Skulls & Shackles (Inactive)

Game Master Foxy Quickpaw

So Lito gets to not only run the day to day operations of the ship, I'm guessing he is going to be the PR man too gathering infamy.

Glad I picked a Bard. And Oratory just happens to be my performance of choice. That is honestly just a lucky coincidence. I honestly picked it for Versitile performance bonuses and general usefulness.

There are some serious rules to read up on this AP.

The bard being the party fave to the crew and the public. Who would have thought? But I'm totally fine with character choices being lucky. We will soon enough pay that no one is able to cast some AoE Spells.

I'm a flame dancer. I'll be able to cast at least a couple AoE. (Fireball for example)

Plus we have a crew. I figured Lito would go out if his way to bring on a Mage and keep Sandra happy to fill out the gaps in the party.

Hey quick thought, is the leadership feat allowed in this AP? I've never played with that, but it might make sense in this campaign and it's the kind of thing Lito would take.

In our Shattered Star I took leadership... But if I remember correctly we said leadership was ok so long as the cohort was not for in combat use

Leadership is level 7. That's not helpful right now. But later on it would help to get a loyal crew.

I know it's level 7. That post was more of a: oh there this neat thing that fits but I've never played with and would work well here realization.

Just wondering why the combat restriction on the cohort? Was it to stop the encounters from being out of balance? Or just to reduce congitive load on GM Foxie?

Kinda, but any combat that we could actually attack we rolled so another combat character would have been ridiculous.

For consideration, my Shattered Star character and one of Foxy's characters have built an orphanage from scratch, revamped a temple, and are currently saving up to build a housing and business complex.

My cohort is basically our financial and real estate manager.
He is a skill monkey Investigator.
Say hello to Hoid Cauthon

His skill list:
Skills Appraise +10, Bluff +6, Climb +4, Craft (Alchemy) +15, Craft (Calligraphy) +8, Craft (Leather) +8, Diplomacy +10, Disable Device +9, Disguise +6, Escape Artist +5, Handle Animal +11, Heal +6, Intimidate +6, Knowledge (Arcana) +8, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) +8, Knowledge (Engineering) +8, Knowledge (Geography) +15, Knowledge (History) +10, Knowledge (Local) +8, Knowledge (Nature) +15, Knowledge (Nobility) +8, Knowledge (Planes) +8, Knowledge (Religion) +8, Linguistics(Elven, Gnome, Halfling) +10, Perception +13, Perception (Trapfinding) +17, Profession (Librarian) +6, Profession (Scribe) +11, Sense Motive +6, Sleight of Hand +5, Spellcraft +8, Stealth +5, Survival +8, Swim +1, Use Magic Device +13

He can add 1d8 for free to all checks of: Bluff, Diplomacy, Disable Device, Disguise, Heal, Intimidate, Knowledge, Linguistics, Perception, Profession, Sense Motive, Spellcraft, and Sleight of Hand.

He is really really good at running businesses

Your cohort is several levels behind. Which means he is no good in a fight. I'm not interested in babysitting a soon to be dead member of the team.

Stats for cohort are those of heroic NPC. You can build some helpful skill monkey or a magic item crafter or such. But you can't build someone really sturdy for a fight.

So where do I check for how much gold I get.

Don't try to trick Noonan, he can get testy.

I suggest you wait until we get into a town, sell the stuff and then there is only coins to divide.

Noonan, we need to decide if you get the gold or I get the gold.
Currently all the items are in the boat/crew collumn of the first page of the sheet linked at the top of the page

Btw if no one is gonna use the Tide Water cutlass I'll use it for my never attacks. Seems like it's too cool a weapon to sell.

Okay so for starters we need like:

10 light Ballista
Springal (I really want a Springal for the ship)

Then upgrade with:
5 Standard Catapults
5 Heavy Ballista

Whatcha think?

Our ship already has a pair of light ballistas on the sterncastle.

There is room for 10 light ballistas on starboard and port each. And you can make room on the foredeck.

But I don't see where the heavy ballista would be an update. you got 4d8 instead of 3d8 and more range that you don't need if shooting from the side.

But you can shoot only once every 5 rounds instead of every two and you only get half the number of them on the ship.

That is a lot of ballista and we'd need a whole lotta crew to man them

20 is the minimum crew to sail our ship. Plus all you need to man the weapons. And additional crew to make shifts and have someone who can fight.

The Dominator has
14 ship’s officers
120 Chelish marines
60 sailors

just to get you some numbers

So how about we get 5 Ballista on each side along with a standard Catapult each side and then we get a Springal on the foredeck?

We'll need about 3 men per siege engine yeah.

But obviously we can't afford everything now. So get what we can as we go. Including crew.

My calculation was with 10 light ballistae on one side. And you can move them in two rounds to the other side. As a ship isn't turned around fast that should be no issue. And you would need only 10 persons as light ballistas are manned with one person only.

Firepower/round if shot alternating
1. 3x3d8
2. 3x3d8
3. 4x3d8
da capo.

So care to tell me why you prefer the heavy stuff?

Springal mounted front sounds nice. Just very expensive. And it is huge. Have to check if there is room for such a thing.

Hmm no particular reason really. :)

Looking at the crew of the Dominator:
So do they normally run two or three shifts?

It seems like two shifts plus extra sailors, but you could run three shifts of exactly 20 if you handwave days off and people getting sick.

The 120 marine on the ship worries me a little, i would hate to have us attempt to capture a ship and run into a mass of solders.

We wouldn't stand a chance. It must be a Massive ship to house that many people.

As I said earlier. It is a Chelish Warship. The 60 'sailors' are probably to man the rudders. And it is called Dominator for a reason. And we're not supposed to fight it. But it is good as a reference. Personally I would like to be at least faster than that one.

Do we need all the swab tasks and such still at the top?

I can move it into the long campaign description if it bothers you there.

It doesn't bother me, I just figured since that portion was done with for now we could move it away. Keep it neat and tidy.

So this is actually free time on the ship. You are to set the schedule now. You can even say 'No swab or rigger jobs for me' or set up a talking round about the goals for your future.

So far Besmara handed out jobs and grabbed the one with the best bed for herself. But I would assume if you get forced onto a ship as more or less a slave and you're suddenly rid of your slaver some talking would be needed.

About where to go, staying or leaving, and once all agree to becoming pirates of their own, about styles of leadership, whom to rob and whom not. There are so many options. And I would really like to see your opinions about that in game.

Squib the ship, resupply and then figure out.

Let us try to avoid press-ganging sicne that happened to us

Ya I agree, we have to be mostly Pirates of ill repute but we don't have to be overly evil about it. Just make people understand that our way is the best way.

Ok, explain to the dumb american... Squib? Sounds like scuttle, but why send the ship to the bottom of the sea when it's worth a ton?

I also would perfer not to press gang people. Sounds like Lito is going to have his work cut out for him getting a crew together in the next port.

I suggest an anti pirate pirate ship. We focus primarily on other pirate ships.
We know any crew we capture will be better suited to pirate life.
Also the pirate ships will have greater concentration of wealth as they are each hitting multiple smaller vessels and consolidating that wealth before heading to port.

They also may be much better armed then merchant ships.
It's not a bad idea in general, but I doubt we want to pass up some plump targets sitting there for morals. We do have a crew to feed after all.

Squib a ship means to make cosmetic changes and put a new name on it so it wont be recognized as the ship it is. Because it's rightful (Rahadoumi) and unrightful (Harrigan) owners might cause problems if you're seen on the sea or in a port.

As for the options whom to rob:
1. ships of merchants, fishers or villages
2. navy ships or fortified cities
3. other pirates

1. is easy.
2. is calling for a quick death at the moment.
3. There is a thing called The Free Captains of the Shackles. You mostly need this Infamy stuff to become recognised and respected by them and finally become a free captain too.

You only have to slowly sail over the sea and wait for the next pirate to come along. As a new ship they have a name for you: prey. And no one would blame you if you fend off such attacks. But if you start actively hunting down pirates and build your infamy on that you'll have the Free Captains after you in no time.

What is expected to become a Free Captain is that you are going after wealth (option 1). Doesn't mean you have to. I'm just laying out the options here.

You mean the EXP will be coming all to us?! YES!!! Beats 20% chance of random encounters any day!

With ships on the open sea there is at least no surprise round. But I don't think you're already set for such encounters. You need more crew.

I think if we do go after merchant ships at first we try make sure no one gets hurt, just take enough loot to upgrade our ship to go after bigger game.

I can see that. Trytton is very definately against hurting anyone besides those who he has evidenced as deserving it

Sounds like a plan.

Btw was everyone okay with me grabbing the tidewater cutlass or is someone else using it?

Feel free. But please reflect the change on the sheet. It is currently in the boat colum. COPY it to yours and then delete the entry in the boat.

We are pirates. There is always someone after us. Our decision is if we want every navy to be trying to kill us, or just the pirates.
We could probaby try get a letter of marquee I think it was called.

I'm no fan of such heavy weapons. Estelle gave it back so only Noonan didn't comment on that. But he seems to prefer two handed weapons.
And Lito. But he's no front liner.

It's not my preferred weapon of course but it's a shame fo such a weapon to go to waste in the hold. So it'll do for now when someone comes up close to me. But if anyone decided they want to master or use a cutlass at some point in the game I'll to totally give it to them.

I woulda thought it would be great for Lito to use if he does get caught in a situation.

I'm not trained to use cutlasses as it's a martial weapon.

Plus I already have the amulet. So I didn't even consider it. I'll stick with my Rapier.

No worries then :)

Oooh the continuity!!!!

We may need to have flashback tags if this keeps up :)

Maybe we need ta put shackles of compliance on the GM so she keeps her hands off the keyboard until everyone has posted :P

Instead of pushing events further and further to make this flashacks necessary.

Sounds like an idea haha!

This morning when I woke up there were like 17 posts o_O

I'm always totally unsure if no one is interested in taking part in a conversation or not yet awake or if it gets boring and then I tend to move things on only to find that I'm too early. Again. Must be OPD (Obsessive Posting Disorder)

At least you're excited about it :)

I think this character of mine might be too boring though and not colourful enough. Haha.

As of now I know he is really into his gun. Besides he is kind of average Joe who hasn't shared much about the motivations that drive him. But that's not necessarily a bad thing. If all were as upfront and into your face as Besmara and Estelle this would become rather exhausting.

But what I personally find interesting is social interaction. Jarrus doesn't seem to have found someone he likes. Either as a buddy or competition or whatever interaction you can think of. Even mansplaining your gun to someone ;)

Haha I don't like to mansplain, BUT if someone wants to know then I'll gladly tell them ;)

Yeah nah he reminds me sort of like a druid I played once. His personality slowly took shape as the adventure progressed. Cos ideas popped into my head. Probably will happen here.

He's really into his gun and his rum if that helps.