Skull & Shackles (Inactive)

Game Master Hayato Ken

So, I've lurked here for a while, but I've finally decided to try my hand at running an Adventure Path. For me, it was a toss-up between Kingmaker and Skull and Shackles, but ultimately Skull and Shackles ended up winning out.

For a bit of background on myself, I'm a full-time student, and I've been playing fantasy RPGs since 1988. I got into Pathfinder when the open beta came out for it, and I ended up switching over to the Golarion setting more or less exclusively after that. I value role-play far more than dice rolls, and tend to get a bit descriptive in situations.

What I'm looking for is 4-6 stalwart souls, ready to carve their own piratical niche in the Shackles. Hopefully, people will be game for the challenge.

Here's some hard info on what starting chars will be like.

Starting Level: 1st level

Stats: 22 Point Buy. I know it seems like an arbitrary number, but I like things somewhere between high and mythic fantasy.

Alignment: This is a bit of a sticky wicket, or at least was until I made my decision. Since the PCs are supposed to be a part of the pirate lifestyle, I WILL allow neutral and evil PCs, but be amply warned beforehand: your actions will have consequences, and those consequences could spell your doom if you're mindlessly violent or bastard-y.

HP: Max for 1st level, half for even levels thereafter, full for odd. So a 1st level Wiz would be 6 + Con mod, 2nd level 3 + Con mod, 3rd 6 + Con mod, lather, rinse, repeat.

Classes: Core material (Core, Ultimate Combat/Magic, Advanced Player Guide) work for me. I’d like to see a nice mix of classes.

Races: All races except the following will be okay: Samsarans, Strix, Vishkanyas, or Wayangs. Oh, and naturally, no Azlanti. Remember, the campaign is set in a relatively warm and aquatic environment, northern/cold-loving races would probably be a little put off.

Drawbacks: Nope!

Traits: Two, one can be a campaign trait (and is recommended).

Wealth: Max starting wealth. It doesn’t matter so much for this campaign because you will, at best, be starting with a set of clothes and a personal item.

Downtime: Downtime will be an important part of the adventure, particularly the latter portion, since there’s a definite kingdom-building vibe to the entire AP. I’ll handle significant events that happen during downtime in vignette-style action, and hopefully it’ll work to keep everyone from getting bored.

Submitting a Character- I prefer that you send these to me via private message. If you have questions about character creation, you can address them here on the board and I’ll get back to you. Please keep the format for things in third-person style (mostly because I get kerfuddled seeing “I do x, I did y, etc”. If you're accepted, feel free to make a profile for the PC; I'm still getting the hang of constructing a PBP set-up on this board for the game (pointers will not upset me!). Character submissions should include:

Description – A paragraph or two should be sufficient for this. Please describe your character as they’d appear the first time someone saw them.

Personality – If this warrants explanation, I can do it privately. I’d like to see a nice paragraph or two talking about the PC's background at least, though I won't say no to more than that. Since the campaign is focused on the Shackles and surrounding areas, your character will either be from the areas nearby or an immigrant.

Just figured I'd add this, I'd like to get started relatively soon, so I plan on stopping recruitment and making my final selections by Feb. 7th at the latest.

Dotting for interest. Playing Assassin's Creed Black Flag has me in the mood to play a sea-chanty bard. I'll roll up my submission once I get home from work.

I'd really love to play my Salamander Monk; http://pepperonideluxe.tumblr.com/post/33805613011/bendear-dundat-the-giant -fire-breathing

He's an odd character to present to a GM, though, so I understand if you'd like me to roll something a bit more standard.

While I'm not opposed to creativity, and honestly found the character to be a funny and unique concept, yeah, something a little more along standard lines'd be ideal. With that said, you're obviously a creative sort, so I'm very interested to see what else you can come up with. I'll be keeping an eye out (not like Vecna, though, that'd just be weird).

Dotting for interest.

dotting for interest, very slight rebuild on this fellow, will be pming you him soon, when get home from work (he's a 20 point buy i believe not a 22, not a huge fix but i will double check him regardless.)

Would an Android also be exceptable in terms of race?

I forgot all about the Inner Sea Bestiary. Only androids, monkey goblins, and syrinx would be acceptable from that resource. I will say, as a personal statement, that when I do see an abnormal racial selection (ie, outside of the standard races and the handful I'd mentioned from the ARG), I typically expect an equally unique backstory for said character. Hopefully that helps.

Are the alternate racial traits and archetypes from the Advanced Race Guide allowable? I ask only since some of the races from it are allowed.

I'm not really opposed to any of the alternate racial traits or archetypes from the ARG, so they are allowable. This campaign has a lot of different elements to it (straight-on combat, diplomacy/intrigue, puzzle-solving, etc) so there's really no specific character build that gains any particular advantage, which is one of the reasons I decided to do Skull and Shackles in the first place.

I'm going to submitt Lilly. She's been in need of a game, but seems to always get accepted into short run games. I'll adjust as necessary for your rules, if accepted.

I forgot all about the Inner Sea Bestiary. Only androids, monkey goblins, and syrinx would be acceptable from that resource. I will say, as a personal statement, that when I do see an abnormal racial selection (ie, outside of the standard races and the handful I'd mentioned from the ARG), I typically expect an equally unique backstory for said character. Hopefully that helps.

Cool beans, I have a few ideas thinking of doing something like a gunslinger or roguish type just need to look over classes. As to story yeah I have some ideas on a unique backstory.

Sounds great, I can't wait to see her! I thought I'd noted it in the recruitment initial post, but since I didn't, I'll state it now. In the interest of walking the balance between garnering the best applications and keeping too many people from applying (and thusly, disappointing a lot of people), I'll do a cut-off on applications no later than the 5th. I'd initially entertained the 7th of February for that point instead, but I wasn't certain as to how much interest to anticipate.

As an aside, the biggest considerations that I have in terms of accepting a character are threefold:

1) Is the character well-written and unique?
2) Can I see the character fit into the campaign, including using background material for the character later in the campaign?
3) Do I think that the character would work well with the rest of the party, even if they're gruff/stand-offish/outsider-y?

Hopefully, that'll help anyone that's interested.

Well, I've been looking for a Skull & Shackles game to get into for a while now.

I'll have something statted up soon.

Submission incoming

Just as a further aside, I'm going to compile a list here of the applications that I receive, in order of receipt. Please note that neither order nor arrangement is any given indication as to what will be accepted and what will not. I just figure this gives people a better idea as to what has come in already, possibly giving them ideas as to what they want to do. It will be updated daily, possibly more often.

Martial
Percival Asploric- M Human (Chelish) Fighter- TheNine
Wambua- M Human (Mwangi) Ranger- Wambua
Boldwin Stonearm- M Dwarf Fighter (Brawler)- Boldwin Stonearm
Khafir- M Human (Keleshite) Fighter (Corsair)- Krash4031

Roguish
Randall McNally- M Human (Varisian) Bard (Sea Singer)- Marik Whiterose

Arcane
Radval Zardill- M Human Sorcerer (Shadow bloodline)- Karl Sarvo

Divine
Lilly- F Half-Orc Druid (Aquatic Druid)- scranford

I would love to be in the running for this. I have been in 2 Skull and Shackles games on here that died. I have this character, or if the party would need it more I have Faratim a halfling voodoo alchemist. Both of them need slight updates for your creation rules, which I will begin immediately.

Since I can't say for certain what the party will need until I'm setting up the party, it's really at your discretion.

dot!

I do believe I'll put up a submission for this. I've just the thing for a Skulls and shackles character in the brew. Do you reply to submitted character messages?

I've done so for every character submitted thus far today (8 in total; my comp is being weird about letting me further update the listing), so, yeah ;)

Any chance I can use this character here? I made him for a Skull and Shackles campaign, but only got a couple ship days in before it folded.

Sent you my character, blackaeon.

Character sent

Osir, the only main problem that I see with the character you were looking to use is that he is significantly over in terms of his build in comparison to the other PCs applied. Based off of my calculations, he'd be a 27 point-buy (17 for Str, 3 for Dex, 2 for Int, 5 for Cha). You'd need to reduce it down to a 22 point-buy instead. Anyone who isn't listed in the new listing of potential PCs is waiting for one thing or the other and will be updated upon receipt of requested info.

In case the listing doesn't show as much, we're a LITTLE martial heavy at this point. Still waiting to update a few PCs who haven't turned everything in yet.

Martial
Percival Asploric- M Human (Chelish) Fighter- TheNine
Wambua- M Human (Mwangi) Ranger- Wambua
Boldwin Stonearm- M Dwarf Fighter (Brawler)- Boldwin Stonearm
Khafir- M Human (Keleshite) Fighter (Corsair)- Krash4031
Athanasius Dragon- M Half-Orc Fighter- PepperoniDeluxe
Jaina Swift- F Ifrit Monk (empty hand)- Dragoncat

Roguish
Randall McNally- M Human (Varisian) Bard (Sea Singer)- Marik Whiterose

Arcane
Radval Zardill- M Human Sorcerer (Shadow bloodline)- Karl Sarvo

Divine
Lilly- F Half-Orc Druid (Aquatic Druid)- scranford

if it helps at all i do think i was planning on Percival to dip into arcane casting, but at most it would be a half/half build.

Again, that's entirely up to you. I may end up capping submissions earlier than the 5th due to the volume that I'm getting. Having been on both the player and DM end of submissions, I can definitely say it sucks to have to tell anyone that they didn't make it in, and I'd rather not have to do so to 20+ people. I'll have a better idea about that tomorrow.

Hmm I could submit a rogue type if there's still time. It seems like you already have your selections picked out.

No, I don't have any selections picked out at all yet. Can't make a decision until all of the choices are available, that wouldn't be fair to anyone. I try to take a very balanced approach to things like this, but I'll probably cap things at 20 applications at the most. There's still some time.

The list with PCs on it is a list of potential PCs. There's no way that I would run a campaign with that many people unless I were doing two competing adventuring parties or the like.

No, I don't have any selections picked out at all yet. Can't make a decision until all of the choices are available, that wouldn't be fair to anyone. I try to take a very balanced approach to things like this, but I'll probably cap things at 20 applications at the most. There's still some time.

Yeah, I know what you mean.

It sucks when you get upwards of 30 applications and you only have room in your PbP for 6 people.

If you still seek a rogue I have a Tengu Rogue(sword master) itching to go

Here he is I just have to do a few edits with him.

I'm thinking of submitting a aquatic or marid sorcerer. Maybe a crossblooded sorcerer of the two.

Hmm I see another Tengu Swordmaster. TIme to head back to the drawing board once more.

Xiakon, I'd need a background/appearance/personality for him before he'd be able for consideration. And yeah, I don't want to get too many people's hopes dashed, so I will probably cap at 20 at most. I didn't expect this kind of turnout.

Character completely submitted!

NE Buccaneer ladies and gentlemen!

Apologies for the long background, blackaeon.

no prob i will wrk on those shortly

Completed

Can I get opinions on McDougal's background before the hammer falls? I'm wanting to make sure he's a PC worth keeping if anyone feels like putting the time in to read it.

I would like to submit Black Dhugal for your consideration. I need to make some minor adjustments to his stats and background. I will pm the completed character sheet.

Can I get opinions on McDougal's background before the hammer falls? I'm wanting to make sure he's a PC worth keeping if anyone feels like putting the time in to read it.

I've looked through his background, and I can say that I'm alright with him sticking around if blackaeon is.

I find that playing a character with vile motivations always needs to work with a party, somewhat grudgingly, but never treachorously. It adds that extra layer of depth to the game where someone has to be slightly watched at all times, and makes for more interesting role play conversations. If everyone's good, of course you're going to save the burning orphanage, but if there's that evil guy in the corner, he'll just talk about how "Surviving builds character." Mind you, even edgard would likely think twice about letting a bunch of kids die.

As long as the evil in the group has an ulterior motive that meets the endgame, and the group is allowed to go their separate ways at the end, it doesn't matter if the whole party weren't heroes, right?

I'm not about to start taking pot-shots at party members because they've got pretty necklaces, though. There's a big difference in stupid evil and real evil.

Honestly all it takes to be NE is Selfish, and most CN guys pull that off.

I've submitted Ambrose Jeggare, LN wizard, Infernal Binder specialization.

Alright, so, here is the new listing of the characters that've been applied for thus far for the game. At this point, I only plan on keeping applications open until tomorrow evening. As of 5:00 PM EST tomorrow, I won't be considering any further characters, as I feel it is only fair and also keeps me from seeing a deluge of new applications that I have to wade through. I should have my decision made by midnight that night, though it may take a little longer; you people have practically put me in a metaphorical Sophie's Choice already.

Martial
Percival Asploric- M Human (Chelish) Fighter- TheNine
Wambua- M Human (Mwangi) Ranger- Wambua
Boldwin Stonearm- M Dwarf Fighter (Brawler)- Boldwin Stonearm
Khafir- M Human (Keleshite) Fighter (Corsair)- Krash4031
Athanasius Dragon- M Half-Orc Fighter- PepperoniDeluxe
Jaina Swift- F Ifrit Monk (empty hand)- Dragoncat
Edgar "Alright" McDougal- M Human Gunslinger (Buccaneer)- Duboris

Roguish
Randall McNally- M Human (Varisian) Bard (Sea Singer)- Marik Whiterose
Xiakon the Blade- M Tengu Rogue (Swordmaster)- Critzible
Black Dhugal- M Half-Orc Rogue (Acrobat)- Wehrpig

Arcane
Radval Zardill- M Human Sorcerer (Shadow bloodline)- Karl Sarvo
Ambrose Jeggare- M Tiefling Wizard (Infernal Binder)- The Dread Pirate Hurley

Divine
Lilly- F Half-Orc Druid (Aquatic Druid)- scranford
Jagray Hamfur- M Dwarf Cleric of Gozreh- Dakcenturi

Eagle, I seem to notice a lack of Edgar on that list. I gave you his background, no?

No, you totally did, and I received it, I'm just a twit apparently. He's on there now, my bad.

Many thanks! What did ya think of the background?

Hmm I'll just watch then. Seems like you have enough on your plate.