculous and would result in a whole ship of alcoholics who dropped over dead after a month of sailing. A DC 10 Con save will be required to avoid the Con damage, and if the save is successful, both the 1d4 alchemical bonus to Cha and the fatigued for 1d8 hours status are halved, minimum 1 hour. The rum is still quite potent, though, so each successive save will have a +2 to the DC; playing a game of heave is still quite dangerous, and can result in death from intoxication in short order if the players are not careful.
Daytime Ship Actions
Work Diligently: Gain a +4 bonus on any one check for a job’s daily task
Influence: Make normal checks for a job’s daily task and attempt to influence a single NPC
Sneak: Make normal checks for a job’s daily task and briefly explore one area of the ship (the PC can make a single Perception check or another skill check with no chance of detection
Shop: Take a -2 penalty on all checks for a job’s daily task and visit the quartermaster’s store
Shirk: Take a -2 penalty on all checks for a job’s daily task and take time exploring one area of the ship. The PC can take 10 on a single Perception check or another skill check, but must make a check to avoid
being discovered.
Nighttime Ship Actions
Sleep: Go to bed early and sleep through the night (automatically recovering from fatigue or stepping down from exhausted to fatigued)
Gamble: Play or gamble on a game of chance or pirate entertainment
Entertain: Make one Perform check to entertain the crew
Influence: Attempt to influence an NPC
Sneak: Take time exploring one area of the ship. The PC can take 20 on a single Perception or other skill check, but must make a check to keep from being discovered
Steal: Attempt to open a locked door or locker. The PC must make a check to avoid being discovered.
Up to two ship actions can be performed during the middle watch in the dead of night, but only for the following actions:
Influence: Attempt to influence an NPC
Sneak: Take time exploring one area of the ship. The PC can take 20 on a single Perception or other skill check, but must make a check to keep from being discovered
Steal: Attempt to open a locked door or locker. The PC must make a check to avoid being discovered.
The daily and nightly ship actions are ones that PCs get to choose for themselves. Nobody's gonna make the 7 Cha character dance or anything during the evening. If someone doesn't post their ship actions for a certain day, I'll assume they chose Work Diligently and Sleep as their choices as a default.
The actual jobs on the ship (pumping bilge, swabbing decks, running rigging) will be assigned to the PCs, and they may have varied jobs over the course of their tenure on the Wormwood, depending on what they prove to be the best at. These are NOT voluntary, and dereliction of duty on the ship can involve whippings or worse... unless you get away with not doing your job (Shirk).
The rum ration is expected to be had, and whippings can refuse to result from failure to drink it. It's used more for pacification of the crew at night-time than an actual reward. With that said, crowded ships can be easy to hide a quick pouring-out of a ration, as long as nobody is watching.
As an aside, since alcohol came up, the premise behind the beginning is that your character was carousing at an inn in Port Peril called the Formidably Maid. Whether your food or your drink was drugged, or you just got downright beaten to Hell outside the bar, or bagged in your sleep, the result is the same: your character was press-ganged into the crew of the Wormwood, and you'll be serving until... well, until you manage to get away from it.
Before we get started, is there anything else we need to hash out?
Percival Asploric |
climb: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (10) + 7 = 17
climb2: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (10) + 7 = 17
climb3: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (17) + 7 = 24
climb4: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (13) + 7 = 20
I knew we should have raced. *grats
blackaeon |
As a side-note, I flipped a coin between Lilly and Xiakon for the cook's mate job, and Xiakon ended up getting heads.
Here's the rolls you'll need for the day. I'll detail your working areas and what happens after I have your rolls and ship actions.
Jaina
DC 10 Profession (Sailor) or Strength check for the work of running the mainsail
DC 10 Con check to avoid being fatigued afterwards
Lilly
DC 10 Dex, Stealth, or Survival check to catch enough rats, spiders and bugs for the course of the day
Percival
DC 10 Profession (Sailor) or Strength check for tying and lugging ropes
DC 10 Con check to avoid being fatigued afterwards
Radval
DC 10 Con or Strength check to avoid being fatigued after hard work scrubbing and mopping the deck
Randall
DC 12 Strength check to pump bilge
DC 10 Con check to avoid being fatigued afterwards
Xiakon
DC 10 Intelligence or Profession (cook) check to assist with preparing the evening meal.
blackaeon |
They're in there for fiber.
As a side note, I have to point out that running these particularly unsavory NPC types makes me genuinely feel like a bad person occasionally. Don't get me wrong, there's still some sort of perverse fun behind it, but not without some guilt.
Lilly |
Whoops! Sorry! for some reason the campaign disappeared from my list, and I lost track. I'll post when I get back from dropping off the kids at school.
I would have preferred to see a "Cook-off" instead of a coin toss to determine the cook :-).
GM: Would it be possible for Lilly to trade out her Profession: Cook for something else? She's never used it?
Lilly |
Lilly will sleep tonight, and work diligently tomorrow. Trying to make a good first impression, as she's been in this situation before, and knows not being noticed is critical...especially at first.
blackaeon |
Sorry about the lull, fell asleep and woke up to a sick wife.
As for the Profession: Cook thing, my suggestion is thus. Wait on it for a few 'days' in terms of game-time. If a certain tengu keeps failing his rolls or getting caught swiping cutlery, somebody might end up stuck on bilge duty instead :P
Percival Asploric |
this might seem like a silly question but when we influence a crew member is it a personal thing or is it kinda applied to the group? Is it He's friends with X so when X tries to be friendly im more open to X than i might have been before? Just curious.
Randall McNally |
With apologies to Disney for the song
Percival Asploric |
It was cool with me.I liked it. I used to use a bard that i used old army cadences for all the time. I edited them a little if it called for it. But hey If i was a great songwriter I would be famous or something eh?
Percival Asploric |
I was mostly asking cause i take notes and i wanted to know if i should include everyone's attitudes or just teh ones for me etc. . .
blackaeon |
Just a quick putter-upper here: one of my idiot neighbors was firing mortars off in their backyard (fireworks are quasi-legal here in FL) and fired a four incher into the power lines. I've just gotten electric back now, so I'll be addressing everything shortly. Thanks for the patience- DM John
blackaeon |
Yeah, as a former pyrotechnician, I tried to tell them that they needed a hundred feet of break clearance for each inch of the mortar rounds that they were using, but then one of them apparently got drunk and knocked over the cardboard (!) launcher they were shooting them from. Apparently, at least one of them got arrested over the whole ordeal, and they're going to have to pay for the repairs, which I imagine will result in them just moving out one night and disappearing.
Jaina Swift |
Okay, in the event that I end up getting us beat down, I should apologize in advance.
I think it'll be a good idea in the future for me to wait until someone else tries a diplomatic solution first before I start punching.
Percival Asploric |
nah piratical sorts that talk first? this might be the good impression that we need, you know make them realize we arent soft. They carrying any obvious weapons or is it straight fisticuffs?
Though talking is always nice.