Yeah here it´s carnival too, but i won´t participate. It´s also a really bad influenca wave and i can´t afford to become sick, too much important work to do. That´s why i´m stuck too my PC all the time^^
It seems this gets a little confusing. Maybe we could use this thread for real out of character discussions and questions?
You can see the map in campaign info thread. We are now on B1, Sandara and me are on the main deck, the rest should be hiding on the stairs down. We go to the rail and try to bring the guards there, so they are between us and when you surprise them flanked.
If its 2 or 4 i don´t know.
Back in one of the first posts, it was noted that there were four rahadoumi sailors that had accompanied Plugg and Scourge onto the Man's Promise. They are all on deck, functioning as night watch. I never specified the number, since it wasn't asked up until this point. They were all on deck. Two of them were the first to respond to Ayaki and Sandara and the other two have just taken notice as well.
As far as I understand the plan, nothing was discussed as to the "hows" of ambushing them, just for Ayaki and Sandara to create a distraction.
C'est la vie. Guess we can all roll new characters if all this goes to hell. How did we forget to double check on enemy numbers?
Don´t despair, we will find a solution. Perhaps i can diploamtize them somehow. Else we might face a hard fight with another probably harder fight following. Just concentrate on taking down one after another, all focussing on the same guy. I should be able to charm one too need be.
Trying to win them over to our side is a good idea. If it comes to worst we wait for the 4 of them to give their backs to the stairs and than we charge. If we can drop one or two of them we maybe be able to intimidate the rest into submission.
They were planning to sell those of us in the bilges into slavery after all, so I'm not going to shed any tears if the bloodbath starts with them. Even if we bite off more than we can chew, a retreat into the hold (where, presumably, the rest of the crew is waiting with weapons) can help even the odds.
Kind of hard to plan once things are already moving and not make it meta gaming.
Besides, I thought Jove's thrush got all the information about where these guys were and how many.
And what happened to Jove making a silent image off the side of the boat? I still wanted to use that plan too. That'll get their backs turned for sure
I double checked earlier posts to make sure, but while the information of who was given out, the numbers where mostly implied, simply because the question was never asked.
Alright, I'm gonna list out the crew on board the Man's Promise. I'm going to separate them into two camps:
Plugg's Camp
Mister Plugg
Master Scourge
Maheem
Slippery Syl Lonegan
Jaundiced Jape
Aretta Bansion
Four new Rahadoumi Sailors
Total: 10
PC Camp
Gan Laccaran
Four Skulls
Jove Sirocco
Ragnar Stolen-Voice
Noche'Wa the Wild Mouse
Ayaki "The Red Fox" Hu
Ambrose "Fishguts" Kroop
Sandara Quinn
Rosie Cusswell
"Ratline" Ratsberger
Barefoot Samms
Conchobhar Shortstone
Badger Medlar
Owlbear
Total: 14
Anything seem off?
We have Owlbear? Sweet!
Peculiar but Plugg never did treat him well.
Hmm... Did you guys never befriend him? I thought so, but it might be bleed over from my other game.
Lex was a gracious winner toward Owlbear when he fought him, but nothing ever came of it as far as I know.
Did we lose Four Skulls? Haven't seen him post for awhile.
Me either and I was wondering the same thing. Figured he'd have something to say about my petition for captainship since he's technically been with Gan since the beginning.
I´ll post a reply in the evening CET, too much work right now to come up with something decent.
Hey guys. Work have been keeping me busy. I am out of town on a bussiness trip that still have 10 days to go. I expected to have internet access and time to keep my regular posting schedule but things have been chaotic at best. I am not sure how active I will manage to be on the boards on this upcoming week. Feel free to npc my character if needed. Really sorry for the inconvenience.
Alright, then I'll hold off a bit longer then.
@Skulls: No worries. Thanks for lettin' us know.
Yeah i was a bit scared to start it, didn´t know how it would be received. But i just watched pirates of the carribean lately and see it as a must somehow. Glad all enjoy it and Gan played along so good!
Yeah, really good role playing guys. Sorry to give you a cramp, Gan, but I figured a barbarian with a charisma of 8 shouldn't have "easy going" and "entirely reasonable" as major character traits, especially with someone that decides they want to be in a position to tell him what to do!
The process in my other group did not go nearly as well as this one has so far, yet it involved less arguing, which is kind of ridiculous to me.
I'm having fun with it. It is helping me develop Gan even better. I've even prepared a large chunk of text should Gan be elected captain.
Again, I kind of assumed going for captain would be easy. It really fits my backstory, personality, and what has transpired since the day we woke up as slaves.
I've even got the whole "Captain Hook" concept mix with some Barbosa too. I have a pet monkey. Could have called it Jack.
Again. This whole competition for captain is really helping me flush out the character.
Well, Ayaki clearly dreams of becoming a well known infamous and feared pirate queen that can bath in gold everyday. Having told so many stories in her life she wants to become the subject of stories herself and tell those to others. Her vast and ever growing knowledge helps her with that and of course her social abilities. You can become captain, but thou should have something else for her that makes her contempt, or you will have a driving force in our neck most of the time :)
By this point, yeah, they're long gone. I've mostly noted it to see if anyone bothers trying. So far, it has just been a passing mention.
Another vote? Hmmm... Sounds like fun.
Guess Four Skulls is right with the ship and the men over board.
The rest, well you put my character fairly into a corner and like you call into the forest, so comes the answer.
I actually think all of this positions shouldn´t influence group play and decision making so much. Although it´s a little strange everyone rounding up on me right now. You do realize that i got this rules out of the books? Admittedly with one paragraph slightly in favor of bards, what is following the logic of in character play. And since i just resigned from the position of captain, all chairs are pushed down one row...
I think we need someone on the lookout too, with a high perception and maybe darkvision?
Of course everyone can just take any position. But technically and also ingameplaylogically speaking it would make a lot of sense to have characters with certain skills have their adequate positions. Like Jove as a sailormaster. Surgeon could be someone with heal skill, WIS and some magic. Captain someone with a lot of knowledge skills, high CHA and many other skills. Master of arms and master gunner someone with full BAB and good gun skills. I think Gan would actually make a perfect master gunner, just to say.
And what about a coaxswain?
Noche'Wa's got the best perception and darkvision, though I don't think we'll be sailing at night too much unless we're raiding or in the middle of a bad storm- still, best lookout we've got. Ragnar's perception is slightly lower, but Eyes of the Storm lets him take half penalties from bad weather- and ignore less than total concealment during a fight in foggy/stormy conditions.
Seems there have been misunderstandings, so i want to make it clear that it´s not my intention to offend or insult someone.
My intention was to add a little diversity inspired by pirates of the carribean and then have that code worked out together as a crew and group, so we could sail on happily. I thought that was clear, but i may be wrong. I am sorry and please excuse me. I will try to avoid things like that in the future.
On my part, i didnt like everything that was said either, but i thought there might be an ingame way to solve and overcome that, seems that doesn´t work out. So maybe we can just talk about it here.
If you have concerns or issues, please let me now, i´t´s always best to handle things directly and talk about it, so worse can be avoided.
Also english is not my native language, it could happen i express myself in ways that others think strange or take offense while i don´t get it myself, because with a different language comes a different culture. But that works two ways and i might think the same sometimes and find your expressions strange or rude.
I'm sorry Hu, but I wasn't sure how to approach you about this without offending you.
First of all, Me and Four Skulls, I believe Jove as well, started this campaign out back in July and have since then developed our characters and have become very aquianted with the crew of the Wormwood.
I am not sure about how much you the player knows of what has all taken place, but a lot has happened.
I started out with First mate in mind or at least Master Gunner. Story didn't let me. In fact, the way the whole slave thing shaped my character into going for the role of captain.
It wasn't my first choice, it just became the most obvious once we got here. Or so I felt.
Now, the problem is your character, Hu, assumes too much, considering what Gan, my character, has endured and suffered through, he sees her ignorance as an insult.
Also, Gan is avoiding the pirates code because it was that code that led to this mutiny in the first place.
Now, Hu is beginning to remind Gan more and more of Plugg. She sounds like his sister practically. I understand you built your character for the prospects of being captain but that isn't a role that is handed to you just because you are built for it. It, to me anyways, is an important "character" role. The character who has been through the most, has left the biggest impact and impression on the crew, should be the one who gets that job.
Now Hu just keeps fighting for the position even after the choice was made. Even you the player seem unwilling to accept the outcome. I played along at first because it was fun to do but now that it is over, I cannot help but get the impression that you are still bitter about it. Forgive me if this impression was incorrect.
The crew has no idea who you are. You haven't been through the friend making phase of this campaign. And you have made many inaccurate assumptions, you have barged in like it makes sense for an outsider and former prisoner to be a captain of a crew that doesn't know anything about you.
The part that got me upset is you constantly belittling Gan, putting down his decisions, insulting his wisdom and intelligence he acquired through gameplay, and even say it is mechanical skills that matter and not the roleplay at all.
This is what got under my skin. I want to have fun playing this game. The last six to seven months were brutal and tedious for both my character AND me. I was ready to enjoy what I had seen evolve. Now you are making things difficult again.
Here are the IC implications of your actions and words.
First, you sound almost exactly like Harrigan and Plugg. A little less violent but about the same level of strictness.
Gan saw this did not work. There was a mutiny after all and no one Gan knew was happy before that.
Second. You seem to be unwilling to give up ANY degree of authority. I was willing to compramise and try and encourage you to be first mate but again you act as thought it was you god given right without my suggestion and still bring up you'd rather be captain
Thirdly, you keep disagreeing with my rules. I was named captain. I'm sorry you joined with the hopes of becoming such and it didn't work out. I didn't complain about having to do the electing thing because I thought it would be fair.
Never the less, I am captain and that means I have authority. So long as the crew says so, but I have laid out rules and then you throw a fit because they aren't the rules you want to follow.
Again, I was named captain, it is what I am suppose to do. I will take advice as long as it is given without so much ridicule. But you constantly do that.
Now, I am doing EVERYTHING from Gan's perspective. That is why I always post in first person. After much interaction with Hu, Gan now sees her as a threat. A potential mutineer that he cannot persuade otherwise since she is so dead set on being in charge.
At this point, Gan no longer wants her on the ship. The issue I am struggling with as a player, is trying to find a logical reason to keep Hu around. To the character Gan, she is dangerous, too out spoken and if Gan wants any hope of cohesion among the crew and longevity as captain, he is going to have to get rid of her.
So, before I post in IC, how should we handle this. I am not sure what to do. My character was trying to give her a chance to fit in but she won't take it without being too vocal. Is there any compromise where these two characters can get along, even come to trust one another? Or at least Coexist without incident?
Please let's talk this out in OOC before we push on. I really want this game to be fun again, for both of us, and I'm finding it just uncomfortable all around.
Again, I hope none of that offended you. I tried my hardest not to come off harsh and the tone wasn't meant to be. I'm just trying to reason.
Jove is a relatively new character, having come on only during the Man's Promise vs. Wormwood battle, but as a player I've been on as long as Gan and Four Skulls and DM Bound Shade, or Avakor as he was known on the Wormwood. I lost my Besmaran Inquisitor to Plugg's machinations so as a player I was glad for revenge on the bastard who arranged my character to be murdered. :)
Mechanically, Gan is the best choice as captain, because he has the highest Profession (sailor) skill of any of us at +9 (Noche'wa is the only one of us who could match Gan's skill at driving the ship, if he put ranks in Profession (sailor). The captain is generally the pilot of the ship, and piloting the ship requires Profession (sailor). Charisma is good, but not vital, since the captain only has to keep his officers in line (which Gan can through roleplaying): the officers will keep the crew in line. Charisma is more useful for those who deal with the crew regularly and make Diplomacy/Intimidation checks, so Ayaki would make more sense as a first mate or boatswain than a captain, IMHO.
Master Gunner is a tricky position for any of us to take, because (short of penalized attack rolls in siege weaponry) it requires someone taking a feat for proficiency in 1 siege weapon (though I guess Gan is already proficient with cannons with proficiency in firearms). Then if they want to proficient in all (especially since cannons are expensive), they'd have to spend 5 skill ranks (Kn (engineering) or Pr (siege engineer) and yet another feat for Siege Engineer which would grant proficiency in all siege weapons and prevent mishaps. Let's be honest, though, I don't think any of us want to spend our feats to take a job none of us really want. It would be best if we could pick up an NPC in port for that one.
EDIT: Ninja'd by the Gameplay post of our DM. We don't have any weaponry at the moment, so it would be pointless to assign a Master Gunner until we get some anyway :)
Jove's really got the gist of it as far as the Master Gunner position is concerned. No siege weapons, plus a high buy-in, means that it's probably better to hire and NPC later on. Leadership for a cohort is another option.
Ok i see, that explains a lot.
It´s no problem for me that Gan is captain and someone else first mate.
What i find a bit problematic is the point where you say Gan´s rules which are also your rules. Perhaps that might be so on a ship which i don´t belive but in a group play i think it´s a little special. That´s why i insisted on the code, as a piece of democracy.
You seem to have different opinions there and you´re deeply in your character, which story wasn´t known to me.
It´s ok for me i can roll with that. I don´t really understand why you think Ayaki was so offensive to the crew. In my eyes what she said was not so much to oppose anyone, but to have a fair choice and then for everyone to have a common ground that´s cleared and you can rely on in form of rules and the code. Of course those rules can be negotiated to fit the needs. Since from her point of view Gan already made a lot of decisions without a lot consultation and after he stated how he would handle everything and everyone, she is a bit concerned which road that might lead down. Hence the try for allowances from Gan. That´s all.
Ayaki was not build to be the captain nor with any other specific role in mind and technical discussion is just that to me, technical discussion. I already backed down from captains position and from first mate position too.
Perhaps it would be good if things that happened before and influence the game now were clearly communicated.
I want to apologize Hu if I didn't handle this well.
It was not my intention to come off as harsh and while there were some things that may have upset me, I have since let it go.
I play Gan very intimately and I decide his course based on in game interactions.
Two pieces of advice that would help Hu and Gan's relationship
first: Don't bring up the Wormwood, Plugg, or Harrigan. You missed out on a lot of RP. Seven months of it to be exact and Hu has not seen how the previous ship functioned. Every time you bring up the Wormwood, you talk as though I am doomed to be overthrown by you or the crew. That makes my character uneasy and uncomfortable even having Hu on the ship. While I don't expect you to mutiny, I am not Gan, and Gan feels threatened. So offer advice but don't refer to a ship or a crew your character hasn't experienced.
Second: Don't be so condescending with your suggestions or advice. You come of as sounding very "superior" or in the right when you do. I'm not sure it is intentional or not, but it gives the feel as though you are still unwilling to relinquish authority and you talk in a manner as though everyone else is wrong. Try and give your advice and input in a way that actually sounds as though your trying to help and not trying to out do me.
Those are really the only two issues I can find as far as RP interactions go. Also, I am not asking for you to change your character completely, I am asking that you just adjust a bit so we can coexist.
Also, It is not fair that only I get to voice my complaints, you should also be allowed to do so.
That said, is there any behavior of Gan's that is diretly conflicting with Hu? If I need to make some minor adjustments to my character as well or explain where he's coming from, please let me know. I always value outside opinions and take everything into consideration. Doesn't mean I will out right agree, but I will definitely look into it.
On that note, is there anything I have done with Gan that is bothering new players that I should look into adjusting. Please speak up. I want us to enjoy playing together and I definitely don't want to make this unpleasant for anyone. Since I have been selected captain, your OOC opinions matter more now than ever.
You know that is actually kind of funny now for me, because i found the way you were voicing Gan a bit condescending.
For my part i don´t want to be condescending in any way, because i hate that myself. It´s quite surprising for me. It may be due to me not being a native english speaker and there is a slight hint of Ayaki thinking to know things better perhaps, but condescendence is not the intention.
My language might also be influenced from me reading and writing scientific theory stuff and the tone there, it´s also mostly english sources. I will try to change that.
I noted your points and will adapt to them, as good as i can. I won´t mention said things anymore, even if Ayaki might be worried Gan could develop into a second Plugg or Harrigan. She will be quite pleased seeing the opposite and then surely give her full support to Gan.
In the end we all want the same i think, have a fun game together!
Also i welcome that we can talk about this here and find solutions, because this is the way one can grow and develop.
Something technical about ships and jobs....
I´m not sure how realistic the job names here are or not and also i´m no expert on this. But wikipedia says Quartermasterand Boatstwain seem just to be vice versa it was mentioned here. To add, i for my part don´t really know what the first mate does and some others too.
Perhaps can we please clear those roles up or agree on what they do before further argument arises?
From what I understand, there is a lot of debate on the accuracy of many records of piracy during the age of colonization in the Caribbean. I'd take most of what's said on wikipedia with a grain of salt, but it does agree with some of what I've heard in the past.
Honestly, I'm cool with whatever you decide as far as the roles of the bosun and quartermaster are. Many in the states, such as myself, are more familiar with the traditional US army quartermaster, who is someone that deals with the acquisition, distribution, and storage of supplies.
@Gan: Rather than post this in the gameplay thread, I'll note it here. The silence of the crew is in large part due to my desire to avoid influencing the selection of roles and rules amongst the group of PCs. I've found that the GM's opinion, even if expressed as an opinion or piece of advice from an NPC, carries a great deal of weight with the players in such situations. Thus, most of the responses I've given are either due to direct questions placed on an NPC or a desire to keep everything moving along.
That's fine on how you want to run it.
As for the roles, I deferred to the Wormwood's crew list DM Faol had provided and simply repeated this. I will need to review the list and figure out what each role entails. I won't be able to do that until tomorrow evening as I will be working back to back shifts :(
@Hu I'm am sorry I made such a stink about things earlier but I am glad we worked it out. Thanks for understanding.
I return the excuse and thank you and all others for your understanding.
Okay, here's a low down on a few of the ships jobs and what they entail according to my research....which was a lot of fun BTW
Okay, The captain's role aboard a ship is purely a leadership one. He calls the shots and decides where the ship goes, what the crew does. Simply put, all he is the highest level of command, and the man responsible if things go seriously wrong. Captain commonly doubles as helmsman taking charge of the wheel.
First mate is the captain's right hand and ensures that the orders are carried out to the crew and does more of the busy work running around the ship giving the captains orders. If the captain is not on the ship, it is commonly the first mate that is in charge.
Boatswain. Often referred to as like a third mate. Gives orders to the lower decks. Mainly deals with the crew directly making sure they get their jobs done and are well fitted to their roles. Boatswain is technically the role that gives the crew their daily work routine and monitors all work detail. A supervisor of sorts, or a manager.
Quartermaster is in charge of stores and supplies. Similar to someone who works for a businesses accounting departments. All the assets are the responsibility of the quartermaster.
That's just a few things.
So if Hu is Boatswain, she'd be the one cracking the whip, figure of speech, She'd assign duties to the crew and ensure that the work is done to par.
Skulls gets to ensure my orders get carried out.
Also, Nochewa, do you want to be lookout? Gan is Considering giving it to Conchobhar. Any advice on how to settle this?
Just remember not to go overboard on the whole "chain of command" thing. Better to get along and it be a quirky compared to the real world version than to make each other angry and ruin the game.
Just a reminder. :)
We can of course change the lookout through daily.
In the end, all of the ships jobs and roles will go as we want them too i think.
Who is her?
Hello?